A demographic study of two endangered plants at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco shows that they favor recently disturbed open areas over areas that have established plant cover. The study strengthens the case for removing the beachgrass originally planted to stabilize the dunes and allowing the sand to move in response to storm surges and strong tides.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: Bruce Jenner and transgender health, agriculture and pesticide alternatives, new tick-borne disease, internal dissent in Iran over nuclear deal, listeria ice cream recalls, changing mammography recommendations, immunology, materials science, and healthcare education.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: exercise and obesity, Focused Ultrasound to treat uterine fibroids, neurology, diet supplements and cancer (day 4 in top 10), genetics, geology, skin cancer, sleep and Alzheimer's, and water conservation.
An international group of scientists discovered the first specimens of slime molds from the Namib Desert in southern Africa.
“Ecosystems all around the world are being altered at an alarming rate. In order to protect biodiversity as best as we possibly can, we need to understand how these systems work. To achieve that goal, our study shows that it’s important to go beyond what’s immediately visible to study what nature has hidden below ground" - Dr. Graham Zemunik
Scientists at The University of Manchester have discovered a way to make trees grow bigger and faster, which could increase supplies of renewable resources and help trees cope with the effects of climate change.
An international team of researchers tracked nitrogen as soil bacteria pulled it from the air and released it as plant-friendly ammonium. This process—called biological nitrogen fixation—substantially promoted growth in certain grass crops, offering new strategies for eco-friendly farming.
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Introduced plants make up roughly half the diet of two subspecies of endangered tortoise, field research in the Galapagos reveals. Tortoises seem to prefer non-native to native plants and the plants may help them to stay well-nourished during the dry season.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: nanotech treating cancer, immunology, autism, patient monitoring, research ethics, lingering effects of dispersant in Gulf of Mexico, wildlife conservation.
Most areas of Texas should have great wildflower blooms this spring, and some areas already have a great show started thanks to intermittent rains since last fall, according to a restoration ecologist at The University of Texas at Austin's Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Even during a good year, soybean farmers nationwide are, in essence, taking a loss. That's because changes in weather patterns have been eating into their profits and taking quite a bite: $11 billion over the past 20 years, according to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison agronomists published last month in Nature Plants.
By studying the morphology and physiology of plants with tiny conical “hairs” or microfibers on the surface of their leaves, such as tomatoes, balsam pears and the flowers Berkheya purpea and Lychnis sieboldii, a team of researchers in Japan uncovered water collection-and-release secrets that may, in turn, one day soon “bioinspire” a technology to pull fresh water from the air to help alleviate global water shortages.
Researchers have produced the first haplotype map of wheat that provides detailed description of genetic differences in a worldwide sample of wheat lines. This is an important foundation for future improvements in wheat around the world.
Research at the University of Adelaide’s Waite campus has shed light on the action of the serious agricultural pest, cereal cyst nematode, which will help progress improved resistant varieties.
In Nature Genetics, DOE JGI researchers and longtime collaborators at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research and Clark University conducted the first broad, comparative phylogenomic analysis of mycorrhizal fungi to understand the basis for fungal symbiotic relationships with plants.
Great, wonderful, wacky things can come in tiny genomic packages. That’s one lesson to be learned from the carnivorous bladderwort. According to new research, this plant houses more genes than species including grape, coffee or papaya — despite having a much smaller genome.
When Edgar Spalding crunches data on Wisconsin corn, the numbers boggle the mind. Four million acres are planted annually, with 30,000 seeds planted per acre, producing about 120 billion seedlings sprouting skyward each May. With help from the Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC), Spalding is applying this astronomical sense of scale to our understanding of corn. Spalding uses the HTC capabilities pioneered by Miron Livny, Morgridge Institute for Research chief technology officer, to quantify the incredibly complex process of corn growth from seed to vigorous seedling — not just one at a time, but over thousands of samples.
Tiny ants may seem like an odd food source for black bears, but the protein-packed bugs are a major part of some bears’ diets and a crucial part of the food web that not only affects other bugs, but plants too.
The first comprehensive assessment of native vs. non-native plant distribution in the continental U.S., finds non-native plant species are much more widespread than natives, a finding the authors call very surprising. Even species with only a handful of occurrences were distributed widely.
An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.” Civilization has crossed four of nine so-called planetary boundaries as the result of human activity, according to a report published today in Science by the 18-member research team.
A team of scientists has sequenced whole genomes from 544 unrelated trees of the same species. An August 2014 study identified gene sequences from Populus trichocarpa, to understand how trees adapt to different climates.
Charles Messing, Ph.,D., has identified a new, very rare species of sea lily. Rather than name the creature himself, he's providing the opportunity of a lifetime and auctioning off those rights on eBay. Funds to help further research.
Your eye movements and gazes tell researchers what you value in plant purchases - the plant itself, how it was grown or price.
SPOKANE, Washington – Not many sixth-graders can say they have been published in an academic journal, but Caleb Lefcort can cross that distinction off his list. Caleb got into a discussion with his father, Hugh Lefcort, professor of biology at Gonzaga University, as to whether the seed burrs from cheatgrass would survive the laundry cycle. Hugh believed the seeds would not survive. Instead of simply taking his father’s word for it, Caleb – who was in fourth grade at the time – suggested the scientific method: an experiment. What the researchers discovered surprised them.
Researchers with UF/IFAS’ Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants spent more than a year developing a searchable website and database to help Floridians assess problem— or just plain puzzling —non-native plants.
What some farmers grow as pasture plants others view as weeds. But with the need to cheaply feed food animals rising, circumstances are right for the weed invasion to escalate.
On August 14, 1864, in a Union Army camp in Georgia, a captain from Wisconsin plucked a plant, pressed it onto a sheet of paper, wrote a letter describing the plant as "certainly the most interesting specimen I ever saw," and sent it with the plant to a scientist he called "Friend" in Wisconsin.
A patent-pending technology at Kansas State University has built resistance to certain viruses in wheat plants. These viruses can be an economic drain to wheat farmers by costing them 5 to 10 percent or more in yield reductions per crop. Although the technology involves genetic engineering, which is not an option for wheat in today's market, the research has extended to building this resistance in non-genetically engineered wheat lines as well.
Scientists using a microbe that occurs naturally in eastern cottonwood trees have boosted the ability of willow and lawn grass to withstand the withering effects of the nasty industrial pollutant phenanthrene.
Thousand cankers disease, which kills black walnut trees, has been confirmed in 15 states. The Kansas Forest Service encourages people to avoid moving firewood or lumber this winter to prevent spreading the disease to other states.
Researchers at Simon Gilroy's lab in the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this afternoon greeted a truck carrying small containers holding more than 1,000 frozen plants that germinated and grew aboard the International Space Station.
Scientists at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) are growing the first American chestnut trees that can withstand the blight that virtually eliminated the tree from the eastern United States.
It’s late autumn, and most of the blossom-laden plants that colored summer are fading. But seasonal changes offer no excuse for roses in experimental plots around Texas. They had better be loaded with colorful, fragrant autumn blooms and healthy green foliage if they ever expect to be planted in someone’s yard. That’s the contention of picky rose breeder Dr. David Byrne, Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist based in College Station.
In a large scale study of native and invasive Phargmites, researchers from URI and LSU found that the intensity of plant invasions by non-native species can vary considerably with changes in latitude.
A series of detailed genetic studies points scientists to a new way to dramatically increase the accumulation of oil in plant leaves, an abundant source of biomass for fuel production.
Researchers led by Colorado State University uncovered more than 167,000 kinds of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes in the soil beneath one of the nation's iconic urban environments. That’s 260 times as many species of birds, plants and invertebrates that live in the Park - combined.
It’s the first day of autumn, and the telltale signs are here: crisp weather, pumpkin spice lattes and, most importantly, the leaves are changing colors. Ever wonder why some leaves turn red, others yellow and some just turn brown? We’ll tell you all about the chemistry behind this seasonal spectacle in the latest Reactions episode.
The smell of cut grass in recent years has been identified as the plant’s way of signalling distress, but new research says the aroma also summons beneficial insects to the rescue.
Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns may get the lion’s share of our climate change attention, but predators may want to give some thought to wind, according to a University of Wisconsin Madison zoologist’s study, which is among the first to demonstrate the way “global stilling” may alter predator-prey relationships.
The mechanical force that a single fungal cell or bacterial colony exerts on a plant cell may seem vanishingly small, but it plays a heavy role in setting up some of the most fundamental symbiotic relationships in biology, according to a new study led by Jean-Michel Ané, a professor of agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In research to be published in the journal Ecology — and currently posted online as a preprint — Thomas Givnish, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attempts to resolve a debate as to which factors actually set maximum tree height, and how their relative importance varies in different parts of the world.
Coffee drinkers beware: Surprise ingredients may be hiding in your coffee, and growing shortages may well increase the chance of having more fillers in the future. A new test that will be reported today at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, may quickly find them before the beverage reaches stores and restaurants.
A fundamental chemical pathway that all plants use to create an essential amino acid needed by all animals to make proteins has now been traced to two groups of ancient bacteria.
Copious corn growing in tiny backyard plots? Roses blooming in December? Thanks to technology that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Richard Vierstra has been developing for years, these things may soon be possible. And now, new findings out of the genetics professor’s lab promise to advance that technology even further.
Salk scientists find that a plant used for centuries by healers of São Tomé e Príncipe holds lessons for modern medicine.
For the millions of adults and children in the U.S. who have to shun nuts to avoid an allergic reaction, help could be on the way. Scientists are now developing a way to process cashews — and potentially other nuts — that could make them safer for people who are allergic to them. They’re presenting their work at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Location. Location. Location. The popular real estate mantra also is equally important to the growing of grapes and the storing of the bottles of the beverage, according to researchers. Those are just two of the many scientific subjects that will be covered in a symposium titled, “Advances in Wine Research,” at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. A new video explains these topics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3UujrPLEU.
New research at the University of Adelaide has opened the way for the development of new lines of barley with resistance to powdery mildew.
Crape myrtle, an iconic tree in many yards around the country, has a new disease problem, researchers have found.
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