landscape in Biological News

Coffee cultivation good for diversity in agrarian settlements but not in forests

... plant and animal diversity in those parts of the landscape that are deforested and dominated by agriculture. ... and nurture large trees in the cultivated landscape but also that coffee shrubs themselves house a ... of plants. Coffee cultivation in an agricultural landscape is thus a positive force for conserving ...

Diverse landscapes are better: Policymakers urged to think broadly about biofuel crops

... we plant more corn, we reduce the ability of that landscape to supply beneficial predators to control pests ... by 19 percent in the United States, reducing landscape diversity in many areas, according to the ... agricultural landscapes. Understanding how these landscape changes affect the sustainability of biofuel ...

Diverse landscapes are better: Policymakers urged to think broadly about biofuel crops

... we plant more corn, we reduce the ability of that landscape to supply beneficial predators to control pests ... by 19 percent in the United States, reducing landscape diversity in many areas, according to the ... agricultural landscapes. Understanding how these landscape changes affect the sustainability of biofuel ...

Case Western Reserve University project ties soil conservation and river management together

... Sediment in rivers comes from erosion of the landscape as well as the erosion and collapse of the banks ... where significant portions of the surrounding landscape are used for agriculture or forestry, the ... the river's suspended sediment to the surrounding landscape and streambanks helps provide a detailed profile ...

Entomological Society of America names new Fellows for 2008

... pest management of the southern pine beetle, landscape ecology of feral Africanized honey bees, ... (UK), is an international authority on turf and landscape insects. A UK faculty member since 1979 and an ... leadership and service awards from the turf and landscape industries. Dr. Kevin L. Steffey has been ...

Saving our bees

... disciplines. "We want to know: Can we look at landscape models in a predictive way and use those to ... kilometers to find it. Therefore, a mosaic landscape that has natural areas mixed in with agriculture ... to keep bee colonies healthy. "Today's landscape is both natural and managed," says Williams. ...

2 Springer authors win important awards from the Ecological Society of America

... is one of the founders of the discipline of landscape ecology. Her seminal publications on the subject led to the first comprehensive textbook on landscape ecology, landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice which she ...

Landscape study may offer solutions for fire managers

... could be increased through a technique called landscape silviculture. "Our intent in taking this ... and instead to consider adjacent units and landscape objectives explicitly," explains Hummel. She and ... as the shared currency between the conflicting landscape objectives. Through the use of simulated ...

California's wildflowers are disappearing, new book by UCR ecologist cautions

... the 18th century. It explains in detail how the landscape of Hispanic California, the southern two-thirds ... rich synthesis of history, plant geography, and landscape ecology, which its author uses to describe a ... 200 years one of the most complete human-caused landscape transformations in the world," said Michael ...

Golfers and golf courses benefit from the use of native grasses in roughs

... at the University of Illinois, a naturalized landscape that incorporates native grasses benefits ... to consider incorporating them into the course landscape in order to make the course more challenging, but ... provided the best coverage for the plots at the landscape Horticulture Research Center in Urbana. Each of ...

New study reveals large scale conservation essential

... in small contained areas actually need broad, landscape level conservation to survive. With more ... greatly impacted by ecological processes at the landscape scale." Many freshwater species, such as frogs ... species need urgent conservation action at the landscape or seascape level than previously believed. ...

Plague of kangaroos threatens one of Australia's last remaining original native grasslands

... species such as ground beetles are affected by landscape fragmentation and habitat alteration in natural ... like Canberra led to a complete change in the landscape structure. Today, as a result of urbanisation and ... once natural grasslands that used to dominate the landscape of south-eastern Australia. Five percent of the ...

Model connects circuit theory to wildlife corridors

... he reasoned that gene flow across a complex landscape should follow the same rules as electrical ... way to look at connectivity of the entire landscape rather than just a small part of the landscape. ... of just the most obvious one. It represents the landscape as a conductive surface, calculating all possible ...

Innovative model connects circuit theory to wildlife corridors

... he reasoned that gene flow across a complex landscape should follow the same rules as electrical ... way to look at connectivity of the entire landscape rather than just a small part of the landscape. ... of just the most obvious one. It represents the landscape as a conductive surface, calculating all possible ...

Evolution tied to Earth movement

... crustal movement or tectonism in East Africa, the landscape drastically changed over the last 7 million ... of civil and environmental engineering. That landscape controlled climate on a local to regional scale. ... The answer, he believes, is the variable landscape and vegetation resulting from uplift of the Wall ...

Computer savvy canines

... knowledge to new situations, four dogs were shown landscape and dog photographs, and expected to make a ... the training phase, the dogs were shown both the landscape and dog photographs simultaneously and were ... the dogs were shown completely different dog and landscape pictures. They continued to reliably select the ...

Wolves find happy hunting grounds in Yellowstone National Park

... wolves and elk are more strongly influenced by landscape features than by wolf distribution. "We found ... as much as they were consistent with certain landscape features, such as proximity to roads," Boyce ... old or weak. "Our findings suggest that landscape features may often 'tip the balance' in ...

Humans fostering forest-destroying disease

... disease has been spreading rapidly, changing the landscape as it goes. People tend to not care about ... world waiting to happen, said Ross Meentemeyer, a landscape ecologist at the University of North Carolina at ... pathogen present) is greater in forests with high landscape connectivity and high abundance of host species. ...

Sustainable agriculture at the ESA Annual Meeting

... that conventional agricultural practices have detrimental effects on the landscape ecology, creating problems for long-term sustainability of crops. In a ... may well come from overlooked systems such as perennial grasses." landscape diversity creates habitat for pest enemies Farmers spend millions of ...

Researchers observe single protein dimers wavering between two symmetrically opposed structures

... structural basin," says Deniz." While the concept of a funneled energy landscape explains folding, protein function often requires more than one stable three-dimensional shape. Theoretical work generalizing energy landscape theory combined with these experiments shed light on how symmetry can ...

NASA uses satellite to unearth innovation in crop forecasting

... sensor observations. They used West Africa as a model because the landscape provides varying cover, from desert and semi-arid landscape in the north to grasslands, lush forests, and crop land to the south. ...

Tree survival skills

... when these stressors are combined, the prospect of trees' survival in the landscape is greatly reduced. Andrew K. Koeser, J. Ryan Stewart, Germn A. ... unnecessary movements of trees at both the nursery loading area and landscape site and warn that if trees are placed in mulch or composted material for ...

Plants could override climate change effects on wildfires

... such as pollen, to determine the types of vegetation that dominated the landscape during different time periods in the past. Like rings in a tree, different ... for fire occurrence, but the development of deciduous trees on the landscape offset this direct climatic effect. Consequently, we see very little ...

Research synthesis shines light on several management options after fires in diverse ecosystems

... Wildfire in Western North America, tells us that the type of forest landscape determines the ways fire and logging may change an area after a wildfire. ... it's critical to consider postfire logging in the context of the entire landscape of the wildfire to minimize the potential effects of logging." The ...

Global Energy Systems to Acquire WoodTech, LLC, and Affiliated Entities

... a definitive agreement to acquire Cherokee County, GA based wood fuel and landscape materials processor, WoodTech, LLC, and affiliated entities. Closing of ... brother, David, has spent the last ten years building the biomass fuel and landscape materials business. "We have been looking for the right company with the ...

Lincoln Park Zoo awarded $1.5 million grant for new research institute

... create best practice conflict resolution. The institute aims to integrate landscape and animal ecology with epidemiology research to create a holistic ... The Urban Wildlife Institute is composed of scientific experts in landscape ecology, population biology, epidemiology, endocrinology, veterinary ...

Web-based case studies help students develop career skills

... AMES, IAA survey of employers in the landscape industry revealed the importance of arming landscaping and horticulture ... skills. Teaching students the skills necessary to solve complex landscape management decisions is crucial to their career success. With the rapid ...

Plants display 'molecular amnesia'

... in the genome of any species before. These data suggest the epigenetic landscape of plant genomes may be more subtle and interesting than previously ... "We can now use transposons to probe for variations in the epigenetic landscape of the maize genome. It may turn out that forgetting can be as important ...

Networks of small habitat patches can preserve urban biodiversity

... Information System (GIS) techniques were deployed to model the urban landscape as a network of individual habitat fragments. The field data were then ... test and verify the assumptions behind the network model. Modelling a landscape as a network provides for many new analytical possibilities. However, the ...

Northwest climate change is target of $3.2M in grants to University of Oregon

... climate-change treatments will be imposed. Bart Johnson, professor of landscape architecture, will lead a four-year, $1.4 million project funded by the ... for a Sustainable Environment, both of whom also are in the department of landscape architecture. The team also includes John P. Bolte, head of OSU's ...

Experts agree: to protect the environment, biofuel standards are needed

... produced in the United States is made from corn. When large parts of the landscape are converted to such resource-intensive, monoculture grain crops, as is ... it's about picking the right plant, or assemblage of plants, for a given landscape and managing crops in a minimally invasive way." No-till farming can slow ...

Entomological Society of America names 2008 award winners

... expertise in the environmentally-responsible management of turfgrass and landscape insect pests, and he is a leading authority on the insects and mites ... of invasive species. Much of his research has focused on the role of landscape structure in shaping insect-insect and insect-plant plant interactions. ...

Unexpected large monkey population discovered

... across an area of 300 square miles (789 square kilometers) within a wider landscape of 1,150 square miles (3,000 square kilometers), which is about the size ... National Park. The scientists believe total populations within the wider landscape may be considerably greater. The WCS scientists who worked on the ...

Measuring calcium in serpentine soils

... said "The non-serpentinite rock bodies included in the serpentinite landscape and, to a lesser extent, calcium-bearing accessory minerals in the serpentinite rock have the potential to act as a landscape fertilizer." ...

ESA to feature wide range of UW-Madison presentations

... where new ones might establish. Though he included a wide variety of landscape characteristics in his model, including the presence of forests and ... are least successful in places with many roads and farms because these landscape features represent contact and conflict with humans, he says. While ...

Ecological Society of America announces 2008 award recipients

... ecological research. Turner is one of the founders of the discipline of landscape ecology; her seminal publications on the subject led to the first ... between the ecology of the Hantavirus disease and climate variability, landscape patterns and human behavior. Yates held several positions at the National ...

Bird watchers, space technology come together in Montana State University study

... birds are so mobile," he added. "MODIS allows a broad regional view of the landscape similar to the view birds have from the air." Running and a team at UM ... scale." MSU's study typifies the kind of research conducted in his landscape Biodiversity Lab and speaks well of the Montana University System, Hansen ...

Window of opportunity for restoring oaks small, new study finds

... some areas of the region. A new technical report titled "Evaluation of landscape Alternatives for Managing Oak at Tenalquot Prairie, Washington" outlines ... Using geographic information system technology, a forest growth model, and landscape visualization software, the researchers simulated the effects of five ...

Archaeologist uses satellite imagery to explore ancient Mexico

... and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people ... that no one has really been able to do before, Middleton says. The new landscape map will also show how development has changed the region since the first ...

OCAST funds OSU projects with commercial viability

... to carbon nanotubes. Janet Cole, professor of horticulture and landscape architecture, received $66,941 for two years. Cole will investigate the ... products from the production of cooking oils, as organic fertilizers for landscape planting. While the meal is currently used in the production of animal ...