or to eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems through water run off. The biologists said crops could be made more efficient in using water through discoveries in plant transport proteins that regulate the stomatal pores in the epidermis of leaves where plants lose more than 90 percent of their water through transpiration.
or escaped cultivation nonnative plants ultimately can become invasive displacing native species degrading habitat and altering critical ecosystem functions.
and restore ecosystems that support all human societies. This is a very important and fundamental process of ecosystem renewal around the planet that we really didn't understand says co-senior investigator Joseph P. Noel professor and director of Salk's Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical
Biology and Proteomics. Now we know the molecular triggers for how it occurs. Noel's co-senior investigator on the project Joanne Chory professor and director of Salk's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology laboratory says the team found the molecular wake-up call for burned forests.
This created an intensely competitive environment that was ultimately detrimental to the entire forest ecosystem.
when plant ecosystems started to flourish on the terrestrial earth and fire became a very important part of ecosystems to free up nutrients locked up in dying and dead plants.
More research is needed to understand exactly how the change in shape of the KAI2 protein activates a genetic pathway that regulates germination says Chory the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical
and how plant ecosystems forests and grasslands renew themselves. The work was supported by the National institutes of health grants 5r01gm52413 and GM094428 National Science Foundation awards EEC-0813570 and MCB-0645794 and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
'In his inaugural address entitled'Crop ecosystems as diverse playing fields'Professor Niels Anten discusses the parallel development of two fields the ecology of natural systems such as forests and the ecology of agriculture.
The study led by Christopher Neill director of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is published this week in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. This entire journal issue
and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Urban Ecosystems at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting to be held April 9-13 in Los angeles. The interdisciplinary forum is attended by more than 7000 scientists from around the world and features an array
which is stressed increasingly by multiple demands for water supply agriculture industry recreation and ecosystem needs. Changes in water supply and demands for water are driven by population growth climate
which form the basis of all known ecosystems and provide critical environmental services such as nitrogen cycling.
and the tops of forests making it valuable for studying cloud-covered tropical environments and mapping flooded ecosystems.
and its livelihood and well-being depend on services provided by marine ecosystems said JPL's Marc Simard one of the campaign's many principal investigators.
and climate change may impact the sustainability of these ecosystems. Another principal investigator Kyle Mcdonald jointly of JPL and the City university of New york Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center (CREST) Institute is leading four data collections that will support the mapping
These ecosystems are potential major sources of atmospheric methane an important greenhouse gas. UAVSAR will help us better understand processes involved with the exchange of methane between Earth's land and atmosphere and with the contribution of these unique ecosystems to Earth's climate.
UAVSAR also is supporting agricultural studies of vineyards in Chile's La Serena region. The efforts will help scientists at the Universidad de La Serena's Terra Pacific Group better understand the value of soil moisture data in grape and wine production.
The effects of acid rain can propagate through aquatic ecosystems such as lakes rivers and wetlands and terrestrial ecosystems including forests
and soils negatively impacting ecological health. Researchers have used now publicly accessible data collected weekly or monthly at numerous monitoring sites during the period from 1980-2010 to track wet deposition of nitrate and sulfate near several U s. and East Asian cities.
Long vilified invasive species can sometimes become an ecosystem asset. New Brown University research published online in the journal Ecology reports exactly such a situation in the distressed salt marshes of Cape cod.
Humans have had far-reaching impacts on ecosystems said author Tyler Coverdale a researcher in the lab of lead author Mark Bertness chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
#Tiny grazers play key role in marine ecosystem healthtiny sea creatures no bigger than a thumbtack are being credited for playing a key role in helping provide healthy habitats for many kinds of seafood according to a new study
Inconspicuous creatures often play big roles in supporting productive ecosystems said Matt Whalen the study's lead author who conducted this work
This research by Virginia Institute of Marine Science and USGS researchers is the first in a series of studies worldwide on seagrass ecosystems.
and streams are a scenic and much loved feature of forest ecosystems but long-term data at the U s. Forest Service's Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest suggests that more productive forests might carry considerably less water according to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
As the need for carbon sequestration biofuels and other forest products increases the study suggests that there might be unintended consequences to enhancing ecosystems using fertilization.
Likens of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and University of Connecticut and Scott Ollinger of the University of New hampshire.
A general decline shows that the ecosystem as a whole faces uncertainty and that other species may be affected in the future.
Rising minimum temperatures may be the best way to predict how climate change will affect an ecosystem said Robert Warren assistant professor of biology at SUNY Buffalo State.
The trees also have other ecosystem functions in the form of carbon sequestration and effects on nutrient cycling and retention.
From a conservation point of view both retention forestry and agroforestry are expected to provide a variety of ecological benefits such as the maintenance and restoration of ecosystem heterogeneity.
It was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Dr Packman said: Tropical and flooded grasslands are among the most threatened ecosystems globally.
The area around the Tonle Sap lake is the largest remaining tropical flooded grassland in Southeast asia.
and on the marginalised rural communities that depend on the grassland ecosystem. The loss of this entire ecosystem from Southeast asia is imminent without immediate intervention.
In 2009 only 173 km of grassland were under some form of protection but by 2011 even these protected areas were shrinking--with 28 per cent lost to intensive cultivation.
which are so important to agriculture and forest ecosystems. Scientists identified Geomyces destructans as the cause of WNS in 2012.
Though total monsoon rainfall is projected to stay the same warmer summer temperatures under climate change will cause more evaporation leaving less water for crops reservoirs and ecosystems.
Griffin said Before I moved to the Southwest I didn't realize how critically important the summer rains are to the ecosystems here.
Although this work suggests that the risk of climate-induced damage to tropical forests will be relatively small the paper does list where the considerable uncertainties remain in defining how ecosystems respond to global warming.
These changes will affect local residents through changes in provisioning ecosystem services such as timber and traditional foods says Research Professor Bruce Forbes University of Lapland Rovaniemi Finland.
They will also impact the global community through changes in regulatory ecosystem services relating to emissions of greenhouse gases.
Population declines among bees have serious consequences for natural ecosystems and agriculture since bees are essential pollinators for many crops
Bats make up a large component of mammalian diversity in forest ecosystems where they play an important role as insect predators.
Studies that show how animals respond to fire help inform the ongoing public policy debate over the role of fire in ecosystem management
Operation Loango Prince Bernhard Wildlife Fund RAPAC The Arcus Foundation The Aspinall Foundation The Born Free Foundation The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at The University of Amsterdam
Exurban residences exist within an otherwise unaltered ecosystem. Exurban homes change the environment by bringing vehicles noise lights pets people
The study was modeled after one conducted in a shrub-oak ecosystem in Colorado where scientists calculated a 180-meter ecological effect zone based on their results.
Glennon and Kretser believe that the similar results in two different ecosystem types may indicate that human behaviors associated with exurban homes play a larger role in shaping avian community characteristics nearby than do created habitat alterations
WCS Adirondack Program Director Zoe Smith said The Adirondack Park is one of the last large intact wild ecosystems in the northeastern United states
aquatic ecosystems; terrestrial wildlife; air quality; and social economic and cultural components--all of which make up socioecological systems.
and birch became the dominant plants in response to warming where the herbivorous animals were excluded from the ecosystem.
The mysteries of how plant viruses can play a role in ecosystem properties and processes in natural ecosystems are emerging more slowly Malmstrom said.
Malmstrom said it's important to catch up in our understanding of viral ecology as there are any number of societal issues that need to be addressed in this area.
On the other hand biochar production that relies on forest ecosystems may result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions they cautioned.
when executed and timed properly reduces the risk and impact of late dry season bushfires in increasingly fragile ecosystems both
In seasonally-dry savanna ecosystems--which dominate nearly half of Africa's surface area--naturally-occurring wildfires are critical to maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function.
Our research is helping transform an age-old practice into a modern-day tool for managing fires and ecosystems in West Africa.
The scientists selected three areas representative of Senegalese savanna ecosystems ranging from the open savanna of the Sahel to the more treed south-Sudanian savanna.
but since time immemorial they have played a role in keeping these ecosystems functioning optimally keeping the domination of some species over others in check said Momadou Sow of the Environmental sciences Institute of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar Senegal.
and can travel large distances destroying infrastructure wreaking havoc on ecosystems releasing millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and costing billions of dollars in damage.
#Southwest regional warming likely cause of pinyon pine cone declinecreeping climate change in the Southwest appears to be having a negative effect on pinyon pine reproduction a finding with implications for wildlife species sharing the same woodland ecosystems says a University
Across a range of forested ecosystems we are observing widespread mortality events due to stressors such as changing climate drought insects
What we feel has been happening is that gradually the integrity of this once-complicated ecosystem has been slowly breaking down
And this year it seems to have hit a tipping point where the various things that are antagonistic to the roya in a complex ecosystem have declined to the point where the disease can escape from them
which inhibits the ability to predict how climate change can affect different ecosystems. The recent study was led by brothers Leander and William Anderegg.*
Forests store about 45 percent of the carbon found on land remarked William. Widespread tree death can radically transform ecosystems affecting biodiversity posing fire risks
Rapid shifts in ecosystems particularly through vegetation die offs could be among the most striking impacts of increased drought
and changing ecosystems to suit its needs. No other ant species had been seen successfully pushing back--until now.
Asian needle ants also appear to be driving out native ant populations in forests--including native species that play important roles in ecosystem processes such as dispersing seeds.
In recent years several prominent summits on ecological concerns have identified biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems as a major sustainability issue with implications for food security conservation health and well-being and adaptation
That's how University of Guelph integrative biologists might recast a line from an iconic folk tune for their new research paper warning about the perils of ecosystem breakdown.
Instead they should encourage more kinds of plants in fields and woods as a buffer against sudden ecosystem disturbance.
Their research confirms that having lots of species in an area helps ecosystems avoid irreversible collapse after human disturbances such as climate change or pest invasion.
Macdougall said the study supports resource management strategies that increase biodiversity on land and in aquatic ecosystems.
--but it's an ecosystem that is more vulnerable to collapse he said adding that this study helps explain why species diversity matters.
and ecosystem stability said many ecosystems are at a tipping point including grasslands that may easily become either woodlands or deserts.
They're a really productive ecosystem that produces year in and year out and seems stable
But if this effect declines or climate warming occurs due to something other than a carbon dioxide increase we expect to see a significant release of carbon from tropical ecosystems.
Our research has shed light on the former but the latter remains a significant pressure on this ecosystem.
Astonishing ten new species of semiaquatic freshwater earthworms revealedthe semiaquatic earthworms in the genus Glyphidrilus are somewhat unfamiliar species that live between the terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems of rivers streams canals
This particular ecosystem between the earth and the sea plays a major role in protecting the particularly unstable muddy coastline (2) against erosion.
#Amazon freshwater ecosystems are vulnerable to degradationa study published in Conservation Letters this week found that freshwater ecosystems in the Amazon are highly vulnerable to environmental degradation.
River lake and wetland ecosystems--encompassing approximately one-fifth of the Amazon basin area--are being degraded increasingly by deforestation pollution construction of dams
Damage to Amazon freshwater ecosystems greatly impacts Amazonians who historically have been so dependent on freshwater ecosystem goods
Little attention has been paid to freshwater ecosystems which through the hydrological cycle are interconnected to other ecosystems at local and distant locations being highly sensitive to a broad array of human impacts.
Despite some terrestrial protections that are high by global standards this paper shows key gaps in protection for the Amazon's freshwater systems
The principal threat to most Amazon freshwater ecosystems is large-scale alteration of the basin's natural hydrology.
Adequate protection of Amazon freshwater ecosystems requires broadening the forest-centric focus of prevailing environmental management
and conservation strategies to encompass aquatic ecosystems. By building upon existing protected areas it is possible to develop a river catchment-based conservation framework that protects both aquatic
and terrestrial ecosystems effectively protecting the Amazon river-forest system. The Amazon watershed spans six countries with Brazil Bolivia and Peru accounting for most of the area.
but the case with Amazon freshwater ecosystems is different because no one talks about it. Their problem has been concealed said Castello.
We now need to do the same for these aquatic ecosystems. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Woods Hole Research center.
According to the entomologist hoverflies are present in practically all terrestrial ecosystems and they carry out very important biological functions such as pollination nutrient recycling
#How plant communities endure stressthe Stress Gradient Hypothesis holds that as stress increases in an ecosystem mutually supportive interactions become more significant and negative interactions such as competition become less so.
when ecosystems become threatened by conditions such as drought. Ecologists have argued about the hypothesis ever since Brown University ecologist Mark Bertness co-proposed it in 1994;
These findings were consistent across fitness measures stress types growth forms life histories origins climatic zones ecosystems and methodologies.
The hypothesis suggests for example that marine ecosystem managers who want to help tropical fish should focus on sustaining foundational species in the ecosystem such as corals.
With the ecosystem's foundation shored up the natural tendency among species toward greater positive interactions under stress should allow the fish to weather stress better.
One quarter of CO2 emissions are going to terrestrial ecosystems but the details of those processes and how they will respond to a changing climate are understood inadequately particularly for tropical forests Chambers said.
Large-scale tree mortality in tropical ecosystems could thus act as a positive feedback mechanism accelerating the global warming effect.
and forest ecosystems becomes ever more important. We need to establish a baseline so we can say how these forests functioned before we changed the climate Chambers said.
When fishermen hook too many predatory fishes out of the marsh's ecosystem the fishes'prey go on fruitfully multiplying unchecked.
Alone the ditches did not fundamentally alter the marsh ecosystem. The species that colonized the ditches were already present in the marsh;
By learning what factors control those tipping points impacts on ecosystems can be averted through monitoring and occasional intervention strategies.
but ecosystems become overloaded because of inadequate practices of handling ensures the scientist. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United nations (FAO) nowadays the largest number of goats can be found in the poorest of countries and especially those
For example the uncontrolled growth of the cashmere goat to increase production of its prized wool has meant in some cases that the ecosystems have become overloaded.
and in controlling exotic vegetation plagues that could put ecosystems at risk. We wanted to perform a global review taking into account very different regions of the world from the Himalayan peaks to tropical areas
D'Odorico said that in most cases where land has been acquired there is a switch from natural ecosystems--such as forests
These results reveal that we do not know ye the behavior of those ecosystems that we aim to preserve.
Large-scale droughts can lead to sustained releases of carbon dioxide from decaying wood affecting ecosystems and Earth's carbon cycle.
Saatchi said such megadroughts can have long-lasting effects on rainforest ecosystems. Our results suggest that
This may alter the structure and function of Amazonian rainforest ecosystems. The team found that the area affected by the 2005 drought was much larger than scientists had predicted previously.
and analyzes its likely effects on human health water energy transportation agriculture forests ecosystems and biodiversity.
To test for scale dependence in the field they then chose three study sites from very different ecosystems across the United states each straddling an invasion front:
because you've found every species that's present in that ecosystem type Knight says. At an invaded site you reach that plateau later
Invasive plants have negative impacts on plant communities at smaller scales--the scales that are crucial for necessary ecosystem services like water management and nutrient cycling.
and increase the abundances of these native species so that they can contribute to critical ecosystem services
These findings may be a bellwether of the radical changes in ecosystem stability that could result from anticipated future increases in extreme events.
They chose this simple ecosystem because it is composed of just three herbivores in the winter--the wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) the Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea)
Svalbard's relatively simple ecosystem which lacks specialist predators combined with large weather fluctuations from year to year
and strong climate signals in the population dynamics of herbivores are the likely explanations for how such clear climate effects can be observed at the ecosystem level.
and extreme events may have important implications for ecosystem functioning and stability in the circumpolar Arctic in the future.
The team's next steps will be to process data to understand more about climate change impacts on this high elevation ecosystem
and U s. Geological Survey satellite program is resulting in for the first time the ability to tease out the small events that can cause big changes in an ecosystem.
while having the smallest effect possible on downstream ecosystems. This study shows that at least in some areas it is possible to remove a large part of the tree biomass from a watershed with a very minimal effect on the stream ecosystem he said.
Understory vegetation left intact after beetle outbreaks gains an ecological advantage in terms of survival and growth since small trees no longer have to compete with large trees
and Gene Likens of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook N y. The severe pine beetle epidemic in Colorado
However a forest contributes more ecosystem services than timber production such as biological diversity carbon storage and berries.
Many people have suggested that high diversity of tree species has a favorable impact on processes in the ecosystem
or ecosystem service at a time says Lars Gamfeldt from University of Gothenburg who directed the new study.
By examining the role played by the occurrence of diverse tree species for six different ecosystem services (tree growth carbon storage berry production food for wildlife occurrence of dead wood
The study also investigated the relationship between the various ecosystem services. For example high tree growth appears to be negatively related to the production of both berries and food for wildlife and to the occurrence of dead wood.
Sometimes you have to consider trade-offs between different ecosystem services says Jon Moen from Ume㥠University.
and nature conservation stand to gain by promoting a greater variety of tree types thereby providing more diverse ecosystem services says Jan Bengtsson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. Over the last 50 years most environmental science has focused on the impact of climate change.
It's really the engineer of its ecosystem. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by San diego State university.
#How beavers have affected ecosystem at Voyageurs National Parkfelling trees building dams and creating ponds--beavers have a unique ability to alter the landscape in ways that are beneficial to other organisms according to South dakota State university professor Carol Johnston of the natural resource management department.
That's why they are known as a keystone species. The ecologist received a two-year National Science Foundation grant for more than $143000 to compile a book based on her previous NSF-funded research on how beavers have affected the ecosystem at Voyageurs national park near
Environmental flows for ecosystem services in rivers natural and novellast spring the Colorado river reached its delta for the first time in 16 years flowing into Pacific ocean at the Gulf of california after wetting 70 miles of long-dry channels through the Sonoran Desert.
Environmental flows for natural hybrid and novel riverine ecosystems in a changing worldthere are two primary ways to achieve environmental flows of water necessary to sustain river ecosystems write Mike Acreman
and ecosystem services in mind and hands-off policies that minimize or reverse alterations to the natural flow of the river.
Designers work to create a functional ecosystem or support ecosystem services under current conditions rather than recreate a historical ecosystem.
Achieving ecological objectives requires planning beyond minimum flows and indicator species to encompass seasonal floods
when ecosystems can capitalize on the flow lest water releases do more harm than good.
and get the maximum value from ecosystem services river systems need to fluctuate in natural rhythms of volume velocity
As nonnative species land development and climate change remodel river ecosystems it is no longer easy to define what is natural for river systems.
and entire ecosystems can be threatened. But in our research we turn the argument on its head
At the present time humankind utilises 40 per cent of the production from land-based ecosystems
whereas only 1 per cent of the seas'ecosystems are utilised currently. Unfortunately this percentage at present consists largely of ruthless exploitation;
and other tiny creatures to the structure of grasslands and the valuable ecosystem services they provide.
During a 3-year study researchers found that removing these small animals from the soil of a replicated Scottish sheep meadow altered the plant species that grew in the ecosystem reduced overall productivity
and carbon to cycle in ecosystems but there was little evidence that human-induced loss of these animals has effects at the level of the whole ecosystem on services such as agricultural yield said Mark Bradford an Associate professor at the Yale
But when we ran it out through 500 days we did actually find huge changes in the ecosystem processes including productivity of the plants Bradford says.
These findings emphasize how interconnected the belowground and aboveground components of ecosystems are and that different ecosystem processes respond in different ways to the management of grasslands said Stephen Wood'11 M. E. Sc. a doctoral student at Columbia University
and and co-author of the study. In this case the loss of soil animal diversity eventually changed the dominant plant species in the meadow ecosystems
and then in turn the productivity of these grasslands and how they responded to agricultural management Bradford said.
and Ecosystem Functioning Lab at CSU headed by biology Professor Diana Wall director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability and a corresponding author on the study.
#Biodiversity does not always improve resistance of forest ecosystems to droughtscientists from INRA in collaboration with WSL (Switzerland)
what was accepted commonly by scientists species diversity does not systematically improve tree resistance to drought in forest ecosystems.
It is known however that biodiversity can promote forest ecosystem performance and resistance to insect pests and diseases but whether or not diverse forests are adapted also better to deal with drought stress remains unknown.
Therefore managing forest ecosystems for high tree species diversity alone does not necessarily ensure forest adaptability to possible future severe drought events.
and thus maintain ecosystem functions under drought stress. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by INRA-France.
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