and water resources and maintaining the health of the orchard ecosystem. According to Rom the study has implications for sustainably
This is a key piece of research that has demonstrated how effective bioacoustics techniques can be for providing ecological data.
and first author of the paper published online today in the journal Ecology Letters. The study of woodrats also known as packrats raises two concerns according to Kohl and the study's senior author Denise Dearing a professor and chair of biology:
and ecologists and land managers are concerned he says. Farmers are interested in getting their sheep and goats to eat juniper.
Woodrats somehow acquired novel toxin-degrading gut microbes to adapt to climate and vegetation changes that began 17000 years ago.
Twin studies provide unique opportunities to study inherited and environmental contributions to language acquisition said Rice.
and Stephen Zubrick from the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth Western australia and Professor Shelley Smith at the University of Nebraska Medical center The study population is located in the vicinity of Perth Western australia
In addition to formal language tests researchers have collected genetic and environmental data as well as assessments with the twins'siblings.
NASAS Aura and climate changenitrogen and oxygen make up nearly 99 percent of Earth's atmosphere.
But these greenhouse gases as well as clouds and tiny particles called aerosols in the atmosphere also play vital roles in Earth's complex climate system.
and its four onboard instruments measure some of the climate agents in the atmosphere including greenhouse gases clouds
These global datasets provide clues that help scientists understand how Earth's climate has varied and how it will continue to change.
and water vapor helping scientists understand the gases that influence climate. People plants and animals live in the lowest layer of the atmosphere called the troposphere.
For instance ozone appeared to be a more effective greenhouse gas over hotter regions like the tropics and cloud-free regions like the Middle east.
If you want to understand climate change you need to monitor the greenhouse gases and how they change over time said Bryan Duncan an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland.
Improving Climate Modelsin addition to greenhouse gases Aura measures several other constituents relevant to climate--smoke dust and clouds including the ice particles within the clouds--that are important
for testing and improving climate models. If you don't have any data then you don't know
The way clouds affect Earth's climate depends on their altitude and latitude. Two of Aura's instruments have provided information about tropical clouds.
Like greenhouse gases high thin clouds in the tropics absorb some of Earth's outgoing heat
and warm the surface. Aura's High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) instrument provided global maps showing cirrus clouds in the upper altitudes in the tropics.
Researchers have used these data along with data records from previous satellites going back to 1985 to show that the tropical cirrus cloud distribution has been steady giving scientists information about the interplay among water vapor ice and the life cycle of these clouds.
Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument also built and managed by JPL made the first global measurements of cloud ice content in the upper troposphere providing new data input for climate models.
MLS showed cloud ice is often present over warm oceans. Along with satellite rainfall data MLS shows that dirty polluted clouds rain less than clean clouds.
The novel relationships obtained from HIRDLS and MLS connect ocean temperatures with clouds and ice and quantify effects of pollution on tropical rainfall
--which are important assessments for climate models. Aerosols influence climate but their influence is challenging to decipher
because they play several different roles. Aerosols reflect radiation from the sun back into space;
this tends to cool Earth's surface. Aerosols such as dust and smoke also absorb radiation and heat the atmosphere where they are concentrated.
Aura's Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) is especially good at observing these absorbing aerosols above clouds and bright deserts.
Both OMI and TES also provide data on gases such as sulfur dioxide and ammonia which are primary ingredients for other types of less-absorbing aerosols.
Aura data in conjunction with other satellite data are helping scientists understand how aerosols interact with incoming sunlight in Earth's atmosphere;
this in turn helps scientists improve long-term predictions in climate models. Learning from Long Data Setsresearchers investigated how natural phenomena such as El Niã o affect tropospheric ozone concentrations--a study made possible by Aura's extensive data set.
El Niã o is an irregularly occurring phenomenon associated with warm ocean currents near the Pacific coast of South america that changes the pattern of tropical rainfall.
of the troposphere responds to a natural variation are important for understanding how the Earth system will respond to other forcing potentially including changes in climate said Douglass.
#Big data used to guide conservation effortsdespite a deluge of new information about the diversity and distribution of plants and animals around the globe big data has yet to make a mark on conservation efforts to preserve the planet's biodiversity.
But according to a new report by researchers at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment focusing efforts to improve food systems on a few specific regions crops
and actions could make it possible to both meet the basic needs of 3 billion more people and decrease agriculture's environmental footprint.
It proposes a set of key actions in three broad areas that that have the greatest potential for reducing the adverse environmental impacts of agriculture
This paper represents an important next step beyond previous studies that have outlined broadly strategies for sustainably feeding people said lead author Paul West co-director of the Institute on the Environment's Global Landscapes Initiative.
The study identified where major opportunities exist to reduce climate impacts and improve the efficiency with
Agriculture is responsible for 20 to 35 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions largely in the form of carbon dioxide from tropical deforestation methane from livestock and rice growing and nitrous oxide from crop fertilization.
The study found that the biggest opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas production are in Brazil and Indonesia for deforestation;
and environmental protection relate to making more crop calories available for human consumption by shifting crops from livestock to humans and reducing food waste.
and critically important goal of feeding the world while protecting the environment. Of course while calories are a key measure of improving food security nutrition access
and improved sustainability to meet the demands of a growing world population in a changing environment.
As the global population continues to rapidly increase we will need all the tools available to continue producing enough food for all people in light of a changing climate diminishing land
However in many cases this results in increased scarcity of water resources and puts a burden on ecosystems.
That appears to be the case according to Brad Herrick arboretum ecologist and research program manager.
The last glacier which covered all but the southwestern corner of the state as recently as 20000 years ago wiped out all native earthworms.
When numbers spike to the point of infestation Amynthas can eat all the organic matter at the soil surface--exposing the forest floor to erosion and making it more vulnerable to invasives.
However a new study published in the journal Environment International has estimated for the first time the potential cancer risk by age group through non-dietary ingestion and dermal exposure to third hand smoke.
and the Chromatography and Environmental Applications research group at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili Spain.
The study which was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the General Research Directorate of the Government of Catalonia also demonstrates for the first time the widespread presence of tobacco related carcinogens in house dust even in'smoke-free'environments.
Scientists collected dust samples from private homes occupied by both smokers and nonsmokers. Using observations of house dust composition they estimated the cancer risk by applying the most recent official toxicology information.
They found that for children aged one to six years old the cancer risks exceeded the limit recommended by the US Environmental protection agency (EPA) in three quarters of smokers'homes and two thirds of nonsmokers'homes.
Each year 600000 people die worldwide through passive inhalation of environmental tobacco smoke also known as second hand smoke.
The TSNAS concentrations found in smoke-free homes would suggest that TSNAS formed in smoking environments can persist for extended periods possibly due to partitioning to ambient particles
Data on tongue lengths can help ecologists understand and predict the behavior resilience and invasiveness of bee populations.
Bartomeus will explain the equation and the usefulness of tongue length data for ecology at the 99th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Sacramento Cal. this August during the Pollination I oral session on Thursday
The meeting lasts five days and draws roughly 3500 environmental scientists from around the world.
The above story is provided based on materials by Ecological Society of America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length
which could perform very well in high-yielding irrigated environments such as Nebraska and northeastern Indiana. Soybean cultivars are divided often into two groups:
and by critically reviewing the findings from 17 different pieces of research has found that outdoor spaces can offer environments that promote relaxation encourage activity
We think that gardens could be benefitting dementia sufferers by providing them with sensory stimulation and an environment that triggers memories.
#Socioeconomic change more of a problem for nomads than climate changesocio-economic change could have a much bigger impact than climate change on grazing lands in the world's arid regions.
This is the conclusion reached by scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Cologne who simulated ecological and social factors in a computer model.
The negative effects of climate change can to a certain extent be offset by an increased herd mobility write the researchers in a recent issue of the journal Global Environmental Change.
However higher income demands and less available grazing land make it increasingly difficult for nomads to move their herds around to secure their livelihoods.
Since rainfall in these regions is low and irregular many nomadic peoples have adapted their way of life
Changing climate conditions such as bigger rainfall fluctuations could disrupt this sensitive system. For instance some parts of northwest Africa are predicted to see a 10 to 20 per cent decrease in rainfall levels.
The study therefore aimed to identify climate change limits within which the livelihoods of households that depend on livestock could be maintained in the long term.
The researchers also looked at socioeconomic changes combining a risk assessment with an environmental and economic model.
The evaluation showed that higher fluctuations in annual rainfall sums would have less of an impact on animal farming than a decrease in average levels of annual rainfall.
Socioeconomic changes such as higher income requirements raised the tolerance limits for rainfall fluctuations. To a certain extent mobility enables nomads to continue their pastoral farming practices in less productive systems thereby offsetting negative effects of climate change reports Dr Romina Martin of the UFZ who is now conducting research at the Stockholm
Resilience Centre. However higher income requirements and less access to grazing land make it increasingly difficult to maintain this mobility.
Although our model focuses on nomadic grazing systems and only considers the most important drivers it reflects the consequences of the dramatic change in land use patterns in arid regions says Prof.
It can be used anywhere where the dynamics of ecosystem services are linked closely to people's livelihoods.
Our results emphasize the fact that the form of pastoralism practised by nomadic herdsmen enables sustainable use of sensitive ecosystems
and that the ecosystems are resilient enough when used in this way to adapt to changes in rainfall
and therefore to climate change says Dr Anja Linstã¤dter of the University of Cologne.
Dr Birgit MÃ ller of the UFZ adds: So we should not simply dismiss nomadism as an outdated tradition.
and Bonn Germany climatologists hydrologists geographers rangeland ecologists and ethnologists spent 12 years investigating the consequences of climate
Their data on rainfall fluctuations and on the productivity and regenerative capacity of pasture vegetation formed the basis for the ecological part of the model.
within the DFG's Collaborative Research Centre for Difference and Integration UFZ scientists worked with the Berlin University of the Arts (Udk) to develop a strategic game to explain the connections between land use rainfall and livestock capital to a broad public.
The above story is provided based on materials by Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research-UFZ. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Unfortunately bees all over the world are under pressure from pesticides mites viruses bacteria fungi and environmental changes among other things.
Scientists from among others Aarhus University have now found that bees that are adapted to the local environment fare much better with regard to meeting the challenges than bees that have been purchased
The scientists determined this by investigating the interaction between the genetic makeup of honey bees and their environment.
Even though quite a lot is known about the geographical and genetic diversity of honey bees knowledge of how honey bees adapt to the local environment has been limited until now.
Colonies with queens from the local environment managed on average 83 days more than colonies with queens from foreign areas.
and make it possible to maintain continual adaptation to environmental changes. The research was carried out by members of the international honey bee research association COLOSS that has members in 63 countries.
The results of the project regarding the interaction between the genetic makeup of bees and their environment have been published in a special issue of the Journal of Apicultural Research
Fisher is the Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental sciences and a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
and Ale was published in the Science of the Total Environment journal recently. Ale said they conducted the study
and climate are warranted. Overall our study indicated that use of robust spatial and statistical methods can reveal important details about the trends in water-level changes
Among the lost genes some may play important roles for the adaptation to different environments.
In this study scientists used wild soybean as a resource for investigating the valuable genes that adapt to certain environmental conditions They sequenced
The authors assumed that the elimination of Gmchx1 in salt-sensitive germplasms may be an example of negative selection against a stress tolerance gene in unstressed environments.
From the environmental point of view this product has significant potential as the material is based on renewable wood fibre.
The disease is most likely spread by wind-driven rain or overhead irrigation and some crape myrtle varieties are more susceptible than others.
when their susceptibility to disease is increased said Gary Knox an environmental horticulture professor with UF's Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
Most bacterial diseases can be spread in wind-driven rain and in Florida we know there's no shortage of that said Mathews Paret an assistant professor of plant pathology who led the study.
It's ideally suited to the southern climate it blooms for a long time it comes in lots of different colors
and is responsible for catastrophic ecological impacts on islands. A new study published in the open access journal Neobiota examines
and dangers of the introduction of the yellow crazy ant to the uniqueendemic ecosystem of the mature palm forest of the Vallã e de Mai a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Seychelles.
The palm forest of Vallã e de Mai is a unique ecosystem containing many endemic species including the iconic coco de mer palm Lodoicea maldivica.
Impacts of invasive ants can include direct effects such as displaced local species and indirect effects on key ecological functions such as frugivory pollination and seed dispersal.
Although the impacts and ecology of A. gracilipes have been documented well in degraded habitats in the Seychelles little is known about this ant's invasion potential in endemic palm forest ecosystems.
This habitat represents one of the last island palm forest ecosystems in the world and hosts many species that are endemic to Praslin
The current restricted distribution of A. gracilipes in this ecosystem combined with lower abundance of endemic fauna in the invaded area highlight the need for further research.
The rains came too late to benefit the wheat production so we may have our lowest wheat harvest on record said Mary Knapp service climatologist in the university's agronomy department.
And even getting more rain may not improve drought status. You can have punctuated a drought by a flood
If the rain comes too quickly it doesn't have a beneficial component. Story Source:
#Taking account of environment of bees to better evaluate insecticide-related risksa study coordinated by INRA
and ITSAP-Institut de l'Abeille has shown that the level of sensitivity of bees to the adverse effects of pesticides varies as a function of environmental conditions.
The scientists observed that a neonicotinoid insecticide disturbed their ability to find their bearings particularly in a complex landscape and under unfavourable weather conditions.
since this disorientation phenomenon as a function of both environmental parameters weather conditions and landscape complexity.
Meteorological conditions and landscape complexity as factors for variationthe scientists fixed RFID microchips onto the thorax of nearly a thousand bees.
or a plain given over to intensive agriculture) and under more or less favourable weather conditions (clear skies and temperatures higher than 28â°C or cloudy skies and temperatures between 15â°C and 20â°C). The results
revealed a significant influence of weather conditions and landscape complexity on bee sensitivity to the insecticide.
%(or one bee in four) when the weather conditions became unfavourable. This insecticide-related loss rate was modulated also by the landscape environment reaching 35%(one bee in three) in bocage landscapes versus 18%in open landscapes with a less complex structure.
The sensitivity of bees to the insecticide was therefore not identical everywhere and in all types of weather
but varied as a function of environmental conditions. The scientists were thus able to show that depending on the landscape
In unfavourable weather conditions bees tend to use visual landmarks more to navigate but this study showed that they did not appear to achieve this
A new source of variability concerning the effects of pesticidesthe scientists now need to explore the complexity of these environmental and toxicological interactions.
between pesticides and the environmental context. By characterising the environmental conditions that constitute the most risks for bees scientists will be better able to evaluate toxicological risks in the field
and improve the design of epidemiological watch networks. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by INRA-France.
A research team led by Michael Jenkins associate professor of forest ecology found that a 17-yearlong Indiana Department of Natural resources policy of organizing hunts in state parks has spurred successfully the regrowth of native tree seedlings herbs
Because our actions have made the natural world the way it is we have an obligation to practice stewardship to maintain ecological balance.
But when deer are overabundant they start to have undeniable negative impacts on the ecosystem.
 The role of humans in the spread of invasive insects such as the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle is established well according to the study's lead author Frank Koch a research ecologist with the Forest Service
's Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center a part of the Southern Research Station (SRS. Although more than 65 percent of campers carry firewood from home and that wood often comes from dead
The research by Nigel Raine a professor in Guelph's School of Environmental sciences and Richard Gill of Imperial College London was published today in The british Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology.
Bees have to learn many things about their environment including how to collect pollen from flowers said Raine who holds the Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation a Canadian first.
and giant clouds of gas are slung out into space where they are recycled into new stars in a vast cosmic cycle.
#Climate change provides good growing conditions for charcoal rot in soybeanswith over 100 diseases that can attack soybean crops why would charcoal rot rise to the top of the most wanted list?
University of Illinois scientists cite the earth's changing climate as one reason that more research is needed on the fungus that causes charcoal rot.
As the climate continues to change and we see more extremes in the weather including hotter drier summers this fungus will have more favorable conditions to gain a foothold in soybean
and other crops said Osman Radwan a U of I molecular biologist. If we look at diseases of soybean we find that soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is at the top
and his team noticed that worsening weather conditions associated with climate change such as higher heat and drought brought an increase in the incidence of charcoal rot in soybean.
and in this way improve soybean tolerance to both the pathogen and the extreme weather conditions. The review of research on the subject has been written along with Hartman and Schuyler Korban from U of
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences (ACES.
Most new plant species are found in the tropics and it is uncommon for a new one--especially a flowering plant--to be found in the United states says University of Utah biology professor Lynn Bohs senior author of a new study describing
Both environmental and genetic causes of the disease have been postulated. Parkinson's disease affects about 1. 2 million patients in the United states and Canada.
#Ancient hedgehog and tapir once inhabited British Columbiathe Earth has experienced many dramatic changes in climate
which fits nicely with the rainforest environment indicated by the fossil plants at Driftwood Canyon said Dr. Jaelyn Eberle of the University of Colorado lead author of the study.
because today's tapirs live in the tropics. Its occurrence alongside a diversity of fossil plants that indicates a rainforest supports an idea put forward by others that tapirs
and probably had a climate similar to that of Portland Oregon located roughly 700 miles to the south Driftwood Canyon is a window into a lost world--an evolutionary experiment where palms grew beneath spruce trees
However it can also help us understand how the world may change as the global climate continues to warm.
This total represents up to 40%of the carbon loss caused by deforestation in the region.
because all the efforts have been focused on preventing further deforestation. This attitude has resulted in tremendous progress in conserving the Brazilian Amazon
whose deforestation rate fell more than 70%over the past 10 years. However our study has shown that this other type of degradation is having a severe impact on the forest with enormous quantities of previously stored carbon being lost into the atmosphere said Erika Berenguer researcher from the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University in the United kingdom
first author on the study. According to Joice Ferreira researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa Amazã'nia Oriental) in Belã m state of Parã¡
whose study is recommended by the United nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): aboveground biomass (live plants) dead organic matter leaf litter (layer that contains a combination of fragments of leaves branches
Many organisms apart from those living in the tropics use the changes in the length of day (photoperiod) as their calendars to adapt to seasonal changes in the environment.
and summer when the climate is warm and when there is sufficient food to feed their young offspring he continues.
Diet analyses are central to the study of avian trophic ecology and can be an important conservation tool.
Authors point out that these results suggest that individual diet variation within populations is likely to have important ecological and evolutionary implications.
and availability but it also provides new interesting data to studies centred on changes in the habitats and ecosystems where the Bonelli's Eagle one of the most representative--and threatened--raptor species of the Mediterranean region lives.
The research developed by UB research group was supported also by the UB Science and Technology Centres (CCITUB) the Group of Rangers of the Government of Catalonia the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture Nutrition and Environment the Government of Andalusia and The french
Ministry of Ecology Energy Sustainable Development and the Sea among other institutions. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universidad de Barcelona.
To Nieh whose research has focused on the evolution of communication strategies among bees eavesdropping is part of the information web the signals and cues that surround animals and play a key role in shaping ecosystems.
but suggests how these strategies can affect the ecology of plant communities. Such strategies affect not only the individuals directly involved but also broader ecological interactions between the food-gatherers and their food Lichtenberg says.
This is particularly important for animals such as the bees I studied because their movements determine plant pollination.
While living in a space habitat is basically residing in a mechanized environment Hava says humans by their makeup still need to be around nature.
We also want the plants to be in the astronauts'environment so they can see them smell them
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