Earth & Environment
Earth & Environment - Feb 10, 2010 15:59 - 0 Comments
Climate ‘tipping points’ prove unpredictable
UC DAVIS (US)—Sudden shifts in Earth’s natural systems may be harder to foresee than previously thought, worrying scientists trying to identify dramatic global climate changes before they occur. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 9, 2010 11:55 - 0 Comments
New ‘Flowerpecker’ spotted in Borneo
LEEDS (UK)—A new species of bird has been seen—but only once—in the Bornean rainforest. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 5, 2010 12:10 - 0 Comments
Sizable snail threatens endangered bird
U. FLORIDA (US)—A huge South American snail is wreaking havoc on its predator, the snail kite, an endangered Everglades bird of prey. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 3, 2010 13:58 - 0 Comments
Shaking up estimates about ‘the big one’
UC IRVINE (US)—New information about the inner workings of faults could change how experts estimate the potential for the next “big one.” (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 2, 2010 23:30 - 5 Comments
California’s troubled waters
UC IRVINE (US)—Space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California’s primary agricultural region—the Central Valley—and its major mountain water source—the Sierra Nevada—have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 1, 2010 16:03 - 0 Comments
Unselfish apes live in ‘Peter Pan world’
DUKE (US)—For bonobos, sharing just comes naturally. In fact, unlike humans and chimpanzees, they seem incapable of being selfish—both as youngsters and as adults. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Feb 1, 2010 12:28 - 1 Comment
Online access to a world of grass
U. SHEFFIELD (UK)—GrassPortal, a new online resource for scientists and the public, will allow any of the world’s 11,000 species of grasses to be defined by its geographical range, climate preferences, and evolutionary relationships to other species. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 28, 2010 16:59 - 4 Comments
Hunted minke whales not overpopulated
STANFORD (US)—Antarctic minke whale meat on the shelves of Japanese grocery stores has helped scientists prove that the animal’s population is not booming, but rather is within the historical norm of the species over the last 100,000 years. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 27, 2010 18:02 - 0 Comments
Sweet corn’s field of dreams
U. ILLINOIS (US)—In what amounted to a kind of census of sweet corn grown for processing, three years of data from 175 fields in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota shed light on what works and what doesn’t. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 26, 2010 16:59 - 1 Comment
Seabirds shun palms, take guano elsewhere
STANFORD (US)—Coconut palms do more than beckon vacationers to tropical paradise. As they spread to new areas, palms are changing landscapes, researchers say. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 21, 2010 14:55 - 4 Comments
Planet’s most biodiverse corner under threat
U. TEXAS-AUSTIN/NYU—A team of scientists has documented that Yasuní National Park, in the core of the Ecuadorian Amazon, shatters world records for a wide array of plant and animal groups, from amphibians to trees to insects. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 20, 2010 15:06 - 0 Comments
Ozone spike linked to overseas emissions
COLORADO (US)—Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 18, 2010 13:02 - 1 Comment
Thirsty cities should mix it up
PENN STATE—To save money, avoid surpluses, and reduce shortages, urban water planners should combine three approaches to buy water: permanent rights, options, and lease. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 15, 2010 17:53 - 0 Comments
Pest with an appetite for biofuel crops
U. ILLINOIS—The western corn rootworm beetle, a pest that feasts on corn roots and corn silk and costs growers more than $1 billion annually in the U.S., also can survive on the perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus, a potential biofuels crop that would likely be grown alongside corn, researchers report. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 14, 2010 12:57 - 2 Comments
Energy from Haiti quake like nuclear blast
STANFORD—Anne Kiremidjian, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, talks about the devastating earthquake in Haiti and why so many buildings collapsed. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 13, 2010 17:38 - 0 Comments
Stirring up question of PCBs
U. IOWA—The Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and scientists are unsure whether planned dredging in the next few years will help or hurt the situation. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 13, 2010 16:19 - 0 Comments
Future Forests: Beyond 2200
U. ILLINOIS—The composition of some U.S. forests might be quite different 200 to 400 years from today, a new study suggests. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Jan 13, 2010 13:26 - 0 Comments
On video: Seafloor volcano spews magma
U. WASHINGTON—For the first time molten lava has been observed flowing from a deep ocean volcano. In video footage, clouds of milky-yellow sulfur gas billow, molten red lava explodes into the icy ocean water and turns almost instantaneously to black rock, while water vapor creates huge, glowing lava bubbles several feet across. (more…)
