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Categories: Biology: Botany, Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds
Published Alaska dinosaur tracks reveal a lush, wet environment
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A large find of dinosaur tracks and fossilized plants and tree stumps in far northwestern Alaska provides new information about the climate and movement of animals near the time when they began traveling between the Asian and North American continents roughly 100 million years ago.
Published Exploring arctic plants and lichens: An important conservation baseline for Nunavut's newest and largest territorial park
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A comprehensive study of the floristic diversity of Agguttinni Territorial Park, Nunavut's newest and largest Territorial Park, has documented 141 vascular plant, 69 bryophyte, and 93 lichen species from this unique protected area on northern Baffin Island. Through a combination of extensive fieldwork in 2021 and examination of hundreds of existing herbarium specimens, the authors have documented species newly reported for Baffin Island and have crafted a biodiversity baseline important for park management and conservation.
Published Rainforest's next generation of trees threatened 30 years after logging
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Rainforest seedlings are more likely to survive in natural forests than in places where logging has happened -- even if tree restoration projects have taken place, new research shows.
Published Earth's earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The oldest fossilized forest known on Earth -- dating from 390 million years ago -- has been found in the high sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coast of South West England.
Published The world's most prolific CO2-fixing enzyme is slowly getting better
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research has found that rubisco -- the enzyme that fuels all life on Earth -- is not stuck in an evolutionary rut after all. The largest analysis of rubisco ever has found that it is improving all the time -- just very, very slowly. These insights could potentially open up new routes to strengthen food security.
Published Marine algae implants could boost crop yields
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered the gene that enables marine algae to make a unique type of chlorophyll. They successfully implanted this gene in a land plant, paving the way for better crop yields on less land.
Published Invasive plant time bombs: A hidden ecological threat
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Invasive plants can stay dormant for decades or even centuries before rapidly expanding and wreaking ecological havoc, finds a new study.
Published Microalgae with unusual cell biology
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A globally distributed single-celled organism that occurs in harmful algal blooms has been found to exhibit an unusual organisation of photosynthesis. Researchers have taken a closer look at the unusual cell biology of the species Prorocentrum cordatum from the group of dinoflagellates. The results of their study could help to better understand the role of the species in the environment and the increased occurrence of algal blooms at higher water temperatures.
Published Fossil named 'Attenborough's strange bird' was the first in its kind without teeth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new fossil, named 'Attenborough's strange bird' after naturalist and documentarian Sir David Attenborough, is the first of its kind to evolve a toothless beak. It's from a branch of the bird family tree that went extinct in the mass extinction 66 million years ago, and this strange bird is another puzzle piece that helps explain why some birds -- and their fellow dinosaurs -- went extinct, and others survived to today.
Published Plant Lavender, Marjoram and Ivy on your green wall to clean up the air
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Green walls can strip pollution from the air -- and some plants do it better than others, according to new research. Researchers planted 10 species on a custom-built 1.4m green wall.
Published An inside look at Beech tree disease
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study found differences at the cellular level of leaves from infected Beech trees -- variations that may account for tree mortality.
Published An evolutionary mystery 125 million years in the making
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Plant biologists have uncovered an evolutionary mystery over 100 million years in the making. It turns out that sometime during the last 125 million years, tomatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana plants experienced an extreme genetic makeover. Just what happened remains unclear. But the mystery surrounds CLV3, a gene key to healthy plant growth and development.
Published Photosynthetic secrets come to light
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Secrets of photosynthesis have been discovered at atomic level, shedding important new light on this plant super-power that greened the earth more than a billion years ago.
Published In wake of powerful cyclone, remarkable recovery of Pacific island's forests
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source After one of the most intense cyclones in world history tore through the Pacific island of Tanna in Vanuatu, new research showed the resilience of the island's forests.
Published Convergent evolution of algal CO2-fixing organelles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers identified the proteins of a CO2-fixing organelle, namely, 'pyrenoid,' in the marine algal group Chlorarachniophyta and revealed various pyrenoid-associated proteins among algal groups, suggesting the independent evolution of pyrenoids in different algal groups.
Published Light into the darkness of photosynthesis
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers succeed at generating 3D visualizations of chloroplasts' copying machines.
Published Cyber-physical heating system may protect apple blossoms in orchards
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Spring frosts can have devastating effects on apple production, and a warming climate may be causing trees to blossom early, making them more susceptible to the damaging effects of extreme cold events. Growers' attempts to prevent the flowers from freezing by attempting to heat the canopies of their orchards largely have been inefficient.
Published Refrigerate lettuce to reduce risk of E. coli contamination
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Leafy green vegetables are important sources of dietary fiber and nutrients, but they can harbor harmful pathogens. In particular, lettuce has often been involved in outbreaks of foodborne illness across the U.S. A new study examines factors that affect E. coli contamination on five different leafy greens -- romaine lettuce, green-leaf lettuce, spinach, kale, and collards.
Published Lake ecosystems: Nitrogen has been underestimated
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An ecological imbalance in a lake can usually be attributed to increased nutrient inputs. The result: increased phytoplankton growth, oxygen deficiency, toxic cyanobacterial blooms and fish kills. Until now, controls in lake management have focused primarily on phosphorus inputs to counteract this effect. Now, this dogma is shaken by a study showing that nitrogen is also a critical driver for phytoplankton growth in lakes worldwide.
Published Slimming down a colossal fossil whale
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded.