The researchers suggest the detection of these additives indicates that humans at the time had sophisticated a understanding of plants
and has been found to impact native plant species invertebrate populations and soil nutrients. In a new study recently published in the journal Ecology UGA researchers found that Japanese stiltgrass also is affecting arachnid predators:
I think that one of the unique things about this study is that it not only documents the fact that this plant invasion reduces the survival of a native species
which invasion by this Asian plant may influence species on the forest floor. We documented changes in invertebrate densities
Only the recommendation on plant foods--high intake of fruits vegetables and dietary fibre--was found to be associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer.
#Earth can sustain more terrestrial plant growth than previously thought, 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
and finds that it is much higher than many current estimates allow. When you try to estimate something over the whole planet you have to make some simplifying assumptions said University of Illinois plant biology professor Evan Delucia who led the new analysis
. And most previous research assumes that the maximum productivity you could get out of a landscape is
But it turns out that in nature very few plants have evolved to maximize their growth rates.
and modeling suggest that about 54 gigatons of carbon is converted into terrestrial plant biomass each year the researchers report.
But these assumptions don't take into consideration human efforts to boost plant productivity through genetic manipulation plant breeding
Such efforts have yielded already some extremely productive plants. 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.
Some of these plants would not be desirable additions to native or managed ecosystems Delucia said
but they represent the untapped potential productivity of plants in general. We're saying this is what's possible he said.
which plant canopies convert solar radiation to biomass to estimate the theoretical limit of net primary production (NPP) on a global scale This newly calculated limit was roughly two orders of magnitude higher than the productivity of most current managed
or other plant-based resources will cease to be a problem. I don't want to be the guy that says science is going to save the planet
All I'm saying is that we're underestimating the productive capacity of plants in managed ecosystems.
Now researchers at the University of Missouri have found that boron plays an integral role in development and reproduction in corn plants.
Boron deficiency was known already to cause plants to stop growing 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.
The research evaluated a group of plants stunted by its ability to grow tassels. Kim Phillips a graduate student in Mcsteen's lab mapped the corn plant's genome
and found that a genetic mutation stunted tassel growth because it was unable to transport boron across the plant membranes inhibiting further growth in the plants.
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
and stabilizes the plant cell. 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
and evaluations at the MU Research Reactor Analytical Chemistry facility and at MU Plant and Soil Analysis Facility the study team drew conclusions that will help corn producers make informed decisions about raising
The paper Transport of boron by the tassel-less 1 aquaporin is critical for vegetative and reproductive development in maize was published in The Plant Cell.
#Signatures of selection inscribed on poplar genomesone aspect of the climate change models researchers have been developing looks at how plant ranges might shift
Since the genome was made publicly available it has been used to understand woody perennial plant development and served as a model for genome-level insights in forest trees.
These data can be accessed at Phytozome DOE JGI's plant comparative genomics portal. That's a massive number of naturally occurring variants a lot in cell wall chemistry genes and other known productivity genes.
or harvesting to give plants their best shot at success. Currently schedule modifications are based mostly on growers'observations and experience.
which is the main building component of plants and also the most abundant polymer in nature.
Since then he has worked to bring plant combustion processes into the laboratory where they can be studied better understood
#How steroid hormones enable plants to growplants can adapt extremely quickly to changes in their environment.
Plant steroid hormones similar to human sex hormones play a key role here. In the current edition of Nature Communications scientists describe a new signaling mode for the brassinosteroid class of hormones.
Plants are superior to humans and animals in a number of ways. They have an impressive ability to regenerate
But there is one major downside to life as a plant: They are rooted quite literally to the habitats in
In response to this dilemma plants have developed mechanisms that enable them to rapidly adapt their growth and development to changes.
and division and are active throughout the entire lifecycle of a plant. A team of researchers from Technische Universitã¤t Mà nchen (TUM) and the University of Vienna have mapped now a new signaling mode for brassinosteroids.
By showing how that land cover has changed over time scientists can determine how these changes impact our plant's environmental health said Nate Herold a NOAA physical scientist who directs the mapping effort at NOAA's Coastal Services Center
As a data collection toolleaf measurements are often critical in plant physiological and ecological studies
It has always been a challenge to measure leaf surface area without damaging the plants or spending long hours in the lab so
Leaf area measurements are essential for estimating crop yields water usage nutrient absorption plant competition and many other aspects of growth.
and consistency of their results and reduce potential damages to their plant samples. 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
and field conditions making this a practical tool for researchers in many plant science fields. Easlon's next step is to develop a mobile version
This will automatically interpret labeled plant stakes and assign the proper file names to each image.
Calculating plant surface area could soon be as easy as using Instagram. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Journal of Botany.
#Plants may use newly discovered molecular language to communicatea Virginia Tech scientist has discovered a potentially new form of plant communication one that allows them to share an extraordinary amount of genetic information with one another.
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.
'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.
But Westwood found that during this parasitic relationship thousands upon thousands of mrna molecules were being exchanged between both plants creating this open dialogue between the species that allows them to freely communicate.
what the host plant should do such as lowering its defenses so that the parasitic plant can more easily attack it.
And plants in moist areas can achieve higher rates of photosynthesis because they can open the stomata on their leaves that exchange gases with the atmosphere.
and biomass energy plants to create a new safe and sustainable source of nutrients for agriculture.
For several months numerous tests were performed with different varieties of bamboo and different sections of the plant to find the right variety
because it is a plant with great potential; it also provides environmental benefits managing in a year to capture 14 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare.
#Statistical model predicts performance of hybrid ricegenomic prediction a new field of quantitative genetics is a statistical approach to predicting the value of an economically important trait in a plant such as yield or disease resistance.
and can be performed early in the life cycle of the plant helping reduce costs. Now a research team led by plant geneticists at the University of California Riverside
and Huazhong Agricultural University China has used the method to predict the performance of hybrid rice (for example the yield growth-rate and disease resistance).
or decrease the amounts of natural ingredients that their plant cells already make. Genome editing of fruit has become possible today due to the advent of new tools--CRISPR TALEN and the like--and also because of the extensive and growing knowledge of fruit genomes.
Most transgenic fruit crop plants have been developed using a plant bacterium to introduce foreign genes and only papaya has been commercialized in part because of stringent regulation in the European union (EU). The researchers say that genetically edited plants modified through the insertion deletion
or altering of existing genes of interest might even be deemed as nongenetically modified depending on the interpretation of the EU commission and member state regulators.
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.
and burning disturbances were introduced the gentians responded with increased plant density (more than doubled at some sites) flowering percentage
The plants respond well to that in terms of flowering and the number of seeds they set the next year.
and her colleagues reliable information on the availability of water while the plants were growing.
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
GDDS are a measure of heat accumulation used to predict plant development rates. Farmers can choose their location
These impurities can even be parts of the coffee plants introduced at harvest that are supposed not really to be in the final product.
#Regulations needed to identify potentially invasive biofuel cropsif the hottest new plant grown as a biofuel crop is approved based solely on its greenhouse gas emission profile its potential as the next invasive species may not be discovered until it's too late.
In response to this need to prevent such invasions researchers at the University of Illinois have developed both a set of regulatory definitions and provisions and a list of 49 low-risk biofuel plants from
Lauren Quinn an invasive plant ecologist at U of I's Energy Biosciences Institute recognized that most of the news about invasive biofuel crops was negative
We also need to recognize that some native plants can become weedy or invasive. It's complicated
and requires some understanding of the biology of these plants. Quinn said that ideally the definitions
According to Quinn the white list which includes 49 low-risk feedstock plants will serve to clear up the confusion about plant names.
Those questions are difficult to answer for new taxa including plants that haven't been around long
Quinn stressed that the native plants that are included in the white list are recommended only as the native genotypes grown in their native region
because although a plant may be native to a part of the United states it could be considered invasive if grown in a different region.
and reducing unintended impacts and costs resulting from the propagation of invasive plants. Resolving regulatory uncertainty:
#Tricking plants to see the light may control most important twitch on Earthcopious corn growing in tiny backyard plots?
For the first time Vierstra and his team have revealed the structure of the plant phytochrome a critical molecule that detects the light that tells plants
which all plants grow and develop. Vierstra's group published the structure in a recent issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
His team also presented its results this month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists in Portland Oregon.
It's the molecule that tells plants when to flower says Vierstra. Plants use the molecule to sense where they are in the canopy;
they use the phytochromes for color vision--to sense whether they are above next to or under other plants.
Vierstra previously determined the structure of a similar phytochrome from light-sensing bacteria which guided his work in plants.
He already has several patents on the technologies derived from these structures and has been in talks to commercialize them.
The determination of a plant phytochrome three-dimensional structure will only accelerate improvements to the technology.
One of the biggest moves in agriculture Vierstra says is to be able to grow plants at higher density allowing producers to plant more crops in a given area thus saving space and other resources.
Currently there is a limit to how closely plants can grow relative to their nearest neighbors At high density the leaves of one plant shade the other signaling to the shaded plant it isn't receiving enough sunlight.
These plants grow stems and stalks rather than fruits and seeds becoming long and leggy as they reach for the sky.
which senses the wavelength of light shining on plants. Plants in full sun absorb red light while shaded plants receive only the leftover far-red light.
The type of light the phytochrome sees tells the plant whether to stretch out and become taller
or to flower and make fruit. Based on the light available the phytochrome cycles between an inactive and active state.
Photoconversion between the active and inactive states of phytochromes is arguably the most important twitch on this planet as it tells plants to become photosynthetic
By mutating the phytochromes we created plants that think they're in full sun even when they're not Vierstra says.
and other types of fires involving plant matter play a much bigger role in climate change
and Hawaiian conservation workers however are aware of an equally beautiful and intriguing related group of plants known as Hibiscadelphus-literally brother of Hibiscus.
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
and the ability for the plant to survive for up to two weeks underwater during periods of flooding.
and plant pathogens Wing explained. One example he said would be adding disease resistance genes from all of the wild rice varieties to a species of cultivated rice creating a new super-crop that is resistant to diseases and pests.
Maloof at the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology. The new genome information may help breeders produce tastier more stress-tolerant tomatoes.
This traditional herb is a plant from the Family moraceae that has been used traditionally for its medicinal properties.
because its damage can resemble other plant illnesses producing flecks on leaves and discoloration. Potential reductions in crop yields are worrisome:
While heat and ozone can each damage plants independently the factors also interact. For example warmer temperatures significantly increase production of ozone from the reactions in sunlight of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides.
and many of their cultures manipulated fire to control the availability of plants they used for food fuel tools and ritual.
Visitors will learn about plant and animal species of cultural importance to local tribes. Don Hankins a faculty associate at California State university at Chico
The research by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell walls in the University's School of Agriculture Food and Wine in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany will be presented at the upcoming
5th International Conference on Plant Cell wall Biology and published in the journal New Phytologist. Powdery mildew is a significant problem wherever barley is grown around the world says Dr Little.
Powdery mildew feeds on the living plant says Dr Little. The fungus spore lands on the leaf and sends out a tubelike structure
which punches its way through cell walls penetrating the cells and taking the nutrients from the plant.
The plant tries to stop this penetration by building a plug of cell wall material--a papillae--around the infection site.
We can now use this knowledge find ways of increasing these polysaccharides in barley plants to produce more resistant lines available for growers says Dr Little.
Plants have evolved defense mechanisms to protect themselves such as thorns bitter-tasting berries and in the case of certain types of grass by harbouring toxic fungus deep within them that can be dangerous
and saliva distribution can have a positive effect on plant growth the research team set out to test an interesting hypothesis
because moose tend to graze within a defined home range it's possible that certain groups of plants are receiving repeated exposure to the moose saliva
if certain plants have made them feel ill and they may avoid these plants in future says Bazely.
This study the first evidence to our knowledge of herbivore saliva being shown to'fight back 'and slow down the growth of the fungus.
and widely used during the 1970s as a safer replacement for DDT It was used on crops ornamental plants livestock and pets.
and foresters may need to change the way they decide which trees to plant and select trees that are suited better to hotter conditions Dale says.
This also tells us that we need to plant more trees and vegetation in cities increasing shade on impervious surfaces and limiting the'heat island'effect Frank says.
This enormous release of carbon is balanced by carbon coming into the soil system from falling leaves and other plant matter as well as by the underground activities of plant roots.
and the biochemical and biophysical processes involved in the growth of forage plants such as Stylosanthes capitata Vogel a legume utilized for livestock grazing in tropical countries such as Brazil.
and biomass of the plant said Carlos Alberto Martinez project coordinator and first author of the study.
This plant species is highly drought resistant and able to grow in sandy environments. With global climate change it is estimated that a moderate temperature increase of slightly greater than 2â°C could have damaging effects on the plant's physiology and growth under cultivation in tropical environments such as Brazil.
To test these hypotheses the researchers conducted an experiment in which they cultivated plants in open fields in a normal-temperature environment and in a temperature-controlled area using a temperature free-air controlled enhancement system known as T-FACE.
The system comes equipped to control heat emission from the crown of the plants through infrared heaters that enable the temperature of the growing environment to remain at a steady 2â°C over ambient temperature.
After cultivating the plants with these temperature differences for 30 days the researchers measured photosynthetic energy dissipation and conducted aboveground biochemical and biomass analyses.
The results of the measurements and analyses indicated that a temperature increase of approximately 2â°C was able to improve the plants'photosynthetic activity and level of antioxidant protection.
and a 16%increase in aboveground biomass production compared with plants grown at normal temperature according to Martinez The increase in temperature during the period of the experiment was favorable for the development of the biochemical and biophysical processes involved in plant growth he stated.
According to Martinez some possible explanations for the increase in photosynthetic activity in addition to the leaf area index and biomass production from samples of Stylosanthes capitata that experienced temperature increases were the plant's thermal and photosynthetic acclimatization.
The plant adjusted its physiology to not only handle the potentially stressful increase in temperature during its growth phase
The results of the study indicated that a temperature increase of up to 2â°C could be advantageous for growth of some species of tropical plants such as Stylosanthes capitata Vogel Martinez stated.
and other developmental processes of these plants she said. In another experiment the researchers cultivated the forage plant Panicum maximum at a temperature 2â°C above normal at a carbon concentration of 600 parts per million (ppm) equivalent to twice the amount there is today an amount
that is expected to be reached by 2050 according to projections from the IPCC. The researchers found that there was less partitioning of biomass to the leaves relative to the stem of plants cultivated under these conditions.
Similar results were obtained by researchers at the Center for Nuclear energy in Agriculture (Cena) at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (Esalq) of USP Piracicaba campus in an experiment conducted using Brachiaria decumbens a common
grass found on coffee plantations and the major forage plant in Brazil commonly known as signal grass.
By cultivating the plant in an environment with 200 ppm carbon above current levels in a FACE system set up at the Embrapa Environmental Division in Jaguariã na in inland SãO Paulo State the researchers observed an increase
in the production of stems and a decrease in biomass in the leaves of the plant.
This could have a series of implications for the use of this plant as a forage plant found in over 80 million hectares of Brazilian pastureland said Raquel Ghini researcher at the Embrapa Environmental Division and one of the study's authors.
According to the assessment by Martinez the potential impact of global climate change on plants used as pastureland needs to be investigated
because plants represent the main food source for cattle in countries such as Brazil--one of the only countries in the world that produce meat and milk through the extensive farming of livestock i e. through livestock farming in pastures.
The researchers believe that there are several factors contributing to the decline in population in the Oak Creek area including major threats by nonnative species such as crayfish predatory fish and invasive plants.
which is the movement of water through plants. Overall they found increases in water availability during the maize-growing season
and refined to be applied for example to understanding the relative cost of plant-based diets or those of other nations.
#Filter bed substrates, plant types recommended for rain gardensurban stormwater runoff is causing problems for the world's water sources.
and plant uptake can remove pollutants. Typically the gardens are excavated backfilled with a filter bed substrate then planted with vegetation that helps to remove pollutants.
Kraus and her colleagues designed experiments to assess three different filter bed substrates for their effectiveness in nutrient removal and supporting plant growth.
The gardens were planted with 16 plant species and then irrigated with stormwater. The substrates used in the experiments included a sand-based substrate (sand) composed of 80%washed sand 15%clay
Diverse plant species that included trees shrubs herbaceous perennials a grass and a rush were selected to allow the researchers to evaluate the performance of a wide range of evergreen deciduous woody and herbaceous plants.
as the plants grew root growth impacted infiltration and nutrient uptake by the plants increased.
up to 75%of the energy from HPS lamps that is not converted to light is emitted as radiant heat energy causing the surface of the lamps to reach temperatures as high as 450â°C. To prevent leaves from scorching from exposure to the high heat plants must be separated from the HPS lamps.
Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters University of Utah biologists found.
bacteria in the gut--and not just liver enzymes--are crucial in allowing herbivores to feed on toxic plants says biologist Kevin Kohl a postdoctoral researcher
The study of woodrats someday might impact farming practices in arid regions where toxic plants like creosote
Evolving a Taste for Toxinsmany plants produce toxic chemicals which they use as a defense against herbivores or plant-eating animals.
their bodies must handle up to hundreds of toxic chemicals from the plants they consume each day.
Plant toxins determine which plants a herbivore can eat says Kohl. Liver enzymes help animals detoxify such poisons.
Gut microbes also help some herbivores eat toxic plants. The study involved desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida)--grayish rodents native to western North american deserts.
Mammals are adapted to the plant toxins they eat Kohl says. The guts of creosote-fed woodrats were teeming with microbes that may degrade creosote
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