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Tag: "soil" at biology news

Too much of a good thing? Excess nutrients or water limit biodiversity

...related to the number of limiting factors (such as soil moisture, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and water)." It also helps explain why grasslands, lakes and rivers that are polluted with nitrogen and phosphorous (usually from agriculture) have fewer species. The reduction of species where the Missi...

New science of metagenomics 'will transform modern microbiology'

...d with the human body, while others could focus on soil and seawater, or managed environments such as sludge processing sites. The large projects would be "virtual" centers collecting data from scientists working at many locations around the world, and would probably need to be sustained for 10 years...

'Hidden-hero' microbes in soil, water may help naturally clean toxic sites

...dden heroes" -- to promote bacterial growth in the soil subsurface that scrub it of potentially deadly radioactive metal. If bioremediation proves successful on the uranium, technetium, nitrate and other potentially lethal leftovers at the Oak Ridge site, the process should work to mitigate contaminati...

Immunization rates hit record high in poor countries

...r Costa, research assistant professor of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont, and Grassano, his graduate student, the vigorous growth in their laboratory of this fungus, a strain called Lecanicillium mucarium, means a hopeful new chapter in the otherwise bleak tale of the eastern hemlock t...

Fungal factories may save hemlock forests

...r Costa, research assistant professor of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont, and Grassano, his graduate student, the vigorous growth in their laboratory of this fungus, a strain called Lecanicillium mucarium, means a hopeful new chapter in the otherwise bleak tale of the eastern hemlock t...

New UD technology removes viruses from drinking water

...borated with Yan Jin, a professor of environmental soil physics in UD's plant and soil science department, to develop the technology. They then sought the expertise of virologist Kali Kni...

Monitoring poisons in the environment -- a woolly matter

...onaldsay wool was comparatively high despite lower soil concentrations. Shetland sheep appeared to accumulate more lead than Swaledale sheep. Another significant observation related to the sex of the sheep ?values for wool concentration of both lead and copper were significantly higher in male sheep, whic...

Plant studies reveal how, where seeds store iron

... iron, and the limited availability of iron in the soil can limit plant growth. Our study suggests that iron storage in the vacuole is a promising, and, before now, largely unexplored target for increasing the iron content of seeds. Such nutrient-rich seeds would benefit both human health and agricultural...

Invasive ants territorial when neighbors are not kin

...eparate introductions of the ants, possibly in the soil of plants used in landscaping. They hope that a better understanding of how the ants distinguish kin from non-kin, and the mechanisms that prevent gene flow between colonies, might lead to more effective ways to control the ants. That would be goo...

Plant studies reveal how, where seeds store iron

... iron, and the limited availability of iron in the soil can limit plant growth. Our study suggests that iron storage in the vacuole is a promising, and, before now, largely unexplored target for increasing the iron content of seeds. Such nutrient-rich seeds would benefit both human health and agricultural...

End of deforestation in view? Experts advance new way to size up global forest resources

...e expanse of natural forests, which may be rich in soil carbon and biodiversity," adds Dr. Sedjo. Implications for climate change In addition to the measurement of forest area and growing stock, the researchers offer a formula to calculate atmospheric carbon being stored incrementally in the trees ...

New system could drastically reduce herbicide use

...lecting field data from satellite imagery, such as soil moisture and plant conditions, but we needed to ha...ras on the robotic arm that would be used to judge soil properties or plant conditions. "It has a full-blown Windows computer with an 80-gigabyte hard dr...

Shrinking ponds signal warmer, dryer Alaska

...enhances the release of carbon dioxide by exposing soil carbon to aerobic decomposition. "Alaska is important in terms of waterfowl production and if you have a lowering of the water table that could have a potentially huge impact on waterfowl production," said Dave Verbyla, co-author and professor in ...

The first tree genome is published: Poplar holds promise as renewable bioenergy resource

...ergy crops" suited to their particular climate and soil conditions, including such plants as switchgrass and willow. In addition, a large quantity of biofuels might be produced from agricultural and forestry waste. ...

Worms produce surprise insight into human fever

...ives in the soil. Human populations merely ingest soil by the ton in our food, on our hands, and suspended in our drinking water. Some of these basic pathways that set off the worm’s innate immune defenses have homologs—similar proteins in mammal cells, including ours. These conserved pathways are...

Molecular structure reveals how botulinum toxin attaches to nerve cells

...ced by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium found in soil and food. In the body, the toxins bind to and enter neurons, interfering with nerve transmission and disrupting the communication between the nerve and muscle fibers throughout the body. Poisoning with botulinum toxins leads to an often-fatal paralys...

Soil nutrition affects carbon sequestration in forests

...ort that growth. Leaf area, in turn, is limited by soil nutrition; without adequate soil nutrition, trees respond to elevated CO2 by transferring carbon below ground, then recycling it back...

Researchers barcode DNA of Venice museum's vast fungi collection

...errestrial ecosystems, channeling nutrients in the soil and making them available for the growth of plants...le to identify the fungi present in plants, in the soil and in the air at any time." The project, which began in April, is expected to be completed by th...

Biofuel cells without the bio cells

...he outer membrane of the versatile, metal-altering soil bacterium Shewanella oneidensis. Reporting in the current advance online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, they suggest that proteins rendered portable from the organisms that spawned them could make miniature bioreactor cells ...

Professors to develop hand-held pathogen testing device

...je, University Distinguished Professor of crop and soil sciences and director of the Center for Microbial Ecology, and Erdogan Gulari, professor at the University of Michigan's Department of Chemical Engineering, formed a cross-disciplinary team to develop this technology. The procedure begins with sam...

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