Posts Tagged ‘environmental sciences’
Earth & Environment - Apr 29, 2010 21:37 - 3 Comments
Massive ice loss has sea levels rising
U. LEEDS (UK)—The loss of floating ice in the polar oceans each year—equivalent to 1.5 million Titanic-size icebergs—is causing sea levels to rise. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 29, 2010 15:51 - 0 Comments
Nations fail to meet biodiversity targets
UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US)—World leaders have failed to deliver on promises made in 2002 to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and have instead overseen alarming biodiversity declines, according to a new study in the journal Science. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 28, 2010 12:15 - 0 Comments
‘Black box’ of plankton fix oceans’ carbon
U. WARWICK (UK)—Almost half of the ocean’s carbon fixation is done by eukaryotic phytoplankton, despite the fact that their presence is significantly less than the more abundant blue-green algae known as cyanobacteria. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 28, 2010 12:00 - 1 Comment
Extinction by acidic ocean: past or present?
STANFORD (US)—New evidence uncovered by analyzing calcium embedded in Chinese limestone suggests that volcanoes, which spewed massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for a million years, caused the biggest mass extinction on Earth. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 22, 2010 4:18 - 4 Comments
A green South could save big bucks
DUKE / GEORGIA TECH (US)—Efforts to make the southern U.S. more energy efficient by 2020 could help create 380,000 new jobs, save 8.6 billion gallons of water, and help consumers reduce their energy bills by $41 billion. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 21, 2010 19:57 - 1 Comment
Buried shells are no ecological treasure
RICE (US)—Fan-Wei Zeng saw seashells, but not by the seashore. In fact, they were quite far away, and they were skewing the Rice University graduate student’s study of the environmental impact of Houston’s rivers. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 21, 2010 18:01 - 0 Comments
Food vs. fuel showdown on the farm
MICHIGAN STATE (US)—Using productive farmland to grow crops for food instead of fuel is more energy efficient, but the ideal scenario may be a combination of both. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 19, 2010 11:33 - 0 Comments
Changes in Earth’s critical zone
U. PENN (US)—Rising high above the pristine northeast coastline of Puerto Rico, the lush Luquillo Mountains are a natural laboratory for environmentalists and climate scientists. A national forest since the 1930s, large sections of the mountains look much the same today as they would have to European settlers 500 years ago. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 16, 2010 13:18 - 0 Comments
Millions of sea turtles trapped by fishing nets
DUKE (US)—The number of sea turtles inadvertently snared by commercial fishing gear over the past 20 years may reach into the millions, according to the first peer-reviewed study to compile sea turtle bycatch data from gillnet, trawl, and longline fisheries worldwide. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Apr 14, 2010 13:24 - 1 Comment
Invasive duo threaten Great Lakes sport fish
U. MICHIGAN (US)—Two notorious Great Lakes invaders—the zebra mussel and the round goby—now play a central role in transferring toxic chemicals called PCBs up the food chain and into Saginaw Bay walleyes, one of that region’s most popular sport fish. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 25, 2010 17:09 - 7 Comments
Greenland melt spreads to both coasts
U. COLORADO (US)—Ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet, which has been increasing during the past decade over its southern region, is now making an upward climb on its northwest coast as well. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 25, 2010 11:11 - 0 Comments
Tax loophole for ‘well-tuned’ oysters
USC (US)—In physical, as in financial growth, it’s not what you make but what you keep that counts. That’s true of oysters and other slow-growing animals that appear to waste energy in two specific ways: They make too much of some protein building blocks and expend energy disposing of the excess. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 18, 2010 13:32 - 0 Comments
‘Livestock revolution’ taking a toll
STANFORD (US)—The growing worldwide demand for meat is likely to have a significant impact on human health, the environment, and the global economy in the next 50 years, according to a new report by an international research team. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 17, 2010 15:32 - 2 Comments
Inland air spiked with chlorine
U. WASHINGTON / U. COLORADO (US)—A new study suggests that chlorine, a chemical usually kicked into the atmosphere by sea spray, is more abundant than expected in air far from any coastline, and looks to be interacting with man-made pollution at night in ways that might affect air quality and climate. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 11, 2010 11:11 - 0 Comments
How early humans adapted to climate change
U. BUFFALO (US)—Siberia’s remote Kamchatka peninsula, a rough and extremely volcanic wilderness region the size of California, is the current site of an international effort to understand how humans living 4,000 to 6,000 years ago reacted to climate changes. (more…)
Science & Technology - Mar 9, 2010 11:43 - 1 Comment
Tracking mercury’s ‘fingerprint’ in fish
U. MICHIGAN (US)—Scientists know that the primary way methylmercury affects people is through consumption of fish and shellfish. But how does the toxic substance get into species that live in the open ocean? (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 8, 2010 15:37 - 0 Comments
Could higher CO2 slow biodiversity loss?
U. MINNESOTA (US)—For years, a global rain of nitrogen from fertilizers and exhaust fumes has been linked to losses of species diversity among communities of plants. However, new research shows that rising CO2 could mitigate the loss of biodiversity brought about by nitrogen pollution. (more…)
Earth & Environment - Mar 2, 2010 19:40 - 0 Comments
On tropical farms, bigger is not better
U. MICHIGAN (US)—Small family-owned farms—not industrial-scale agriculture—offer the best way to produce large amounts of food and still preserve biodiversity in tropical regions undergoing massive deforestation. (more…)
