or glabrous canary seed which lacks the tiny hairs of the seed traditionally produced as food for caged birds.
#The discerning fruit fly: Linking brain-cell activity and behavior in smell recognitionbehind the common expression you can't compare apples to oranges lies a fundamental question of neuroscience:
In the fruit fly the ability to distinguish smells lies in a region of the brain called the mushroom body (MB.
CSHL Associate professor Glenn Turner and colleagues have mapped now the activity of brain cells in the MB in flies conditioned to have Pavlovian behavioral responses to different odors.
These intriguing new findings are part of a broad effort in contemporary neuroscience to determine how the brain easily the most complex organ in any animal manages to make a mass of raw sensory data intelligible to the individual
--whether a person or a fly--in order to serve as a basis for making vital decisions.
and visualize individual neurons in the insect brain. Kenyon cells receive sensory inputs from organs that perceive smell taste sight and sound.
Kenyon cells make up only about 4%of the entire fly brain and are extremely sensitive to inputs triggered by odors in
if these signals were really informative to the animal's learning and memory with regard to smell Turner says.
if they could link these signals with actual behavior in flies. The team used an imaging technique that allowed them to view the responses of over 100 Kenyon cells at a time
This correlated well with the behavior of the flies: when brain activity suggested the flies had difficulty discerning the odors their behavior also showed they could not choose between them.
The activity of these cells also accounts for flies'ability to discern novel odors and group them together.
This was determined in a generalization test in which the degree to which flies learned a generalized aversion to unfamiliar test odors could be predicted based upon the relatively similar activity patterns of Kenyon cells that the odors induced.
Being able to do this type of'mind-reading'means we really understand what signals these activity patterns are sending says Turner.
Ultimately he and colleagues hope to be able to relate their findings in the fly brain with the operation of the brain in mammals.
Imaging a population code for odor identity in the Drosophila mushroom body is published online in Journal of Neuroscience on June 19 2013.
Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climesin spite of considerable human development the southeastern United states region could provide some of the Western hemisphere's more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals birds
and amphibians on their way to cooler environments in a warming world according to new research led by the University of Washington.
The basin stretching across seven South american countries could have the greatest animal movements up to 17 times the average across the hemisphere.
The high northern latitudes also show pronounced species movements not because of animals currently found there
but because of an expected influx of species. While previous studies mapped where animals need to move to find climates that suit them this is the first broad-scale study to also consider how animals might travel
The golden mouse ornate chorus frog and southern cricket frog--three of the species that will likely be on the move in southeastern U s.--were among the nearly 3000 mammals birds
and amphibians the scientists included in their study nearly half of all such animals in the Western hemisphere.
We took into account that many animals aren't just going to be able to head directly to areas with climates that suit them Lawler said.
Some animals particularly small mammals and amphibians are going to have to avoid highways agricultural development and the like.
Many of the animals moving southward through central Argentina will be funneled by agriculture and development through the more intact parts of the Gran Chaco region and into the Sierras de CÃ rdoba and the Andes mountains.
In other places barriers may need to be breached for animals to disperse successfully. Southeastern Brazil for instance has lots of species that need to move
#Predators affect the carbon cycle, study showsa new study shows that the predator-prey relationship can affect the flow of carbon through an ecosystem.
This previously unmeasured influence on the environment may offer a new way of looking at biodiversity management and carbon storage for climate change.
It looks at the relationship between grasshoppers and spiders--herbivores and predators in the study's food chain--and how it affects the movement of carbon through a grassland ecosystem.
Carbon the basic building block of all organic tissue moves through the food chain at varying speeds depending on
We're discovering that predators are having important effects on shaping the make-up of ecosystems says Dr. Oswald Schmitz professor of ecology
and an herbivore grasshopper and some others that had plants and herbivores along with a carnivore spider species--all three tiers of the food chain.
which allowed the team to track the carbon levels by periodically taking leaf root and dead animal samples.
The study found that the presence of spiders drove up the rate of carbon uptake by the plants by about 1. 4 times more than
when just grasshoppers were present and by 1. 2 more times than when no animals were present.
It was revealed also that the pattern of carbon storage in the plants changed when both herbivores and carnivores were present.
The grasshoppers apparently were afraid of being eaten by the spiders and consumed less plant matter
when the predators were around. The grasshoppers also shifted towards eating more herbs instead of grass under fearful scenarios.
At the same time the grasses stored more carbon in their roots in a response to being disturbed at low levels
when both herbivores and carnivores were present. In cases where only herbivores were present the plants stored less carbon overall likely due to the more intense eating habits of the herbivores that put pressure on plants to reduce their storage
and breathe out carbon more. These stress impacts then caused both the plants and the herbivores to change their behaviors and change the composition of their local environment.
This has significance for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management. Although the study was carried out on a small scale it could inform practices done in much larger areas.
Places such as the Alaskan wilderness for example are home to animals that have the same predator
-and-prey dynamics that drive the carbon cycle and so protecting lands and storing carbon could be linked at the same time.
Appreciating the role of predators is also important currently given that top predators are declining at rates faster than that of many other species in global trends of biodiversity loss.
It's going to force some thinking about the vital roles of animals in regulating carbon concludes Dr. Schmitz pointing to the fact that the UN's body of scientific experts who study climate change don't consider these multiplier effects in their models.
Wolong is a biodiversity hotspot that's home to endangered giant pandas. Wolong and the conservation program became a stage on
and Australia are responsible for reducing the regional diversity of invertebrates in streams and rivers by up to 42 percent researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
and fungicides on the regional biodiversity of invertebrates in flowing waters using data from Germany France and Victoria in Australia.
In both Europe and Australia the researchers were able to demonstrate considerable losses in the regional biodiversity of aquatic insects and other freshwater invertebrates.
These mainly include representatives of the stoneflies mayflies caddisflies and dragonflies and are important members of the food chain right up to fish and birds.
Biological diversity in such aquatic environments can only be sustained by them because they ensure a regular exchange between surface and ground water thus functioning as an indicator of water quality.
and that legally-permitted maximum concentrations do not adequately protect the biodiversity of invertebrates in flowing waters.
Prior research has linked BPA in both animals and humans to obesity and the metabolic syndrome which is a cluster of metabolic risk factors that increase the chance of later developing diabetes heart disease and stroke.
All female offspring then were divided into four groups of nine to 12 animals each:(1) non-BPA-exposed controls that received a normal diet (2) BPA-exposed offspring that received a normal diet (3) overfed obese controls and (4) overfed obese BPA-exposed offspring.
Seven months later the researchers collected samples of the animals'visceral and subcutaneous fat tissues to evaluate levels of two biological markers of inflammation.
However she said prenatal exposure to BPA did not lead to insulin resistance in sheep as was true in a previous mouse study.
if its queen has had limited a number of mates. We wanted to determine whether a colony's genetic diversity has an impact on its survival and
Tarpy took genetic samples from 80 commercial colonies of honey bees (Apis mellifera) in the eastern United states to assess each colony's genetic diversity which reflects the number of males a colony's queen has mated with.
The more mates a queen has had the higher the genetic diversity in the colony. The researchers then tracked the health of the colonies on an almost monthly basis over the course of 10 months
The researchers found that colonies where the queen had mated at least seven times were 2. 86 times more likely to survive the 10-month working season.
Specifically 48 percent of colonies with queens who had mated at least seven times were still alive at the end of the season.
#Bioenergy potential unearthed in leaf-cutter ant communitiesas spring warms up Wisconsin humans aren't the only ones tending their gardens.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Bacteriology colonies of leaf-cutter ants cultivate thriving communities of fungi
and shelter for the ants for researchers they are potential models for better biofuel production.
and is converted to energy for the ants says Frank Aylward a bacteriology graduate student and researcher with the Great lakes Bioenergy Research center.
In addition to sequencing the genome of Leucoagaricus gongylophorous the fungus cultivated by leaf-cutting ants the researchers looked at the genomes of entire living garden communities.
In a symbiotic relationship L. gongylophorous provides food for the leaf-cutter ant Atta cephalotes by developing fruiting bodies rich in fats amino acids and other nutrients.
which comes in the form of long cellulose molecules packed inside the leaf clippings the ants deliver.
After sequencing the L. gongylophorous genome the researchers noticed that the fungus seemed to be doing the lion's share of cellulose degradation with its specialized enzymes.
The researchers have a few leads in their investigation of the mysterious role of bacteria in leaf-cutter ant communities
Enzymes such as those of the leaf-cutting ants'fungus specialize in breaking down leaves but understanding how they work in the context of the ant community could help researchers create similar methods for processing cellulosic biofuel feedstocks such as corn stalks and grasses.
however that both the beauty and the challenge of the leaf-cutter ant garden lie in its complexity.
A peek into UW-Madison's resident colony in the Microbial Sciences Building reveals a metropolis of brown insects bustling around the pale pitted surface of the fungus garden many with leaf sections held aloft.
To put their findings in perspective the researchers plan to study other insects in addition to ants including certain species of termites and beetles
which also act as gardeners in fungal communities. They hope that a better understanding of these complex systems will help them share their biomass-degrading secrets with bioenergy researchers.
Mice that were fed cocoa with a high-fat diet experienced less obesity-related inflammation than mice fed the same high-fat diet without the supplement said Joshua Lambert associate professor of food science.
The mice ate the human equivalent of 10 tablespoons of cocoa powder--about four or five cups of hot cocoa--during a 10-week period.
and diabetes in the mice that were fed the cocoa supplement were much lower than the mice that were fed the high-fat diet without the cocoa powder
For example they had about 27 percent lower plasma insulin levels than the mice that were fed not cocoa.
The cocoa powder supplement also reduced the levels of liver triglycerides in mice by a little more than 32 percent according to Lambert who worked with Yeyi Gu graduate student in food science and Shan Yu a graduate student in physiology.
The mice also saw a slight but significant drop in the rate of body weight gain according to the researchers who reported their findings in the online version of the European Journal of Nutrition.
The plane draws nearer and the mysterious object reveals itself to be a massive herd of migrating caribou stretching for miles.
Seeing those caribou marching single-file across the tundra puts what we're doing here in the Arctic into perspective said Miller principal investigator of the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) a five-year NASA-led field campaign studying how climate change is affecting the Arctic's carbon cycle.
Looking at the Arctic is like looking at the canary in the coal mine for the entire Earth system.
and animals from decomposing so each year another layer gets added to the reservoirs of organic carbon sequestered just beneath the topsoil.
From a base in Fairbanks Alaska the C-23 flies up to eight hours a day to sites on Alaska's North Slope interior and Yukon river Valley over tundra permafrost boreal
or responding to drought insects or pathogens says Katherine Chang the first author of the paper
The lack of large differences in P loss from these two management practices may in part be explained by something unexpected--earthworms.
and you increase earthworm populations. But how are earthworms affecting transport of P? Earthworms can ingest
and redistribute soil and they enhance soil structure creating more stable aggregates and allowing water to move more rapidly into the soil.
It is also possible that earthworm activity mixes up soil moving surface-applied P deeper into the soil and away from potential runoff.
So which management practice is best for farmers? No-till practices didn't lead to increased dissolved P runoff in this study
#Bloodsucking deer keds are spreading in Norwaya high moose population density and mild autumn weather result in a higher prevalence of deer keds (louse fly parasite).
A great deal of pine forest in the habitat of the moose has the same effect. These are the results of new research into how deer keds are spreading in Southeast Norway.
The findings of this Phd project can be used to limit the damaging effects of the parasite in the Norwegian landscape.
Deer keds were discovered first in Norway in Halden in 1983. The parasite sucks blood principally from cervids (moose roe deer
and red deer) but it also attacks humans and other livestock. In Finland the parasite is regarded as a major obstacle to people's enjoyment of nature during the autumn
when it swarms and there are reports of increasing numbers of cases of skin inflammation in people bitten by deer keds Knut Madslien has monitored the spread pattern of deer keds in Fennoscandia produced a description of pathological hair loss
in moose in Southeast Norway in 2006/7 and studied environmental factors which can be favourable for the parasite and possible pathogens in the deer ked and its host.
The spread pattern was studied with the help of questionnaires amongst hunters and by using the website www. flattogflue. no.
The results showed that the parasite's area of distribution now stretches from Lillesand in the south to Elverum in the north with the greatest density along the border to Sweden.
The outbreak of hair-loss in moose in Southeast Norway in 2006/7 was probably due to an extraordinary high prevalence of deer keds
which in turn was caused most probably by a combination of high moose density and the particularly mild autumn of 2006.
A study of 350 moose killed in seven municipalities in Southeast Norway revealed that the coats of all the animals were infested with keds
but the density of the parasites varied to a significant degree. Madslien points to a clear positive connection between the amount of pine forest in the habitat of the moose and the infestation intensity of deer keds in the coats of the moose.
Madslien found a high prevalence of bacteria of the genus Bartonella spp. both in the moose's blood and in the keds themselves.
Whereas moose outside the distribution range of the ked were infected with only one type of Bartonella bacterium moose inside the distribution range were infected with two different Bartonella bacteria.
These findings indicate that moose are a reservoir for Bartonella spp . and that deer keds act as vectors for Bartonella bacteria infections.
However it is not yet clear to what degree these bacteria can cause disease. Measuring the stress hormone cortisol in the moose's coat was used as a method for appraising the long-term effect of the deer ked on the health
and welfare of moose but Madslien found that in general there was little connection between the number of deer keds the weight of moose at the time of slaughter and the level of cortisol in the hair.
This indicates that moose can tolerate limited amounts of the parasite relatively well. Madslien carried out his doctoral research at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (VI)
but researchers engineers and students at VI the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH) the University of Oslo (Uio) Hedmark Univeristy College (Hihe) the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
(NINA) Sweden's National Veterinary Institute Uppsala University Hospital Sweden and the University of Oulu Finland were key collaborators.
Knut Madslien defended his doctoral research on 4th june 2013 at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science with a thesis entitled Deer ked (Lipoptena cervi) and moose (Alces alces) in Norway--interactions
#Iberian lynx attacks on farm animals are on the risescientists working on the LIFE IBERLINCE project have spent six years studying the hunting behaviour of the Iberian Lynx lynx pardinus) registering a total of 40 attacks with 716 farm animals killed.
Most studies on depredation of livestock in Spain have focused on wolves and little attention has been given to this type of conflict in smaller species. Within the LIFE IBERLINCE project Conservation
and reintroduction of the Iberian Lynx lynx pardinus) in Andalusia a team of scientists has spent six years monitoring lynxes'hunting habits in areas with nearby settlement.
In the eight years since this initiative began the number of lynxes in Spain has trebled.
Quite possibly when the lynx was present all over the peninsula these attacks were common but as they now have limited a very distribution
and until not so many years ago they rarely came into contact with domestic animals we did not see as much conflict.
Compensation to farmersparallel to its conservation programme the group created a compensation scheme to mitigate the consequences of the conflict between humans and lynxes in this area.
which is developed colonising more areas as happens with the wolf whose conflict is generalised much more the researcher concludes.
#Biotech crops vs. pests: Successes and failures from the first billion acressince 1996 farmers worldwide have planted more than a billion acres (400 million hectares) of genetically modified corn and cotton that produce insecticidal proteins from the bacterium
Bt proteins used for decades in sprays by organic farmers kill some devastating pests but are considered environmentally friendly and harmless to people.
However some scientists feared that widespread use of these proteins in genetically modified crops would spur rapid evolution of resistance in pests.
and to figure out why pests became resistant quickly in some cases but not others. Bruce Tabashnik and Yves Carriã re in the department of entomology at the College of Agriculture and Life sciences together with visiting scholar Thierry Br vault from the Center for Agricultural Research for Development
When Bt crops were introduced first the main question was how quickly would pests adapt and evolve resistance said Tabashnik head of the UA department of entomology who led the study.
and with the data accumulated over that period we have a better scientific understanding of how fast the insects evolve resistance and why.
Analyzing data from 77 studies of 13 pest species in eight countries on five continents the researchers found well-documented cases of field-evolved resistance to Bt crops in five major pests
if resistance genes are initially rare in pest populations; inheritance of resistance is recessive--meaning insects survive on Bt plants
only if have two copies of a resistance gene one from each parent --and abundant refuges are present.
Refuges consist of standard non-Bt plants that pests can eat without ingesting Bt toxins. Computer models showed that refuges should be especially good for delaying resistance
when inheritance of resistance in the pest is explained recessive Carriã re. Planting refuges near Bt crops reduces the chances that two resistant insects will mate with each other making it more likely they will breed with a susceptible mate yielding offspring that are killed by the Bt crop.
The value of refuges has been controversial and in recent years the EPA has relaxed its requirements for planting refuges in the U s. Perhaps the most compelling evidence that refuges work comes from the pink bollworm
which evolved resistance rapidly to Bt cotton in India but not in the U s. Tabashnik said.
Same pest same crop same Bt protein but very different outcomes. He explained that in the southwestern U s. scientists from the EPA academia industry
If the data indicate that the pest's resistance is likely to be recessive and resistance is rare initially the risk of rapid resistance evolution is said low Tabashnik.
or this pest will probably evolve resistance quickly to this Bt crop. Two leading experts on Bt crops welcomed publication of the study.
Kongming Wu director of the Institute for Plant Protection at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing said This review paper will be very helpful for understanding insect resistance in agricultural systems
Although the new report is the most comprehensive evaluation of pest resistance to Bt crops so far Tabashnik emphasized that it represents only the beginning of using systematic data analyses to enhance understanding and management of resistance.
You're always expecting the pest to adapt. It's almost a given that preventing the evolution of resistance is not possible.
Last year Lou and Ajayan revealed their success at making intricate patterns of intertwining graphene and hbn among them the image of Rice's owl mascot.
For decades researchers have struggled to understand why many different organisms--trees fish corals insects--from various habitats reproduce synchronously
Whitebark pine seeds are an essential food source for many animals in mountain habitats. The Clark's nutcracker a mountain bird can store up to 100000 seeds in underground caches each year.
Squirrels also store thousands of seeds underground. A diminished number of seed cones has an effect on grizzly bears the scientists say;
the bears regularly raid squirrel seed caches to prepare for winter hibernation. In the past low years for whitebark pine cones have led to six times more conflicts between grizzlies
and humans as hungry bears look for food in campgrounds says Crone. Now concerns about viability of whitebark pine populations are one of the main reasons grizzly bears in Yellowstone national park are listed still as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Birds squirrels and bears are not the only species that depend on whitebark pine. Vast stands of whitebark pine help to maintain the mountain snowpacks that provide water to more than 30 million people in 16 U s. states each year.
Whitebark pines are often the only trees at the highest elevations. Their branches retain snow as it blows across gusty mountaintops.
Their shade moderates snow-melt in the spring keeping flows down the mountain in check. A small percentage of whitebark pine trees have outlived the ongoing destruction by pests and disease.
These trees are the next area of focus for Crone's team. We want to find out whether the surviving trees are still producing cones Crone says.
They represent the future of whitebark pines. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by National Science Foundation.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Pollinators easily enhanced by flowering agri-environment schemesagri-environment schemes aimed to promote biodiversity on farmland have positive effects on wild bees hoverflies and butterflies.
Effects on diversity and abundance were strongest when agri-environment schemes prescribed sowing wild-flowers the more flowering species the better.
and pesticides generally hosted more wild pollinators than conventionally farmed land. Jeroen Scheper of Alterra Research Institute and colleagues demonstrated this by analysing the results of 71 studies that had looked at the effects of implementing agri-environment schemes in various European countries.'
whether the results indicate that agri-environment schemes boost pollinator populations or that they temporarily attract pollinators from surrounding areas.
Positive effects were restricted to very common species . However recently there has been a lot of concern that the decline of pollinators might result in pollination limitation of insect-pollinated crops.
Wild bees are excellent pollinators and common species do just the trick. All you have to do to enhance the wild pollinators of crops on farmland is increase flower abundance in field margins roadsides or crop edges.'
'The examined agri-environment schemes seem less effective in enhancing endangered pollinator species. Endangered species were observed rarely during the field studies.'
'Most of the studies used for the analyses were carried out in Northwestern Europe where farming is relatively intensive.
In these areas endangered species are restricted to semi-natural habitats and nature reserves. Also endangered bee species often specialize on flowers that cannot easily be established on farmland such as heather or bilberry.
The conservation of Red data book pollinators seems to require a separate conservation strategy'.'Rachael Winfree a leading pollination scientist from Rutgers University New jersey USA comments'This is an interesting timely and comprehensive study that tests several ecological hypotheses to answer an important question:
Where and how should we restore pollinators on agricultural lands? Given the global interest in pollinator declines and the considerable government funding going into pollinator restorations in the USA
and EU this work will have important policy implications. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Pensoft Publishers.
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