Talk to my right ear if you need something

We humans prefer to be addressed in our right ear and are more likely to perform a task when we receive the request in our right ear rather than our left. In a series of three studies, looking at ear preference in communication between humans, Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University "Gabriele d'Annunzio" in Chieti, Italy, show that a natural side bias, depending on hemispheric asymmetry in the brain, manifests itself in everyday human behavior.

One of the best known asymmetries in humans is the right ear dominance for listening to verbal stimuli, which is believed to reflect the brain's left hemisphere superiority for processing verbal information. However, until now, the majority of studies looking at ear preference in human communication have been controlled laboratory studies and there is very little published observational evidence of spontaneous ear dominance in everyday human behavior.

Tommasi and Marzoli's three studies specifically observed ear preference during social interactions in noisy night club environments. In the first study, 286 clubbers were observed while they were talking, with loud music in the background. In total, 72 percent of interactions occurred on the right side of the listener. These results are consistent with the right ear preference found in both laboratory studies and questionnaires and they demonstrate that the side bias is spontaneously displayed outside the laboratory.

In the second study, the researchers approached 160 clubbers and mumbled an inaudible, meaningless utterance and waited for the subjects to turn their head and offer either their left of their right ear. They then asked them for a cigarette. Overall, 58 percent offered their right ear for listening and 42 percent their left. Only women showed a consistent right-ear preference. In this study, there was no link between the number of cigarettes obtained and the ear receiving the request.

In the third study, the researchers intentionally addressed 176 clubbers in either their right or their left ear when asking for a cigarette. They obtained significantly more cigarettes when they spoke to the clubbers' right ear compared with their left.

According to the authors, taken together, these results confirm a right ear/left hemisphere advantage for verbal communication and distinctive specialization of the two halves of the brain for approach and avoidance behavior.

They conclude: "Our studies corroborate the idea of a common ancestry - in humans and other species - of lateralized behavior during social interactions, not only for species-specific vocal communication, but also for affective responses." via Springer Science

Cotton hydromulch "spray-on blanket" from USDA

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agricultural engineer Greg Holt helped develop the erosion control industry's first cotton hydromulch "spray-on blanket." Holt is at the ARS Cotton Production and Processing Research Unit in Lubbock, Texas.

Hydromulch is the bright-green mulch used in spray-on slurries that cover bare lands at construction sites and roadside projects, to prevent erosion until vegetation can be established. In the past, hydromulches were made mostly from wood and paper byproducts.
Summit Seed, Inc., employee Dan Pralle sprays a test plot with one of the cotton-based hydromulches developed during the research study on value-added processing of cotton gin byproducts. (Credit: Photo by Greg Holt). GeoSkin® Cotton Hydromulch is made from cotton gin byproducts. It is a combination hydromulch/spray-on erosion-control blanket that performs better than conventional roll-on blankets and requires significantly less labor. Holt and colleagues tested the prototype against commercial erosion control blankets made of straw, wood and coconut.

The total runoff from these four mulches, including soil and mulch ingredients, was: cotton, 222 pounds per acre; straw, 7,832 pounds per acre; wood, 7,474 pounds per acre; and coconut, 3,719 pounds per acre.

The cotton hydromulch was produced using technology developed from cooperative research efforts between ARS; Cotton Incorporated of Cary, N.C.; Summit Seed, Inc., of Manteno, Ill.; and Mulch & Seed Innovations, LLC, of Centre, Ala. ARS has applied for a patent on the process.

The technology has served as a foundation for developing a broader line of cotton hydromulches for erosion control, including a premium hydromulch for steep slopes, and more recently, a midgrade product for flat- to mid-slope terrain.

One of Holt's studies showed that cotton-based hydromulches established a good stand of grass, compared to other hydromulches and a straw blanket which didn't do as well.

Cotton Incorporated is the research and marketing organization representing upland cotton. The organization partially funded some of Holt's studies, which also involved a farm consultant, ARS colleague Ken Potter in Temple, Texas, and a colleague at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. via USDA/Agricultural Research Service.

Is organic really overrated or is it real?

Just a few short years ago, if you wanted to buy organic food, you had to make a special trip to an out-of-the-way grocery store. Today, organic products are, well, cropping up all over the place. Are they really worth the higher price or is it just another marketing maneuver?

What is Organic?

First, let’s take a look at what exactly it means to be organic.

“Organic foods are grown without the use of chemical fertilizer or pesticides and have not been processed using irradiation or added hormones,” says Ashley Mullins, R.D., L.D., CNSC, a registered dietitian at Baylor All Saints Medical Center. “As with any product, it’s important to check the label to determine exactly what you’re getting.”

Products labeled “100 percent organic” must contain only organic ingredients with the exception of water and salt, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Products labeled “organic” must contain at least 95 percent organic ingredients. Products that are made with at least 70 percent organic ingredients are allowed to be labeled “made with organic ingredients.”

The Bottom Line

While organic food can cost up to two or three times that of regular foods, it may not be any better for you, Mullins says. “From a nutrition standpoint, there isn’t enough research to show that organic foods are more nutritious than regular foods. The levels of pesticides currently used haven’t been found to be harmful,” she says. “Of course, there may be other benefits to buying organic, such as it being more environmentally friendly and, in some cases, fresher.” It really comes down to personal preference and budget, adds Mullins. Whatever you do, don’t let your choice inhibit your ability to get the nutrients you need. “The most important thing to consider is the health benefit of consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables every day—whether or not they’re organic,” says Mullins. “That’s the biggest payoff.”

When It May Be Worth It

Want to buy organic, but don’t have it in your budget to do it across the board? Consider at least opting for organic when buying these fruits and vegetables, as they’re considered the top 10 worst offenders for pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group:

* Apples
* Celery
* Cherries
* Grapes (imported)
* Lettuce
* Nectarines
* Peaches
* Pears
* Strawberries
* Sweet bell peppers

Source: Baylor Health Care System.

Deadly wheat fungus marching towards South Asia

An international effort has yielded new wheat varieties resistant to a devastating fungus spreading from Africa towards Asia. The research was presented at a meeting this week (17–20 March) in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, which has attracted hundreds of crop specialists concerned with the rapid spread of Ug99 — a strain of stem rust fungus that first emerged in Uganda ten years ago.

Researchers have developed around 60 new wheat varieties containing several genes with a small resistance effect to Ug99. Although such genes might not provide as much protection as genes that cause a high level of resistance, the researchers believe they will be more efficient in the long term, as they will force the fungus to overcome a wider array of genetic barriers.

To obtain faster, more efficient results, the researchers continually exchanged breeding materials between the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and field stations in Njoro, Kenya, where Ug99 is well established.

"We sent a large number of plants to Kenya, where they were tested for their resistance in real world conditions," says Ravi Singh, a CIMMYT wheat expert and lead scientist of the study. Resistant varieties were sent back to Mexico, where other positive traits were added.

This 'shuttle breeding scheme', which took advantage of the two crop seasons per year in both Kenya and Mexico, halved the number of years required to generate and test varieties.

The resulting varieties of wheat also produce 5–10 per cent more grain than most popular varieties. "With high-yielding varieties, we expect a higher adoption rate, particularly in areas where Ug99 is not yet causing immediate problems," says Singh.

Ug99 has spread to Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Sudan and Yemen. Some scientists believe it is on the march toward South Asia, where farmers produce 19 per cent of the world's wheat.

Efforts are now being directed towards increasing seed stocks of the resistant varieties and to ensuring their adoption in nations at risk. The goal is to replace most wheat varieties under cultivation worldwide.

Although pleased with the information exchanged at the event, Thomas Lumpkin, director general of CIMMYT and one of the workshop's organisers, says more investment in research is needed to tackle such wheat diseases. via Science and Development Network.

New species of butterfly with mustache

After nearly a century in the Natural History Museum collections, a new butterfly species has been discovered because of its mustache. A new butterfly species from the dry Magdalena valleys of Colombia has been discovered among the three million butterfly specimens at the Natural History Museum in London by a butterfly curator. It lay undiscovered in the collection for 90 years, but only when the curator Blanca Huertas compared it with a recently found wild specimen was it identified as Splendeuptychia ackeryi, or Magdalena valley ringlet, whose distinguishing feature is unusually hairy mouthparts.


Blanca Huertas, butterfly curator at the Natural History Museum, who discovered and described the new species said: "The collections here at the Natural History Museum are a treasure trove to be explored. We have almost nine million butterflies and moths in our collections, a comprehensive example of the Earth’s diversity. But there are many new species still waiting to be discovered, both in museum collections and in the field."

Huertas discovered the new species in the wild when she traveled, with two colleagues, on an expedition to a remote mountain in Colombia in 2005. The entomologists did not realize, however, that the butterfly they had seen in Colombia had not been named and described until they returned to the UK and studied the specimens in the Museum’s collections, dating from 1920.

Huertas continued: "Butterflies are a diverse group of insects with almost 20,000 known species, 40 per cent of which are in South America. We are working hard at the Museum with our current exhibitions and developments such as Butterfly Jungle opening this summer and the new Darwin Centre opening in September, to encourage a new generation of researchers. They can help us complete an inventory of the planet’s biodiversity before we lose more species unknown to science."

The description of the new butterfly is published in the latest issue of Zootaxa. via Natural History Museum.

One of history's biggest biological rescue

Only two years after launching an ambitious effort to save endangered crop species, the Global Crop Diversity Trust announced today it is on track to save from extinction 100,000 different varieties of food crops from 46 countries, making it one of the largest and most successful biological rescue efforts ever undertaken.

"We are moving quickly to regenerate and preserve seed samples representing thousands of distinct varieties of critical food crops like rice, maize, and wheat in 46 countries that were well on their way to total extinction," said Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Trust. "I think it is fair to say that without this effort, many of them would have been lost forever."

In many countries, stresses as mundane as poor refrigeration and inadequate funding and as dramatic as war and economic collapse threaten seed collections of crop varieties that do not exist anywhere else in the world. The imperiled seeds targeted for rescue by the Trust are samples of staple crops stored in crop gene banks in Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and Central and South America. They include rare varieties of barley, wheat, rice, banana,/plantain, potato, cassava, chickpea, maize, lentil, bean, sorghum, millet, coconut, breadfruit, cowpea and yam.

Fowler said the Trust already has agreements in place with 49 institutes in 46 countries to rescue some 53,000 of the 100,000 crop samples identified as endangered. Agreements for preserving the remaining varieties are expected to be completed soon. The initiative is one of the biggest rescue efforts ever of any threatened biological species and by far the largest rescue of endangered domesticated crop varieties.

The main funding for the project was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with additional support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation, an Australian farmers' organization.

While many of the imperiled varieties may no longer be growing in farmer's fields—and exist only in seed collections— they could be critically important to the future of global food production. For example, farmers in the developing world desperately need new crop varieties that can help them overcome pests and diseases, poor soils, and rapidly changing climate conditions while keeping pace with the food demands of a growing population. The plant breeders they turn to for help depend on publicly-accessible national, regional and international crop gene banks to provide them with the widest variety of genetic traits that can allow farmers to overcome these challenges.

"Growing conditions and food demands change rapidly and breeders never know which variety stored in a crop gene bank somewhere in the world is going to be that proverbial needle in the haystack that will provide the critical trait that can literally make the difference between abundance and starvation," said Fowler. "So while these seeds being saved represent crop varieties from the past, they could easily play a role in the crops of the future."

In fact, most of the food crops widely planted today are the products of breeding efforts that owe their success to the genetic wealth stored in crop gene banks. For example, to create Sonalika, an incredibly successful variety of wheat widely planted in the developing world, breeders used traits from varieties of wheat collected from 17 countries.

The Trust identified seed samples in need of rescue by first consulting scientific experts who specialize in particular crop species and could identify the most important collections. The Trust then asked individual crop gene banks maintaining those collections to identify and regenerate the most threatened of their unique samples.

Generally, a sample of a particular variety is considered healthy if the number of living, viable seeds does not drop below 85 percent of the sample's original germination rate. Declines greater than this imply loss of diversity, and a threat to the very existence of the sample. Some of the samples of the varieties that became the focus of the rescue effort had fallen to below 50 percent germination rate, which means they must be quickly regenerated or they will be lost forever.

After the seeds have been regenerated, three sample lots are prepared. One remains in the genebank carrying out the regeneration. Another is sent to a gene bank meeting international standards for seed preservation as a safety duplicate. A third copy is sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built by the government of Norway, operated by Nordgen and supported financially and technically by the Trust. The so-called Doomsday Vault is amassing a comprehensive fail-safe collection of the world's agricultural biodiversity.

Fowler said one benefit of the rescue initiative is that producing new seeds requires growing the plant. This provides an opportunity to gather and record information on its appearance and performance that could help breeders and others determine whether the sample may be of use to them in their work.

"We're not preserving these samples to be museum pieces," he said. "Even when we are regenerating a variety ostensibly to produce new seeds, breeders are looking at that plant for certain qualities, such as heat resistance, drought tolerance, weed or pest resistance, that could improve food production right now."
Source: The Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Identification of metabolic genes speeding up for green power

Michigan State University researchers are dramatically speeding up identification of genes that affect the structure and function of chloroplasts, which could lead to plants tailored specifically for biofuel production or delivering high levels of specific nutrients. Chloroplasts, which are specialized compartments in plant cells, convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen ("fuel" for the plant) during photosynthesis. Chloroplasts also synthesize nutrients such as starch, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins and lipids, which are important to humans and other animals.

"We're using this advanced technology to capture information on almost 100 traits, with an emphasis on metabolism," said Rob Last, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "We can then analyze that data and look for correlations that we wouldn't see using traditional genetic screening methods. Finding these correlations gives us a more complete understanding of the relationships between seemingly unrelated aspects of plant metabolism."

Last and his colleagues use high-throughput genetic screening and advanced analysis technologies for their research. He discussed that technology, as well as the possible biotechnological outcomes, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting today.

Manipulating plant metabolism to create crops with more biomass or improved nutrition has been hampered by limited information on how metabolism works -- metabolic pathways are more complex than scientists realized. High-throughput genetic screening allows scientists to look at the effects of genetic changes with a much broader lens than traditional screening technology. Last said it's akin to looking at a traffic problem in a very small town compared to a big city.

"A genetic mutation is like a traffic jam," he explained. "If you block off Main Street in a rural area, there are a limited number of roads and possible detours, and it's likely that everyone will take the same detour. That's the way traditional screening looks at genetic changes, with a focused, close-up perspective," he explained. "But if you block off Michigan Avenue in Chicago, there are many detours people could take. Using high-throughput screening allows us to step back and look at all these detours, rather than focusing in on just one. It gives us a more complete view of the effects a genetic change can have."

The knowledge that Last and his colleagues discover about the genes involved with plant metabolism may be used to create plants that have more biomass that could be used for biofuels, or plants that contain higher levels of beneficial nutrients such as unsaturated fats or fiber.

This research is funded by the National Science Foundation. Last's research also is supported by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. Source: Michigan State Univ.

Research funding not enough for speciality crops

Specialty crops, including fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and nursery crops, have become increasingly important compared to other categories of agriculture in the United States over the past 50 years. These crops have continued to grow in production value, but this growth has not been matched by growth in public agricultural research spending. In fact, spending on specialty crops research has remained constant during a time period when the value of production for these crops has increased significantly.

A recent article published in the August 2008 issue of HortScience reviewed trends in the economic importance of specialty crops and public funding for research on these crops. Researchers Julian M. Alston of the University of California, Davis, and Philip G. Pardey from the University of Minnesota, questioned the adequacy of funding for specialty crops and whether the share of funding allocated to research these crops should be increased.

Previous research has indicated that government involvement in agricultural research and development is justified, because the private sector typically invests too little in certain types of R&D. The rates of return to publicly funded agricultural research have been very high, suggesting that government intervention to date has been inadequate, and that the U.S. government could have profited from spending much more on agricultural R&D, especially in the area of specialty crops.

Agricultural research in the United States is funded from a variety of sources. Historically, the majority of funding has come from the U.S Department of Agriculture. Other agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Agency for International Development have been increasing sources of funding over the last several years. Overall spending on R&D grew rapidly during the 1960s and 70s, but since then, growth has slowed and become erratic. In general, support has stagnated.

The growth in the value of production of specialty crops has not been matched by commensurate growth in public agricultural research spending. There could be many benefits to increasing funding in this area. One possible benefit is that there can be a much larger social rate of return if it makes fruit and vegetables less expensive and more available to more Americans, encouraging people to eat healthier diets.

The authors concluded that although the evidence is mixed, specialty crops research is underfunded and that a case can be made for increasing funding going for research of these crops. They suggest that a producer check-off program with a matching government grant could be one way to give incentives to both private industry and government agencies to enhance research funding. The Australian government has implemented such a program with much success. Another option would be to simply redirect funds that would otherwise be spent on other types of agricultural research.
Source: Amer. Soc. for Hort. Sci.

Chain reaction of biodiversity triggered by one species

A team of researchers are reporting the ongoing emergence of a new species of fruit fly--and the sequential development of a new species of wasp--in the February 6 issue of the journal Science. Jeff Feder, a University of Notre Dame biologist, and his colleagues say the introduction of apples to America almost 400 years ago ultimately may have changed the behavior of a fruit fly, leading to its modification and the subsequent modification of a parasitic wasp that feeds on it.

A female apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, implants an egg into an apple. Wasps that attack the flies and eat their larvae appear to be changing on a genetic level in the same way that the flies themselves appear to be changing genetically. (Credit: Rob Oakleaf). The result is a chain reaction of biodiversity where the modification of one species triggers the sequential modification of a second, dependent species. "It's a nice demonstration of how the initial speciation of one organism opens up an opportunity for another species in the ecosystem to speciate in kind," said Feder. "Biodiversity in essence is the source for new biodiversity."

For almost 250 years after the introduction of apples to North America, insects referred to as hawthorn flies, Rhagoletis pomonella, continued to meet on the small, red fruit of hawthorn trees to mate and lay eggs. Then, in the mid-1800s, some of these "hawthorn flies" began to mate and lay eggs on apples instead. According to Feder, the flies attracted to apples eventually became genetically differentiated from the flies attracted to hawthorns, and so did the wasps that live on the flies' larvae.

The genetic distinctions mainly show up as gene frequency differences between the flies and their associated wasp populations rather than fixed, all or none, differences. This is consistent with the process by which new biological species arise.

"The Diachasma alloeum wasp that we studied is just one of several wasps that spend a significant portion of their lives attached to hawthorn and apple flies," said Feder. "We have preliminary evidence that one of the other wasps also may be forming specialized races on the flies, but it is too early to tell definitively."

"What is startling is how fast populations can ecologically adapt to new habitats and begin to evolve into different species in front of our eyes," he said.

Feder says the research is important because it provides insights into solving Darwin's mystery of the origins of new species. "Clues can be found right before us as we sit on our deck chairs barbecuing and drinking pop. All we have to do is open our eyes and we can see new life forms coming into being in that scraggly old apple tree in our backyard."

Notre Dame biologists Andrew Forbes and Tom Powell, along with University of Florida entomologist Lukasz Stelinski and Michigan State University biologist James Smith also worked on this project.
Source:The National Science Foundation.

New computer models to control malaria

Modifying the environment by using everything from shovels and plows to plant-derived pesticides may be as important as mosquito nets and vaccinations in the fight against malaria, according to a computerized analysis by MIT researchers. The researchers have developed a new computer model for analyzing different methods of trying to control the spread of malaria, one of the world's most-devastating diseases. Among their findings using the model is that environmental measures such as leveling the land to eliminate depressions where pools can form can be an important part of the strategy for controlling the disease.

MIT civil and environmental engineering student Mustafa Dafalla '09 gathers water samples at a pond in Niger to check for malaria larvae. (Credit: Arne Bomblies). Reports on the work, carried out by Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Elfatih Eltahir and graduate students Arne Bomblies and Rebecca Gianotti, were presented this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Malaria, Eltahir explained, is "a significant global health challenge" that accounts for one-third of all deaths of children under 5 worldwide. By developing new software to analyze the impacts of different methods of attempting to limit malaria's spread, which involves a complex chain of transmission between larvae, mosquitoes and humans, "we have made significant progress" toward better control of the disease, he said. While most efforts at dealing with malaria have focused on the human side, such as attempts to develop a vaccine, Eltahir said that efforts to control environmental factors --such as working to eliminate the low spots where pools of water collect during the rainy season, or applying locally grown plant materials to limit the growth of mosquitoes -- can have a dramatic effect on controlling malaria's spread. And unlike importing expensive medicines, such an approach can rely on local efforts as simple as having people with shovels fill in the low spots in the terrain.

"By using local tools and local labor, our approach relies less on high-technology equipment from outside the region, which tends to make the local people more dependent," he said.

In addition, the new comprehensive computer model will provide a tool for analyzing how different areas' vulnerability to malaria will be affected by a changing climate.

To validate the accuracy of the computer modeling of conditions, the team has been working for the last four years in a remote area of Niger, which lies in the Sahel desert region of northern Africa. "Africa is the hot spot for malaria in general," Eltahir explained, so this fieldwork provides substantial validation of the model.

In the field, Bomblies and others have monitored every aspect of malaria's lifecycle, including doing counts of mosquito larvae and adult mosquitoes, identifying the exact species of mosquitoes (since only specific varieties carry the malaria parasite), and mapping the topography and monitoring the size and duration of pools of water where the mosquitoes breed. "We gathered data that would serve as validation for the model that we were developing," Bomblies said.

Eliminating pools of standing water, or increasing drainage so that such pools last less than the seven to 10 days it takes for the mosquitoes to mature, can be an effective strategy, the analysis shows. In addition, it allows comparison of different methods. Filling in the low spots using shovels, it turns out, is as effective at controlling the disease as plowing the land so that water more rapidly percolates down into the soil.

That is not a new idea, but the new software provides a quantitative way to compare its impact with other approaches, and to develop specific strategies for a given region. Filling in low spots "is an established technique," said Bomblies, who has spent a total of 13 months leading the fieldwork in Niger. "But it hasn't been specifically applied in the region in which we've been working."

And unlike other approaches such as vaccinations or mosquito nets, it has a relatively permanent impact. "Once a breeding site is gone, it's gone" Bomblies said.

Other methods the team has studied include spreading ground up seeds from the neem tree, which grows locally, in the ponds, which can reduce the mosquito population by about 50 percent.

"For the first time, we have a detailed computer model" of all the different factors in the disease's spread, Eltahir said. By making it possible to run detailed simulations of a wide variety of strategies, "we can do a lot of things, in this region or elsewhere, that we could never do in the past. It can allow you to do things in a more cost-effective way."

This project has been funded by the ocean and human health program of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation.
Source: MIT.

Medical scientists and entomologists against aphids

Medical scientists in Minnesota are focusing their expertise on a pest that destroys soybeans. The goal of the Minnesota Partnership team is to develop an insecticide that is safe for humans but will kill the soybean aphid, a bug that's been ravaging Minnesota crops. Their findings appear in the journal Public Library of Science -- PLoS One. "We've shown in the laboratory that we're 99 percent effective in inhibiting a key enzyme in two aphids, one that damages soybeans," says Stephen Brimijoin, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher on the team. "This means we should be able to stop the insect without harming other animals or humans because the target we're hitting is selective to the aphid."

Dr. Brimijoin collected soybean aphids from demonstration plots at the University of Minnesota Extension facility in Rochester and isolated the key enzyme in the aphids, while Yuan-Ping Pang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic co-investigator, characterized the molecular structures of the target area.

"We're reporting the development of a small molecule that blocks nearly all acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in the greenbug and the soybean aphid, but without inhibiting AChE in humans," says Dr. Pang. "Now we need to see how well that translates to the field." Overseeing that phase will be David Ragsdale, Ph.D., an entomologist at the University of Minnesota and another co-investigator. The researchers estimate that phase of the project will begin in a few weeks.

"Our organization is excited about this project and closely awaiting the outcome," says Gene Stoel, research chair, Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. "This is a great example of how Minnesota's medical and agriculture sectors can work together for everyone."

Currently, no insecticide can counter the soybean aphid, according to Dr. Brimijoin. Various aphid species adapt to organophosphate insecticides and those chemicals can often prove toxic to birds and humans. Instead of targeting serine, as has been the case for decades, the small molecule developed by Dr. Pang focuses on a novel cystine target called Cys289, to which aphids and other insects cannot develop a resistance. Only 6 micromoles in size, the molecule caused "irreversible inhibition" in the greenbug. It had the same impact on the soybean aphid, though that data was too recent to include in the article.

The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics has been funding research aimed at disease for five years. The soybean aphid research shows the broader benefits of modern genomic and molecular science in Minnesota's top medical research institutions. It also demonstrates an expansion from treating or curing patients to preventing diseases through proactively improving environmental health.

Other support for the soybean aphid research came from the U.S. Army, the University of Minnesota/Mayo/IBM Collaboration Seed Grant Program and Mayo Clinic. Co-authors of the PLoS One article are Sanjay Singh, Yang Gao, T. Leon Lassiter, and Rajesh Mishra, Ph.D., all of Mayo Clinic; and Kun Yan Zhu, Ph.D., of Kansas State University.
Source: Mayo Clinic.

Methyl bromide phaseout causing production problems

Methyl bromide (MeBr) is a highly effective broad-spectrum fumigant used extensively in U.S. agriculture to control a wide variety of pests. Under the Montreal protocol of 1991, however, MeBr was defined as one of the chemicals that contributed to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, resulting in an incremental reduction in the amount of MeBr produced and imported in the U.S. In January 2005, a total phase out of MeBr (except for emergency and critical-use exceptions) was imposed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has indicated that the phaseout of MeBr as a preplant soil fumigant may have substantial impact on the production levels of many agricultural crops. No known single alternative fumigant, chemical, or other technology exists that can readily substitute for MeBr in efficacy, cost, ease of use, availability, worker safety, and environmental safety. Fresh-market tomatoes were planted on 124,400 acres in the United States in 2007, with a gross production value of almost $1300 million. Southeastern states, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, accounted for about 17% of the total tomato production in the U.S. Tomatoes accounted for 25% of the use of MeBr in the U.S., making tomato growers one of the main groups impacted by the MeBr regulations.

In a recent study published in the October 2008 issue of HortTechnology, researchers at North Carolina State University and the USDA analyzed the economic feasibility of chemical alternatives to MeBr in the plasticulture production of tomatoes in the mountain region of North Carolina.

Lead authors of the study Olha Sydorovych and Frank Louws explained the methodology, stating that they first estimated the costs and returns associated with growing, harvesting, and marketing tomatoes in a plasticulture production system including preplant fumigation with MeBR. Second, they evaluated the economic feasibility of the alternatives to MeBr using a partial budget methodology.

The study results indicated that technically and economically feasible alternatives to MeBr for tomato production exist in growing conditions similar those of Fletcher, NC. Howeer, the researchers advised growers to estimate individual production, harvesting, and marketing costs based on their own production techniques, price expectations, local supply of labor, and market situation before selecting an alternative preplant fumigant, noting that "actual costs and returns will vary from grower to grower due to market situation, labor supply, age and condition of equipment, managerial skills, and many other factors."

The researchers anticipate a need for further research and better infrastructure to enable more commercial farmers to have the capacity to adopt alternatives to MeBr. "As more on-farm research and demonstrations are conducted, complimented with public and private technical support and extension, it is anticipated that growers will implement alternative pest management practices on larger acreage, moving toward greater reliance on one or more of the alternatives documented in this study", they concluded.
Source: American Society for Horticultural Science.

Stink bug and cotton seed rot problem solved

A mystery about a disease that can destroy up to 15 percent of a cotton crop in the southeastern United States has been solved by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers. The work could save cotton crops and prevent unnecessary insecticide spraying. In 1999, scientists reported an emerging seed rot disease that was discoloring seeds and darkening fibers in cotton bolls in the southeastern states, making the crops unmarketable. It quickly spread throughout the southeastern Cotton Belt.

To study the problem, plant pathologists Gino Medrano and Alois Bell of the ARS Cotton Pathology Research Unit, part of the Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center in College Station, Texas, focused on the southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula L.) as the disease-transmitting culprit.

In the greenhouse, they infected cotton bolls with suspect bacteria, using a needle to penetrate the boll wall and mimic a stink bug's bite. The results showed the needle created a pathway for the bacteria to enter the boll and damage it. The researchers used a strain of the bacterium Pantoea agglomerans in the research, but other bacteria may also be involved in damaging cotton plants, according to the scientists. In other tests, Medrano and entomologist Jesus Esquivel of the ARS Areawide Pest Management Research Unit in College Station showed why stink bugs sometimes--but not always--cause extensive damage in cotton fields. By infecting bolls at various stages, they found damage levels depend on when infections occur in the fruiting cycle and on how long infection is allowed to spread before harvest. Bolls infected three weeks after flowering are resistant and undamaged. Younger bolls remain susceptible.

Farmers often spray insecticide to combat stink bug infestations. But knowing mature bolls are immune to infections should help farmers decide when to spray. Medrano also is developing a test kit that will offer guidance by telling farmers if stink bugs in their fields are infested with the pathogens that cause the seed/boll rot.

A report on Medrano's work appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology.
Source: USDA/ARS.

Why harmless grasshoppers turns into deadly locust swarms

Scientists have uncovered the underlying biological reason why locusts form migrating swarms. Their findings, reported in today's edition of Science, could be used in the future to prevent the plagues which devastate crops (notably in developing countries), affecting the livelihood of one in ten people across the globe. A collaboration between a team of scientists in Cambridge and Oxford, UK and Sydney, Australia has identified an increase in the chemical serotonin in specific parts of the insects' nervous system as initiating the key changes in behaviour that cause them to swarm.

Desert Locusts are one of the most devastating insect pests, affecting 20% of the world's land surface. Vast swarms containing billions of locusts stretching over many square kilometres periodically devastated parts of the USA at the time of the settlement of the West, and continue to inflict severe economic hardship on parts of Africa and China. In November 2008 swarms six kilometres (3.7 miles) long plagued Australia.

Locusts belong to the grasshopper family but unlike their harmless relatives they have the unusual ability to live in either a solitary or a gregarious state, with the genetic instructions for both packaged within a single genome.

Locusts originate from barren regions that see only occasional transient rainfalls. While unforgiving conditions prevail, locusts eke out a living as solitary individuals with a strong aversion to mingling with other locusts. When the rains come, the amount and quality of vegetation expands and the locusts can breed in large numbers.

In deserts, however, the rains are not sustained and food soon becomes more and more sparse. Thus large numbers of locusts are funnelled into dwindling patches of remaining vegetation where they are forced into close contact with each other. This crowding triggers a dramatic and rapid change in the locusts' behaviour: they become very mobile and they actively seek the company of other locusts. This new behaviour keeps the crowd together while the insects acquire distinctly different colours and large muscles that equip them for prolonged flights in swarms.

As Steve Rogers from Cambridge University emphasises: "The gregarious phase is a strategy born of desperation and driven by hunger, and swarming is a response to find pastures new".

Solitary and gregarious locusts are so different in looks and behaviour that they were thought to be separate species until 1921. But the realisation that crowding triggers swarming posed a new problem: how can the mere presence of other locusts have such a dramatic effect? The new research, which was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Royal Society, solved this 90 year old question by identifying an increase in the chemical serotonin in specific parts of the locust's nervous system as launching the fundamental changes in behaviour that lead to the gregarious phase.

In the laboratory, solitary locusts can be turned into gregarious ones in just two hours simply by tickling their hind legs to simulate the jostling that locusts experience in a crowd. This period coincides with a threefold but transient (less than 24 hours) increase in the amount of serotonin in the thoracic region of the nervous system. Experiments were then designed to show that serotonin is indeed the causal link between the experience of being in a crowd and the change in behaviour.

First, locusts were injected with specific chemicals that block the action of serotonin on its receptors: when these locusts were exposed to the same gregarizing stimuli, they did not become gregarious. Second, chemicals that block the production of serotonin had the same effect. Third, when injected with serotonin or chemicals that mimic serotonin, locusts turned gregarious even in the absence of other locusts. Finally, chemicals that increased the natural synthesis of serotonin enhanced gregarization when locusts were exposed to the tickling stimuli. This indicates that it is the synthesis of serotonin that is driven by these specific stimuli and in turn changes the behaviour.

Dr Michael Anstey, an author of the paper from the University of Oxford, said: "Up until now, whilst we knew the stimuli that cause locusts' amazing 'Jekyll and Hyde'-style transformation, nobody had been able to identify the changes in the nervous system that turn antisocial locusts into monstrous swarms. The question of how locusts transform their behaviour in this way has puzzled scientists for almost 90 years, now we finally have the evidence to provide an answer."

Dr Swidbert Ott, from Cambridge University, one of the co-authors of the article, said: "Serotonin profoundly influences how we humans behave and interact, so to find that the same chemical in the brain is what causes a normally shy antisocial insect to gang up in huge groups is amazing."

Professor Malcolm Burrows, also from Cambridge University: "We hope that this greater understanding of the mechanisms causing such a big change in behaviour will help in the control of this pest, and more broadly help in understanding the widespread changes in behavioural traits of animals."

Professor Steve Simpson of Oxford and Sydney Universities said: "No other biological system is understood from nerve cells to populations in such detail or to such effect: locusts offer an exemplar of the how to span molecules to ecosystems – one of the greatest challenges in modern science."

Locust Facts:

* Locusts are grasshoppers that swarm. Of the 8,000 known species of grasshoppers throughout the world only about 12 are swarm-forming locusts.
* An adult Desert Locust is 2-2.5 inches long and weighs 0.05-0.07 oz.
* A Desert Locust adult can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day.
* They are prodigious fliers, covering 60 miles in 5-8 hours.
* The two phases are so different in appearance and behavior that they were thought to be separate species until 1921.
Source: University of Cambridge.

Honey bees can spot differences at a glance

The remarkable honey bee can tell the difference between different numbers at a glance. A fresh, astonishing revelation about the 'numeracy' of insects has emerged from new research by an international team of scientists from The Vision Centre, in Australia. In an exquisitely designed experiment, researchers led by Dr. Shaowu Zhang, Chief Investigator of The Vision Centre and Australian National University and Professor Hans Gross and Professor Juergen Tautz of Wurzburg University in Germany, have shown that bees can discriminate between patterns containing two and three dots – without having to count the dots.

Layout of the Delayed Match-to-Sample (DMTS) experimental apparatus. The bee encounters and flies through the initial sample pattern (S) before traversing a 1m-long tunnel with a perspex roof. There is a baffle behind the entrance of the decision chamber and baffles behind the entrances of the choice chambers The baffles prevented the bees from experiencing the stimuli in the decision chamber until they had entered it, and from viewing the feeder from the decision chamber. Upon entering the choice chamber, she is presented with two choice patterns (C1 and C2), only one of which (C1 in this case) has the same number of dots as S. The bee must choose the matching pattern C1 in order to obtain a hidden reward of sugar solution. (Credit: Gross HJ, Pahl M, Si A, Zhu H, Tautz J, et al., doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004263.g001).
And, with a bit of schooling, they can learn to tell the difference between three and four dots. However at four, bee maths seems to run out: the team found their honeybees couldn't reliably tell the difference between four dots and five or six. In the study, the bees flew though an entry of a Y-maze marked with a pattern of either two or three dots, which were signposts to the reward. They then had to choose between two patterns by correctly matching the number of dots, to find where the reward was – a feat they then managed to repeat reliably once they had learned that two dots at the first entry meant they had to look for two dots at one of the second pair of patterns, where the reward was hidden.

Careful control over the experimental environment showed the bees were not using colour, smell or other clues to find their way to the hidden sugar-water reward, says Dr. Zhang.

"My colleague Professor Srinivasan has demonstrated that bees can count up to four landmarks on their way from their hive to a food source. This new research shows they can tell the difference between different numbers – even when we change the pattern, shape or the colour of the dots!"

Presenting blue and yellow dots, stars and lemons, or random patterns didn't fool the clever insects, which continued to reliably navigate their way to the reward once they had figured out and memorised what the signs meant, based on number.

To begin with, the bees spent quite a bit of time scanning the dots. On later visits they zipped straight past them, once they knew what they meant.

"Bees can definitely recognise the difference between two, three and four – although four a little less reliably. This is a process known as 'subitizing' – which means responding rapidly to a small number of items.

"We think the bees are using two memory systems," Dr. Zhang says. "First is working memory, which they use to recall the number of dots that point to the reward. The second system is to use memory rules. We found this out by changing the pattern of the dots - but the bees still managed to locate the reward."

The experiment also demonstrates the remarkable learning power of social insects, which have to go out foraging over long distances – the Vision Centre team has tracked bees over distances as great as 11 kilometres – and then find their way back to the hive, and out to the food source again reliably.

Dr. Zhang says the ability to discriminate between different numbers is part of this navigation, perhaps as bees pass clumps of two trees or three trees on their way to the food source, or use similar patterns among flowers or other landmarks as they draw close to it.

"There has been a lot of evidence that vertebrates, such as pigeons, dolphins or monkeys, have some numerical competence – but we never expected to find such abilities in insects. Our feeling now is that – so far as these very basic skills go – there is probably no boundary between insects, animals and us."

The tantalising question is whether bees can actually perform elementary arithmetic - and Shaowu and his colleagues are already planning an experiment to explore it.
Source: PLoS.

Controlling termites with potent greenhouse gas

An insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought, UC Irvine research has found. Sulfuryl fluoride, UCI chemists discovered, stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years. Prior studies estimated its atmospheric lifetime at as low as five years, grossly underestimating the global warming potential.

Mads Sulbaek Andersen with Pyrex chamber. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Irvine). The fact that sulfuryl fluoride exists for decades – coupled with evidence that levels have nearly doubled in the last six years – concerns study authors Mads Sulbaek Andersen, Donald Blake and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, who discovered that chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans and other products damage the ozone layer. That finding led to a worldwide ban on CFCs. “Sulfuryl fluoride has a long enough lifetime in the atmosphere that we cannot just close our eyes,” said Sulbaek Andersen, a postdoctoral researcher in the Rowland-Blake laboratory and lead author of the study. “The level in the atmosphere is rising fast, and it doesn’t seem to disappear very quickly.”

This study appears online Jan. 21 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Kilogram for kilogram, sulfuryl fluoride is about 4,000 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat, though much less of it exists in the atmosphere.

Its climate impact in California each year equals that of carbon dioxide emitted from about 1 million vehicles. About 60 percent of the world’s sulfuryl fluoride use occurs in California.

Sulfuryl fluoride blocks a wavelength of heat that otherwise could easily escape the Earth, the scientists said. Carbon dioxide blocks a different wavelength, trapping heat near the surface.

“The only place where the planet is able to emit heat that escapes the atmosphere is in the region that sulfuryl fluoride blocks,” said Blake, chemistry professor. “If we put something with this blocking effect in that area, then we’re in trouble – and we are putting something in there.”

The chemists worry that emissions will increase as new uses are found for sulfuryl fluoride – especially given the ban of methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting pesticide regulated under the Montreal Protocol. Sulfuryl fluoride emissions are not regulated, though officials do consider it a toxic contaminant.

The insecticide is pumped into a tent that covers a termite-infested structure. When the tent is removed, the compound escapes into the atmosphere. Sulbaek Andersen, Blake and Rowland believe a suitable replacement should be found, one with less global warming potential.

To measure sulfuryl fluoride’s atmospheric lifetime, the chemists put it inside a Pyrex chamber with compounds that are well understood in the atmosphere, such as ethane. They shined lamps on the chamber to simulate sunlight, which caused chemical reactions that eliminated the compounds from the air.

By monitoring sulfuryl fluoride changes compared with changes to the well-known compounds, they were able to estimate its atmospheric lifetime.

“This is a cautionary paper,” said Rowland, Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science. “It tells us that we need to be thinking globally – and acting locally.”

M.D. Hurley and T.J. Wallington of Ford Motor Co.’s Systems Analytics & Environmental Sciences Department also worked on this study, which was funded in part by the Comer Foundation.
Source: University of California - Irvine.

Complete genome of sorghum sequenced

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and several partner institutions have published the sequence and analysis of the complete genome of sorghum, a major food and fodder plant with high potential as a bioenergy crop. The genome data will aid scientists in optimizing sorghum and other crops not only for food and fodder use, but also for biofuels production. The comparative analysis of the sorghum genome appears in the January 29 edition of the journal Nature.

Prized for its drought resistance and high productivity, sorghum is currently the second most prevalent biofuels crop in the United States, behind corn. Grain sorghum produces the same amount of ethanol per bushel as corn while utilizing one-third less water. As the technology for producing "cellulosic" (whole plant fiber-based) biofuels matures, sorghum's rapid growth--rising from eight to 15 feet tall in one season--is likely to make it desirable as a cellulosic biofuels "feedstock."

"This is an important step on the road to the development of cost-effective biofuels made from nonfood plant fiber," said Anna C. Palmisano, DOE Associate Director of Science for Biological and Environmental Research. "Sorghum is an excellent candidate for biofuels production, with its ability to withstand drought and prosper on more marginal land. The fully sequenced genome will be an indispensable tool for researchers seeking to develop plant variants that maximize these benefits."

Plant DNA is often notoriously difficult to analyze because of large sections of repetitive sequence and sorghum was no different. Jeremy Schmutz of the DOE JGI partner HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (formerly the Stanford Human Genome Center) and John Bowers of the University of Georgia pointed to these complex repetitive regions as accounting for the significant size difference between the rice and sorghum genomes, while also suggesting a common overall genome structure for grasses.

"Sorghum will serve as a template genome to which the code of the other important biofuel feedstock grass genomes--switchgrass, Miscanthus, and sugarcane--will be compared," said Andrew Paterson, the publication's first author and Director of the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia.

Scientists and industry officials say that completion of the sorghum genome will aid with sequencing of numerous other related plants, including other key potential bioenergy crops.

"I expect our improved understanding of the sorghum genome to have a major impact on the development of improved bioenergy crops for the emerging biofuels and renewable power industries," said Neal Gutterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mendel Biotechnology.

Sorghum's is only the second grass genome to be completely sequenced to date, after rice. With approximately 730 million nucleotides, sorghum's genome is nearly 75 percent larger than the size of rice.

Researchers used the whole genome "shotgun" method of sequencing first pioneered in the Human Genome Project. In this method, short random DNA fragments are partially sequenced and then analyzed by powerful supercomputers to reconstruct the original genome sequence. The repetitive sections and the length of the sorghum genome made assembling this "puzzle" a highly challenging computational problem.

By comparing sorghum's assembled code with rice's, the scientists were able to provide a "reality check" for rice's previously published estimate of protein coding genes.

"We found that over 10,000 proposed rice genes are actually just fragments," said DOE JGI's Dan Rokhsar, the publication's co-corresponding author. "We are confident now that rice's gene count is similar to sorghum's at 30,000, typical of grasses."

Other major contributions to the sorghum project were made by the research groups of Joachim Messing of Rutgers University, Therese Mitros of the University of California, Berkeley, and Klaus Mayer of the Helmholtz Center in Munich.
Source: DOE/Joint Genome Institute.

Sterile insect technique against mediterranean fruit fly

Fruit farmers in Southern Europe have been struggling for decades in a losing battle against the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly, which is one of the world´s most destructive farm pests, since it lays its eggs in fruit and vegetables. The female can produce up to 800 offspring per season. The larvae or worms feed on the pulp of fruits, tunnelling through it, and reducing the fruit to an inedible mush.

Medflies caught on a trap in the Neretva Valley in Croatia. Fly trapping is one means used to collect data about the Medfly population before SIT can be introduced. (Credit: Photo by R. Pereira/IAEA). The battle waged by farmers in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Medfly has been fought since the 1940s with insecticides. But the growing export market in the European Union imposes strict rules on pesticide residue limits in food. So in 2007 Croatia turned to the IAEA for help to apply the most environmentally friendly alternative to insecticide - the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). There are plans to start implementation next year.

SIT involves the sterilization of factory-reared male insects by irradiation. Millions of sterile males are hatched and then released into infested areas. When they mate with females in the wild, no offspring are produced, thereby gradually reducing and in some situations even eradicating the population. The technique is particularly effective in a confined area such as the Neretva Valley, which runs across the borders of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the migration of flies from outside into the valley is reduced.

This valley produces 80 percent of Croatia´s clementines for export. Thirty percent of them are infested by Medflies. Across the border Bosnia´s small farmers who grow peaches and plums also struggle with Medfly infestation.

"National borders mean nothing to the Medfly, so these two countries are working together on this control project which has an SIT component," says Rui Cardoso Pereira an Entomologist in the IAEA´s Insect Pest Control Section.

The Medfly, which is slightly smaller than a common housefly, originated in Africa and is now a global pest found in over 85 countries in tropical and subtropical regions.

It infests some 50 different types of fruit in the Neretva River Valley. "This area is what we call the northern limit," says Mr. Pereira. "It´s close enough to the coastal areas where the winter temperatures aren´t low enough to kill the Medfly. And this helps sustain the population, which has been wreaking havoc on plants here since the 1940s."

SIT, when integrated with other control measures, has proven to be an effective weapon against the Medfly, resulting in total eradication of this pest in Mexico, Chile and the USA. Southern Argentina, parts of Guatemala and Southern Peru have also been declared Medfly-free as a result of using this technique. Increasingly, SIT is also being used to suppress Medfly populations to acceptable levels in many regions around the world.

In the Neretva Valley project suppression is the objective as well. SIT implementation will not only dramatically cut the use of pesticides, but increase yields and the quality of available produce.

But it isn´t a quick-fix.

"Implementing this technology takes longer than insecticide application," says Mr. Pereira. "Croatia took the first two years just to collect baseline data. Not only do we need to collect statistics and do feasibility studies, but we also need to test whether or not the wild females will mate with the sterile males we are going to release. Also, to find out when the first flies appear after each winter period is key to engaging in well-oriented suppression of this pest," he said. Bosnia and Herzegovina began feasibility assessments into its Medfly population in January 2009.

"With the full involvement of the fruit industry in the valley, our counterparts in Croatia plan to begin releasing some sterile Medflies into the area in 2010," Mr. Pereira says. "Our efforts will be a success if we bring down the infestation rate in Croatia in 2011 and if crop yields increase for the poor small farmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina who are still recovering from the war."
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency.

Europe loosing butterflies from climate crisis

Climate change will cause Europe to lose much of its biodiversity as projected by a comprehensive study on future butterfly distribution. The Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies predicts northward shifts in potential distribution area of many European butterfly species. As early warning indicators of environmental change, butterflies are a valuable tool to assess overall climate change impact and to provide some indication on the chances to come nearer to the target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010 set by the EU Heads of State in 2001.

The scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae) is one of the butterflies, researchers analyzed. (Credit: Albert Vliegenthart/Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)). The Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies is based on the work of scores of scientists from across Europe. They applied climate change models to data collected by tens of thousands of volunteers. The authors say that some climate change is now inevitable and that the extent of the losses will depend on the degree of that change and how we respond to the new threat. Butterflies have already suffered huge losses across Europe following decades of habitat loss and changing farming and forestry practices. As temperatures rise, majority of butterfly species will try to head north. This won’t always be achievable. The forestry and farming changes mean that areas of suitable habitat are now often small and too far apart for butterflies to travel between them.

The worst-case scenario scientists examined sees the average European temperature rise by 4.1°C by 2080. In that case over 95 per cent of the present land occupied by 70 different butterflies would become too warm for continued survival. The best case-scenario sees a 2.4°C temperature rise. Even this would mean that 50 per cent of the land occupied by 147 different butterflies would become too warm for them to continue to exist there. Many butterflies will largely disappear from where they are regularly seen now. The Small Tortoiseshell will become absent from a huge swathe of middle and southern Europe and will become restricted to northern Europe. Under the worst-case scenario, rare species like the Spanish Festoon Zerynthia rumina would experience a 97% loss from Spain and Southern France, and the Apollo Parnassius apollo would suffer a 76% loss from mountainous areas.

Climate change is already having an impact on butterflies. Over 60 mobile species with widespread food-plants are known to have spread north in Europe over recent decades, including the Comma Polygonia c-album, which is spreading north in the UK at 10km per year. Other species have moved further up mountains. The chief author of Climatic Atlas of European Butterflies is Dr Josef Settele from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Germany. He said: "The Atlas shows for the first time how the majority of European butterflies might respond to climate change. Most species will have to shift their distribution radically to keep pace with the changes. The way butterflies change will indicate the possible response of many other insects, which collectively comprise over two-thirds of all species."

Dr Martin Warren, Chairman of Butterfly Conservation Europe and one of the authors, said "Evidence points to an acceleration in climate change after 2050 unless there is a significant decrease in global CO2 emissions. This accelerated change would be the final nail in the coffin for many European species. We need to be ready for this worst-case scenario. We need place more emphasis on maintaining large, diverse populations on existing habitats while re-connecting habitats to allow species to move across the landscape. This means working closely with farmers and planners."

Dr Ladislav Miko, Director of Nature Conservation at the EU Environment Directorate in Brussels, said: "We strongly welcome this important study which helps us understand how species might respond to climate change. The evidence points to a radical change in species’ distribution, which we must plan for within future European policies. The results show the enormous scientific value of records from thousands of volunteers across Europe."

Sebastian Winkler, Head of Countdown 2010, stated "The astounding outcomes of this study should remind world leaders once more that if immediate action is not taken, the 2010 biodiversity target will not be reached and biological diversity will continue to decline.
Source: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.

Dung beetle that don't feed on dung

Deep in the Peruvian rainforest, one species of dung beetle has turned from scavenger to killer. Instead of feasting on feces--as all of its brethren do--the tiny insect tears millipedes in half and dines on their innards. This dramatic change in diet is rare in the animal kingdom and is a stunning example of evolution in action.

When dung beetles feed on animal droppings, they're actually after the vast numbers of bacteria that make up excrement. Believe it or not, it's a highly competitive way of life, and in some places 80 species of dung beetles fight for the same feces. That may have been what prompted one species, Deltochilum valgum, to break from the pack, says ecologist Trond Larsen of Princeton University.

Curious about the feeding habits of the many types of dung beetle living in the Peruvian rainforest, Larsen and his colleagues baited traps with dung, carrion, fruits, and fungus. They also tried live millipedes, as Larsen had observed some dung beetles feeding on their remains. Over 11 months, the team recorded 132 species of dung beetles and more than 100,000 individuals. D. valgum was the only species that exclusively fed on millipedes, the team reports online this week in Biology Letters.

Even more astonishing was D. valgum's method of attack. Using infrared cameras, Larsen observed the 8-millimeter-long beetle wedging its serrated head between the millipede's segments, ultimately splitting its prey's body in two. Afterward, the beetle dismantles the rest of the millipede and eats it up. D. valgum can kill prey up to 13 times its own size thanks to subtle body adaptations, explains Larsen, including its wedged head and hind legs adapted to hold the millipede and drag it apart.

Those adaptations create the potential for a rapid explosion of new predatory dung beetle species, Larsen says. Indeed, after publishing his findings, he observed several more Deltochilum species feasting on millipedes.

It's a "pretty spectacular finding," says biologist Armin Moczek of Indiana University, Bloomington. But he points out that millipedes have a high proportion of feces inside them because they feed on rotting plants. So if the dung beetles are eatingtheir guts, he speculates, they're essentially still eating dung.
Source: Science.