Biofuels are of mounting economic and ecological importance with the federal government calling for production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022 about 11.3 percent of all liquid fuel consumption.
All of this comes as the Environmental protection agency is weighing which biofuel stocks will be incentivized using the renewable fuel standard mandate.
whom have backed away bioenergy farming for fear of lawsuits from the Environmental protection agency. The federal government restricts the movement
Noxious weeds on federal or state lists and invasive weeds are defined generally as plants with adverse social economic or ecological effects.
Since state departments of agriculture have responsibility for most regulatory bodies occasionally sharing responsibility with environmental agencies fewer plants that invade forests pastureland
and IPC and EPC lists can have far-reaching ecological impacts since funding for weed control is funneled generally into formally listed noxious plants.
and more inclusive if revamped regulatory boards with input from invasive and exotic weed councils evaluated plants based on criteria such as the plant's history ecology reproductive potential and the potential for rapid spreading.
Barney earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Kentucky and his master's and doctorate degrees in weed ecology at Cornell University.
He is a member of the Weed Science Society of America and the Ecological Society of America.
so it is a great system for studying ecological and evolutionary aspects of invasion. Fox and colleagues have assembled the transcriptomes for two slender false brome populations from its native range (Greece Spain) and one population from its invasive range (Oregon.
This system has great potential as a comparative framework for studying adaptation to new environments
which may provide insights into how slender false brome has adapted to Oregon's different environmental conditions.
when anatomically modern humans had evolved not yet said Michael Hammer an associate professor in the University of Arizona's department of ecology
Their findings published in Environmental science and Pollution Research have implications not only for the pulp and paper industry but also for any business wishing to reduce its carbon footprint.
therefore more accurate and provide more information says Laleh Yerushalmi an adjunct professor at Concordia's Department of Building Civil and Environmental Engineering
However only the dynamic model was able to estimate changes in emissions in response to a changing environment.
With dynamic modeling we can better understand the behaviour of the treatment plant over time says senior author Fariborz Haghighat professor in Concordia's Department of Building Civil and Environmental Engineering and Concordia Research Chair
in Energy and Environment. With this knowledge we can then recommend a strategy to reduce the emission of greenhouse gas
Comparative field observations on Sumatra and Borneothe sexual development mating habits and social hierarchy of the orangutans are more heavily dependent on their environment than had previously been assumed:
As there is more food available in the jungle on Sumatra than in the forests of Borneo the dominant male has sufficient time to keep a close watch over the females in his environment
Apparently natural selection not only moulds appearance but also adapts social behaviour to the conditions of the local environment.
Our findings show that you shouldn't assume adaptations always came about in the same way that the trigger is the same environment every time.
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
Environmental change affects species differentially creating'losers'that decline with increased human activity but also'winners'that thrive in human-altered environments said Ignasi Bartomeus lead author on the paper who conducted this work as a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University.
Certain traits can make species more vulnerable. The scientists found that declining bee species tend to have larger body sizes restricted diets and shorter flight seasons.
They also revealed that southern bees reaching their northern distributional limits in the Northeast are increasing a finding that could reflect a response to climate change.
Floral traits are apparently more prone to rapid evolutionary changes in response to local ecological conditions Cardoso said
His group made its own climate-controlled chamber using a dorm-room refrigerator and an off-the-shelf teddy-bear humidifier and had good results.
and mangrove swamps as current--and possibly future--wildlife refuges Katarzyna Nowak a former postdoctoral researcher of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton compiled a list of 60 primates
Meanwhile Zanzibar's red colobus monkey--driven to coastal mangroves by deforestation--can struggle to find the freshwater it needs as Nowak reported in the American Journal of Primatology in 2008.
#Historic datasets reveal effects of climate change and habitat loss on plant-pollinator networksare plant-pollinator networks holding together as the insects and plants in the network are jostled by climate change and habitat loss?
The question is difficult to answer because there is no baseline: few historic datasets record when plants first bloomed
and Burkle Phd now assistant professor of ecology at Montana State university discovered that the network had weakened.
If any community is going to be affected by climate change Knight said it would be this one because the plants flower soon after the winter snow melts.
Funding for the three censuses came from the United states Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) a US Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative for biodiversity
#Improving climate protection in the agricultural sectoragriculture is responsible for around ten to twelve percent of all greenhouse gases attributable to human activities.
and climate conditions the agricultural model and the farming intensity on both organic and conventional holdings.
and improve their climate balance. As part of the study scientists investigated 40 organic and 40 conventional agricultural holdings across Germany's four agricultural regions.
The scientists recorded all relevant climate gas streams during the entire production process including methane nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.
Strategies for improving climate balancefossil fuels above all diesel are one of the main sources of CO2 emissions in agriculture.
There are different ways of improving a farm's climate balance explains Professor Kurt-Jà rgen Hà lsbergen from Technische Universitã¤t Mà nchen (TUM.
High levels of nitrous oxide are released into the environment if crops are unable to utilize all of the nitrogen fertilizer that was spread.
which further increases the climate balance of unused nitrogen. In contrast the greenhouse gas CO2 can be stored long term as humus in the soil
and thus eliminated from the climate balance. This can be achieved by planting legumes as part of a diversified crop rotation strategy explains Professor Gerold Rahmann at the Thã nen Institute.
Putting theory into practicethis is the first time that a study has provided a 360-degree overview of climate-relevant factors impacting all emissions related to livestock and crop farming.
so that it can be used directly by climate change advisors in the agricultural sector. More information on the studythe study was carried out from 2009 to 2012 as part of a collaborative project between TUM the Thã nen Institute the University of Bonn the Martin-Luther-Universitã¤t Halle
Their report appears in the ACS journal Environmental science & Technology. Steffen Fritz and colleagues explain that growing concern exists in the U s
and often thrive with human neighbors. As part of the study scientists sampled the presence of 20 species of birds both near and far from 30 rural residences in the Adirondack Park.
Exurban residences exist within an otherwise unaltered ecosystem. Exurban homes change the environment by bringing vehicles noise lights pets people
and food sources into the forest as well as by physically altering and fragmenting habitat. These changes can have myriad impacts including altered species behavior
Adirondackers take great pride in their surroundings and try not to unduly disturb the natural setting in
A key finding of the study is that the ecological footprint of development can be much larger than its physical footprint.
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
and it is becoming increasingly important as we face global threats like climate change. As we strive to find a healthy balance between conservation
After a series of simulated rain events the team collected and analyzed samples of field runoff and determined that neither diet nor tillage management significantly affected the transport of fecal indicator bacteria.
Results from these studies have been published in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Transactions of the ASABE.
and Pacific Northwest research stations universities and Region 5 Ecology Program recently released a synthesis of relevant science that will help inform forest managers as they revise plans for the national forests in the Sierra nevada and southern Cascades of California.
and fire ecology; soils; aquatic ecosystems; terrestrial wildlife; air quality; and social economic and cultural components--all of which make up socioecological systems.
The synthesis distilled important findings from recent studies about how to make systems more resilient to stressors such as changes in climate introduced species and risk of uncharacteristically large and severe wildfires.
The authors considered the connections between the terrestrial forests and the streams as well as how restoration of ecological processes interfaces with the social and economic concerns of communities.
By examining concepts and issues that cut across science disciplines the authors sought to help managers address relevant challenges more holistically.
The synthesis integrates scientific findings from diverse disciplines using a conceptual framework of how social and ecological systems function in the Sierra nevada
and southern Cascades said Malcolm North a PSW research forest ecologist who worked on the report.
With a polymer framework derived from renewable sources we're able to make materials that should break down more readily in the environment.
The findings in the study published online Feb 18 and in the March print issue of the journal Pediatrics are based on ETICS--Exploring the Iceberg of Celiacs in Sweden
The findings in the study published online Feb 18 and in the March print issue of the journal Pediatrics are based on ETICS--Exploring the Iceberg of Celiacs in Sweden
#Climate change effect on plant communities is buffered by large herbivores, new research suggestscan existing ecological communities persist intact as temperatures rise?
This is a question of increasing relevance in the field of climate change and is the focus of a new study to be published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London on 20 february.
The study suggests that the answer to this question may have as much to do with the biological interactions that shape communities as with the effects of climate change itself.
The study's insights are based on a novel approach by Eric Post a Penn State university professor of biology who simulated climate change
and integrated the effects of large plant-eating mammals in a 10-year arctic field experiment.
The results of the research suggest that plant communities in the Arctic are more likely to resist destabilization by climate change
Post explained that climate-change research in the 1980s and 1990s was focused primarily on how fluctuations in such factors as temperature precipitation and nutrient availability directly affected plant communities.
what it did not emphasize were the indirect effects of climate change--how interactions among species may shape the responses of those species to warmer temperatures Post said.
To simulate the effects of the 1. 5-to-3. 0-degrees-Celsius warming that is predicted to occur over the next century he erected special warming chambers--cone-shaped hollow structures that create a greenhouse effect.
In this way Post created two very different environments: one in which plants and herbivores continued to live together as the temperatures climbed within the warming chambers;
The study tested a classic ecological hypothesis but with a new angle Post said. Ecologists have argued for decades over
whether species-rich plant communities are more stable and hence persistent in the face of environmental disturbance than species-poor communities.
This study added a layer of complexity by asking whether large herbivores contribute to the diversity-stability relationship in a climate-change context.
After 10 years of careful observation of the Kangerlussuaq Greenland plant communities Post found that the grazed
and birch became the dominant plants in response to warming where the herbivorous animals were excluded from the ecosystem.
When these shrubs expand in the plant community they tend to shade their neighbors and the build up of leaf litter around the shrubs tends to cool the soil surface reducing the availability of soil nutrients for other plants Post said.
Post said the take-home message from his study is that in a warming climate intact populations of large herbivores may be crucial to the maintenance of plant-community diversity and to the persistence of existing plant communities.
and the direct effects of climate change Post said. Post said that the next step in his research will be to study the contribution of plant diversity to long-term stability of carbon dynamics in the atmosphere and in the soil.
or field additional oversight isneeded to consider issues with environmental release and the ultimate use by humans.
Fabrycky precisely measures the timing of transits the mini eclipses that planets cause as they pass in front of their stars.
which has a strong negative impact on the climate according to Dr Frans-Jan Parmentier. In addition to the changes on land the present study shows that there are a number of uncertainties surrounding the effects of the melting ice on the amount of greenhouse gases exchanged by the ocean through natural processes.
The article has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Lund University.
in addition to avoiding possible conflicts over scare resources said Marilyn Roossinck professor of plant pathology and environmental microbiology and biology.
and climate change is also affecting our ability to grow enough food and food shortages can lead to unrest and wars.
While researchers do not entirely understand the role of viruses in helping plants withstand extreme conditions Roossinck said that future research may help the agricultural industry naturally develop hardier plants rather than rely on chemical solutions that threaten the environment.
and grow them better and more tolerant of environmental stress like heat and drought or pathogens?
At the same AAAS symposium Rice environmental engineer Daniel Cohan discussed how uncertainties in air-quality models might impact efforts to achieve anticipated new ozone standards by the U s. Environmental protection agency.
but the EPA is considering tightening them to a level in the 60-70 ppb range.
A 2012 study by Raun and Ensor published by Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy determined that overall the current EPA standard for ozone serves its purpose
but were unable to carry it out due to unfavorable regional weather conditions. They also ran a pilot test in Hungary with a related beetle pest that bores into oak trees.
Malmstrom said that plant virus ecology and the study of viral interactions between wild-growing plants and agricultural crops is an expanding field.
In the last 15 years disease ecology has really come to the fore as a basic science. Most of what is known about plant viruses comes from studies of crops.
To understand the complete ecology of viruses researchers are now studying these tiny organisms in nature too.
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.
Society wants us to be able to answer questions such as whether viruses can be used in agricultural terrorism how to recognize a novel virus
and environmental microbiology and biology who has examined more than 7000 individual plants for viruses. But they don't have any of the symptoms that we usually see in crop plants with viruses.
However it had not been linked to environmental carcinogen such as tobacco smoke until now. Tobacco smoke is documented the strongest initiator and promoter of lung cancer.
#Scientists explore new technologies that remove atmospheric carbon dioxidein his Feb 12 State of the Union address President Obama singled out climate change as a top priority for his second administration.
The administration has taken a number of steps to meet those goals such as investing billions of dollars in wind solar and other carbon-neutral energy technologies.
Their findings are summarized in a report by Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP.
To achieve the targeted cuts we would need a scenario where by the middle of the century the global economy is transitioning from net positive to net negative CO2 emissions said report co-author Chris Field a professor of biology and of environmental Earth
One of the most promising net-negative technologies is BECCS or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.
and prevented from reentering the environment. The result is a net-negative reduction in atmospheric CO2.
But according to the GCEP report major technical and economic hurdles must be overcome such as the relative inefficiency of biomass fuels and the high cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS.
To meet ambitious climate targets a cost-effective policy would be to implement a carbon tax
We're going to be burning fossil fuels for many years to come said Field who also serves as director of the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology at Stanford.
On the other hand biochar production that relies on forest ecosystems may result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions they cautioned.
However questions remain about the long-term effects of ethanol combustion on climate. The report also explored the possibility of sequestering carbon in the ocean with a particular focus on the problem of ocean acidification
Although the potential for CO2 sequestration in the ocean is associated large the risks to the marine environment need to be assessed adequately the authors concluded.
#Tree-ring data show history, pattern to droughtsdendrochronologists have shown that tree-ring data produce a remarkably accurate history of droughts and other climate changes.
and historical descriptions of climate conditions dendrochronology--the technique of dating events and environmental change by relying on characteristic patterns of tree-ring growth--can provide a climate perspective on important events such as large-scale human migration and even the rise and fall of entire civilizations.
A research team including University of Arkansas Distinguished Professor and dendrochronologist David Stahle and Ewing Research Professor Edward Cook of Columbia University used more than 1400 climate-sensitive tree-ring chronologies from multiple tree species across North america to reconstruct the Palmer
drought severity index (PDSI) a widely used soil moisture index. Stahle presented his research on Feb 15 in a symposium on U s. Climate and Weather Extremes:
Past Present and Future during the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston.
He also participated in a panel discussion with other climate experts. The Palmer drought severity index is based on instrumental temperature
if there were any patterns related to drought and other climate changes. The findings were dramatic. Comparisons of reconstructed PDSI with instrumentally measured PDSI during the 20th century document the remarkable accuracy with which the tree-ring data reproduce the spatial pattern
The data also confirmed historical descriptions of climate conditions prior to the modern era of instrumentation for weather and climate measurements.
and examined the chronology of their rings to help explain the societal impact of drought and other climate changes.
A recently published 1238-yearlong tree-ring chronology the longest and most accurate of its kind for Mesoamerica was the first to reconstruct the climate of pre-colonial Mexico on an annual basis for more than a millennium.
The study published in the February issue of the Journal of Arid Environments pinpoints the optimal conditions for setting early-season prescribed fires--a process that
when executed and timed properly reduces the risk and impact of late dry season bushfires in increasingly fragile ecosystems both
of which are exacerbated by climate change. Researchers say the findings signify an important step for Africa's Sudanian
The study finds it is necessary to use tools that consider both fuel characteristics and weather conditions when planning these prescribed fires.
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.
The key to fighting fire with fire is said robust science Cheikh Mbow senior climate change scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre.
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.
They recorded data on air temperature relative humidity wind speeds fuel load and cover fuel moisture content and the amount of dry matter present.
and one month after the last rain depending on the site. They also found that the fires'rate of spread was greater
when wind speeds were fast and fuel moisture content relative humidity and fuel load were all low.
This is likely due to high grass cover and fast wind speeds. Fires have long been regarded as the enemies of the 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.
Wildfires like the hundreds that ravaged southeast Australia and Tasmania in early January can cause widespread environmental devastation and destruction of property.
Once the infernos gather strength aided by wind and ample fuel supplies they become uncontrollable
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.
which avoids the health environmental and pest-resistance concerns of traditional insecticides scientists are reporting.
and published in the journal New Phytologist may help to resolve an ongoing controversy about the origins of methane in the tropics.
Yet despite an abundance of seething swamps and flooded forests in the tropics ground-based measurements of methane have fallen well short of the quantities detected in tropical air by satellites.
Ground-based estimates of methane flux in the tropics may be coming up short because tree emissions are included never in field campaigns.
However the eight tree species investigated by the team are common in the tropics including the vast Amazon basin.
Establishing whether tree-mediated emissions of methane are ubiquitous in tropical wetlands is now the focus of a new three-year Natural Environment Research Council grant to Dr Gauci
From an ecological viewpoint an ant colony is much like a tree putting out seeds with the potential to create new trees.
Deborah Gordon a biology professor at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment has been studying a particular population of harvester ant colonies in southeastern Arizona for 28 years meticulously recording
so could be useful in managing invasive ant species predicting crop yields and understanding the ecology of tropical forests.
For ecological purposes it's very useful to be able to say how ant populations will grow.
The study was published Jan 31 in the online version of the Journal of Animal Ecology. Story Source:
#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
The biggest declines in pinyon pine seed cone reproduction were at the higher elevation research sites experiencing more dramatic warming relative to lower elevations said Redmond of CU's ecology and evolutionary biology department.
A paper on the subject by Redmond Assistant professor Nichole Barger of CU-Boulder and Frank Forcella of the United states Department of agriculture in Morris Minn. appeared in a recent issue of the journal Ecosphere published by the Ecological Society
and research suggests the environmental stimulus for cone initiation is unseasonably low temperatures during the late summer said Redmond.
The study is one of the first to examine the impact of climate change on tree species like pinyon pines that instead of reproducing annually shed vast quantities of cones every few years during synchronous episodic occurrences known as
Others have suggested masting events occur during favorable climate conditions and/or to increase pollination efficiency.
Across a range of forested ecosystems we are observing widespread mortality events due to stressors such as changing climate drought insects
Low elevation conifers including pinyon pines grow in water-limited environments and have been shown to have higher cone output during cool
In addition to the climate-warming trend under way in the Southwest the 2002-03 drought caused significant mortality in pinyon pine forests Redmond said.
Miranda's ideas and accompanying results will be of value to ecologists and land managers in the deserts of the Southwest and beyond said Forcella now a research agronomist in the USDA's Agricultural research service.
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