October 2009 Archives

"If you can imagine something," he says, "it's probably going to be done."

The bad boy of biotech has a vision... "we want to have renewable fuel... that doesn't affect the atmosphere. We want to maintain nature and forests...we love them. And we want to do it sustainably. Craig Venter wants to create organisms that are trees that produce diesel fuel...or some other source of energy. Sunlight is converted directly into fuel. That's what plants do...convert sunlight into energy...." (Craig Venter Received an EMC Information Leadership Award)

The forest provides comfort to us, the fuel is carbon neutral and the fuel is then used to create hydrogen fuel or some clean fuel. It's all dependent on manipulating the earth... like we've been doing for hundreds or thousands of years.

That's the future science fiction visionaries are seeing... biotech is the pathway through the forests of tomorrow.

Hmmmm....

The bumble bee pollination findings offer promise for the use of bumble bee crop pollinators as an alternative to European honey bees, whose populations have recently declined in many areas of the United States.

Red clover, which is grown for forage and as a rotation crop to improve soil, is raised for seed in western Oregon's Willamette Valley. It will not produce seed without pollination, so growers typically place two to five European honey bee hives on each hectare. 

Search for Alternative Pollinators

Bee diseases, mites, and colony collapse disorder have recently limited availability and resulted in higher costs for hive rentals. Given these changes, an alternative pollinator for red clover seed crops is needed.

Worldwide there are over 200 species of bumble bees; some of whom are known to pollinate red clover. While commercially reared bumble bee species are available to growers elsewhere, they are considered exotic species in Oregon and cannot be introduced into the state. This leaves Oregon growers dependent on naturally occurring populations of bumble bees as pollinators. However, there is currently no information on the pollination efficiency of native bumble bee species.

Scientific Evaluation of Blooms and Seed Set

Through funding from the Clover Commission, scientists at Oregon State University investigated native bumble bees in commercial fields of red clover seed crops in the Polk County region of the Willamette Valley. Prior to bloom, researchers covered plants with mesh-screened cages. European honey bee hives were placed in some cages and nests of B. vosnesenskii, a native Oregon bumble bee,in others. Some cages were also left vacant. After bloom, seed yield and seed set were compared amongst the different cages. Seed set was also evaluated in four different fields without cages to assess the efficiency of existing bee pollinators. In addition to analyzing seed set, researchers assessed the diversity and abundance of native bumble bees through visual observations of foragers on red clover flowers and through trapping bumble bees in blue vane traps. 

Pollination Differences between Bumble Bees and Honey Bees

While there were no differences in seed yield or average seed set in cages with bumble bees compared to honey bees, the study revealed:

• Variability across cages was lower with bumble bees indicating that bumble bee pollination is more uniform than pollination by European honey bees.
  
• The abundance of bumble bee peaked during mid-to-late bloom.
  
• They recorded six species of bumble bees gathering pollen from red clover flowers. Of these, more than 92% consisted of B. vosnesenskii, indicating that it is the key pollinator in Oregon.
  
• 25 more species of native solitary bees, belonging to 12 genera and five families, were collected in the bee traps.

Research Findings

The study has not only documented a great diversity of native bees in synchrony with red clover bloom, but it has also found that seed set was uniform and high across four fields. Under current pollinator regimes, researchers believe red clover seed production is close to its maximum in Oregon.

Solutions for Pollination

"To sustain these high yields in Oregon, we must

• Conserve the habitat of bees,
  
• Use pesticides judiciously and
  
• Provide floral resources prior to red clover bloom

Oregon State University entomologist Sujaya Rao, one of the researchers on the study, concluded,  "Globally, where red clover seed is produced, similar studies are needed. If seed set is found to be well below the maximum, appropriate alternative options such as augmentation with commercial bumble bees could be considered."

Research is ongoing at Oregon State University to determine whether high yields can be achieved by native pollinators alone. If so, European honey bee hive rentals would not be required, and this could lead to more economic red clover seed production in Oregon.

The Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), founded in 1955, is an international scientific society comprised of 6,000+ members with its headquarters in Madison, WI. Members advance the discipline of crop science by acquiring and disseminating information about crop breeding and genetics; crop physiology; crop ecology, management, and quality; seed physiology, production, and technology; turfgrass science; forage and grazinglands; genomics, molecular genetics, and biotechnology; and biomedical and enhanced plants.

SOURCE:  ©2009 Newswise, Inc

Protection of our natural resources in becoming increasingly dependent on careful monitoring, data collection and interpretation of these observations of how our world works.  The AmeriFlux network provides scientific development of methods as well as gathering and analysis of ecosystem data. These scientists quantify and advance understanding of processes regulating carbon assimilation, respiration, and storage, and linkages between carbon, water, energy and nitrogen through measurements and modeling.

The AmeriFlux network includes more than 120 independently funded sites operating across North, Central, and South America. AmeriFlux sites include tundra, grassland, agricultural crops, tropical forests and temperate coniferous and deciduous forests.

Nations of the world face challenges in developing sound policies and directions for addressing global change. The scientific community has the responsibility to provide the scientific basis for those policies.

This includes developing the understanding of the influence of land, ocean and atmospheric processes in climate change.

The goal of AmeriFlux is to develop a coordinated research network of long-term flux sites in the Americas for quantifying and understanding the role of the terrestrial biosphere in global climate change. Specifically, Ameriflux aims to provide reliable estimates of carbon storage, carbon dioxide and water vapor exchange, and improve our description and understanding of variation, and its causes at relevant temporal and spatial scales. We expect to provide the quantitative information to adequately predict large-scale long-term responses to changing environmental conditions.

This will be accomplished using micrometeorological and biological measurements at the intensive flux sites coupled with extensive measurements (e.g. surveys and remote sensing) and modeling.

The AmeriFlux network was established in 1996. The network provides continuous observations of ecosystem level exchanges of CO₂, water, energy and momentum spanning diurnal, synoptic, seasonal, and interannual time scales and is currently composed of sites from North America, Central America, and South America.

AmeriFlux is part of a "network of regional networks" (FLUXNET) which coordinates regional and global analysis of observations from micrometeorological tower sites. Learn more about FLUXNET and other regional carbon flux networks.

The network role is to address the scientific uncertainties associated with global change. AmeriFlux' focus is to address these scientific questions:

1. What are the magnitudes of carbon storage and the exchanges of energy, CO₂ and water vapor in terrestrial systems? What is the spatial and temporal variability?


2. How is this variability influenced by vegetation type, phenology, changes in land use, management, and disturbance history, and what is the relative effect of these factors?


3. What is the causal link between climate and the exchanges of energy, CO₂ and water vapor for major vegetation types, and how does seasonal and inter-annual climate variability and anomalies influence fluxes?


4. What is the spatial and temporal variation of boundary layer CO₂ concentrations, and how does this vary with topography, climatic zone and vegetation?

• Aspirated temperature. The AmeriFlux network needs to ensure temperature measurements are unbiased and stable with time
• Net Radiation. All sites should consistently use aspirators and account for any wind-speed corrections in their radiation measurements.
• Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) and incident radiation.
• Sonic Anemometry. There is no model of sonic anemometer-thermometers (SATs) that is ideal for all situations. Model type should be chosen by the site PI to best suit the site conditions and overall research questions.Scalar density measurements for CO2 and H2O. Precise scalar concentrations are needed to quantify the high frequency turbulent fluctuations of scalar density in making flux measurementsProfile systems. Because any 30-min scalar flux is the sum of both turbulent exchange and the vertical integrated rate of change of the scalar, it is important to have a CO2 profile system particularly at sites that have a developed canopy > 1 m in height.
• Soil respiration. Automated continuous measurements of soil respiration, and accompanying spatial representation with portable chambers, plus soil temperature and moisture profiles should be added to Tier 1 sites, and possibly some Tier 2 sites. We have found that automated chamber measurements of soil respiration (hourly)Water budget components. One key AmeriFlux objective is to explain the processes that control the fluxes of water vapor, and to determine how water vapor flux temporally and spatially affect the exchange of carbon (AmeriFlux Science Plan).
• Reporting calibration records (metadata) and data quality flags (for each 30-min period) in a centralized data repository (i.e., CDIAC) should also be explored to enhance overall network data quality
  

Worldwide, forests between 15 and 800 years old remove a net 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.

However, these old growth forests around the world are not protected by international treaties and have been considered of no significance in the national "carbon budgets" as outlined in the Kyoto Protocol.  That perspective was largely based on findings of a single study from the late 1960s which had become accepted theory, and scientists now say it needs to be changed.

"Carbon accounting rules for forests should give credit for leaving old growth forest intact," researchers from Oregon State University and several other institutions concluded in their report. "Much of this carbon, even soil carbon, will move back to the atmosphere if these forests are disturbed."

Northern Hemisphere Old Growth Forests

The analysis of 519 different plot studies found that about 15% of the forest land in the Northern Hemisphere is unmanaged primary forests with large amounts of old growth, and that rather than being irrelevant to the Earth's carbon budget, they may account for as much as 10 percent of the global net uptake of carbon dioxide.

Forests of 15 to 800 Years of Age

In forests anywhere between 15 and 800 years of age, the study said, the net carbon balance of the forest and soils is usually positive -- meaning they absorb more carbon dioxide than they release.

"If you are concerned about offsetting greenhouse gas emissions and look at old forests from nothing more than a carbon perspective, the best thing to do is leave them alone," said Beverly Law, professor of forest science at OSU and director of the AmeriFlux network, a group of 90 research sites in North and Central America that helps to monitor the current global "budget" of carbon dioxide.

The current data now makes it clear that carbon accumulation can continue in forests that are centuries old.

The creation of new forests, whether naturally or by humans, is often associated with disturbance to soil and the previous vegetation, resulting in decomposition that exceeds for some period the net primary productivity of re-growth.

Old growth forests, the study said, continue to sequester carbon for many centuries. And when individual trees die due to lightning, insects, fungal attack or other causes, there is generally a second canopy layer waiting in the shade to take over and maintain productivity.

Offset Greenhouse gas Emissions with Intact Forests

One implication of the study, Law said, is that nations with significant amounts of old forests may find it somewhat easier to offset greenhouse gas emissions if those forests are left intact. It will also be necessary  for land surface models that attempt to define carbon balance to better characterize function of old forests.