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Electricity-generating Wetlands? Think of the possibilities!

joenesgarden — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:50:48 +0000

Electricity-generating Wetlands? Think of the possibilities!

Every once in a while a story tweaks the old imagination juices. The latest is the November 23, 2012 article seen in ScienceDaily, Electricity from the Marshes, about a fuel cell that extracts electricity from wetland soils.

Researchers have developed a way to harness the electrons released when bacteria break down the organic residue plants produce during photosynthesis. An electrode absorbs these electrons to generate electricity. Currently, the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell can generate 0.4Watts per square meter (about 10.76 square feet) of wetland plants.

Just think about this for a moment.

Once developed, the researchers suggest a rooftop planting measuring 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) could generate enough electricity to supply a household consuming 2,800 kWh/year.

Read the article yourself and the information about this patented idea at the Plant-e website … it might be enough to tweak your imagination , as it did mine.

Will we be creating backyard ponds – perhaps a pond for every house - to charge our electronic devices?

Will marshlands become the electricity generating regions for shoreline communities?

Will flat urban rooftops contain gardens not just to save energy through reduced heat absorption, but to create energy?

Granted, the technology is still in development. More will be learned from the first roof installation of an electricity-generating marsh at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

This research will be interesting to follow.

Plants as electricity producers … just think of the possibilities.

Categories: Newsy Items.
Tags: electricity, ScienceDaily, wetlands.

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Tick-Borne Disease May Surge in 2012

joenesgarden — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:32:22 +0000

Tick-Borne Disease May Surge in 2012

Northeasterners may very well see a spike in tick-borne disease during this spring and summer, but not because of the non-winter we've had. The numbers of blood-seeking, disease-infected black-legged nymphal ticks will be due to a series of events that began with the acorn crop of 2010.

You may recall having to rake, and rake, and rake acorns off your lawn in 2010. It was a bumper acorn crop that led to an increased white-footed mouse population in 2011. More food equals more mice. Not only are mice the preferred host for Ixodes scapularis - black-legged ticks - but mice are really good at transmitting Borrelia burgdorferi – Lyme disease – to ticks. Actually, mice are better at infecting tick larva than other tick hosts such as deer, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, fox and opossum. More food equals more mice equals more disease-infected tick larva.

This surge in 2010 was followed by very few acorns in the autumn of 2011. Since acorns are a major forage food of white-footed mice, fewer acorns equals fewer mice. Fewer acorns last autumn also led to particularly heavy deer browsing of ornamental plants, shrubs and trees and extremely persistent squirrel marauding of bird feeders during the autumn of 2011 and non-winter of 2011-2012, but back to mice and ticks.

Ticks need blood meals in each of their three life-cycles. Tick larva, the one-year olds, hatch free of disease but become disease transmitters after feeding on a diseased host. Larva drop off hosts after feeding and grow into nymphs. Tick nymphs, the two-year-olds, feed on hosts, drop off, and grow to adults which feed on hosts to allow them to reproduce what will become tick larva. The larval ticks of 2011 will become the nymphal ticks, which are as small as a poppy seed, of 2012. Nymphs will seek out blood hosts from May through July. With fewer mice available as hosts, nymphs will seek other hosts. To a hungry nymphal tick, people, dogs and cats are just as attractive as any mouse.

I heard Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, explain this during his presentation at New England Grows in February. Ostfeld's and colleagues' work of more than two decades is also the focus of the article, Lyme Disease Surge Predicted for Northeastern US: Due to Acorns and Mice, Not Mild Winter, in ScienceDaily.

One aspect of Ostfeld's work I found intriguing was his research on host permissiveness – analysis of where hosts travel, what they eat, how many ticks they support, and how well hosts transmit Lyme disease to black-legged ticks. Ostfeld's group caught small hosts, kept them until they were free of ticks, re-inoculated them with larva (remember the larva are born disease-free), then tested the number of ticks that survived and were infected with Lyme disease. Ostfeld reported mice as the most efficient at transmitting Lyme disease to ticks. He said 92% of ticks from mice were infected, as were 55% of ticks on chipmunks, and just 4% of ticks on opossum. He listed percentages of infected ticks from other mammals as well, but mice, chipmunks and opossum were the three that stood out to me.

Ostfeld explained that grooming has a lot to do with the number of ticks that survive on hosts. Apparently opossum are very good at killing ticks while grooming. Mice are not. On the other hand, Ostfeld noted, mice are very good at surviving in the fragmented environments humans have created by building homes and communities in what was formerly forest or meadow.

My experience in south-central Connecticut matches what Ostfeld outlines. Tons of acorns in 2010, tons of mice – many in the house – during the 2010-2011 winter. No acorns in 2011, and few mice in the winter months of 2011-2012. Ostfeld also said to expect increased adult tick activity during mild winters. Adult ticks become active and seek hosts when temperatures are a bit above freezing. During a wooded walk on a warm February 2012 day my camera caught this little beauty crawling on my pants. I found two other adult ticks doing the same. Adult ticks can also transmit disease, but are less likely to do so than nymphs. Needless to say, a tick check followed my hike.

We cannot completely avoid ticks while living in the Northeast, and gardeners, by the very nature of what we do, are at high risk of becoming a tick host. Tick numbers are highest in forest interiors, second highest at the edges of wooded or shrubby areas, and lower in cut lawns. While doing any outside activity it's advisable to wear light colored clothing so you can more easily see and pick off any ticks and the tiny nymphs. While hiking or gardening it's best to wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into your socks or boots. How many gardeners actually dress this way in the heat of summer? Certainly not me. Therefore it's really important to make a full-body tick check part of your daily routine. Finding and removing ticks from your skin early lessens the likelihood they will transmit disease to you.

Garden thoughtfully … and remember those daily tick checks,

Joene

Categories: Creatures, Gardening, Gardening Education, General.
Tags: Borrelia burgdorferi, Ixodes scapularis, Lyme disease, New England Grows 2012, Richsrd S. Ostfeld, ScienceDaily, Ticks.

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Newsy Notes: Plant Pathogens, Butterflies, Invasive Plant Spread

joenesgarden — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 14:46:19 +0000

Newsy Notes: Plant Pathogens, Butterflies, Invasive Plant Spread

Newsy Notes features quick explanations of research related to the growing of plants. I come across this research during my daily sweep of plant-related information. I found the items noted below of particular interest. Follow the links for more in depth reading on each topic. The following were all published by ScienceDaily.

E. coli, Salmonella may lurk in unwashable places in produce:

Washing fruits and vegetables may not remove E. coli or Salmonella, report Purdue University researchers. After developing a method to look at pathogens in nutrient-transporting plant tissue they found E. coli in mung bean sprouts and Salmonella in peanut seedlings after the seeds of each had been contaminated with the pathogens prior to planting. Proper washing removes dangerous pathogens from the outside of food, but heating to a specific temperature is needed to remove them from inside tissues. This, of course, does not occur with fruits and vegetables consumed raw such as salad greens and bean sprouts. The next research step is to try and determine how the pathogens survive inside plant tissues, which may lead to methods of eradication.

Major breakthrough on how viruses infect plants:

Cucumber mosaic virus causes disease by directly matching a host plant gene associated with chlorophyll formation, found plant scientists with The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency. Like a zipper, one side of the gene - the virus side - directly matches the host plant gene. When scientists altered the host plant's genetic make up so it carried both copies, rather than one copy, of the chlorophyll forming gene the virus could not attack. With this knowledge, scientists can now search for genes in plant viruses that match plants' known genetic sequences in an effort to find ways to stop disease spread.

How butterflies copy their neighbors to fool birds:

Butterflies are truly amazing creatures. They migrate thousands of miles as part of their life-cycle and delight humans with their flittering and colors. Here's another amazing butterfly fact ... they can change wing patterns to fool birds, report researchers who studied wing color patterns of an Amazon butterfly species. Gene analyses in these butterflies showed they carry three versions of the chromosome that controls wing patterns. Butterflies, and apparently moths, alter wing patterns to make them less attractive to their specific predators. Fascinating!

Rural road maintenance may accidentally push spread of invasive plants:

When you think about this it's a no-brainer, but how many have actually considered that maintenance of a road bed in rural areas, such as grading work, can spread roadside invasive plants? Apparently it can, shows a computer simulation model developed by researchers at Penn State. They input field experiment data from spring road re-grading into their computer model to determine how this work might spread Japanese stilt grass. Though most of the sterile seeds used in their model remained within about 164 feet (50 meters) of their original location, a small percentage of seed moved more than 820 feet (250 meters). Of course, this is not the only way invasive plants spread, but it may help explain some spread.

NOTE: Click this link for more information on Japanese stilt grass in Connecticut. This invasive has quickly … and I mean quickly … invaded disturbed soils, lawns, roadside edges, and woodland edges in my neighborhood. It is currently the invasive weed I spend most of my time trying to control.

Categories: Gardening, General, Invasives, Newsy Items.
Tags: butterflies, invasive plants, Japanese stilt grass, Plant pathogens, ScienceDaily.

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