Helping forests gain ground on climate change

May 15, 2013 ? University of Alberta researchers have developed guidelines that are being used by the timber industry and government foresters to get a jump on climate change when planting trees.

Maps developed by Laura Gray, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Renewable Resources at the U of A, provide projections of climatically suitable habitat for tree species based on climate predictions for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s.

Currently, Alberta forestry companies and government agencies plant 80 million spruce, fir and pine seedlings to reforest more than 50,000 hectares of harvested land annually.

"The information helps forest managers have more confidence in their decisions on what and where to plant. It allows them to more accurately assess the climactic risk," said Gray, co-author of the study with associate professor Andreas Hamann.

The study addresses concerns that many populations of wide-ranging tree species, which are adapted to local growing conditions, may now or in the future actually lag behind their optimal growing environment because of changing temperature and precipitation conditions. The work is the first of its kind to tackle multiple potential climate scenarios for a large number of tree species across western North America.

Gray's large-scale research, which considers 15 major commercial tree species and 18 different future climate-change scenarios, was recently published in the journal Climatic Change.

The U of A study also considers patterns of climate change observed from the 1970s until recently. The researchers found that on average, populations already lag behind their best climate niche by 130 kilometres in latitude or 60 metres in elevation.

Gray and Hamann's study has produced several maps and tables that document recent species habitat shifts and predict future ones. Generally, Gray said, forest managers should consider using seed from more southern climates or lower elevation environments. The seed should still be of the same tree species, rather than introducing a new species into a foreign environment, she added.

Foresters in British Columbia have started using the study's results as one of the tools to aid assisted seed migration strategies, Gray noted.

The study's findings help "inform and effect change in reforestation policy, so that those efforts can be leveraged to improve resilience and productivity of Alberta's forests under changing climate," Hamann said.

The study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Alberta Forestry Research Institute, and industry partners Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, Ainsworth Engineered Canada LP, Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd., Western Boreal Aspen Corporation and Weyerhaeuser Company Ltd.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/-jJmcl1u31g/130515125038.htm

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Afghanistan says Iranian guards killed 10 migrants

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Iranian border guards killed 10 Afghan migrants and wounded another eight when hundreds tried to illegally cross into Iran in search of work, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said Sunday. Iran denied that.

Details of the incident Friday in Afghanistan's northwestern Farah province have been sketchy and often contradictory. An Interior Ministry statement said 300 Afghan laborers tried to cross into Iran illegally, looking for work. Iranian border guards opened fire, killing 10, it said. The ministry also blamed its own border guards for allowing the laborers to cross, though they had neither visas nor passports. Two Afghan border guards were dismissed and could face charges of neglect of duty, the ministry said.

In Tehran, Iran's chief of border guards, Gen. Hamid Sharafi, denied there was any shooting at Afghan migrants, according to Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency.

"Such a report is not right. We do not confirm it based on our investigations," Sharafi said.

Several wounded laborers who arrived at the Farah district hospital for treatment also reported dead compatriots and said as many as 21 laborers were taken away by the Iranian border guards, said Abdul Rahman Zhawandai, a spokesman for the Farah provincial governor.

On Saturday, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul called the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan to lodge a complaint and to seek more details about the incident, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.

"We are following this issue very seriously through our embassy in Tehran," Mosazai told reporters Sunday. While admitting that the migrants were trying to enter Iran illegally, he said "the reaction of Iran should have been a civilian reaction, not a military" one ? a reference to the shooting.

Protests over the incident erupted on Sunday on the Afghan side of the border. Dozens of residents demonstrated in the streets of the provincial capital, also named Farah, shouting anti-Iran slogans.

Poor Afghans often try to sneak into Iran in search of work as day laborers.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb on Sunday killed a district prosecutor in southern Helmand province, where Taliban insurgents roam with relative ease in much of the countryside.

The bomb struck early in the morning as prosecutor Mohammed Lal Hakimi was on his way to work, said Ummar Zawaq, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Zawaq said the district prosecutor received threats from the Taliban, angry about the number of insurgents he convicted and sent to prison.

No one claimed responsibility for the killing, but Taliban have stepped up their assassinations in recent months, attacking government and security officials they accuse of being traitors.

___

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi contributed from Tehran, Iran.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-says-iranian-guards-killed-10-migrants-162527006.html

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Startling survival story at historic Jamestown: Physical evidence of survival cannibalism

May 1, 2013 ? Douglas Owsley, the division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, presented today a forensic analysis of 17th-century human remains proving that survival cannibalism took place in historic Jamestown. The findings answer a long-standing question among historians about the occurrence of cannibalism at Jamestown during the deadly winter of 1609-1610 known as the "starving time" -- a period during which about 80 percent of the colonists died.

The announcement was made with chief archeologist William Kelso from the Jamestown Rediscovery Project at Preservation Virginia, and historian James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg; each expert provided context about the discovery and the history of the site.

Owsley has worked closely with Kelso and his team of archaeologists since 1996, examining skeletal remains to help researchers understand the lives of individual colonial settlers in the Chesapeake. This particular incomplete human skull and tibia (shin bone) were excavated by Jamestown archeologists in 2012 as part of a 20-year excavation of James Fort. The remains were unusual due to their location and extensive fragmentation, so Kelso approached the Smithsonian's forensic anthropologist for a comprehensive analysis.

Owsley and his research team identified a number of features on the skull and tibia that indicated the individual was cannibalized. Four shallow chops to the forehead represent a failed first attempt to open the skull. The back of the head was then struck by a series of deep, forceful chops from a small hatchet or cleaver. The final blow split the cranium open. Sharp cuts and punctures mark the sides and bottom of the mandible, reflecting efforts to remove tissue from the face and throat using a knife.

"The desperation and overwhelming circumstances faced by the James Fort colonists during the winter of 1609-1610 are reflected in the postmortem treatment of this girl's body," said Owsley. "The recovered bone fragments have unusually patterned cuts and chops that reflect tentativeness, trial and complete lack of experience in butchering animal remains. Nevertheless, the clear intent was to dismember the body, removing the brain and flesh from the face for consumption."

Through specialized scientific analyses, Smithsonian scientists determined details about the life and story of this 14-year-old girl from England. By analyzing the dental development of the third molar and the growth stage of her shin bone, the research team determined that "Jane" was approximately 14 years old when she died. The cause of death could not be determined from the remains, estimated to be less than 10 percent of the complete skeleton.

Through a combination of digital and medical technologies, Smithsonian researchers led the effort to reconstruct the girl's likeness through forensic facial reconstruction. After scanning the incomplete remains of the fragmented skull with the museum's CT scanner, a virtual model of the skull was pieced together digitally. This digital rendering was sent to the Medical Modeling company to print a three-dimensional replica of the reconstructed skull. Finally, StudioEIS, in Brooklyn, N.Y., worked with Smithsonian scientists to create a forensic facial reconstruction of the girl's likeness.

On May 3, the facial reconstruction will be on display in the National Museum of Natural History's popular "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake" exhibition, alongside other materials and information about Smithsonian forensic science. The skeletal remains will be on display at Historic Jamestowne near the discovery site on Jamestown Island.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/r7CRl5SblRk/130501191845.htm

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