#New study informs blueberry flavor selectionthe University of Florida's (UF) Blueberry Breeding Program has been developing successful blueberry cultivars for more than 60 years.
The cultivars released from UF are credited with creating a Florida blueberry industry that was valued at $48 million in 2010
and allowing rapid expansion of blueberry production in other subtropical areas of the world. In the past blueberry flavor selection in the program was based on two standards:
subjective ratings from breeders and a berry's sugar-to-acid ratio. Recently scientists have determined that the eating quality of blueberries has a much higher correlation to consumer acceptance
and indication of blueberry-like flavor intensity than the traditional measures of sweetness acidity or sugar acid ratios.
Identifying blueberry volatile components that correspond to the fruity intense sweet and characteristic blueberry flavors could help blueberry breeders select for cultivars that produce a more desirable flavor.
A new research study from University of Florida Institute for Plant Innovation scientists Jessica Gilbert Michael Schwieterman Thomas Colquhoun David Clark and James W. Olmstead
(Hortscience July 2013) sought to measure the characteristics associated with the blueberry eating experience by prioritizing the traits that could help improve flavor.
The study compared volatile profiles of five southern highbush blueberry cultivars (Farthing FL01-173 Scintilla Star
or wasted from field to forka comprehensive new review of food waste in the People's republic of china has concluded that about 19 of every 100 pounds of grain produced in the country go to waste with related losses of water for irrigation and farmland productivity.
With only 6 percent of the world's total water resources and barely 9 percent of the arable land China nevertheless must feed 21 percent of the world's population.
The overall loss meant the waste of an estimated 177 billion cubic yards of water used to produce food grown
but never eaten--a volume equal to the amount of water Canadian farmers use to grow all their crops.
and Asiaa malaria control method that targets mosquito larvae and pupae as they mature in standing water could be an important supplementary measure in the fight against the disease according to a new report.
LSM is a method that targets immature mosquitoes found in standing water before the females develop into flying adults that are capable of transmitting malaria.
This is done by permanently removing standing water for example by draining or filling land; making temporary changes to mosquito habitats to disrupt breeding for example by clearing drains to make the water flow;
or larviciding by adding chemicals or biological larvicides to standing water to kill larvae. Currently the use of long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying of homes are used widely for malaria transmission control
and are having a major impact on the burden of the disease. However this success is threatened now by factors such as a growing resistance to insecticides among mosquitoes.
and removing water containers from around people's homes. Lead author Lucy Tusting from the Department of Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said:
and affect water run off says Professor Svenning. Trees spread slowlywhy are the trees not already in place in Greenland?
Its resistance to heat and water stress allows it to grow in poor dryland regions as a staple food resource for 500 million poor people in Africa
The swamps provide vital ecosystem functions like carbon storage and water purification. We wanted to be able to look at how baldcypress trees respond to changes in their environment such as differences in temperature water salinity
and day length says Anemaet and this new method is very useful for these kinds of long-term studies.
#Future water levels of crucial agricultural aquifer forecastif current irrigation trends continue 69 percent of the groundwater stored in the High Plains Aquifer of Kansas will be depleted in 50 years.
But immediately reducing water use could extend the aquifer's lifetime and increase net agricultural production through the year 2110.
However there are lots of questions about how long the water will last how long the aquifer will take to refill and
According to their model researchers estimated that 3 percent of the aquifer's water had been used by 1960.
By 2010 30 percent of the aquifer's water had been tapped. An additional 39 percent of the aquifer's reserve is projected to be used by 2060--resulting in the loss of 69 percent of the aquifer's groundwater given current use.
Although the High Plains Aquifer will continue declining researchers anticipate even greater efficiencies in water use during the next 15-20 years.
Society has been really smart about using water more efficiently and it shows Steward said. Water use efficiencies have increased by about 2 percent a year in Kansas
which means that every year we're growing about 2 percent more crop for each unit of water.
That's happening because of increased irrigation technology crop genetics and water management strategies. As a result researchers anticipate that
while peak water use will happen around 2025 western Kansas will see increased corn and cattle production until the year 2040.
What happens past that time frame depends on what decisions are made about reducing the use of the aquifer's water in the near future Steward said.
The team conducted several hypothetical scenarios that reduced the current pumping rate by 20 percent 40 percent 60 percent and 80 percent.
if we're able to save water today it will result in a substantial increase in the number of years that we will have irrigated agriculture in Kansas Steward said.
and more total crop production from each unit of water because those efficiencies are projected to increase in the future.
Steward said he hoped the study helps support the current dialogue about decisions affecting how water can help build resiliency for agriculture in the future.
In the presence of water it decomposes into oxygen and other salts. The current formulation used by the researchers generates oxygen for about three hours.
#Changing river chemistry affects Eastern US water suppliesuman activities are changing the basic chemistry of many rivers in the Eastern U s. with potentially major consequences for urban water supplies
and aquatic ecosystems a University of Maryland-led study has found. In the first survey of its kind researchers looked at long-term records of alkalinity trends in 97 streams and rivers from Florida to New hampshire.
Alkalinity is a measure of water's ability to neutralize acid. In excess it can cause ammonia toxicity
and algal blooms altering water quality and harming aquatic life. Increasing alkalinity hardens drinking water makes wastewater disposal more difficult
and exacerbates the salinization of fresh water. Paradoxically higher acid levels in rain soil and water caused by human activity are major triggers for these changes in river chemistry said associate professor Sujay Kaushalof the University of Maryland.
Kaushal a geologist is the lead author of a paper about the study published August 26 in the online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental science and Technology.
The researchers hypothesize that acid rain a by-product of fossil fuel burning acidic mining runoff and agricultural fertilizers speed up the dissolving of surfaces that are naturally high in alkaline minerals.
Alkalinity has risen over the past several decades in rivers that provide water for Washington D c. Philadelphia Baltimore Atlanta and other major cities the researchers reported.
Also affected are rivers that flow into water bodies already harmed by excess algae growth such as the Chesapeake bay.
and have decades'worth of water quality records. Much of the Eastern U s. is also underlain by porous alkaline limestone
and other carbonate rocks making the region more prone to the types of water chemistry changes that the researchers found.
Water alkalinity has increased the fastest in areas underlain by carbonate rocks at high elevations and where acid rainfall or drainage was high.
and water as runoff from agricultural fields causes a host of problems including respiratory illness cancer and cardiac disease.
#Toxic nanoparticles might be entering human food supplyover the last few years the use of nanomaterials for water treatment food packaging pesticides cosmetics
The mixture permits a controlled release of nutrients the regulation of water and an ideal environment for growing crops.
which normally require large amounts of water and chemical fertilisers in order for plants to grow.
Control experiments have shown that water held in the zeolite increases the moisture content of soil in desert conditions.
The overuse of chemical fertilisers causes the soil to lose both its ability to hold water
and rivers leading to aquatic'dead zones.''This is a whole new approach to plant nutrition says Dr Peter Leggo of the Department of Earth sciences who developed the material.
If we're going to put anything in place that has a chance of holding back water
or controlling or mitigating the effects of water we have to do it right away. The teams focus on areas at unacceptable risk she said which typically means that post-fire flooding would damage communities watersheds and infrastructure.
Fecal and water samples from live poultry markets and the natural environment were collected also. From these samples the researchers isolated several influenza viruses and genetically sequenced those of the H7n9 subtype as well as related H7n7 and H9n2 viruses.
Thomas R. Rainwater of the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service; James C. Nifong of the University of Florida;
Ethanol also has a tendency to absorb water corroding pipelines and damaging engines but isobutanol doesn't mix easily with water.
While ethanol serves as a mixer in the gasoline infrastructure today many researchers argue that isobutanol could be a replacement.
And when these dead massive trees topple into adjacent streams they disrupt water flow forcing the gushing river around over and under these new obstacles.
In these dry fragile ecosystems where increase in water availability from rainfall is the limiting factor for malaria transmission irrigation infrastructure can drastically alter mosquito population abundance to levels above the threshold needed to maintain malaria transmission said lead
and mitigation of projects related to water resources Baeza said. The researchers studied changes in land use and malaria risk around a large irrigation project under construction in a semiarid area in the northeast part of the Indian state of Gujarat.
Water from the project is expected eventually to cover more than 47 million acres and will benefit about a million farmers.
when irrigation is introduced due to increased amounts of standing water that serve as mosquito breeding sites.
While there may be need a dire for products addressing problems such as access to clean water sanitation
and reliability were also big factors for small farmers in choosing a system for drip irrigation--an efficient means of delivering small amounts of water directly to the base of each plant.
Environmental samples from poultry cages water at two local poultry markets and swans from the residential area were tested also.
or how much water transpires through its leaves--regardless of the tree's shape or species. The researchers'results published in the August issue of the scientific journal Ecology Letters have important implications for models used by scientists to assess how trees influence ecosystems across the globe.
and how much water the trees lose through evaporation. According to the authors their study is the first empirical test of a theory UA ecology professor Brian Enquist helped develop in 1998.
and water a tree exchanges with the environment in relation to its overall size independently of the species. This theory can be used to scale the size of plants to their function such as amount of photosynthesis water loss
Scripps Institution of Oceanography UC San diego paleobiologist Richard Norris and colleagues show that the ancient greenhouse world had few large reefs a poorly oxygenated ocean tropical surface waters
Pure water has a ph close to 7. Participants who drank milk after eating sugary cereal showed the highest ph rise from 5. 75 to 6. 48 at 30 minutes.
while water raised the ph to 6. 02. Fruit juices are considered healthy food choices but the added sugar can be a risk to dental health Wu said.
The plant does need water to grow though so coastal areas where desalinated seawater can be made available are ideal.
To our knowledge this is the first time experts in irrigation desalination carbon sequestration economics and atmospheric sciences have come together to analyse the feasibility of a large-scale plantation to capture carbon dioxide in a comprehensive manner.
The habitable zone is that ring of space around a star that's just right for water to remain in liquid form on an orbiting rocky planet's surface thus giving life a chance.
and water percolate through it better. So far there are about 15000 known species of ants worldwide based largely on difference in body structure and perhaps as many as 30000.
#¢Drink water. Soda lacks nutritional value. Once homework and dinner are done sleep needs to be the priority.
The team collected frogs as well as water and sediment samples from seven ponds ranging from Lassen volcanic national park at the northern most point of Central Valley to the Giant sequoia National monument in the valley's southern extent.
A comparison of the frog tissue with water and sediment collected from the same sites shows that the frogs were the more reliable indicator of chemical exposure.
In late fall and early winter pregnant females migrate to waters off the southeastern U s. to give birth.
and he plays funny tricks like tossing water at the residents. The vets have cared for him with amazing dedication and thoughtfulness especially Dr. Barrell.
That means the steam forms immediately even before the water boils. Halas Rice's Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering professor of physics professor of chemistry and professor of biomedical engineering is one of the world's most-cited chemists.
When submerged in water and exposed to sunlight the particles heat up so quickly they instantly vaporize water
and create steam. The technology has an overall energy efficiency of 24 percent. Photovoltaic solar panels by comparison typically have an overall energy efficiency of around 15 percent.
In this case the water moved rapidly through bedrock gorge carving away the base of slopes
so steep and narrow the deep flood waters could build enormous speed and erosive power.
As the base of the slopes eroded areas higher on the bedrock hillsides tumbled into the channel freeing microscopic grains of zircon that were carried out of the gorge by the fast-moving water
though its water discharge was 10 times greater. Evidence suggests that Lake Missoula's ice dam failed numerous times unleashing a torrent equal to half the volume of Lake michigan across eastern Washington where it carved the Channeled Scablands before continuing down the Columbia river basin.
The pattern observed was broadly similar to that previously seen for people exposed to arsenic through drinking high arsenic well waters
#Climate change could deprive Volta Basin of water needed to boost energy and food productiona new study released today finds that so much water may be lost in the Volta River basin due to climate change that planned hydroelectric projects to boost energy
and food production may only tread water in keeping up with actual demand. Some 24 million people in Ghana Burkina faso and four other neighboring countries depend on the Volta River and its tributaries as their principal source of water.
Specifically the researchers with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and their partners concluded that the combined effects of higher temperatures
and diminished rain could mean that by the year 2100 all of the current and planned hydroelectric projects in the basin would not even generate as much power as existing facilities do now.
Meanwhile there would only be enough water to meet about a third of irrigation demand.
IWMI and other centers involved with the CGIAR's Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food security (CCAFS) are drawing attention to the Volta study as leaders from across Africa gather in Ghana for Africa Agriculture
An unreliable supply of water for irrigation will have serious consequences for a region where most people are farmers.
Mccartney served as lead author for the study The Water Resource Implications of Changing Climate in the Volta River basin along with colleagues from Ghana's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate
Climate models show temperatures in the Volta Basin rising by up to 3. 6 degrees Celsius over the next century--which the scientists warn could significantly increase water lost to evaporation.
Mccartney and his colleagues calculated that water flows in the Volta region could fall by 24 percent through 2050
and by 45 percent by 2100 depriving the basin of water that countries are counting on to drive turbines and feed farms.
The smart development of water resources is a crucial part of Africa feeding Africa and we need to understand how climate change might alter water availability in vulnerable regions like the Volta Basin said Robert Zougmor who leads CCAFS research in West Africa.
This study highlights the need for more innovation and cooperation in the Volta to make sure farmers in the region can adapt to these very challenging conditions caused by global warming.
For example it finds that by 2050 there would only be enough water for hydroelectric facilities to perform at about 50 percent of capacity.
if all planned projects are completed they could double water available for irrigation through 2050. But by 2100 as water losses accumulate the system would be delivering only slightly more water than irrigation projects provide now
and not nearly enough to meet demand. The study shows the loss of water in the basin would be especially challenging for poor farmers in rural areas where agriculture is the primary provider of food and income.
In addition to problems for large-scale irrigation projects the small-scale irrigation that is common throughout the region would also be affected.
Mccartney cautioned that the predictions for water resources in the Volta are not absolute. But he said there are enough warning signs in the data that decision-makers need to be thinking of a more resilient mix of options for energy
Water storage options should not be confined to projects that employ large dams the researchers said.
Equal consideration should be given to alternative water storage systems. For farmers Mccartney said the solutions could include improving groundwater supplies available to rural areas by recharging local aquifers with water taken from rivers or reservoirs.
This is a practice that is becoming increasingly popular in the water-stressed regions of the world.
The study also calls for pursuing relatively simple small-scale approaches to water storage such as building small ponds on rural farms
and using water tanks with roofs that reduce evaporation. Africa has the potential for innovation and solutions.
and tomato peelsmr Ramakrishna Mallampati a Phd candidate at the National University of Singapore (NUS) experimented with water treatment techniques using materials that are easily available
and came up with novel ways to purify water using the peels of apples and tomatoes.
One of the most crucial problems affecting the world today is the scarcity of potable water.
In a bid to make clean water available at low cost Mr Ramakrishna Mallampati a Phd candidate at the National University of Singapore (NUS) experimented with water treatment techniques using materials that are easily available
and came up with novel ways to purify water using the peels of apples and tomatoes.
This is the first time that the peels of the two fruits have been used to remove different types of pollutants in water.
The NUS team hopes that their water purification methods can benefit communities living in places where there is little electricity
or resources to set up a water purification plant. Scarcity of clean waterthe scarcity of clean water is expected to worsen in the future due to over usage lack of conservation methods and dwindling natural supply of clean water even in countries with significant water resources.
Many hazardous pollutants enter the water supply through many channels including waste disposal industry effluent release or rain water drainage.
Such pollutants need to be removed before the water can be consumed. However most water purification technologies are not accessible to economically disadvantaged people around the world.
The challenge for scientists is to develop robust water purification methods that could carry out water treatment at low cost with minimal energy consumption
and using less chemicals in the process so as to reduce negative impact on the environment. Tomato peel:
an efficient adsorbent for water purificationtomato is the second most consumed vegetable in the world with approximately 30 per cent consumed as processed products.
The disposal of the tomato skin and its other fibrous materials is an economic waste for many food processing industries.
He also studied the structure of the tomato peels to assess their efficiency as biomaterials to remove toxic metal ions and organic pollutants from water.
In addition factors such as the ph nature and amount of adsorbent used for extraction were considered to establish the optimum conditions under which tomato peel could remove various pollutants from water.
His study revealed that tomato peels can effectively remove different contaminants in water including dissolved organic
a biomass for water purificationin addition to tomato peels Mr Ramakrishna also explored the viability of using the peels of apples for water purification as apple peels are easily available as biowaste from food processing industries
Similar to tomato peels apple peels can also remove a range of dissolved water pollutants through the adsorption process.
This method of water purification can also be used for large scale applications. The findings are published in the American Chemical Society journal ASC Applied materials & Interfaces in May 2013.
and tomato peels for water purification can be applied to benefit economically and technologically disadvantaged farmers living in remote villages who depend on contaminated ground water or local rivers for their daily water needs.
They intend to work with non-governmental organisations to transfer their research findings and knowledge to benefit the people.
Mr Ramakrishna and other students in Assoc Prof Suresh's research group are now looking into the use of other fruit peels and natural fibers for water purification.
Recasting the CAP as a Payment for Ecosystem Services mechanism would reward farmers for delivering a bundle of key of ecosystem services including climate change mitigation by the reduction of emission of greenhouse gases water regulation recreation and biodiversity conservation.
He points to data showing that in 2009-11 72%of all US sales of antimicrobials comprised those routinely added to water or animal feed.
#Trees use water more efficiently as atmospheric carbon dioxide risesspurred by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide forests over the last two decades have become dramatically more efficient in how they use water a Harvard study has found.
Studies have predicted long that plants would begin to use water more efficiently as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose.
A large proportion of the ecosystems in the world are limited by water--they don't have enough water during the year to reach their maximum potential growth.
If they become more efficient at using water they should be able to take more carbon out of the atmosphere due to higher growth rates.
How do increasing carbon dioxide levels lead to more efficient water use? The answer Keenan said is in the way photosynthesis works.
or for as long meaning the plants lose less water and grow faster. To take advantage of that fact Keenan said commercial growers have pumped for years carbon dioxide into greenhouses to promote plant growth.
and water are going into or out of the ecosystem. With more than 20 years of data the towers in the Harvard Forest--which have the longest continuous record in the world--are an invaluable resource for studying how forests have responded to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
and becoming more efficient in how they used water. The phenomenon however wasn't limited to a single region
what could be going on and ultimately what we were left with is that the only phenomenon that could cause this type of shift in water-use efficiency is rising atmospheric carbon dioxide Keenan said.
The wind now brings warm sea water beneath the shelf ice. Over time this process means that the shelf ice melts from below primarily at the so-called grounding line the critical transition to the land ice says the scientist.
The rest goes into the ground water. It changes the soil and causes increases in algal blooms greenhouse gases and insects like mosquitoes that carry disease.
They can suck some of the excess nitrogen from crop fertilization out of ground water. That's good for the plants and good for nature the researcher observes.
The wet-spinning process is similar to one recently used to create highly conductive fibers made of nanotubes but in this case Xiang just used water as the solvent rather than a super acid.
which can live out of water for extended periods has a strong jumping technique on land to locate new food resources avoid predators escape poor water conditions
and also to return to the water. A team of researchers headed by Benjamin Perlman at Wake Forest University in the United states filmed juvenile largemouth bass
The largemouth bass uses a common jumping technique to return to the water when stranded on land a c-jump
Mangrove rivulus which can live out of the water for extended periods of time (days or weeks as long as the conditions are moist) uses its specialised jumping technique
when water has low oxygen concentrations or high levels of hydrogen sulphide or to escape predators and search for terrestrial prey such as crickets.
when chased out of the water by a predator caught in a current and washed onto land
or leaping out of the water to catch a fly or other prey. Story Source:
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