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Hacking Code of Leaf Vein Architecture Solves Mysteries, Allows Predictions of Past Climate

By Guest PostMay 27, 2012Environment, Natureancient greeks, carbon dioxide, christine scoffoni, climate, conifers, cycads, Environment, ferns, flowering plants, fossil record, global ecology, hacking code, images of leaves, lawren sack, leaf fossils, leaf sizes, leaf vein architecture, leaf vein systems, mathematical equation, mathematical linkages, michael rawls, past climate, photosynthesis, photosynthetic rate, plants, prediction, respiration, scaling patterns, superhighways, theophrastus of lesbos, tropical forest tree, ucla life scientists, vein network, water transport, xylem pipes

UCLA life scientists have discovered new laws that determine the construction of leaf vein systems as leaves grow and evolve. These easy-to-apply mathematical rules can now be used to better predict the climates of the past using the fossil record.

The research, published May 15 in the journal Nature Communications, has a range of fundamental implications for global ecology and allows researchers to estimate original leaf sizes from just a fragment of a leaf. This will improve scientists’ prediction and interpretation of climate in the deep past from leaf fossils.

Leaf veins are of tremendous importance in a plant’s life, providing the nutrients and water that leaves need to conduct photosynthesis and supporting them in capturing sunlight. Leaf size is also of great importance for plants’ adaptation to their environment, with smaller leaves being found in drier, sunnier places. (more…)

Ancient Domesticated Dog Skull Found in Siberian Cave

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2012Scienceaccelerator mass spectrometer, altai mountains, atmospheric circulation, beam of carbon, belgium, best friend, carbon 12, carbon 13, carbon 14, carbon beam, carbon isotopes, cave, chihuahua, climate change, crowded, dog domestication, dog skull, domestication, earth, euro asia, glacial maximum, greg hodgins, half life, last glacial maximum, last ice age, lgm, man, mass spectrum, modern dogs, organic molecules, photosynthesis, plants, radioactive carbon, radiocarbon, radiocarbon age, razboinichya cave, rottweiler, Siberia, siberian mountain, teeth

*A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with an equally ancient find in a cave in Belgium, indicates that modern dogs may be descended from multiple ancestors.*

If you think a Chihuahua doesn’t have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something.

An ancient dog skull, preserved in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia for 33,000 years, presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with equally ancient dog remains from a cave in Belgium, indicates that domestication of dogs may have occurred repeatedly in different geographic locations rather than with a single domestication event. (more…)

Powerful Mathematical Model Greatly Improves Predictions for Species Facing Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 4, 2011Environment, Nature, Scienceatmosphere and oceans, beetle, bridgett vonholdt, carbon dioxide emissions, coat color gene, coat color phenotype, daniel macnulty, daniel stahler, earth temperature, ecological impacts, ecological model, ecological parameters, ecosystem, Environment, environmental change, general model, genetics, global warming, gray wolf, grizzly bears, harmony, health of populations, heterozygotes, high arctic, integral projection model, ipm, mathematical model, new model, plants, polar bear, population ecology, population genetics, predictive model, quantitative genetics, robert wayne, species, sub fields of ecology, tim coulson, trophic cascade, wolf, wolf population, wolves, yellowstone, yellowstone national park

UCLA life scientists and colleagues have produced the most comprehensive mathematical model ever devised to track the health of populations exposed to environmental change.

The research, federally funded by the National Science Foundation, is published Dec. 2 in the journal Science.

The team’s groundbreaking integral projection model, or IPM, unites various sub-disciplines of population biology, including population ecology, quantitative genetics, population genetics, and life-span and offspring information, allowing researchers to link many different data sources simultaneously. Scientists can now change just a single variable, like temperature, and see how that affects many factors for a population. (more…)

Britain’s Wildlife Will Benefit from Better Coastal Structures

By Guest PostOctober 1, 2011Environmentanimals, australia, breakwaters, Britain, climate change, coastal structures, coasts, david baxter, ecological enhancement, environment agency, ilfracombe in devon, jetties, larissa naylor, newlyn in cornwall, plants, plymouth and treweek environmental consultants, plymouth university, richard thompson, rock armour, seattle harbour, seawalls, south west coast, sydney harbour, universities of exeter, usa

*Plants and animals that live on Britain’s coasts could benefit from changes to the way coastal structures such as seawalls, breakwaters, rock armour and jetties are designed and built.*

*Research by the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and Treweek Environmental Consultants, supported by the Environment Agency, has led to the development of recommendations for the design and construction of coastal defence structures.*

The team has produced guidance on how the ‘ecological enhancement’ of hard coastal structures can be embedded in the design and planning process, from conception through to construction.

Past research has found that hard structures are poor ecological substitutes for natural rocky shores, often supporting only a few dominant, opportunistic species such as green algae. The research team assessed the suitability of different materials, surface roughness, positioning and height for coastal habitats. They examined structures across the South West coast, including Ilfracombe in Devon and Newlyn in Cornwall, as well as looking further afield to work from Sydney Harbour in Australia and Seattle Harbour in the USA. They focused on organisms such as barnacles and limpets as these dominate many rocky shore environments and rapidly colonise hard surfaces placed in the sea, including harbour walls. Once these organisms have established themselves, other plants and animals typically follow, to the benefit of species such as salmon. (more…)

Computer Helps MSU Researchers Unravel Plants’ Secrets to Survival

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2011Sciencecis regulatory elements, genes, plants, secrets to survival

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Recent research by Michigan State University scientists has shed more light on how plants are able to cope with extreme environments. (more…)

Spurring Sweet Success

By Guest PostJune 1, 2011Environmentcrop health, diseases, farmers, farming, michigan, michigan state university, michigan sugar beet advancement program, michigan sugar co, nematodes, parasitic worms, paul pfenninger, plants, poindexter, roots, sugar beet, sugar beet industry, sugar quality, sweet partnership, tillage practices

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Thanks to Michigan State University, a sweet partnership has helped resurrect Michigan’s $444 million sugar beet industry.

In 1996 the industry was in peril. Yields hit an all-time low due to pest, disease and production issues that greatly reduced crop health. Farmers were looking to get out of sugar beet farming and switch to more profitable crops. Industry representatives reached out to MSU to help solve the problem. (more…)

It Takes a Community of Soil Microbes to Protect Plants From Disease

By Guest PostMay 15, 2011Environment, Scienceactinobacteria, archaea, bacteria, berkeley lab, burkholderia, complex microbial network, coral reefs, deepwater horizon spill, disease, dna sequences, dutch scientists, environmental mysteries, gary andersen, gulf of mexico, immune system, mammals, pathogens, phylochip, plants, potato, psuedomonas, puerto rico, rathmann family foundation, rhizoctonia solani, rice, root fungus, soil, soil microbes, sugar beet, todd desantis, types of bacteria, vegetables, xanthomonas, yvette piceno

*Berkeley Lab scientists decipher immune system for plants beneath our feet*

Those vegetables you had for dinner may have once been protected by an immune system akin to the one that helps you fight disease. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Netherland’s Wageningen University found that plants rely on a complex community of soil microbes to defend themselves against pathogens, much the way mammals harbor a raft of microbes to avoid infections.

The scientists deciphered, for the first time, the group of microbes that enables a patch of soil to suppress a plant-killing pathogen. Previous research on the phenomenon of disease-suppressive soil had identified one or two pathogen-fighting microbes at work. (more…)

Online Access to the Plants of the World Is Available

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2011Nature, Scienceafrican plants, biodiversity, digital scanner, ecologist, eldredge bermingham, Europe, flowers, global plants initiative, green tendrils, helene muller landau, herbaria, herbarium sheets, jstor, jungle, latin american, mireya correa, North America, online database, plants, pollen grains, university of panama

*The Global Plants Initiative Meets at the Smithsonian in Panama Jan. 11-13*

For centuries, jungle explorers from Europe and North America have created art of the plants they discover—pressing bright flowers and green tendrils onto herbarium sheets for prestigious museums and plant collections. But scientists in the most biodiverse countries lack easy access to this basic information needed to identify plants. The Global Plants Initiative, meeting Jan. 11-13 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, catapults biodiversity research to a new level, sharing plant collections in a massive online database of high-resolution scans. (more…)

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