#Breast milk protein may be key to protecting babies from HIVA substance in breast milk that neutralizes HIV
Research Forester Jeff Prestemon and fellow scientists with the Forest Service Southern Research Station Forest Economics and Policy unit and with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment
thus reducing the potential for the species to be viable in commercial nursery environments. Cartabiano and Lubell said that
and application of organic fertilizers and amendments in zucchini organic farming are constrained by environmental conditions and that the effects are most valuable
#Turfgrass tested in shallow green roof substratesgreen roofs rooftops covered with vegetation provide multiple environmental and aesthetic benefits.
A new study from researchers in Greece offers recommendations for the use of turfgrass in green roof environments.
although turfgrasses meet the three requirements of plants recommended for use in urban environments (aesthetics function
and recreation) these grasses have seldom been evaluated on extensive green roofs due to their high water demands.
and soil nitrogen dynamics (in annual strawberry production) under the environmental conditions and current grower management practices of the central coast region of California said corresponding author Timothy Hartz.
when NO3-N leaching by rainfall is possible. However the replicated trials showed that preplant CRF rates had a minimal effect on strawberry nitrogen accumulation through the June sampling by
Carter studies the interactions between humans and tigers in Nepal's Chitwan National park and its environs.
and addresses both personal (egoistic) and environmental (altruistic) concerns in tandem may be the most impactful in influencing consumer attitudes toward and intentions to purchase organic products.
and environmental benefits in tandem taking note that synergies may be gained by emphasizing both. Story Source:
These were the conclusions of a study conducted by the TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture) the DBFZ (German biomass research center) and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ.
and power generation would be best for the climate. Straw should therefore primarily be used in larger district heating stations
The above story is provided based on materials by Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research-UFZ. The original article was written by Tilo Arnhold.
Now research on tiger habitat in Nepal published this week's Ecosphere journal of the Ecological Society of America again shows that conservation demands not only good policy but monitoring even years down the road.
In 1996 Nepal added a buffer zone next to the park to both improve the area's ecosystem
and with that increasing unauthorized human use of local natural resources is reducing the quality of tiger habitat inside Chitwan National park. The tigers are finding friendly neighborhoods outside the park--which is important input both for the buffer's policies
In essence this means that the largest pool of tropical carbon On earth has been a black box for ecologists
and ecosystem services in the Amazon it also notes that almost none of the 227 hyperdominant species are consistently common across the Amazon.
Ecologist Miles Silman of Wake Forest University another co-author of the paper calls the phenomenon dark biodiversity.
The study s findings are published today (17 october 2013) in the journalfunctional Ecology. Gardens are more important than ever as a source of food for a wide variety of insects who feed on the nectar
#1#Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects Functional Ecology (October 2013.
Functional Ecology is a journal of The british Ecological Societ2 Other research at LASI in which the researchers decoded the honey bee communication dances had shown that summer is the most challenging season for bees to find flowers
The above story is provided based on materials by British Ecological Society (BES. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and geomagnetic storms that if large enough can disrupt satellites and fry power grids On earth. Over a period of about two years the sun's magnetic field switches directions and we know that
and storms the current edition is characterized by tranquil inactivity. There are few sunspots and no massive storms to speak of says Forest.
But the Wisconsin physicist also notes that last year when solar max was just getting underway proved to be a great year for auroras the colorful curtains bands
The event spawned a geomagnetic storm that caused telegraph systems in Europe and North america to fail throwing sparks from pylons and even giving some telegraph operators shocks.
In 1989 a massive geomagnetic storm caused by a coronal mass ejection during solar max sparked the collapse of the electrical transmission system in Quebec.
#Without plants, Earth would cook under billions of tons of additional carbonenhanced growth of Earth's leafy greens during the 20th century has slowed significantly the planet's transition to being red-hot according to the first study to specify the extent to which plants have prevented climate change
Researchers based at Princeton university found that land ecosystems have kept the planet cooler by absorbing billions of tons of carbon especially during the past 60 years.
From the 1860s to the 1950s land use by humans was a substantial source of the carbon entering the atmosphere because of deforestation and logging.
Had Earth's terrestrial ecosystems remained a carbon source they would have generated instead 65 billion to 82 billion tons of carbon
which Earth's climate could drastically and irreversibly change. The current concentration is 400 ppm.
The study is the most comprehensive look at the historical role of terrestrial ecosystems in controlling atmospheric carbon explained first author Elena Shevliakova a senior climate modeler in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
People always say we know carbon sinks are important for the climate Shevliakova said. We actually for the first time have a number
It's not just climate--it's people. On land people are major drivers of changes in land carbon.
Scott Saleska an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who studies interactions between vegetation
and climate said that the researchers provide a potentially compelling argument for continued forest restoration
and preservation by specifying the climate impact of vegetation. Saleska is familiar with the research but had no role in it.
This modeling approach could be used to state the complete'climate impact'of preserving large forested areas
'Work like this could help forest-preservation programs more accurately consider the climate impacts of policy measures related to forest preservation.
The researchers used the comprehensive Earth System Model (ESM2G) a climate-carbon cycle model developed by the National Oceanic
and climate interacted with vegetation soil and marine ecosystems between 1861 and 2005. The GFDL model predicted changes in climate and in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide based on fossil fuel emissions of carbon.
Uniquely the model also predicted emissions from land-use changes--such as deforestation wood harvesting and forest regrowth--that occurred from 1700 to 2005.
Unless you really understand what the land-use processes are it's very hard to say what the system will do said as a whole Shevliakova who worked with corresponding author Stephen Pacala Princeton's Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology;
Sergey Malyshev a professional specialist in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton; GFDL physical scientists Ronald Stouffer and John Krasting;
and George Hurtt a professor of geographical sciences at the University of Maryland. After the 1940s and 1950s if you look at the land-use change trajectory it's been slowed down in the expansion of agriculture
A decrease in global deforestation combined with enhanced vegetation growth caused by the rapid increase in carbon dioxide changed the land from a carbon source into a carbon sink.
while models that can combine the effects of climate change and vegetation growth have only been around for a little more than 10 years Saleska said.
There is work to be done to refine climate models and the Princeton-led research opens up new possibilities
while also lending confidence to future climate projections Saleska said. A unique value of this study is that it simulates the past for
Past observations about climate and carbon dioxide provide a test about how good the model simulation was.
and exchange in regional ecosystems than is recognized typically by global carbon models according to a new paper authored by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&es).
emissions for the same region according to the paper published in the journal Ecosystems. While models typically take into account how plants
or transport of carbon within an ecosystem says Oswald Schmitz the Oastler Professor of Population
and Community Ecology at F&es and lead author of the paper. Historically the role of animals has been underplayed largely
which eventually led to about 80 percent of the ecosystem to burn annually releasing carbon from the plants
or mediate ecosystem processes that then can have these ramifying effects. We hope this article will inspire scientists
when thinking of local and regional carbon budgets said Peter Raymond a professor of ecosystem ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
According to the authors a more proper assessment of such phenomena could provide insights into management schemes that could help mitigate the threat of climate change.
The above story is provided based on materials by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Note:
Environmental conditions played a role too. They say that this information could be used to identify superior broccoli
#Climate change creates complicated consequences for North americas forestsclimate change affects forests across North america--in some cases permitting insect outbreaks plant diseases wildfires
The Dartmouth-led study which appears in the journal Ecological Monographs reviewed nearly 500 scientific papers dating to the 1950s making it the most comprehensive review to date of climate change's diverse consequences for forests across the United states Canada
Tree-killing insects and plant diseases are natural elements of healthy forest ecosystems but climate change is rapidly altering the distribution and magnitude of forest pestilence and altering biodiversity and the ecosystem.
For example pine bark beetles have killed recently trees over more area of U s. forests than wildfires including in areas with little previous experience managing aggressive pests.
and their environmental and economic benefits to expand. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Dartmouth College.
Their analysis appears in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. The Illinois Department of Natural resources collected 23 river otters between 2009 and 2011 after the animals were killed incidentally (hit by cars
or in the soil where it through a nanoporous membrane exchanges moisture with its environment and maintains an equilibrium pressure that the chip measures.
and Nurturing Growing-up Environments) study a two-year randomized controlled community -and school-based intervention to prevent unhealthy weight gain among rural school-aged children.
The team wanted to test its hypothesis that students exposed to the study would improve their diet quality due to healthier food environments.
Akos Kukovecz an associate professor of chemistry and ZÃ ltan KÃ nya head of the Department of Applied and Environmental Chemistry both at the University of Szeged Hungary;
or above a critical threshold for ecological damage according to a study published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry
The environmental scientists experts in air quality atmospheric chemistry and ecology have been studying the fate of nitrogen-based compounds that are blown into natural areas from power plants automobile exhaust and--increasingly--industrial agriculture.
Nitrogen that finds its way into natural ecosystems can disrupt the cycling of nutrients in soil promote algal overgrowth
and lower the ph of water in aquatic environments and ultimately decrease the number of species that can survive.
The vast majority 85 percent of nitrogen deposition originates with human activities explains principal investigator Daniel J. Jacob Vasco Mccoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at the Harvard
The team of scientists--comprising researchers from Harvard SEAS the National park service the USDA Forest Service the U s. Environmental protection agency
and the University of California Irvine--presents evidence that unchecked increases in nitrogen deposition are already threatening the ecology of federally protected natural areas.
In many previous studies environmental scientists have identified the nitrogen levels that would be ecologically harmful in various settings.
In Eastern temperate forests like those in Great smoky mountains national park the most sensitive elements of the ecosystem are the hardwood trees
She now directs the Climate and Urban Systems Partnership at the Franklin Institute. Jacob Ellis and their collaborators predict that NOX emissions from the United states will decrease significantly by 2050 (globally those decreases may be offset to some extent by increases in industrialization overseas.
When you try to write regulations to protect ecosystems however the damage is much harder to quantify says Jacob.
Actual levels of future nitrogen deposition will depend on a complex interplay of economic legal and environmental factors.
A paper on the subject was published online in the journal Ecology. Co-authors include CU-Boulder geography Professor Thomas Veblen;
when northwest Colorado was in a warm wet climate period from 1976 to 1998 for example both spruce beetle reproduction
The strongest climate correlation to spruce beetle outbreaks was above average annual values for the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation or AMO a long-term phenomenon that changes sea-surface temperatures
Veblen said the AMO shifted from its cool to warm phase in the 1990s meaning the climate phenomenon could be contributing to drought conditions in the West into the middle of this century.
In addition to AMO the researchers looked at two other ocean-atmosphere oscillations--the El nino southern oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation--as well as past temperatures precipitation and aridity to better understand the spruce beetle outbreaks.
But in the long term the absence of the trees killed by beetles may lead to less persistence of snow and earlier runoff.
Tree rings from individual trees--which carry information about weather climate and even events like volcanic eruptions--can be matched up
and read with rings from other trees much like the pages of a book from year to year and even from season to season.
Regulating the retail environment is an emerging area in tobacco control Sorg said. Many states have had success in implementing smoke-free policies
The Everglades at the southern tip of Florida--the remains of what was once a vast ecosystem--is interconnected with a large hydrologic system that really begins in Orlando with the northern Everglades says Patrick Bohlen a professor of biology at University of Central Florida.
But this natural path of water has been altered greatly by people leading to a host of environmental problems that state and federal scientists policy makers conservationists
because prolonged rainfall and high humidity contribute to grains germinating before they are fully mature.
and on the interaction between genotypes and the environment as they have tried to breed wheat that is resistant to PHS but with little success so far.
and excess rainfall by either germinating early (PHS) or not. This switch is to be found in a key gene ARGONAUTE4 9 in the#oerna dependent DNA Methylation#pathway (Rddm.#
which is the basis for superalloys used in extreme environments such as in deep-sea oil wells. By creating a computer model of that microstructure
or reversing global deforestation may only be possible if agricultural yields rise and/or per capita food consumption declines over the next century according to historic global food consumption and land use trends.
They incorporated this data into their mathematical model designed to capture how land use transitions including deforestation
Additionally researchers found that short-term trends in reforestation deforestation and abandoned agricultural land may play a role in understanding long-term forest trends.
and ant specialist Phil Ward professor of entomology at UC Davis. Despite great interest in the ecology and behavior of these insects their evolutionary relationships have never been clarified fully.
To further investigate how bats fit into this picture the researchers surveyed more than 250 bats in remote forest ecosystems in Liberia Guinea and Cote d'ivoire in Western Africa.
Approximately 80%of cattle around the world mostly in the tropics and subtropics are exposed to the cattle tick--Rhipicephalis microplus
When resistance is found farmers generally increase the frequency of acaricide treatment resulting in increased cost and sometimes undesirable effects on the environment.
or underwater or other harsh environments where minimal size and weight would be an advantage
and found it withstood high temperature in an oxygen-rich environment. They also grew h-BN on graphene
and understanding how environmental and biological factors affect root structure is of key importance for plant scientists--particularly agricultural scientists.
The arrangement of roots is determined by a complicated combination of environmental signals based on the availability of nutrients and water in the surrounding environment hormonal signals and external stimuli.
To understand how lateral root initiation is controlled in different groups of plants including crops under different environmental conditions we need a simple and reliable method for analysis and comparison.
#Genetically modified sweet corn can reduce insecticide usea new study finds that genetically-modified sweet corn is better for the environment
However a new study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology suggests that Bt sweet corn is better for the environment
and Georgia locations that differ in climate management practices and pest pressure. The authors found that for pest management of the corn earworm Bt sweet corn consistently performed better than its non-Bt counterparts even those that were sprayed with conventional insecticides.
and in turn reduce occupational and environmental risks that arise from intensive insecticide use Shelton said.
childrens immune systemsthe Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research has gained new insights on the influence of tobacco smoke in utero.
For some time now the impact of environmental stressors during pregnancy on allergy risk among newborn children is a main research topic at Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ.
As part of the long-term study LINA environmental immunologists from Leipzig have been focussing on tobacco smoke as an environmental stressor.
For the first time we were able to describe the effect of prenatal environmental stressors on the regulation of microrna.
Thus for the first time the association between prenatal environmental stressors and the regulation of microrna is described. In this respect the current Helmholtz study opens the door to further research on the role of microrna in terms of how the human immune system reacts to environmental stressors.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research-UFZ.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference n
#Fruit science: Switching between repulsion and attractiona team of researchers based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich
Famous weevils moths and borer beetles live in a very comfortable environment when in the middle of a silo or warehouse fill with grains.
Their study was supervised by environmental microbiologist Dr. Sebastian Behrens and geomicrobiologist Professor Andreas Kappler of the Center for Applied Geosciences at the University of TÃ bingen in cooperation with researchers from the University of Hohenheim.
Indigenous peoples in tropical zones of South america and Africa were aware of biochar's positive effect on soil
and industry it also provides data important to the protection of soils and the climate.
which the United nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed that concentrations of the greenhouse gases CO2 methane
%It is therefore of great economic and environmental importance to find strategies to reduce nitrous oxide emission
#Health of honey bees adversely impacted by seleniumtraditionally honey bee research has focused on environmental stressors such as pesticides pathogens and diseases.
Study results appear in the Oct. 2013 issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
and their first line of defense against environmental stressors is the foraging bees themselves. High concentrations of Se will not kill foragers outright so they can continue to collect contaminated pollen and nectar
and recycling it is key to minimizing the damage to the environment Hladun said. Currently researchers are exploring its use in solar energy technologies.
while exposed to grass pollen in a controlled environment both before treatment and at the end of the hay fever season.
and they thrive in warm humid environments. Upholstered furniture bedding and carpeting provide an ideal environment for dust mites.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Mcmaster University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
and eating behaviour observations on all pigs via genome wide association studies to detect eating behaviour genes--a big task equivalent to finding polar bears in a snowstorm says Kadarmideen.
There is also an environmental and psychological influence to consider the'epigenetic'factor and'fetal programming'in the mother's womb that can permanently affect the eating behaviour of children.
#Death of a spruce treeexamining a long-lived forest researchers have found that Black spruce trees which dominate the northern forests of North america succumb about five years after being weakened by environmental stresses.
The result will help researchers better understand how climate change affects the health of forests
and how forests affect the severity of climate change. The study also suggests trees might be storing more carbon than currently estimated.
Scientists have paid a lot of attention to potential climate change signals in forests--like them growing faster than expected due to an overabundance of carbon dioxide
or slower due to climate change-induced extreme temperatures. But that signal is hard to see because of past disturbances that the forests are recovering from.
The study also allowed the researchers to examine tree mortality--information needed to figure out how much carbon dioxide trees can store--to improve climate models.
Most climate models that incorporate vegetation are built on short-term observations for example of photosynthesis but they are used to predict long-term events said Bond-Lamberty who works at the Joint Global Change Research Institute a collaboration between PNNL and the University of Maryland in College Park Md.
Taking Inventory Counting Ringsto explore the relation between climate and forests Bond-Lamberty and his international group of colleagues combined data from tree rings
The forest has been studied well in the past--it was the site of the NASA-led BOREAS project in the 1990s a study that provided scientists with a lot of
what they know about forests and climate. The tree ring data included tree core samples collected in three different years between 2001 and 2012 in a region called the Northern Old Black spruce site.
Slow-growth years suggest that rainfall was low or the temperature was very hot. The team found that the oldest trees started growing in the mid-1800s.
along with climate data from the same 150-year period they could clearly see the link between periods of slow growth and dead trees later on.
Thirsty Treesthis study also might cause scientists to reevaluate BOREAS results said Bond-Lamberty. Data from BOREAS allows researchers to estimate how much carbon dioxide trees pull out of the atmosphere
and store within their structures a value used in some models to predict the role of forests in a future warmer world.
But the BOREAS study period turned out to be a rotten time for the forest. What we've discovered is that the 1990s was an unusual decade said Bond-Lamberty.
Older forests contain surprises for climate science and ecosystem biology. We need to distinguish past disturbances from today's conditions.
which predators seize them from the sky and wait to ambush them on flowers. Such fear drives bees to avoid food sources closely associated with predators
But as climate change brings warmer-than-usual winters to the U s. the plants may be more vulnerable to imprecise timing
How do we do a better job of seeing the climate the way the plants see it?
asks James Clark the Blomquist Professor of environment and biology at Duke university. With colleagues from the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole and the University of Georgia Clark is working on building a statistical model of how trees make this decision.
when the climate isn't changing Clark said. But this new model is showing that it may become unreliable as temperatures depart from historical norms.
As the climate changes can we see differences in how species track change through time?
But just like all wild plant species these crop wild relatives (CWR) are also at risk of decline and extinction due to habitat loss pollution and climate change.
In the middle Triassic both the Barents sea and Switzerland lay in the subtropics but the area of Switzerland was much drier than the region of the Barents sea.
This implies that these plants occurred a broad ecological range. The pollen's structure suggests that the plants were pollinated by insects:
Before fertilizers nitrogen was introduced into the soil through rainfall or native pulse crops so when fertilizer was developed it revolutionized farming.
I initially was interested simply in determining how closely timed the calving season was to the onset of vegetation green-up Post explained without a thought as to how this relationship might be affected by climate change.
Until this study Post said identifying the environmental driver of this change has been the biggest challenge one that we're getting a better understanding of
and other changes in climate simply by adjusting the timing of their growth caribou --whose reproductive cycles are timed by seasonal changes in daylight length rather than by temperature--continue to give birth at nearly the same time during the spring
Post added that he and his team intend to study other ecological communities living near sea ice in future research.
Sea ice is part of a broader climate system that clearly has important effects on both plants and animals.
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