Search beneath lawns provides insight into backyard biodiversity
...sy areas. He took 15 soil samples from each of the plots and extracted the arthropods using a standard method and counted them. The preliminary investigation showed that the number of mites was highest in the high-maintenance lawn and lowest in the reference or control areas. "This was counter to what we...Researchers: Fire may help combat fatal dogwood epidemic
...ved there in the late 1980s. However, in the three plots that burned in the forest fire in the late 1970s, ...ugh that may seem like impressive evidence, "three plots don't give you an awful lot of statistical power," Jenkins said. As a result, Jenkins and Jose recei...Another global warming surprise: Grasslands may become wetter as temperatures rise
...rming actually increased moisture in our grassland plots during those critical weeks in late spring at the ... warming, the research team fenced off 32 circular plots of grassland, each 6 feet in diameter, inside Stanford's 1,200-acre Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve...Earthworm invasion will change forests
...pper soil and deep soil--the scientists noted that plots of land with all three types of earthworms had an ...cent lower plant species richness when compared to plots with few or no earthworms. Where earthworms had invaded, a sedge (Carex pensylvanica) had proliferat...Rise in ozone could cost US soybean industry additional $21 million annually
...tration (1.21 x ambient, 2030 level) in replicated plots under open-air conditions within an agricultural field. This system utilizes prevailing wind to deliver elevated tropospheric ozone concentration throughout the crop canopy without altering the microclimate. Simultaneous measurements of fluorescence...Increasing carbon dioxide relieves drought stress in corn, researchers say
...south end of campus features 70-footoctagon-shaped plots in which ABS plastic pipes deliver at crop level a precisely regulated flow of either carbon dioxide and/or ozone from 50-ton solar-powered tanks. Control rings surround equal amounts of control crops, which grow in normal conditions, without gases,...Universities to share technologies to fight hunger in developing countries; improve domestic crops
...s in developing countries who depend on small farm plots and face severe and very fundamental problems, such as poor agricultural soils, drought, plant diseases and pests. Low production is a perennial threat to resourcepoor farming families and an important factor contributing to the chronic undernourish...Novel bacterium detoxifies chlorinated pollutants
...nd water. In 14-feet by 16-feet, 20-feet-deep test plots at the Bachman Road site, researchers compared a non-treated control section to two bioremediation approaches using BAV1, which already occurs at this site in low numbers. One strategy, called biostimulation, added lactate and nutrients to the contam...Invading species have tough time cracking diverse neighborhood
...em." The researchers worked with nine-square-meter plots of land at the university's Cedar Creek Natural History Area in southern Minnesota. The plots contained between one and 24 species of prairie plants that had become well established, with 20-24 ...Alien earthworms changing ecology of Northeast forests
...riment Station, Grres and Amador have set up study plots in local forests to evaluate the impact of the wor...he leaf litter and the duff layer in the protected plots will disappear because of the voracious worms. "At some point, the number of worms that can survive...Plant diversity threatened by climate change and buildup of greenhouse gas, study reveals
... global changes, researchers monitored 36 circular plots of land, each about six feet in diameter, between ...CO2 suffered a 10 to 20 percent decline. However, plots treated with excess water experienced a 10 percent increase in wildflower diversity and a 3 percent ...Researchers will no longer be 'snowed' in predicting future avalanches
...w stability changes over adjacent 900-square-meter plots across a variety of field sites. The researchers will collect data on how spatial patterns of snow change through time, looking at patterns of weak layer thickness, strength and microstructural change. "In addition to our measurements with the SnowM...First draft of 'periodic table' of protein structures helps visualize nature's universe of proteins
...ed by the map are real, Kim and his group compared plots of the proteins from three individual organisms. A salt-loving microbe, Halobacterium, from the primitive group called Archea, contained proteins with more of the simpler structural motifs, while a more evolved bacterium, Chlamydia, had more complex ...Genetically modified crops in India produced greater yields, reduced pesticide use, new study finds
...nce 1997. The farm sites contained three adjacent plots that measured 646 square meters each. One plot was planted with cotton bioengineered with a gene from the insecticidal bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), the second with the same hybrid of cotton but without the Bt gene, and the third with a cott...Study finds controlling phosphorus pollution in wetlands more important than believed
... bacteria, which you can't see." By treating test plots with measured amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, and comparing those results with untreated plots, the scientists learned that whereas plants visibly respond to nitrogen fertilization, bacteria in saturated wetland soils respond to phosphorus, not n...Predicting the movement of genes
...red crop-wild hybrids, the scientists set up three plots and observed the sunflowers for two growing seasons, collecting the seeds to analyze the protein and gene flow between generations of plants. The team found wild and hybrids had similar survival rates, but the wild plants produced more flower heads...Increase in rainfall variability related to global climate change
...ore variable rainfall patterns, were compared with plots that received rainfall in a natural pattern, the o...ontrast, said Collins, "the diversity of plants in plots with greater variability in rainfall patterns increased." Collins cites two possible explanations f...K-State researchers study response of prairie ecosystem
...e growing season in their experimental plots. "All plots get the same amount of rain, but there are differe... amount of rainfall. When intact, native grassland plots exposed to more variable rainfall patterns were compared to plots that received natural rainfall pat...Aged Polish forest plots teach new ecosystem lessons
... And that has scientists wondering how. How could plots of trees planted side by side inthe same soil and ...reliminary tests to have changed among the various plots of the past 30 years. Results from the study are expected by 2005, Tjoelker said, but the researche...Climate change surprise: High carbon dioxide levels can retard plant growth, study reveals
...Mooney and their colleagues mapped out 36 circular plots of land, each about six feet in diameter. Four plots are virtually untouched, receiving no additional water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide or heat. Each of th...