(Press-News.org) A study links herbivory to phenology in the Arctic. Phenology is the study of the timing of events in the natural world. In recent decades, researchers have investigated how climate change is shifting many natural events. Eric Post and colleagues wanted to understand how a different variable—the presence or absence of herbivores—affects the timing of spring plant growth, or green-up, in Greenland. In an experiment lasting nine years, the authors excluded musk oxen and caribou from some areas, then compared the timing of the spring green-up of 9 tundra plant species in the areas with and without herbivores. Of the plants that showed altered green-up between the conditions, about two-thirds showed earlier green-up in plots with grazing than in plots without, including Draba nivalis, yellow arctic draba, and Salix glauca, gray willow. A few plants, including Betula nana, the dwarf birch, and Campanula Gieseckiana, harebell, showed later green-up under herbivory than under herbivore exclusion. The team also measured plant abundance. Of the plants that showed a response to grazing, 75% were more abundant in the plots with herbivores. In general, early green-up under herbivory led to high abundance later in the growing season. The only plant that did not see increased abundance in plots with herbivores as compared to plots without herbivores was dwarf birch, which was also the most common species on the study plots. According to the authors, herbivory that reduced birch cover likely also reduced shade on other species, hastening and boosting their growth.
END
Plant green-up and herbivory in Greenland
2024-11-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Grandparents help grandkids in many ways – but the reverse may be true too, poll suggests
2024-11-12
As many Americans prepare to gather with their families for the holidays, a new poll shows the importance of grandchildren in grandparents’ lives.
The poll also suggests that having grandchildren and seeing them regularly may have a link to older adults’ mental health and risk of loneliness.
Although the poll can’t show cause and effect, the findings suggest a need to study the role of grandparenting in older adults’ lives, as part of a broader effort to address social isolation.
At ...
Giving robots superhuman vision using radio signals
2024-11-12
In the race to develop robust perception systems for robots, one persistent challenge has been operating in bad weather and harsh conditions. For example, traditional, light-based vision sensors such as cameras or LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) fail in heavy smoke and fog.
However, nature has shown that vision doesn't have to be constrained by light’s limitations — many organisms have evolved ways to perceive their environment without relying on light. Bats navigate using the echoes of sound waves, while sharks hunt by sensing electrical fields from their prey's movements.
Radio waves, whose wavelengths are orders of magnitude ...
Digital twins and complexity data science
2024-11-12
A Perspective suggests that “digital twins” are not simply tools for science but are an example of the integration of complexity science and data science into a new scientific field. A “digital twin” is a digital representation of a real-world object or system. The idea emerged from manufacturing but has been adopted by science, especially by the fields of medicine, immunology, and epidemiology. Digital twins are typically frequently or continuously updated and improved with real data from the real object the digital twin mirrors, allowing ...
‘Moonlighting’ enzymes can lead to new cancer therapies
2024-11-12
Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) reveal that metabolic enzymes known for their roles in energy production and nucleotide synthesis are taking on unexpected "second jobs" within the nucleus, orchestrating critical functions like cell division and DNA repair.
The discovery, reported across two separate research papers out today in Nature Communications, not only challenges longstanding biological paradigms in cellular biology but also opens new avenues for cancer therapies, particularly against aggressive tumours like triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
For decades, biology textbooks have neatly compartmentalised ...
One genomic test can diagnose nearly any infection
2024-11-12
Next-generation metagenomic sequencing test developed at UCSF proves its effectiveness in quickly diagnosing almost any kind of pathogen.
A genomic test developed at UC San Francisco to rapidly detect almost any kind of pathogen – virus, bacteria, fungus or parasite – has proved successful after a decade of use.
The test has the potential to vastly improve care for neurological infections that cause diseases like meningitis and encephalitis, as well as speed up the detection of new viral pandemic threats. It uses a powerful genomic sequencing ...
Blood vessel-like coating could make medical devices safer for patients
2024-11-12
University of B.C. researchers have developed a groundbreaking coating that could make medical devices safer for millions of patients, reducing the risks associated with blood clots and dangerous bleeding.
The new material, designed to mimic the natural behavior of blood vessels, could allow for safer use of blood-contacting devices like catheters, stents, blood-oxygenation machines and dialysis machines—especially in cases where blood clots are a significant concern.
“This discovery could be a transformative step in the development of safer medical devices,” said Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu, ...
Sleep is no light matter for bees
2024-11-12
In an emerging red flag for the digital era, sleep experts have warned us to avoid screen time in bed, sounding the alarm that light emitted from phones and other electronic devices can disrupt our sleep patterns. That’s one way that science is waking up to the broad range of health and disease implications related to circadian biology and our daily sleep-wake cycles.
Now, researchers at the University of California San Diego have found that light disruption is not only a health concern for humans. A new study led by PhD candidate Ashley Kim and Professor James Nieh in the School of Biological Sciences has found that artificial light disrupts the circadian rhythms of ...
New study explores the role of BMI in disease risk
2024-11-12
New study from deCODE genetics/Amgen highlights the importance of BMI in pathogenesis of disease, suggesting that reducing BMI alone could lower the risk of several diseases.
Scientists at deCODE genetics, subsidiary of Amgen, published a study today in Nature Communications that sheds light on how Body Mass Index (BMI) influences the risk of various diseases that are comorbid with obesity. The study, which used genetic data from Iceland and the UK Biobank, looked at whether disease risk associated with BMI-related sequence variants are explained completely or partially by their effect on BMI.
The results showed that for some conditions, such as fatty liver disease, glucose intolerance, ...
Guardian, kids, or companions? What do dogs mean to us today
2024-11-12
What role do dogs play in today’s world? For many, they are more than just pets. New findings from the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University show that whether seen as friends, family members, children or guardians, these roles affect the way dogs are cared for, suggesting shifting dynamics in human-animal bonds shaped by societal trends and individual owner profiles.
In Western cultures, more and more people see their dogs as their best friends, family members or even their furry children. In fact, ...
NeuroMechFly v2: Simulating how fruit flies see, smell, and navigate
2024-11-12
All animals, large or small, have to move at an incredible precision to interact with the world. Understanding how the brain controls movement is a fundamental question in neuroscience. For larger animals, this is challenging because of the complexity of their brains and nervous systems. But the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has a smaller and therefore more easily mappable brain, allowing scientists to gain detailed insights into how its nervous system drives behavior.
To understand how the nervous system controls actions, researchers at the group of Pavan Ramdya at EPFL created a simulated reality where a virtual fly can operate ...