On the Varanger Peninsula (the northeastern tip of Norway) we have mapped the vegetation before and after the outbreak and across a range of outbreak severities and found that dense birch forests survive far better than sparse ones says Dr Jepsen.
Moth attacks in sparse woods cause extensive changes in ground vegetation--the dwarf shrub heath disappears
Fauna changes as wellwhen the ground vegetation changes from heath to grass there are impacts on the animal life.
More intense insect infestation more forest fires and increased drought pressure are probably the three largest factors causing this subarctic browning.
Grassland bird species use the living and dead vegetation in grasslands to build nests and for use as cover.
or Solanum campylacanthum is wicked a plant. Not a true apple this relative of the eggplant smothers native grasses with its thorny stalks while its striking yellow fruit provides a deadly temptation to sheep and cattle.
New research suggests however that certain wild African animals particularly elephants could be a boon to human-raised livestock because of their voracious appetite for the Sodom apple.
or impalas devouring dozens of its fruits at a time the shrub easily conquers the landscape. Just as the governments of nations such as Kenya prepare to pour millions into eradicating the plant the findings present a method for controlling the Sodom apple that is cost-effective for humans
because they belong to a class of herbivores known as browsers that subsist on woody plants and shrubs many species
When you add the wild herbivores they have a negative effect on the Solanum so they're actually promoting a higher biomass of high-quality habitat for livestock.
When fruit goes in one end seeds come out the other. Though some seeds are destroyed during digestion most reemerge
and are potentially able to germinate. Pringle and Tarnita developed a mathematical model to conduct a sort of cost-benefit analysis of how the Sodom apple's ability to proliferate is affected by being eaten.
The model weighed the cost to the plant of being consumed partially against the potential benefit of having healthy seeds scattered across the countryside in an animal's droppings.
While elephants ate an enormous amount of Solanum seeds they also often destroyed the entire plant ripping it out of the ground and stuffing the whole bush into their mouths.
The model showed that to offset the damage an elephant wreaks on a plant 80 percent of the seeds the animal eats would have to emerge from it unscathed.
On top of that each seed would have to be 10-times more likely to take root than one that simply fell to the ground from its parent.
while feeding and also spread a lot of seeds in their dung. Of the seeds eaten by an impala only 60 percent would need to survive
and those seeds would have to be a mere three times more likely to sprout than a seed that simply fell from its parent.
A model allows you to explore a space you're not fully able to reach experimentally said Tarnita who uses math to understand the outcome of interactions between organisms.
Dracaena a genus consisting of approximately 40 different species including the widely recognized lucky bamboo is among the most frequently imported group of ornamentals to enter the U s. for domestic sale and eventual export to Canada.
The authors of a new research study say it is crucial to be vigilant about potential pests and pathogens on imported cuttings of Dracaena.
Pests and pathogens currently not in the United states could be imported with Dracaena plant materials said Ariena H. C. van Bruggen corresponding author of the study published in Hortscience.
Lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana) with anthracnose symptoms was first found in Florida in 2009; the infection was associated with the fungus Colletotrichum dracaenophilum a pathogen that originated in Asia.
The researchers evaluated the effects of hot water treatments on symptomless lucky bamboo planting material and tested fungicides for the control of Colletotrichum in asymptomatic
However in this study lesions appeared on noninoculated stalks when irrigation intervals were lengthened. Thus water stress may trigger the induction of symptoms the authors said.
Remarkably analyses showed that 25%to 43%of noninoculated lucky bamboo stalks included in the study contained the latent presence of Colletotrichum dracaenophilum.
The authors determined that traditional hot water treatments such as those tested in the study were not promising for controlling the latent fungus
LMU biologist Professor Susanne Renner and her research group have looked now at the effects of this warming trend on the timing of leaf emergence (leaf-out in a broad range of shrubs and trees.
The inducers of leaf-outit is believed widely that warmer temperatures will extend the growing season and that leaf-out in our flora will occur at progressively earlier times in the year.
However whether air temperature or day-length is the dominant factor determining the date of leaf-out is known actually for very few of the thousands of species of trees
and shrubs says Renner. As Director of Munich's Botanic Garden she was in a position to remedy this situation.
Some 16000 plant species from diverse climate zones are cultivated in the Garden and Renner and her doctoral student Constantin Zohner have taken advantage of this unique resource to monitor the timing of leaf-out in nearly 500 different species of woody plants.
Such a comprehensive phenological study has never been undertaken before says Renner. Temperature and day-length are the primary triggers of leaf development
and selective forces during the course of evolution have determined which signal is used actually in a given species. The results of the new study show that in many woody plants that thrive in warmer southern climes day-length acts as a safety barrier
so that these trees don't risk having their leaves damaged by late frosts --and increased temperature does not override this barrier.
which leaf-out occurs relatively late in the year Renner adds. The beech in Central europe is a relic of the warmer temperatures that prevailed during the Tertiary period;
leaf emergence requires 13 hours of daylight regardless of whether the spring was warm or cool and moist.
Moreover species that are adapted already to our northerly climates are unlikely to undergo leaf-out at ever earlier times
#Lopwood, brushwood make high-grade charcoalwhen the forestry machines have finished extracting timber what is left are tops and branches--waste
which cannot be used. However according to researchers it is possible to turn these heaps of lopwood into high-quality charcoal.
Branches tops lopwood and brushwood that are left in felled areas after the timber has been extracted are now set to become more than just an irritation to hikers and berry-pickers.
while in the second they were infested with rice blast fungus. Despite this the rice yield was 3. 5 tons (t) per hectare or almost as much as the average national yield of 3. 8 t per hectare.
Cornelison grows the bacteria under certain conditions that enable them to inhibit the growth of fungi responsible for these diseases.
and permanently eliminated spore germination. In collaboration with University of California-Davis he found the bacteria prevented the spread of fungi on bat skin without touching the skin.
Cornelison's research is funded by the U s. Forest Service and Bat Conservation International. Story Source:
#Surprising spread of spring leaf-out timesdespite conventional wisdom among gardeners foresters and botanists that woody plants all leaf out at about the same time each spring a new study organized by a Boston
University biologist found a surprisingly wide span of as much as three months in leaf-out times.
Significantly observations the past two springs of 1597 woody plants in eight botanical gardens in the U s. Canada Germany and China suggest that species differences in leaf-out times could impact the length of the growing season
As species distribution and abundance shift due to climate change interspecific differences in leaf-out timing may affect ecosystem processes such as carbon water
Our open-access leaf-out data provide a critical framework for monitoring and modelling such changes going forward.
While previous researchers observed leaf-out for a limited numbers of species in a single location this study uniquely obtained observations of the same species from gardens around the world.
and with different climates suggesting that leafing out time is fixed a character of a species like the shape of its leaves or flowers;
some species tend to leaf out early others late. Prior to this study no one would have suspected that there was so much difference in the leafing out times of different species says BU Prof.
At the Arnold Arboretum in Boston some gooseberry and honeysuckle shrubs start leafing out Mid-march
and early April and evergreen rhododendrons and pine trees don't start leafing out until two to three months later in late May or even June.
The study showed that shrubs leafed out on average 10 days before trees and deciduous plants leafed out on average 17 days before evergreens.
And certain groups of plants--such as honeysuckles willows lilacs and apples--tended to leaf out early while other groups--such as oak beeches honey locusts and grapes--tended to
leaf out late. As a result forests will have flushes of new leaves over an extended period
which adds to the beauty of spring growth but it also has implications for insect survival and for carbon dioxide absorption by forests.
Leaf-out phenology affects a wide variety of ecosystem processes and ecological interactions and will take on added significance as leaf-out times increasingly shift in response to warming temperatures associated with climate change the study said.
There is however relatively little information available on the factors affecting species differences in leaf out phenology.
Primack explained that as the climate warms trees will tend to leaf out earlier in the spring perhaps extending the growing season and affecting animal behavior.
But this pattern will become complicated if the overall tree composition changes. For example in eastern North america maple and birch trees which leaf out early may be replaced gradually by more heat-tolerant oak trees
which tend to leaf out later in the spring. The data was obtained by walking around each of the botanical gardens once a week
and recording the appearance of first leafing out for all of the species. Leaf-out time was considered
when the young leaves had emerged from their buds and their adult shape could be seen even though the leaves were still small.
In a recent study scientists used ARID to predict crop yields by quantifying water loss for cotton soybeans corn
When roots cannot take up enough water up from the soil to replace evaporated water plants experience stress said Ingram.
therefore not apply to this species. For some time conservationists have made aware of the fact that the rapidly growing number of brown Spanish slugs is replacing the native black slug in Central europe as well as inflicting significant damage on natural vegetation and agricultural products.
The enzymes increase the antioxidant activity from the grape seeds and skins. New uses could include food additives or nutritional supplements.
The skin gives the muscadine natural resistance to disease fungi and insects and it stores many antioxidants the study said.
When it comes to controlling hay fever-triggering ragweed plants on Detroit vacant lots occasional mowing is worse than no mowing at all
Those are the findings of a new University of Michigan study that surveyed vacant lots in several Detroit neighborhoods for ragweed counting the number of ragweed plants
The researchers found that ragweed was significantly more likely to be present in vacant lots mowed once a year or once every two years--a common practice in Detroit
which ragweed plants thrive. Katz's co-authors on the vegetation study are SNRE's Benjamin Connor Barrie and Tiffany Carey of the U-M Program in the Environment.
Katz and Carey co-authored an earlier study that examined the relationships between ragweed pollen production land use and public health in Detroit.
Woody plants are establishing in vacant lots and reclaiming large chunks of Detroit Katz said. Regardless of whether people think that reforestation of vacant lots is a good
Results of the Detroit vegetation survey were published online June 16 in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
The U-M studies found that vacant lots are the main habitat for ragweed in Detroit:
Ragweed densities were six times higher in vacant lots than at locations around occupied homes in the city.
Vacant lots contained up to 42 ragweed plants per square meter. When you consider that the tiny drab flowers of a single ragweed plant can produce up to a billion pollen grains annually it's clear that Detroit vacant lots are pollen factories churning out a noxious product that afflicts thousands of city residents.
The vegetation survey looked at 62 vacant lots in several neighborhoods including Mexicantown Kettering and Core City.
The researchers categorized each lot by mowing frequency: monthly annually biennially or unmowed. They found that 28 percent of the unmowed lots contained ragweed plants
while 63 percent of the annually mowed lots and 70 percent of the biennially mowed lots contained the weed.
Vacant lots mowed at least once a month during the growing season had no ragweed plants. When these lots are left alone completely other plants rapidly outcompete ragweed Katz said.
When the lots are left unmowed the common perennial plants that replace ragweed include goldenrod milkweed Kentucky bluegrass chicory and aster.
When a vacant lot is mowed not for several years the young trees that can encroach include the Norway maple silver maple box elder cottonwood and tree of heaven.
To determine whether ragweed populations are associated with a particular land-use type in Detroit Katz and Carey documented the amount of ragweed found in vacant lots around occupied residences and in city parks.
They also set up pollen collectors at 34 sites and analyzed the concentration of ragweed pollen grains collected at each location.
They found that the amount of ragweed pollen in the air at a collection site was determined both by the abundance of ragweed plants within 10 meters (33 feet) of the collector and by the number of vacant lots within 1 kilometer (0. 62 miles) of the site.
That result drives home the point that pollen is mainly a local and neighborhood-level problem even though public health officials have treated for decades it as a regional problem Katz said.
and an Ecological Society of America SEEDS Undergraduate Research Fellowship (funded by the National Science Foundation).
and cassava a tuber that is the third-largest source of carbohydrates in the tropics.
which they cannot recover from forest fires. Already some sections have been reduced to grassland littered with shrubs he noted.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by South dakota State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length e
and seedlings and will either prepare a raised bed in the yard of a survivor's home
While other researchers have identified genes involved in producing the first green leaves of spring the discovery of a master regulator in poplar trees (Populus species) could eventually lead to breeding plants that are adapted better for warmer climates.
No one has isolated ever a controlling gene for this timing in a wild plant outside of Arabidopsis a small flowering plant related to mustard
when they produce flowers when they go dormant--help trees adapt to changes in environmental signals like those associated with climate
and Strauss at Oregon State to trace the function of EBB1 in buds and other plant tissues responsible for setting forth the first green shoots of spring.
One April morning he found that four seedling trees in a 2. 5-acre test plot were putting forth leaves at least a week before all the other trees.
They found that EBB1 codes for a protein that helps to restart cell division in a part of the tree known as meristem
He has studied the influence of carnivores on their prey--such as deer and elk--and on vegetation from aspen trees to willows.
It was developed from rapeseed at the University of Manitoba in the 1970s. Canola oil contains only 7 per cent saturated fat less than half that of olive oil widely touted for its health benefits.
These insect-eating mammals'name comes from their noses'resemblance to the trunk of an elephant.
A leaf-tailed gecko hatched June 2. The leaf-tailed gecko is a large nocturnal gecko from Madagascar threatened with extensive habitat loss from cattle grazing logging agriculture and collection for the pet trade.
Three loggerhead shrike chicks hatched in Mid-may at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute In front Royal Va. Loggerhead shrikes also called butcher birds are songbirds that hunt small animals by impaling them on thorns or barbed wire.
Loggerhead shrikes were once common but they have declined rapidly for several decades and there may be as few as 100 wild loggerhead shrikes left In virginia.
#Weeding out pesky poison ivy with discovery of killer fungusmuch to the chagrin of gardeners hikers
and virtually anyone enjoying the outdoors one of the hazards of summer is picking up an itchy poison ivy rash.
But researchers in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life sciences have found an effective way to kill poison ivy using a naturally occurring fungus that grows on the fleshy tissue surrounding the plant's seed potentially giving homeowners and forest managers the ability to rid
John Jelesko an associate professor of plant pathology physiology and weed science began studying the plant after experiencing a nasty poison ivy rash himself
This poison ivy research has the potential to affect the untold millions of people who are allergic to poison ivy said Jelesko a Fralin Life science Institute faculty member.
Their work is especially valuable in light of the fact that a 2006 study showed that as the planet warms poison ivy is predicted to grow faster bigger
When poison ivy can't be treated with over-the-counter treatments and requires an outpatient visit then we are talking about a public health concern that is very real said Kasson.
The research team discovered the killer fungus in their initial attempts to generate microbe-free poison ivy seedlings to use in their studies.
Jelesko noticed that not only were some of the seeds failing to germinate but on the seedlings that did germinate there was a blight wiping out the young seedlings.
Jelesko enlisted the help of Kasson to isolate what he suspected was a fungus causing disease in the plants.
The team discovered that the fungus was growing on all the plants that died and the seeds that didn't germinate.
The fungus caused wilt and chlorophyll loss on the seedlings just by placing it at the junction of the main stem and root collar of the plant at three weeks post-inoculation.
At seven weeks post-inoculation all but one of the plants had died. Though herbicides are available to kill poison ivy Jelesko
and Kasson said that if this fungus were developed into a commercial application it would not only be more effective than its chemical counterparts
but also have the benefit of being completely natural. We have to keep in mind that the chemicals used to control poison ivy are general herbicides meaning that they will affect
and probably kill many other plant species so their use in large areas is not always practical said Thomas Mitchell associate professor of fungal biology
and molecular genetics at Ohio State university who is familiar with the research but not affiliated with it.
This work shows promise for an alternative approach to the use of chemicals and has great potential as a biological control alternative.
Kasson whose research is funded by the U s. Department of agriculture Forest Service believes it would be relatively simple to develop a soil granular to spread on top of poison ivy-infested areas in yards
After Kasson successfully isolated the fungus in pure culture from infected plants a DNA analysis revealed that the fungus--Colletotrichum fioriniae--is also widely known as an insect pathogen that kills an invasive bug that infests
In all of the natural world only humans are allergic to poison ivy and its itch-inducing oil urushiol.
and birds eat the seeds all to no ill effects. Jelesko and Kasson have filed for a patent disclosure of their current findings
and say that this research just scratches the surface of possible avenues for the study of poison ivy.
If you thought genetically modified potatoes could avert late blight disease spare a million countrymen from starvation
Half the subjects in an online survey read the story of the 1850s Irish potato Famine learning the potential impact of fungal Phytophthora infestans on potato and tomato crops today.
and is involved in signaling iron concentrations â#from leaves to roots â#to regulate how much iron from the soil is needed by the plant.
This function allows the plant to partition cadmium away from the edible portions of plants including seeds (grain.
Combing through the 36000-plus genes found in Eucalyptus (nearly twice as many as in the human genome) the researchers homed in on those that may influence the production of secondary cell wall material that can be processed for pulp paper biomaterials and bioenergy applications.
and adaptation in woody plants suitable for biomass production said Myburg. Our comparative analysis of the complex traits associated with the Eucalyptus genome
and other large perennials offers new opportunities for accelerating breeding cycles for sustainable biomass productivity and optimal wood quality noted Grattapaglia.
Our analysis provides a much more comprehensive understanding of the genetic control of carbon allocation towards cell wall biopolymers in woody plants--a crucial step toward the development of future biomass crops.
and expression in woody tissues we defined a core set of genes as well as novel lignin-building candidates that are expressed highly in the development of xylem--the woody tissue that helps channel water throughout the plant
Examples for such a combination of two genomes called allopolyploidy are found abundantly in both wild plants and crops like wheat rapeseed and cotton.
For example this method is used to play a trick on grape phylloxera a notorious pest of commercial grapevines that attacks the roots of the plants.
By grafting pest-sensitive elite grape cultivars onto pest-resistant wild rootstocks infestation is prevented effectively.
and their progeny was fertile as well one can consider them as a new species. The scientists named it Nicotiana tabauca.
Despite moves to reduce environmental impact many areas of vegetation surrounding the lake are still in recovery.
By analysing the young Perch that had been born that year scientists were able to determine that at least 34%of the fish biomass comes from vegetation increasing to 66%in areas surrounded by rich forest.
The work was conducted at Daisy Lake on the outskirts of the industrial city of Sudbury in Ontario Canada.
and forest fires resulting from climate change--all occurrences predicted to intensify in coming years said Tanentzap.
When these fast-moving streams--full of detritus from forest foliage--hit the slow-moving lake the debris falls out of suspension
Areas of Daisy Lake closest to the nickel smelt-works remain bare--dirt and rock instead of the once lush forest.
and yeast respectively during the initial fermentation of cocoa pulp sugars says Wittmann. The acetic acid bacteria then process these simultaneously via separate metabolic pathways ultimately producing acetate from them.
It could happen with new plant-breeding toolsince the first plant genome sequence was obtained for the plant Arabidopsis in 2000 scientists have sequenced gene everything from cannabis to castor bean.
Imagine if you didn't have to plant seeds for crops --if crops were just like your flowers
and your maize just came up year after year he said. Andrew Hanson a UF eminent scholar in horticultural sciences said he believes Plantseed--the capstone of the team's three-year effort--will prove even more of a boon to traditional breeders
and should help them create better cultivars faster. It's really the future. It'll be a new tool in the hands of the next generation of plant breeders
Together with students and colleagues at the University of California Berkeley Alexandra Klein manipulated almond trees by preventing bees from pollinating blossoms with the help of cages allowing the bees to pollinate the blossoms
During the last 15 years expansion of agriculture in the state has helped Brazil become one of the world's top producers of soy corn cotton and other staple crops.
Using a measure called the Enhanced Vegetation Index--essentially a measure of greenness in land cover--the researchers are able to distinguish between forestland
They aerate the soil cycle nutrients and play a role in plant defense and seed dispersal.
and then a wet spring also affects that vegetation what's going to survive and how many of the ants are out foraging Winkler pointed out.
Some sites may have been burned more frequently she noted to control weeds. We've got a sneak peek of
Jasmine Saros associate director of the Climate Change Institute at UMAINE and professor in UMAINE's School of Biology & Ecology;
The precursors of acid rain formation result from both natural sources such as volcanoes and decaying vegetation
Phaseolus genome lends insights into nitrogen fixationit doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people doesn't add up to a hill of beans in this crazy world Humphrey Bogart famously said in the movie Casablanca.
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