Tag: "alpine" at biology news

Defenseless plants arm themselves with metals

... the plants Salt studies - a group of small, weedy alpine flowers called Thlaspi - lack the standard pathogen defense mechanism found in nearly every other plant species. Thlaspi plants live in soils naturally enriched in nickel, and when growing in their natural habitat, are not any more susceptible to pat...

Taking the piste out of Alpine vegetation

...made to the way ski pistes are managed if delicate alpine plants are to be protected, ecologists have warned...icularly high conservation value," they say. Some alpine ecosystems are extraordinarily rich in species, but they are also sensitive and susceptible to chang...

Expanding forests darken the outlook for butterflies, study shows

...of Alberta researchers. Smaller and less abundant alpine meadows--largely the result of human activities--are diminishing the alpine butterfly gene pool, creating a pattern that could lead to the butterflies being less able to surviv...

Strawberries by design

...ic engineer, to introduce DNA into the woodland or alpine strawberry Fragaria vesca. The method takes adva...e, the researchers have found a particular type of alpine strawberry that is very amenable to transformation." He added: "The transformation rate achieved is ...

Afghanistan to protect wildlife and wild lands

...some of the greatest mountains in the world. These alpine ecosystems support a surprisingly wide range of large mammal species, including the Marco Polo sheep, the world's largest sheep and the namesake of one of the first European travelers along the silk routes to east Asia and who described the giant she...

Bigger horns equal better genes

Size matters. At least, it does to an alpine ibex. According to a team of international researchers, mature, male alpine ibex demonstrate a correlation between horn growth and genetic diversity. Past research studies have...

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