Plants are powerful factories—they can turn basic ingredients like carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight into oxygen, sugars, and plant mass. But plants don’t do all of this work on their own.

Below the soil’s surface, plant roots work with tiny microbes to gain access to the nutrients they need to survive. This microbial ecosystem, known as the plant microbiome, has the power to make or break a plant’s success aboveground.

A team of researchers led by the University of Texas at Austin, using resources from the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility, investigated how the genetics of a plant can affect its relationship with microbial communities in the soil.

Until recently, scientists had a limited understanding of how a plant’s genetic information might influence which microbes get involved belowground. But through this work, they learned how certain genes in a particular plant, switchgrass, play a role in how the plant recruits its microbiome.

Switchgrass is a hardy, tall grass that is extremely drought tolerant. It is able to produce an impressive amount of biomass, which we may be able to convert into sustainable biofuels in the future. Because of this potential, DOE researchers have been studying this plant for nearly two decades.

By mapping connections between switchgrass genes and helpful microbes, the researchers aimed to identify which plant-associated microbiota can help the plant grow faster and produce more biomass.

Researchers investigated switchgrass plants grown in field sites in Texas, Missouri, and Michigan. This collaborative group also included scientists from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the University of Missouri, and Michigan State University.

Through genome sequencing efforts at the JGI, the team identified which microbes were present in each of the soil samples. The researchers also pinpointed sections of the plant host genome that are associated with varying amounts of microbes.

This work revealed that the plant genes involved in immunity, development, and signaling were the most influential on the root microbiome makeup. These results provide a better understanding of how plants recruit vital microbes.

This information may help researchers as they set out to engineer or breed plant varieties that perform even better in difficult growing conditions.

A team of engineers and pest control specialists in China has developed a machine that is capable of gender-sorting 16 million mosquito pupae a week. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes how they designed and built their sorter and how well it has worked during testing.

Prior research has shown that mosquitoes carry viruses such as Zika, West Nile, Chikungunya and dengue, as well as parasites such as those responsible for the spread of malaria. Scientists have been looking for efficient ways to reduce their numbers in places that are most susceptible to the diseases they spread.

One approach involves breeding millions of sterile male mosquito pupae and releasing them into the wild. The sterile pupae develop into mosquitos that take the place of fertile males in mating with females, resulting in fewer viable mosquito larvae and eventually fewer mosquitoes overall. Such breeding efforts require that the female mosquitos produced during breeding are not released into the wild; thus, the pupae need to be sorted by gender.

Currently, the process is inefficient because it is done manually. The research team developed a machine that is able to do the job automatically, approximately 17 times faster and with fewer mistakes—which the researchers claim comes to approximately 17 million pupae a week. The researchers note that the machine, which has a special sorting glass, is capable of collecting, loading and sorting millions of pupae every day.

The research team has already tested their sorting machine on two kinds of mosquitoes in parts of Guangzhou, China. They report that use of their sorting machine resulted in significant reductions in mosquito populations in the area. During testing, they also discovered that their device was so easy to operate that one person could run several of them at the same time. Several of the machines have already been sold to customers in Italy, France, the U.S., and Mexico.

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Conservationists have typically focused on pristine tropical rainforests, or those thought to have been relatively untouched by human disturbance.

But as these regions are getting rarer, focus is turning to other types of habitat that might still have conservation value. A new study has found that we’ve been underestimating the importance of one such habitat—partially logged forests.

For the past few decades humans have been cutting down rainforests at an alarming rate.

Nowhere is this issue more pressing than in Southeast Asia, which has one of the highest rates of deforestation on the planet. Over the past 30 years, the region has lost an area of rainforest around the size of Germany, with loggers still active in many parts.

But not all logging is the same. At the one end is clear cutting, removing all the trees and plants to replace them with industries such as agriculture and livestock. But there is also what is known as selective logging, in which loggers will only remove the biggest and most valuable trees while allowing the rest to remain.

Yet according to strict definitions, any forest that has been logged is classed as “degraded.”

A new study published in the journal Nature is aiming to question this classification. It looked at the diversity of animals and plants found within patches of rainforest on the island of Borneo with varying levels of disturbance.

The results showed that forests classed as “degraded” still contained significant amounts of wildlife and should be protected in similar ways to those forests which are considered “intact.”

Max Barclay is a curator of beetles at the Natural History Museum who helped to identify and classify the beetles found in each area of forest.

“What we’re doing is trying to undermine the notion that there are only two types of forest: intact forest and degraded forest,” explains Max. “Because often once you’ve got the notion of degraded forest, then companies can say it’s degraded anyway so it doesn’t matter if they cut the rest of it down and make it into a palm oil plantation.”

“The term ‘degraded’ is a red flag in that it sounds like something disposable because it’s already gone. What we’re trying to argue is that’s not the case.”

Compare and contrast

Rainforests around the globe are known for their extraordinarily high levels of biodiversity. The warm, wet, stable environments mean that a huge range of plant species thrive in the tropical band around the equator. As a result of this, the plants create a platform for a complex and diverse community of animals to live and evolve.

This is one of the reasons why the tropics is so rich in wildlife. It is also part of the reason why the land is so desirable to grow crops such as palm oil.

But the amount of undisturbed rainforest, known by scientists as “primary” rainforest, is steadily declining as loggers go in to take the oldest and largest trees, and forest is cleared for farming.

To look at the impacts on the diversity of animals and plants found in these forests, a team of researchers have been studying plots of rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia.

Over a period of 11 years, they collected information on 1,681 species—ranging from plants and beetles to spiders and mammals—found living across a landscape which contains a which contains various levels of logging intensity. On the one end are those areas which have never been logged and still retain almost 100% of their species, while at the other are those which have been entirely deforested and only contain 1% of their original wildlife.

“We were comparing beetle diversity in primary forest and forests in which about 20% of the timber had been extracted and then forests in which more than 80% of the timber had been extracted,” explains Max.

What they found were two thresholds. The first of these showed that forests which had lost around a third of their trees still retained relatively high amounts of wildlife and should be considered of significant conservation value. The second revealed that if two-thirds of trees have been removed then the area would need considerable intervention.

The first of these thresholds is the most important. It suggests that conservationists should perhaps think a bit wider when considering which patches of forests to protect and preserve, and that this in turn will help save more of the planet’s biodiversity.

“It shouldn’t be as surprising as it is,” says Max. “Because if you think about it, the whole of Western Europe and the whole of eastern North America is degraded forest. There is no primary forest left.”

“Yet we still maintain quite a large percentage of the fauna in the patches of forests that do remain even though none of them are technically ‘intact.'”

The hope is that the paper will give policy makers and conservationists the information they need to make more informed decisions that benefit not only the wildlife, but also the people in the communities that depend on these landscapes.

This story is republished courtesy of Natural History Museum. Read the original story here

The digital transformation means that more and more devices such as X-ray and ultrasound machines are being connected to networks in hospital settings, for example. These kinds of equipment have to be movable as needed.

In the LINCNET project, Fraunhofer researchers are using light to transmit data to machines and robots in clinical settings and industrial production environments. Combining electrical networks with the ultra-fast 5G mobile network creates powerful and low-cost wireless networks for buildings.

When deployed in hospitals, this solution means devices connect wirelessly to the network—with lower electromagnetic emissions. It also makes industrial production significantly more flexible.

Manufacturing in advanced Industry 4.0 scenarios is geared toward constant change. Order changes occurring on short notice require machines, robots, and measuring instruments to be rearranged quickly and incorporated into retooled production flows. The same applies to health care.

In both cases, conventional networks, in which machines and devices are connected via Wi-Fi, are not always optimal. In production settings, the various wireless networks can interfere with each other in unforeseeable ways. And in sensitive environments like hospital operating rooms, electromagnetic emissions from these networks are also an issue, as strict limits apply there. On top of that, there are data security risks. While the data traffic is encrypted, the wireless network itself remains fundamentally open to potential attackers.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI in Berlin are working with project partners on a promising solution: data transmission via light. In the LINCNET (LiFi-enabled 5G for INdustrial and MediCal NETworks) project, the Fraunhofer researchers are harnessing the possibility of transmitting data by modulating light pulses. Standard commercially available LEDs and photodiodes are used as a light source and receiver, respectively.

Powerline: Data fed via the electrical network

Numerous applications call for combining the ultra-fast 5G networks with data transmission via light. One promising approach is reuse of the existing electrical network (power line communication, or PLC) to bring the data to the ceiling in every room and wirelessly transmit it the last few meters there using light (LiFi). The light signals do not pass through walls. This reduces electromagnetic emissions and is more energy efficient. PLC eliminates the need for costly laying of additional cables for the network.

Aachen-based company devolo Solutions GmbH, the lead entity in the LINCNET consortium, is responsible for PLC development and optimization. A LiFi module converts the data from the electrical network into impulses modulating the light signals. The light is continuously modulated by making it brighter and darker. The LEDs transmit their data to end devices equipped with transceiver units. The signal changes take place 100 million times a second and are not perceived by the human eye.

LiFi has clear advantages over wireless transmission of data. The data transmission itself is extremely robust and powerful. Within local networks, it enables latency times of under 2 milliseconds and transmission rates of up to 1 gigabit per second.

Project manager Lennert Bober points out additional advantages: “Light doesn’t penetrate through walls, so there’s no way to eavesdrop on it. The data transmission is also not affected by other wireless networks or by machines that emit radiation that could interfere with it, and it doesn’t affect them, either.”

Since the data are only transmitted within the cone of light itself, it is possible to supply many different machines or devices with data all at once without the light signals interfering with each other.

Ceiling module converts data to light signals

The Fraunhofer HHI team is relying on its decades of expertise in harnessing light to transmit data. Fraunhofer HHI co-developed LiFi and is also active in standardizing this technology. For the LINCNET project, the researchers have developed a ceiling module with a digital signal processor (DSP).

It extracts the data from the flow of electricity and converts them into pulses for digital modulation of the light source. The LED transmits the data from the ceiling to the end device placed within the cone of light, which could be a robot in a manufacturing setting or an ultrasound unit in a medical center, for example.

The data is isolated inside the cone of light just as it would be inside a cable. “It’s just as secure as a cable network and performs equally well—just without cables,” Bober explains.

Light has another crucial advantage in industrial applications, too. The spectrum can be used in any way desired, as the regulations that apply to radio do not exist for light. “Industry players don’t have to request permission to use a certain frequency or pay licensing fees,” Bober adds.

Highly scalable LiFi networks

The researchers from Fraunhofer HHI are also already working to further improve LiFi networks as part of the project. While using PLC to connect LiFi to the electrical network, they are also developing a combination involving fast Ethernet-based networks. While backhaul connections for wireless access points via Ethernet are common, this relies on a centralized approach similar to that used in 5G mobile networks.

In this kind of fronthaul network, each LiFi ceiling module has an Ethernet connection to a central unit, which makes it possible to coordinate LiFi transmissions on a space-time granular basis, significantly enhancing performance. “Highly scalable Ethernet connections paired with LiFi are a wonderful combination for real-time control of robots or high-end scenarios in medicine,” Bober says.

For companies and hospitals alike, LINCNET can provide a noticeable boost for further digitalization and promote technological sovereignty in Germany by building skills in optical wireless communication.