Eden's Garden

Plants talk to each other to warn of dangerous predators, claims scientist

2009-06-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

The next time you hear a strange rustling among your garden plants, keep your distance.

They might be having an argument.

According to one scientist who claims to know what he's talking about, members of the vegetable kingdom can communicate with each other.

They are 'capable of more sophisticated behaviour than we imagined,' says American bug expert Professor Richard Karban.

His work, which he admits is 'controversial', suggests that plants converse by sending chemical messages through the air, warning of hungry predators.

When a neighbouring plant 'hears' the message, it boosts its defences against grasshoppers, caterpillars and other invaders, he believes.

Professor Karban, of the University of California, believes he has proved that conversations happen between sagebrush bushes - hardy, yellow-flowered shrubs native to the western U.S.

Using scissors, he clipped away at leaves and stems of potted shrubs, damaging them in the same way as a grasshopper would.

He then planted some damaged and undamaged plants in a field and measured levels of predation on their neighbours.

The leaves of the plants with clipped neighbours suffered the least grasshopper damage, the journal Ecology Letters reports.

This is taken to suggest that the damaged plants somehow told their neighbours to shore up their defences.

The professor has yet to identify the airborne chemicals by which the shrubs have a natter.

But he claims his experiments also reveal that the least damage occurred to plants of the same type as those doing the talking -suggesting that they can distinguish family members.

Rural areas need fast broadband

2009-06-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

The report, from the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), makes a series of recommendations to ensure that rural homes can keep pace with urban areas.

It calls for more help to be given to community-based broadband schemes.

Alternative investment models need to be explored to ensure fast networks are rolled out in the country-side.

The recently published Digital Britain report - which laid out the government's strategy for broadband - announced a telephone tax to fund next-generation networks in rural areas.

It also pledged to provide a minimum speed of 2Mbps (megabits per second) to all UK homes by 2012.

Rural entrepreneurs

A CRC spokesman welcomed both moves but said it might not be enough.

"There is a danger, with the 2 megabits promise, that people will regard that as job done," he said.

He also questioned the so-called telephone tax, which will collect 50p a month from every household with a fixed telephone line to contribute to rolling out next-generation broadband to areas that providers see as economically unviable.

"It starts to address the issue but there are lots of unanswered questions and issues about whether it will provide enough funding," he said.

According to the CRC some 42% of the rural population in England are currently struggling on speeds below 2Mbps.

Rolling out next-generation broadband networks is expensive and becomes much less cost effective in rural areas.

But the report - entitled Mind the Gap - Digital England, a rural perspective - suggests ways in which offering fast broadband services to rural areas can benefit the UK economy.

It finds, for instance, that one third of people working from home live in rural areas. The government is keen to promote home working as a response to road congestion and global warming.

It also highlights how broadband services can be used by older people to improve the quality of the lives and offer access to government and health services.

A decent infrastructure would create more rural entrepreneurs which in turn could aid economic recovery, the report said.

In response to the report Lord Carter, minister for Communications and Technology, reiterated the government's commitment to a minimum broadband speed and a fund for next-generation access.

"Together these two firm commitments will help ensure that Digital Britain does not become a two-tier Britain," he said.

There are around 40 community broadband schemes around the UK, many of them bringing fibre networks to rural areas.

The Community Broadband Network, which co-ordinates a lot of these schemes, has launched an umbrella organisation to co-ordinate them.

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association will act as a unified voice for local projects, promote common standards and set up a Joint Operating Network (JON) to provide technical and operational support for the patchwork of schemes.

Himalayan glacier studies commence

2009-06-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

After a long gap, scientists in Nepal have embarked on the first field studies of Himalayan glacial lakes, some of which are feared to be swelling dangerously due to global warming.

In May, they completed the field visit to the first location, a lake in the Everest region, in a series of studies.

They plan to conduct similar surveys of two other glacial lakes in the central and western part of the Nepalese Himalayas later in the year.

"We have started with Nepal, but we intend to extend studies to other Hindu Kush Himalayan countries," says Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a climate change specialist with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which is carrying out the research alongside a number of government agencies.

"This is a part of our regional assessment of the floods such lakes can cause if they burst."

The Hindu Kush Himalayan region stretches between Burma in the east to Afghanistan in the west, showcasing spectacular snow-clad mountains, some of which are the world's highest.

Having returned from their first field visit, the scientists are now grappling with the data they collected on the body of water, known as Imja lake.

It will take some time before they release their final conclusions.

Witnessing change

While scientists are cautious when speaking about the changes, mountaineers have been more vocal.

There is talk among Sherpa climbers about what they say is fast glacial retreat and snow meltdown in the Himalayas.

Appa Sherpa, who has climbed Everest a record number of times said recently that he had seen fresh water at the height of above 8,000m on Everest.

"I was shocked to see fresh water at that altitude, where I had seen nothing but snow and ice before," he said on his return last month from his 19th climb to the highest peak.

This time he was on the Everest as a "climate witness", for green group WWF's campaign to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on the Himalayas.

India monsoon rain 'below normal'

2009-06-25T04:43:00.000-07:00

Indian officials say that monsoon rains in the country are likely to be "below normal" triggering off fears about crop failure and high food prices.

Forecasters say that rainfall is likely to be lower than predicted in April, when they said it would be near normal.

The government says there is no need for panic, and that heavy rains in July are likely to avert a drought.

A heat wave is sweeping the country and rains are delayed in many parts. Rains usually last from June to September.

"It [the monsoon] is late," federal minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters.

North-west India appeared to be worst affected by the slow rains with only 81% rains forecast.

Critical

Monsoon rains are critical to India's farm prospects, which account for a sixth of economic output.

Up to 70% of Indians are dependent on farm incomes, and about 60% of India's farms depend on rains. Irrigation networks are dismissed by critics as inadequate.

The summer rains are crucial to crops such as rice, soybean, sugarcane and cotton.

The Indian media has been full of reports about the patchy rains so far.

"Praying for rain, bracing for worst" headlined the Hindustan Times on its front page on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that in at least eight states, monsoon rains so far had been 60 to 90% below normal.

"There is concern but no worry as yet. There is still time," Farm Secretary T Nanda Kumar told the newspaper.

One analyst said delay in the rains in some parts of India could hit economic growth.

"Delay in monsoon will play the spoilsport and may hit GDP by at least 1 to 1.5 percentage points," stockbroker VK Sharma, told the Reuters news agency.

Economists agree that the delay will cause further stress in a country where food prices are already high.

"The delay is not a good signal. Food prices are already high and any delay could push food prices higher. Food price inflation could emerge as a concern," said DK Joshi, principal economist at credit ratings agency Crisil.

Politicians in many states are holding special prayers for the rains - the farm minister in central Chhattisgarh state held a prayer for the state to get rains soon.