June 27, 2006, 11:59 PM CT

Better beetle sought for salt cedar control

Beetles from Uzbekistan are more prolific salt cedar eaters than beetles from Greece. At least that's what Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers hope.

Uzbekistan salt cedar beetles being released by the Experiment Station's entomology department are the same species as those released on the salt cedar stands near Lake Meredith. They are just from a different collection point, said Vanessa Carney, Experiment Station entomology research associate.

Researchers first looked at latitude and longitude to find the beetle they thought would be best suited to this region, and they came up with salt cedar beetles from Posidi, Greece, Carney said.

"Because some of the releases in other states haven't been successful, we're starting to think it may be more complicated than that," she said. "These beetles from Uzbekistan seem to be most suited to our climate at the same latitude and longitude".

At the Meredith site, the Posidi beetles released in 2004 have made it through two winters and had two summers of success, Carney said. However, because of an early warm-up followed by a cold spell, they seem to be less prolific this summer and haven't exploded in numbers.

Dr. Jerry Michels, Experiment Station entomology research project leader, and Carney are making new releases of the Uzbekistan beetle this year in the heavy salt cedar stands on private land north of Borger. The new site was selected because of its remote location and because it is not subject to other control methods, such as fire and chemical treatments, Carney said.........

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June 22, 2006, 9:58 PM CT

Cherry Juice May Prevent Muscle Damage Pain

The familiar "no pain, no gain" phrase usually associated with exercise may be a thing of the past if results from a study on cherry juice published recently in the online version of the British Journal of Sports Medicine prove true in future research.

Historically, a number of approaches to prevent exercise-induced muscle pain and damage have been examined, but few have been effective. Declan Connolly, associate professor of education and director of the human performance laboratory at the University of Vermont and colleagues at New York's Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma and Cornell University, evaluated the efficacy of a fresh, highly-concentrated, specially- processed tart cherry juice blend in preventing the symptoms of muscle damage in a randomized, placebo-controlled study in 14 male college students.

"The anti-inflammatory properties of cherry juice have been examined before, but the focus of this research was on a new area - muscle damage repair," said Connolly. "Only two species of mammals suffer this type of muscle damage - horses and humans".

The study participants were asked to either drink a bottle of the cherry juice blend twice a day for three days before exercise and for four days afterwards, or to drink a placebo juice containing no cherries. The 12-ounce bottle of juice contained the liquid equivalent of 50 to 60 tart cherries blended with commercially available apple juice.........

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June 22, 2006, 5:56 PM CT

Appetite And Limb Development In Frogs

As it happens in humans and other mammals, leptin (a protein) acts on the frog brain to suppress appetite. But the hormone also seems to play a role in the compound signaling that turns a finned tadpole into a four-legged frog. These conclusions are as per findings from Robert Denver, an associate professor of biology at the University of Michigan.

Denver's team gave frogs a dose of leptin at various stages of development from tadpole to near adult and watched what happened. As in mice, the hormone is apparently a powerful appetite suppressant for these animals, causing them to give up eating even as their bodies waste away.

But the youngest tadpoles showed a different response to the hormone. Rather than going off their feed as the older frogs did, these tadpoles kept right on eating and quickly sprouted limbs.

Denver, who has studied the ability of frogs to speed up their metamorphosis in response to a drying pond, thinks that the tadpoles' feeding mechanism is stuck in the "on" position at the first stages of life, because they need to eat and grow as fast as possible to avoid being prey. For these tadpoles, the leptin signal isn't capable of turning the feeding behavior off, but it does apparently tell their bodies that they've had enough to eat now, and they can begin sprouting limbs.........

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June 20, 2006, 8:31 PM CT

Bronx Zoo Sends Gators Home

A dozen rare Chinese alligators hatched and raised in the U.S. are about to get in touch with their roots. The toothy twelvesome were donated by Disney's Animal Kingdom, St. Augustine Farm Zoological Park, and the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo for relocation to China.

Beginning their journey at the Bronx Zoo, the alligators took off from New York's JFK airport on May 17, bound for Shanghai. A team of WCS veterinarians oversaw the shipment to ensure that the travelers were healthy and comfortable. Once the alligators touched down in China, they were moved to a holding facility. Eventually, they will be released in a wetlands reserve near the mouth of the Yangtze River.

"We are delighted that the Chinese government will receive these twelve alligators in an effort to help bolster numbers of the critically endangered species," said WCS conservationist Dr. John Thorbjarnarson, who is helping oversee the program. "Given the chance, these animals will grow in number and roam in areas where they haven't been seen in a number of years".

Human communities of the Yangtze River valley should fear not-Chinese alligators are smaller than their American cousins and relatively timid animals, preferring small fish and aquatic birds to people.

The Chinese alligator is one of just two alligator species in the world. While the formerly endangered American alligator has recovered thanks to conservation efforts, Chinese alligators have been virtually eliminated from their native habitat. Large-scale conversion of wetlands into farmland over the past several thousand years has left only a few dozen remaining in the wild.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 19, 2006, 11:43 PM CT

Poison + Water = Hydrogen

Take a pot of scalding water, remove all the oxygen, mix in a bit of poisonous carbon monoxide, and add a pinch of hydrogen gas. It sounds like a recipe for a witch's brew. It may be, but it is also the preferred environment for a microbe known as Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans.

In a paper reported in the November 27 th issue of PLoS Genetics, a research team led by researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) report the determination and analysis of the complete genome sequence of this organism. Isolated from a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir , this microbe lives almost entirely on carbon monoxide. While consuming this normally poisonous gas, the microbe mixes it with water, producing hydrogen gas as waste.

As the world increasingly considers hydrogen as a potential biofuel, technology could benefit from having the genomes of such microbes. " C. hydrogenoformans is one of the fastest-growing microbes that can convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen," remarks TIGR evolutionary biologist Jonathan Eisen, senior author of the PLoS Genetics study. "So if you're interested in making clean fuels, this microbe makes an excellent starting point."

In sequencing the microbe's genome, Eisen and his collaborators discovered why C. hydrogenoformans grows more rapidly on carbon monoxide than other species: The bug boasts at least five different forms of a protein machine, dubbed carbon monoxide deyhydrogenase, that is able to manipulate the poisonous gas. Each form of the machine appears to allow the organism to use carbon monoxide in a different way. Most other organisms that live on carbon monoxide have only one form of this machine. In other words, while other organisms may have the equivalent of a modest mixing bowl to process their supper of carbon monoxide, this species has a veritable food processor, letting it gorge on a hot spring buffet all day.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 18, 2006, 6:47 PM CT

Vampire bats recognise their prey's breathing

Vampire bats, the only mammals to feed exclusively on blood, including human blood, recognize their prey by the sound of its breathing. In a study published recently in the open access journal BMC Biology, vampire bats of the species Desmodus rotondus could recognise recorded human breathing sounds much better than human participants could. Vampire bats feed on the same prey over several nights and the authors of the study propose that the bats use breathing sounds to identify their prey in the same way as humans use voice to recognise each other.

In a study conducted by Udo Groeger and Lutz Wiegrebe from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich, Gera number of, two vampire bats were taught to associate recordings of different humans breathing with different cattle blood dispensers, providing food rewards. They were then played short clips of people breathing and had to associate them with the correct individual by going to the correct dispenser. Four human participants were asked to associate the same short clips with the correct individual.

The vampire bats were able to spontaneously associate the clips with the particular individuals, regardless of whether the individual was recorded breathing at rest or breathing while under physical strain. The human participants were also able to recognise some clips, but they were unable to recognise the clips of breathing recorded under physical strain.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 18, 2006, 6:38 PM CT

Arctic Warming And Plight Of Polar Bears

A climate scientist at the University of Chicago and 30 of her colleagues from across North America and Europe are urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species because global warming is melting its sea-ice habitat.

"As scientists engaged in research on climate change, we are deeply concerned about the effect of Arctic warming on the polar bear habitat," said a letter submitted to the Fish and Wildlife Service on June 15. "Biologists have determined that sea-ice is critical in the life cycle of the polar bear and the survival of the polar bear as a species.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service is required to list a species for protection if it is in danger of extinction or threatened by possible extinction in all or a significant portion of its range. The ongoing and projected increased loss of sea-ice in the warming Arctic poses a significant threat to the polar bear".

The letter was not a petition, said Pamela Martin, Assistant Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, who organized the effort. "Rather, it was a letter summarizing some key aspects of the best available science on global warming and, in particular, Arctic warming.

"The polar bear listing petition is really illustrative of the challenge in addressing many environmental problems facing us as a global community. These problems don't fit squarely within a single scientific discipline--they not only require scientists to talk across disciplines, such as the geophysical and biological sciences as in the case of the polar bear, but also across the larger divide that separates scientists from policy makers".........

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June 16, 2006, 0:02 AM CT

Fossils Depict Aquatic Origins Of Near-modern Birds

Five fossil specimens of a near-modern bird found in the Gansu Province of northwestern China show that early birds likely evolved in an aquatic environment, as per a research studyreported today in the journal Science. Their findings suggest that these early modern birds were much like the ducks or loons found today. Gansus yumenesis, which lived some 105 to 115 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period, took modern birds through a watery path out of the dinosaur lineage.

The report was co-authored by Peter Dodson of the University of Pennsylvania and his former students Hai-lu You of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Jerald Harris of Dixie State College of Utah and Matthew Lamanna of Carnegie Natural History Museum in Pittsburgh.

"Gansus is very close to a modern bird and helps fill in the big gap between clearly non-modern birds and the explosion of early birds that marked the Cretaceous period, the final era of the Dinosaur Age," said Peter Dodson, professor of anatomy at Penns School of Veterinary Medicine and professor in Penns Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. "Gansus is the oldest example of the nearly modern birds that branched off of the trunk of the family tree that began with the famous proto-bird Archaeopteryx".........

Posted by: William      Permalink         Source

June 15, 2006, 10:28 PM CT

New African Wild Dog Exhibit Opens

Grab your binoculars and a wide-brimmed hat for an African safari unlike any other on this side of the Atlantic! The Bronx Zoo's African Plains has grown a lot livelier since a pack of African wild dogs began settling into a new habitat. Just down the trail from our giraffes and around the bend from our cheetahs, the dog pack rounds out this predator-prey exhibit at the heart of the zoo.

The African Wild Dog exhibit features an open field, a sand pit, and a pond, where our pack enjoys roaming, digging, and swimming-all favorite activities of this species in the wild. A glass-fronted viewing pavilion offers visitors the chance for up-close encounters with the dogs. The exhibit also highlights the work of WCS conservationists to protect this endangered species throughout its remaining range on the real African plains.

What Makes a Wild Dog Wild?

Think you've already seen a wild dog or two roaming around your own neighborhood? African wild dogs are no back-alley canines. These charismatic animals have large, round ears, a musky smell, and a mottled coat of brown, black, and white. Their unique coloration gives them their alternate name: painted dogs. African wild dogs express themselves with lots of different noises, from growling to howling to squeaking (a sign of happiness!) Because they spend their lives in a close-knit pack that ranges from 2 to 30 individuals, cooperation is key to getting along.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 15, 2006, 9:26 PM CT

Paving The Way For Jaguars

A thoroughfare that's healthy for wildlife? For a change, a conduit through the forests of Central America won't trigger new development or increase greenhouse gases. Instead, conservationists hope, the only thing it will pave the way for is more pawprints. A group of environment ministers representing the seven nations of Central America and Mexico have agreed to establish a network of protected areas and wildlife corridors to safeguard jaguar populations. The decision was made at the Second Mesoamerica Protected Area Congress recently held in Panama.

A Central American corridor for jaguars is not a new idea. In 1990, the Wildlife Conservation Society launched a project called the Paseo Pantera (Spanish for "path of the panther"), a network of protected areas and wildlife corridors that became known as the Mesoamerica Biological Corridor (CBM) in 1997. The CBM aimed to balance human needs, sustainable development, and the conservation of some of the Earth's greatest biodiversity. Though this project received multi-national support at the highest levels of government and several global institutions committed millions of dollars, its slow implementation and highly ambitious agenda concerned many conservationists.

According to Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, executive director of the WCS Science and Exploration Program, the re-evaluation of the project offers new hope for the conservation of Central America's threatened wildlife. "We commend these nations for agreeing to such a far-sighted initiative," he said.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

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