analysis showsa new analysis suggests the planet can produce much more land-plant biomass--the total material in leaves stems roots fruits grains
and other terrestrial plant parts--than previously thought. The study reported in Environmental science and Technology recalculates the theoretical limit of terrestrial plant productivity
which funded the research through the Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois. Estimates derived from satellite images of vegetation
For example in Illinois a hybrid grass Miscanthus x giganteus without fertilizer or irrigation produced 10 to 16 tons of aboveground biomass per acre more than double the productivity of native prairie vegetation or corn.
In Iceland for example an introduced species the nootka lupine produces four times as much biomass as the native boreal dwarf birch species it displaces.
but our study showed that a lack of boron actually causes a problem in the meristems
or the stem cells of the plant said Paula Mcsteen associate professor in the Division of Biological sciences and a researcher in the Bond Life sciences Center at MU.
Meristems comprise the growing points for each plant and every organ in the plant is developed from these specialized stem cells.
Insufficient boron causes these growing points to disintegrate affecting corn tassels and kernels adversely. When tassels are stunted crop yields are reduced Mcsteen said.
Amanda Durbak a post-doctoral fellow in the College of Arts and Science at MU also helped prove boron's usefulness to meristems.
Further testing revealed that at the cellular level the affected plants'meristems had altered pectin which is strengthened with boron
Without the pectin plant meristems disintegrate. By using various techniques and expertise at MU including genomics translational experiments with frog eggs research in the field cellular testing
Lupin a legume belonging to the same plant family as peanuts is showing up as a wheat replacement in an increasing number of gluten-free products.
Lupin is colored a yellow bean that's very popular in Europe Mediterranean countries Australia and New zealand said Karen Blakeslee Kansas State university extension specialist in food science and coordinator of the Rapid Response Center.
and may not realize that lupin has the same protein that causes allergic reactions to peanuts and soybeans.
The FDA expects lupin to become a popular product in the gluten-free arena because of its many health qualities.
Manufacturers are required to list lupin on the food label. The FDA is actively monitoring complaints of lupin allergies by U s. consumers.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university. The original article was written by Lindsey Elliott.
#Creating pomegranate drug to stem Alzheimers, Parkinsonsdr Olumayokun Olajide's research will look to produce compound derivatives of punicalagin for a drug that would treat neuro-inflammation
#Fungus deadly to AIDS patients found to grow on treesresearchers have pinpointed the environmental source of fungal infections that have been sickening HIV/AIDS patients in Southern California for decades.
and tree samples from areas around Los angeles hardest hit by infections of the fungus named Cryptococcus gattii (CRIP-to-cock-us GAT-ee-eye).
They decided it would be fun to send her out in search of fungi living in the greater Los angeles area.
and isolated the Cryptococcus fungus and then sent those specimens to Springer at Duke. Springer DNA-sequenced the samples from California
because this fungal pathogen will be able to grow reproduce disperse spores and serve as a source of ongoing infections Springer said.
and a large chunk of leaves collapses to one leaf and you end up with maybe 10 leaves instead of a million leaves Agha-mohammadi says.
Without enough water in the soil seeds can't sprout roots leaves can't perform photosynthesis
students in the MAE department to do the kind of basic forest fire combustion research that can move our predictive ability from the experiential realm to scientific mathematical models and longer-range computational predictions.
Technical Meeting Tulsa OK March 17-18 2014) Because the fuel for wildland fires is mostly in the undergrowth three species of shrub
the chamise bush; manzanita which can grow as a bush or small tree; and scrub oak a small tree.
A. Dahale; S. Ferguson; B. Shotorban; S. Mahalingam Effects of Distribution of Bulk Density and Moisture Content on Shrub Fires International J. Wildland Fire 22 (5) pp. 625-641 2013
) In a computer model we are using very small volumes of space on the order of one cubic millimeter on one end to a cubic meter on the other end he says.
Currently under study is the effect of shrubs as undergrowth in wildland fires and how proximity and wind can influence their combustion characteristics.
We light the shrub then figure out how much time it takes to burn out Dr. Mahalingam says.
S. Mahalingam Numerical investigation of stationary shrub fire in crosswind Paper 070fr-0073 presented at the 8th U s. National Combustion Meeting Salt lake city UT May 19
-22 2013) The UAH scientists are looking at how the interaction of fires in shrubs near each other can create energy hot spots in a conflagration.
Shrubs burned in controlled settings are being compared to computer modeled shrub fires to assess predictive qualities.
As you bring the shrubs closer together is the fuel being consumed faster and the energy created faster as a result?
We are interested in how the fire spreads from shrub to shrub what the interaction is and at what spacing and
It turns out that for cases with no wind you really have to get the shrubs close together for one to affect the other.
S. Mahalingam Flame merging in two neighboring shrub fires Paper 070fr-0198 presented at the 8th U s. National Combustion Meeting Salt lake city UT May 19
#Trees, shrubs invading critical grasslands, diminish cattle productionhalf of Earth's land mass is made up of rangelands
Woody plants such as trees and shrubs are moving in and taking over leading to a loss of critical habitat
While the phenomenon of woody plant invasion has been occurring for decades for the first time we have quantified the losses in ecosystem services said Osvaldo Sala Julie A. Wrigley Chair and Foundation Professor with ASU's School of Life sciences and School of Sustainability.
and shrub cover of one percent leads to a two percent loss in livestock production.
And woody-plant cover in North america increases at a rate between 0. 5 and two percent per year.
In recent years the U s. government shelled out millions of dollars in an effort to stop the advance of trees and shrubs.
Researchers also used remote sensors to calculate the production of grasses and shrubs. And to account for the effects of different socioeconomic factors researchers quantified the impact of tree cover on livestock production in two areas of the world that have similar environments but different level of economic development.
Why are trees and shrubs taking over grasslands? There are several hypotheses as to why woody plant encroachment is happening.
Fire reduction grazing intensity climate change and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are held some widely beliefs as to the cause.
It is also easier for small agile individuals to move through dense undergrowth and to climb trees.
Researchers at the University of California Davis have developed Easy Leaf Area--a free software written in an open-source programming language--to allow users to accurately measure leaf area from digital images in seconds.
It has always been a challenge to measure leaf surface area without damaging the plants or spending long hours in the lab so
I decided to attempt to write software to automatically measure leaf and scale area from smartphone images explains Hsien Ming Easlon a researcher at UC Davis and one of the developers of Easy Leaf Area.
Leaf area measurements are essential for estimating crop yields water usage nutrient absorption plant competition and many other aspects of growth.
The digital images he uses are taken with the Apple IPHONE 4 but any current smartphone camera or digital camera will do.
Once the images are uploaded to a computer Easy Leaf Area can process hundreds of images and save the results to a spreadsheet-ready CSV file.
Easlon and his team developed Easy Leaf Area using Arabidopsis plants and also tested Easy Leaf Area on photographs of field-grown tomatoes and wheat and photographs and scans of detached leaves
of a common tree poppy California redwood chaparral currant Jeffrey pine and Valley oak. Manual adjustments to the automatic algorithm can be saved for different plants
so that leaf area measurements can be made on the fly without a PC. He also plans to add handwriting recognition
The finding by Jim Westwood a professor of plant pathology physiology and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life sciences throws open the door to a new arena of science that explores how plants communicate with each other on a molecular level.
It also gives scientists new insight into ways to fight parasitic weeds that wreak havoc on food crops in some of the poorest parts of the world.
'Westwood examined the relationship between a parasitic plant dodder and two host plants Arabidopsis and tomatoes.
and nutrients out of the host plants dodder uses an appendage called a haustorium to penetrate the plant.
Through this exchange the parasitic plants may be dictating what the host plant should do such as lowering its defenses
so that the parasitic plant can more easily attack it. Westwood's next project is aimed at finding out exactly
if other organisms such a bacteria and fungi also exchange information in a similar fashion.
Parasitic plants such as witchweed and broomrape are serious problems for legumes and other crops that help feed some of the poorest regions in Africa
In moist areas trees can allocate less to building roots Givnish says. Other things being equal having lower overhead should allow them to achieve greater height.
and Latin america a fact that led him in 2012 to create the company Bambusa located in Cholula Puebla in center Mexico.
The latter is distilled from the foliage and applied precisely in the part of the beer fermentation prepared with two hops yeast
and wheat malt he adds. The preparation requires 15 days is carried out in stainless steel tanks and the process avoids filtering the beverage
The result is a brown Ale beer (highly fermented) refreshing spicy fruity and herbal final flavor with six degrees of alcohol and a thick foam.
which after a year and half rose to 600 and we plan to double it in a few months.
While traveling across the country and passing through different types of environments we stopped every few hundred miles to evaluate the immediate roadside vegetation and comparing that to the plants in the natural environments 20 meters away from the road.
What Flower Prefers to Grow After You Mow? With their attractive purple and pink flowers gentians are cultivated popular as garden plants.
The Pine Barrens gentian species (Gentiana autumnalis) thrives after its ecosystem has experienced disturbance as one of the earliest species to begin re-inhabiting empty spaces--a phase known as early succession.
But the gentian and other early successional species in the Pine Barrens are growing rare because of human intervention:
suppressing wildfires which are the most common natural disturbance in the area. The Pine Barrens of New jersey are second only to California in the frequency of wildfires.
but means there are far fewer disturbed places where gentians prefer to grow. Is mowing--including roadside mowing--an effective replacement for wildfires to help sustain the Pine Barrens gentian population?
That is one of the questions Rebozo is addressing in research he will present at the Ecological Society of America meeting on Aug 13.
Rebozo also identified sites where gentians grow unmanaged or mowed including one mowed roadside site where gentians happened to grow.
Rebozo found that where mowing and burning disturbances were introduced the gentians responded with increased plant density (more than doubled at some sites) flowering percentage
and patch size--often within one year of the disturbance. Prescribed burns had an even stronger positive impact on gentian growth
and reproduction than mowing did. With a burn comes not only clearing of vegetation but also an influx of nutrients Rebozo said.
The plants respond well to that in terms of flowering and the number of seeds they set the next year.
When Snakes Meet the New jersey Highwayroads are a challenge for northern pine snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus) in the New jersey Pine Barrens based on the findings that Ward will present at the ESA meeting on Aug 15.
which we believe was driven by reduced moisture at the forest edge impairing the activity of saprotrophic fungi--those that live
Wood decay and the recycling of other biological matter like leaf litter is driven by fungi
Saprotrophic fungi control the cycling of carbon and nutrients from wood in forests and their responses to changes in microclimate driven by fragmentation
Because of its dense evergreen foliage eastern hemlock plays an important role in the water cycle of southern Appalachian forests regulating stream flow year round.
Since hemlock woolly adelgid was detected first in 2003 all the eastern hemlock trees in both watersheds died resulting in a loss of 26 percent of forest basal area (that area occupied by tree trunks
and stems) in the riparian area of the first watershed compared to a 4 percent loss in the reference watershed riparian forest.
The fact that hemlock loss didn't increase water yield in the short-term was due to the rapid growth response of cooccurring trees and shrubs in the riparian forests;
and peak flows were likely higher after hemlock loss due to lower interception by the evergreen canopy in the riparian zone said Brantley.
and range from San mateo County in the north to Santa barbara County in the South sea otters live offshore in forests of kelp--huge yellow-brown rubbery seaweed reaching from the sea floor to the surface like tall trees.
In coastal North america sea otters help maintain healthy kelp forests which benefits other marine species dependent on this habitat.
which in unchecked hordes will chew through the holdfasts of the kelp leaving vast barrens in place of the vibrant forests.
whose presence has outsized an effect on its kelp forest habitat. Without sea otters the undersea sea urchins they prey on would devour the kelp forests resulting in dense areas called sea urchin barrens that have lower biodiversity due to the loss of kelp that provide 3-dimensional habitat
and a food source for many species. Researchers found that when sea otters arrive in an area from
As a result the kelp forest begins to grow back changing the structure of kelp forest communities.
Many fish marine mammals and birds are also found in kelp forest communities including rockfish seals sea lions whales gulls terns snowy egrets as well as some shore birds.
because healthy kelp forests can grow rapidly and store large amounts of carbon. Dr. Martone's analyses of the effects of sea otters on kelp forest ecosystems can help shape predictions of how climate change
and trophic cascades in concert with other drivers affect coastal ecosystems. The ecological impacts of a changing climate are evident from terrestrial polar regions to tropical marine environments.
including the addition of energy transmission towers affect avian predators nesting in sagebrush landscapes. Researchers compared nesting habitat selection between Common Ravens
and three raptor species commonly found in sagebrush ecosystems: Red-tailed hawks Swainson's Hawks and Ferruginous Hawks.
Raven populations have increased precipitously in the past four decades in sagebrush ecosystems largely as a result of fragmentation and development of anthropogenic structures.
The study took place on the sagebrush landscapes of the U s. Department of energy's Idaho site
Increases In common Raven distribution and abundance in the American west mirror declines in distribution and abundance of Greater Sage-grouse where energy transmission corridors and other land use changes have altered sagebrush steppe
Industrial development wildfires invasive plant species and other disturbances are changing sagebrush landscapes throughout the western United states. Our results shed light on how these avian predators might change with them said Coates of USGS. The study Landscape alterations
influence differential habitat use of nesting Buteos and ravens within sagebrush ecosystem: Implications for transmission line development will appear in the August 2014 print issue of the journal The Condor.
â#¢Approximately 74 percent of nests were located on natural substrates mostly juniper trees. â#¢Selected areas dominated by contiguous stands of sagebrush. â#¢Ferruginous Hawk nests were located farther from roads
either with corn barley wheat soybeans rice beans acai seed brown sugar or starch syrup she says.
Wood twigs sticks parchment husks whole coffee berries or even clumps of earth that are almost the same color as coffee have been found.
These sheep provide a unique opportunity to study the effects of parasites weather vegetation changes and other factors on a population of wild animals.
and Pennisetum purpurem (napier grass) despite public criticism added U of I professor of agricultural law A. Bryan Endres who co-authored the research to define legislative language for potentially invasive bioenergy feedstocks.
Some of the biofeedstocks currently being examined by the EPA for approval like pennycress have a high risk for invasion Quinn said.
Others have vague names such as jatropha with no species name which is problematic. For example there are three main Miscanthus species
The list was developed using an existing weed risk assessment protocol which includes 49 questions that must be asked about a particular species based on its biology ecology
or prolific seed production may have higher risk. The researchers believe that the white list provides producers with clearly identified low-invasion risk options
The chaparral shrublands of southern California and similar sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin are adapted not to the kind of frequent fire typical of the mountain conifer forests in California.
which kill most of the vegetation. In the millennia before humans arrived these ecosystems burned at intervals of 100 to 130 years.
The high frequency of fire has instigated a persistent switch from chaparral to grass in some areas.
because native perennial bunchgrass and other herbaceous species grew in said Keeley. Once the aliens got here it completely changed.
The cross-pollination services they provide are required by approximately 80 percent of all flowering plants and 1/3 of all agricultural food production directly depends on bee pollination.
New research from the University of Guelph reveals that arctic mammals such as caribou can metabolize some current-use pesticides (CUPS) ingested in vegetation.
or lakes and vegetation where they are ingested by fish and mammals and in turn are consumed by other animals and humans.
They examined the vegetation-caribou-wolf food chain in the area where the presence of other organic contaminants such as legacy pesticides
and fluorinated surfactants suggested that CUPS might be found in the vegetation and animals. Caribou are among the most important subsistence animals for people living in the North
By testing vegetation the researchers found large enough concentrations of CUPS to confirm that they were entering the food chain.
In caribou eating that vegetation CUPS were also present but they did not increase (biomagnify) significantly in caribou compared to their diet.
Understanding the complex relationships among climate fire and vegetation is critical to the ability of policymakers
and leaf wetness and tells growers when to spray fungicide to ward off diseases. Growers can use the system by logging onto www. agroclimate. org/tools/strawberry
Olmstead uses traditional breeding methods to create blueberry cultivars that have traits consumers want. What we're trying to determine is:
Therefore researchers at the Tepic Institute of technology (ITT) set out to use the pulp in applications different from consumption analyzing it they found the presence of acetogenins substances with chemotherapeutic properties.
however most studies are focused mainly on the leaves roots seeds and shell not considering the fruit.
The ITT was given the task of studying the fruit's pulp fresh and stored frozen for a year the first results show that the unprocessed and frozen pulp maintains the presence of compounds called acetogenins.
With these data researchers propose to contribute knowledge about the types of these compounds found
Roses blooming in December? Thanks to technology that the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Richard Vierstra has been developing for years these things may soon be possible.
when to germinate grow make food flower and even age. Like eyes the phytochrome is a light sensor that converts sunlight into chemical signals to get these jobs done.
when to flower says Vierstra. Plants use the molecule to sense where they are in the canopy;
and seeds becoming long and leggy as they reach for the sky. That process begins with the phytochrome
or to flower and make fruit. Based on the light available the phytochrome cycles between an inactive and active state.
Disturbances like windthrow and forest fires are part of the natural dynamics of forest ecosystems and are not therefore a catastrophe for the ecosystem as such.
Damage from forest fires was estimated particularly to increase on the Iberian peninsula while bark beetle damage increased most strongly in The alps.
In some parts of Australia where Aboriginal people no longer are burning the bush ecologists are recording rapid declines in threatened species
The new study found that small grass fires set by Martu to reveal sand monitor lizard holes created a patchy mosaic of five stages of vegetation at different post-fire ages increasing
because the animals can hide from predators like dingoes in older bush grass and spend most of their time eating shoots and fruits in patches of younger vegetation.
Counts of kangaroo scats showed kangaroo populations were largest at moderate distances from Martu settlements.
Martu-set fires average about 10 acres--a small fraction of the size of fires ignited by lightning Codding says noting that patchy vegetation created by intentional fires reduce the likelihood of devastating large blazes.
Martu usually women set small fires in spinifex grass--the dominant vegetation--during wintertime hunts to expose burrows occupied by 2-foot-long sand monitor lizards or sand goannas
and bush in rocky areas and ridges surrounding eucalyptus-and acacia-dotted grassy sand plains where they forage.
and burn bush to obtain food to survive Codding says. The'conservation'of kangaroos is an outcome that evolved he says.
Indeed kangaroo population levels close to the village--where they were hunted first--are the same as at great distances from the community where there is little hunting and bush burning.
what they gain from a landscape with small patches of different ages of post-fire vegetation.
Codding says the new study looked at kangaroo populations in all five stages of post-fire spinifex grass vegetation as described by the Martu.
and features fruits such as bush tomato and bush raisin eaten by the Martu and hill kangaroos.
The two final stages occur five to 15 years after fire: Manguu when spinifex grass forms hummocks and re-establishes dominance
and kangaroo) and foraging for bush fruits Codding says. The researchers also monitored how long Martu hunters were away from their camps and
They also walked two predetermined 0. 6-mile lines in each hunting area counting the density of kangaroo scat in patches of vegetation in each of the different post-fire growth stages.
And they used satellite images and on-the-ground measurements of the patchiness of different stages of post-fire vegetation from November 1999 to April 2010.
and shrubs while promoting nutritionally rich grass for that summer's grazing. Currently burning of Flint Hills prairie is concentrated typically in late April.
The time frame stems from research conducted more than 40 years ago. Burning in the Flint Hills has been a scientific and political issue for at least 80 years Craine said.
This enabled researchers to look at what effect burning during a particular season had on the vegetation long-term.
#Brother of Hibiscus flower is found alive and well on Maui, Hawaiimost people are familiar with Hibiscus flowers-they are an iconic symbol of tropical resorts worldwide where they are planted commonly in the landscape.
Some like Hawaii's State Flower-Hibiscus brackenridgei-are endangered species. Only a relatively few botanists
and Hawaiian conservation workers however are aware of an equally beautiful and intriguing related group of plants known as Hibiscadelphus-literally brother of Hibiscus.
Brother of Hibiscus species are endangered in fact highly. Until recently only one of the seven previously known species remained in its natural habitat the other having gone extinct.
These trees are known only or were known from five of the eight main Hawaiian islands. Two are still alive in cultivation saved in part because of their beautiful showy blossoms.
Several were known only from a single wild tree. Remarkably in 2012 field botanists Hank Oppenheimer & Keahi Bustament with the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and Steve Perlman of the National Tropical Botanical garden found a population of these unique trees in a remote
Hawaiians know these trees as hau kuahiwi-hau being a type of lowland Hibiscus common throughout the tropical Pacific
#Engineering a protein to prevent brain damage from toxic agentsresearch at New york University is paving the way for a breakthrough that may prevent brain damage in civilians
#Bees able to spot which flowers offer best rewards before landingbumblebees are able to connect differences in pollen quality with floral features like petal colour and so land only on the flowers that offer the best rewards according to a new
whilst foraging on flowers and so until now it has been unclear whether they are able to form associative relationships between
what a flower looks like and the quality of its pollen. The study used bumblebee foragers housed under controlled conditions to test
whether they do learn about flowers during pollen collection. Their results show that bumblebees can individually assess pollen samples
which may allow bees to quickly learn which flowers provide the most nutritious pollen rewards for rearing their young.
There is still very little known about how bees decide which flowers to visit for pollen collection.
Easily learning floral features based on pollen rewards without needing any nectar rewards is a fast and effective way to recognise those flower species
Bees need to be able to select flowers providing the most nutritious food for rearing their young.
which means they may be able to tell just from the colour of the petals which flowers are worth visiting.
when collecting nectar from flowers but since bees don't eat pollen when foraging we were interested to see
whether they could still learn which flowers to visit when collecting this resource. The experiments involved manipulating the quality of pollen offered to the bees by diluting the samples.
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