Category: Plants & People
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Which Motivated The Birth Of Agriculture: Beer Or Bread?
The evidence of beer brewing at Raqefet Cave 13,000 years ago provides yet another example of the complex Natufian social and ritual realms. Beer brewing may have been, at least in part, an underlying motivation to cultivate cereals in the southern Levant, supporting the beer hypothesis proposed by archaeologists more than 60 years ago. (Click on title for full story.)
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Are Microbes The “Secret Sauce” To Save Endangered Plants And Feed The Hungry World?
While the restoration of a little flowering plant, or a few more bushels of soybeans, may seem like small victories, they could herald big things for plant microbiomes in conservation as well as agriculture. The farmers and conservationists of the future may find themselves seeding and tending not just plants, but their microscopic helpers, too. (Click on title for full story.)
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New Birthplace Of Early Farming In The Americas Discovered
“Our findings may place the Atlantic Forest ‘on the map’ of early plant cultivation in the Americas. The Atlantic Forest coast has been largely peripheral in this narrative despite its unique plant biodiversity and archaeological record of dense human occupation. Our study challenges this traditional view. The high consumption of carbohydrate-rich food suggests that permanent populations subsisted on a mixed economy, and possibly cultivated plants along this narrow coastal strip.” (Click on title for full story.)
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The Mayan Civilization Collapsed Due To Deforestation. And The Land Has Still Not Recovered
“When you go to this area today, much of it looks like dense, old-growth rainforest, But when you look at soil carbon storage, it seems the ecosystem was fundamentally changed and never returned to its original state.” (Click on title for full story.)
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Harnessing Birds To Protect Agricultural Crops From Insect Pests
“The plant is damaged, the plant emits something that recruits help and we’re all thinking it’s help from other insects but it seems that birds are also using that as a cue to locate a plant or a group of plants. Then what we think is that they use their visual equity to locate the larvae when they’re in the vicinity of the plant emitting the volatiles.” (Click on title for full story.)
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California Wildfires Threaten Largest And Very Ancient Juniper
“I know some folks like to say 6,000 but that’s probably too high. It’s in the range of 2,ooo to 4,000 years old.” (Click on title for full story.)
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Researchers Propose Both The Lorax And The Over-Harvested Truffula Trees Are Real
The illustrations in The Lorax provide important clues. For example, the spiky, barren trees outside the Once-ler’s home look like the whistling thorn acacia (Acacia drepanolobium), a common tree found on the Laikipia plateau in Kenya. If Geisel noticed these trees while he was there, then he probably also saw patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas), which rely on the acacia tree for more than three-fourths of their diet. The acacia tree and the patas monkey have a commensal relationship in which neither species is harmed. It is this very notion of commensalism that grounds the story of The Lorax, according to the research team. (Click on title for full story.)
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Bio-engineering Houseplants To Monitor Indoor Health
The idea is to genetically engineer house plants to serve as subtle alarms that something is amiss in our home and office environments. (Click on title for full story.)
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Is Your Car Driving The Destruction Of The Rain Forest?
Palm oil used for biodiesel has increased sharply over the last years while food consumption of palm oil is declining. (Click on title for full report)
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“Grass” Roots Campaign To Remove Nails From City Trees Gaining Support
“I have been reading several articles and research papers that have scientifically proven that trees fee pain. Nails can weaken trees causing them to die, and most trees in the city have multiple nails in them. So I decided to do something about it.” (Click on title for full story.)