Earth & Environment
Earth & Environment - Mar 26, 2013 7:52 - 1 Comment
Is the weather getting stormier?
WASHINGTON U. – ST. LOUIS (US) — Researchers sifted through 70 years of hourly precipitation data from 13 US sites to find out if the weather is getting stormier as the climate warms. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 22, 2013 11:32 - 3 Comments
Biodiversity doesn’t lower disease risk for people
STANFORD (US) — A new analysis pokes holes in a widely accepted theory that connects biodiversity abundance with a reduced disease risk for people. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 21, 2013 12:17 - 2 Comments
With less ice, growing seasons shift in Arctic
BOSTON U. (US) — As snow and ice cover shrink in northern latitudes, researchers say temperatures and vegetation increasingly resemble those found farther south. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 21, 2013 9:46 - 0 Comments
Give-and-take helps hyenas, people coexist
MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Motion-detection cameras show that in the southern Rift Valley of Kenya, the Maasai people and their livestock coexist fairly happily with carnivores that include hyenas, lions, and bat-eared foxes. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 20, 2013 13:41 - 0 Comments
Asian carp less picky about where to spawn
PURDUE (US) — Scientists are surprised by the places and times that invasive Asian carp are spawning. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 20, 2013 9:44 - 0 Comments
How deep carbon could pop up on Earth’s surface
UC DAVIS / JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — Computer simulations of water under extreme pressure are showing geochemists how carbon might be recycled from hundreds of miles below the Earth’s surface. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 19, 2013 14:05 - 0 Comments
Ancient tectonic plate still under California
BROWN (US) — The discovery of “fossil” slabs of the Farallon oceanic plate under California could lead to new questions about the geology of North America. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 14, 2013 10:27 - 4 Comments
Bumble bee loss threatens food security
RUTGERS (US) — Wild pollinators are just as important, and often more efficient, at pollinating crops than domestic honey bee colonies, but bumble bee colonies are vanishing. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 12, 2013 12:12 - 0 Comments
Tree rings detail 470 years of ‘monsoon failure’
U. ARIZONA (US) — Tree rings in southwestern North America show that long-term droughts have been caused by a lack of both summer and winter rains. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 12, 2013 10:02 - 1 Comment
Strict ‘safe zones’ protect Brazilian rainforest
U. MICHIGAN (US) — Designating strictly protected areas is more effective at reducing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest than creating zones that allow for controlled removal of natural resources, experts say. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 11, 2013 17:15 - 1 Comment
The energy costs of green storage on the grid
STANFORD (US) — Scientists have developed a new way to calculate the carbon footprint of batteries needed to store wind and solar power for the electrical grid. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 7, 2013 13:33 - 0 Comments
Why some coasts are tsunami ‘magnets’
USC (US) — The earthquake zones off certain coasts—like those of Japan and Java—can produce a focus point that makes them especially vulnerable to massive and devastating tsunamis. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 7, 2013 6:03 - 1 Comment
Antarctica: Flat to fjord 34M years ago
U. ARIZONA (US) — Antarctica’s topography began changing from flat to fjord-filled about 34 million years ago—an important finding for modeling how the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate and sea-level rise. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 7, 2013 5:03 - 0 Comments
Leaky sewers stress out urban watersheds
U. PITTSBURGH (US) — Aging sewer systems in the US are spilling a considerable amount of nitrogen into urban watersheds, diminishing both the quality of water and ecosystem habitats, researchers report. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 6, 2013 7:12 - 1 Comment
Basic physics may speed up climate modeling
BROWN / U. LEEDS (US) — A new approach that uses basic physics to simulate key elements of climate change may be more effective than methods that “follow every little swirl of water or air,” researchers say. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 5, 2013 6:36 - 0 Comments
From Saharan dust comes California snow
CARNEGIE MELLON (US) — Snow in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains can get its start as airborne dust particles that travel from deserts in Asia and Africa, scientists say. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 4, 2013 11:16 - 0 Comments
Forecast for reliable gas supply from Barnett shale
U. TEXAS-AUSTIN (US) — New analysis of the natural gas production potential of the Barnett shale foresees slowly declining production through the year 2030 and beyond. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 4, 2013 11:12 - 0 Comments
Study: Fix California’s new permits for emissions
U. VIRGINIA (US) — California just launched the world’s first economy-wide “cap-and-trade” system for emissions. It could use some tweaks, say experts. (more…)
