Celebrating Plants and People
-
A Sea Slug, An Alga And A Bacteria And Their Three-Way Relationship
Delicate yet voracious, the sea slug Elysia rufescens grazes cow-like on bright green tufts of algae, rooting around to find the choicest bits. But this inch-long marine mollusk gains not only a tasty meal — it also slurps up the algae’s defensive chemicals, which the slug can then deploy against its own predators. (Click on title for full story.)
-
Climate Change Messes With Floral Scents. And That Messes With Pollinators.
In their search for food, pollinators rely on visual signals (the colour and number of flowers) as well as olfactory cues—that is, floral scent. A bee is able to remember a fragrance and associate it with the resources provided by a given plant. Using memory, it is even capable of distinguishing between the scents of plants that produce high- or low-sugar nectar, and flowers that do not contain any nectar at all. (Click on title for full story.)
-
Climate Change And Seaweed Ruining Mexico’s Hottest Vacation Beaches
In a long-running issue attributed by many researchers to climate change, sargassum has covered the popular white sandbanks, turning the pristine waters brown and leaving a strong odour as it decomposes, alarming residents, businesses and, obviously, tourists. (Click on title for full story)
-
Is Consumption Of Anti-Biotic Resistant Superbugs On Plants A Hidden Danger?
Spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs from plants to humans is different from outbreaks of diarrheal illnesses caused immediately after eating contaminated vegetables. Superbugs can asymptomatically hide in (or “colonize”) the intestines for months or even years, when they then escape the intestine and cause an infection, such as a urinary infection. (Click on title for full story.)
-
One Tree Reveals The Path Of Humans’ Colonization Of Oceanic Islands
the genetic study of the dispersal of this fiber plant is a useful proxy for the Austronesian expansion, from its native region (Taiwan) throughout introduced range in the Pacific. The genetic connections detected in contemporary and herbarium samples from paper mulberry reflect prehistoric human movements between multiple islands in Remote Oceania and, to date, provide a more comprehensive picture than other model species. In contrast, textiles made of the bark from this plant may represent evidence of exchange networks of prestige objects, which are unlikely to persist in the archaeological record. Therefore, the genetic analysis of ethnographic textiles from museum collections represents the closest approach to past plant material from this species and could add complementary insight focused on eventual exchange networks. (Click on title for full story.)
-
Are You A Bold One? Small Mammals’ Personalities Shape Forests
Another aspect of the project relates to how individuals with different personality types make decisions in front of seeds and how those decisions affect the composition of Maine’s forests. (Click on title for full story.)
-
Methane From Wetlands Feeds Climate Change. Can Wetlands Be Redesigned?
Understanding the conditions under which methane is produced and released in wetlands could lead to solutions to reduce methane emissions,” (Click on title for full story.)
-
Why Some Lemur Species Can Adapt To New Forest Habitats And Some Species Cannot
The stool samples revealed striking differences. The fruit-eating brown lemurs harbored similar collections of gut microbes regardless of where they lived on the island. But the microbial makeup inside the guts of the leaf-eating sifakas varied from place to place, and in ways that couldn’t be attributed to genetic relatedness between lemur species. Instead, what mattered most was where they lived: Microbes that were common in lemurs living in dry forest were rare or absent in rainforest dwellers, and vice versa. If you look at any one of these fruit-eating species and take away its forest, theoretically it could move next door, The leaf specialists may not be able to.” (Click on title for full story.)
-
Will Forests Become The New “Green” Cemeteries?
It’s all pretty low-tech: mix ashes in with dirt and put a little placard in the soil. But there is a tech element: For an extra fee, customers can have a digital memorial video made. Walking through the forest, visitors will be able to scan a placard and watch a 12-minute digital portrait of the deceased talking straight to camera about his or her life. Some will allow their videos to be viewed by anyone walking through the forest, others will opt only for family members. Privacy settings will be decided before death. (Click on title for full story.)
-
Salamanders Are Not Safe From Carnivorous Pitcher Plants
Pitcher plants growing in wetlands across Canada have long been known to eat creatures – mostly insects and spiders — that fall into their bell-shaped leaves and decompose in rainwater collected there. But until now, no one had reported this salamander species caught by a pitcher plant in North America, (Click on title for full story.)