Logging pattern and landscape changes over the last century at the boreal and deciduous forest transition in Eastern Canada

Forestry practices associated with the industrial era (since ~1900) have altered the natural disturbance regimes and greatly impacted the world’s forests. We quantified twentieth century logging patterns and regional scale consequences in three sub-boreal forest landscapes of Eastern Canada (117,000, 49,400 and 92,300 ha), comparing forestry maps depicting age and forest cover types for early industrial (1930) and present-day (2000) conditions. Results were similar for the three landscapes, indicating large-scale forest change during the twentieth century. In 1930, previous logging activities had been concentrated in the lowlands and along the main hydrographical network, as compared to a more even distribution over the landscapes in 2000, reflecting a decreasing influence of the environmental constraints on forest harvesting. In 1930, old-aged forests (>100 years) accounted for more than 75% of the unlogged areas of the three landscapes, as compared to less than 15% for the present-day conditions. Logging practices have thus inverted the stand age distribution of the landscapes that are currently dominated by young and regenerating stands. The 1930 forest cover types showed a clear relationship with elevation, with conifers located in the lowlands and mixed and deciduous stands restricted to the upper slopes. Between 1930 and 2000, 58–64% of the conifer areas transformed to mixed and deciduous forests, such that no clear altitudinal relationships remained in 2000. We conclude that twentieth century logging practices have strongly altered the preindustrial vegetation patterns in our study area, to the point that ecosystem-based management strategies should be developed to restore conifer dominance, altitudinal gradients, as well as the irregular structure inspired from old forest stands.     

Climate change will affect the ability of forest management to reduce gaps between current and presettlement forest composition in southeastern Canada

Landscape Ecology - Forest landscapes at the boreal–temperate ecotone have been extensively altered. Reducing the gap between current and presettlement forest conditions through...     

Identification and validation of cold responsive microRNAs of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hevea brasiliensis</Emphasis> using high throughput sequencing

Cold stress is one of the major abiotic factors that influence the productivity and geographical distribution of many agriculturally important crops like Hevea brasiliensis. Cultivation of H. brasiliensis in India is being extended to northeastern regions, where low temperature during winter adversely affects its survival, growth, and productivity. Developing cold-tolerant genotypes is a primary requisite to maximize the productivity under such challenging environmental conditions. However, lack of methods for early evaluation of cold tolerance in the newly developed clones and the extensive time required for assessing their tolerance in the field are major constraints for clonal selection. The present study was initiated with an objective to identify and characterize cold stress responsive miRNAs from H. brasiliensis that show stronger association with cold tolerance. Next generation sequencing using Illumina HiSeq method revealed the expression of 21 and 29 conserved miRNA (from clone RRIM 600) families in cold-stressed and control samples, respectively. Forty-two novel miRNAs were identified from this study. Upon differential expression analysis, eight conserved miRNAs were found commonly expressed in both the samples. When expression analyses were performed subsequently with six selected miRNAs in two Hevea clones (viz. RRII 105 and RRIM 600), miR169 showed a strong association with cold tolerance. miRNAs such as miR482 and miR159 also exhibited association with cold tolerance. This study suggests the possibility of employing these miRNAs as markers for cold tolerance after validation in more number of genotypes with varying levels of cold tolerance.     

How climate change might affect tree regeneration following fire at northern latitudes: a review

New Forests - Climate change is projected to increase fire severity and frequency in the boreal forest, but it could also directly affect post-fire recruitment processes by impacting seed...     

Early harvest and ensilage of forage sorghum infected with ergot (Claviceps africana) reduces the risk of livestock poisoning

Sorghum ergot produces dihydroergosine (DHES) and related alkaloids, which cause hyperthermia in cattle. Proportions of infected panicles (grain heads), leaves and stems were determined in two forage sorghum crops extensively infected 2 to 4 weeks prior to sampling and the panicles were assayed for DHES. Composite samples from each crop, plus a third grain variety crop, were coarsely chopped and half of each sealed in plastic buckets for 6 weeks to simulate ensilation. The worst-infected panicles contained up to 55 mg DHES/kg, but dilution reduced average concentrations of DHES in crops to approximately 1 mg/kg, a relatively safe level for cattle. Ensilation significantly (P = 0.043) reduced mean DHES concentrations from 0.85 to 0.46 mg/kg.     

Dysgenesis of the tubal system in an infertile mare karyotype 63,X:64,XY:65,XXY

A Thoroughbred mare, barren during three years at stud, unresponsive to therapy, and not palpably abnormal anatomically was found to have hypoplasia of the uterine tubes after excision at laparotomy. The cause was an unbalanced genotype. The mosaic karyotype, determined on a blood sample, was indispensible in diagnosis and the case extends the potential for cytogenetic prognostic procedures.