Biosentients - Science Biology… etc

Thank you to Krystyna Szulecka, who is a frequent contributor on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums, for contributing today’s photograph (original in this thread). Krystyna is associated with the FLPA nature photography agency, and you can see more of her excellent images by searching for “Krystyna” on the FLPA web ………

Global warming is posing many problems to our environment and as it’s getting worse, it is said that species like the green turtles are increasingly at risk and they may extinct within 100 ………

Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I’m on vacation today. – ………

An epic drought during the mid-1100s dwarfs any drought previously documented for a region that includes areas of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The six-decade-long drought was remarkable for the absence of very wet years. At the core of the drought was a period of 25 years in which Colorado River flow averaged 15 percent below normal……..

If you have Mom’s smile, Dad’s eyes and Grandpa’s laugh, you might wonder what other traits you picked up from the genealogic fabric of the ol’ family tree. Researchers at the Texas AandM University System Agricultural Research and Extension at Lubbock are studying the family tree of cotton for much the same reason……..

Analyzing 30 years of data detailing a large rabies virus outbreak among North American raccoons, scientists at Emory University have revealed how initial demographic, ecological and genetic processes simultaneously shaped the virus’s geographic spread over time. The study appears online in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences……..

Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I’m on vacation today. – ………

A glance of the worlds smallest bird with that iridescent emerald green and electric blue patch on the throat would surely be mind-blowing for all. But unfortunately, this newly discovered species is already in need for protection against its biggest enemy — human ………

Researchers at the Woods Hole Research Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland have taken a novel approach to studying biological diversity by making use of laser remote sensing (lidar). Lidar data provide unique measurements of the 3-dimensional structure of vegetation, an important aspect of habitat diversity. Habitat heterogeneity and complexity have been shown in a number of places to be directly correlation to animal species richness a more complex environment provides a greater number of ecological niches to be filled by different species. Using this basic principle, WHRC researchers examined the relationships between bird species richness and habitat metrics derived from lidar data acquired by aircraft. They then explored the efficacy of predicting bird richness and abundance based on these metrics. The first phase of this research, profiled in the current issue of Remote Sensing of Environment, focuses on results from study sites in the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge in Maryland……..

A team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia has discovered a way to create engineered minichromosomes in maize and attach genes to those minichromosomes. This discovery opens new possibilities for the development of crops that are multiply resistant to viruses, insects, fungi, bacteria and herbicides, and for the development of proteins and metabolites that can be used to treat human illnesses……..