EurekAlert! - Agriculture
Sun Apr 24 04:23:08 EDT 2011
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Seafloor recovery from fishing gear impacts in Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary slow, unstable - (NOAA Headquarters) The University of Connecticut and California State University researchers found that seafloor communities in a restricted fishing area in NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary showed indications of recovery from chronic fishing gear impacts but is not fully stable.

Scotland's first marine reserve already producing benefits - (University of York) Scotland's first fully protected marine reserve, and only the second in the UK, is already providing commercial and conservation benefits, according to new research.After only two years in operation, it is already showing positive signs for both fishermen and conservationists, according to a study by the University of York and the Community of Arran Seabed Trust.

17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference - (The Earth Institute at Columbia University) “Moving Toward a Sustainable Future: Opportunities and Challenges” is the theme of this three-day annual gathering of the International Sustainable Development Research Society, bringing together experts in agriculture, urban development, climate, business, education, architecture, public health and other fields. The fundamental question: how can global society’s aspiration for continued economic growth be harmonized with the limits imposed by earth’s resources? Speakers include Nina Federoff, Lester Brown, Sanjeev Chadha, Christiana Figueres, Achim Steiner and Jeffrey D. Sachs.

Ben-Gurion University professor awarded top prize for best article on Palestinian-Israeli watersheds - (American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Prof. Tal and his co-authors from BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research were recognized for the article titled "Chemical and Biological Monitoring in Ephemeral and Intermittent Streams: A Study of Two Trans-boundary Palestinian-Israeli Watersheds." The article described the joint monitoring and restoration of the Besor and Alexander streams undertaken by the two groups.

Students tackle deforestation, win first prize with video game design - (University of Houston) Tackling deforestation, water pollution and poverty earned University of Houston students top honors in computer game designing at the US finals of the 2011 Microsoft Imagine Cup competition. With the annual contest drawing more than 74,000 of the nation's brightest technology students to Microsoft's headquarters, UH made quite an impact with three of its four finalists winning in game design.

Lawn of native grasses beats traditional lawn for lushness, weed resistance - (University of Texas at Austin) A lawn of regionally native grasses would take less resources to maintain while providing as lush a carpet as a common turfgrass used in the South, according to a study by ecologists at The University of Texas at Austin's Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

New technique improves sensitivity of PCR pathogen detection - (United States Department of Agriculture - Research, Education and Economics) A new procedure devised by US Department of Agriculture scientists and colleagues can improve polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods of detecting plant disease organisms.

MSU lands $4.1 million grant to unlock plants' biochemistry secrets - (Michigan State University) Michigan State University will use a $4.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to unlock plants' biochemistry secrets. Using cultivated and wild tomato species from the Andes Mountains, Robert Last, MSU Barnett Rosenberg Chair of Biochemistry, will lead a team of plant scientists to uncover how plants evolve to make compounds necessary for their survival.

In time for spring, biologist illuminates how seedlings regulate growth - (Brown University) All kinds of organisms, from plants to people, regulate growth via networks of proteins that add on and lop off phosphate molecules. In a new study, Brown professor Alison DeLong explains key steps that allow seedlings to make it past the surface of the soil.

Giant tortoises show rewilding can work - (University of Bristol) Exotic species can be used to restore important functions in ecosystems that were lost following the extinction of key species, according to a new study of giant tortoises on a small island in the Indian Ocean. The study was carried out by an international team of researchers led by the University of Bristol.

Prenatal pesticide exposure tied to lower IQ in children - (University of California - Berkeley) A new UC Berkeley study has found that prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides -- widely used on food crops -- is related to lower intelligence scores in children. Every tenfold increase in measures of organophosphates detected during a mother's pregnancy corresponded to a 5.5 point drop in overall IQ scores in children at age 7, the researchers found.

Discovery identifies elaborate G-protein network in plants - (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) "The next step will be to try and engineer plants to express altered amounts of these G-proteins to see how they affect their overall growth and can enable them to better respond to stresses that may be involved in limiting crop yield," Pandey said.

Researchers combine active proteins with material derived from fruit fly - (Rice University) The new work from the Rice lab of biochemist Kathleen Matthews, in collaboration with former Rice faculty fellow and current Texas A&M assistant professor Sarah Bondos, simplifies the process of making materials with fully functional proteins.

Quest for new plant protection substances mirrors search for new drugs - (American Chemical Society) The costly, often-frustrating quest for new ways of preventing and treating diseases that strike vegetables, fruits, and other food crops bears striking similarity to the better-known saga of the pharmaceutical industry's pricey search for new drugs for humans. That's the topic of an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly news magazine.

Shades of gray: LSU researcher studies South Louisiana's historical ties to the oil industry - (Louisiana State University) In response to the probing questions being asked of science and society, LSU researchers are taking a better look at how oil has influenced Louisiana -- and how Louisiana influences the industry.

International scientists warn of growing threat of wheat rust epidemics worldwide - (Burness Communications) Researchers meeting at a scientific conference in Aleppo this week reported that aggressive new strains of wheat rust diseases -- called stem rust and stripe rust -- have decimated up to 40 percent of farmers' wheat fields in recent harvests in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucuses, including Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Antimalarial trees in East Africa threatened with extinction - (Burness Communications) Research released in anticipation of World Malaria Day finds that plants in East Africa with promising antimalarial qualities -- ones that have treated malaria symptoms in the region's communities for hundreds of years -- are at risk of extinction. Scientists fear that these natural remedial qualities, and thus their potential to become a widespread treatment for malaria, could be lost forever.

WHRC debuts detailed maps of forest canopy height and carbon stock for the conterminous US - (Woods Hole Research Center) The Woods Hole Research Center has released the first hectare-scale maps of canopy height, aboveground biomass, and associated carbon stock for the forests and woodlands of the conterminous United States. The multi-year project, referred to as the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset, produced maps of these key forest attributes at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 30 meters.

Can biochar help suppress greenhouse gases? - (American Society of Agronomy) Scientists at Lincoln University in New Zealand, conducted an experiment over an 86-day spring/summer period to determined the effect of incorporating biochar into the soil on nitrous oxide emissions from the urine patches produced by cattle.

MU researchers find missing link in plant defense against fungal disease - (University of Missouri-Columbia) Scientists at the University of Missouri report on a discovery in a key component in the signaling pathway that regulates the production of phytoalexins to kill the disease-causing fungus Botrytis cinerea.

UC Riverside biologist elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences - (University of California - Riverside) David Reznick, a professor of biology at UC Riverside, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Reznick studies evolution as a contemporary process and performs experiments on natural populations of organisms. He is the author of "The Origin Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species" (Princeton University Press, 2009).

Protecting your garden from invasive species - (University of California - Riverside) Most people realize only too late that strange new bugs are killing their garden plants. But where do these new bugs come from? How do they get to our gardens? And how do we control and manage them? Bug expert Mark Hoddle will discuss invasive species and the economic and environmental problems they cause in a free public lecture on April 28 at the University of California, Riverside.

Keeping oysters, clams and mussels safe to eat - (United States Department of Agriculture - Research, Education and Economics) Eating raw or undercooked mollusks may pose a safety hazard if they are harvested from waters polluted with pathogenic microbes, so US Department of Agriculture scientists are studying ways to enhance the food safety of these popular shellfish. For example, USDA molecular biologist David H. Kingsley at Delaware State University in Dover is exploring new techniques that will decontaminate mollusks while protecting the seafood's flavor, texture and color.

Nottingham researchers help bridge the urban and rural divide in the UK and India - (University of Nottingham) Academics at the University of Nottingham are to receive more than £5 ($8) million in UK funding for research that will aim to make rural living in both the UK and India more sustainable.

VIMS study: Propeller turbulence may affect marine food webs - (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) A new study by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that turbulence from boat propellers can and does kill large numbers of copepods -- tiny crustaceans that are an important part of marine food webs.