Celebrating Plants and People
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Irrigation Kills? Landscaping For Drought Can Make Some Regions More Livable
At night, the modeling projected a cooling effect from the changing landscapes that would be exceed the daytime warming effect. Across L.A., nighttime lows were projected to fall by an average of nearly 6°F if irrigation suddenly ended. (Click on title for full story.)
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Climate Change Pushes Coffee Growers To The Brink
Climate change is going to halve the area suitable for coffee production and impact the livelihoods of more than 120 million of the world’s poorest people who rely on the coffee economy, according to a new report (Click on title for full story.)
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For Ants, Mutualistic Relationships With Plants Spur Evolution
The genome of each mutualistic ant was evolving at a faster rate than that of the most closely related generalist. Moreover, they discovered that changes were occurring in the same genes in all three mutualistic ant species compared with their nonmutualistic counterparts. Those genes included ones that shape behavior and affect the brain—logical, because partnerships depend on specific nesting, eating, and defensive behaviors, (Click on title for full story.)
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Plants Repel Ants Except When Ants Are Advantageous
The study validates the pollinator protection hypothesis and the nectar protection hypothesis. Depending on the ecological context, ant repellents can function as direct or indirect exploitation barriers. As direct barriers, ant repellents can prevent ants from removing nectar without effecting pollination. As indirect barriers, ants chase small ineffective pollinators away when flowers are pollinated by large bees, the absence of repellents or even with the presence or ant attractants. (Click on title for full story.)
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If You Live On Mars, Get Used To GMO Plants
Unlike the Earth situation, controversy does not surround the question of whether the highly concentrated perchlorate in the Mars dirt would be a health issue for humans. It certain would be, and that’s one reason why biotechnology will be key to Martian colonies. (Click on title for full story.)
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One Chili To Bind Them: All Chillies Share A Common Ancestor
They have myriad shapes, flavors, colors and levels of spiciness, but all American chilies, chili peppers and bell peppers emerged from a single species that later led to three lineages. (Click on title for full story.)
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Loss Of Forests Imperils A Nation
For years, wood charcoal burners had been destroying this forest, the catchment basin for the Lilongwe River, the source of the capital’s water. Fewer trees mean the ground is less able to absorb water in the rainy season and gradually surrender it the rest of the year. With the supply reaching the capital dwindling and increasingly turbid, and with the El Niño drought spreading across Malawi and the rest of southern Africa, the capital was under imminent threat. (Click on title for full story.)
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Increasing Urbanization In Tropics Affects Butterflies And Forests In Complex Ways
Most tropical butterflies feed on a variety of flower types, but those that are ‘picky’ about their flower diets tend to prefer native plants and are more dependent on forests. These ‘picky’ butterflies also have wings that are more conspicuous and shorter proboscis. The reduction in native plants due to urbanisation affects the diet of such butterflies, and researchers suggest that intervention may be needed to manage their preferred flower resources. (Click on title for full story.)
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Thank A Moss For Your Very Existence
Scientists have identified the creature that gave the Earth its first breath of fresh, clean air and made life possible for everything ranging from ardvaarks to Olympic athletes and zebra finches. It was a moss. (Click on title for full story.)
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Could This Frightening Nettle Take Your Pain Away?
What particularly got Buenz’s scientific senses tingling in the bush was not the sting from the poisonous spines of the ongaonga but the numbing aftermath. It’s not common to get such an effect on the nervous system from a substance that is only applied to the skin. (Click on title for full story.)