#Head Lice: Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention A sesame seed-size parasite that feeds on human blood the head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) is known a nuisance around the world.
A plant called the scourge of the South#has a new strike against it. Recent research shows that the impact of the invasive species in question kudzu is more troublesome than had been thought previously.
Introduced to the US as a handful of plants in 1876 this invader now occupies over 3m hectares of land in the US largely in the southeast of the country.
The plant moves like a wave smothering everything in its wake trees utility poles and even buildings.
It is a member of the legume family of plants like beans and grows in a vine-like manner laying down roots
Originally introduced as an ornamental plant and then for livestock feed and erosion control it has
In addition to the damage it inflicts by overwhelming other plants kudzu has indirect effects as well. Most notably it carries the kudzu bug#.
In fact there is more carbon stored in soil than in the atmosphere and in terrestrial plants combined.
Soil carbon comprises roots from plants dead matter and waste from plants and animals and a vast population of microbes.
Together they are known as soil organic matter. Much of this comes from plants mainly dead leaves
but also from dead roots as well as stems branches and tree trunks that have fallen to the ground. The carbon in the organic matter largely stays locked away in the soil like an enormous reservoir.
In a paper published in the journal New Phytologist plant ecologist Nishanth Tharayil and graduate student Mioko Tamura of Clemson University show that kudzu invasion results in an increase of carbon released from the soil organic matter into the atmosphere.
and roots become the major plant contributors to the soil organic matter replacing pines'contribution. This has a threefold effect.
That is kudzu material primes#the soil microbes to be more effective at degrading the plant material in the soil including that previously contributed by pines.
The net result of these three effects is that plant material is degraded more rapidly it doesn t persist like it did in the pine forests.
Instead the findings point to the fact that plant composition in different ecosystems could actually be managed to reinforce carbon retention in the soil
In the meantime though we are going to have to find a way to restrain the plant that ate the south before it loads our skies with more carbon.
After long focusing on fuel economy and energy production environmentalists and scientists are now promoting a diet of more plants and less meat to slow climate change but why?
As a result of animal agriculture's impact on climate change organizations like the Natural resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club support eating more plant-based meals.
A Carnegie mellon University study found that eating plant-based meals even just one day a week reduces more greenhouse gases than eating exclusively local foods every day (a practice some people admirably
whom are now eating primarily a plant-based diet. Famed director James cameron became vegan and advocates meat reduction for conservation reasons.
With more people sharing our mutual responsibility to reduce carbon footprints by shifting to plant-based meals we have reason to be hopeful for our planet's future.
Murals in Teotihuacan depict agave plants which are also known as maguey plants and physically resemble aloe.
Tequila is made also from agave plants but these liquors are made from the baked hearts of these crops not the sap.)
5 Bad Habits You Should Still Quit There is nothing inherently masculine about putting a bunch of plant in your mouth
and chewing it or lighting the plant on fire and smoking it and the same goes for tanning
#oebiodiversity offsetting#protecting animals and plants in one area to make up for negative impacts in another is used increasingly by companies such as mining firms as a way to boost their corporate responsibility
The problem with just looking at the number of hectares involved is that this simplistic measure reveals nothing about the true benefits of the offset how the project helps to conserve Madagascar s lemurs plants
Should we look at mammals birds reptiles or plants? What if the two sites have different biodiversity?
Yet when we measured more direct attributes in this case study such as the plant or bird diversity lost
For example the total amount of habitat lost through mining could vary from 680 hectares using the vertical structure method compared with 1480 hectares using plant diversity as a measure.
when calculated according to the amount of utilitarian plant diversity lost to local communities. So back to my initial question:
#Dino-Killing Impact Remade Plant kingdom, Too The killer meteorite that extinguished the dinosaurs also torched North america's forests and plants.
because the plants couldn't adapt to post-impact climate swings researchers report today (Sept. 16) in the journal PLOS Biology.
Other plants in the ancient forests included beeches cycads gingkoes ferns and palm trees. See Photos of a Fossilized Forest in the Canadian Arctic Fossil records show that angiosperms of all kinds thrived before a meteorite
In North america about 60 percent of plant species went extinct according to earlier studies After the blaze deciduous angiosperms
Based on their analysis the researchers said the properties of the plant leaves likely helped them withstand the bleak climate.
The impact winter pushed ecosystems toward plants with faster growing strategies Blonder told Live Science in an email interview.
Leaves represent a drain on a plant's resources when photosynthesis can't occur. Thus deciduous species should be favored over evergreen species he said.
The researchers analyzed leaf mass per area which indicates how much carbon a plant invests in growing a leaf.
whether the leaf was a chunky expensive one to make for the plant or whether it was a more flimsy cheap one Blonder said.
The scientists also looked at leaf vein density a measure of how fast a plant takes up carbon.
Our study provides evidence of a dramatic shift from slow-growing plants to fast-growing species Blonder said.
#Zhang who worked at a cacao research center in Peru for a decade decided to use the seed coat of the cacao bean to extract the DNA needed to make a positive identification of the plant's origins.
to power the greenhouse with a linked concentrated solar power plant; and to produce the heat needed to warm
Improving crops through plant breeding has always been a core part of farming and gardening. Farmers would freely exchange their seed with others
Scientific plant breeders do essentially the same thing and free exchange of seeds and the freedom to use them for the breeding of additional varieties has been a key component of agricultural progress.
whose aim is to free the seed that is to make sure that the genes in at least some plant seeds can never be locked away from use by intellectual property rights.
OSSI kicked off its outreach activities on the University of Wisconsin campus on April 17 this year with members plant breeders seed companies
so plant breeders at universities and small seed companies usually cannot use patented seed to breed the new crop varieties that should be sustainable alternatives to the conventional cultivars of the big commercial firms.
In order to continually improve our crops to feed the world s rapidly growing population farmers and plant breeders need access to the best genetic resources.
and plant breeders and to foster a conversation about plant breeders'continued freedom to operate.#
They associate with the vast majority of plants in a symbiosis called mycorrhiza. Living both within plant roots
and out in the soil they gather nutrients for the plant and protect it against diseases
and water stress enhancing plant growth in exchange for sugars the plant produces via photosynthesis. Without their fungal assistants plants as we know them would not exist.
Other fungi are vital decomposers and return nutrients stored in organic matter to the soil. While the most fungi are beneficial some fungi are devastating plant pathogens
while a small number of fungi can cause disease in humans such as ringworm trichosporonosis or aspergillosis.
they get all the water they need from the plants they eat. However they do drink
Traditional LED lights lack the ultraviolet rays plants need to thrive he said but new bulbs do a better job of mimicking the sun. The lights use less electricity
As big business moves in they worry that agricultural companies will create genetically modified plants
and replant seeds from the resulting plants. Companies like seed producer Monsanto sometimes sue farmers who violate these agreements.
if their plants unintentionally cross-pollinate with a patented plant they'll be held responsible and sued.
and regulation of marijuana concentrates which extract the active ingredients of the plant with solvents such as butane.
The most potent plants top out at a concentration of 29 percent THC or tetrahydrocannabinol the mind-altering compound in marijuana Khalatbari said.
They found that 73.6 percent of the nests were built with the plant species Cynometra alexandri
while at the same time removing several hundred government inspectors from slaughter plants. At those slaughter plants workers often haphazardly shackle live birds on already fast-moving lines.
It's such an imprecise process that nearly a million birds are stunned inadequately and slaughtered every year according to the USDA.
while conscious resulting in more fecal contamination and as the Washington post described more potential for animal suffering and food safety problems at chicken slaughter plants.
but is still aiming to cut 800 government inspectors at poultry plants allowing further self-regulation in the chicken industry.
If this prompts more Americans to eat less meat and more plant-based meals good.
I'm familiar with the Welwitschia plant or the Welwitschia is something you've never seen before
Beta carotene is also present in many plants but especially in tomatoes spinach pumpkins sweet potato and of course carrots.
The U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) responded quickly to shut down a New jersey slaughterhouse plant after The HSUS asked for enforcement action
The plant manager warned workers not to take some of these actions when the USDA inspector was around an indirect admission that he knew that workers were breaking the law on animal handling.
The USDA requires euthanasia for downed adult cattle at slaughter plants but the rule excludes calves.
This plant should be closed down immediately. It took an HSUS undercover investigation released in 2008 to prompt USDA a year later to act on our longstanding demand that downed dairy cows not be abused.
While we applaud USDA for shutting down this plant we should not need HSUS investigations to call out these abuses plant by plant.
Since the investigation and the suspension of the inspectors at the plant the plant reopened after being closed for two weeks.
However the suspension was lifted only after the plant identified corrective and preventive measures to bring the facility into compliance with the humane handling requirements.
This article was adapted from HSUS Undercover Investigation Shutters NJ Slaughter Plant which first appeared on the HSUS blog A Humane Nation.
It was likely omnivorous eating plants eggs and perhaps small animals. One of the specimens was found with debris of shells
and gather piles of plants to eat during the long alpine winters. The mammal's body is shaped like a ball to help conserve heat.
There are early hints that a vegetation threshold may exist Varner said meaning that pikas need a certain number of plants to maintain a population.
what it has started already said Deyette the co-author of Ripe for Retirement a 2013 study on aging coal plants.
which plants convert the sun s energy into sugars for growth and storage. In wheat like in other crops this process results in more energy-rich grains.
Traditional agricultural modification requires breeding plants for these traits; genetic engineering speeds up the process by plucking beneficial genes from one organism
or grate the plant materials into small pieces as you prepare your dye. You also may want to add white vinegar to your dye.
With vegetables and fruits use 1 cup of water and 2 or 3 teaspoons of vinegar for every handful of plant material.
Put the mixture of plant material water and vinegar into a saucepan and bring it to a gentle boil for at least 5 minutes then strain out the plant material
and allow the dye to cool before submerging your eggs. You may want to hard-boil the eggs first
Use small test squares of white cotton or wool and experiment with different plant materials or even colored soils like yellow ochre or red clay.
Some common plants in your yard can be irritating to the skin and can be ingested toxic
In a young forest plants tend to grow at a relatively close range to one another.
Because it produces less heat the light can be moved closer to the plants. This increases efficiency not just in terms of energy use but by allowing layers of growing plants to be packed more densely making more efficient use of space.
LED lights can be tuned to emit only a narrow wavelength of light they can be combined to create perfect lighting that provide light on the ideal spectrum for a plant s growth.
Evidence is emerging that specific wavelengths of light have distinct effects on crop yield quality and even pest and disease resistance.
but large enough to digest a lot of plants because plant matter contains few digestible nutrients. Sloths known in Spanish as los perezosos (the lazies) have evolved adaptations to the constraints of life in the trees.
Two-toed sloths have relatively large home ranges and consume a varied diet of animal matter fruit and leaves.
As for marijuana whose legalization for medical uses has been a matter of strong public policy debate for years there is ample evidence that beneficial compounds can be found in the plant.
or obese are consuming a mostly plant-based diet. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published an even bigger study in June 2010 involving roughly 100000 men and 270000 women between the ages of 25 and 70 in 10 European countries.
or plants only is much less important. If you don't have the stomach to cut out meat entirely switching to poultry
while switching to pork would achieve at least 80 percent of the methane abatement you would get from only eating plants.
They usually come from plant materials. The new fuel would put agricultural waste to work instead of diverting food crops to make biofuels.
But critics have said biofuel production causes food shortages by replacing edible crops with plants intended for use in fuels.
#Simple Plant science Experiments for Kids Interacting with plants is good for kids but even when it's too cold to get outside
and into the yard or garden you can still use some simple plant science experiments to sharpen your little ones interest in seeds and plants.
Point out that new baby plants grow from seeds that must be protected and moved to new ground where they can grow.
Ask children what a plant needs to grow. Obtain several small flowerpots and a packet of fast-sprouting seeds (see suggestions above).
Plant seeds in several pots kept under different conditions and compare the growth of the plants.
Observe how crowding affects the growing plants. Plants and gardening can provide endless opportunities for observation and experimentation.
Try some of these activities indoors. When the weather finally warms expand your observations to the great outdoors!
By tracing back the ancestry of any domesticated plant we can better understand the genetic evolution of that species and the origin of agriculture a major step in human evolution in different regions of the world.
and ecological predictions of where the plant might have grown in climates of the past. They even looked at which ancient vocabularies included words for chili peppers.
Christine Hastorf a researcher at the University of California Berkeley who studies ancient humans'use of plants says combining multiple data sets
and look for traces of ancient plants Hastorf said. Hastorf also thinks it is interesting that the genetic data pointed to northeastern Mexico as the origin for chili farming.
These plants were domesticated likely elsewhere in the continent in the Andes and eastern Amazon but seem to have been brought to Huaca Prieta more than 7000 years ago.
The freshwater comes from agricultural runoff and releases from wastewater treatment plants. The seawater ran north through the Rio Hardy a series of swampy wetlands and mudflats that drains 15 miles (24 km) downstream into Gulf waters.
The goal is bring back the plants and animals that once thrived in the river's outlet.
they eat both plants and meat. Primarily they eat grass and seeds but they also eat insects
and shoots of plants. According to Endangered Wildlife and Plants of the World Volume 5 (Marshall Cavendish Corp. 2001) some gazelles can live their entire lives
and never drink any water. The taxonomy of gazelles according to ITIS is: There are many vulnerable and endangered species of gazelle.
Plants including potatoes wheat and rice require even fewer resources the researchers also reported. Compared to plants nonbeef animals require an average of six times as much land half as much irrigation water two times as much greenhouse-gas emissions and three times as much fertilizer use.
In contrast the same number of calories from beef is much more taxing on the environment requiring 160 times more land eight times more irrigation water 11 times more greenhouse-gas emissions and 19 times more fertilizer
than plants according to the researchers. The costs include the land water and fertilizer needed to grow food for the animals.
Bark acts as the protective outer layer on trees that protects the plant from drought and shields against radiation.
For most mammals the sweet-taste receptor that responds to sugars in plant-based carbohydrates is made up of two proteins:
Climate, Animals & Plants The Devonian period occurred from 416 million to 358 million years ago.
Plants which had begun colonizing the land during the Silurian period continued to make evolutionary progress during the Devonian.
Reproduction was by male and female spores that are accepted as being the precursors to seed-bearing plants.
By the end of the Devonian period the proliferation of plants increased the oxygen content of the atmosphere considerably
Arthropod fossils are concurrent with the earliest plant fossils of the Silurian. Millipedes centipedes and arachnids continued to diversify during the Devonian period.
Although up to 70 percent of invertebrate species died terrestrial plants and animals were unaffected largely by these extinction events.
It's true that bees collect pollen from plants Costa said and honey has pollens in it from the local area.
The top 10 is designed to bring attention to the unsung heroes who are addressing the biodiversity crisis by working to complete an inventory of Earth's plants animals
See Photos of the Top 10 New Species Beautiful beasties The species honored with a place on the top 10 list range from plant to animal to fungus.
Plants may also finally green up #and put an end to the extended wildfire season
Because of Madagascar s island isolation most of its plant and animal species are found nowhere else in the world.
and the surrounding southern Appalachians said Howard Neufeld a plant physiologist at Appalachian State university in North carolina.
#New Clues to Evolution of Flowering Forests Flowering plants are the most successful group of plants On earth.
and makes up 90 percent of all plant life on land. The first fossils of flowering plants or angiosperms resembled the brush that grows along fast-flowing streams and rivers.
In the new study scientists sought clues by comparing modern forests to fossil plants. The team measured leaves from top to bottom in two tropical forests in Panama and one temperate forest in Maryland.
because a litter assemblage is the closest analog to a fossil flora the leaves that have fallen from the trees accumulated on the ground
Vein density is a promising and exciting technique for gathering information on plant metabolism from fossils Crifã said in an email interview.
But an innovative technology used to grow plants on specialized films could bring farms to the desert no soil required.
Plants grown in the hydrogel membrane spread their roots throughout the top of the film.
and nutrients from a culture medium underneath it delivering water and nutrients to the plants on top
and highly nutritious vegetables because the membrane keeps the plants separated from any pathogens in the culture medium allowing only the water
Combining mountain snow with the essence of certain plants such as jasmine and rose the Moors were making gelato long before it became popular in Italy.
In addition to maintaining a plant-based diet vegans abstain from purchasing or wearing various clothing items made with leather wool fur or silk.
For some study participants plant-based diets lowered blood pressure better than did prescription hypertension medicine and without the medication's side effects.
Scientists theorize that plant-based diets are naturally lower in saturated fat and sodium and high in potassium
Nevertheless Barnard a well-known proponent of the vegan diet said that any movement toward a plant-centric diet would bring health benefits.
#Chernobyl Trees Barely Decomposed, Study Finds Almost 30 years ago the world's attention was fixed on Chernobyl the nuclear power plant in Ukraine that exploded in one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.
and leaves at the contaminated site don't decay at nearly the same rate as plants elsewhere researchers have found.
As with any plant carrots are a combination of hundreds of different chemicals including beta-carotene
Dissecting exactly which chemicals in plants are observed responsible for health benefits is notoriously tricky.##oewe may be able to figure this out as white carrots are rich in polyacetylenes
Highway and utility crews use glyphosate to control plant growth along roadsides and along utility lines.
Glyphosate isn't a selective weed-killer it harms a lot plants. One of the plants it's wiping out is milkweed the sole source of food for monarch butterfly larvae.
The only plant on which a monarch will lay its eggs. From 1999 to 2010 roughly the decade after glyphosate use took off milkweeds declined 60 percent in the Midwest
and monarch populations fell about 80 percent. Last winter researchers counted an all-time low of 33.5 million monarchs at their Mexican wintering grounds.
what particular plant attracted the butterflies at the coffee farm but there are a number of sweet-smelling plants around the area.
Perhaps there was something they liked. Their visit made me more appreciative of the science that goes into figuring all this Out in the case of monarchs the science is clear.
and other plants that bees love the AP reports. Livestock can also use these pastures to graze.
Feeding bees may help them stave off illness the agency hopes particularly in an agricultural landscape dominated by corn soybean and cotton not the insects'preferred plants.
#Prehistoric Poop Reveals Neanderthals Ate Plants Don't call them brutes. Neanderthals ate their veggies. Traces of 50000-year-old poop found at a caveman campground in Spain suggest that modern humans'prehistoric cousins may have had a healthy dose of plants in their diet researchers say.
The findings published today (June 25) in the journal PLOS ONE are based on chemicals lingering in bits of fossilized feces perhaps the oldest human poop known to science.
Archaeologists found residues of fish scales bird feathers and starchy plants at a Neanderthal cave in the Rhone Valley in France.
A 2010 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identified microfossils of plants such as date palms legumes and grass seeds stuck in Neanderthal teeth.
when the gut breaks down phytosterol a cholesterol-like compound that comes from plants. The researchers billed their study as the first direct evidence that Neanderthals had an omnivorous diet.
We cannot say anything about what kind of plants they were actually eating but some scientists have suggested that in this area they probably had access to berries nuts
but it also means the plants can't photosynthesize. Instead they live on storage water explained lead researcher Stefania Mambelli a plant ecophysiologist at UCB.
Mambelli and her colleagues have raised giant sequoia and coast redwood seedlings in a nursery and shut off water to the plants for six weeks to mimic drought conditions.
Scientists are concerned also that climate change could bring a new danger to the giant sequoias via diseases.
and plants that can resist climate stresses. Farmers have done much of this for millennia but now they have to do more
or yogurt and dry sausages and foods of plant origin such as sauerkraut and olives fruits cereals meat or fish she said.
If you believe this article from Collective Evolution a site that claims to be one of the worlds most popular alternative media company#there is currently DNA from genetically modified plants floating in your blood that must be causing some harm.
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