It is not surprising that healthy lifestyle choices would lead to a reduction in heart attacks said Agneta Akesson Ph d. Associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine Karolinska Institutet Stockholm
but new research says the aroma also summons beneficial insects to the rescue. â#oewhen there is need for protection the plant signals the environment via the emission of volatile organic compounds which are recognized as a feeding queue for parasitic wasps to come to the plant that is being eaten
volatiles in other grassy crops such as sorghum. â#oethis is just a tip of the iceberg.
DE-AC02-05ch11231 and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) supported by the NSF Grant No.
#Climate change: Dwindling wind may tip predator-prey balancebent and tossed by the wind a field of soybean plants presents a challenge for an Asian lady beetle on the hunt for aphids.
But what if the air--and the soybeans--were still? Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns may get the lion's share of our climate change attention
but predators may want to give some thought to wind according to a University of Wisconsin Madison zoologist's study
which is among the first to demonstrate the way global stilling may alter predator-prey relationships.
There are all sorts of other things that are changing in the environment that affect animals
My students and I were standing out in a cornfield one day as big gusts of wind came by
Earth's poles are warming faster than the equator robbing the atmosphere of some of the temperature differential that creates wind.
And the trend across the American landscape is to put up barriers to the wind in the form of buildings and more natural structures.
That's good news for hungry lady beetles according to research Barton published in the September issue of the journal Ecology.
Barton grew plots of soybeans in alfalfa fields protecting some with wind blocks and leaving others in the open.
He found two-thirds more lady beetles in the plots hidden from the wind and twice as many soybean aphids on the plants growing in the open.
Wind has no direct effect on the aphids tiny insects that hug the plants and anchor themselves while feeding with a needle-like mouthpart called a stylet.
In his lab trials--simulating wind with fans and windless movement with a machine that tugged on tethered plants to shake
Slower natural wind speeds could reduce the amount of pesticide required to keep soybean aphids from wrecking harvests.
And the wind research may present other opportunities for pest control. By growing trees or not harvesting them around a field you may be able to have an indirect effect on the number of aphids on your soybean plants says Barton who wonders what other close animal relationships may be disrupted by shifting winds.
The mechanism may be different for other predators but it's not hard to start thinking about effects he says.
Larger predators hunting by scent--and the prey trying to detect their predators--may be affected by less wind moving scents around.
If the rains hit before the crop has been harvested the grain begins to sprout in the head. Korean white winter wheat is particularly susceptible to preharvest sprouting according to Kim.
it depends upon your biology ecology and location'said Professor Rich Grenyer of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment the coordinating author of the study.'
'It depends on what you're like and where you are. And just like people plant species tend to be most like their closest relatives
and a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment explained:'
#Climate change report identifies the most vulnerable sections of the populationa report has looked at which sections of the population are left most exposed to food shortages after extreme weather events.
Extreme weather events leave populations with not enough food both in the short-and the long-term.
A new report by the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford concludes that better governance could have lessened the impact on the poorest and most vulnerable and affected populations have been let down by the authorities in the past.
and the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. The researchers conclude that the authorities in each of the countries studied were unprepared for extreme weather events
and citizens suffered even more than they needed to. The report'A Sign of Things to Come?'
and others affected by the floods says the report. Overall the flooding is estimated to have led to an 80%rise in wheat
Meanwhile in the Philippines although storm surges were not a new problem they were understood not properly by central
The exceptional storm surge associated with Typhoon Haiyan hit farmers and fishing communities particularly hard with women children and some ethnic minorities facing discrimination with aid distribution.
On a global level the report warns that climate change is expected to increase the intensity and frequency of heatwaves and floods.
It says although there is no scientific evidence to show a specific weather event would not have happened without climate change scientists can estimate
It finds that the Russian heat wave and the East African drought were more likely because of climate change
but there is not yet the evidence to say that climate change played a part in the floods in Pakistan or Typhoon Haiyan.
One of the lead authors Dr John Ingram said:''Weather has affected always food security particularly for many of the world's poorest people.
or fishermen first but extreme weather will affect many more people in other ways too. While direct measures such as emergency preparedness and the strengthening of response-related institutions is helpful this study has identified the need for a wider cultural shift to ensure the poorest and most vulnerable are protected properly.
what climate justice should be about.''Report: http://www. oxfam. org/sites/www. oxfam. org/files/file attachments/rr-eci-a-sign-of-things-to-come-190914-en. pdfstory Source:
and peanuts have the ability to prosper in nitrogen-poor soil environments thanks to an ingenious adaptation:
which floods have a high stream power that causes more rapid erosion. Study authors Jonathan Friedman of the U s. Geological Survey and colleagues note that
Along both rivers erosion occurred until the 1930s in association with extremely high flows. Subsequent infilling was caused by vegetation growth channel narrowing increased sinuosity and vertical accumulation of sediments.
and long-term bedrock erosion it would take the arroyo 310 years to completely fill in. Story Source:
to the region's diverse ecosystem. Along the west coast of North america winds lift deep nutrient-rich water into sunlit surface layers fueling vast phytoplankton blooms that ultimately support fish seabirds and marine mammals.
The new study led by Bryan Black at The University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute
whether climate change has contributed to the changes in winter upwelling variability. The strength of upwelling does seem to be related to a climate pattern called the El Niã o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO.
And there is evidence that ENSO has been unusually variable during the past century which may in part explain the pattern in upwelling extremes.
what we expect from climate change but at this point we can't attribute it to that said Black.
This is something we need to continue watching to see how climate variability plays out in the coming years.
The researchers demonstrated that growth patterns in blue oak trees near the coast are highly sensitive to the same climate factors associated with upwelling.
It's interesting to see how influential climate is on biology and what a synchronizing force it is especially across marine and terrestrial systems said Black.
Researchers have used tree rings to reconstruct climate patterns such as ENSO before but this is the first study to target such a focused region with such strong and direct consequences on animal growth
and reproductive success. The tree ring data allowed researchers to understand how these ecosystems were influenced by climate variation
Few direct observations of the climate factors associated with upwelling along the west coast of North america go back more than 70 years.
In a sense these representative species were just the tips of the iceberg. By studying top level predators we get an upper level view of the entire ecosystem said Black.
They integrate what's happening across the whole food web. Black said his team will next try to project how upwelling might change in the future.
We understand the atmospheric drivers behind winter upwelling so now we plan to use climate models to see what they say about these drivers
Black's co-authors are William Sydeman and Marisol Garcã a-Reyes at the Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research David Frank at The swiss Federal Research Institute Daniel Griffin at Woods
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation's Biological Oceanography Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration's Fisheries and Environment Program.
Climate change could postpone fall leaf peeping in some areas of the United states as summer temperatures linger later into the year Princeton university researchers report in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
and daylight hours to be short enough to produce the vivid vistas of fall explained senior author David Medvigy an assistant professor of geosciences and associated faculty member at the Princeton Environmental Institute.
or climate change Medvigy said. What these results are suggesting is that different locations will change in different ways
and ecosystem productivity Medvigy said. In particular a delay in when leaves change color could affect how much carbon an ecosystem removes from the atmosphere
which would partially combat the climate change that caused the delay in the first place he said. When plants have green leaves they're doing photosynthesis
and taking carbon out of the atmosphere Medvigy said. The longer you have green leaves the more carbon dioxide you can take out of the atmosphere.
So figuring this out could potentially be important for understanding the impacts of climate change.
Mark D. Schwartz a distinguished professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee explained that fall leaf coloration marks the end of the growing season in temperate climates
beeches can survive in a shaded environment; and oaks are somewhere in the middle. The nearly 20 species the study reviewed fell neatly into one of these three categories.
With northern climes remaining unchanged and southern areas experiencing coloration later there is an altogether extended coloration season under climate change Medvigy said.
This understanding will help us make better forecasts for climate as well as for the basic dynamics of forests.
if their distribution continues to expand as the climate warms a new study warns. The study by an international team of researchers led by Dr Adriana Vergã s of UNSW Australia
and Dr Fiona Tomas of the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Spain is published in the Journal of Ecology.
Increased feeding by plant-eating tropical fish in temperate waters as a result of ocean warming is an issue of global importance that has the potential to transform marine ecosystems as has also been seen in Japan.
and leopards in their natural environment Dr Askew said. He filmed the take-offs of birds carrying full plumage in 3d
Ecological factors such as climate soil quality water supply and topography determine the suitability of land for agriculture.
Climate change may impact global agriculture but some regions may benefit from it. In a new study researchers focused on the probable impact of climate change on the supply of land suitable for the cultivation of the 16 major food
and energy crops worldwide including staples such as maize rice soybeans and wheat. They simulated the impact of climate change on agricultural production over the course of the 21st century
and found that two-thirds of all land potentially suitable for agricultural use is already under cultivation.
The results indicate that climate change may expand the supply of cropland in the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere including Canada Russia China over the next 100 years.
Moreover in the tropical regions of Brazil Asia and Central africa climate change will significantly reduce the chance of obtaining multiple harvests per year.
#Reduced energy density in foods can create healthier food environment, may help to reduce obesityon the heels of new research showing that 16 major food
or overweight it's no secret that our food environment is a contributing factor to obesity especially among children said Barbara Rolls Phd FTOS TOS past-president and professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State university.
This obesogenic environment is characterized by large portions of tasty inexpensive energy-dense foods that are easily accessible in convenience stores vending machines
A successful effort to improve the food environment by food and beverage companies is detailed in the research conducted by TOS members Shu Wen Ng Phd
but the ecosystem function hasn't come back said ecologist Mark Bertness professor of biology at Brown and senior author of the study in the journal Biological Conservation.
'but'Does it restore the ecosystem services?''which is really what should be important to us.
The answer is that the recovering ecosystems were not back to performing like healthy ones.
Prevention and real restorationamong the many services that saltmarshes provide coastal protection is of particular importance as sea levels rise due to climate change Bertness said.
Ecological restoration is complicated a and expensive endeavor that sometimes fails because of the subtle and intricate nature of ecosystems Bertness noted.
In the case of Cape cod's marshes among the key species that may have been set back are the slow-growing mussels that transfer nitrogen from the water to the sediment promoting grass growth.
therefore that ecosystem management cannot be judged as successful based merely on how the marshes look.
Three decades ago forest dieback was a hot topic with the very survival of large forest ecosystems seemingly in doubt.
The forested areas are also representative of the typical climate and environmental conditions found in Central europe.
Our findings are based on a unique data pool maintains Prof. Hans Pretzsch from TUM's Chair for Forest Growth and Yield who headed up the study.
Meanwhile the accelerated growth and aging of trees is also significant for the forest ecosystem as a whole as Pretzsch explains:
Over such a long timescale it was possible to determine from the growth of the trees how they responded to changing environmental conditions.
Even though the experimental areas varied in terms of climate and soil conditions we were still able to discern an overall trend of faster growth.
We did not observe the trees in isolation but rather always in interaction with their neighbors.
and climate risks concludes Pretzsch. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Technische Universitaet Muenchen.
and whether its expansion is correlated to specific climate factors explains Hutchinson the paper's lead author.
and the hot dry climate in central Spain and parts of Australia Africa and Asia hamper the spread of the slugs.
A comparison of the distribution pattern with climate data allows prognoses regarding potential new occurrences.
In principle all areas with a temperate climate can serve as potential habitat for these animals says Hutchinson and offers the following recommendation:
and climate--around the world are the inaccessibility and cost of fertilizers and the inherent nutrient deficiencies of soils in many regions in
and fog while retaining their transparency to radio frequencies (RF). The technology was introduced this month in the American Chemical Society journal Applied materials and Interfaces.
when kept in a minus-20-Degree celsius environment the researchers reported. One can now think of using these films in automobile glass as an invisible deicer
Glass skyscrapers could be kept free of fog and ice but also be transparent to radio frequencies. It's really frustrating these days to find yourself in a building where your cellphone doesn't work.
They hypothesize that the properties of deciduous plants made them better able to respond rapidly to chaotically varying post-apocalyptic climate conditions.
Applying biomechanical formulae to a treasure trove of thousands of fossilized leaves of angiosperms--flowering plants excluding conifers--the team was able to reconstruct the ecology of a diverse plant community thriving during a 2. 2 million-year period
The hypothesis is that the impact winter introduced a very variable climate Blonder said. That would have favored plants that grew quickly
But used in a wrong way pesticides can pose a risk to humans and the surrounding environment.
Knowing this we have adapted our training environments to replicate the dynamic stadium environment something that has not been standard practice until now.
Most training settings are sterile stable environments. We now make it part of training to have people stand in as judges to have windsocks in sight
What this has allowed me to do is test my research in a practical environment. Dr Greenwood used specialised analysis methods to show
Dr Greenwood said athletes were also being trained to embrace a changing environment where movement is part of the competition.
and with different ecological strategies possess very different microbial communities on their leaves said lead author Steven W. Kembel a former postdoctoral researcher in the UO's Institute of Ecology
and ecosystem function Kembel said. Ultimately we hope that understanding the factors that explain variation in bacterial abundances across host species will help us better manage biological diversity in forests and the health and function of forest ecosystems.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Oregon. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet more is known about bellybutton bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics.
and even affecting the ability of forests to respond to climate change. Just as people are realizing that microbes carried by humans can have an influence on a person's health--positive
The Smithsonian forest ecologist and his colleagues hope to collaborate with researchers at the 60 Forest Global Earth Observatory sites coordinated by the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical forest Science to compare interactions at different sites and under different environmental conditions.
and offers hope for the production of grain crops able to thrive during unpredictable weather and climate change.
Environmental stressors such as heat and drought can trigger early aging of plants which slows growth
In Washington state we had a cold spell in May and June just when winter wheat was flowering.
In the journal Ecology & Society Michigan State university scientists show that useful insights and ways of scrutinizing wildlife
and conservation there's an increasing awareness of the need to go beyond biology and ecology to incorporate insights from various other disciplines like social psychology and economics.
Later the culture regressed as the ecosystem in the area shifted towards old-growth spruce-dominated forests
and regressed as the ecosystem became dominated by old-growth spruce forests which provided a less ideal elk habitat than the recently-emerged land.
People with weak executive function may lack the dietary self-control necessary to regulate snack food consumption in the modern obesogenic environment.
and an inability to move in a crowded environment Martã said. They're forced to align--a defining property of liquid crystals
and are particularly significant as global climate change brings more moderate winter temperatures around the world.
#Environmental costs, health risks, and benefits of fracking examineda strange thing happened on the way to dealing with climate change:
Advances in hydraulic fracturing put trillions of dollars'worth of previously unreachable oil and natural gas within humanity's grasp.
The environmental costs--and benefits--from fracking which requires blasting huge amounts of water sand
The authors are seven environmental scientists who underscore the real consequences of policy decisions on people who live near the wells as well as some important remaining questions.
and oil due to fracking said Stanford environmental scientist Robert Jackson who led the new study.
The key is to reduce the environmental costs as much as possible while making the most of the environmental benefits.
Fracking's consumption of water is rising quickly at a time when much of the United states is suffering from drought
Fracking's impact on both climate change and local air pollution is similar to its impact on water finds the study The Environmental Costs and Benefits of Fracking published in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources.
Globally though relief to climate change is uncertain the study finds. While the increased gas supply reduces air pollution in U s. cities downwind from coal-fired power plants we still don't know
and practices that could optimize fracking's environmental cost-benefit balance and it highlights the need for further research.
And according to Arizona State university researchers without globally consistent independent emissions assessments climate agreements will remain burdened by errors self-reporting
whether strategies to reduce greenhouse gases are said effective Jennifer Morgan Director of the Climate and Energy Program at World Resources Institute.
It gives a quick check on efforts to limit climate change. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Arizona State university.
According to records of the Institute of Ecology (INECOL) in Mexico there were six thousand cysts per kilogram of soil of the nematode
and meat-rich diets said Gretchen Daily the Bing Professor in Environmental science at Stanford and senior author on the paper.
whenever possible said co-author Claire Kremen a professor of environmental science policy and management at UC Berkeley.
and have very specific needs such as diet that can only be met in those environments. The researchers also outline a theory that human agriculture is simply tipping the scale in favor of species that trace their origin to similar conditions.
Preserving biodiversity and phylogenetic history is critical for both healthy ecosystems and prosperous farms Frishkoff and Karp said.
Having just sparrows in an ecosystem is like investing only in technology stocks: If the bubble bursts you lose Frishkoff said.
You want to have diversified a truly ecosystem with an array of species each contributing different benefits.
and agricultural treatments problems that may ultimately hinder sustainable development argues a new study published online today in Science Express led by University of California Davis and the Center for Macroecology Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen.
and environmental management using evolutionary approaches approaches that consider species'evolutionary histories and the likelihood of rapid evolutionary adaptation to human activities.
and biodiversity loss two challenges ultimately caused by exposure to food and environments to which people and threatened wildlife are adapted poorly.
The study also assessed the potential for less commonly implemented strategies including gene therapies to treat human disease the breeding of climate change proof crop varieties such as flood tolerant rice
and translocating exotic strains for ecological restoration and forestry that will be adapted better to near-future conditions.
and how highly valued species including humans on the other hand are often very slow to adapt to changing environments through evolution.
and vulnerable species less able to cope with new conditions says biologist Peter Søgaard Jørgensen one of the lead-authors and Phd from the Center for Macroecology Evolution and Climate at the University
in order to adjust to Iran's northern region environmental conditions. The importance of this adaptation for biological control of problematic weeds in rice fields and the biology of the moth on new host plant have been described in the open access journal Nota Lepidopterologica.
and environmental conditions in northern regions of Iran resulted in the choice of a new new host plant
and change in different environmental conditions so an insect can change its choice of food plant on the basis of seeking the most beneficial complex of factors.
from now on we will have a much more detailed view of the dynamics of this ecosystem says Dusko Ehrlich.
Lead researcher Professor Paul Thornalley says The way Nrf2 works is very similar to sensors in electronic devices that rely on continual reassessment of their surroundings to provide an appropriate response.
Both conditions may occur more often in the future due to climate change. Singularly and combined these factors lower the toxicity threshold of fungicides for springtails.
The study by scientists from the LOEWE Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (Bik-F) the Goethe University and the ECT Oekotoxikologie Gmbh was published in the September issue of the journal Applied Soil Ecology.
Both of them--but especially Folsomia candida--might have difficulties to produce enough offspring to keep a population stable in dry soil says Cornelia Bandow an ecologist at ECT Ecotoxicology Gmbh who conducts research for the German Biodiversity
and Climate Research Centre (Bik-F). Extreme climate conditions may also alter the effect of pesticides on soil organisms.
To test for future climate conditions the experiments were performed independently at two different temperatures of 20 degrees and 26 degrees.
and the substance whether the sensitivity alters under extreme climate conditions or not..Therefore the researchers also plan to test several other pesticides using a variety of soil organisms.
#Illegal land clearing for commercial agriculture responsible for half of tropical deforestationa comprehensive new analysis released today says that nearly half (49%)of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal
We've known that the production of agricultural commodities is a principal driving force behind deforestation
According to the study Consumer goods and Deforestation: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture 90%of the deforestation in Brazil from 2000 to 2012 was illegal primarily due to the failure to conserve a percentage of natural forests in large-scale cattle
and soy plantations as required by Brazilian law. Much of this occurred prior to 2004 when the Brazilian government took steps to successfully reduce deforestation.)
And in the forests of Indonesia 80%of deforestation was illegal--mostly for large-scale plantations producing palm oil and timber 75
%of which is exported. While other countries also experience high levels of illegal deforestation Brazil and Indonesia produce the highest level of agricultural commodities destined for global markets many
of which wind up in cosmetics or household goods (palm oil) animal feed (soy) and packaging (wood products).
Illegal deforestation is also rampant in most other countries across Asia Latin america and Africa losing large areas of tropical forest.
or that these companies violated laws when clearing and planting causing significant negative impacts on the environment
All over the tropics companies are bribing officials to obtain permits trampling the legal or customary rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dwelling communities clearing more forest than they are allowed
and environmental devastation by flouting the law said Sam Lawson the report author. Export Agriculture a Key Driver of Illegal Deforestationaccording to the report the international trade in agricultural commodities (beef leather soy palm oil
Overall exports of agricultural commodities produced on land where forests were cleared illegally drove 25%of all tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012.
A Growing Problemwhile the study highlights Brazil's recent success in reducing illegal forest clearance the report also cautions that the problem of illegal deforestation for the production of commodities intended for export is now expanding to new areas of the tropics
where deforestation rates have traditionally been low --and that the same illegalities seen elsewhere are being repeated.
one of these plantations in the Republic of congo is set to double that country's deforestation rate.
Action Neededthe report documents governance failures that undermine broader efforts to tackle tropical deforestation including private sector initiatives on sustainable commodities
and efforts by tropical forested countries to reduce legal deforestation. It argues that while the recent spate of zero deforestation commitments by major consumer goods companies involved in producing trading
or consuming relevant commodities is to be applauded illegalities relating to consumer agriculture and timber plantations can ultimately only be addressed fully by governments
Without investing in governance our collective investments in halting deforestation and promoting forest stewardship will fail concluded Jenkins.
Responsible companies and environmental and human rights groups are likely to be supportive of processes to reform the complex conflicting and unclear laws
if global commitments to stop tropical deforestation are going to be achieved. The report includes a range of recommendations for countries that both produce and import agricultural commodities as well as corporations and investors in the commodity trade.
Consumer countries have a responsibility to help halt this trade. http://www. forest-trends. org/illegal-deforestation. phpstory Source:
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