This Week in RNR
- -- 27 November, Wednesday: Thanksgiving Holiday begins, 12:30 p.m
- -- 4 December, Wednesday: Concentrated Study Period begins–no meetings, social activities, athletic events, or other extracurricular activities requiring student participation will be scheduled; no major examinations will be given in academic courses other than labs
- -- 9 - 14 December, Monday through Saturday; Final Exams
- ACADEMIC CALANDER
The Carnivorous Plants of
South Louisiana
ABITA SPRINGS, LOUISIANA -- (source: WGNO, see the video) There are many scary things from politics, to clowns to spiders. Sometimes the creepiest things don't go bump in the night. They might not even move at all.
The hallmark of the plant world is the ability to use sunlight to make food during photosynthesis. In the long leaf pine savannah of south Louisiana, a few plants have evolved a curious method of getting nutrients from poor soil. They've become carnivorous.
Dr. Christopher Reid is a botanist and educator at LSU's School of Renewable Natural Resources and says and is intrigued by the plants and their relationships with other organisms. Dr. Reid says, "the fact that plants interact with animals in such a away as to trap them and consume them... usually, it's animals that eat plants."
There are over a dozen species of carnivorous plants in the area. They are part of the biodiversity of hundreds of plants that live under the pine trees. All of the plants in the area usually rely on routine forrest burns that clear the tall vegetation and keep shrubs from getting to dense. This allows the opportunity for many species to get their time in the sun and thrive. Carnivorous plants take advantage of the forrest fires and survive remarkably because of their buried rhizome. Even though the top of the plant may get burned, they will come up again.
The largest carnivorous plant in the area is the yellow trumpet pitcher plant and in it's modified leaves there is something similar to stomach acid that helps break down the insects that fall into the trap.
As wonderfully awesome as Little Shop of Horrors is (including the godly voice of Levi Stubbs), these plants aren't mean green mothers from outer space. Carnivorous plants have been around for millions of years and each one has their own unique way of eating. Some pitcher plants even secret a narcotic that paralyzes prey. Others like the plants like sundews have tentacles and use a fly-paper method. "The leaves of the sundew are covered with hairs that are gland-tipped. The glands secret a sticky substance. One of the features that pitcher plants have are these downward pointing hairs, which prevents whatever falls in to the digestive enzymes from crawling out," says Dr. Reid.
The Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve has a pitcher plant trail which is hikeable and it includes parrot pitcher plants which become quite showy when they bloom with their otherworldly crimson blossoms. During spring, the preserve is full of nature's color, as the land blushes with the blooms of carnivorous plants and other flowering vegetation in the long leaf pine system. The preserve is free and open to the public from sun up to sun down.
Shockingly, as deadly as carnivorous plants may seem to insects, some arthropods have evolved to live inside of the pitcher plant for protection and there is even a species of moth that lives its whole life cycle inside the pitcher plant trap. Some spiders have evolved to build webs at the openings to steal the meal of the pitcher plants.
Simply put, nature is wild, sometimes ravenous, but always remarkable.
University 1st Hunt Program
Ty Price, Sophomore, Wildlife Habitat Management, and Cameron Toerner, Senior, Wildlife Habitat Management, with a Pair of Blue-winged Teal taken during the RNR First Hunt Program sponsored by Delta Waterfowl Foundation.
High river pushed more CO2 into atmosphere
(10/01/19) BATON ROUGE, La. — Many scientists believe rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are contributing to climate change. The increase may be related to the frequency that water moves from the ground into rivers and then into the air before returning to land as rainfall.
LEFT: Yi-jun Xu, a hydrology researcher in the LSU AgCenter, shows a photo of high water in the Mississippi River during the 2019 record flood stage. Photo by Rick Bogren/LSU AgCenter
This water movement is called the hydrologic cycle, and an intensifying hydrologic cycle could increase global carbon cycling, said Yi-jun Xu, a hydrology researcher in the LSU AgCenter.
Xu is finishing up a short-term study of the carbon cycle on the Mississippi River.
Initially working with an earlier grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to study pollution and water quality, Xu began sampling carbon concentrations in the Mississippi River when the record-high flood began in February 2019.
With the sampling already in place, Xu applied to the National Science Foundation for a Rapid grant to study dissolved carbon in the river during the extraordinary long flood.
Xu set up locations in Baton Rouge and Belle Chasse on the Mississippi River and in Morgan City at the mouth of the Atchafalaya River, which carries approximately 25% of the waters from the Mississippi from a point just south of the Louisiana-Mississippi state line.
Xu and his team took water samples every three to five days during the entire major flood period from Feb. 27 to Aug. 5 and every two weeks after that.
“The river transported large amounts of carbon and nitrates,” Xu said. “We found extremely high mass loading of dissolved inorganic carbon and dissolved organic carbon.”
The total dissolved carbon could be detrimental to the ecosystem and water quality. “This is unprecedented. We found very high levels of dissolved carbon,” he said.
The broader implication is more carbon dioxide is moving into the atmosphere, and the change in carbon dioxide will intensify and accelerate with the increasing biogeochemical cycle, Xu said.
In streams and rivers, organic carbon comes from decomposition of terrestrial sources, such as trees and plants, while inorganic carbon can come from very different sources, including the solution of atmospheric carbon dioxide, inorganic carbon bound in sediments, groundwater, and chemical and biological processes.
Water contains gasses, including oxygen and carbon dioxide, Xu said.When dissolved carbon dioxide is in an imbalance with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the exchange between water and the atmosphere, called outgassing, increases.
“Normal atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is 400 to 410 parts per million,” Xu said. “During the flood stage, the river concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide was between 3,000 and 6,000 parts per million.”
Demineralized inorganic carbon dioxide affects the biogeochemical cycle. “As climate continues to change, the hydrologic cycle intensifies,” he said. “As the cycle becomes intensified, more carbon dioxide is discharged into the atmosphere. More carbon dioxide will lead to warmer temperatures.”
The past 100 years have seen a 25% increase in flow in the Mississippi River, mostly as a result of changes in land use and river engineering in the watershed, allowing more water to drain off hard surfaces rather than being absorbed into the soils, Xu said.
Scientists estimate the volume of water flowing in the Mississippi River will increase by 11% to 65% by 2100. “Precipitation is increasing the Mississippi River Basin,” he said.
The broader implication is that more carbon dioxide will move into the atmosphere through the increasing the biogeochemical cycle. “Terrestrial carbon is moving into the atmospheric ‘store,’” Xu said.
He stressed that the National Science Foundation is interested in the scientific observations from his research and the long-term ramifications.
“Findings gained from this research will help coastal resources managers and policy makers make better-informed decisions,” Xu said. “The research aims at an unprecedented flood event, and rapid measurements are vital for estimating the carbon movement during such extreme events in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River System.”
The findings can be helpful in investigating carbon dynamics in other river systems worldwide, he said. One aspect of this is whether these changes will intensify and speed up the carbon cycle between the land and the oceans.
Dr. Nyman featured in CERF 2019 Conference Film Festival Video
Congratulations to Dr. Andy Nyman...The YouTube video, titled "Cravasse" [LINK to the video] is about wetland wildlife management at the mouth of the Mississippi River; it was entered into the Coastal Estuarine Research Federation 2019 Conference Film Festival (CERF) in the "places" category. The video was produced by Gabe Giffin (LDWF) and features Dr. Nyman. Other videos in the competition can be viewed here.
Louisiana Agruculture Magazine
Spring 2019
The spring 2019 issue of Louisiana Agriculture focuses on the “birds and the bees” and the importance of reproduction and breeding to the success and profitability of our agriculture industry. LSU AgCenter scientists are dedicated to finding ways to not only improve plants and animals on the farm but also in nature to enhance and sustain our environment. See below for links to the articles. If you would like to subscribe to the print copy, or if you have any questions, or if you want to unsubscribe from this list, please contact the editor, Linda Benedict. The LSU AgCenter is here to serve you.
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Highlights - Articles by several RNR faculty mmbers and students:
- The “Birds and the Bees” and Agriculture
Christopher Green - This issue of Louisiana Agriculture focuses on the essence of agriculture, which is the ability to harness reproduction of plants and animals.
- Seaside Sparrows and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Sabrina S. Taylor - The Seaside Sparrow is a good indicator species for the effects of disturbances, such as oil spills and hurricanes, along the Gulf of Mexico.
- White-tailed Deer Reproduction: How fawns are made
Glen T. Gentry Jr. - LSU AgCenter research on the white-tailed deer has provided a wealth of information to improve understanding of the deer breeding season.
- Mottled Duck Breeding Ecology in Southwest Louisiana
Lizzi Bonczek and Kevin Ringelman - The mottled duck is a unique nonmigratory duck found only along the western Gulf of Mexico coast and peninsular Florida.
- Asian Carps Are Here to Stay
William E. Kelso - Sometimes reproduction goes awry as is the case with Asian carps. They were introduced to control parasites in catfish, and now they are taking over.
- Improving Reproduction for Reliable Marine Bait
Christopher Green - LSU AgCenter scientists are working to provide Louisiana coastal anglers with a cost-effective source of marine baitfish.
- College of Agriculture News for Spring 2019
Tobie Blanchard - Forestry students get the chance to compete regionally and to network; six ag graduates become University medalists; alumnus tells of opportunities in digital agriculture; annual college awards
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