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Last updated on September 3rd, 2010
| India-born plant taxonomist receives ASPT award: Click here |
| An India-born American Botanist, Kanchi N Gandhi received the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) award for his excellent efforts and contribution in ASPT or plant taxonomy in general. Gandhi, who was a faculty of The National College in Bangalore, currently serves as the Nomenclature Editor for the Flora North America Project. He is also an editorial committee member of several national and international botanical journals. |
| Major study charts long-lasting oil plume in Gulf: Click here |
| scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill. The most worrisome part is the slow pace at which the oil is breaking down in the cold, 40-degree water, making it a long-lasting but unseen threat to vulnerable marine life, experts said. |
| Drought Drives Decade-Long Decline in Plant Growth: Click here |
| Global plant productivity that once was on the rise with warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline because of regional drought according to a new study of NASA satellite data. |
| $51K native plant project in downtown York destroyed (video): Click here |
| A $51,000 native plant project in York City has been destroyed, said Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Michael Helfrich. The plant project area -- located along the Codorus Creek in the West Market Street area -- was recently sprayed with herbicide by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Helfrich said. |
| Gene relationships studied with LC-MS: Click here |
| Scientists working at the RIKEN Plant Science Center have detailed some of their investigations into plant genes using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). |
| Insect and fungi to tackle knotweed in Wales: Click here |
| Two projects running in Wales are trying to check the spread of the invasive plant Japanese knotweed. One run by the University of Glamorgan is mapping the plant's spread with satellite technology, and looking at using native fungi to attack it. |
| Researchers discover how the storehouses of plant cells are formed: 'Splitting protein' shown to play crucial role in formation of plant vacuoles: Click here |
| Bite into a sour apple and you destroy them plant cell vacuoles. Even though these vacuoles make up the largest volume of plant cells, only little was known about how these cellular storehouses form and how the substances stored in them find their way there. Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have now discovered a new protein essential to the formation of vacuoles. In the process they uncovered new clues that may help demystify the vacuole formation mechanism. They now hope to unravel the process completely. |
| Kettering University to debut biofuel pickup truck tied to Swedish biogas plant in Flint: Click here |
| FLINT, Michigan The white Chevy Silverado in Kettering Universitys parking lot could be a symbol of a future Flint one where cars, trucks and buses run on biofuel produced in the city. Its new technology in Flint, said Brenda Lemke, a lecturer on fuel cells and renewable energy in Ketterings mechanical engineering department. Its showing that were ready to convert the city vehicles and buses for this technology, that we have the knowledge and experiences necessary. |
| New Genetic Tool Helps Improve Rice: Click here |
| U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have developed a new tool for improving the expression of desirable genes in rice in parts of the plant where the results will do the most good. |
| Biologists study rainforest host-plant associations: Click here |
| The widening of the Panama Canal currently underway has created a rare opportunity to study the insects that inhabit the plants of environmentally sensitive Central American rain forest habitats. Dr. Amy Berkov, Professor of Biology at The City College of New York (CCNY), is leading a research effort that could shed new light on biodiversity by documenting the area's host-plant relationships. |
| A former grasslands scientist says changes in plant life are a convincing indication that global warming is occurring.: Click here |
| John Lancashire is questioning the move by a climate change sceptics group to challenge in the courts the way that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has compiled New Zealand's official temperature records. The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition wants the High Court to invalidate the records, arguing they have been manipulated to show a rise in temperatures during the past century when none has occurred. But Mr Lancashire, who was a scientist at the Grasslands Research Centre, considers the debate over temperature records to be somewhat irrelevant. He says plants are a better guide to what is happening with global warming. |
| Genetically-engineered trees challenged: Click here |
| Summerville, S.C.-based ArborGen, a partnership of the International Paper, MeadWestvaco and Rubicon Limited paper and forest products companies, hopes its tinkering will produce a warm-weather tree that can tolerate cold but wont reproduce. The company is seeking federal approval to grow eucalyptus commercially to make paper and fuel biomass power plants. It would be the nations first genetically-engineered forest tree, ArborGen says. |
| Elevated CO2 Protects Trees from the Ravages of Heat Stress: Click here |
| In discussing their findings, Darbah et al. state that they agree with those of Veteli et al. (2007), who "reported that elevated CO2 ameliorated the negative effects of high temperature in three deciduous tree species," as well as those of Wayne et al. (1998), who "reported that elevated CO2 ameliorated high temperature stress in yellow birch trees," and that all of these observations are "in agreement with Idso and Kimball (1992), who reported that elevated CO2 (ambient + 300 ppm) increased net photosynthetic rate in sour orange tree leaves exposed to full sunlight by 75, 100 and 200% compared to those in ambient CO2 concentration at temperatures of 31, 35 and 42°C, respectively, suggesting that elevated CO2 ameliorates heat stress in tree leaves." Hence, they conclude that "in the face of rising atmospheric CO2 and temperature (global warming), trees will benefit from elevated CO2 through increased thermotolerance." |
| Endangered status weighed for rediscovered manzanita: Click here |
| Believed extinct in the wild since 1947 but rediscovered accidentally by a biologist in San Francisco. Daniel Gluesenkamp, director of habitat restoration at Audubon Canyon Ranch, spotted the plant in a flash as he drove by the Presidio along Doyle Drive. In January, the city spent $175,000 moving the 1-foot-tall, 20-foot-square plant and its accompanying roots and soil to an undisclosed location within the Presidio about a mile away from its original site. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting public comment about the rare Franciscan manzanita as part of an effort to determine whether to list the plant for federal protection. The public comment period closes Oct. 12. |
| Discovering The Secret, Speedy Life Of Plants: Click here |
| Plants have a reputation for being sedentary, unmoving, planted. But some plants are moving so quickly, their motion is invisible to human eyes. Biologist Joan Edwards and physicist Dwight Whitaker broke out the high-speed cameras to capture the story of exploding peat moss. |
| Texas volunteers find seeds for endangered plants: Click here |
| BOERNE, Texas Like an intrepid 19th-century naturalist trying to capture a butterfly, 77-year-old Bill Ward half-slid, half-clambered down a small cliff overlooking Cibolo Creek to find the bloom stalks of the elusive big red sage. Although it has thrived in nurseries and protected backyards, maybe 400 plants exist in the wild, and only in hard-to-get-to spots like this. |
| Juneau Man Finds Real-Life 'Glow Stick': Click here |
| JUNEAU, Alaska -- "Turns out, it's not surprising," said Paul Hennon, a forest pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service. "I heard a similar story about four or five years ago," he said. "A friend in Sitka called me up saying someone came into his office saying their pile of firewood was glowing. He went out to take a look, and sure enough, it was." The fungus, which Hennon said is likely from the genus Armillaria, prefers spruce and hemlock, but has also been found in alder. |