- Author: Trina Kleist
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Auto emissions 'fertilize' fuel
Joshua trees burning in the Mojave Desert are the victims of changing patterns of wildfire, fueled by the spread of grasses that are not native to the region, restoration ecologist Justin Valliere told media in recent interviews.
In late July, Valliere was still settling into his new job at the Department of Plant Sciences when the York Fire erupted in the Mojave National Preserve in southern California. The area includes the western range of the Joshua tree, a unique type of yucca that has...
- Author: Marie Jasieniuk
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Herbicides are the main means of controlling weeds. Recently, there has been increasing concern over the potential impacts of climate change, specifically, increasing temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, on the sensitivity of weeds to herbicides. A postdoctoral fellow in my lab, Maor Matzrafi, investigated the response of horseweed and lambsquarters to treatment with glyphosate under the higher temperatures and CO2 levels that are predicted to exist in northern California around 2050. Maor showed that the sensitivity of both weeds to glyphosate was reduced in response to increased temperature, elevated CO2 level, and the combination of both factors. He also found that...
