A similar phenomenon did not occur in tundra under light grazing where nutrient availability limits plant production.
Grazing alters several ecosystem properties such as plant species composition and soil nutrient availability which in turn alter ecosystem responses to climate warming says Academy Research Fellow Sari Stark from the Arctic Centre.
There will be a high turnover in the species composition of bird and plant-life. By the end of the century increasingly unsuitable climatic conditions will for example be endangering the survival of spruce and beech
and increase the availability of plant nutrients he said. Additionally the biochar can be burned as charcoal
which has a detrimental effect on the plants and animals that are indigenous to these areas.
They are characterised by a continuous grass understorey widespread shade-intolerant plants and the prevalence of fire
#Lignin breakthroughs serve as GPS for plant researchresearchers at North carolina State university have developed the equivalent of GPS directions for future plant scientists to understand how plants adapt to the environment
and to improve plants'productivity and biofuel potential. Two articles published March 11 in The Plant Cell offer a step-by-step approach for studying plant traits drawing on comprehensive quantitative research on lignin formation in black cottonwood.
Lignin an important and complex polymer responsible for plant growth and development provides mechanical strength and water transport that enables some trees to grow 100 meters tall.
However lignin must be removed for biofuel pulp and paper production-a process that involves harsh chemicals and expensive treatments.
The research provides a new approach integrating knowledge of genes proteins plant chemical compounds and engineering modeling to understand how plants make products
and structures needed for growth and development. This work in the new area of plant systems biology integrating biology chemistry and engineering sets a new standard for understanding any complex biological feature in the future.
I describe these findings as Mapquest for plant scientists says Vincent Chiang co-director of NC State's Forest Biotechnology Group the lead team for the project which involved scientists in the College of Natural resources College of Engineering
and composition of lignin as well as why it's often difficult to modify lignin in plants says Ronald Sederoff co-director of Forest Biotechnology Group.
National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program Grant (DBI-0922391) supported graduate students Jina Song and Punith Naik from the College of Engineering;
pepper plants nightshade and figs. The results revealed that bats flew into the dark compartment twice as often as the compartment lit by a street lamp.
In a second experiment Lewanzik illuminated pepper plants growing in the wild with a street light
which bats harvested from plants in a dark location and from lit plants. While bats harvested 100 per cent of the marked ripe fruit from the plants in the dark only 78 per cent were taken from the lit plants.
Although insect-eating bats have been shown to avoid foraging in light-polluted areas this is the first study to show that fruit-eating bats also avoid lit areas.
Bats play a key role in pollinating plants and spreading their seeds especially the seeds of species that are first to recolonise cleared land.
This is necessary since they mainly feed on fruit of pepper plants from the Genus piper that grow in the understory.
Where it's arid unusual moisture creates unusual plant productivity and that translates into horsepower.
let grazing animals crop the excess growth of fast growing grasses that can out-compete native plants in an over-fertilized world.
The herbivores or grazing and browsing animals feed on tall grasses that block sunlight from reaching the ground making the light available to other plants.
The excess is a special problem for grasslands where many plants like annual wildflowers and others have adapted to low nutrient levels.
and grazing animals were kept out the variety of plants in the experimental plots decreased. Where animals were allowed to graze in the fertilized plots plant diversity generally increased.
The researchers'data analysis concluded that the grazers improved biodiversity by increasing the amount of light reaching ground level.
Grassland plants have evolved a variety of strategies to take advantage of a setting where nutrients are in short supply and inconsistently available.
In the human-altered world where nutrients are always plentiful plants that put their effort into growing tall to capture sunlight have an advantage.
They block the sunlight from reaching most other plant species which cannot grow or reproduce.
when deer consume native plants the nonnative species are left to flourish dropping seed in the soil.
and reduced plant biomass less recruitment of woody species and relatively fewer native species. And the deer's negative impact on seed banks resulted in significantly decreased overall species richness and relatively more short-lived species
of both annual and biennial plants. Co-author Antonio Ditommaso Cornell associate professor of weed ecology and management and research technician Scott Morris gathered soil cores--from both within and outside of fenced deer exclosures
Vertimass anticipates that the ORNL technology will be in demand by existing corn-based ethanol production plants as well as new refineries coming online that aim to convert non-food crops such as switchgrass
It could also be incorporated into new plant designs to further reduce operating costs. We hope to move from the laboratory scale to a commercially available technology within four to six years.
and plants can remediate contaminated sites. Ramakrishna Wusirika of Michigan Technological University has determined that how you add bacteria to the mix can make a big difference.
He has also shed light on the biochemical pathways that allow plants and bacteria to clean up some of the worst soils on the planet
which are laced with high concentrations of copper arsenic and other plant-unfriendly chemicals. Then Wusirika and his team planted maize in the stamp sand incorporating bacteria in four different ways:
After 45 days the team uprooted the plants and measured their dry weight. All maize grown with bacteria was significantly more vigorous--from two to five times larger--than the maize grown in stamp sand alone.
In other words the smaller plants pulled more copper ounce per ounce out of the stamp sands than the bigger ones.
But the mere fact that all the plants grown with bacteria did so well also piqued his curiosity.
The bacteria are also changing copper into a form that the plants can take up. With bacteria the exchangeable copper is increased three times he said.
and help the plants make growth hormones. Bacteria also appear to affect the amount phenolics produced by the maize.
Compared to plants grown in normal soil without bacteria plants grown in stamp sand alone showed a fivefold increase in phenolics.
However phenolics in plants grown in stamp sand with bacteria showed a lesser increase. Growing in stamp sand is very stressful for plants
and they respond by increasing their antioxidant production Wusirika said. Adding the metal-resistant bacteria enables the plants to cope with stress better resulting in reduced levels of phenolics.
There's still a lot to understand here he added. We'd like to do a study on stamp sands in the field
and we'd also like to work with plants besides maize. We think this work has applications in organic agriculture as well as remediation.
#Look back at US soybeans shows genetic improvement behind increased yieldssoybean improvement through plant breeding has been critical over the years for the success of the crop.
and changes said Brian Diers a University of Illinois plant breeder and researcher on the study.
and one Canadian province during 2010 to 2011 The experiments included plant introductions (PIS) and public cultivars obtained from the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection housed at the National Soybean Research center at the U of
Most of the yield increases are the result of breeders selecting better combinations of genes that can allow plants to take sunlight and produce more seed from that sunlight.
and sulphur in adult human bone collagen and compared these with ratios in ancient and modern plants and animals from the location
Dr Kinaston says it appears that the new colonists rather than relying mainly on a transported landscape of the crop plants
and improve carbon capture by plants and soil. A cow produces up to 70 kg of manure per day providing enough fertilizer in a year for one hectare of wheat equivalent to 128 kg of synthetic nitrogen that might
The viral decay rate also varies depending on the plant. The authors say that more research on the rate of viral decay on various crops would increase the accuracy of risk estimations.
Roundwormsthe banana variety Yangambi km5 produces toxic substances that kill the nematode Radopholus similis a roundworm that infects the root tissue of banana plants--to the frustration of farmers worldwide.
but they can penetrate the roots of banana plants by the thousands. Once infected these plants absorb less water
and nutrients resulting in yield losses of up to 75 percent. Lesions in the roots also make the plant more susceptible to other diseases.
Eventually the roots begin to rot. In the final stage of the disease the plant topples over its fruit bunch inexorably lost.
Combating nematodes isn't easy adds Professor Swennen: Synthetic pesticides are toxic and expensive. Moreover pesticides usually do not actually kill the nematodes they just temporarily paralyze them.
and the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP) is studying the tolerance of trees using molecular and biotechnological tools.
The research work was published in the last issue of the journal Plant Physiology. The obtained poplars in this project with the collaboration of the Universidad de Má
This study focuses on mechanisms that plant cells use to protect themselves from stress factors.
Researchers begin by using satellite derived evapotranspiration estimates at thermal infrared bands to deduce the amount of moisture being transpired by plants.
which means that moisture is being drawn from the soil in the root zone of the plants he says.
The model encompasses all inputs into the crop including weather plant spacing cultivar fertilizer soil type and fertility and others.
Steady exposure has prompted concern that pests will develop resistance to these proteins making Bt plants ineffective.
To delay or prevent insect pests from evolving resistance to Bt crops the U s. Environmental protection agency promotes the use of multiple Bt genes in plants
Cages contained different combinations of treatments with and without predators and with and without sprayed insecticides on the non-Bt refuge plants.
Farmers commonly spray insecticides on refuge plants to prevent loss by pests but such sprays can kill predators and prey indiscriminately.
The results showed that diamondback moth populations were reduced in the treatment containing ladybird beetles and unsprayed non-Bt refuge plants.
Also resistance to Bt plants evolved significantly slower in this treatment. In contrast Bt plants with no refuge were defoliated completely in treatments without ladybirds after only four to five generations showing rapid development of resistance in the pests.
In the treatment with sprayed non-Bt refuge plants and predators diamondback moth populations were reduced
but the larvae more quickly evolved resistance to the Bt plants. â#oethese results demonstrate the effectiveness of Bt plants in controlling the pest population the lack of effect of Bt on the predators
and the role predators play in delaying resistance to Bt plants in the pest populationâ#said Shelton.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cornell University. The original article was written by Krishna Ramanujan.
Plants animals and people all depend on forests and may all face additional challenges as temperatures increase
#Complex plant behavior? In fight against parasites, Barberry sacrifices seeds depending on survival chanceplants appear to be able to make complex decisions.
The results are the first ecological evidence of complex behaviour in plants. They indicate that this species has a structural memory is able to differentiate between inner and outer conditions as well as anticipate future risks scientists write in the journal American Naturalist.
and that the plant is able to stop the development of its seeds in order to save its resources.
If however the plant aborts the infested seed then the parasite in that seed will also die
If the infested fruit contains two seeds then in 75 per cent of cases the plants will abort the infested seeds in order to save the second intact seed.
If however the infested fruit only contains one seed then the plant will only abort the infested seed in 5 per cent of cases.
Using computer model calculations scientists were able to demonstrate how those plants subjected to stress from parasite infestation reacted very differently from those without stress.
therefore that plant intelligence is entering the realms of ecological possibility. But how does the Barberry know what is in store for it after the tephritid fruit fly has punctured a berry?
These new insights shed some light on the underestimated abilities of plants while at the same time bringing up many new questions.
#Amazons canopy a patchwork quilt of chemicals generated by plantsin many ways plants act as chemical factories using energy from sunlight to produce carbon-based energy
How much does the portfolio of chemicals generated by plants vary depending on the surrounding environment and
A region of ultra-high biodiversity the western Amazon harbors thousands of plant species that grow at different elevations and in different soils on different geologies.
because they create the habitat occupied by a tremendous diversity of other plants and animals.
and laboratory-based effort to determine the relationship between function and biological diversity of plant species in tropical forests.
pesticidesresistance to pesticides has now been recorded in nearly a thousand pest species including more than 500 insects 218 weeds and 190 fungi that attack plants.
Noting that insects have been evolving resistance to natural plant defenses for millions of years and that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first reported case of insecticide resistance he concludes Finding ways to delay resistance is a never-ending challenge with any pest management approach.
Consequently woodlands that now drain carbon will become carbon producers because plant respiration (a process in
weather conditions and edaphological characteristics plant physiology and main features concerning structure and population conclude researchers.
Flowers attract pollinators fruits attract seed-dispersing animals plants express stress responses and organisms communicate with each other in many ways via color.
and fruit development plant nutrient deficiencies responses to heat and drought stress and other biological phenomena that result in visible color changes.
and smoke play an important role in the life cycle of the native flora. For plants that are adapted to ecosystems where fire is a regular occurrence--such as savannas grasslands
or enhance plant growth. Recent research has focused on the effects of smoke. As plant tissue is burned numerous compounds are released some
For example different species of plants contain different compounds which may have different effects on seed germination.
This new system allows researchers to produce smoke solutions from any plant species they wish.
and will allow future researchers to produce smoke solutions from a wide range of plant species found in the habitats they are investigating says Coons.
This interest led Pettigrew and his team to explore the potential benefits of selected plant extracts.
The researchers conducted two experiments to test the beneficial effects of adding plant extracts to pig diets to combat PRRS and E coli.
We've known for a long time that plant extracts also called essential oils or botanicals have certain biological actions said Yanhong Liu a doctoral student who led the studies.
The pigs in the study challenged with E coli that had been fed any of the three plant extracts had a lower frequency of diarrhea (20 percent) than the pigs fed the control diet (40 percent.
The pigs fed plant extracts were more efficient (40 percent) in feed use than the pigs fed the control diet in the E coli-challenged group
and challenged pigs fed plant extracts had sounder gut morphology compared with the challenged pigs fed the control diet.
Liu noted that even the pigs in the non-challenged group with a low frequency of mild diarrhea benefited from the plant extracts.
After feeding the pigs challenged with the PRRS virus the three plant extracts the researchers observed that the pigs were more efficient in week 1 (55 percent)
When they checked blood samples from the pigs with the PRRS virus they found that the pigs fed plant extracts also had a lower blood viral load (13 percent)
These observations also suggest that feeding plant extracts could suppress ongoing inflammation and prevent secondary infections.
Although previous studies have looked at using plant extracts in pig diets Pettigrew said Liu's study which looked at the effects of three different extracts on two different diseases had not been done previously.
We want to know the big picture of how these plant extracts affected the challenged and non-challenged pigs Liu said.
and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures.
Those sediments contain pollen plant and insect fossils suggesting the Bering land bridge wasn't just barren grassy tundra steppe
which is transmitted by the psyllid said Dr. Ron French Agrilife Extension plant pathologist in Amarillo.
and by then the insect has transmitted already the bacterium into the plant especially if that psyllid flew into the field.
and transmit the bacterium from plant to plant French said. French is conducting his studies using alternative controls as a part of the U s. Department of agriculture-National Institute of Food
bactericides plant defense response and plant nutrients he said. We are trying to alleviate the disease symptoms on tubers
and throughout the plant and improve plant health so that any negative impacts the psyllid bacterium disease or pesticide use are having on the plant can translate into improved yields.
His efforts to control the pathogen using foliar applications of a bactericide has had good results for two years
In his approach to the plant defense response French said he is trying to produce something like a systemic acquired resistance or induced systemic resistance response from the potato against the pathogen.
if the plant can actually trigger a mechanism to defend itself from the pathogen and the psyllid as well he said.
The third and last approach he is studying is using plant nutrients to offset the damage caused by the psyllid
A macro-nutrient is something the plant readily needs like nitrogen and phosphorus and a micro-nutrient is something the plant needs in small amounts like zinc or boron for plant functions.
In the past two years we actually had very good results with a combination of micro-and macro-nutrients that were applied biweekly after flowering on the potato French said.
whether it is for plant defense responses pathogen control plant health on top of what the growers is applying he said.
Joining Zhang on the project are Dr. Hongbin Zhang Texas A&m professor of plant genomics and systems biology and director of the Laboratory for Plant Genomics and Molecular genetics;
and cloned will significantly advance understanding of the molecular basis underlying plant tolerances to these stresses Zhang said.
Plants have had to figure out how to filter out bubbles but allow easy flow of sap Karnik observes.
There's huge variation between plants Karnik says. There could be much better plants out there that are suitable for this process.
There are about 350000 different species of plants and each species produces a unique pollen type the professor explains.
Plants are suited best to specific ecological conditions. You don't find mesquite trees growing in Canada
So-called extremely low-volatility organic compounds which are produced by plants could be detected for the first time during field and laboratory experiments in Finland and Germany.
However the model calculations have been very inaccurate as there are still large gaps in our knowledge concerning the role of the compounds emitted by plants during the transition between gaseous and solid state.
The JÃ lich Plant Atmosphere Chamber (JPAC) is a 1. 5-cubic-meter glass chamber under controlled conditions of temperature humidity and irradiation.
and the fact that their saliva is the primary cause of feeding injury to plants
The hardened sheath remains attached to the plant when the insect is finished feeding. Unlike a chewing insect which causes damage by removing plant tissue stink bugs pierce plant tissue
and suck nutrients from the plant said Michelle Peiffer research support assistant. During this process stink bugs also deposit saliva onto the plant.
The interaction between this saliva and the plant is what causes the cosmetic and physiological changes that make crops unmarketable.
To extract the two types of saliva from brown marmorated stink bugs Felton and Peiffer first collected adult bugs from homes and fields in central Pennsylvania and maintained them in their laboratory.
-and plant-derived proteins Felton said. We used extraordinary precaution to avoid disrupting tomato tissues during the collection of the sheaths
-and plant-derived proteins that occurs during formation of the sheath and subsequent feeding. These initial findings suggest that sheath saliva may elicit a plant self-protection response.
According to the scientists the methods they developed to extract the saliva and to analyze the proteins should be generally applicable for any species of stink bug.
to and during irradiation sterilization on two other plant pests: the Caribbean fruit fly and the invasive cactus moth.
#Moths trapped with plant-produced sex pheromonea collaborative experiment involving a Kansas State university biochemist may mark the beginning of an effective environmentally friendly plant-based method of insect control.
Timothy Durrett assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics was part of the collaboration that used various plant
and moth enzymes to engineer plants that emitted sex pheromones that mimic those naturally produced by two species of moths.
The research recently appeared in the journal Nature Communications A plant factory for moth pheromone production.
The plant just handles everything. The study focused on the bird-cherry ermine moth and the orchard ermine moth--two insects that feed on the leaves of orchard trees
Durrett helped the Swedish researchers use enzymes from plants and moths to create a biological pathway that made it possible for plants to produce the moths'sex pheromones.
He contributed an enzyme from the burning bush plant that performed the final step in the synthesis process essentially turning plants into pheromone production factories.
Once the correct combination of enzymes was finalized researchers modified Nicotiana benthamiana an Australian plant that is closely related to tobacco plant.
The result was plants that produced pheromones that mimicked the sex pheromones of both moth species. The Swedish researchers baited moth traps with the plant-produced pheromone.
They found that each trap attracted an average of 130 male moths--half the number of catches possible with synthetic pheromones
While a proof-of-concept experiment engineering plants to be insect pheromone-producing factories creates an environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides as well as an easier
They were also the key ingredient in his aquaponics project where fish waste fertilized the plants
and plants kept fish healthy by cleaning their water. It's the same interaction that happens in the natural world said Handler operations a senior research engineer at Michigan Tech.
and software designed specifically for the ornamental plant industry. The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS Horttechnology electronic journal web site:
Advances in sensor technology and increased understanding of plant physiology have made it possible for greenhouse growers to use water content sensors to accurately determine irrigation timing and application rates in soilless substrates.
The authors of a report published in Horttechnology said that the use of sensor-based irrigation technology can also accelerate container and greenhouse plant production time.
Specifically the incorporation of this oilseed plant into animal food cuts methane emissions by between 6%and 13%and carbon dioxide emissions by between 6. 8%and 13.6%.
Rapeseed cake also known as'oil cake'is obtained a by-product after pressing the plant to extract its oil.
The advantages of using this plant start from its use as a rotation crop because it is capable of increasing cereal productivity and improving soil structure.
As major hubs of plant-animal interactions throughout the world flowers are ideal venues for the transmission of microbes among plants and animals.
They say their synthesis could help efforts to control economically devastating pollinator-vectored plant pathogens such as fire blight
We found several generalities in how plant pathogens are transmitted at flowers yet the major take-home from our paper may be in pointing out that this is an important gap in our knowledge.
Floral traits and the transmission of plant and animal pathogens was featured in the publisher's News Round up of most newsworthy research.
but as Mcart and colleagues point out pollinators that also transmit pathogens may reduce the benefits to the plant of attracting them depending on the costs and benefits of pollination.
Plant pathologists have made great strides in identifying floral traits that mediate host plant resistance to floral pathogens in individual systems;
synthesizing this literature can provide generality in identifying traits that mediate plant-pathogen dynamics. From the pollinator's perspective there has been surprisingly little work elucidating the role of flowers and floral traits for pathogen transmission.
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