The future landscape of the American Midwest could look a lot like the past—covered in native grasslands rather than agricultural crops. This is not a return to the past, however, but a future that could depend on grasslands for biofuels, grazing systems, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem services. A major threat to this ecosystem is an old one—weeds and their influence on the soil.
A dozen years ago, controversial clinical trial results caused an international medical society to warn against the use of stents in leg arteries. But recent years have brought significant improvements in stent technology. One-year follow-up results of a worldwide, multicenter trial with 744 patients show that 90 percent of participants had successful procedures that did not require a repeat treatment.
Giant ragweed lives up to its name, towering over crops and choking out surrounding plant species. Just one ragweed plant per square meter has been shown to reduce crop yields 45 to 77 percent. Now giant ragweed has evolved resistance to the herbicide glyphosate, which had been effective at controlling the weed.
When severe droughts and overgrazing in the late 19th century brought livestock mortality, soil erosion, and loss of native forage plants to the western United States, the profession of rangeland science was born. While the original intention was to create sustainable rangelands for livestock production, today’s world has additional needs. Rangeland science must progress to accommodate increasing demand for ecosystem services in changing environments.
The popularity of organic foods and products continues to climb, creating greater demand for organic agriculture. Effective natural alternatives to synthetic chemical weed and pest management are needed to meet organic standards. Essential oils, such as clove oil, offer an avenue to explore.
Characteristics of both patient and surgeon can affect the success of dental implants. A 10-year study finds that patient risk factors such as grinding teeth or diabetes increase the odds of implant failure. It also associates higher implant failure rates with surgeons who have less than 5 years of experience.
What is the best course of action when an invading noxious weed threatens to attack crop yields and assault grazing land? Invite a friend to dinner. In this case, the friend is a plant-eating insect—the stem-mining weevil.
The St. Francois Mountains, in the southeastern part of Missouri, are home to the state’s highest peaks and only igneous glades. This unique area harbors a diverse flora that is currently under threat from encroaching species. Concern for survival of the glade’s plant communities has prompted a study that will lead to mapping out a conservation management plan.
The wood that remains after a tree harvesting operation is often burned to reduce the hazard of fire or is removed for bioenergy production. But another option should be considered—leaving the wood for forest wildlife whose habitat has been disturbed during clear-cut forestry operations. Woody debris on the floor of the forest is essential for maintaining biodiversity and long-term ecosystem productivity.
Use of balloon angioplasty and placement of stents to widen clogged arteries have become standard medical procedure. Further advancing this treatment, drug-eluting devices are now delivering medication directly to the site where it can be most effective. While this technique has met with success in coronary arteries, its use in peripheral arteries is still under study.
The ideal sedative for oral surgery should make the patient comfortable during the surgery and should wear off quickly enough that the patient can leave the dental chair soon after the procedure. Finding the best plan of anesthetic treatment is essential to the success of dental procedures such as the extraction of wisdom teeth.
Efforts to enhance wildlife habitat by controlling vegetation could actually cause more harm than good. Wyoming big sagebrush is often manipulated to decrease its density and encourage the growth of herbaceous plants. However, this may bring about declines in the population of birds, elk, and other animals.
For children, nighttime bedwetting is a common problem, often requiring intervention. The use of medicine and other treatments has met with limited success. Targeting neuronal activities of the brain through neurofeedback, however, has shown promising results.
Access to oral health care can be a challenge for people with cleft lip and palate. The greater complexity of treatment for these patients creates issues of time, cost, and scope of orthodontic practice. A study finds that while orthodontists have the motivation to treat this population, training and experience may be lacking.
Weed scientists in Oregon have found that the timing of herbicide application along with reseeding of native grasses offers the best recipe for restoring native grasslands while controlling invasive weeds. Grasslands are a valuable resource for ecosystems, providing soil conservation, food and fiber production, and wildlife habitat. When threatened by invading exotic species, the quality and quantity of forage for wildlife can be reduced, fire frequencies can be altered, soil moisture and nutrients can be depleted, and the costs of land management can increase.
>The American pronghorn in the Yellowstone region have proven to be gregarious animals. Observations of group dynamics have found their interactions to be influenced by social, reproductive, and environmental factors. Pronghorn were also found to be somewhat unpredictable, making it more challenging to develop conservation strategies for this species.
For a successful dental implant, the first step for some patients is reconstructive surgery of the jaw. A bone graft to augment the upper jaw can now be achieved by several methods. To assess these methods, their risk of sinus perforation, and the best evaluation technology, researchers put these procedures to the test on 20 human cadaver specimens.
Kochia, a weed that is rapidly becoming more abundant across southern Canadian prairies and the Great Plains of the United States, can reduce crop yields by up to 60 percent. Fighting this weed has become difficult because more than 90 percent of kochia populations are now resistant to acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides. The phenomenon of negative cross-resistance, however, may offer another path to defeating the spread of this weed.
Conservationists, government agencies, and landowners often have different ideas about the best uses for land and natural resources. When these stakeholders build partnerships that achieve common goals and meet their individual needs, it is something to celebrate. To increase awareness of successful partnerships in land management and to encourage future collaborations, the Bureau of Land Management, USDA Agricultural Research Service, and the Society for Rangeland Management organized a special conference session and journal.
Nearly 239 million hectares of land in the United States are devoted to pastures and rangeland. Worldwide, rangelands cover about 3.6 billion hectares. Harnessing the potential for carbon sequestration from these lands could have a global impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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