The Encyclopedia of Life is an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens will have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project, bringing together species and software experts from across the world. Lean more at www.eol.org

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Nearly 60 million years ago rainforests prospered at temperatures that were 3-5 degrees higher and at atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 2.5 times today’s levels.

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Smithsonian plant physiologist Bert Drake has studied one wetland's response to climate change for more than two decades. He gives a tour of the field experiment and explains some of the findings.

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A team of scientists, including several from the Smithsonian Institution, discovered that leaves of flowering plants in the world's first rainforests had more veins per unit area than leaves ever had before.

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Recent botanical exploration efforts in the rugged Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia) have increased the known flora of the archipelago by an impressive 20 percent. Field research and collecting in conjunction with the Vascular Flora of the Marquesas Islands and Flore de la Polynesie française projects have yielded 62 new species of ferns and flowering plants bringing the total native species to 360, of which 18 are newly described and illustrated in a special issue of PhytoKeys.

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Fulcaldea stuessyi is a newly discovered member of the Barnadesioideae, a subfamily of the Compositae, or sunflower family of flowering plants. It was found in northeastern […]

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Non-native plant species pose a significant threat to the natural ecosystems of the United States. Many of these invasive plants are escapees from gardens and […]

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Plants are among the world’s best carbon sinks, but there’s a side to the plant-CO2 love affair that’s rarely discussed. When carbon dioxide rises, plants […]

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Scientists have long known that in the tropics shade-grown coffee plantations provide critical habitat for migratory and resident birds. Now a new survey conducted in […]

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Scientific inspiration springs from many sources. In the case of Smithsonian botanist David Kenfack, ant bites were the inspiration for a recent paper he co-authored […]

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Carnivorous plants are a fascinating example of nature at its best. Living in habitats with nutrient-poor soil, carnivorous plants evolved to attract some insects as […]

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The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History announced today that scientists with the museum’s Global Genome Initiative will attempt to capture the genomic diversity of half the […]

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On crime scene investigation shows, forensic scientists use remnants of genetic material to solve mysteries in a matter of hours. Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental […]

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Although useful to Tarzan, vines endanger tropical forests’ capacity to store carbon. In a major experimental study in Panama, Smithsonian researchers showed that woody vines, […]

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Rattlesnake, zebra and peacock plants have a new wild relative, discovered by Rodolfo Flores, Panamanian botanist and intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). […]

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New results from a long-term Smithsonian study are providing strong evidence of the dramatic impact high numbers of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are having upon […]

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White-tailed deer don’t like to eat the invasive plants Japanese stilt grass, garlic mustard or barberry. Native oak seedlings and tulip poplar, on the other […]

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A new paper published in Behavioral Ecology finds that some ant colonies defend more gallantly than others, revealing that colonies themselves may have personalities. Trees that have […]

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The number of patients in the U.S. awaiting organ transplantation outpaces the amount of transplants performed in the U.S., and many donated organs are not transplanted each year due to several factors, such as poor organ function, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) system is a secondary waste processing reactor of the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP). It is perhaps second in importance behind the agent neutralization reactors, which perform base hydrolysis of chemical warfare agents stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot.

Vehicles sit in a near empty parking lot outside the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 1.; Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP

A meat-packing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, where a coronavirus outbreak exploded a few weeks ago, resumed operations on Thursday after a two-week closure.

The reopening of Tyson Foods' largest U.S. pork plant came the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County, where the plant is located, announced that 1,031 of the plant's estimated 2,800 employees have tested positive for the virus. That's higher than previous estimates by state officials.

Tony Thompson, sheriff of Black Hawk County, was among the public officials who called for the Waterloo facility to shut down temporarily. His call to close the plant came after he first toured the facility on April 10.

Thompson says that when he toured the plant then, he "fully expected" to see barriers, masks and other personal protective equipment in place. That wasn't the case.

"What I saw when we went into that plant was an absolute free-for-all," he says. "Some people were wearing bandannas. Some people were wearing surgical masks. .... Most people weren't wearing anything. People working on the line were working elbow to elbow, sometimes reaching over each other, processing the meat that was coming down the line.

"There was absolutely no opportunity for social distancing," he says. "We left the plant thinking, 'oh, my gosh, we've got a huge problem here.'"

Health officials say 90% of the cases of coronavirus in the county are linked to the Tyson facility.

During the closure, Tyson installed clear plastic mats to divide workstations and hand sanitizing stations. The plant has also instituted temperature checks and provides workers with surgical masks when they arrive and when they leave.

After touring the facility last week, Thompson is in cautious support of the reopening, saying he feels "reserved encouragement" after seeing the new safety measures.

If, however, the outbreak continues at this facility, Thompson says he would support a second shutdown.

Thompson's primary focus is on the safety and security of the roughly 131,000 citizens of Black Hawk County — and he says he feels especially responsible for the Tyson workers.

"We like our bacon, but we don't want to think about how it's actually done. When you got a carcass hanging there, bleeding on the floor, you don't want to think about that ... a byproduct of that is the people that actually do that work," he says.

"Unfortunately, these are oftentimes marginalized citizens because they are refugees, because they don't speak English, because they do a job that not many people want to do," he continues. "So there's something inherent there that was not right that I hope that they have corrected. And I'll hold my breath and pray that that is true. If it's not, we'll back up, regroup and go at this again."

Listen to the full interview with NPR's Ailsa Chang at the audio link above.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Blue-green algae, or ???aquatic cyanobacteria???, can produce harmful toxins and present a serious health hazard when they bloom in large numbers. Researchers from Germany have now identified plant species that could be used to sustainably treat water by removing such cyanobacterial toxins.

Alien plant invasions can have significant environmental, ecosystem and economic implications. Since ornamental horticulture is the primary pathway for invasive alien plant introductions, it is a suitable focus for prevention policies. A recent review of published evidence has examined the effectiveness of four major instruments: pre-border import restrictions, post-border sales bans, industry codes of conduct, and consumer education. The study highlights that, while each instrument has the potential to contribute to a reduction in plant invasion risk, none is sufficient to achieve this goal alone. The researchers, therefore, describe how the four instruments can be integrated along the ornamental horticulture industry supply chain to reduce risk more effectively, and outlines the role that government, industry and other stakeholders must play to achieve this goal.

A set of guidelines has been developed to reduce soil erosion by planting vegetation in desertification hotspots.Farmers and policymakers can use the guidelines to identify the most suitable places to plant vegetation in the channels where water and sediment move through the landscape.

A recent study has evaluated the economic and environmental merits of different designs of coal-fired power plants, all with carbon capture and storage (CCS), to replace an old power station in Germany. An integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant with pre-combustion CO2 capture was found to offer the best profit for plant operators and significantly lower the life cycle emissions of CO2.

Driven by trade, the spread of alien species is increasing worldwide. This study combined 60 years of trade data with that on biodiversity and climate to model the spread of plant species across 147 countries. The model predicts significant increases in plant invasions in the next 20 years, especially for emerging economies. The authors say trade legislation must consider biological invasion and focus on regions at high risk.

Composts containing biodegradable plastics may hinder rather than help plant growth, according to a recent study by university scientists in Poland. These findings have implications for waste management practices within the EU.

Simple characteristics of plant species - such as height or leaf size - can be used to predict the ecosystem services provided by the green roofs they grow on, a new study suggests. The researchers suggest that their method could be used to screen the thousands of potential plant species in order to optimize green roof design.

Power plants are a major source of CO2 emissions and contributor to global warming. This study reports on a portable technology to remove CO2 from their combustion exhaust gases. Pilot testing on a coal burning plant in Poland captured thousands of kilograms of CO2 per day. This could be a viable future means of mitigating CO2 emissions from the power generation sector.

Environmental impacts for a wave energy device, tidal stream and tidal range plants are potentially eight, 20 and 115 times lower respectively than for coal-generated power, averaged over five impact categories. An assessment of the amount of metal used by these technologies, however, shows an impact respectively 11 and 17 times higher than for coal- and gas-based power generators. These are the findings of a recent study, which compared the life-cycle environmental impacts of various wave and tidal energy devices with other forms of energy generation. The researchers conclude that wave and tidal energy plants qualify as ‘green’ technologies according to their definition, but that their impacts on marine ecosystems need further research.

A new study based on high-resolution satellite observations of forests suggests the 'albedo', or reflectivity, of a forest needs to be carefully considered in afforestation schemes designed to mitigate climate change, i.e. carbon balance alone is not a good indicator of mitigation value. The authors argue that the Kyoto Protocol carbon accounting rules grossly overestimate the cooling caused by afforestation, because they do not consider albedo effects.

Researchers have evaluated how well Swedish policy instruments deal with external environmental costs associated with district heating (DH) plants. They found they have improved environmental performance, but for some plants, the costs of internalising external costs, in terms of taxes, emission permits and environmental fees, are higher than the environmental costs of pollution they produce.

Desalination plants, powered by wind energy, offer the potential to produce freshwater using a renewable source of energy. A recent study has explored some of the challenges of integrating wind energy with desalination units, and suggests combining wind with other forms of renewable energy, or constructing a system that operates with variable energy input would help overcome problems with wind powered desalination.

Blue-green algae, or ‘aquatic cyanobacteria’, can produce harmful toxins and present a serious health hazard when they bloom in large numbers. Researchers from Germany have now identified plant species that could be used to sustainably treat water by removing such cyanobacterial toxins.

Wetland biodiversity may fall under climate change, a new study suggests. The researchers' experiments indicated that, overall, plant growth in wetlands will be boosted, but a small number of plant species well suited to the warmer conditions will out compete other species. However, climate change's effects on biodiversity may be less severe if plants are able to move to cooler locations, towards the poles.

Scientists have published findings from the largest and broadest survey on sewage resource recovery conducted in Europe to date. Researchers surveyed more than 600 waste-water treatment plants (WWTPs) in Italy, which represent approximately 25% of the country’s total load of treated sewage. The findings provide a comprehensive picture of the current state of sewage resource recovery in WWTPs, revealing that just 40% of plants perform some form of material or energy recovery, and identifying several of the important driving forces behind implementation. This research provides valuable information and insights for policymakers and WWTP managers aiming to improve WWTP sustainability and close the sewage resource-recovery loop.

This study paves the way for better projections of the impact of climate change on plants, including agricultural crops and carbon drawdown. The research shows how an equation used in climate models to represent soil moisture levels is responsible for major variations in estimates of the carbon cycle.

The company said the proposed manufacturing facility will cater to the growing need for GPS trackers in sand and mineral mining. Its chief executive officer Konark Chukkapally said the Andhra government has made it mandatory for all the vehicles involved in the transportation of sand to have GPS trackers.

Changes in the timing of biological events in plants, such as flowering, observed in recent decades are in response to ongoing climate change, according to recent research from Spain. These results can be used to improve modelling of the effects of future climate change on plants and crops in the region.

Researchers have developed a new cost-effective tool to assess the impact of policy on biodiversity at a European scale. The study used it to assess the policy of expanding woody biofuel plantations in the EU, which indicated that 28 per cent of wild species would be negatively affected and 10 per cent would experience beneficial effects.

Over one fifth of all the world's plants are at risk of dying out, according to a recent report. Loss of habitats through converting natural areas to agricultural use is the largest threat to plants, affecting 33 per cent of plants assessed by this study.

A new European study has assessed whether seed banks are successfully conserving European plant species threatened by extinction. The findings indicate that threatened species are only partly conserved by seed banks, and that these facilities need to focus their future efforts on filling gaps in their collections.

Intensive farming methods have simplified landscapes across Europe, leading to a loss of biodiversity. A recent study has investigated the effects of intensive farming on plants, beetles and birds in Western European regions and found that plants and birds are particularly affected.

A new study exploring the sensitivity of grassland and forest plants to decreasing habitat size and isolation in north-central Europe concludes that an irreversible shift in the most dominant plant species may already be underway in forests and grassland, where forests are more vulnerable than grasslands.

Plant biodiversity is crucial to the functioning of natural ecosystems in drylands across the world, according to recent research. Preserving plant diversity will be particularly important for maintaining the quantity and quality of services provided by ecosystems found in drylands that are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and desertification.

Reindeer grazing and climate change both affect Arctic plant communities, according to new research. The study suggests that reindeer grazing management strategies could significantly influence the future Arctic landscape.

A new study has explored the effects of climate change on Arctic plants by simulating extreme winter warming events and measuring plant responses. The researchers found that considerable damage occurred to dwarf shrub species, in terms of shoot mortality, leaf and root growth.

According to new research, several areas of the Antarctic are at considerable risk from the establishment of 'alien' plants accidentally carried by visitors to the region. The findings demonstrate that invasive species pose risks even in remote areas and that these risks are likely to increase as the climate changes.