Dispersal in Biological News

Global warming increasing the dispersal of flora in Northern forests

... of only a couple of degrees may increase the dispersal of plants in Northern forests and the spread of ... learn whether global warming would accelerate the dispersal of plant populations in forests. The research ... Society B on 10 June 2009. Seed and pollen dispersal profoundly affects the dynamics and genetic ...

You don't call, you don't write: Connectivity in marine fish populations

... Academy of Sciences documents how larval dispersal connects marine fish populations in a network of ... and his colleagues to map and calculate the dispersal of 122 clownfish with detail never before ... and the anemone in which the juvenile settled, dispersal was simply the distance between those two hosts. ...

Study on wildlife corridors shows how they work over time

... unassisted. Damschen can tell the source of dispersal by seed type. Wind-dispersed plants have a fuzzy ... Colin Kremer, are using a model of wind dispersal in patchy landscapes to predict where these seeds ... if we have a better understanding of unassisted dispersal and the impacts of wind, we'll have better ...

New movement models tested at the Smithsonian in Panama

... in Panama. One of these is a new model for seed dispersal by wind, which accurately predicts tree seed ... or other threats, accurate modeling of tree seed dispersal has major implications for conservation across ... new things to this model: First, we consider dispersal in two dimensions, so that we can tell how close ...

Scattered nature of Wisconsin's woodlands could complicate forests' response to climate change

... trees can migrate northward, but barriers to dispersal - particularly agricultural lands - will also ... all over again. Already a slow process, dispersal becomes even slower when forests are broken up by ... in parameters such as forest succession, seed dispersal and tree growth during the next 200 years. In ...

Life on the edge: To disperse, or become extinct?

... and founding of new populations, via seed dispersal into vacant but suitable habitat. "Policy makers ... that natural selection gives a boost to the seed dispersal traits of those plants growing at the edges of ... Eckert studied the geographic distribution and dispersal biology of Abronia umbellata (pink sand verbena), ...

Turning on cell-cell communication wipes out staph biofilms

... application, the findings offer insight into a dispersal mechanism for staph biofilms and might help ... author. "This is the first report of an existing dispersal pathway in Staph aureus. If we can tap into this ... AIPs, which allowed the team to conduct biofilm dispersal experiments. "Figuring out how to synthesize ...

Texas A&M scientists say early Americans arrived earlier

... in Science magazine titled The Late Pleistocene dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas, which ... to create a working model that explains the dispersal of modern humans across the New World. ... to the New World and the number of major dispersal events. Archaeologists have found new sites ...

CU-Boulder study shows 53 million-year-old high Arctic mammals wintered in darkness

... History and chief study author. The study has implications for the dispersal of early mammals across polar land bridges into North America and for ... in the high Arctic was a "behavioral prerequisite" for their eventual dispersal across high-latitude land bridges that geologists believe linked Asia and ...

Shade coffee benefits more than birds

... the story of how Miconia trees spread into coffee farms and how their dispersal affects the tree population's genetic diversity begged to be addressed ... that shade coffee farms, by being hospitable to birds, support widespread dispersal of native trees, in effect connecting patches of surrounding forest. In ...

Early origins of maize in Mexico

... in Mexico, the time and location of the earliest domestication and dispersal events are still in dispute. Now, in addition to more traditional ... and geneticists have used this information to track the evolution and dispersal of maize varieties as well as to reconstruct the history of maize ...

How baby fish find a home

... much of an impact global variations in the environment are having on the dispersal of larval and juvenile marine species from open oceans to coral reefs. ... well discover crucial inputs for a new generation of biophysical larval dispersal models vital to achieving a better understanding of larval connectivity in ...

Social standing influences elephant movement

... "This work shows, for the first time, the role social factors play in the dispersal of elephants in an ecosystem," said lead author George Wittemyer, a ... in these populations means blocking them from their normal behavior of dispersal and migration, and changing the dynamics of how they interact with their ...

September Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... discovery of Sudbury impact event debris in Michigan; climate change and dispersal of early modern humans out of Africa; relationship of mantle plumes and ... that climate change had an important limiting role in the timing of dispersal of early modern humans out of Africa. Neotethyan Late Cretaceous ...

C. difficile spores spread superbug

... in the faeces of humans. These bacterial spores are essentially dormant cells with protective outer layers making them well-adapted for survival and dispersal in a wide range of environmental conditions. When humans shed spores in their faeces, those spores are capable of surviving dormant in the ...

Domestication of Capsicum annuum chile pepper provides insights into crop origin and evolution

... distances. Less genetic diversification was seen in wild populations of C. annuum from distant locales, perhaps as a result of long-distance seed dispersal by birds and mammals. Across the three loci studied, Dr. Kim and colleagues found an average reduction in diversity of 10% in domesticated ...

Google Earth aids discovery of early African mammal fossils

... to pin that down yet," Gunnell said. "But when these animals are studied in detail, they should lead to a better understanding of biogeography and dispersal events between Asia and Africa and between North Africa and the rest of the African continent." ...

Researchers examine role of climate change in disease spread

... livestock are being moved around, and midges can be spread great distances quickly by the wind," Higgs said. "But it seems clear that Bluetongue's dispersal has been driven by the northward expansion of Culex imicola, and that climate change may have contributed to that. If average temperatures increase ...

February 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... of the worldwide late Holocene droughts. A New Late Cretaceous macrobaenid turtle with Asian affinities from the High Canadian Arctic: dispersal via ice-free polar routes Deborah Vandermark et al., Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York ...

Another reason to drink a nice cup of shade-grown joe

... systems, which do not provide habitat for seed dispersers, and thus limit the distance plant seeds can move. By supporting important seed dispersal processes, shade coffee farms maintain plant population gene flow across fragmented habitats." Gene flow refers to the transfer of genes from one ...

Rooted plants move mysteriously down greenways, scientists say

... paper that we don't understand this," Levey said. Physical forces clearly aren't adequate to cause the phenomenon, the paper notes. "Gravity dispersal from low-growing shrubs, forbs and grasses, which typically moves a seed no more than a few meters per year, cannot account for the rapid ...

6,000km trip to reveal clues to ancient migration

... and commensal species linked with human migration - has gained international media attention. Recent findings have focused on the origins and dispersal of domestic chickens and pigs. The trip, called "Lapita-Voyage", will be crewed by two Polynesians, two scientists, a cameraman and the ...

Book explores global implications of wildland fire smoke

... land managers and scientists plan for it, according to the authors. The fourth section presents current tools for predicting fire behavior, smoke dispersal and ozone levels, along with ways to manage forests affected by air pollution, climate change and fire suppression. The editors conclude the book ...

When leaves fall, more is occurring than a change of weather

... of reasons, according Walker. Aged leaves, for example, may be shed to facilitate the recycling of nutrients, ripening fruits dropped to promote seed dispersal and infected or diseased floral organs discarded to prevent the spread of disease. However, why Arabidopsis thaliana is a small flowering plant that ...

AGU journal highlights -- Sept. 3, 2008

... source of freshwater and new nutrients to this area's coastal ocean. The authors use TIR imagery to pinpoint input locations and detail fine-scale dispersal patterns of groundwater discharging as both diffuse flow and point-source plumes into the region's coastal zone. They further show how nutrient ...

New giant clam species offers window into human past

... live specimens the researchers observed belonged to the new species. Early shellfishing evidence in other areas has led to speculation that the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa into the Red Sea and adjacent regions 110,000 to 90,000 years ago was driven largely by competition for marine ...

September Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... reform again. Although the mechanisms responsible are controversial, many geoscientists agree that repeated cycles of supercontinent amalgamation and dispersal have had a profound effect on the evolution of Earth's crust, atmosphere, climate, and life. The geological record for the past one billion years is ...

Microbes, by latitudes and altitudes, shed new light on life's diversity

... of the UO Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, "is that the founders of these disciplines envisioned the same thing: That you have this broad dispersal of all of the organisms that each happened to be studying, and that they would colonize the surface of the Earth depending on whether the environment ...

Brown tree snake could mean Guam will lose more than its birds

... not able to get away from their parent trees, and that is exactly what our research shows," Rogers said. "The magnitude of difference between seed dispersal on Guam and Saipan is alarming because of its implications for Guam's forests, and for forests worldwide experiencing a decline or complete loss of ...

Leatherback turtles' newly discovered migration route may be roadmap to salvation

... Rica has yielded unprecedented insight into their behavior. While most sea turtles, including other populations of leatherbacks, have widely varied dispersal patterns as they fan out across the ocean from the beaches where they nest, the leatherbacks from the beaches at Playa Grande have been found to ...

Emergency response and nanotechnology

... Current capabilities versus what may be needed in a response effort (Wednesday, 9:45 a.m.) Protection of life and property after a radiological dispersal device is activated (Wednesday, 11:45 a.m.) The Future of Nanotechnology Beginning at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, nanotechnology will be ...

Radiation, nanotechnology, health care and more

... Current capabilities versus what may be needed in a response effort (Wednesday, 9:45 a.m.) Protection of life and property after a radiological dispersal device is activated (Wednesday, 11:45 a.m.) Radiation Exposure during Pregnancy Of great interest over recent years is the radiation dose a ...

BBVA Foundation Awards for Biodiversity Conservation

... is ravaging our biodiversity: estimates drawn up for diverse groups of organisms confirm that many are undergoing a reduction in population size and dispersal areas, and it is reckoned that between 10% and 30% of mammal, bird and amphibian species are currently under threat of extinction. In sum, ...

Nanotubes could help study retrovirus transmission between human cells

... the nanotubes may provide avenues to send and receive information (in the form of chemical molecules) from cell to cell far faster than their random dispersal into the bloodstream would permit. Given the discovery of this radically different transportation system operating within human tissues, it was ...

Ancient Mexican maize varieties

... popcorn landraces are used throughout the world. Archeological evidence traces the earliest popcorn in the USA to New Mexico, suggesting an overland dispersal from the highlands of central Mexico into the northern plains of Mexico and then into the southwestern USA. Recent studies also support the ...

Origin of cells for connective tissues of skull and face challenged

... mouse embryo at eight days gestation, Weston and collaborators used high-resolution imaging and immunostaining techniques to identify and track the dispersal of cells known to jump start connective and skeletal tissue development. They were able to see clearly that these cells came from the non-neural ...

Biodiversity -- it's in the water

... be applied to any river system, or in fact, any network at all. All that's needed are the geomorphology of the landscape and an estimate of average dispersal behavior and habitat capacity. This model is general enough that it could be used to explore population migrations or epidemics of water-borne ...

Rainfall and river networks prove accurate predictors of fish biodiversity

... and as such the model will be useful not just for understanding the biodiversity of fish in rivers but also for understanding such things as the dispersal of seeds or even the spread of cholera. Rodrguez-Iturbe, Bertuzzo and Rinaldo also collaborated on a paper that recently appeared in an American ...

Biomonitoring

... of Environment and Pollution (2008, Volume 32, Issue 4), researchers from various fields explain how living organisms can be used to track the dispersal of atmospheric pollutants, particulates, and trace elements. Borut Smodi, of the Joef Stefan Institute, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, provides an ...

Dawn of human matrilineal diversity

... landscape. For example, we can see evidence of a population expansion period starting around 70,000 years ago, perhaps leading to the out of Africa dispersal shortly afterward. The timing of these events coincides with the onset of the Late Stone Age in Africa, a change in material culture that many ...