Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Study finds microbes can alter an environment dramatically before dying out. (full article)
By Paige Embry Between 2012 and 2015 the researchers sampled plots in three different management situations: grazed, resting, and idle. The first two were plots being managed as part of a rest-rotation scheme meant to aid various conservation goals by mimicking the movement of wild herbivores. Ranchers create a series of pastures and move the animals through them so that each area gets a rest period of around 15 months. The researchers collected arthropods from pastures while they were actively being grazed as well as “resting” plots. (full article)
BRETT FRENCH
While a warming climate has the potential to cause numerous harmful effects, at least one species important to the West could come out a winner — big sagebrush. (link)
University of Kansas. A new study gives important context to the fires burning big swaths of the Amazon today. (full article)
University of Cambridge. Once dismissed as ‘junk DNA’ that served no purpose, a family of ‘jumping genes’ found in tomatoes has the potential to accelerate crop breeding for traits such as improved drought resistance. (full article)
University of Massachusetts Amherst. In a first large-scale analysis, ecologists report that invasive grasses can double the number of fires. One species, cheatgrass, has a well-earned reputation as a firestarter, making wildfires worse and more common. It is now clear that this involves more than a single species. The new analysis finds at least seven other non-native grasses can increase wildfire risk around the country, some doubling or even tripling the likelihood of fires in grass-invaded areas. (full article) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191104155649.htm
Swansea University. A study finds for the first time that as levels of aridity increase due to climate change, abrupt changes are experienced on dryland ecosystems. (full article)
Oregon State University. Beetle parasites clinging to a primitive bee 100 million years ago may have caused the flight error that, while deadly for the insect, is a boon for science today. (full article)
Penn State. Many decades of forest fire prevention and suppression has resulted in a thick buildup of organic matter on the forest floor in many regions of the United States, according to a researcher, whose new study suggests that the peculiar way that these layers burn should be considered in plans for controlled burns. (full article)