and losses in one of the world's richest areas of biodiversity and home to the endangered giant pandas.
Also contributing were Zhiyun Ouyang from the Chinese Academy of Science and Hemin Zhang of China's Center for Giant panda Research and Conservation.
We're used to a situation where flora fauna and climate are matched reasonably well. In future this equilibrium will shift on an ongoing basis
The inclusion of tropical tree-ring records enabled the team to generate an archive of ENSO activity of unprecedented accuracy as attested by the close correspondence with records from equatorial Pacific corals and with an independent Northern hemisphere
Rye collaborated on the research with Dong-Hua Chen and Wah Chiu at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Damian Madan and Zohn Lin at Princeton university Jeremy Weaver at Texas A&m
Rye collaborated on the research with Dong-Hua Chen and Wah Chiu at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Damian Madan and Zohn Lin at Princeton university Jeremy Weaver at Texas A&m
#Aerial mosquito spraying study finds no immediate public health risksin what researchers say is the first public health study of the aerial mosquito spraying method to prevent West Nile virus a UC Davis study analyzed emergency
This week mosquito control officials said the region's recent rainstorms and warming temperatures have increased stagnant water and favorable conditions for mosquitoes
which will likely magnify the incidence West Nile virus and the risks of human transmission.
The mosquito-borne disease first appeared in the state about 10 years ago. It already has been detected in dead birds
and mosquitoes in at least 10 counties in recent weeks including Sacramento and Yolo. However the adult mosquito population has yet to increase to levels that require aerial spraying over heavily urbanized areas as was done in the Sacramento region in previous years.
Unfortunately West Nile virus is endemic in California and the United states and the controversy of mosquito management will likely arise every summer said Estella Geraghty associate professor of clinical internal medicine at UC Davis
and lead author of the study. Findings from studies such as this one help public health and mosquito control agencies better understand the risks and benefits of their practices.
West Nile virus has become an increasingly serious problem throughout the United states and may become more of a threat as the climate warms.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention West Nile virus is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in the United states. The virus is transmitted to humans and animals through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Mosquitoes become infected with the virus when they feed on infected birds. In California around the time of the study#2004 and 2005#hundreds of people were sickened by West Nile virus
and 48 died. Most people exposed to the disease do not have symptoms but in about 1-in-150 people it can be fatal
or result in permanent neurological effects. The study evaluated emergency room visits in Sacramento County hospitals on days that pesticides were sprayed as well as the three days following spraying.
Integrated mosquito management#a method to control mosquitoes through targeted interventions based on mosquito biology that includes surveillance of mosquito activity reducing breeding sites such as neglected swimming pools
and the killing of larval and adult mosquitoes#are used all in California to control the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus
. When local methods prove inadequate aerial spraying is used to rapidly reduce large adult mosquito populations.
the chemical is derived from an African chrysanthemumand acts by blocking chemical signals at nerve junctions in insects.
and to kill fleas and ticks in pets. Exposure to the pesticide has been reported to pose risks to human health including skin
The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District provided the aerial spraying data. Story Source:
A previous study published last summer by the research team documented that rodenticides were being found in the tissues of the cat-sized weasel-like critters
and some growers apply large quantities of numerous pesticides to deter a wide range of animals and insects from encroaching on their crops.
either directly consuming flavored rodenticides or by consuming prey that had ingested recently the poisons exposure may also predispose animals to dying from other causes.
because unlike their larger bodied relatives in other parts of the country that eat larger prey their diet consists of small mammals birds carrion insects fungi and other plant material.
or dying insects and small mammals are often found. In this study scientists reported on the amount of poisons found at over 300 illegal plots
By increasing the number of animals that die from supposedly natural causes these pesticides may be tipping the balance of recovery for fishers says Dr. Craig Thompson a PSW wildlife ecologist and the study's lead author.
This new threat may also impact other species already facing declining populations including the wolverine marten great gray owl California spotted owl and Sierra nevada red fox
A previous study published last summer by the research team documented that rodenticides were being found in the tissues of the cat-sized weasel-like critters
and some growers apply large quantities of numerous pesticides to deter a wide range of animals and insects from encroaching on their crops.
either directly consuming flavored rodenticides or by consuming prey that had ingested recently the poisons exposure may also predispose animals to dying from other causes.
because unlike their larger bodied relatives in other parts of the country that eat larger prey their diet consists of small mammals birds carrion insects fungi and other plant material.
or dying insects and small mammals are often found. In this study scientists reported on the amount of poisons found at over 300 illegal plots
By increasing the number of animals that die from supposedly natural causes these pesticides may be tipping the balance of recovery for fishers says Dr. Craig Thompson a PSW wildlife ecologist and the study's lead author.
This new threat may also impact other species already facing declining populations including the wolverine marten great gray owl California spotted owl and Sierra nevada red fox
#Human activities threaten Sumatran tiger populationsumatran tigers found exclusively on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are on the brink of extinction.
and locations of the island's dwindling tiger population has been up for debate. Virginia Tech and World Wildlife Fund researchers have found that tigers in central Sumatra live at very low densities lower than previously believed according to a study in the April 2013 issue of Oryx--The International Journal of Conservation.
The findings by Sunarto who earned his doctorate from Virginia Tech in 2011 and co-researchers Marcella Kelly an associate professor of wildlife in the College of Natural resources and Environment and Erin Poor of East Lansing Mich. a doctoral student studying wildlife science and geospatial
environmental analysis in the college suggest that high levels of human activity limit the tiger population.
which could inform interventions needed to save the tiger. Tigers are threatened not only by habitat loss from deforestation and poaching;
they are also very sensitive to human disturbance said Sunarto a native of Indonesia where people typically have one name.
The smallest surviving tiger subspecies Sumatran tigers are extremely elusive and may live at densities as low as one cat per 40 square miles.
This is the first study to compare the density of Sumatran tigers across various forest types including the previously unstudied peat land.
The research applied spatial estimation techniques to provide better accuracy of tiger density than previous studies.
Sunarto a tiger and elephant specialist with World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia collaborated on the paper with Kelly Professor Emeritus Michael Vaughan
and Sybille Klenzendorf managing director of WWF's Species Conservation Program who earned her master's and doctoral degrees in wildlife science from Virginia Tech.
Getting evidence of the tigers'presence was said difficult Kelly. It took an average of 590 days for camera traps to get an image of each individual tiger recorded.
We believe the low detection of tigers in the study area of central Sumatra was a result of the high level of human activity--farming hunting trapping
and gathering of forest products Sunarto said. We found a low population of tigers in these areas even
when there was an abundance of prey animals. Legal protection of an area followed by intensive management can reduce the level of human disturbance
and facilitate the recovery of the habitat and as well as tiger numbers. The researchers documented a potentially stable tiger population in the study region's Tesso Nilo Park where legal efforts are in place to discourage destructive human activities.
The study--Threatened predator on the equator: Multi-point abundance estimates of the tiger Panthera tigris in central Sumatra--indicates that more intensive monitoring
and proactive management of tiger populations and their habitats are crucial or this tiger subspecies will soon follow the fate of its extinct Javan and Balinese relatives.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic institute and State university.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Comparing genomes of wild and domestic tomatoyou say tomato I say comparative transcriptomics. Researchers in the U s. Europe and Japan have produced the first comparison of both the DNA sequences and
which genes are active or being transcribed between the domestic tomato and its wild cousins. The results give insight into the genetic changes involved in domestication
and may help with future efforts to breed new traits into tomato or other crops said Julin Maloof professor of plant biology in the College of Biological sciences at the University of California Davis. Maloof is senior author on the study published June 24 in the journal Proceedings
This phenomenon is also apparent across a very diverse range of species in the animal kingdom.
Experiments conducted on the fruit fly Drosophila by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have shown that hunger not only modifies behaviour but also changes pathways in the brain.
Studies prove that the willingness of many animals to take risks increases or declines depending on
whether the animal is hungry or full. For example a predator only hunts more dangerous prey
when it is close to starvation. This behaviour has also been documented in humans in recent years:
Also the fruit fly Drosophila changes its behaviour depending on its nutritional state. The animals usually perceive even low quantities of carbon dioxide to be a sign of danger
and opt to take flight. However rotting fruit and plants--the flies'main sources of food--also release carbon dioxide.
Neurobiologists in Martinsried have discovered now how the brain deals with this constant conflict in deciding between a hazardous substance and a potential food source taking advantage of the fly as a great genetic model organism for circuit neuroscience.
In various experiments the scientists presented the flies with environments containing carbon dioxide or a mix of carbon dioxide and the smell of food.
It emerged that hungry flies overcame their aversion to carbon dioxide significantly faster than fed flies
--if there was a smell of food in the environment at the same time. Facing the prospect of food hungry animals are
therefore significantly more willing to take risks than sated flies. But how does the brain manage to decide between these options?
Avoiding carbon dioxide is an innate behaviour and should therefore be generated outside the mushroom body in the fly's brain:
previously the nerve cells in the mushroom body were linked only with learning and behaviour patterns that are learned based on associations.
However when the scientists temporarily disabled these nerve cells hungry flies no longer showed any reaction whatsoever to carbon dioxide.
The behaviour of fed flies on the other hand remained the same: they avoided the carbon dioxide. In further studies the researchers identified a projection neuron
This nerve cell is crucial in triggering a flight response in hungry but not in fed animals.
In fed flies nerve cells outside the mushroom body are enough for flies to flee from the carbon dioxide.
In hungry animals however the nerve cells are in the mushroom body and the projection neuron
If mushroom body or projection neuron activity is blocked only hungry flies are concerned no longer about the carbon dioxide explains Ilona Grunwald-Kadow who headed the study.
The results show that the innate flight response to carbon dioxide in fruit flies is controlled by two parallel neural circuits depending on how satiated the animals are.
If the fly is hungry it will no longer rely on the'direct line 'but will use brain centres to gauge internal and external signals
#Rotation-resistant rootworms owe their success to gut microbesresearchers say they now know what allows some Western corn rootworms to survive crop rotation a farming practice that once effectively managed the rootworm pests.
Differences in the relative abundance of certain bacterial species in the rootworm gut help the adult rootworm beetles feed on soybean leaves
This boost in digestive finesse allows rotation-resistant beetles to survive long enough to lay their eggs in soybean fields.
These insects they have only one generation per year said University of Illinois entomology department senior scientist Manfredo Seufferheld who led the study.
What allowed this insect to adapt so fast? These bacteria perhaps. Controlling rootworms is an expensive concern faced by all Midwest corn growers said study co-author Joseph Spencer an insect behaviorist at the Illinois Natural history Survey (part of the Prairie Research Institute
at the U. of I.).Yield losses the use of insecticides and corn hybrids engineered to express rootworm-killing toxins in their tissues cost U s. growers at least $1 billion a year.
In a 2012 study Seufferheld Spencer and their colleagues reported that rotation-resistant rootworm beetles were better able than their nonresistant counterparts to tolerate the defensive chemicals produced in soybeans leaves.
This allowed the beetles to feed more and survive longer on soybean plants. The researchers found that levels of key digestive enzymes differed significantly between the rotation-resistant and nonresistant rootworms
but differences in the expression of the genes encoding these enzymes did not fully explain the rotation-resistant beetles'advantage.
To test this hypothesis graduate student Chia-Ching Chu analyzed the population of microbes living in the guts of rootworm beetles collected from seven sites across the Midwest.
The beetles'gut microbial structure corresponded to the insects'level of activity (rotation-resistant rootworms are usually more active)
To determine whether the microbes were in fact giving the rotation-resistant beetles an advantage the researchers dosed the beetles with antibiotics.
Low-level exposure to antibiotics had no effect on any of the beetles but at higher doses the rotation-resistant beetles'survival time on soybean leaves fell to that of the nonresistant beetles.
Antibiotics also lowered the activity of digestive enzymes in the rotation-resistant beetles'guts to that of their nonresistant counterparts.
The message of the research Seufferheld said is that the gut microbes are not just passive residents of the rootworm gut.
They are very active players in the adaptation of the insect he said. The microbial community acts as a versatile multicellular organ.
In the 1980s widespread gypsy moth infestation in Pennsylvania led to the death or near death of large stands of oak trees in the state forests especially in south-central Pennsylvania.
In parts of the state forests there were no roads in areas associated with the gypsy moth devastation said Kasson.
or two older female ailanthus trees near areas where foresters removed trees following the gypsy moth infestation
#Uncertainty over the benefits of feeding birds in winterwild bird populations are thought generally to benefit from being given additional food in winter
and The british Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has found that feeding wild blue tits in winter resulted in less successful breeding during the following spring.
The research published in Scientific Reports revealed that woodland blue tits that were provided with fat balls as a supplementary food during the winter months went on to produce chicks that were smaller of lower body weight and
which had lower survival than the chicks of birds that did not receive any additional food.
Our research questions the benefits of feeding wild birds over winter. Although the precise reasons why fed populations subsequently have reduced reproductive success are unclear it would be valuable to assess
whether birds would benefit from being fed all year round rather than only in winter. More research is needed to determine exactly what level of additional food provisioning and at
what times of year would truly benefit wild bird populations. Dr Kate Plummer lead author of the paper said:
One possibility is that winter feeding may help birds in relatively poor condition to survive and breed.
whether winter feeding is contributing to an overall change in the size of bird populations.
It is estimated that around half of UK householders feed birds in their gardens. This equates to around 50-60 thousand tonnes of bird food provisioned each year
As the wider scientific evidence shows feeding wild birds with appropriate foods delivers a range of positive benefits.
During winter populations of blue tits were left unfed given plain fat balls or given fat balls enriched with Vitamin e--a vitamin commonly present in bird food such as nuts and seeds.
Nest boxes and bird feeders were distributed around the woodland study sites and reproductive success was investigated by checking the nest boxes in the spring to determine the number of eggs laid and the growth and survival of chicks.
Studies elsewhere have shown that feeding wild birds in winter can have almost immediate benefits for survival
and can enhance future breeding success so the latest results provide important new information and inform the debate around the role that feeding wild birds may play in their population processes.
Whether providing food is detrimental or beneficial to wild bird populations it is clear that more research is needed to better understand its effects.
The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) the Royal Society Gardman Ltd and the BTO.
Joseph Craine research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State university examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing animals such as bison and cattle in the Great plains.
Bison are one of our most important conservation animals and hold a unique role in grasslands in North america Craine said.
The organizations kept annual records of each animal in the herd and matched the data with the climates of the sites.
Climate is likely to reduce the nutritional quality of grasses causing the animals to grow more slowly.
The research is a follow-up to her team's award-winning 2012 study of the ways that plants use their internal circadian clocks to defend themselves from hungry insects.
That study found that Arabidopsis thaliana--a widely used model organism for plant studies--begins ramping up production of insect-fighting chemicals a few hours before sunrise the time that hungry insects begin to feed.
and insect resistance and he said'Well I know what time of day I'll eat my vegetables!'
when they would be accumulating the anti-insect chemicals but I knew that some of those chemicals were known to be valuable metabolites for human health so
What we have shown is that keeping the internal clock ticking is advantageous with respect to insect resistance
and Wassim Chehab found they could manipulate cabbage leaves to increase their production of anti-insect metabolites at certain times of day.
and Melinda Gates Foundation into whether light and other stimuli like touch may be used to enhance pest resistance of food crops in developing countries.
versus pattern position in a group of bumblebees that have searched never for nectar before i e. flower-naive bees.
#The sun moth: A beautiful new species Stenoloba solaris from Chinascientist describe a new striking species of moth from China with an engaging wing pattern.
The new species Stenoloba solaris has inspired its name by the orange circular patch on its wings that resembles the rising sun. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.
The newly described sun moth belongs to the Family noctuidae also known as owlet moths which refers to their robustly built bodies.
With more than 35000 known species out of estimated possibility for more than 100000 in total total they constitute the largest Lepidoptera family.
Several of the species from the family have economic importance with their larva living in the soil and feeding on the bases of some crops such as lettuce and cabbage.
Other species have caterpillars which have the extraordinary ability to feed on some poisonous plants the chemicals contained in
which would definitely kill other insects. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Pensoft Publishers.
Pesticides are used in domestic environments to control infestations of insects or other living creatures explains Sabrina Llop from the Higher Public health Research Centre (CSISP) in Valencia the leading author of the paper.
These other measures included cockroach traps powder insecticide and chemical methods such as wave devices. Only 1%of women used insect repellents during pregnancy. 10%of pregnant women used outdoor insecticides such as in gardens or vegetable plots and yards with plants:
#Why are murdered gull chicks, especially on Sundays? Why are murdered gull chicks especially on Sundays? How does man influence the size of gull populations?
These and many other questions are answered in the doctoral thesis of Kees Camphuysen from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research NIOZ.
Camphuysen will defend his thesis at the University of Groningen on 21 june 2013. Kees Camphuysen has been doing research on seabirds
since 1973 and since 2006 his focus has been on seagulls in the Texel dunes. There he focused special attention on the European herring gull and the lesser black-backed gull.
Since the sixties the number of herring gulls has increased enormously then stabilized and subsequently strongly declined.
The lesser black-backed gull which established itself in The netherlands around 1930 suddenly became much more numerous later
and this species has eclipsed finally the herring gull in numbers. Has the lesser black-backed gull supplanted the herring gull by taking up the best spots
or did it win the competition for food? Or does the decline in herring gulls and the increase of lesser black-backed gulls maybe have nothing to do with each other?
From Camphuysen's research it appears that both gull species have benefited from an expanded food offering caused by people.
Herring gulls have learned to tap food in landfills while lesser black-backed gulls in particular were attracted by the fish waste that was put overboard at sea.
Now that the majority of landfills are covered and the fishing fleets are shrinking both gull species are finding it more difficult to find food.
It seems that the increase and decrease of both species is influenced not directly by each other.
Camphuysen also discovered a remarkable rhythm in the growth of the chicks and also that much more cannibalism took place over the weekend than on weekdays (gull chicks that were pecked to death by adult gulls and sometimes eaten).
It turned out that gulls especially during chick care rely heavily on fish waste thrown overboard from fishing boats.
Bad luck for these birds: at the weekend the fishing fleet is largely in the harbour.
This weekly rhythm is a problem especially in the second half of the chick care period (in July)
when there is barely enough food to be found for the hungry chicks. The fleet is expected to shrink even more in the coming years.
The problem of food shortage will continue to increase as a result but then not only at the weekend.
European policy wherein by-catch may no longer be put overboard will clearly have consequences for both gull species. How they will react to this is difficult to predict.
A strong inland increase of gulls looking for alternative food sources is one of the likely effects.
Camphuysen has equipped also gulls with a GPS data logger so as to be able to see where they look for food.
It emerged that lesser black-backed gulls foraged much further afield than herring gulls. Lesser black-backed gulls also went oftener and further onto the North sea following fishing boats.
One lesser black-backed gull which had three youngsters that were not growing well took a desperate measure
and flew via Hoorn to Amsterdam in order to hang out in the Leidsestraat there. Who knows did she eat chips there or a kebab roll?
She then flew to the north Sea in order to follow a fishing boat far out at sea. The next day her young had grown properly again. http://www. youtube. com/watch?
The researchers found that over the six-week study period liver damage more than doubled in the animals fed a high-fructose diet as compared to those in the control group.
In a previous trial which is referenced in the current journal article Kavanagh's team studied monkeys who were allowed to eat as much as they wanted of low-fat food with added fructose for seven years as compared to a control group fed a low-fructose low-fat diet for the same time period.
Not surprisingly the animals allowed to eat as much as they wanted of the high-fructose diet gained 50 percent more weight than the control group.
Was it because the animals got fat from eating too much or was it something else?
Ten middle-aged normal weight monkeys who had eaten never fructose were divided into two groups based on comparable body shapes and waist circumference.
Six weeks in monkeys is roughly equivalent to three months in humans. In the high-fructose group the researchers found that the type of intestinal bacteria hadn't changed
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