and play a critical role in storing atmospheric carbon says Dr. William Hoffmann associate professor of plant
#Infants know plants provide food, but need to see theyre safe to eatinfants as young as six months old tend to expect that plants are food sources
but only after an adult shows them that the food is safe to eat according to new research published in Psychological science a journal of the Association for Psychological science.
The findings show that after watching an adult put part of a plant and part of a human-made object in her mouth infants at 6-and 18-months of age preferentially identify the plant as the food source.
Plants are often peripheral to modern life but they were central to fundamental problems of determining
what is food and what is fatal across evolutionary time says psychological scientist and study author Annie Wertz of Yale university.
Humans relied on gathered plant resources for food but many plants are toxic and potentially deadly.
So how do babies learn what's good to eat and what's not? Young children's decisions about what to eat are determined famously not by simply copying adult behavior Wertz
Wertz and Wynn hypothesized that instead of imitating an adult's behavior outright children tend to go for specific types of entities--in this case plants
Full-term 18-month-olds were presented with a realistic-looking artificial plant and an obviously human-made artifact each
The infants watched an experimenter take one fruit off each object--the plant and the artifact--and place it in her mouth as if eating it.
The fruits were taken then off the plant and the artifact and the infants were asked Which one can you eat?
The infants showed a clear preference for the fruits that came from the plant despite the fact that they saw the same social information--the experimenter eating the fruit--applied to both objects.
The experiments further showed that the eating action was crucial to this plant-based bias:
or merely looked at the plant and artifact instead of performing an action infants chose randomly.
Younger infants who have little to no experience with solid food also showed evidence of a plant-based bias:
and selectively identify plants as food sources says Wertz. More broadly this suggests that humans unlike some other nonhuman primates don't simply consider anything that goes into the mouth to be food.
Knowing that infants may be biased to learn that fruits plucked from leafy green plants are edible suggests strategies for getting young children interested in eating novel fruits and vegetables such as taking them to a'pick-your-own'fruits and vegetables farm.
Glossophaga soricina a nectar bat feeding on the flowers of a banana plant. Nectar feeding bats comprised one of three evolutionary optima for mechanical advantage among New world Leaf-nosed bats.
Sometimes other crop responses are reported including plant traits such as height or canopy density or ear traits such as ear length or ear width he said.
In his study Williams looked for relationships between processor variables and 17 crop traits (5 plant traits 8 ear traits and 4 yield traits.
and phosphorus build up in the soil providing a reserve of nutrients that plants need to grow.
and penetrate the plant or animal surfaces onto which they are applied. The team fed their treated diet containing various types and concentrations of chemicals to the laboratory-raised bee larvae.
#Developing new methods to assess resistance to disease in young oilseed rape plantsbeing able to measure resistance to disease in young oilseed rape plants is vital in the battle to breed new
However assessing disease resistance in young oilseed rape plants is difficult as there is a long period where the pathogen is not visible--it can infect plants
when the symptoms have become visible on the adult plants--typically about eleven months after sowing.
If resistance can be assessed in young oilseed rape plants it will not only accelerate the process of breeding oilseed rape crops for resistance
Our study investigates new methods for assessing disease resistance in young plants. The paper based on experiments done by Dr Yong-Ju Huang at Rothamsted Research shows that resistance in young oilseed rape plants can be detected in controlled conditions
--and suggests that the methods should be evaluated further to develop techniques which can be used reliably by breeders to select for quantitative resistance in young plants.
This will not only save money but also accelerate the process of breeding for resistance. Story Source:
and plants near busy roadways may enhance air quality and positively impact public health. In recent years the health of people living working
because plants naturally capture some of the pollutants emitted by traffic. Properly designed and managed roadside vegetation can help us breathe a little easier said Dr. Greg Mcpherson research forester at the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station.
There is evidence that humans in the Kelabit Highlands of Borneo burned fires to clear the land for planting food-bearing plants.
Although the young soils of southern South america may contain high phosphorus levels the element is tightly bound to the soil offering limited phosphorus available to plants.
Seedlings were assessed for number and biomass of cluster roots plant size and growth and foliar phosphorus levels.
Embothrium coccineum may have an important role in reforestation of Patagonia as an early successional species. Cluster roots have been identified in other plant species including some agronomic crops in the Cucurbitaceae.
and P may lead to advantageous root adaptation in other plants. Piper is already exploring further research to understand how E. coccineum benefits neighbors by providing increased nutrient availability from root exudates
As a result of this study nitrogen status of soil and plants in addition to phosphorus will always be included in Proteaceae studies by Piper.
Proteaceae can do something no other plant can do Piper explains. They are accessing nutrients that no other plants can access.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Journal of Botany. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
When CO2Â levels became too low for plants to grow properly forests appear to have kept the climate in check by slowing down the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
and our study makes an important step forward in understanding how Earthâ##s complex plant life has regulated
because it is rich in plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Now researchers from Wageningen University and Southern Illinois University revealed the effects of guano on the native trees of the arid coasts of South america.
even though fixing nutrients from the air is expensive for a plant continues Havik. These findings highlight the important interactions between marine and terrestrial environments
That means that if you want to use the greenness from the camera as an indicator of plant function in the spring you might be wrong
Plants absorb carbon dioxide as they photosynthesize and absorption peaks when photosynthesis does. Knowing the timing of the peak can be important for accurate measurements.
and ultimately link this to satellite observations where we think changes in plant cycles due to climate change are being expressed on a global scale said Jack Mustard professor of geological sciences at Brown.
If you want to use cameras for the study of plant function Yang said you want to be careful especially in the spring.
The Oxford university-led research found that fungi regulate diversity in rainforests by making dominant species victims of their own success. Fungi spread quickly between closely-packed plants of the same species preventing them from dominating
'In the plant world close relatives make bad neighbours'said Dr Owen Lewis of Oxford university's Department of Zoology who led the study.'
. If lots of plants from one species grow in the same place fungi quickly cut their population down to size levelling the playing field to give rarer species a fighting chance.
Instead management practices focused on maintaining the complex web of ecological interactions among coffee plantation organisms--including insects fungi plants birds
Last year more than 60 percent of the coffee plants there experienced more than 80 percent defoliation due to coffee rust fungus
and nearly 9 percent of the plants died. The recent coffee rust epidemic damaged plantations from Mexico to Peru
#Pathogenic plant virus jumps to honeybees, may explain bee population declinea viral pathogen that typically infects plants has been found in honeybees
whether this plant-infecting virus could also cause systemic infection in the bees says Yan Ping Chen from the U s. Department of agriculture's Agricultural research service (ARS) laboratory in Beltsville Maryland an author on the study.
when they move from flower to flower likely spreading the virus from one plant to another Chen adds.
We know we have to protect plants from insect damage but we need to find a balance
#Modified proteins as vaccines against peach allergya research conducted by the Centre for Plant Biotechnology
Cotton belongs to a type of plant for which CO2 in the atmosphere stimulates photosynthesis (like soya peanuts
and a majority of plants including all trees). The new study shows that this fertilizing effect will help offset other impacts of climate change.
it varies greatly depending on the model of plant growth used. The importance of a season of regular rainthe effect of rainfall change on cotton yield also differs from that of crops such as maize sorghum and millet.
Pepper a plant biologist at Texas A&m since 1995 acknowledges that the cotton plants developed in the project technically are modified genetically organisms (GMOS) a controversial subject.
of the genes thatâ##s already in the plant. â#Like human and animal eyes plants also have photoreceptors that pick up information about the environment.
The phytochromes regulate many plant traits including the length of leaves and stems and flowering time.
#or interfere with expression of that gene Pepper said. â#oethis was pure basic science seeking to understand the biological function of a geneâ#Pepper said. â#oeand sure enough the phytochrome â#knock-downâ##plants had all these phenotypic
and one of them was longer fiber. â#The discovery was especially important to Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov the lead author of the study who received his masterâ##s degree in plant breeding from Texas A&m in 2001
#Ants protect acacia plants against pathogensthe biological term symbiosis refers to what economists and politicians usually call a win-win situation:
The mutualistic association between acacia plants and the ants that live on them is an excellent example:
The plants provide food and accommodation in the form of food bodies and nectar as well as hollow thorns which can be used as nests.
The ants return this favor by protecting the plants against herbivores. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena Germany have now found that ants also keep harmful leaf pathogens in check.
and has a visibly positive effect on plant health. Study results indicate that symbiotic bacteria colonizing the ants inhibit pathogen growth on the leaves.
Myrmecophytes are plants which live in a symbiotic relationship with ants. The acacia species Acacia hindsii which is native to tropical dry forests in Central america is such a myrmecophyte.
Its inhabitants are ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex. The ants depend completely on their host plants for nectar
In return for room and board mutualistic Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus ants become bodyguards protecting their host against herbivores and competing plants.
However some ants also benefit from the plant's services without giving anything in return such as the parasitic ant species Pseudomyrmex gracilis.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have looked now more deeply into the insect-plant interaction asking
They compared the leaves of acacia plants which were inhabited by either mutualistic or parasitic ants to leaves from
The presence of the right symbiotic partner seemed to have a positive effect on the plant's health.
Analysis of the surfaces of the leaves revealed that the number of plant pathogens as well as of necrotic plant tissues increased considerably
These plants also showed strong immune responses in the form of an increased concentration of salicylic acid a plant hormone
How antimicrobial protection is transferred from ants to plant is still unclear. Chilean researcher Marcia Gonzã¡
and parasitic ants and tested the effect of the extracts on the growth of bacterial pathogens in the lab. Plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae was sensitive to the application of leg extracts of both ant species
thus another level of interaction to the symbiosis between ants and their host plants. Such mutualistic relationships are much more complex than previously thought.
Studies on symbiotic relationships between ants and myrmecophytic plants should not overlook the role of bacterial partners that help the ants protect their plants.
It has struck us that plant breeding relying on the successful use of a single major resistance gene can increase susceptibility to another disease said R&d breeder Peter Werner from KWS UK.
Market hogs would arrive at the plant and they were stiff open-mouth breathing had blotchy skin muscle tremors
The work out in Current Biology looked into the mechanism that allowed gregarious locusts to change their diet surprisingly fast--just a few hours after solitarious locusts are crowded they are eating toxic plants
To Simå es and colleagues'surprise it was found that this was due to an incapacity by newly gregarious locusts to acquire negative/aversive memories that made them on encountering toxic plants see these as appetitive.
and its protection against predators (toxic plants make locusts unpalatable) how could such major adaptation occur in just a few hours?
So next Simå es and colleagues used hyoscyamine--a toxic alkaloid substance present in plants of the locust's natural habitat that are avoided by solitarious forms (because of their bad taste)
when locusts are exposed re to the toxic plants. This capacity to override previous memories which only occurs during the initial stages of gregarization/crowding is crucial for survival in the swarm because with increasing numbers of individuals also raises not only competition for food but also exposure to predators.
The reason why later gregarious locusts continue to eat toxic plants despite being able to gain aversive memories lies in their learning mechanism.
They measured the diversity of plants pest and beneficial insects birds and microbes that consume methane a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
#New discovery could stimulate plant growth and increase crop yields, researchers sayscientists led by experts at Durham University have discovered a natural mechanism in plants that could stimulate their growth even under stress and potentially lead to better crop yields.
Plants naturally slow their growth or even stop growing altogether in response to adverse conditions such as water shortage
They do this by making proteins that repress the growth of the plant. This process is reversed
when plants produce a hormone--called Gibberellin --which breaks down the proteins that repress growth.
and the University of Warwick have discovered that plants have the natural ability to regulate their growth independently of Gibberellin particularly during times of environmental stress.
They found that plants produce a modifier protein called SUMO that interacts with the growth repressing proteins.
and the repressor proteins they can remove the brakes from plant growth leading to higher yields even
when plants are experiencing stress. The interaction between the proteins can be modified in a number of ways including by conventional plant breeding methods and by biotechnology techniques.
The research was carried out on Thale Cress a model for plant research that occurs naturally throughout most of Europe
and Central asia but the scientists say the mechanism they have found also exists in crops such as barley corn rice and wheat.
and commercial rights are available from Plant Bioscience Limited Durham's commercialisation partner for this technology.
What we have found is a molecular mechanism in plants which stabilises the levels of specific proteins that restrict growth in changing environmental conditions.
This mechanism works independently of the Gibberellin hormone meaning we can use this new understanding for a novel approach to encourage the plant to grow even when under stress.
However not all plants respond in the same way the result of which is that native species eventually may be threatened
By comparing historical observations with current experiments we see that climate change is creating a whole new risk for the native plants in Concord said BU Prof.
and if plants leaf out early in warm years they risk having their leaves damaged by a surprise frost.
In New england plants have to be cautious about leafing out in the early spring. If they leaf out too early their young leaves could suffer from subsequent late frost.
Our current observations show that plants in Concord today are leafing out earlier than in Thoreau's time in response to warm temperatures she said.
The researchers report in the current issue of American Journal of Botany that Agathis was a dominant keystone element of the Patagonian Eocene floras alongside numerous other plant taxa that still associate with it in Australasia and Southeast asia.
--but also many species that are safe and important for plant development. Can the microbial good and evil be told apart?
which have just been discovered in the last 12 years as plant-growth promoting bacteria are said not pathogenic the study's senior author Ann Hirsch a professor of molecular cell and developmental biology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science.
This opens up the possibility of using these particular species for promoting plant growth through the process of nitrogen fixation particularly in areas of climate change.
which helpful bacteria that have entered the roots of plants convert nitrogen in the atmosphere into ammonia
which helps the plants thrive. The findings of Hirsch and her colleagues indicate that several recently discovered Burkholderia species including Burkholderia tuberum could be used--cautiously--in nitrogen fixing.
Bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia such as Burkholderiaare critical for plant growth said Hirsch whose laboratory studies many aspects of the complex symbiosis between plants and bacteria.
Although some members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex have been used to protect plants from dangerous fungal infections their potential to cause infection has resulted in severe limits on their use in agriculture.
It wasn't until many decades after Burkholder's discovery that closely related Burkholderia species were found to enter plant roots not as pathogens
which the bacteria provide nitrogen fertilizer to the plant. Bacteria that cause the formation of these nodules in legumes such as soybeans alfalfa and peanuts are crucial to sustainable agricultural systems Hirsch said.
Previous research using stable isotope analyses suggests the diet of these homimins was composed largely of C4 plants like grasses and sedges.
These differences an be attributed to the shift in the above ground plant community because we did see partial recovery of diazotroph community composition in the secondary forest which have more plant species as compared to pasture.
The perfectly-preserved scene in a plant now extinct is part of a portrait created in the mid-Cretaceous
Researchers from Oregon State university and Germany published their findings on the fossils in the Journal of the Botanical Institute of Texas. The flowers themselves are in remarkable condition as are many such plants
At that time much of the plant life was composed of conifers ferns mosses and cycads. During the Cretaceous new lineages of mammals and birds were beginning to appear along with the flowering plants.
and evolution of these plants through most of the world today he said. It's interesting that the mechanisms for reproduction that are still with us today had already been established some 100 million years ago.
--what is based known as plant or vegetable milks --which are an alternative to conventional yogurts. The products are designed specially for people with allergies to cow's milk lactose or gluten intolerance as well as children and pregnant women.
Furthermore the research conducted offers new clues to improve commercial plant-based milks available in the market today
About plant milksthe milk made â#rom nuts and grains represent an alternative to animal milks and soy milk.
These plant milks are characterized by a profile of healthy fatty acids and carbohydrates with low glycaemic index (suitable for diabetics).
Often, cities plant new trees in a few cubic metres of poor-quality soil, with predictable results.
There's a lot of talk about turning to renewable energy like geothermal plants, but some bathhouse owners are afraid that
if they created geothermal plants, there wouldn't be any hot water for the public baths.
Today, he â¢s a leader in green design making chairs from plant Å trash  and hurricane debris,
With a plant like water hyacinth, it â¢s invasive, so you will never have a supply shortage?
The Plant is a three-story aquaponic farm in Chicago's Back of the Yards Park,
All of these projects will help make The Plant a net-zero  operation.  Jim Parks does a nice job of explaining how it all works in the video below:
but The Plant is becoming more and more operational and expects to be completely up-and-running by 2015.
The Plant will operate under a social enterprise model, meaning there are some aspects that are for-profit
Are projects like The Plant the new industrial? I hope so. Photo: Â Plant Chicago/Flickr h/t AP
An unassuming warrior: Chinese environmentalist Ma Jungrowing up in Beijing in the 1970s, Ma Jun spent his summers fishing
Beverage giant Diageo is also currently constructing a $150-million bioenergy plant in Fife to capitalize on their whiskey waste
000 square feet, a central plant, and parking. Currently, Apple â¢s headquarters can only hold 2,
in order to keep tabs on all the raw data needed to make a farming operation more sustainable--such as the daily evapotranspiration ratio (how quickly the sun will suck up moisture from plants and the dirt) and wind speeds.
because cities don't have to invest as much in expensive storm water treatment plants. They also help filter water impurities.
along with conservation of habitat for plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. Here's what Weikko Jaross
and the one crop he d like to plant, but can t. You ve built an urban farm in an empty lot.
but with radishes and carrots, there are several plants to a crate. So we have about 6, 000 plants.
What does it cost to set up and run? It a little early to tell. But because we re doing it in partnership we have the use of the land.
but totally worth it because some of the plants that got left outside didn t make it.
We have two farmers who take care of the plants. But if you get communities involved
and it doesn t really affect the plants. The only time you would be concerned is with leafy greens
I don't know why it wouldn t be good enough for the plants. But I m not a scientist.
Amazon says the plant material will be selected for its ability to coexist in a microclimate that also suits people.
and nutrients that are beneficial for plant matter. You mentioned Europe is ahead of the game on hydroponics,
since plants can only photosynthesize so much of it. So it's more about perfecting the indoor growing environment.
There was a 152 percent increase in the population of plants per unit of land, and that the average growth rate increased 350 percent.
herbs â Â The cool thing is that we plant three times a year now â spring, summer and fall.
For instance, the thawing permafrost could release nutrients that spur more Arctic plant growth, and those plants then take up some carbon dioxide.
But the scientists studying the area are worried by all the changes. To me, it a spine-tingling feeling,
you'll find Jardins Mossã Â n Costa i Llobera (home to hundreds of varieties of cacti) and the Jardins Mossã Â n Cinto Verdaguer (where 100,000 plants bloom throughout the year.
Throughout the year. 8. Melbourne, Australia Visit the Royal Botanic Gardens for its 12,000-plus species of plants, trees and flowers, the romantic Treasury Gardens, the greenhouses of the Fitzroy Gardens
which features 1. 7 million plants that replace an inefficient traditional hard roof with a field of California poppies, tidy tips, sea pink and other native plants.
plant covered hills that help funnel the cool sea air flowing in from the Pacific ocean into grates.
Drax's state-of-the-art plant runs at nearly 40 percent efficiency, and currently gets about 12.5 percent of its fuel--1. 2 million tonnes (Mt) per year--from wood pellets.
With new capital investment, the plant will get 20 percent of its fuel from pellets later this year,
The Spanish moss that sways gently from the branches of oak trees appeared in Chiang's dish as a backdrop to woodsy lichen flakes and a puree of wild plants.
It's available--especially in the southeast where Virdia plans to located its first plant--sustainable
Turning tobacco plants into factories for cleaner pesticides For more eco-friendly pest control, scientists have modified genetically tobacco plants,
Sweden, created a plant factory for producing moth pheromone: They isolated four key genes involved in the production of natural sex pheromones of two moths:
Genes that code for pheromone biosynthesis were injected into the tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana via bacteria cultures (pictured.
By doing so, the team got the tobacco plants to express genes for moth pheromone production.
Their plant-derived compounds were quite effective at trapping moths in the field--attracting on average 130 male bugs per trap,
Right now, the team still has to prepare baits for trapping insects using their plant-derived pheromone components.
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