Kays’ Bird Migration Research Featured on UntamedScience.com

Posted on July 23, 2013 by

The GPS units allow researchers to track not only the start and ending locations, but all the points along the migration path.

Wildlife researcher, Roland Kays’ is part of a team of biologists featured recently in a video on UntamedScience.com.

The video, shot at the Pine Island Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Corolla, NC, highlights bird migration research methods.

From UntamedScience.com:
“Everyone knows that birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall. It seems like common knowledge now but how do we know that? Truth is, we know it because scientists have been studying migration. Yet, it’s not as simple as it might seem.

In the past, migration studies have either been a result of seeing birds show up in new areas, or putting little tags on a bird’s foot and finding it later in other places. But now, we have the ability to put satellite tags on migrating birds.

In this weekly, we follow a small group of biologists to see what it’s really like to study a problem like this in the field.”

Watch the video

Powerful Animal Tracking System Helps Research Take Flight

Posted on July 11, 2013 by

Call it a bird’s eye view of migration. Scientists are taking a fresh look at animal movement with a big data approach that combines GPS tracking data with satellite weather and terrain information.

Scientists used a powerful new tracking system, Env-DATA, to better understand migration patterns of the Galapagos Albatross. Image by MaxCine.

The new Environmental-Data Automated Track Annotation (Env-DATA) system, featured in the journal Movement Ecology, can handle millions of data points and serve a hundred scientists simultaneously, said co-founder Dr. Roland Kays, a zoologist with North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

“This is a powerful tool for understanding how weather and land forms affect migration patterns,” Kays said. “Ultimately it will help us answer global questions about how changes to our planet affect animal populations and movement.”

The publicly available system is sophisticated enough for ecologists and simple enough for budding scientists, including North Carolina science fair entrants, who are using it to track the movements of great egrets along the East Coast. Scientific users can share their data or limit access, depending on the project.

In a case study of the system’s application, researchers used Env-DATA to analyze the flight paths of the Galapagos Albatross. In addition to GPS tracking of individual birds, scientists collected satellite data on weather patterns and glowing chlorophyll concentrations in the ocean associated with food sources, captured in a YouTube video.

Scientists learned that the birds’ chosen paths took them to preferred areas on the Peruvian coast where they could forage. The albatrosses took a clockwise route that allowed them to take advantage of tailwinds on much of the long journey.

In addition to allowing scientists to work with layers of information, Env-DATA simplifies the tedious work of data manipulation. Tasks that used to take graduate students countless hours now require only a click of the mouse, Kays said.

The Env-DATA team was led by Dr. Gil Bohrer from Ohio State University and includes researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lafayette College and the University of Konstanz in Germany.

Media Contacts:
Dr. Roland Kays, 919/707-8250 or roland_kays@ncsu.edu
D’Lyn Ford, News Services, 919/513-4798 or dcford@ncsu.edu

Note to editors: An abstract of the paper follows.

“The environmental-data automated track annotation (env-data) system: linking animal tracks with environmental data”

Published: Online July 3 in Movement Ecology

Authors: Somayeh Dodge, Gil Bohrer, Rolf Weinzierl, Sarah C. Davidson, Roland Kays, David Douglas, Sebastian Cruz, Jiawei Han, David Brandes and Martin Wikelski

Abstract: The movement of animals is strongly influenced by external factors in their surrounding environment such as weather, habitat types, and human land use. With advances in positioning and sensor technologies, it is now possible to capture animal locations at high spatial and temporal granularities. Likewise, scientists have an increasing access to large volumes of environmental data. Environmental data are heterogeneous in source and format, and are usually obtained at different spatiotemporal scales than movement data. Indeed, there remain scientific and technical challenges in developing linkages between the growing collections of animal movement data and the large repositories of heterogeneous remote sensing observations, as well as in the developments of new statistical and computational methods for the analysis of movement in its environmental context. These challenges include retrieval, indexing, efficient storage, data integration, and analytical techniques.

Hairpin Turn: Micro-RNA Plays Role in Wood Formation

Posted on June 11, 2013 by

For more than a decade, scientists have suspected that hairpin-shaped chains of micro-RNA regulate wood formation inside plant cells. Now, scientists at NC State University have found the first example and mapped out key relationships that control the process.

The research, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 10, describes how one strand of micro-RNA reduced by more than 20 percent the formation of lignin, which gives wood its strength. Understanding how to reduce lignin at the cellular level could lead to advances in paper and biofuels production, where harsh chemicals and costly treatments are used to remove lignin from wood.

“This is the first time that we have proof that a micro-RNA controls lignin biosynthesis,” said Dr. Vincent Chiang, who co-directs NC State’s Forest Biotechnology Group with Dr. Ron Sederoff, a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Through five years of “very detailed analysis,” the team confirmed that micro-RNA acts as a master regulator in reducing formation of lignin in transgenic black cottonwood, Chiang said.

Researchers used mathematical analysis to map out a three-layered network of relationships among key transcription factors and the micro-RNA that controls expression of laccase genes as well as other peroxidase genes involved in wood formation.

The network illustrates the hierarchy of gene control and narrows the transcription factors of interest from approximately 2,000 to 20. “That’s still a career’s worth of research,” Chiang said.

Lead authors are Dr. Shanfa Lu, former NC State postdoctoral scientist and now professor with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, and Dr. Quanzi Li, senior research associate with NC State’s Forest Biotechnology Group. Dr. Hairong Wei, professor of systems and computational biology at Michigan Technological University, created a unique algorithm for mapping the genetic regulatory network.

The research was funded with a National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program Grant (DBI-0922391).

For More Information, Contact:

D’Lyn Ford | NC State News Services | 919.513.4798

Dr. Vincent Chiang NC State Forest Biotechnology Group | 919.513.0098

-ford-

Note to editors: An abstract of the paper follows.

“Ptr-miR397a is a negative regulator of laccase genes affecting lignin content in Populus trichocarpa”

Published: Online the week of June 10 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Authors: Shanfa Lu, Quanzi Li, Hairong Wei, Mao-Ju Chang, Sermsawat Tunlaya-Anukit, Hoon Kim, Jie Liu, Jingyuan Song, Ying-Hsuan Sun, Lichai Yuan, Ting-Feng Yeh, Ilona Peszlen, John Ralph, Ronald R. Sederoff and Vincent L. Chiang

Co-lead author Li, Tunlaya-Anukit, Liu, Sederoff and Chiang are members of the Forest Biotechnology Group at North Carolina State University. Co-lead author Lu, a former postdoctoral researcher at NC State, Song and Yuan are with the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. Wei is with Michigan Technological University. Chang and Yeh are with National Taiwan University. Sun is with National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan. Peszlen is with the Department of Forest Biomaterials, NC State. Kim and Ralph are with the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Abstract: Laccases, as early as 1959, were proposed to catalyze the oxidative polymerization of monolignols. Genetic evidence in support of this hypothesis has been elusive due to functional redundancy of laccase genes. An Arabidopsis double mutant demonstrated the involvement of laccases in lignin biosynthesis. We previously identified a subset of laccase genes to be targets of a microRNA (miRNA) ptr-miR397a in Populus trichocarpa. To elucidate the roles of ptr-miR397a and its targets, we characterized the laccase gene family and identified 49 laccase gene models, of which 29 were predicted to be targets of ptr-miR397a. We overexpressed Ptr MIR397a in transgenic P. trichocarpa. In each of all nine transgenic lines tested, 17 PtrLACs were down-regulated as analyzed by RNA-seq. Transgenic lines with severe reduction in the expression of these laccase genes resulted in an ~40% decrease in the total laccase activity. Overexpression of Ptr-MIR397a in these transgenic lines also reduced lignin content, whereas levels of all monolignol biosynthetic gene transcripts remained unchanged. A hierarchical genetic regulatory network (GRN) built by a bottom-up graphic Gaussian model algorithm provides additional support for a role of ptr-mi397a as a negative regulator of laccases for lignin biosynthesis. Full transcriptome-based differential gene expression in the overexpressed transgenics and protein domain analyses implicate previously unidentified transcription factors and their targets in an extended hierarchical GRN including ptr-miR397a and laccases that coregulate lignin biosynthesis in wood formation. Ptr-miR397a, laccases, and other regulatory components of this network may provide additional strategies for genetic manipulation of lignin content.

NC State Golf Management Program One of Five in the Carolinas

Posted on June 3, 2013 by

Professional Golf Management programs prominent in the Carolinas
Excerpt from worldgolf.com / Robb Wade featured

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Today, Michael Cooper, PGA, is the general manager at Harbour Pointe Golf Club in New Bern, N.C. But not too long ago he was just a young high school graduate trying to plan a career path in the golf industry. Cooper eventually entered one of America’s 20 Professional Golf Management University Programs (also known as PGM schools), which are designed to help provide entrée into the realm of real-world golf in the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA). It is a high-motivation, high-reward, plenty-of-opportunities-for-long-term success kind of career path.

The PGM is a true educational program – one designed to prepare college students for a variety of employment opportunities in the golf industry. The program is a four-and-a-half to five-year curriculum for aspiring PGA Professionals looking to combine their golf education with their overall one.

Each year, five sanctioned universities throughout the Carolinas PGA Section – Clemson, N.C. State, Campbell, Coastal Carolina and Methodist – provide participants with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the golf industry through extensive classroom studies and internship experience.

North Carolina State University’s PGM program in Raleigh, N.C., is designed to teach its students how to combine the best practices for managing the business of golf with the best stewardship of natural resources.

Read the complete article>>

New Endowment Honors Forestry Advocate, Bob Slocum

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

The College of Natural Resources is pleased to announce that the Bob Slocum Forestry Communication Scholarship Endowment has been established in honor of the late Bob Slocum.

The Slocum Family with Dean Mary Watzin at Slocum endowment signing ceremony

Slocum Endowment Signing (pictured L to R) Sons- Wes and Matt, Wife- Linda, Dean Mary Watzin, Son- Ryan and brother- David

The late Robert “Bob” W. Slocum

Robert “Bob” W. Slocum Jr. was a great family man, communicator, forestry advocate and alumnus of NC State University. Slocum graduated in 1973 from North Carolina State University with a Forest Management degree. He started his career as a field forester for the state of Virginia and later served as vice president for forestry policy and research of the American Forest Council in Washington, DC.

For 24 years, he served as the Executive Vice President of the North Carolina Forestry Association, where he personally directed the association’s legislative efforts at both the state and federal level.

Slocum served on the board of the NC State Natural Resource Foundation for several years and was an adjunct professor for NC State’s College of Natural Resources.

He enjoyed playing golf and racquetball, hunting and fishing, but more than anything, he enjoyed spending time with his family.

Slocum died in October 2012 and to continue his legacy of communicator, advocate and coach, his family established this scholarship to encourage foresters to practice effective communication for the benefit of sustainable management of forestlands.

The scholarship is funded by contributions made in his honor by family, friends, co-workers, industry leaders and land owners.

Merit-based awards will be made from this endowment to undergraduate students enrolled the College of Natural Resources at NC State. Awards will be for one academic year and may be renewed based on specific criteria being met. The student must be enrolled in the area of forest management/natural resource management and have an interest in promoting sustainable forest management through various, evolving avenues of communications.