From Pig to Fuel - Anaerobic digester generates energy, reduces odors

 Teng Lim is operating a small-scale anaerobic digester at the MU swine farm in Columbia. The system generates energy and can mitigate hog odor. Courtesy Jon Lamb.

The University of Missouri has unveiled a prototype small-scale anaerobic digestion system that produces biogas from pig manure. The biogas can be used to heat a farm and create electricity. The device also reduces odor from swine operations.

“What we want to do is improve and fully utilize all the biogas for energy production,” said Teng Lim, Extension Ag Systems Management associate professor.

Funded by the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, the anaerobic digester consists of three tanks. Manure from the hog barn pit is pumped into one tank where the manure is stored and mixed. The anaerobic digestion takes place in the other two tanks, where bacteria break down the manure in these warm and oxygen-free tanks.

The biogas from the manure can be used for electricity and hot water production. With some further treatment it can also be stored as a compressed natural gas, for heating or even vehicle fuel.

PigsLim says a larger scale digester could supply a farm’s energy needs and also be sold to the grid to provide electricity to the community.

There are other benefits to anaerobic digestion in addition to energy generation. The digested manure retains the nutrients to be good fertilizer while becoming a more consistent product. Also, the digester can reduce odor emissions.

“When the manure is treated by the digester process the odor concentration is significantly reduced,” Lim said. “There is still going to be odor, but it’s going to be much lower and less fluctuation than the raw manure.”

A Lot of Pork

The swine industry is big in the United States – there are 73,150 pork farms in America with 120 million pigs marketed each year.

Before the 1960s, most pork in the U.S. was raised in outside lots or on pasture systems. With the development of slotted floors and liquid manure handling equipment, it became possible for producers to more easily care for larger numbers of animals. Enclosed buildings overcame most weather problems and predators, and minimized the potential pollution from outside lot runoff.

Typically, pig odor is a localized air quality problem, with low concentrations of odorous gases such as p-cresol. Odor problems are often a starting point for litigation. Many farmers can go out of business just fighting a lawsuit.

An Important Part of Future Farms?

There are challenges to anaerobic digestion, the biggest being cost and management. In a commercial setting the digester would be 100 times larger than the one at MU’s swine research facility.

Lim pointed out that industry leaders and scientists believe anaerobic digesters will be an important piece of future farms, both to mitigate odor and for generating renewable energy.  The cost is a major obstacle now. The team is working closely with industry experts from Martin Machinery, a Missouri company who specializes in biogas generators and control systems.

MU researchers are using the scaled down digester to find ways to make digesters more affordable and easier to manage. They are also using it as an education tool to show producers the potentials, what it takes to process the manure, and to train people how to properly run a system like this.

Source: Cafnr

The University of Rwanda Launch Agribusiness Program in Rwanda

                                                                   Image Credit: MSU
Michigan State University and the University of Rwanda recently launched a new Master of Science degree program in agribusiness in Kigali, Rwanda.  The gender-sensitive degree program will enroll its first cohort of students in February 2015.

The degree program was jointly developed with funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development through the Women’s Leadership Program, implemented globally by Higher Education for Development.

The graduate program prioritizes accessibility to women and midcareer professionals and will incorporate extensive experiential learning opportunities for students. The structure of the program requires all students to partake in an internship, thus better preparing them for leadership and entrepreneurial roles in agriculture in Rwanda. 

“Agriculture is vital to the people and economy of Rwanda, and many of those involved in agriculture are women,” said James McWha, UR professor emeritus and vice chancellor. “Their input to the business of agriculture is essential. It is also important that agriculture adopts a modern business strategy because it is a business and all those involved must learn the relevant skills. This program brings together all the components necessary for a major development of the future of the agriculture and food industries in Rwanda.” 

Using a collaborative approach, the Women’s Leadership Program is designed to support access of women to higher education and advanced degrees, strengthen institutional capacity in research and education on women’s leadership and promote women’s leadership through higher education extension/outreach efforts in underserved communities. 

“The empowerment of women through the expansion of their leadership opportunities and spaces for their voices to be heard is a top priority for USAID globally, including in Rwanda,” said Joseph Lessard, USAID/Rwanda economic growth director. “We really believe this program will give women rich opportunities to share their expertise and play major roles in the country’s economic development. We congratulate the University of Rwanda and Michigan State University on this achievement, and look forward to seeing how it will benefit Rwanda into the future.” 

MSU has a rich history of working collaboratively with the Rwandan government and its institutions of higher education. 

“It has been a great honor to continue the tradition of our two universities working together to advance the agriculture sector in Rwanda,” said Gretchen Neisler, principal investigator on this project from MSU.  “Working collaboratively on the Rwanda Women’s Leadership Program has been very rewarding. I look forward to strengthening our partnership with the UR through the continued development of this degree program.  I am also excited to explore new and innovative ways for our two universities to work together to educate the next generation of thought leaders at both Michigan State University and the University of Rwanda.”

Source: MSU

The Michigan State University Gets USDA Grant to aid Michigan's Fledgling Farmers

                                                                  Image Credit: MSU
Michigan State University has long been a resource for small farms in Michigan. Thanks to a $750,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, MSU will be able to help even more fledgling farmers get their start.

“This grant will enhance and create a vibrant network of farmer training across Michigan to help them negotiate the first five years of their endeavor,” said Mike Hamm, C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Director of MSU Center for Regional Food Systems. “Our programs will cater to different perspectives and needs while moving everyone who desires to farm along the path of building a viable business."

As part of the grant, the MSU Student Organic Farm will expand its Organic Farmer Training Program. Without programs like this, burgeoning farmers like Joannee DeBruhl, farm manager of Stone Coop Farm, may not have ever gotten her start.

DeBruhl, who spent much of her career in the insurance business, was laid off in 2009. Looking for a major change, she gravitated toward community gardening and eventually enrolled in MSU’s Organic Farmer Training Program.

“The program was great; it gave me lots of hands-on training and showed that it was possible and not just a dream,” DeBruhl said. “I think the USDA grant will be a huge benefit for small farmers because there’s not much money out there to help them get started.”

Training and help with startup costs are crucial, and this grant will be managed well by MSU, she added.

WATCH VIDEO
Key to the project is MSU’s partnership with Michigan Food and Farming Systems, which runs the Women in Agriculture Collective Farming Initiative at Genesys Health System in Genesee County. This partnership will develop site- and people-appropriate training programs that help beginning women farmers build a successful business.

In addition to women, the grant also will develop training programs for Hispanic farmers. The number of Hispanic farms in Michigan continues to grow, and MSU will assist this historically underserved farmer population through training and site development assistance at the Farmers on the Move Cooperative in Battle Creek.

MSU also will launch new, and improve existing, programs that target the biggest challenges facing small-farm viability – land access, capital access, market access, business planning and strategizing for scaling up production.

Additional MSU contributors helping with this grant include: Jeremy Moghtader, Shakara Tyler. Michelle Napier-Dunnings, with Michigan Food and Farming Systems, also will be contributing to these efforts.

Source: Michigan State University

Five AGRIPIR projects for introducing new technologies into highland agriculture

Five projects for introducing new technologies into highland agriculture will be launched as a result of the European cross-border cooperation AGRIPIR project. In concrete, plans are being drawn up for the teledetection of diseases amongst animals, the prevention of attacks by wolves and other predators, there mote monitoring of herd activity, and the self-supply of energy to remote holdings, as well asa “virtual herder” for controlling herds at a distance.

The European AGRIPIR project, in which various partners on both sides of the Pyrenees have been working for over three years in order to modernise agriculture and animal herding in mountainous areas, concluded with a two-day seminar in Bidart (in Labourd, in the continental Basque Country) . Five innovative projects to introduce new technologies onPyrenees farm-holdings were presented. The seminar was held on 11 and 12 ofDecember, in the presence of a number of authorities, outstanding amongst whom was the recently appointed European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Phil Hogan from Ireland.

In concrete, this network of exchange and experimentation for the revaluation and enhancement of agriculture in the Pyrenees has given rise to four new projects:

- Power Box: developing an energy kit made up of various supply sources and that guarantees energy autonomy for mountain herders and shepherds in zones of difficult access in order to carry out their daily tasks.

- Mastech: developing technologies based on nuclear magnetic resonance, thermography, proteomics (the study of proteins) and measures based on behaviour andphysiologyfor the early detection amongst sheep, goat and cattle herds of mastitis processes (the most frequent diseases that affect the dairy industry worldwide).

- Live-Pre Life: improving the co-existence of large predators and herds in mountain areas, through developing intelligent fencing, methods for the early detection of attacks, and active systems to drive away wolves and other potentially dangerous animals.

- Cowmon: developing an open, low-cost system with unlimited autonomy for monitoring herd activity over large expanses of terrain and to provide new services linked to animal welfare and tothe productivity of farmlands.

A pilot project known as e-Pasto has also already been developed, involving a “virtual herder” to control herds remotely, using latest-generation geo-location devices fitted to the collars of the animals.

Source: Elhuyar Fundazioa

The mystery of the Alpine long-eared bat

                              An Alpine long-eared bat fully airborne , UPV/EHU

The alpine long-eared bat was discovered in the Austrian Alps in 2003; hence its name. Yet later on specimens were found in other milder environments as well, in Croatia, Greece and Crete, and what is more, often close to sea level. Members of the Behavioural Ecology and Evolution Group of the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Science and Technology studied the distribution and way of life of this species, and found that it forages and reproduces in mostly alpine environments (above the treeline), a unique case among bats. As the biologist Antton Alberdi explained, “the common name of the species not only refers to the place where it came from but describes its nature, too.” Indeed, the researcher concluded that the resources used by the Alpine long-eared bat are the same as the ones used by alpine birds and rodents: in the Pyrenees, for example, it lives at an altitude of between 1,500 and 2,500 metres and hides under rocks, in crevices and on ledges.

Nevertheless, how is it possible that an animal that only lives above 1,500 metres in the Pyrenees can be found at sea level in Croatia? Alberdi was involved in seeking the answer to this question in his PhD thesis. Alberdi identified and quantified the environmental conditions that determine the distribution of the Alpine long-eared bat (Plecotus macrobullaris) to try to understand why this species is restricted to mountain environments and why it can appear at sea level at the same time. After that, in order to see whether the results obtained could be extrapolated to other species, he compared the distributions of 503 vertebrates with those of the bats, and found five vertebrates that have similar geographical distributions to that of the bat: the white-winged snowfinch, the Alpine chough or yellow-billed chough, the wallcreeper, the Alpine accentor and the European snow vole. The distribution of all of them is very broad, from Western Europe all the way to Asia, but they are restricted to the main mountainous areas. He studied their ecological features to see whether they were all following a common biogeographical pattern in order to work out whether they were following a common distribution model.

They need rugged places

The basic ecological features of these vertebrates and those of the Alpine long-eared bat are very similar: they all use rocks (crevices, ledges or crushed stones) as places to hide, and they need open spaces to forage. They have also seen that they can be found in cold mountain environments (in the Alps) as well as in hot ones (in the mountains of Iran and Syria, etc.) and that suggests that the reasons that restrict these species to mountainous areas are not climatic ones: they are linked to topography. In other words, they are not in mountainous areas because they cannot withstand a hot environment, but because high mountain habitats offer them the characteristics they need. In some cases, in Croatia, for example, these conditions can be found at lower altitudes, and that explains why the species can be found at sea level. Furthermore, as they have the capacity to withstand the cold, they can use the alpine habitats that other species cannot exploit and thus avoid competition. In any case, “it cannot be said that the climate does not exert any influence,” said the researcher. “In fact, the climate determines the altitude ranges that each species can live in.”

According to the researcher, to preserve the species it is essential to know everything about them: how they live, why they are present in the places where they are present, etc. In the case of these species, therefore, climate change will not exert such an effect in the future; “more attention will need to be devoted to other factors: human exploitation, pasture use, etc.,” he explained. The researcher believes that the rise in treelines taking place as a result of the decline in the pressure of livestock will affect these species most. Indeed, as the treelines recede, the surface area suited to the habitats of these species will be reduced, because other species will also recede and that way the pressure will increase. They are now working to quantify that effect.

Source: Elhuyar Fundazioa

UT Institute of Agriculture Launches New Branding Campaign

There’s no mistaking the system colors of the University of Tennessee. Everywhere you look, there’s plenty of orange.

However, the UT Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) is adding new splashes of color to the landscape, along with redesigned logos for the Institute and its four units. All feature the orange “UT” system icon that is so widely recognized. In addition to the new theme colors, UTIA is adopting a new tagline that will serve as its branding promise: Real. Life. Solutions.

“We believe the Institute of Agriculture’s new logo and brand promise best represent our statewide presence in all 95 counties of Tennessee,” says UTIA Chancellor Larry Arrington. “Visual branding is important when telling the story of an organization, and our new look and message will help us better communicate our land-grant mission.”

UTIA’s new logo features the traditional orange with a slate font. UT Extension features a green or “pasture” color. UT AgResearch is represented by a dark blue known as “bluff.” The UT College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources has a blue “azure” color, and the UT College of Veterinary Medicine features a gray “granite” color. The brand promise will be featured prominently on printed and electronic materials, and be a part of apparel and signage around Tennessee. Images of the new logos can be found on the UTIA Marketing website: ag.tennessee.edu/marketing

"Our brand promise speaks to what the faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters do every day, and that is working to find answers to society's many challenges," says Lisa Stearns, vice chancellor for UTIA Marketing and Communications. "Providing real life solutions that make a positive impact in our state and beyond is our commitment."

The campaign was developed by UTIA’s Marketing and Communications unit over the past year. It included a statewide audit of printed and electronic materials, and consulting an expert to guide a discussion on branding architecture. In addition, the team worked with the UT System Marketing and Communications Office to make sure the direction in which UTIA was moving would help promote the UT brand.

The Institute will begin phasing in the new logos and brand promise immediately, and the goal is to have full implementation by the end of 2015 across Tennessee.

The UT Institute of Agriculture provides instruction, research and outreach through the UT College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, the UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch, including its system of 10 research and education centers, and UT Extension offices in every county in the state.

Source: UTIA

February 2015 Supermarket Orchid, Mass marketing has hit the orchid world!

The phalaenopsis, or moth orchid, is a favorite gift orchid and is readily available in supermarkets and garden centers. It comes in a variety of colors and exotic patterns, and with care the long-lived blooms can be enjoyed for weeks. Photo by P. McDaniels, courtesy UTIA

Did someone bless you with a beautiful orchid? Mass marketing has hit the orchid world!
Among the most popular orchids for gifting are cattleyas (pronounced “KAT-lee-uh”). Another favorite gift orchid is the genus phalaenopsis (pronounced “fail-en-NOP-sis”).  This orchid is nicknamed the moth orchid because of the shape of its blooms. Both come in a variety of sizes and colors, are readily available in grocery stores and garden centers, and can look just as good in your home as the store.

In spite of the fact that my friends think I can grow anything with little regard for plant rules, I will confess that I managed to kill the first two orchids I was given years ago by simply not consulting the experts. Orchids are epiphytes or air plants that have developed specialized water-storage organs. They like to attach to moist tree bark in a tropical atmosphere. Thus, they have their own set of recommended growing practices. The American Orchid Society (aos.org) gives great advice on keeping your new friend healthy and blooming. 

Both cattleyas and phalaenopsis appreciate a lot of air movement and a long day of filtered, bright light. They don’t appreciate direct sunlight but do thrive in temperatures between 60 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Living in an east-facing window usually makes them happiest.

Both orchids should be kept in free-draining growing media. The AOS recommends even moisture, although allowing the media to dry slightly can be beneficial. I recommend you water your orchid once a week, at most. Be sure the water can drain and does not stand in the pot. The pot it came in probably has no drainage, so your job is to not overwater. You can also create drainage holes.

Orchids should be watered in the morning. Because the water should run through the pot, place the plants in the sink. Tepid water is recommended. Also, do not use salt-softened or distilled water. Let the water run through the plant for a minute or so. Be sure to let the plant drain completely. If any water gets trapped in the leaves, use a paper towel to blot. This will help avoid crown rot. If you’ve read that you should just lay some ice cubes around the roots, I have found that generally works, also.

As for fertilizer, there are a number of mixtures and brands, but the AOS recommends that any fertilizer you use should not contain urea. Their website discusses recommended methods. If you want to try a home fertilizer brew, you might try your morning brew. I dump the dregs of my coffee pot into my orchids once a week, all year around.  For an average pot with a 5-inch top measurement, about 1/4 cup of these leavings works best. Doing this will negate the job of occasional fertilizing, as the dregs give your new friend all the encouragement it needs to do its best. I use “high test” (caffeine) coffee leavings, but a friend is using decaf on hers. It will be interesting to see which formula produces the best results. 

When orchids have completed their flowering cycle, it’s time to cut the flower stem to encourage a new bloom on a healthy plant. Again, the AOS has a number of tips about getting your orchid to re-bloom. For phalaenopsis, they recommend cutting the flower stem ½-inch above the first or second node. Be sure your pruners have been disinfected. The plant will most often grow another flower stem and re-bloom.

Repotting may be necessary every one to three years if the plant becomes root-bound or the media needs replenished.  Don’t be tempted to substitute the loose medium that came with your orchid with your favorite soil mix. Orchids like orchid mixes that drain well, otherwise they may decline to the point of no return.

Source: UTIA

Description of Telamoptilia grewiae sp. n. and the consequences for the definition of the genera Telamoptilia and Spulerina (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae, Gracillariinae)

Adult, host plant and mines of Telamoptilia grewiae sp. n. 1 Adult in habitus, paratype 2 Live adult 3 Host plant 4 Linear mines by early instar larvae 5 Blotch mine by later instar larva 6 Seriously damaged leaves found in September. Credit: Zookeys

The genus Telamoptilia Kumata & Kuroko, 1988 is globally represented by five species that may be found in the Oriental and African regions. The type species T. cathedraea (Meyrick, 1908) is geographically shared by the Oriental Region and Madagascar (De Prins and De Prins 2014). Three species are currently known from China, including T. cathedraea, T. hemistacta (Meyrick, 1924), and T. prosacta (Meyrick, 1918).

The larvae of Telamoptilia species are leaf miners. Three plant families are known as hosts for Telamoptilia: Malvaceae, Amaranthaceae and Convolvulaceae (De Prins and De Prins 2014). Vári (1961) briefly described the biology of T. geyeri (Vári, 1961). Kumata et al. (1988) described the biology and the larval body chaetotaxy of three species: T. cathedraea, T. prosacta and T. tiliae (Kumata & Ermolaev, 1988). However, no larval head chaetotaxy and pupal features of Telamoptilia have been described so far.

Telamoptilia grewiae sp. n. is associated with Malvaceae and is described in the present paper from adult external characters, male and female genitalia, wing venation and immature stages. The larval head and pupal features are described for the first time in Telamoptilia.

Methods

Field investigations were carried out in Mt. Baxian National Nature Reserves (40°11'N, 117°32'E), 300−600 m, Tianjin, China, from May to September in 2013 and June 2014. Leaves containing mines with larvae were placed in sealed plastic bags, or rearing containers with moist cotton. Larvae removed from mines were immersed in nearly boiling water for 30 seconds, and then were kept in 75% ethanol for morphological examination. Last instar larval skins, pupae, and exuviae were kept in 75% ethanol. Pupae in rearing containers were placed outdoors to overwinter, and were transferred into the laboratory at 20 °C on February 6, 2014. Emergence successively occurred from March 9 to early-April 2014. Adults were collected chiefly by rearing from immature stages, and occasionally by light trap.

Adult photographs were taken with a Leica M250A stereo microscope. Genitalia and wings were dissected and mounted according to the methods introduced by Li (2002), but stained with Eosin Y and/or Chlorazol Black, and the illustrations were prepared by using a Leica DM750 microscope, and refined in Photoshop® CS4 software. For scanning electron microscopy, larvae and pupae were dehydrated in gradient ethanol, dried in vacuum and coated with gold in a SCD 005 Sputter Coater (BAL-TEC), then operated with a voltage of 15 kV using Quanta 200 environmental scanning electron microscope (SEM) (FEI, Oregon). Line drawings were outlined from the photos taken by the Leica M250A stereo microscope, using path tool in Adobe Photoshop® CS4 software. Photographs of host plant, mines and a live adult were taken in the field using Canon PowerShot G10 digital camera.

Terminology of immature stages follows Davis and De Prins (2011) and De Prins et al. (2013), and that of adults follows Kumata et al. (1988). Thoracic segments I−III and abdominal segments 1−10 are abbreviated as TI−TIII and A1−A10, respectively.

All the specimens studied, including the types of the new species and the vouchered larvae and pupae, are deposited in the Insect Collection, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.

Taxonomy

Adults (Figs 1–2) with wing span 6.0−8.0 mm. Head silvery white, tinged with gray on face. Labial palpus grayish white, colored blackish gray on outer surface of distal half of second segment and before apex of third segment. Maxillary palpus white, with middle or distal half blackish fuscous. Antenna with scape white on posterior half, blackish gray on anterior half and distal portion, flap blackish gray tinged with white, as wide as scape in frontal view; flagellum silvery grayish fuscous, with each unit blackish distally. Thorax and tegula blackish gray mixed with white. Legs mostly white; foreleg with coxa blackish fuscous basally and distally, femur and tibia blackish fuscous, tarsus blackish gray distally on each except last segment; midleg with coxa blackish fuscous distally, femur blackish fuscous, except white medially and distally on dorsal surface, with ventral scale expansion blackish fuscous, tibia blackish fuscous basally and distally, white medially, tarsus white, each except last segment dotted blackish fuscous distally; hindleg with coxa blackish fuscous distally, femur blackish fuscous distally on outer surface, tibia blackish fuscous basally and distally, tarsus with basal three segments blackish fuscous distally, fourth segment dotted blackish fuscous dorso-distally. Forewing grayish fuscous to blackish fuscous; costal margin with a white spot basally at about 1/10 and one before apex, the former sometimes touching fold posteriorly, with white stria at distal 3/10 and 1/6 obliquely outward, reaching middle of wing and near termen respectively; transverse white fascia from costal 1/3 and 1/2 obliquely outward, reaching dorsal 1/2 and before end of fold respectively, edged with blackish fuscous to black scales, inner fascia wider than outer one, widened on posterior half; small white dot on distal end of M3, two or three small white dots along termen; apex blackish fuscous; cilia mostly blackish fuscous basally, gray distally, white adjacent to white markings, white on basal 1/4, black on median part, gray distally at apex, gray along dorsal margin. Hindwing and cilia uniformly gray.

Source: Read Full Artical at - ZOOKEYS

The anatomy of petal drop in sunflowers

Study finds cell division at abscission zone of short-lived cultivar occurs earlier than in long-lived variety

ITHACA, NY - Despite their consumer popularity as cut flowers, some sunflowers are difficult to market because of their tendency to lose petals soon after their flowers open. This characteristic, "petal drop", which in some varieties can occur within a day of the flowers' opening, ruins the appearance of sunflowers and damages their market value. Sunflower growers interested in finding cultivars that are less prone to this condition have had limited information about petal drop, but a new study in the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science contains findings can inform both sunflower breeding programs and consumers' choices.

Joyous Suiyigheh Tata and Hans Christian Wien from the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University studied the abscission zone, a differentiated region where petal drop initiates, at the base of petals of sunflower florets in two different cultivars. "We wanted to determine if differences in the abscission zone among sunflower cultivars were correlated with differences in timing of petal drop," the authors said. Two pollen-free hybrid sunflower cultivars were selected for evaluation: Procut Bicolor, which loses its petals easily, and Procut Yellow Lite, which holds its petals much longer.

For the first experiment, the researchers measured separation force for the two sunflower cultivars using a modified soil cone micropenetrometer, an apparatus that measures separation forces in the opposite direction. "The separation force experiments showed that detachment forces switched from an initial high to low in both cultivars because of the maturation of the separation layer. This maturation occurred earlier in the cultivar that is first to lose its petals (Procut Bicolor)," the authors said. They noted that there were no force readings for the short-lived cultivar on day 9 and day 12 because the flower had already wilted.

"In the second experiment, we studied the changes in the anatomy of the petal-achene juncture of the two cultivars," the scientists explained. Three stages from Procut Bicolor (PBC) and four stages from Procut Yellow Lite (PYL) were studied. These stages represent a time course with physiological relevance; when the flower just opens (anthesis), 8 days (the end of flower life for PBC), and 12 days (the end of flower life for PYL). The study also included analyses of petal anatomy at 4 days after harvest. The "end of flower life" was defined as the time when detachment force equals zero; when simply touching the petals caused them to fall off easily. Results of the analyses showed that cell division at the abscission zone of the short-lived cultivar occurred earlier than in the long-lived cultivar. "These results reveal that there was a difference in timing in the formation and maturation of the separation layer between the two cultivars," the authors said.

Interestingly, analyses showed that the mean "break strength" of cultivars in the yellow group was higher and significantly different from cultivars in the orange and bicolor groups, which were in turn higher than cultivars in the red group. Mean vase life (12 days) of the sunflowers in the yellow group was longer than cultivars in the orange group (10 days), while the vase life of the orange group was longer than cultivars in the bicolor group (9 days). The vase life of the red cultivars was shortest at 8 days. "We found that vase life has a strong relationship with flower color; the darker cultivars in the study had a shorter vase life compared with the lighter cultivars," the scientists remarked.

"The anatomy of petal drop in sunflower is similar to the majority of established descriptions in other species; the process involves the separation of four to five rows of smaller transversely oriented cells that lay horizontally across the diameter at the juncture between the petal and the achene, the separation layer," the authors said. "The concept that the timing of the maturation of the separation layer in the abscission zone helps determine the timing of petal drop is strongly supported by both the physical and anatomical investigations."

The authors concluded that the regression equation and results from the petal detachment force experiments can be used to screen sunflower cultivars in order to determine groupings of short-lived vs. long-lived cultivars. They said that the study contains beneficial information for sunflower breeding programs working to improve the breed's longevity, which can ultimately lead to increased sunflower sales.

Source: ASHS

Blue mussels not yet the bellwether of NE coastal environment

Marcy Cockrell installs cages to protect mussels from predators. In Maine, mussels inside cages faired as well as mussels in the wild. In Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay it was a different story. Credit: Brown University

Ecologists sometimes look to mussel species, a well-studied and foundational genus in estuaries, as model organisms for assessing the condition of coastal habitats, which are crucial for people and well as the broader environment.

But a new study in the journal Ecosphere suggests that the seemingly simple blue mussel, when studied on regional scale from Maine to Connecticut, harbors at least three specific mysteries that must be solved if the mollusks are to serve as the "canaries in the coal mine" of the Northeast coast.

"Mussels could indeed be a good sentinel species for rocky shores, but what our work suggests is that we need to know a lot more about how they behave in these different estuarine settings to use them as an indicator of ecosystem health," said conservation scientist and study senior author Heather Leslie, the Peggy and Henry D. Sharpe Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies.

For the study, Leslie and former students Marcy Cockrell and Joanna Bernhardt monitored and experimented with mussels at 18 sites in the Casco Bay of Maine, the Narragansett Bay of Rhode Island, and the Long Island Sound of Connecticut and New York in 2010 and 2011 (a region spanning about 600 kilometers of coastline). They measured the abundance of mussels both at adult and larval stages, studied the populations of neighboring rocky shore animals and marine algae, and tracked data on ecosystem factors such as water salinity, temperature, nutrients, oxygen, and local human population density. In the experiments, the team protected some mussels with cages to expose the effect that birds, crabs and other predators have on their numbers.

In the end, the research uncovered three intriguing mysteries of mussel life across the region, particularly in Casco Bay:

Generation gaps: Adults were populous but "recruitment" of young mussels from surrounding waters was low in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. The opposite was true in Casco Bay. There, juvenile recruitment was high but adult populations were low. Few Maine predators: The cage experiments showed a significant role for mussel predators in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay, but not in Casco Bay. There, unprotected mussels fared about as well as the protected ones. Inner vs. outer: In each estuary, Leslie's team made measurements at sites nestled well within the bay, as well as at sites closer to the open ocean. Prior research suggested that higher levels of food within the bay would promote growth and abundance for the filter-feeding mussels (due to higher levels of nutrients and phytoplankton at the inner estuary sites). The study results were notably mixed across the whole region, however, providing little support for that hypothesis.

Explanations await further research. Genetic studies could determine, for example, whether the young mussels that are so abundant in Casco Bay may be floating up from the more southerly shores. If so, that suggests that mussel population dynamics can only be understood on regional (or multi-estuary) geographic scale.

Meanwhile, understanding why predator activity seems low in Casco Bay might require learning more about the local predator populations there. The findings could shed light on whether the ecosystem is in balance or other factors are at play.

"We did this because we want to understand how these systems work," Leslie said. "Given their accessibility and how well-studied they have been in other locations, rocky shores are logical sentinel ecosystems. They provide an opportunity to investigate how climate change and other more local-scale human activities are affecting New England's coast."

It may take more work to crack open the mussels' mysteries, but the stakes are high enough to make it worthwhile, Leslie said.

Source: Brown University

Why do zebras have stripes?

A mother zebra with a foal in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. Credit: Brenda Larison/UCLA

One of nature’s fascinating questions is how zebras got their stripes.

A team of life scientists led by UCLA’s Brenda Larison has found at least part of the answer: The amount and intensity of striping can be best predicted by the temperature of the environment in which zebras live.

In the January cover story of the Royal Society’s online journal, Open Science, the researchers make the case that the association between striping and temperature likely points to multiple benefits — including controlling zebras’ body temperature and protecting them from diseases carried by biting flies.

“While past studies have typically focused their search for single mechanisms, we illustrate in this study how the cause of this extraordinary phenomenon is actually likely much more complex than previously appreciated, with temperature playing an important role,” said Thomas B. Smith, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the UCLA College and senior author of the research.

Larison, a researcher in UCLA’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology and the study’s lead author, and her colleagues examined the plains zebra, which is the most common of three zebra species and has a wide variety of stripe patterns. On zebras in warmer climes, the stripes are bold and cover the entire body. On others — particularly those in regions with colder winters such as South Africa and Namibia — the stripes are fewer in number and are lighter and narrower. In some cases, the legs or other body parts have virtually no striping.

Zebras evolved from horses more than 2 million years ago, biologists have found. Scientists have previously hypothesized that zebras’ stripes evolved for one, or a combination of, four main reasons: confusing predators, protecting against disease-carrying insects, controlling body temperature and social cohesion. And while numerous previous studies of the phenomenon focused on a single hypothesis, the Larison-led study was the first to fully test a large set of hypotheses against one another.

Analyzing zebras at 16 locations in Africa and considering more two dozen environmental factors, the researchers found that temperature was the strongest predictor of zebras’ striping. The finding provides the first evidence that controlling body temperature, or thermoregulation, is the main reason for the stripes and the patterns they form.
WATCH VIDEO
Separate research by Daniel Rubenstein, a Princeton University professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and a co-author of the Open Science paper, and Princeton undergraduate Damaris Iriondo strongly suggests that boldly striped zebras have external body temperatures about five degrees Fahrenheit cooler than other animals of the same size — like antelopes — that do not have stripes but live in the same areas. The Rubenstein study is not yet published, but it is cited in the Open Science paper.

Larison has studied many zebras during her field work throughout Africa — including in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Using the fact that their stripes are unique like fingerprints, she is able to distinguish one zebra from another.

In addition to Rubenstein, arguably the world’s leading expert on zebras, the study’s co-authors were Alec Chan-Golston and Elizabeth Li, former UCLA undergraduates in mathematics; Ryan Harrigan, an assistant adjunct professor in UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research; and Henri Thomassen, a former UCLA postdoctoral scholar and current research associate at the Institute for Evolution and Ecology at Germany’s University of Tübingen.

The research was supported by the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration.

Larison and her research team have also collected zebra tissue samples and have used cutting-edge technology to sequence zebra DNA to try to identify which genes code for striping. The team is continuing to study the benefits stripes provide.

Source: UCLA

New Online Course Explores Social and Ecological Diversity of Himalayan Region

The conversion of forests into cropland worldwide has triggered an atmospheric change that, while seldom considered in climate models, has had a net cooling effect on global temperatures, according to a new Yale study.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, Professor Nadine Unger of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) reports that large-scale forest losses during the last 150 years have reduced global emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), which control the atmospheric distribution of many short-lived climate pollutants, such as tropospheric ozone, methane, and aerosol particles.

Using sophisticated climate modeling, Unger calculated that a 30-percent decline in BVOC emissions between 1850 and 2000, largely through the conversion of forests to cropland, produced a net global cooling of about 0.1 degrees Celsius. During the same period, the global climate warmed by about 0.6 degrees Celsius, mostly due to increases in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions.

According to her findings, the climate impact of declining BVOC emissions is on the same magnitude as two other consequences of deforestation long known to affect global temperatures, although in opposing ways: carbon storage and the albedo effect. The lost carbon storage capacity caused by forest conversion has exacerbated global warming. 
Meanwhile, the disappearance of dark-colored forests has also helped offset temperature increases through the so-called albedo effect. (The albedo effect refers to the amount of radiation reflected by the surface of the planet. Light-colored fields, for instance, reflect more light and heat back into space than darker forests.)

“Without doing an earth-system model simulation that includes these factors, we can’t really know the net effect on the global climate.”— Nadine Unger

Unger says the combined effects of reduced BVOC emissions and increased albedo may have entirely offset the warming caused by the loss of forest-based carbon storage capacity.

“Land cover changes caused by humans since the industrial and agricultural revolutions have removed natural forests and grasslands and replaced them with croplands,” said Unger, an assistant professor of atmospheric chemistry at F&ES. “And croplands are not strong emitters of these BVOCs — often they don’t emit any BVOCs.”

“Without doing an earth-system model simulation that includes these factors, we can’t really know the net effect on the global climate. Because changes in these emissions affect both warming and cooling pollutants,” she noted.

Unger said the findings do not suggest that increased forest loss provides climate change benefits, but rather underscore the complexity of climate change and the importance of better assessing which parts of the world would benefit from greater forest conservation.

Since the mid-19th century, the percentage of the planet covered by cropland has more than doubled, from 14 percent to 37 percent. Since forests are far greater contributors of BVOC emissions than crops and grasslands, this shift in land use has removed about 30 percent of Earth’s BVOC sources, Unger said.

Not all of these compounds affect atmospheric chemistry in the same way. Aerosols, for instance, contribute to global “cooling” since they generally reflect solar radiation back into space. Therefore, a 50 percent reduction in forest aerosols has actually spurred greater warming since the pre-industrial era.

“[These emissions] don’t get as much attention as human-generated emissions... but if we change how much forest cover exists, then there is a human influence on these emissions.”— Nadine Unger

However, reductions in the potent greenhouse gases methane and ozone — which contribute to global warming — have helped deliver a net cooling effect.

These emissions are often ignored in climate modeling because they are perceived as a “natural” part of the earth system, explained Unger. “So they don’t get as much attention as human-generated emissions, such as fossil fuel VOCs,” she said. “But if we change how much forest cover exists, then there is a human influence on these emissions.”

These impacts have also been ignored in previous climate modeling, she said, because scientists believed that BVOC emissions had barely changed between the pre-industrial era and today. But a study published last year by Unger  showed that emissions of these volatile compounds have indeed decreased. Studies by European scientists have produced similar results.

The impact of changes to ozone and organic aerosols are particularly strong in temperate zones, she said, while methane impacts are more globally distributed.

The sensitivity of the global climate system to BVOC emissions suggests the importance of establishing a global-scale long-term monitoring program for BVOC emissions, Unger noted.

– Kevin Dennehy    kevin.dennehy@yale.edu    203 436-4842

Source: Yale University

Reducing Myc gene activity extends healthy lifespan in mice

No bones about it Young mice have good bone density whether they have two copies (top row; +/+) or one copy (bottom row; +/-) of the Myc gene. As they age, researchers found, mice with just one copy maintain better bone density and stay healthy longer. Sedivy lab/Brown University

Mice with one rather than the normal two copies of the gene Myc (also found in humans) lived 15 percent longer and had considerably healthier lives than normal mice, according to a new Brown University-led study in Cell.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A team of scientists based at Brown University has found that reducing expression of a fundamentally important gene called Myc significantly increased the healthy lifespan of laboratory mice, the first such finding regarding this gene in a mammalian species.

Myc is found in the genomes of all animals, ranging from ancestral single-celled organisms to humans. It is a major topic of biomedical research and has been shown to be a central regulator of cell proliferation, growth, and death. It is of such widespread and fundamental importance that animals cannot live without it. But in humans and mice, too much expression of the protein that Myc encodes has been closely linked to cancer, making it a well-known but elusive target of drug developers.

In a new study in the journal Cell, the scientists report that when they bred laboratory mice to have only one copy of the gene, instead of the normal two, thus reducing the expression of the encoded protein, those mice lived 15 percent longer on average — 20 percent longer for females and 10 percent longer among males — than normal mice. Moreover, the experimental mice showed many signs of better health into old age.

The experimental — “heterozygous” — mice grew to be about 15 percent smaller than the normal mice (a probable disadvantage in the wild) but that was the only discernable downside found to date for lacking a second copy of the gene, said senior author John Sedivy, the Hermon C. Bumpus Professor of Biology and professor of medical science at Brown.

“The animals are definitely aging slower,” he said. “They are maintaining the function of their organs and tissues for longer periods of time.”

Physiological differences

That assessment is based on detailed studies of the physiology — down to the molecular level — of the heterozygous and normal mice. The researchers conducted these experiments to try to understand the longevity difference between the two groups.

John Sedivy “The animals are definitely aging slower [and[ they are maintaining the function of their organs and tissues for longer periods of time.”

Co-lead author Jeffrey Hoffman, a medical and doctoral student, led the studies of the health of the mice, including various bodily systems. In many cases they were just like their normal counterparts. They reproduced just as well, for example.

“These mice are incredibly normal, yet they are really long-lived,” Sedivy said. “The reason why we were struck by that is because in many other longevity models like caloric restriction or treatment with rapamycin, the animals live longer but they also have some health issues.”

Instead the Myc heterozygous mice simply experienced fewer problems of aging. They did not develop osteoporosis, they maintained a healthier balance of immune system T cells, had less cardiac fibrosis, were more active, experienced less age-related slowing of their metabolic rate, produced less cholesterol, and exhibited better coordination.

Graduate student and co-lead author Xiaoai Zhao, meanwhile, led the molecular analysis of several pathways known to be involved in regulating longevity to find out how they might be different. Sure enough, heterozygous mice exhibited changes in IGF-1 signaling and nutrient and energy-sensing pathways, but how Myc engages those mechanisms is still not clear. Of particular interest, heterozygous mice showed less protein synthesis in several tissues. Regulation of this process is known to be under direct Myc control, and its reduction by a variety of means is known to extend lifespan in diverse species from yeast to mammals.

Genome-wide patterns of gene expression showed that Myc heterozygotes had significant differences in pathways related to metabolism and the immune system. Those patterns, however, only overlapped somewhat with patterns seen in other lifespan extending interventions.

Zhao and Hoffman’s studies also argue against a role for Myc in an oft-cited paradigm of greater longevity: upregulation of a variety of stress defense mechanisms. Their experimental mice seemed to suffer from as much stress and consequences of stress as normal mice.

The different benefits of Myc reduction compared to other laboratory longevity extenders shows that just as there are many ways the body can break down with aging, Sedivy said, there may be many ways to forestall that.

“There is more than one way to become long-lived,” Sedivy said.

Help for humans?

In the long term, Sedivy said he is optimistic that the findings about Myc could prove to matter to human health.

Finding the right target for a drug in one of Myc’s key metabolic or immune system pathways may or may not extend human lifespan, he said, but it might help people stay healthier as they age — for example, if it can reduce osteoporosis in people the way it does in mice. In particular, Sedivy said, it emphasizes the importance of the process of protein synthesis as a target of interventions that are likely to have widespread benefits on many organ systems.

And the study also offers encouragement to companies seeking to develop cancer drugs that block Myc overexpression. As important as normal Myc expression is to physiology, it appears that at least in mice there were many substantial benefits in reducing it by, say, half. Thus, Sedivy said, any drug that can target Myc directly is likely to find many applications beyond cancer.

In addition to Sedivy, Hoffman, and Zhao, the paper’s other authors are Marco De Cecco, Abigail Peterson, Luca Paglilaroli, Jayameenakshi Manivannan Bin Feng, Thomas Serre, Kevin Bath, Haiyan Xu, and Nicola Neretti of Brown; Gene Hubbard, Wenbo Qi, and Holly Van Remmen of the University of Texas; Yongqing Zhang and Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging; and Richard Miller of the University of Michigan.

The National Institutes of Health (grants R37AG016694, F30AG035592), the Ellison Medical Foundation, and the Glenn Award for Research on the Biological Mechanism of Aging supported the research. Some experiments were conducted in the Brown University molecular pathology and genomics cores.

Not just a longer life, but a healthier, stronger body “Do you think she might be a Myc hypomorph?” Drawing: Emma Sedivy

Source: Brown University

Poison meat baits approved for use on NSW feral pigs

PHOTO: Huge feral pest pig was found on an outback property 175 kilometres north of Broken Hill in far west New South Wales. (Image: Paul Manion)

New South Wales pastoralists who are trying to reduce booming feral pig numbers on their properties could soon get some extra help.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has issued a permit for 1080 poison meat baits to be used on selected rangeland properties in the state.

This is the first time the authority will permit sodium fluoroacetate or 1080, to be used for feral pig control in NSW.

Western Local Land Services will run the trial, which will begin in March this year and continue until June 2016.

NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, said the trial aimed to reduce the devastating impact pest pigs have on primary production.

"It's great to have that authority given to Local Land Services by the APVMA," she said.

"Feral pigs are such dreadful creatures. The farmers will tell anybody that they destroy pastures, sensors and are particularly bad for newborn lambs.

"Local Land Services will be working with landowners to make sure they're getting the best areas covered.

"They're going to be using sensor-controlled cameras to see how effective the take up is of the baits and they'll follow up with trapping, shooting and other control methods."

Ms Hodgkinson said the baits have already been used successfully for wild dog eradication.

She said efforts would be made to ensure minimal impact on non-target species.

"We want to make sure we don't impact the environment," she said.

"When you're using meat baits you'll inevitably get some native animals in there too, but I think overall the net positive is going to be very much for us using 1080 meat baits for this feral pig trial."

Source: ABC

Scientists call for soil mapping program to help Indian agriculture

Delegates to the University's agriculture workshop at Kharagpur

Scientists attending an agriculture workshop in India organised by the University of Sydney have called for a detailed soil mapping program to help policy makers and farmers draw up effective land management proposals.

The Soil and Water National Networking Workshop, organised jointly with the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, involved 40 scientists from India and Australia.

They discussed key issues including soil security, digital soil mapping, India's participation in the Global Soil Map project, national level spectral libraries, soil data requirement in crop simulations, soil health mapping, hydrological model behaviour, and using soil digital and satellite data for hydrologic models.

A number of speakers urged India to participate in the Global Soil Map and accelerate the provision of fine scale information on soil fertility and conditions in India. The information could also be used to monitor and understand the change over time in soil nutrients.

The workshop's soil group was led by Professor Budiman Minasny, Professor Bhabani Das and Dr Kanika Singh from the University of Sydney. The hydrology group was led by A/Professor Willem Vervoort from Sydney, Dr Rajib Maity and Mr Dipangkar Kundu.

The workshop was launched with a welcome video by Professor Alex McBratney, the Dokuchaev award winner in Soil Science, who is actively involved with the Global Soil Map.

Dr Singh said: "The workshop was a great success; the Indian scientists showcased high quality research and are open to future collaboration in the Global Soil Map effort.

"The director of IIT Kharagpur in his speech talked about a joint collaboration between India and Australia for a comprehensive digitisation of soil information contributing to soil security and sustainable productivity. The Assistant Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research is also keen to developIndian collaboration in the Global Soil Map effort.

"We look forward to long-term collaboration with IIT Kharagpur and other such organisations in India to achieve collaborative research."

The workshop was sponsored by the Australia-India Council.

Contact: Richard North
Phone: 02 9351 3191
Email: richard.north@sydney.edu.au

 Source: THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Stanford scientists team with indigenous people to produce detailed carbon calculations of Amazon rainforest

The late Dr. Kye Epps teaches Wapichana field researchers how to measure tree diameter, information that can then be used to calculate a tree's biomass and carbon storage.

When it comes to measuring the carbon storage potential of the Amazon forest, indigenous people might outperform sophisticated satellites.

The results from a long-term collaboration between Stanford scientists and indigenous people in Guyana suggests that traditional remote sensing techniques might be undervaluing the region's carbon storage potential by as much as 40 percent. The work could influence how indigenous people in Guyana and elsewhere manage their forests and lead to greater opportunities for these communities to engage in carbon offset programs.

The project, led by Jose Fragoso, a senior scientist in the Department of Biology at Stanford, grew out of his earlier efforts to engage indigenous peoples to gain a better understanding of ecosystems relatively undisturbed by modern civilization.

What is carbon?

The first challenge was teaching people with little to no exposure to the outside world just what carbon is. Co-author Kimberly "Kye" Epps, a postdoctoral scholar in Stanford School of Earth Sciences (who passed away during the project,) developed lesson plans for explaining that all life is based on carbon.

Epps pointed out that the black charcoal from a burnt twig is primarily carbon, and how the carbon-laden smoke enters the atmosphere and ultimately affects the global climate. The plants and trees suck carbon from the atmosphere, she explained, and store it in their trunks and leaves.

"Kye's innovative lessons helped get them to where they not only understand what carbon is, but also understand its global implications and how much they actually hold themselves on their land," said Fragoso, the senior author on the paper. "When they realized its importance, they became very invested in the work."

Next came lessons on establishing survey plots, cataloging plant species and learning how to measure plant trunk circumferences, which is a standard measurement used to calculate biomass and thus how much carbon is contained in the plot.

"The people know the trails really well, and some of them will walk two days to get to their plot and make measurements," Fragoso said. "They can make really good measurements in really isolated areas, where government workers would never get to. Generally, professional scientists will not travel these distances on foot to verify carbon estimates."

Biomass specifics

Whereas satellite observations would most likely have identified each of these plots as "forest" and assigned them a standardized value for carbon storage, Fragoso said that the field workers identified 11 habitat types with trees, each of which requires a different set of calculations for determining its carbon storage potential. Because the researchers could be more specific about the biomass of each vegetation type making up a plot, they were able to calculate that forests in Guyana contain 20 to 40 percent more carbon than previously estimated.

This difference can affect a number of different areas. For one, it means that climate models that include blanket estimations of carbon storage in lands governed by indigenous people might be missing significant data – indigenous people govern about half of all remaining undeveloped land on the planet.

Indigenous lands probably play a much larger role in the global climate than previously assumed, Fragoso said, and indigenous people need to be better represented at global climate talks. These land-owners have more carbon storage at their disposal to sell as carbon credits to governments and corporations looking to offset their greenhouse gas-producing activities.

"Having a good measurement of carbon storage really helps them to enter into discussions with the national government and surrounding communities," Fragoso said. "This helps them to both prevent global climate change while also benefiting, and that is something that the people we worked with were very interested in."

This is the first model for turning indigenous people into field researchers capable of producing scientifically rigorous calculations for carbon, said Fragoso, who is now planning to share the concept with other indigenous nations around the world.

The paper was published recently in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. The work was co-authored by Nathalie Butt of the University of Queensland, Australia, who completed Epps' work; Stanford postdoctoral fellow Takuya Iwamura; and Han Overman, a postdoc at State University of New York. While not official co-authors, Stanford professors Peter Vitousek and Pamela Matson were instrumental in providing guidance for Epps' work.

Source: Stanford