These new data provide evidence to support suggestions that the native hill breeds are less susceptible to the virus. Mainstream agriculture is looking to locally adapted breeds of livestock to increase resilience to new pressures from climate change
The research team investigated adaptive radiation--the explosive evolution of species into new ecological niches powered by natural selection--of New world Leaf-nosed bats.
#Better sweet corn research, better productionwhile grain yield is economically important in field corn production there are other metrics more important in sweet corn grown for processing said Marty Williams a USDA-ARS ecologist and University
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences.
The disease is thought to be triggered in a genetically susceptible individual by a combination of one or more environmental factors.
The environmental trigger of MS however is still unknown. According to the National Multiple sclerosis Society the condition affects approximately 400000 Americans
study showsscientists have known for more than 40 years that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats and a threat to the environment.
I think these results demonstrate that more attention should be focused on potential environmental contributors and their interaction with genetic susceptibility says Jason R. Richardson associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Institute (EOHSI). Our data may help identify those that are at risk for Alzheimer's disease and could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis and an improved outcome.
because the chemical can take decades to breakdown in the environment. In addition people may be exposed to the pesticide by consuming imported fruits vegetables
Although the exact cause of Alzheimer's disease--with five million Americans suffering now and millions more expected to fall prey with the graying of the Baby boom Generation--is known not scientists believe that late-onset Alzheimer's may be linked to a combination of genetic environmental and lifestyle factors.
and also does not consider mixtures of pesticides the risk assessment process that the Environmental protection agency uses should be changed.
or in concert to create a toxic environment for honeybee growth and development. The researchers also investigated the effects of NMP on honeybee larvae by adding seven concentrations of the chemical to a pollen-derived royal jelly diet.
and released into U s. environments are formulation ingredients like NMP which are recognized generally as safe.
Solar and wind energy fluctuate dramatically when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow
and we have no good way of storing enough of it to supply the grid for long said Wyss Institute Founding Director Don Ingber M d. Ph d
and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the deliberate molasses-slow animals in northeast Costa rica.
The article by the U S. Environmental protection agency U s. Forest Service and other organizations addresses planning practices for locations along major transportation corridors and considers options to address short-and long-term impacts
The group agreed that vegetation barriers are a form of green infrastructure that can provide environmental economic and social benefits to their surrounding areas.
and management however further research is needed to explore effects of wind conditions and other variables.
Dr Hunt who is Director of research on Environmental Change at Queen's School of Geography Archaeology
While it could be tempting to blame these disturbances on climate change that is not the case as they do not coincide with any known periods of climate change.
Modern ecological studies show that they quickly follow burning and disturbance of forests in the region.
The findings have huge importance for ecological studies or rainforests as the historical role of people in managing the forest vegetation has rarely been considered.
How a South american tree adapts to volcanic soilssoils of southern South america including Patagonia have endured a high frequency of disturbances from volcanic eruptions earthquakes landslides and erosion.
I was particularly curious of the ecological role of this root adaptation explained Frida Piper a terrestrial ecosystem ecologist at the remote research center Centro de Investigaciã n en Ecosistemas de la
Piper is already exploring further research to understand how E. coccineum benefits neighbors by providing increased nutrient availability from root exudates
and the increased probability of conceiving a daughter from sex-selected semen suggests a gross value in the neighborhood of $200 million in milk production across the first two lactations aloneâ#the team reported.
As the authors point out adaptive radiations that is the explosive evolution of species into new ecological niches have generated much of the biological diversity seen in the world today.
Some form or function helps an animal to perform better in its environment but it can be hard to demonstrate exactly what that form
To further explore the radiative heat loss the team created a simple computer model consisting of a hot and a cold thermostat that roughly simulated an animal's warm body and the outside colder environment.
and birds that live in snowy areas Simonis says as it provides them with both warmth and camouflage against the white snow.
and climate were stabilised over the past 24 million years. When CO2Â levels became too low for plants to grow properly forests appear to have kept the climate in check by slowing down the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The results are published now in Biogeosciences an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU.
â#oeas CO2Â concentrations in the atmosphere fall the Earth loses its greenhouse effect which can lead to glacial conditionsâ#explains lead-author Joe Quirk from the University of Sheffield. â#oeover the last 24 million years the geologic conditions were such that atmospheric CO2Â could have fallen to very low levels â
Volcanic eruptions for example release CO2 while weathering on the continents removes it from the atmosphere over millions of years.
Silicate minerals weather in contact with carbonic acid (rain and atmospheric CO2) in a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
which could have reduced the rate of CO2Â removal from the atmosphere. â#oewe recreated past environmental conditions by growing trees at low present-day and high levels of CO2Â in controlled-environment growth chambersâ#says Quirk
and regulate climates of the past and our study makes an important step forward in understanding how Earthâ##s complex plant life has regulated
and modified the climate we know On earth todayâ#concludes Quirk. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by European Geosciences Union (EGU.
The key word is appear said Talbot Trotter the study's lead author and a research ecologist with the U s. Forest Service's Northern Research Station.
Even if there were continued increases in hemlock abundance in northern climates where cold temperatures slow damages from hemlock woolly adelgid the loss of trees in the south is a loss to the species Trotter said.
and economy said Michael T. Rains Director of the U s. Forest Service's Northern Research Station
next prefers fresh airoff the west coast of Peru seabirds deposit thick layers of guano that accumulates on the ground because of the lack of rain.
These findings highlight the important interactions between marine and terrestrial environments and the need to understand such interaction to guide conservation efforts.
In 2010 thousands of'citizen scientists'were asked by two professional ecologists to collect records of leaf damage from across the country as part of a project called'Conker Tree Science'.
Dr Michael Pocock an ecologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and lead author of the research paper said This is the sort of science that anyone can Do by taking part the public are doing real science
The authors suggest that this approach can be developed to examine a range of environmental problems.
Conker Tree Science was run with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and begun when the two authors were at the University of Bristol.
The above story is provided based on materials by Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
but the story digital photos tell about how forests respond to climate change could be incomplete according to new research.
Both events are expected to be sensitive to climate change. Using cameras to see when leaves sprout
and ultimately link this to satellite observations where we think changes in plant cycles due to climate change are being expressed on a global scale said Jack Mustard professor of geological sciences at Brown.
Yang expects cameras will continue to play a significant role in climate and forest research.
A paper describing the research appears in the journal Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment. I was surprised to see all the different birds that are using these agricultural fields--especially during spring migration said Kelly Vanbeek a wildlife biologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources who conducted the study while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Some of the birds using no-till fields are grassland species that have been in decline across the Midwest for decades said Michael Ward a professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at Illinois and an author of the study.
and environmental sciences professor and department head Jeffrey Brawn a co-author of the study. Generally row crops are not good for wildlife Brawn said.
we had lost completely those predator species that bring some ecological balance. We may not be balanced in a situation yet
and conservationists could work together to maximize the ecological role that no-till lands are already playing in the Midwest.
These agricultural fields are not ecological wastelands. There's some value there. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
For these reasons methane and nitrous oxide detection is crucial to environmental considerations. The small QCL has only become available in recent years Tittel said
'In the plant world close relatives make bad neighbours'said Dr Owen Lewis of Oxford university's Department of Zoology who led the study.'
It was carried out by scientists at Oxford university and Sheffield University and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC.
'This has important implications for how rainforests will respond to climate change which is predicted often to reduce overall rainfall making it harder for fungi to spread.
#Ecologists: No magic bullet for coffee rust eradicationspraying fungicide to kill coffee rust disease which has ravaged Latin american plantations
since late 2012 is an approach that is doomed to failure according to University of Michigan ecologists.
Instead management practices focused on maintaining the complex web of ecological interactions among coffee plantation organisms--including insects fungi plants birds
and abundance of beneficial insects and opens the plantations to winds that help disperse coffee rust spores according to U-M ecologist John Vandermeer
Small seemingly trivial changes in environmental conditions can generate dramatic shifts in the underlying dynamics of the disease the researchers wrote.
Vandermeer is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and at the School of Natural resources and Environment.
#Salamanders help predict health of forest ecosystems, inform forest managementwoodland salamanders are small lungless amphibians that live in moist forest habitats throughout the U s. and the world.
their population size and recovery from major disturbances can help predict the health of forest ecosystems.
and can predict how ecosystems recover from forest logging activity. MU researchers believe these findings can be translated to other species within forest ecosystems throughout the world.
One of our primary interests is in conservation of amphibians and the habitats that they utilize said Ray Semlitsch Curators'Professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Science at MU.
and climatological and environmental variables such as annual precipitation average temperature and snowfall explain a much larger proportion of variance in calf weight over the years than do wolf affects.
#Ecological impacts of human responses to climate anticipatedthroughout history humans have responded to climate. Take for example the Mayans who throughout the eighth
Such land transformations while necessary to ensure future crop productivity can themselves have large ecological impacts
To that end a Princeton university research team has created a model to evaluate how a human response to climate change may alter the agricultural utility of land.
Humans can transform an ecosystem much more rapidly and completely than it can be altered by shifting temperature
This model provides an initial approach for understanding how agricultural land-use might shift under climate change and therefore
Paroz from ETH Zurich and colleagues from several other institutions Estes studied South africa an area projected to be vulnerable to climate change where wheat
Before determining how climate change could impact the crops the team first needed to determine which areas have been
which historical weather data was available. They also calculated the ruggedness of each area of land
To investigate any climate-change impacts the team then examined the production of wheat and maize under 36 different climate-response scenarios.
Many possible future climates were taken into account as well as how the crops might respond to rising levels of carbon dioxide.
Based on their land-use model the researchers calculated how the climate-induced productivity changes alter a land's agricultural utility.
and that they are likely to stay that way under future climate-change scenarios. The researchers did pinpoint several areas that could become more valuable for farming in the future putting them at greater risk of conversion.
We hope that conservation planners can use this approach to start thinking about human climate change adaptation
#Small towns team up to power downthe Center for Environment & Society (CES) at Washington College has launched a partnership with four towns on Maryland's rural Eastern Shore that can serve as a national model for helping small communities make big reductions in energy consumption.
In the first year of the Shorepower Project staff will work with the partner towns of Cambridge Easton Salisbury and Snow Hill.
Established in 1981 by retired printing industry executive Edmund Ted Stanley Town Creek Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation dedicated to a sustainable environment.
In shaping the program the two have consulted closely with officials from the Maryland Energy Administration the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Municipal League.
A 15-member Shorepower Advisory board drawn largely from regional experts in environmental science and policy will help oversee the project.
Speakers included partners from the project plus Abigail Hopper Director of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) and Robert Summers Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
John Seidel Director of the Center for Environment & Society explained how Shorepower fits perfectly into the Center's mission.
We are not an advocacy group he said Our mission is to bring different parties together to deal with complicated environmental problems.
Secretary Summers used the event to outline the challenges that climate change and a growing appetite for cheap clean energy are bringing to Maryland.
As a result viruses such as TRSV generate a flood of variant copies with differing infective properties.
The research published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology reveals that prolonged exposure to a pyrethroid pesticide
Bumblebees are essential to our food chain so it's critical we understand how wild bees might be impacted by the chemicals we are putting into the environment.
#Climate change: Promising future for cotton in Cameroon? While climate change threatens most crops in Africa its impact could be less on cotton cultivation in Cameroon.
A new study by researchers from IRD and its partners shows that the expected climate change over the coming decades should not have a negative effect on Cameroonian plantations.
Against all odds their productivity should even improve significantly by 2050 thanks in particular to conservation agriculture practices adopted by the country.
These projections made â#ccording to six climate scenarios based on different farming techniques are optimistic for Cameroonian producers for
and plots from 2001 to 2005 and in 2010 in North Cameroon the research team simulated the impact of climate forecasts for the next 40 years on the growth of cotton plants.
and six climate scenarios in the north of the country according to projections that among other things served as the basis for the fourth IPCC report.
While climate projections differ for some variables such as rainfall the average of these scenarios shows stable rainfall higher temperatures and evapotranspiration.
According to the researchers'simulations the predicted 0. 05â°C rise on average per year is expected to slightly increase the annual yield of fields by 1. 3 kilograms per hectare rising to more than 2. 5 kg per hectare according to the climate scenarios considered.
and according to the researchers'simulations counteract the effects of climate change on crops. CO2 has a fertilizing effect on cottonclimate factors themselves could have unexpected an positive influence and among them the increase in the percentage of carbon dioxide.
The new study shows that this fertilizing effect will help offset other impacts of climate change.
The importance of a season of regular rainthe effect of rainfall change on cotton yield also differs from that of crops such as maize sorghum and millet.
In addition more than the total rainfall the start date and duration of the rainy season are paramount.
An insurance system with a compensation level based on these rain indices could consolidate the positive outlook for the Cameroon cotton sector by limiting the debt of the poorest producers.
Honey and pollinationhoney bees as all insect pollinators provide crucial ecosystem and economic service which is relevant for our food security.
#Bigheaded fossil flies track major ecological revolutionsimon Fraser University's Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes are part of a team of biologists including Christian Kehlmaier from Germany's Senkenberg
According to their research published recently by The Canadian Entomologist these fossils show their early evolution parallels an ecological revolution one that formed the character of our modern natural communities.
One fossil Metanephrocerus belgardeae is preserved well enough to name as a new species. It is named in honor of its finder Azure Rain Belgarde a student at the Paschal Sherman Indian School who uncovered it on a field trip to the fossil deposits at Republic Washington state.
With these new discoveries we see that the early history of these oddly shaped insect predators provides a part of the puzzle revealing the broad ecological-evolutionary revolution of expanding predator-prey relationships
and increasing biodiversity during the formation of new ecosystems says Archibald. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Simon Fraser University.
because it requires dry climates with significant irrigation and is less resistant to pathogens and pests. â#oefor a long time cotton breeders have been trying to develop upland cotton with the fiber qualities of barbadense cottonâ#Pepper said. â#oeglobally everybodyâ##s trying to do it.
of the genes thatâ##s already in the plant. â#Like human and animal eyes plants also have photoreceptors that pick up information about the environment.
The study was led by Nate L. Stephenson of the U s. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research center. Three Oregon State university researchers are co-authors:
They measured growth in about 495 tree species. CTFS does very important work facilitating collaboration between forest ecologists worldwide
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena Germany have now found that ants also keep harmful leaf pathogens in check.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have looked now more deeply into the insect-plant interaction asking
The above story is provided based on materials by Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and it was found to be sensitive to environmental conditions. However the research also paves the way for barley lines to be bred that are resistant to both diseases by selecting for multiple genes.
Beta-agonists, the environment and cattle feed intakegrowing cattle that are more efficient in converting feed to muscle is a main goal in the beef industry.
Reinhardt said this could mean weather and season particularly heat plays a factor in cattle's response to beta-agonists.
or should the decision be made in extremely warm weather to not use the drug for a period of weeks until the weather abates?
but this initial research is one step closer to understanding how environmental factors combined with the use of beta-agonists might affect cattle feeding.
Beta-agonists, the environment and cattle fatiguein agricultural production maintaining a level of excellence that includes environmental sustainability animal welfare
According to the researchers common garden spider webs around the world could be used for environmental monitoring as they actively filter airborne pollutants with an efficiency comparable to expensive industrial sensors.'
These two very different personas are remarkable adaptations of a single genome to distinct environments.
The research provides new insights on how the environment can affect gene expression and on insects'extraordinaire adaptability.
Locusts in the wild tend to live solitary lives until it rains and enough food becomes available to trigger their multiplication.
But if this plasticity in response to the environment (in this case population density) is remarkable
since food is a crucial survival tool and an adaptation to the animal's specific life story and ecology.
but it appears to come at the expense of many other environmental benefits that society may desire from rural landscapes.
and beneficial insects birds and microbes that consume methane a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
and other critical ecosystem services coordinated land use should play a key role in agricultural policy
and the University of Warwick have discovered that plants have the natural ability to regulate their growth independently of Gibberellin particularly during times of environmental stress.
which stabilises the levels of specific proteins that restrict growth in changing environmental conditions. This mechanism works independently of the Gibberellin hormone meaning we can use this new understanding for a novel approach to encourage the plant to grow even when under stress.
By comparing historical observations with current experiments we see that climate change is creating a whole new risk for the native plants in Concord said BU Prof.
Weather in New England is unpredictable and if plants leaf out early in warm years they risk having their leaves damaged by a surprise frost.
However the experiments show that as spring weather continues to warm it will be the invasive shrubs that will be best able to take advantage of the changing conditions.
The spring growing season is of increasing interest to biologists studying the effects of a warming climate
You may think that climate change is being caused by burning oil coal and gas. But not so fast!
Climate change in Antarctica--the cold and ice--killed them there and a change to seasonal dryness in southern South america put an end to them in Patagonia.
Agathis is a very dramatic example of survival via huge range shifts from the far south to the tropics in response to climate change
It is not clear that Agathis can adapt to the severely more rapid human-induced pressures it is experiencing now from deforestation selective logging and climate change.
#EU policy is driving up demand for pollination faster than honeybee numbersresearch conducted by the University of Reading's Centre for Agri-Environmental Research
basic ecosystem service. Adding The results don't show that wild pollinators actually do all the work
This opens up the possibility of using these particular species for promoting plant growth through the process of nitrogen fixation particularly in areas of climate change.
Her finding is grounded in existing data that details the diet of year-old baboons in Amboseli National park in Kenya--a similar environment to that once inhabited by Paranthropus boisei.
In the case of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem this would be the migratory wildebeest herds
Instead this study found that two of the three species of vultures studied preferentially selected areas of low rainfall
Data were collected from GSM-GPS telemetry devices attached to three species of vultures in Mara-Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa.
Rainer Lohmann a professor at the URI Graduate school of Oceanography is collaborating with a researcher at the Southwest Fisheries science Center in California to learn about the health and ecology of fur seals that winter in different locations in the South Pacific.
so some may have been in the environment for decades while others like flame retardants are relatively new compounds that are used still by industry today Lohmann said.
Lohmann also speculates that some older pollutants that had been frozen in glaciers may be released again as the glaciers melt due to climate change.
For this and other health reasons a fat-free diet is recommended not. â#¢Fish is an excellent source of the omega-3s EPA and DHA;
But internal waves which are hidden entirely within the ocean can tower hundreds of feet with profound effects On earth's climate and on ocean ecosystems.
In the years since scientists have come to a greater appreciation of the significance of these giant waves in the mixing of ocean water--and therefore in global climate.
It's an important missing piece of the puzzle in climate modeling Peacock says. Right now global climate models are not able to capture these processes he says
but it is clearly important to do so: You get a different answer â #if you don't account for these waves.
To help incorporate the new findings into these models the researchers will meet in January with a climate-modeling team as part of an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation to improve climate modeling.
Beyond their effects on climate internal waves can play a significant role in sustaining coral-reef ecosystems
which are considered vulnerable to climate change and to other environmental effects: Internal waves can bring nutrients up from ocean depths Peacock says.
and turbulence they produce and marine navigation in the region. This team's research he says contributed to a massive advance in our understanding of how these waves get generated and dissipated.
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