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800-Year-Old Farmers Could Teach Us How to Protect The Amazon

By Guest PostApril 14, 2012Environmentagriculture, Amazon, amazonian forest, amazonian savannas, archaeologist, cattle ranching, charcoal, climate, columbian encounter, conservation, deforestation, doyle mckey, ecosystem, Environment, european settlers, farming, farmland sustainably, fire, francis mayle, french guiana, global warming, indigenous people, jose iriarte, mitchell power, old world diseases, paleoecologist, phytoliths, plant remains, pollen, raised field, savannas, stephen rostain, sustainable use, university of exeter, university of montpellier

In the face of mass deforestation of the Amazon, we could learn from its earliest inhabitants who managed their farmland sustainably.

Research from an international team of archaeologists and paleoecologists, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows for the first time that indigenous people, living in the savannas around the Amazonian forest, farmed without using fire.

Led by the University of Exeter, the research could provide insights into the sustainable use and conservation of these globally-important ecosystems, which are being rapidly destroyed. Pressure on the Amazonian savannas today is intense, with the land being rapidly transformed for industrial agriculture and cattle ranching.

By analysing records of pollen, charcoal and other plant remains like phytoliths spanning more than 2,000 years, the team has created the first detailed picture of land use in the Amazonian savannas in French Guiana. This gives a unique perspective on the land before and after the first Europeans arrived in 1492. (more…)

A Tailored Pair of Genes

By Guest PostNovember 22, 2011Scienceagriculture, alfalfa like legume, ancestor of legumes, ancestral genes, ancient plants, asteroid, backbone of protein, bacteria, beans, cretaceous period, crop plants, demise of the dinosaurs, dinosaurs, disaster, earth, eggs, fertilizers, genes, genetically engineer legumes, genomes, humans, legumes, living together, major nutrient, medicago truncatula, model, nevin young, nitrogen, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer, nitrogen fixation, nitrogen fixing bacteria, nonsynthetic nitrogen fertilizer, peanuts, peas, sequencing genome, soybeans, sperm, synthetic fertilizer, university of minnesota

*For ancient plants, two genes were definitely better than one*

In the wake of the disaster that killed the dinosaurs, the ancestors of today’s crop plants reinvented themselves.

They doubled their genomes, and in that single act set the stage for feeding the world 60 million years later.

In a study published in the Nov. 16 issue of the journal Nature, researchers from the University of Minnesota and other institutions recount how sequencing the genome of a model, alfalfa-like legume revealed the monumental benefits that flowed when the ancestor of legumes acquired an extra copy of every gene. (more…)

UTM Study Raises Questions About When and Where Soybeans Were Domesticated

By Guest PostNovember 21, 2011Scienceagriculture, asia, crops, culinary, east asia, edamame, Environment, gary crawford, gyoung ah lee, human relationship, Japan, korea, legume, miso soup, northern china, pre industrial, root of soybean domestication, soybeans, tempeh, tofu, tonnage harvested, university of oregon, university of toronto, villages

If you like tofu, tempeh, edamame or miso soup, you’re a fan of soybeans. But the significance of this legume goes far beyond a few culinary treats — soybeans rank seventh among world crops for tonnage harvested.

Now, a new study led by researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga and the University of Oregon gets at the root of soybean domestication in Asia, and challenges many of the long-held beliefs about when and where humans first began to domesticate this plant — and specifically, increase its seed size. (more…)

MSU Licenses Technology to Detect Altered Fingerprints

By Guest PostSeptember 13, 2011Scienceadvancement of biometrics, agriculture, altered fingerprints, alternative energy, anil jain, biometrics department, border control, charles hasemann, cutting edge software, engineering, identification and detection solutions, jean christophe fondeur, medicine, michigan state university, morpho, rare isotope, safran group, soweon yoon, true identity

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University has licensed cutting-edge software that detects altered fingerprints to Morpho, part of the Safran group, one of the world’s leading suppliers of identification and detection solutions.

The widespread use of fingerprint recognition systems has led some individuals to disfigure or surgically change their fingerprints to mask their identities. The technology, developed by Anil Jain, University Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering at MSU, can help law enforcement and border control officials detect these altered fingerprints. (more…)

Largest-Ever Map of Interactions of Plant Proteins Produced

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2011Scienceagriculture, arabidopsis, arabidopsis interactome mapping consortium, arabidopsis network map, arabidopsis thaliana, crop plants, interactome, joseph ecker, map of protein interactions, model organism for biological studies of plants, model plant, mustard plant, national science foundation, pharmaceuticals, plant growth and disease resistance, protein to protein, salk institute

*New map of protein interactions in model plant may help scientists improve plant species used in agriculture and pharmaceuticals*

An international consortium of scientists has produced the first systematic network map of interactions that occur between proteins in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. (Arabidopsis is a mustard plant that has 27,000 proteins and serves as a popular model organism for biological studies of plants, analogous to lab rats that serve as popular model organisms for biological studies of animals.)

Known as an “interactome,” the new Arabidopsis network map defines 6,205 protein-to-protein Arabidopsis interactions involving 2,774 individual proteins. By itself, this map doubles the volume of data on protein interactions in plants that is currently available. (more…)

Bats Worth Billions to Agriculture: Pest-control Services at Risk

By Guest PostMarch 31, 2011Environmentagriculture, bat populations, bats, costs of pesticide applications, ecological systems, economic consequences, gary mccracken, insect eating bats, justin boyles, lung damage, migratory bats, new york, paul cryan, pest control, pressure changes, the great plains, tom kunz, united states, university of pretoria, university of tennessee, white nose syndrome, wind turbines

Pest-control services provided by insect-eating bats in the United States likely save the U.S. agricultural industry at least $3 billion a year, and yet insectivorous bats are among the most overlooked economically important, non-domesticated animals in North America, according to an analysis published in this week’s Science magazine Policy Forum.

“People often ask why we should care about bats,” said Paul Cryan, a U.S. Geological Survey research scientist and one of the study’s authors. “This analysis suggests that bats are saving us big bucks by gobbling up insects that eat or damage our crops. It is obviously beneficial that insectivorous bats are patrolling the skies at night above our fields and forests — these bats deserve help.” (more…)

Think Globally, but Act Locally When Studying Plants, Animals, Global Warming, Researchers Advise

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2011Environment, Natureagriculture, air pollution, butterfly, camille parmesan, climate, climate change, climate change impacts, effects of climate change, extinctions, global scale, global warming, greenhouse gas, habitat fragmentation, human activities, invasive species, los angeles, mediterranean geraniums, michael singer, multiple factors, natural changes, nobel prize, plants and animals, policy makers, quino checkerspot butterfly, san diego, southern california, species, united states, urban sprawl

AUSTIN, Texas — Global warming is clearly affecting plants and animals, but we should not try to tease apart the specific contribution of greenhouse gas driven climate change to extinctions or declines of species at local scales, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin advise.

Camille Parmesan, Michael C. Singer and their coauthors published their commentary online this week in Nature Climate Change.

“Yes, global warming is happening. Yes, it is caused by human activities. And yes, we’ve clearly shown that species are impacted by global warming on a global scale,” says Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology. (more…)

Like Humans, Amoebae Pack a Lunch Before They Travel

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2011Nature, Scienceagriculture, amoebae, bacteria, beneficial bacteria, biologists, david queller, debra brock, dictyostellum discoideum, farmer amoebae, george gilchrist, harmful bacteria, joan strassmann, migratory systems, slime molds, social amoebae, strains of bacteria, tracy douglas, tuberculosis bacteria

*Amoebae increase survival odds through rudimentary form of agriculture; finding has implications for human diseases*

Some amoebae do what many people do. Before they travel, they pack a lunch.

In results of a study reported in the journal Nature, evolutionary biologists Joan Strassmann and David Queller of Rice University show that long-studied social amoebae Dictyostellum discoideum (commonly known as slime molds) increase their odds of survival through a rudimentary form of agriculture. (more…)

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