#Precipitation declines in Pacific Northwest mountainsrecent Forest Service studies on high-elevation climate trends in the Pacific Northwest United states show that streamflow declines tie directly to decreases
Scientists believe the driving factors behind this finding relates to natural climate variations and man-made climate change.
Our research says Luce suggests that an alternative mechanism--decreases in winter winds leading to decreased precipitation--may compound the changes expected from warming alone.
Acknowledging the effects of decreasing precipitation requires changes in how resource specialists approach climate change adaptation for water resources
Commercial production of onions relies on cultivars tailored to the environment they are grow in responding to the right combination of day length
and breed products adapted to different and changing environments. Onion is the second largest vegetable crop in New zealand with 586000 tonnes produced each year
which indicated that culling hadn't reduced transmission said U-M population ecologist and epidemiologist Pejman Rohani senior author of the PNAS paper (the first author is Julie Blackwood a former postdoctoral research associate in Rohani's lab who is now at Williams College).
The journal Ecological Engineering recently published the results of the study by Forest Service Southern Research Station scientists Ying Ouyang Ted Leininger and Matt Moran.
One of the largest coastal and river basins in the world the area is also one of the most affected by floods erosion and sediment deposition as a result of more than a century of converting bottomland hardwood forests to agricultural lands.
The new forest areas would also provide regional economic and environmental benefits by not only improving water quality but also wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
House cleaning for company can burn calories as can shoveling snow playing with children and putting up decorations.
and neighbors drop off canned goods at a food pantry check out an exhibit at a museum or build a snowman.
Researchers identify genetic fingerprints of endangered conifersin the tropics and subtropics many evergreen conifers are endangered.
Biologists at the Ruhr-Universitã¤t Bochum (RUB) have collected the world's largest Podocarpaceae collection.
#Genetic mutation increases risk of Parkinsons disease from pesticidesa team of researchers has brought new clarity to the picture of how gene-environmental interactions can kill nerve cells that make dopamine.
In fact we observed the detrimental effects of these pesticides with short exposures to doses well below EPA-accepted levels said Scott Ryan Ph d. researcher in the Del E. Webb Center
While the study clearly shows the relationship between a mutation the environment and the damage done to dopamine-containing neurons it does not exclude other mutations
and the environment interact to contribute to Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS.
in order to predict who should avoid a particular environmental exposure. Moreover we will be able to screen for patients who may benefit from a specific therapy that can prevent treat
The group then tested a number of factors that addressed both ecological conditions (describing forests soils climate
and mapped the most important environmental factors contributing to bonobo occurrence. The researchers found that distance from agricultural areas was the most important predictor of bonobo presence.
Nikki Rust of the University's Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) said:''This research has shown for the first time that livestock guarding dogs can successfully be used in South africa to protect livestock from attack by predators as large as leopards or small as jackals.'
#Increasing cropping frequency offers opportunity to boost food supplyharvesting existing cropland more frequently could substantially increase global food production without clearing more land for agriculture according to a new study from the Institute on the Environment (Ione) at the University
The study published in Environmental Research Letters tracked global harvest trends of 177 crops between 1961 and 2011.
Increased harvest frequency also holds potential for mitigating risk under a changing climate. Worldwide the researchers found that closing harvest gaps worldwide could theoretically boost production more than 44 percent.
Depending on local environmental conditions agronomic practices and social contexts increasing cropland harvest frequency could present a short-term gain in crop production with long-term losses in agricultural yields and environmental conditions.
The challenge for our generation is to meet growing food demands without destroying our environment.
and carbon cycles through the atmosphere and land-based ecosystems but exactly how it does this vital job is understood poorly.
and bacteria be sequenced to inform research on perennial plant growth ecosystem function and plant microbe interactions.
which are probably responsible for its large appetite for phosphorus said Francis Martin one of the senior authors on the paper and lead for the Cluster of Excellence Advanced Research on the Biology of Tree and Forest Ecosystems (ARBRE
but desert poplar is adapted well to extreme desert environments and is an important species for studying the effects of salt stresses on trees.
#The reality behind Europes response to climate changebritish cities--unlike their counterparts on the mainland--are taking the lead in making plans to curb
and handle the impact of climate change. So says Diana Reckien of Columbia University in the US in a study published in Springer's journal Climatic Change that analysed the relevant strategic policies and planning documents of 200 urban areas in eleven European countries.
How cities respond to climate change is important as they are responsible for 31 to 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Cities are particularly vulnerable to climate hazards due to their high density of people their assets and infrastructure.
On the other hand such urban areas are unencumbered by the complicated international negotiations that hamper climate change action at the international level.
Reckien's team funded by the European Science Foundation COST Action TU0902 studied the response to climate change issues of 200 large and medium-sized cities in eleven European countries.
and development actions that lead to the abatement or reduction of vulnerability to climate change and mitigation plans that include actions such as improved energy efficiency
Dutch cities are the most ambitious aiming to be'carbon-''climate-'or'energy-neutral'(100 percent reduction target) by 2050 or earlier.
but fall short of the 80 percent emission reduction recommended to the avoid global mean temperature rising by more than 2°C. To better understand the global climate change response
The increase in methane emissions during the late Holocene came primarily from the tropics with some contribution from the extratropical Northern hemisphere.
because it is exposed to air and the environment repeatedly. What is the science behind the pop-up thermometer in the turkey how does it work?
and surroundings including bedding and grazing areas.#¢#¢Wild turkeys are birds that were domesticated not or fed by humans--they're essentially hunted for the meal.
study in locusts suggestsa team of scientists has shown how the environment shapes learning and memory by training locusts like Pavlov's dog to associate different smells with reward or punishment.
because it provides new insights into how animals can quickly switch between very different life styles that are adapted to different environments.
and memory capabilities to cope with the new environment in which they find themselves says Dr Jeremy Niven from the University of Sussex.
The new results show how brains do not solve problems'in a vacuum'but in interaction with the environment.
if you let it interact with the environment. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Leicester.
The latest weapon in combatting climate changeas U n. climate talks continue in Warsaw soon a flying insect-like robot developed by scientists at Wake Forest University will give an unprecedented look at Peru's tropical cloud
forest one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and a key indicator of global climate change.
A research team led by conservation biologist Miles Silman will launch two different drones to conduct climate research in the region giving a never-before-seen bird's eye view of one of the most difficult locations in the world to study.
Researchers received funding from the National Science Foundation and Wake Forest's Center for Energy Environment and Sustainabilitydrones Deliver a Bird's eye Viewone of the researchers'robots a copter drone relies on eight small propeller units
Silman who has spent his career conducting research in the tropics said data is collected currently via remote satellite sensing or manually from the ground or a crane.
Invasive plants are more likely to be replaced by other invasivesamong the most impressive ecological findings of the past 25 years is the ability of invasive plants to radically change ecosystem function.
whether ecosystem impacts of invasions persist over time and what that means for plant communities and ecosystem restoration.
UC Santa barbara's Carla D'Antonio Schuyler Professor of Environmental Studies has conducted one of the only long-term studies of plant invader impacts that spans two decades.
and gain insight into how plant invasions changed over time without management said D'Antonio who also is a professor in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology.
Nonnative plants can have very large impacts on ecosystem functioning--including altering groundwater soil salinity
or ph and pollination syndromes said lead author Yelenik who earned her doctorate from UCSB's Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology and now works for the U s. Geological Survey's Pacific Island Ecosystems
because differences between the two study periods could be due to differences in rainfall. To eliminate rainfall as a factor the researchers examined long-term rainfall data for the region to determine
if a relationship exists between nitrogen mineralization and rainfall during the study years. The data showed that rainfall during the two study periods was similar.
In addition rainfall did not correlate with differences in mineralization between time points. A mineralization assay in the lab where moisture was kept constant showed similar patterns to the researchers'most recent field data gathered in 2011 and 2012.
Taken together these results suggest that nitrogen mineralization variations between the 1990s and recent years were not due to differences in rainfall.
While the study demonstrates that ecosystem impacts and feedbacks shift over time it also indicates that this may not necessarily help native species'recovery.
Yelenik and D'Antonio conducted a large outplanting experiment to test how a suite of native and exotic woody species responded to shifting ecosystem impacts.
They added nitrogen fertilizer to mimic earlier stages of Melinis invasion and reduced Melinis competition to mimic patches during late invasion.
Similar responses occurred in five of the seven outplanted species: Growth rates and survivorship increased due to reduced competition from the exotic grasses as well as nitrogen additions.
This indicates that the changing impacts of the grass over time do not alter the seedlings'ability to grow in the ecosystem.
and why invasions alter ecosystems is insightful for predicting what will happen but without further management we may not get native species back Yelenik said.
and getting patchy that may be the time to plant native species. It might turn out to be the most cost-effective way to get an ecosystem back to a more desirable state.
The stingy-haired tree in fact is known only from cloud forests in the Sierra de Juarez in Oaxaca southern Mexico.
and environmental changes and is being led by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation in close partnership with Allina Health and the community of New Ulm.
tomatoin the mild coastal climate of western Washington agricultural growers are learning more about the advantages of growing popular fresh-market vegetables in high tunnel production systems.
High tunnels can offer many benefits for delicate vegetable crops including protection from environmental stresses such as hail frost excessive rainfall and high wind.
This capsule may help the bacteria to cope with environmental stress or aid colonisation and adhesion.
and climate change has allowed the current epidemic to spread from lodgepole pine to jack pine a tree species that was thought to be unsuitable for beetle survival in Alberta.
It is of particular ecological interest because its fruits are removed by ants after falling. The authors are also working with colleagues from University of Sydney to investigate the taxonomic value of aromatic resins which also appear to have therapeutic value.
The review The consequences of Tree Pests and Diseases for Ecosystem Services by scientists from the universities of Southampton Cambridge Oxford and St andrews is published today (15 november) in the journal Science.
Trees and forests provide a wide variety of ecosystem*services in addition to timber food and other provisioning services such as carbon sequester
and the different stakeholders they benefit as well as the likelihood of greater threats in the future resulting from globalisation and climate change.
Modern pest and disease management for plants and the natural environment needs to be based on an extensive science base.
and diseases for the full range of ecosystem services provided by trees. The term pest and disease was used to describe all pathogens
and small-to medium-size insect herbivores that--by causing tree damage and death--disrupt the ecosystem services provided by trees.
*An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air water and mineral soil) interacting as a system.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Southampton. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Their research findings have been published in the journal Fungal Ecology. Professor Brasier and Dr Webber studied C. fraxinea's genetic recognition system called a vegetative compatibility (vc) system in samples of the fungus from three different UK sites Their results
Vc systems are central to the ecology and survival of a fungus enabling it to define its territory to resist viral attack
and also the ecological and operational factors that may have a bearing on the prevalence of the diseases.
We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs ancient European wolves were directly related to them said Robert Wayne a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA's College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research.
and the local to global implications of these changes on environmental economic and other natural and societal systems members of the team say.
For example the tropics were the only climate domain to exhibit a trend with forest loss increasing by 2101 square kilometers (811 square miles) per year.
Brazil's well-documented reduction in deforestation during the last decade was more than offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia Malaysia Paraguay Bolivia Zambia Angola and elsewhere.
Losses or gains in forest cover shape many important aspects of an ecosystem including climate regulation carbon storage biodiversity
This mapping database which will be updated annually quantifies all forest stand-replacement disturbances whether due to logging fire disease or storms.
Paraguay was found to have the highest ratio of forest loss to gain indicating an intensive deforestation dynamic.
--which has long been responsible for a majority of the world's tropical deforestation--to reduce its rainforest clearing have had a significant effect.
and consistent basis to quantify critical environmental issues including the causes of the mapped changes in the amount of forest;
while their study shows the efforts of Brazil's government to slow loss of rainforest have been effective it also shows that a 2011 Indonesian government moratorium on new logging licenses was followed actually by significant increases in deforestation in 2011 and 2012.
Brazil used Landsat data to document its deforestation trends then used this information in its policy formulation and implementation.
The study was published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. We found a clear reduction of E coli strains possessing typical genes for extra-intestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) says Bednorz.
#Southeast U s. should prepare for wild weather from climate change, expert sayspeople who live in the southeastern United states should begin to prepare for more drastically changing weather conditions--everything from heat waves to poorer air quality--caused by climate change according to a new book edited by a University of Florida researcher.
The book which UF's Keith Ingram helped write is titled Climate Change of the Southeast United states:
Variability Change Impacts and Vulnerability. Ingram was the book's lead editor. Principal authors and editors including Ingram unveiled the book Tuesday.
Ingram is director of the Southeast Climate Consortium and an associate research scientist with UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
The Southeast already experiences extreme weather events including floods droughts heat waves cold outbreaks winter storms severe thunderstorms tornadoes and tropical cyclones.
and heat waves are expected to become longer by between 97 percent and 234 percent through the end of the century;#¢
Of particular concern is that storm surges will compound impacts of rising sea levels Ingram said.
and sewer plants so they can survive rising waters caused by floods Ingram said. Many builders residents and governments are already doing these things he said.#¢
#¢While the number of tropical storms is projected to decrease slightly the number of category 3 to category 5 hurricanes is expected to increase;#¢
Warm weather during winter months reduces yields of blueberry peach and other crops that need cool temperatures for flower buds to break he said.#¢
which are partly responsible for the climate change problem Ingram said. We are a significant contributor
The Southeast Climate Consortium works with extension agents and farmers to bring them valuable research. We work on how to adapt to
or mitigate climate change Ingram said. Some local governments have agreed to reduce carbon emissions the authors said Tuesday.
Researchers at the University of Exeter and Colorado State university used a computer model to demonstrate that providing forest conservation measures are in place the Amazon rainforest may be more able to withstand periods of drought than has been estimated by other climate models.
Many climate models over predict the water stress plants feel during the dry season because they don't take into account the moisture that the forest itself can recycle in times of drought.
In this study published in the Journal of Climate the researchers removed unrealistic water stress from their model
what may be a drier climate in the future. Moisture recycling includes the full cycle of rain--from soil moisture to evaporated water vapour and back to rain.
It depends on water both evaporating from the ground and also moving through plants from the roots to the leaves.
Moisture recycling is an important source of rainfall over the Amazon forest; about one-third of the annual rainfall in the southern Amazon forest can originate from moisture recycling.
The process relies heavily upon the ability of plants to access soil moisture. During particularly severe droughts trees reach a limit in their ability to access
In many ecosystem models plants reach this limit too soon increasing the water stress that plants are predicted to feel during the dry season.
In reality moisture recycling can increase during the dry season resulting in increased atmospheric moisture and even rain.
Climate change induced drought is likely to become a bigger problem in the coming years
and are better able to recycle rainfall. Disturbed areas of forest including those bordering pasture are less able to maintain moisture recycling
This is according to a new study published today 14 november in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters by a group of researchers from the University of California Davis. The researchers found that
if they are to avoid irreversible damage to the environment. Sahoko Yui a UC Davis graduate student researcher completed the work under Dr Yeh's supervision.
Attempts to restore precontact environments have been unsuccessful when the effects of milldams were considered not. Understanding the past forest makeup may provide a way to help get a successful and useful reconstruction.
Dorothy J. Merritts chair Department of Earth and Environment and Harry W. and Mary B Huffnagle Professor of Geoscience and Robert C. Walter associate professor of geosciences both
Instead we found that most of the valley bottoms at the time of European contact were dominated by wetland ecosystems with numerous small stable'anastomosing'streams.
This fieldwork piggybacks on a recent finding by Jessica Lundquist a UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and her lab that shows that tree cover actually causes snow to melt more quickly on the western slopes of the Pacific Northwest's Cascade
Mountains and other warm Mediterranean-type climates around the world. Alternatively open clear gaps in the forests tend to keep snow on the ground longer into the spring and summer.
Lundquist and her colleagues published their findings online this fall in Water Resources Research. Common sense says that the shade of a tree will help retain snow
But in Mediterranean climates--where the average winter temperatures usually are above 30 degrees Fahrenheit--a different phenomenon occurs.
because trees in warmer maritime forests radiate heat in the form of long-wave radiation to a greater degree than the sky does.
Trees melt our snow but it lasts longer if you open up some gaps in the forest Lundquist said.
For the study Lundquist examined relevant published research the world over that listed paired snow measurements in neighboring forested and open areas;
Places with similar winter climates--parts of The swiss Alps western Oregon and Washington and the Sierra nevada range in California--all had similar outcomes:
It's remarkable that given all the disparities in these studies it did sort out by climate Lundquist said.
That means when our snowpack is gone--usually by the summer solstice--our water supply depends on often meager summer rainfall to get us through until fall he said.
The UW researchers acknowledge that temperature is a very broad predictor of snowmelt behavior yet they expect their theory to hold true as they look more closely at the relationship between climate and snowmelt throughout the Pacific Northwest.
and the University of Idaho and are ramping up a citizen science project asking hikers and snowshoers to share snow observations.
With climate change a cold forest now might behave more like a warm forest 100 years from now.
and improve the school's nutrition environment. Changes schools made included raising nutrition standards for snacks
Creating school environments where the healthy choice is the easy choice allows students to practice lessons learned in the classroom
More importantly we present Meteor in a fun informal learning environment where students can try their hands at gaming competition while learning about the benefits of parallel programming.
taking a complex problem and allowing someone to solve it in a simple unconstrained environment as well as encouraging students to design new hardware that we haven't yet imagined.
One of these factors is the local environment. Koornneef's investigations also prove that semi-dwarfism has arisen independently in every location.
The above story is provided based on materials by Bioforsk-Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research.
In the TICLESS project Bioforsk the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research is hoping to determine
She would now like to see collaboration with other research environments in Norway to further examine this potential in Norway.
There were no other unacceptable adverse effects in the natural environment or on humans either. According to Klingen this could make it easier for the product to be approved for use in Norway.
If we find that the BIPESCO 5 can be effective here at our low temperatures then it is already in the clear with regard to any adverse effects to humans and the environment.
The above story is provided based on materials by Bioforsk-Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research.
Aside from storing hydrogen for fuel ZIFS show potential for size-selective catalysis environmental remediation and for use as molecular sieves.
4, 000-to 10,000-year-old cave drawingswhile tracking white-lipped peccaries and gathering environmental data in forests that link Brazil's Pantanal
and are environmental indicators of healthy forests. The peccaries are vulnerable to human activities such as deforestation
and hunting and are disappearing from large swaths of their former range from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.
and Pantanal ecosystems both for their cultural and natural heritage said Dr. Julie Kunen Director of WCS's Latin america and the Caribbean Program and an expert on Mayan archeology.
and to communicate the environmental and socioeconomic results regionally. Biophysical and Social Barriers Restrict Water Quality Improvements in the Mississippi river Basin was published in the Nov 5 issue of Environmental science and Technology.
The opinion piece was authored by researchers Mark B. David Courtney G. Flint Gregory F. Mcisaac Lowell E. Gentry Mallory K. Dolan and George F. Czapar.
or complicated by other economic social and environmental drivers. Additionally there is a growing sense among farmers that policy makers are removed too far from the realities of farming Flint added.
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences.
#Floods didnt provide nitrogen fix for earliest crops in frigid northfloods didn't make floodplains fertile during the dawn of human agriculture in Earth's far north
because it's long been assumed that nitrogen crucial to plant growth mainly arrived with floods of river water each spring according to Thomas Deluca a University of Washington professor of environmental
The scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Bournemouth University concluded that although carbon recovered most quickly even after 80 years regrowing forests tended to have less carbon than old-growth forests.
Lead author Phil Martin a Phd student at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said#oewe think plant species normally found in old-growth forests are failing to colonise regrowing forests
Policies such as Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) often assume that carbon and biodiversity are interchangeable.
Co-author Professor James Bullock from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said#oeour results clearly indicate that preservation of old-growth forests is vital for the conservation of specialist species
The above story is provided based on materials by Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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