and grassland-dwelling herbivore with the trunk-like snout--living in a network of remote national parks spanning the Peru-Bolivia border.
and effort foraging for food often increasing leaf consumption when their search is quite literally fruitless.
But as habitats shrink and fruit is harder to find leaves from second-choice plants such as lianas have increased in the Mexican howlers'diet.
and plants--so the monkeys are forced actually to spend more time seeking out the right foliage to eat such as new shoots
and when turning to foliage for food--as they are forced increasingly to do--they have to be highly selective in the leaves they consume visiting lots of different trees.
Through statistical modelling the researchers were able to determine that it is the'travel time'--rather than the increased foliage intake--causing high levels of stress.
Voles know which acorns have insect larvaeresearchers at the UPM have observed as voles are able to distinguish the acorns containing insect larvae from those that have not.
This fact determines the dispersion and germination of acorns and therefore the regeneration of forests of oaks.
This is the place where researchers at the School of Forestry from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid have carried out a research on scattering patterns of acorns for voles
when seed are attacked by insects the fact that larva is or not inside of the acorn can modify the dispersion pattern and consequently the regeneration of these types of forests.
The acorns are produced the fruits by oaks holm oaks and cork oaks that perpetuate their species move
and colonize new places. They are autumnal fruits highly valued by wildlife because of its large size its abundance and its high calorie lipid and carbohydrate.
that lay their eggs inside the unripe acorns when they are still growing in the tree.
and feed inside the acorns without altering the external appearance of this fruit. After the acorns fall into the ground
and are reachable for the rest of animals that seek this fruit during the autumn days (wild boar deer and mice among others).
When larva completes its development it drills a small hole out of the acorn and buries itself in the soil
Voles are the main consumers of acorns and they hide this fruit during autumns in order to consume them in winter time.
However many acorns are forgotten in hiding places allowing them a better germination and consequently new trees.
Surprisingly the same acorn is moved usually or stolen by another vole and achieving so a dispersal distance up to hundreds meters with respect to its mother tree
But what do voles do attacked with the acorns by beetle larvae? There is not just an answer
or has stayed in the acorn. Acorns whose larvae had emerged out were rejected rapidly by voles barely touching moving
or storing them. These acorns were exposed on the ground and failed to thrive in a new tree.
However those acorns in which the larva was still inside the fruit were moved and stored by voles.
The study reveals that voles liked these larvae (rich in proteins) and feed on them decreasing the harm produced by these worms over the acorns.
Therefore voles scattered and buried these acorns that finally contributed to generate new plants. The fact that the larva was resulted still inside definitive for the near future of the acorn and therefore the future of oak forests.
The nature maintains its compensation mechanisms and an apparent harmful beetle can be attractive to voles that at the same time releases acorns from this enemy
and help them to thrive thanks to its rich substance what allows them to survive winter
and maintain this favorable relationship between vole and acorn. These results reveal that we do not know ye the behavior of those ecosystems that we aim to preserve.
The knowledge of multiple existing interactions among animals and plants are essential to know what should be protected
The changes suggest dieback of branches and tree falls especially among the older larger more vulnerable canopy trees that blanket the forest.
The biggest surprise for us was that the effects appeared to persist for years after the 2005 drought said study co-author Yadvinder Malhi of the University of Oxford United kingdom. We had expected the forest canopy to bounce back after a year with a new flush of leaf growth
and penetrate into the top few meters of vegetation providing daily measurements of the forest canopy structure
algae blooms. However declines in ice cover on the Great lakes may lengthen the commercial shipping season.
study suggestsin Missouri forests dense thickets of invasive honeysuckle decrease the light available to other plants hog the attention of pollinators
Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) a mid-story shrub introduced from East asia as an ornamental and to provide bird habitat is the black hat in the oak-hickory forests.
The fire tree (Morella faya) a canopy tree from Macaronesia that boosts nitrogen levels in the soil making it inhospitable to native species
but what does it mean for people who have been hacking down honeysuckle in their backyards
and brushing their boots before entering conservation areas to avoid bringing in garlic mustard? Is it worth whacking invasives or not?
Take that bush honeysuckle choking Missouri's natural areas for example. It was seeded by birds carrying honeysuckle berries from backyards.
To prevent it from turning beloved nature preserves into shrub monocultures people must remove it from their yards
or choose not to plant it in the first place. While the small scale justifies the fight the large scale offers hope.
and icing can also cause vegetation damage and reduce survival of soil microbiota says Hansen.
That rose to 4. 7 billion gallons in 2007 and 7. 5 billion in 2012.
if any effect on reducing CO2 emissions and may actually increase them while posing a threat to natural habitats
#In the eastern U s.,spring flowers keep pace with warming climate, blooming up to a month earlierusing the meticulous phenological records of two iconic American naturalists Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold scientists have demonstrated that native plants in the eastern
and nodding trillium are blooming 11 days earlier on average in the area around Concord Mass. where Thoreau famously lived
Nearly a thousand miles away in Wisconsin where Leopold gathered his records of blooming plants like wild geranium
and marsh marigold the change is even more striking. In 2012 the warmest spring on record for Wisconsin plants bloomed on average nearly a month earlier than they did just 67 years earlier
and flowering dates and the trend toward climate-driven early blooming it is the first to suggest that the trend in flowering plants may continue beyond
In 2012 with a mean spring temperature of 54 degrees Fahrenheit black cherry blooms were observed as early as May 6.
In 1942 Leopold's notes show the woodland wildflower bloodroot blooming on April 12. In 2012 bloodroot was observed first blossoming March 17.
Together these two data sets provide a unique record of flowering trends in the eastern United states over a 161-year period says Temple.
and greenhouse gas impacts of different crops including corn poplar alfalfa and old field vegetation.
Between 1981 and 1991 the number of salmonella infections rose by 170%in the UK driven primarily by an epidemic of Salmonella enteritidis
and bud-like shape that have brought it Internet buzz as a Martian flower. Other rocks nearby are siltstone with grains finer than powdered sugar.
#For sports fans, the story--not the victor--makes the difference in enjoymenta new study has concluded that sports fans love to root for a hero
Knowing something about the personal lives and personalities of these athletes gives the casual fan a reason to root for
and other vegetation that survive pine beetle invasions along waterways increase their uptake of nitrate a common disturbance-related pollutant.
They leave behind smaller trees and other understory vegetation which compensate for the loss of larger pine trees by taking up additional nitrate from the system.
Beetle-kill conditions are a good benchmark for the protection of sub-canopy vegetation to preserve water quality during forest management activities.
But this study shows just how important the survival of smaller trees and understory vegetation can be to stream water quality.
Understory vegetation left intact after beetle outbreaks gains an ecological advantage in terms of survival and growth since small trees no longer have to compete with large trees
beetle-killed areas another indication of how understory vegetation compensates for environmental conditions in beetle kill areas.
only if roughly half of the vegetation survives overstory mortality from beetle kill events which is what occurs normally in such areas said Lewis. Other study co-authors included Leigh Cooper Thomas Detmer
and a small magnetic kaolinite stone naturally eroded into an unusual shape similar to a flower.
Her research also showed that the people who would have benefitted from the shaman's knowledge practiced small-scale farming of maize manioc and arrowroot and collected palm nuts tree fruits and wild tubers.
Firstly they found that honey bees preferred to visit flowers in the top parts of the almond trees.
During high winds the wild bees were observed still visiting almond flowers. Wild pollinators can therefore help sustain pollination service under extreme weather conditions when the service by honey bees declines.
This is particularly important in almond as it flowers early in the year when the weather conditions can be unfavourable for bee flight.
and BGI has completed the first genome sequence of the diamondback moth (DBM) the most destructive pest of brassica crops.
The diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) preferentially feeds on economically important food crops such as rapeseed cauliflower and cabbage.
It looks like black cotton thread but behaves like both metal wires and strong carbon fibers.
Miscanthus efficiently moved nitrogen from leaves to root and rhizome systems after the growing season where it could be used again the next year David said.
#Giant tobacco plants that stay young forevertobacco plants bloom when they are just a few months old
Its stem is already ten centimeters in diameter. Whereas in normal tobacco plants the leaves which grow from the bottom of the stem soon turn yellow
and drop off the IME plant's leaves stay healthy and green. This is why the scientists have christened their modified plant species forever young.
However our method is only likely to deliver success as long as the flowers of the plant in question play no significant role--sugar beet for instance.
It would make no sense to use the technique on rapeseed. Preventing plants from flowering presents a significant advantage in that no flowering means no production of seeds or pollen.
As a result plants have no way of reproducing which means they cannot spread into the environment in an unplanned way.
This process involves using chemical additives to bring about changes in a seed's DNA sequence.
If you try to make a tree of population histories within a species there's always the possibility that you've got genes flowing from one branch to another Pritchard said.
The resulting graph looks less like tree branches and more like a tangled shrub or mass of vines.
The trunk of the shrub represents the major relationships between the groups and the largest branches represent distinct populations as they develop over time from left to right on the graph.
But those tangled vines that crisscross the branches are the key showing migration events where a previously separate population mixed with another rejoining to form a new group at a later point in time.
Pritchard and Pickrell tested the model using DNA from 55 human populations and 82 dog breeds and already found some interesting results.
#Tree seeds offer potential for sustainable biofuelstree seeds rather than biomass or fuel crop plants could represent an abundant source of renewable energy according to research published in the International Journal of Automotive technology and Management.
The study suggests that seeds from the Indian mahua and sal trees have almost as good a thermal efficiency as biodiesel
The use of tree seed oils as a source could have several additional benefits over vegetable seed oils including lower viscosity and greater volatility both
The team points out that vast tonnages of seeds from the deciduous mahua (Madhuca indica) and semi-deciduous sal (Shorea robusta) trees are simply left to waste on the forest floor.
The mahua kernel constitutes 70%of the seed and contains 50%oil which can be extracted at levels of 34 to 37%.
The team has tested now successfully this chemistry on seeds from the mahua and sal trees.
They also demonstrated efficacy with neem seed although suggest the economics of using this species are prohibitive
The mahua takes just ten years to reach seed-producing maturity. Biodiesel production from tree seeds in India will not only reduce the dependence on crude oil imports
but also reduce the environmental impact of transportation and increase employment opportunities the team concludes. Story Source:
Nature's ability to create iridescent flowers has been recreated by mathematicians at The University of Nottingham.
The team of researchers have collaborated with experimentalists at the University of Cambridge to create a mathematical model of a plant's petals to help us learn more about iridescence in flowering plants
Iridescence in flowers may act as a signal to pollinators such as bumblebees which are crucial to crop production.
Understanding how petals produce iridescence to attract pollinators is a major goal in plant biology. An estimated 35 per cent of global crop production depends on petal-mediated animal pollination
Flowers and the animals that pollinate plants interact at the petal surface. The surfaces of many petals have produced regular patterns from folds of the waterproof cuticle layer that covers all plant surfaces.
These patterns can interfere with light to produce strong optical effects including iridescent colours and might also influence animal grip.
Iridescence in plants is produced by nanoscale ridges on the top of the cells in the petal's epidermal surface.
and can learn to use this signal as a cue to identify rewarding flowers. The research has been published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface.
Our team of researchers combined experimental data with mathematical modelling to develop a biomechanical model of the outer layers of a petal or leaf.
We used this to demonstrate that mechanical buckling of the outermost waxy cuticle layer can create the ridge patterns observed in nature on petals and leaves.
On the other hand food for wildlife was associated positively with both berry production and biological diversity in ground vegetation.
Seedlings and small saplings cannot survive dry conditions and are drowned easily in wet marshes. Once plants become larger willows can survive droughts
He noted that the collaboration took root when Alexander Slesarev a graduate student in his group and Anna Yu.
since about 1930--during the Smokey Bear era--aggressive forest-fire suppression has had a far greater influence on shifts in dominant tree species than minor differences in temperature.
Many ecological phenomena combine to direct vegetation trends over time with climate and disturbance playing prominent roles said Nowacki who received his Ph d under Abrams.
--and current vegetation conditions in the eastern United states. Early tree surveys chronicle the westward progression of European land acquisition with some dating back to the 1600s along the East Coast.
--the researchers expected vegetation changes consistent with warming. In most cases however European disturbance overrode regional climate change Abrams said.
and large increases of Acer (maple) Populus (poplar) and Quercus (oak) in northern hardwoods whereas to the south these disturbances perpetuated the dominance of oak in central hardwoods.
Overall he concluded the results of the study suggest that altered disturbance regimes rather than climate had the greatest influence on vegetation composition and dynamics in the eastern United states over multiple centuries.
The beetle invades a tree by landing on the bark and laying an egg. That larva will hatch
and penetrate into the tree feeding on the thin layer between the bark and the heartwood.
As that tree loses leaf material it will try to regain some of it by sending out new shoots lower on the tree.
The C. M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center here at UC Davis played an important role in this study by providing seed of both cultivated tomato varieties and related wild
This bird makes its nest in the marsh's shallow slush forming its home with strands of the California cordgrass Spartina foliosa.
and sugarcane are able to withstand drought heat nitrogen and carbon dioxide limitations better than C3 crops such as rice wheat barley and oats due to their ability to efficiently make use of carbon dioxide
which is based on the nitrogen absorption through the root. After assessing the efficiency of leaf nitrogen uptake of the two studied species the researcher team from Universidad de Alcalã¡
and Politã cnica de Madrid concluded that this fertilization system can be an efficient tool to complement radical fertilization regimes
and glycine) in two Mediterranean species typically used in restoration: the holm oak (Quercus ilex L.)and the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill..
By using a stable isotope of nitrogen (N) researchers assessed the absorption efficiency of various nitrogen sources for both species. They observed that the best absorbed source was followed urea by ammonia glycine and finally the nitrate.
Besides the usage of organic sources such as glycine is something new in these types of research.
Throughout this study researchers confirmed that the two species studied can absorb intact glycine via foliar.
--which could be the root of infection to humans said Whittaker. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cornell University.
Neiker-Tecnalia researchers isolated autochthonous bacterial strains belonging to soil samples and plant tissue. They then selected the best candidates by means of in vitro analysis
and specifically to combat the impact of the Sclerotinia sclerotiorum pathogen which affects roots. In the experiment the effectiveness of other organic fertilizers like the bokashi type compost of Japanese origin will also be tested.
The final step will be to test the effectiveness of the biofertilizers under actual field conditions.
and marshy vegetation Johnston explained. However historical and aerial photos from 1927 and 1940 showed solid forests meaning little evidence of beaver activity.
Grass-and-wildflower-dominated fields supported more than three times as many bird species as cornfields including 10 imperiled species found only in the grasslands.
Over the course of two years the researchers characterized the vegetation growing in each field calculated
and other types of vegetation the new findings indicate grassland fields may represent an acceptable tradeoff between creating biomass for bioenergy and providing habitat for grassland birds.
Among the grasslands studied the team found monoculture grasses supported fewer birds and fewer bird species than grasslands with a mix of grass types and other kinds of vegetation like wildflowers...
and disease resistance scientists are now looking at ways to develop tomato cultivars that boast higher antioxidant traits.
A research team led by Professor Sami Doä anlar analyzed three different interspecific populations of Solanum peruvianum Solanum habrochaites and Solanam pimpinellifolium for antioxidant and agronomic traits.
Our analyses showed that the Solanum habrochaites population provided the best starting material for improvement of water-soluble antioxidant activity
The Solanum habrochaites population also contained individuals that had nearly 2-fold more water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolic content than cultivated tomato.
The Solanum peruvianum population was determined to be best for improvement of Vitamin c content with 3-fold variation for the trait and individuals
#Clove oil tested for weed control in organic Vidalia sweet onionweed control is one of the most challenging aspects of organic crop production.
Most growers of certified organic crops rely heavily on proven cultural and mechanical weed control methods while limiting the use of approved herbicides.
A new study of herbicides derived from clove oil tested the natural products'effectiveness in controlling weeds in Vidaliaâ sweet onion crops.
Cultivation with a tine weeder and hand weeding are the primary tools currently used for weed control in organic sweet onion (Allium ceps) explained scientist W. Carroll Johnson III.
weeds that emerge during the delay are controlled not effectively by cultivation. Johnson tested herbicides derived from natural products as a way to control these emerged weeds in organic Vidaliaâ sweet onion production.
Johnson said that although these types of herbicide have been studied previously the majority of the studies were performed on warm-season crops and weeds.
Vidaliaâ sweet onion is a dry bulb onion grown in Georgia as a cool-season (winter) crop.
To test the efficacy of the clove oil-derived herbicide the researcher conducted irrigated field trials at the Vidalia onion
extracted from Yucca schidigera at 0. 03%by volume an emulsified petroleum insecticide at a rate of 1%by volume clove oil alone (no adjuvant) and a nontreated control.
The field experiments showed that weed control was improved not consistently by applying clove oil (10%by volume) with a sprayer calibrated at 50 gallons/acre compared with sprayer calibrated at 25 gallons/acre Johnson said adding that occasional improvements in weed control did not affect onion yield
and that adjuvants provided minimal improvement in weed control from clove oil and did not consistently improve onion yield.
and suggests another disadvantage to using clove oil for weed control in certified organic crop production Johnson noted.
Given the lack of weed response and onion yields to clove oil applied in higher sprayer output volumes
and nearly ubiquitous infections of Asian elephants that are shed occasionally in trunk washes and saliva of most healthy asymptomatic adult animals.
But there is hope that periodic flows will bring back willow mesquite and cottonwood trees revive insects
and slack flows and a holistic look at the plants fish fungi birds and other life inhabiting the river its banks and its marshes.
Imaging of root systems has until now largely been done in the laboratory using seedlings grown in small pots and containers.
and Penn State researchers uses digital photography to provide a detailed image of roots from mature plants in the field.
The roots are photographed then against a black background using a standard digital camera pointed down from a tripod.
The resulting images are uploaded then to a server running software that analyzes the root systems for more than 30 different parameters--including the diameter of tap roots root density the angles of brace roots and detailed measures
of lateral roots. Scientists working in the field can upload their images at the end of a day and have spreadsheets of results ready for study the next day.
In the future the system could allow scientists to study crop roots over an entire growing season potentially providing new life cycle data.
#Mangroves protecting corals from climate changecertain types of corals invertebrates of the sea that have been On earth for millions of years appear to have found a way to survive some of their most destructive threats by attaching to and growing under mangrove roots.
and brackish water habitats have networks of prop roots that extend down toward the seafloor and corals are growing on and under these roots.
How does it work? Mangroves and their associated habitats and biological processes protect corals in a variety of ways.
#Food, fuel and more will be produced in sea farms of futuremeet the farm of the future where common seaweed is being upgraded from an environmental problem to a valuable natural resource and raw material.
The excessive fertilisation (eutrophication) of our seas results in an over-production of algae commonly known as seaweed.
Bathing beaches become unusable on account of algae blooms and entire ecosystems can be threatened. But in our research we turn the argument on its head
Already seaweed is getting scooped up from the Baltic sea along Sweden's southern coast in order to be converted to biogas.
The coast is rich with the seaweed. The city of Trelleborg estimates that its beaches host an excess of algae that is equivalent to the energy from 2. 8 million litres of diesel fuel.
The brown algae known as sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) for example contain up to three times as much sugar as sugar beet.
One fast-growing algae species that has been selected for Seafarm's algaculture is sugar kelp--a common type of kelp.
According to their calculations the forest fragmentation results in up to a fifth more carbon dioxide being emitted by the vegetation.
It is forgotten a process in the global carbon circulation of the vegetation Huth states. This aspect has been included not directly in the calculations of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Discovery on how fungi avoid immune responses of plants leads to new generation of fungicidesplants that come under attack from pathogens have an automatic immune response.
Fungi get around this plant immunity by injecting proteins into the host plant cells. These'effector proteins'enable the fungi to escape the plant's immune system
and allow the fungal cells to enter the plant unrecognised. Exeter scientists have shown now that signalling organelles known as'early endosomes'act as long distance messengers in the fungi.
They travel rapidly along long tubelike cells between the plant-invading fungal cell tip and the fungal cell nucleus.
This rapid communication between the point of invasion and the fungal cell nucleus enables the fungus to produce the effector proteins that help evade the plant's immune response from the moment the fungus enters the host tissue.
when the fungi are most accessible to fungicide treatment. Disabling the process could result in a new generation of fungicides that are able to act before the fungus has damaged the plant.
Professor Gero Steinberg from the University of Exeter said: Pathogenic fungi are a major threat to our food security--they can devastate crops and cost billions of pounds worth of damage.
In fact losses of wheat rice and maize to fungal pathogens per year are the same as the annual spend by US Department of Homeland Security--some 60 billion US dollars.
As fast growing microbes fungi adapt rapidly to antifungal treatments and so we need to develop new fungicides all the time.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011