Rabbits like to eat plants with lots of DNA

March 19, 2019, Queen Mary, University of London

Rabbits prefer to eat plants with plenty of DNA, according to a new study by Queen Mary University of London and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The researchers also found that it is the opposite for invertebrates, like snails and insects, as they prefer to eat plants with much less DNA.

Many factors influence what herbivores such as rabbits eat but the role of genome size, which is the amount of DNA in an organism's cells, in herbivore-plant interaction was unknown.

In this study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers suggest that genome size should be used as a new measure to improve ecological models which are designed to predict how plant communities will respond to ecological change, caused by climate or altered land use for example.

However, while the results suggest which plants rabbits and invertebrates prefer, they could also show that these plants are simply recovering more slowly after being eaten.

Professor Andrew Leitch, joint-lead author of the study from Queen Mary University of London, said: "We demonstrate that genome size plays a role in influencing plant-herbivore interactions, and suggest the inclusion of genome size in ecological models has the potential to expand our understanding of plant productivity and community ecology under nutrient and herbivore stress."

The study was carried out on grassland west of London, where herbivores have been excluded for eight years.

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Tossing dead salmon is good for plants

By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News

25 November 2018

Never mind silver bells and cockleshells, Mary should have tossed dead fish to help her garden grow.

A team of US researchers has found that sockeye salmon carcasses has helped boost tree growth by up to 20%.

Over a 20-year period, students from the University of Washington tossed dead fish from a stream on to a river bank.

Data shows the nutrients from the rotting flesh boosted growth in the area's trees.

What did the scientists do?

For two decades, students taking part in a long-term study on who/what was eating sockeye salmon in a stream in Alaska have been tossing fish carcasses on to one river bank in order to avoid double counting them during surveys.

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Global warming can turn monarch butterflies' favorite food into poison

Date:  April 3, 2018

Source:  Louisiana State University

LSU researchers have discovered a new relationship between climate change, monarch butterflies and milkweed plants. It turns out that warming temperatures don't just affect the monarch, Danaus plexippus, directly, but also affect this butterfly by potentially turning its favorite plant food into a poison.

Bret Elderd, associate professor in the LSU Department of Biological Sciences, and Matthew Faldyn, a Ph.D. student in Elderd's lab from Katy, Texas, published their findings today with coauthor Mark Hunter of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. This study is published in Ecology.

"A lot of global climate change research focuses on a single species, and how that species will be affected by climate change," Elderd said. "But we know that in reality, species interact, and they are often tightly linked together."

One such species interaction is that of the monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant, genus Asclepias. The monarch is an obligate feeder on milkweed. Individuals always lay their eggs on a milkweed plant, and the larvae only develop on various species of this particular plant.

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Scientists show molecular basis for ants acting as 'bodyguards' for plants

Date: September 18, 2017

Source: University of Toronto

Summary:

Though you might not think of ants as formidable bodyguards, some do an impressive job protecting plants from enemies. Examing the relationship between the Amazon rainforest plant Cordia nodosa in Peru and the ant species Allomerus octoarticulatus, scientists found the degree to which the ants express two genes significantly impacts the amount of protection they provide to their hosts.

     

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Plants under attack can turn hungry caterpillars into cannibals

Date:  July 10, 2017

Source:  University of Wisconsin-Madison

Summary:  When does a (typically) vegetarian caterpillar become a cannibalistic caterpillar, even when there is still plenty of plant left to eat? When the tomato plant it's feeding on makes cannibalism the best option, report investigators.

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Treasure trove of new plant discoveries revealed

By Helen Briggs BBC News 

Almost 2,000 new species of plant have been discovered in the past year, according to a report by The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Many have potential as food crops, medicines or sources of timber. 

However, scientists say some of the newly-discovered plants are already at risk of extinction.

They are developing new ways to speed up the discovery and classification of plants to help safeguard them for future generations.

The second annual assessment of the State of the World's Plants by scientists at Kew found that 1,730 plants were recorded as being new to science in 2016.

They include 11 new species from Brazil of the Manihot shrub known for its starchy root, cassava.

Seven species of the South African plant best known for red bush or rooibos tea were discovered, of which six are already threatened with extinction.

Other discoveries include new relatives of Aloe Vera, widely used in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

Prof Kathy Willis, director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said the new discoveries hold "huge promise" for the future.

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More warm-dwelling animals and plants as a result of climate change

Date: February 20, 2017

Source: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum

Since 1980, populations of warm-dwelling species in Germany have increased. The trend is particularly strong among warm-dwelling terrestrial species, as shown by the most comprehensive study across ecosystems in this regard to date. The most obvious increases occurred among warm-dwelling birds, butterflies, beetles, soil organisms and lichens according to the study published recently in the scientific journal "Nature Ecology & Evolution" led by Senckenberg scientists. Thus, it appears possible that rising temperatures due to the climate change have had a widespread impact on the population trends of animals in the past 30 years.

Since 1980, the average annual temperature in the study areas in Germany increased by approx. 0.3 degrees Celsius per decade. "This may sound harmless, but it has a serious impact on nature. Long-term temperature changes have long-term effects on the population size of plant and animal species. Nearly half of the populations of various species showed a significant increase or decrease since 1980. The direction of change of each species is influenced by whether it prefers warm or cool temperatures. This link is very obvious in mobile species such as birds and butterflies but also in slow growing species such as lichens" says Dr. Diana Bowler of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre.

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Iguanas partner with the plants of the Galápagos Islands

Date: December 7, 2016

Source: Plataforma SINC

The isolation of ocean islands like the Galápagos prevents the arrival of large mammals, which disperse the seeds of many plants by ingesting them. In the absence of mammals, this function is filled by birds, tortoises, lizards and iguanas. To date, no investigation had been carried out into the role iguanas play with at least ten species of plants.

The survival of many native and introduced plants depends in part on the role of animals in pollination and seed dispersal. The ingestion and subsequent expulsion of seeds in animal faeces means a proportion of them return to the soil at a more distant location.

In addition to birds, the Galápagos giant tortoise is the animal that disperses most of seeds over great distances on the islands, followed by the endemic land iguanas, of which there are three species which feed on fruit and vegetation near ground level, as they do not climb. However apart from anecdotal records, their potential for seed dispersal had not to date been confirmed.

A study published in the journal 'Integrative Zoology' demonstrates for the first time how by dispersing seeds, the Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus) contributes to the survival of indigenous and introduced plants plant species on Fernandina Island, which covers 642 km2 of land.

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