Pinus longaeva is one of the Alpine plants. They are the ones that can survive through what is known as the cold, harsh, dry, winter-like reputation the Alpine Biomes is famous for. “The Alpine biome lies just below the snow line of the mountain” (Benders-Hyde).  It is known for having the short summer season of July to September, while the winter season lingers for as long as from October to May. The temperature in the Alpine biome can alter dramatically, from warm to freezing within a day, as the altitude of this habitat is usually around 10,000 feet.

 In orderto survivein the Alpine biome, Pinus longaeva'sbarks and tissues are reduced when damaged,  hence allowing less nutrients to be uptaken and distributed to the areas of affected parts. Pinus longaeva usually scatter themselves, (or keep distance between one another,) to avoid any other competition since they already live in a harsh environment. They, however, are able to survive through this condition, which also allows them needless to worry about competition from other plants, animals or disease as not many species can survive in this biome. Moreover, they can also live in the dry, rocky, alkaline layers of soil, which is usually too harsh for other species to grow or live in. The alkaline soil, however, has higher moisture contentthan other sandstones although it has lowernutrient level. The rocks,too, can reflect more sunlight because of its texture, allowing cooler root zones and saving more moisture for the trees. This allows the tree to accomplish their growth strategy with just about 25cm of precipitation per year. For the rest of the time, they grow on theenergy stored from the previous years.

At high altitude, there is limited amount of carbon dioxide available as the CO2 level is very low for photosynthesis to take place. Yet, despite the low CO2 level, Pinus longaeva carry C3 photosynthetic pathway. The net photosynthesis, however, decreases by large during the cold winter until early spring, while respiration rate increases during the winter but decreases during the spring. This sometimes leads to negative carbon dioxide balance due to the high respiration rate and low photosynthetic rates. The long-living needles of Pinus longaeva works successfully as they “provide a stable photosynthetic capacity to sustain the tree over years of severe stress” (Schulman).

They are distributed over arid mountains of mainly six states in the U.S, of which the more known ones are Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California where they have what is known as the oldest tree of Pinus longaeva, and others are found in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and in New Mexico. 

For further information, refer to:

http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/growth.html

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/bristlecone_pine.htm

        The scientists from the University of Arizona announced that the Bt plants, one of the genetically modified plants as a result of biotechnology, showed successful outcome in fighting against the invading insects despite the decrease in the amount of chemical insecticides used than in the past! As previous studies reveals, often, the insects tend to grow resistance to such genetically modified plants in just a few years, plaguing the minds of researches in coming up with even more advanced alternatives. Initially, it was expected that the Bt toxin crops, too, would face the same consequence. However, as the head of UA’s department of entomology and a member of BIO5 Institute, Bruce E. Tabashnik states, “"We found no net increase in insect resistance to Bt. If anything, resistance decreased. This is the opposite of what experts predicted when these crops were first commercialized. I’m definitely surprised." The successful outcome is hence to provide more benefits to the farmers seeing that it could help their economy as agricultural becomes less disturbed by the insects.

 For detailed information, refer to http://uanews.org/ for “Biotech cotton 8: Bugs 0” published on October 19, 2005. OR, the direct site with other related sites can be referred to at:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-10/uoa-bc8101905.php

It was noted that there may be a new discovery of species moonworts! The aritcle announced that the U.S Forest Service employee, while attempting a field survey, came across several plants that she had never seen before. As the pictures were taken and studied back in the laboratory, it was deduced that the likely features of the two plants suggest that it was a new species of moonworts.  

Moonworts belong to the same family as ferns, which produce only one leaf per year. The production is split into two parts, one for photosynthesis and another for spore production and reproduction. The picture of the discovered specie can be seen at the site as well.

For information, refer to the 9news.com, under the title of “Forest Service Worker Comes Across New Plant Species.” (published on October 18, 2005.)

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=069b04ae-0abe-421a-00f4-a3d5932bb59e&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

        The Science Daily previously posted that the pathogen known as the Phytophthora ramorum was responsible for killing a large number of Oak trees by spreading contagious fungus-like disease at the Pacific Coast. Until recent, the studies had revealed that there was a single lineage in the community within the U.S, while the second one was found in that of the Europe. The surprise arose, however, when University of Berkeley announced that there was a third kind of lineage found in the U.S. The third type was discovered when a sample from Washington state was taken, identifying the new type along with the two previously found. Since “native pathogens are characterized by great diversity, [it was determined that] the lack of such diversity in U.S forests shows that the disease was introduced” (University of Berkeley).  Consequently, it is believed that this was due to the international plant trade with foreign countries that must have introduced the emergence of this third type of Phytophthora ramorum. However, it was deduced from the previous studies that the expression of the symptoms to such disease on the plants may take millions of years, hence suggesting that there may be other types yet not identified as a consequence of international plant trading. The important, yet surprising discovery plagues the minds of researchers as the issue needs close attention in the future in order to prevent the plant community within the U.S.

For detailed information, refer to the Science Daily (posted on April 21, 2006) OR the UC Berkeley News (published on April 20, 2006) under the title of: “Sudden Oak Death introduced to
U.S., study finds.”

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/20_oakdeath.shtml (UC Berkeley)http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060420235514.htm (Science Daily)

         Chamomile is a low-growing plant that mostly blooms usually during the late summer of July to September. It is one of the most popular garden herbs, yet, its reputation as a medicinal plant is also widely famous. Consequently, it is easy to find chamomile products in various forms such as tea and lotions. However, it was discovered from actual incident that such chamomile products, when taken or used with anti-coagulant medication, can lead to severe case of internal hemorrhaging in an individual. Despite its many advantages chamomile holds, researchers at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal noted that there was a chemical reaction between anti-coagulant and chamomile as they interfered with one another and created a strong combined effect. Such effect hence affected the patient prescribed with anti-coagulant, resulting in severe case of internal hemorrhaging. Although herbs are generally very helpful in many ways, it also “highlights the potential dangers of mixing herbal remedies with physician prescribed medications" (Dr. Pilote).

 For further information, refer to the Science Daily (posted on April 27, 2006) OR the McGill Newswire (published on April 25, 2006) under the title of: "Chamomile Tea and Lotion Causing Internal Bleeding in Patient on Anti-coagulant Medication."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060427161856.htm        (Science Daily)

http://www.mcgill.ca/newswire/?ItemID=19943 (McGill University)

An article published by the University at Buffalo presented a discovery that the “corals can reestablish symbiosis with algae from their environments after bleaching” (University at Buffalo).On the Science Daily site, which regularly updates recent research results and discoveries done by various individuals and organizations, previously posted how global warming affects the sea temperature to rise, causing what is known as the ‘bleaching’ effect. The corals live in a symbiotic environment with the algae called zooxanthellae that live inside them and help supply food to them; however, once such rise in temperature occurs and thus leads to the ‘bleaching’ effect, it reduces the algal densities. When the algal densities are low, it causes “loss of pigmentation, leaving the coral's white skeleton visible through the clear tissue” (University at Buffalo). At this point, there is hardly any symbiotic environment maintained with the algae zooxanthellae as only few of them remain to contribute to the food production.However, through the experiment tested out by Mary-Alice Coffroth, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences in UB's College of Arts and Sciences,and her colleague Cynthia L. Lewis, they discovered that by inducing the algae zooxanthellae into the aquarium of  ‘bleached’ corals, the symbiotic environment was reestablished as the numbers of “symbiont cell densities within the coral showed a significant increase” (University at Buffalo). The experiment became an important notice that although the corals were once ‘bleached,’ with the exposure to the algae zooxanthellae they are able to recover from the effect and hold the potential to reestablish the symbiotic environment once again.

For further information, refer to: The ‘Science Daily’ site (posted on June 8, 2004) OR the News Center at the ‘UB News Direct Online’ (published on April 30, 2006) both under the title of : “Corals can Reestablish Symbiosis with Algae from their Environments after Bleaching.”

http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=67500009 (UB NewsDirect Online)http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040604032852.htm (Science Daily)