The biology of the soil changes with long-term no-till explains Shipitalo. By leaving residue cover you increase organic matter
Madslien found a high prevalence of bacteria of the genus Bartonella spp. both in the moose's blood and in the keds themselves.
#Biotech crops vs. pests: Successes and failures from the first billion acressince 1996 farmers worldwide have planted more than a billion acres (400 million hectares) of genetically modified corn and cotton that produce insecticidal proteins from the bacterium
However some scientists feared that widespread use of these proteins in genetically modified crops would spur rapid evolution of resistance in pests.
Their results are published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. When Bt crops were introduced first the main question was how quickly would pests adapt
if resistance genes are initially rare in pest populations; inheritance of resistance is recessive--meaning insects survive on Bt plants
only if have two copies of a resistance gene one from each parent --and abundant refuges are present.
what we know about resistance to transgenic insecticidal crops. Although the new report is the most comprehensive evaluation of pest resistance to Bt crops so far Tabashnik emphasized that it represents only the beginning of using systematic data analyses to enhance understanding and management of resistance.
Ajayan is the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering and a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering.
With fewer seeds you get less regeneration says ecologist Joshua Rapp affiliated with NSF's Harvard Forest Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site
In isolated pockets of trees the gene pool is diminished also meaning the seeds produced may be less viable over time.
and at certain intervals says Saran Twombly program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology which funded the research.
#Pollinators easily enhanced by flowering agri-environment schemesagri-environment schemes aimed to promote biodiversity on farmland have positive effects on wild bees hoverflies and butterflies.
Quantifying uncertainties is an important step to build confidence in future yield forecasts produced by crop models said Basso with MSU's geological sciences department and Kellogg Biological Station.
Although we've known that meditation can reduce anxiety we hadn't identified the specific brain mechanisms involved in relieving anxiety in healthy individuals said Fadel Zeidan Ph d. postdoctoral research fellow in neurobiology
Support for the study was provided by the Mind and Life Institute's Francisco J. Varela Grant the National institutes of health grant NS3926 and the Biomolecular Imaging Center at Wake Forest Baptist.
and forestry bioenergy production and vegetation fires doubled over the course of the past century.
In a study published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) researchers warn that an increased expansion of bioenergy use would drastically raise HANPP to over 40%.
which humans use land and biomass. HANPP stands for Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production and provides information about the impact of human activity upon the biosphere.
HANPP reveals the percentage of the annual plant-based biomass production that is coopted by humans through land use activities such as agriculture
and forestry bioenergy production construction of buildings and infrastructures soil degradation or human induced vegetation fires--and thus not available to other ecosystem processes.
A study recently published in PNAS quantifies for the first time long term trends in HANPP during global industrialization covering the period from 1910 to 2005.
While global consumption has increased dramatically the amount of biomass harvested and used per capita has dropped significantly.
One of the reasons for this is that--seen from a global perspective--bioenergy has increasingly been replaced by fossil energy.
Furthermore efficiency of conversion processes from biomass to products such as food or fibre has grown. However as the authors of the study point out there are major drawbacks:
and water we turned to large-scale industrial animal production systems and put high environmental pressure on land soils and biodiversity Krausmann points out.
However if bioenergy is to be expanded by as much as some IPCC scenarios suggest the value could climb as high as 44 per cent clearly exceeding the growth rate observed over the past decades
Caveats are warranted concerning bioenergy strategies. The utilization of vast land areas for the production of bioenergy can have a strong negative impact on food safety forest resources and biodiversity.
Unrealistic expectations regarding bioenergy can result in failing to achieve the target of reducing greenhouse gases.
Above all we have to focus on sustainable intensification and we have to be careful to prevent any potential negative consequences of forms land use intensification that further increase the pressure on ecosystems.
#New biomolecular archaeological evidence points to the beginnings of viniculture in Francefrance is renowned the world over as a leader in the crafts of viticulture
Imported ancient Etruscan amphoras and a limestone press platform discovered at the ancient port site of Lattara in southern France have provided the earliest known biomolecular archaeological evidence of grape wine and winemaking
Dr. Patrick Mcgovern Director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and author of Ancient Wine:
All the samples were positive for tartaric acid/tartrate (the biomarker or fingerprint compound for the Eurasian grape
Herbal additives to the wine were identified also including rosemary basil and/or thyme which are native to central Italy where the wine was made likely.
Biomolecular archaeological evidence attests to a locally produced resinated wine on the island of Crete by 2200 BCE.
but mystery does remain says Cerling a distinguished professor of geology and geophysics and biology.
while human ancestors ate more grasses and other apes stuck with trees and shrubs two extinct Kenyan baboons represent the only primate genus that ate primarily grasses and perhaps sedges throughout its history.
reduced yields for U s. cornif the climate continues to evolve as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change the United states stands little to no chance of satisfying its current biofuel goals according to a new study by Rice university
Whereas biofuels offer a means to use more renewable energy while decreasing reliance on imported oil it is important to recognize the tradeoffs Alvarez said.
The authors of the new paper have questioned long the United states'support of biofuels as a means to cut vehicle emissions.
In a 2010 white paper on U s. biofuels policy produced by Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy authors including Alvarez
Their 2009 feature article in Environmental science and Technology suggested the amount of water required to bring biofuels to market may be prohibitive;
The paper is published in the journal Conservation Biology. Aisyah Faruk Phd student at ZSL's Institute of Zoology says:
This more subtle effect is still equally devastating for the conservation of biodiversity in Malaysia.
and plays havoc with ecosystems and biodiversity. ZSL together with collaborators from Queen Mary University of London Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University of Malaya continues to work closely with Malaysian palm oil producers in determining
The results of field experiments and neurobiological studies were published now in the open access online journal elife.
Ecology and Neurobiology The researchers also identified the neural mechanism that allows moths to detect the slightest changes in the volatile profile of plants that have already been attacked by caterpillars.
behavior through physiological neurological and genetic means. Species of animals that are more vocal in their expression like macaques parrots
Results of these trials will allow researchers to gain insight into genetic and social components of behavior bringing insight to the Nature vs.
#Genome hints at markers for higher-producing, better-tasting chocolatethe freshly sequenced genome of the most commonly cultivated cacao plant in the world is revealed in the open access journal Genome Biology this week.
Researchers have utilised high quality DNA sequences to demonstrate the usefulness and quality of the sequence to identify genetic markers that can lead to higher yielding cocoa plants that still produce better tasting cocoa.
There are many varieties of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao L) . but the green podded Costa rican Matina or Amelonado variety is the most popular because of its high yield and pleasant flavor.
and colleagues sequenced the genome of the Matina cacao variety then used genetic analyses and comparisons with other varieties to highlight a gene involved in pod colour variation.
Zooming further in on the gene sequence they then identified a single DNA letter change that affected levels of the gene's expression and so the colour of the pod.
Cacao plant breeders trying to produce a delicious high-yield strain through cross breeding have met with limited success. So the genetic marker could in theory be used to screen young seedlings
and highlight desirable plants long before they reach maturity. This would avoid the expense and labour of growing up potential duds ultimately improving the quality of cacao plants
Although the genome sequence of the Criollo cacao variety was reported two years ago it's genetically quite distinct
Since the publication of the genome sequence researchers have been working to identify genetic markers that can produce more productive cocoa plants for farmers
The genome sequence research is a part of an overall effort to use traditional breeding techniques to develop planting materials that farmers can use to be more productive.
The bacterial diversity in the cloaca of each bird could be estimated with the aid of molecular genetic techniques.
and supply chain in a way that is also economically sustainable said Greg Thoma professor of chemical engineering. Our analysis provides a documented baseline for their improvement efforts.
The U of A researchers--Rick Ulrich professor of chemical engineering; Darin Nutter professor of mechanical engineering;
and Marty Matlock professor of biological and agricultural engineering in addition to Thoma--partnered with researchers at Michigan Technological University.
#Ultrasound#Making Waves for Enhancing Biofuel Productionall chefs know that you have to break some eggs to make an omelet
in order to cook up a better batch of biofuel. Research by David Grewell associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering
and his colleagues Melissa Montalbo-Lomboy and Priyanka Chand has shown that pretreating a wide variety of feedstocks (including switch grass corn stover
and soft wood) with ultrasound consistently enhances the chemical reactions necessary to convert the biomass into high-value fuels and chemicals.
In one example of ultrasound's positive impact on biofuel production the Iowa State researchers found that they could significantly increase the efficiency of removing lignin from biomass in solution.
Commonly enzymes or chemicals are used to remove it from biomass and allow the freed sugars to be dissolved for further processing into biofuel.
Grewell and his colleagues found that pretreating instead with ultrasound makes lignin removal so efficient that sugar dissolution occurs in minutes rather than the hours needed with traditional mixing systems.
Grewell and his colleagues report a third application for ultrasound in biofuel production showing that they can accelerate transesterification the main chemical reaction for converting oil to biodiesel.
In one case the researchers found that subjecting soybean oil to ultrasound transformed it into biodiesel in less than a minute rather than the 45 minutes it normally takes.
and starved with glycerin a co-product of biodiesel production could prodfuce high yields of oil that could be extracted
and simultaneously converted to biodiesel with ultrasonics in less than a minute. This is a dramatically faster
and used a combination of statistics genetics and evolutionary models to determine that the absence of large seed-dispersing birds in the area was the main reason for the observed decrease in the palm's seed size.
As a result of this impaired dispersal palm regeneration became less successful in the area with less-vigorous seedlings germinating from smaller seeds.
They performed genetic analyses to determine that the shrinkage of seeds among forest palms in the region could have taken place within 100 years of an initial disturbance.
or from bacteria biomarkers said Jaramillo. When intense volcanic activity produced huge quantities of carbon dioxide 120 million years ago in the mid-Cretaceous period yearly temperatures in the South American tropics rose 9
and land clearing while also conserving biodiversity. Restoring degraded ecosystems or planting new forests helps store some of the carbon dioxide that was emitted from past land use activities.
Grant Harris chief of biological sciences (Southwest region) U s. Fish and Wildlife Service; and Jessica Schnell recently graduated now at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Germany.
In a recent more technical publication in the journal Conservation Biology the same authors showed that a modified version of a metric called meta-population capacity has the right characteristics to assess the impact of fragmentation.
and Enrique Gomez an assistant professor in the Penn State department of Chemical engineering. Verduzco is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
The National Science Foundation the Department of energy the Welch Foundation the Shell Center for Sustainability and the Louis and Peaches Owen Family Foundation supported the research.
#Gene that helps honey bees find flowers (and get back home) discoveredhoney bees don't start out knowing how to find flowers
and orient themselves in relation to the sun. In a new study researchers report that a regulatory gene known to be involved in learning
Activity of this gene called Egr quickly increases in a region of the brain known as the mushroom bodies
This gene is the insect equivalent of a transcription factor found in mammals. Transcription factors regulate the activity of other genes.
The researchers found that the increased Egr activity did not occur as a result of exercise the physical demands of learning to fly
This discovery gives us an important lead in figuring out how honey bees are able to navigate so well with such a tiny brain said Gene Robinson a professor of entomology
and neuroscience and director of the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois. And finding that it's Egr with all that this gene is known to do in vertebrates provides another demonstration that some of the molecular mechanisms underlying behavioral plasticity
What is the genetic relationship between the Zurich Binz pines and their cognates today? In addition the prehistoric wood in Zurich Binz could help in the calibration of the C14 curve.
and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress and the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA appears in the June edition of the peer-reviewed journal Gastroenterology.
The researchers formulated six corn-soybean meal diets to test the effects of saturated fat additives on carcass fat quality in pigs.
To regulate plant growth plants need to perceive cytokinins and convert this information into changes in gene expression.
The KMDS target a key group of cytokinin-regulated transcription factors for destruction thereby regulating the gene expression changes that occur in response to cytokinin.
and even the survival of humankind warns the founding Chair of a new global organization created to narrow the gulf between leading international biodiversity scientists and national policy-makers.
In Norway to address an elite gathering of 450 international officials with government responsibilities in the fields of biodiversity
since being elected in January to head the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)--an independent body modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
and fires could cause much of the Amazon forest to transform abruptly to more open dry-adapted ecosystems threatening the region's enormous biodiversity and priceless services he added.
It has been clear for some time that a credible permanent IPCC-like science policy platform for biodiversity
but missing element in the international response to the biodiversity crisis Dr. Zakri told the 7th Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity.
Even barnyard diversity is in declinesome scientists have termed this the sixth great extinction episode in Earth's history according to Dr. Zakri noting that the loss of biodiversity is happening faster and everywhere even among farm animals.
He underlined findings by the UN Food and agriculture organization that genetic diversity among livestock is declining. The good news is the rate of decline is dropping
Causes of genetic erosion in domestic animals are the lack of appreciation of the value of indigenous breeds
Among crops meanwhile about 75 per cent of genetic diversity was lost in the last century as farmers worldwide switched to genetically uniform high-yielding varieties and abandoned multiple local varieties.
and as a changing environment makes it more important than ever to have a large genetic pool to enable organisms to withstand
Biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goalsaccording to Dr. Zakri the most important outcome of last year's Rio+20 international environmental summit of nations was agreement to set new multi-year
Biodiversity is expected to feature prominently in the new Sustainable Development Goals. For specifics Dr. Zakri commended the Aichi Biodiversity Targets already established through the Convention on Biological Diversity
which contain five strategic priorities and 20 specific targets internationally agreed for achievement by 2020 beginning with public awareness of the value of biodiversity
and the steps people can take to conserve and use it sustainably. The Aichi Targets are an important contribution to the SDG process
The reality over many decades and the recent experience with the MDGS demonstrate all too clearly the limited success that even legal biodiversity-related commitments have in the absence of some sort of metric that speaks to other sectors
The above story is provided based on materials by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES.
and Animal Cell biology has revealed that the historical transformation of part of its original habitat rather than bioclimatic reasons could be responsible for this distribution.
what age it was weaned said Katie Hinde professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard university and an affiliate scientist at the UC Davis Primate Center.
but only in target species. Malaria is spread by mosquitoes in the Anopheles genus notably Anopheles gambiae native to Africa.
The team recently published a study in the journal Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology comparing eight experimental compounds with commercially available insecticides that target the enzyme.
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Training Network (BESTNET. Simonit and Perrings found that only 37 percent of the currently forested area positively impacts dry-season water flows offering up roughly 37.2 million cubic meters of seasonal flow (equivalent to US $16. 37 million
natural forest regeneration and teak plantation. We found that if all existing grasslands were allowed to regenerate as natural forest there would be a reduction in dry-season flows across the watershed of 8. 4 percent compared to 11.1 percent
According to their study water losses from natural forest regeneration would be compensated by the value of carbon sequestration in 59.6 percent of the converted area at current carbon prices.
and U s. scientists have used virus isolated from a person who died from H7n9 avian influenza infection to determine
whether the virus could infect and be transmitted between ferrets. Ferrets are used often as a mammalian model in influenza research
and efficient transmission of influenza virus between ferrets can provide clues as to how well the same process might occur in people.
The researchers dropped H7n9 virus into the noses of six ferrets. A day later three uninfected ferrets were placed inside cages with the infected animals
The team concluded that the virus can infect ferrets and be transmitted between ferrets both by direct contact and less efficiently by air.
The potential public health implication of this observation is that a person infected by H7n9 avian influenza virus who does not show symptoms could
nevertheless spread the virus to others. The researchers also infected pigs with the human-derived H7n9 virus. In natural settings pigs can act as a virtual mixing bowl to combine avian-and mammalian-specific influenza strains potentially allowing avian strains to better adapt to humans.
New strains arising from such mixing have the potential to infect humans and spark a pandemic so information about swine susceptibility to H7n9 could help scientists gauge the pandemic potential of the avian virus. Unlike the ferrets infected pigs in this small study did not transmit virus to uninfected pigs
either through direct contact or by air. All the infected ferrets and pigs showed mild signs of illness such as sneezing nasal discharge
In research to be published in Current Biology Martin and colleagues studied tomatoes enriched in anthocyanin a natural pigment that confers high antioxidant capacity The purple GM tomatoes have already been found to prolong the lives of cancer-prone mice
The above story is provided based on materials by Norwich Bioscience Institutes. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Serengeti road divides biologists: Will a road across the northern tier of Serengeti National park ruin it?
But Eivin Røskaft a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) who has worked with cooperative projects in the park for the last two decades with Tanzanian scientists says the coalition's reaction is emotional
His rebuttal and that of his Tanzanian colleagues will be published later this year in an article in Conservation Biology magazine.
which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century it is time to pick up the pace Wheeler added.
while securing evidence of the origins of the biosphere Wheeler said. Taxon experts pick top 10members of the international committee made their top 10 selection from more than 140 nominated species. To be considered species must have been described in compliance with the appropriate code of nomenclature
whether botanical zoological or microbiological and have been named officially during 2012. Selecting the final list of new species from a wide representation of life forms such as bacteria fungi plants
and the special insights revealed by selection committee members said Antonio Valdecasas a biologist and research zoologist with Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid Spain.
whether to be astounded more by the species discovered each year or the depths of our ignorance about biodiversity
At the same time we search the heavens for other earthlike planets we should make it a high priority to explore the biodiversity on the most earthlike planet of them all:
I am shocked by our ignorance of our very own planet and in awe at the diversity beauty and complexity of the biosphere and its inhabitants.
The genus primarily includes fungi that occur in the soil and are associated with the decomposition of plant matter.
As far as scientists know this fungus one of two new species of the genus from Lascaux is harmless.
Eugenia is a large worldwide genus of woody evergreen trees and shrubs of the myrtle family that is particularly diverse in South america New caledonia and Madagascar.
Arizona State university's International Institute for Species Exploration announces the top 10 new species list each year as part of its public awareness campaign to bring attention to biodiversity and the field of taxonomy.
Sustainable biodiversity means assuring the survival of as many and as diverse species as possible so that ecosystems are resilient to whatever stresses they face in the future.
Until we know what species already exist it is folly to expect we will make the right decisions to assure the best possible outcome for the pending biodiversity crisis. Additionally the announcement is made on or near May 23 to honor Linnaeus.
#Norway spruce genome sequenced: Largest ever to be mappedswedish scientists have mapped the gene sequence of Norway spruce (the Christmas tree)--a species with huge economic and ecological importance
--and that is the largest genome to have ever been mapped. The genome is complex and seven times larger than that of humans.
The results have been published in the journal Nature. In addition to its scientific interest this new knowledge has immense importance to the forestry industry in many countries.
This major research project has been led by Ume㥠Plant science Centre (UPSC) in Ume㥠and the Science for Life Laboratory (Scilifelab) in Stockholm.
The scientists have identified about 29000 functional genes marginally more than humans have but the question arises:
why is the spruce genome still seven times larger than ours? According to the study an explanation is caused genome obesity by extensive repetitive DNA sequences
which have accumulated for several hundred million years of evolutionary history. Other plant and animal species have efficient mechanisms to eliminate such repetitive DNA
despite this unnecessary genetic load says Professor Pär Ingvarsson at UPSC. Of course some of this DNA has a function
The greatest challenge in the project has been to get the approximately 20 billion letters found in spruce's genetic code into the correct order rather than obtaining the actual DNA sequences.
By sequencing and analysing the largest genome in the world so far we have shown that Scilifelab has both technical and scientific capacity for research at the highest international level concludes Joakim Lundeberg.
#Bee and wild flower biodiversity loss slowsdeclines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years according to a new study.
Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in The netherlands found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain Belgium and The netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s.
But the picture brightened markedly after 1990 with a slowdown in local and national biodiversity losses among bees hoverflies and wild plants.
Most observers have been saying that the 1992 Rio Earth Summit targets to slow biodiversity loss by 2010 failed
Biodiversity is important to ensuring we don't lose that service. Relying on a few species could be risky in a changing environment he added.
The study published in the journal Ecology Letters found a 30 per cent fall in local bumblebee biodiversity in all three countries between the 1950s and the 1980s.
the conservation work and agri-environment programs paying farmers to encourage biodiversity may be having an effect.
and improved analytic methods and it reveals much more detail about the scale and timing of biodiversity losses.
However while we can use biodiversity records to measure changes in the diversity of pollinators we can't tell what's happening to their overall abundance
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