ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Saturday, August 16, 2008
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Burmese Pythons Will Find Little Suitable Habitat Outside South Florida, Study Suggests (August 15, 2008) -- Burmese Pythons may have chosen Florida as a vacation destination, but are unlikely to expand further, according to a new study. Although the United States Geological Survey earlier this year released "climate maps" indicating that the pythons could inhabit up to 32 states in the US, new research indicates that the snakes are unlikely to expand out of Florida. ... > full story
Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific (August 15, 2008) -- Dramatic year-to-year temperature swings and a century-long warming trend across West Antarctica are linked to conditions in the tropical Pacific, according to an analysis of ice cores. The findings show the connection of the world's coldest continent to global warming, as well as to events such as El Niño. ... > full story
Big-brained Animals Evolve Faster (August 15, 2008) -- Ecologists and evolutionary biologists analyzed body size measures of 7,209 species of birds and found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size. ... > full story
Stone Age Graveyard Reveals Lifestyles Of A 'Green Sahara' (August 15, 2008) -- The largest Stone Age graveyard found in the Sahara, which provides an unparalleled record of life when the region was green, has been discovered in Niger by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and University of Chicago Professor Paul Sereno, whose team first happened on the site during a dinosaur-hunting expedition. ... > full story
Climate Change Caused Widespread Tree Death In California Mountain Range, Study Confirms (August 15, 2008) -- Warmer temperatures and longer dry spells have killed thousands of trees and shrubs in a Southern California mountain range, pushing the plants' habitat an average of 213 feet up the mountain over the past 30 years, a UC Irvine study has determined. ... > full story
Study Shows Continued Spread Of 'Dead Zones'; Lack Of Oxygen Now A Key Stressor On Marine Ecosystems (August 15, 2008) -- A new study shows that the number of "dead zones" -- areas of seafloor with too little oxygen for most marine life -- has increased by a third between 1995 and 2007. Dead zones are now "the key stressor on marine ecosystems" and "rank with over-fishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems." ... > full story
Hybrid 'Muttsucker' Has Genes Of Three Species (August 15, 2008) -- In the murky waters of an inconspicuous stream in a remote area of Wyoming, researchers detail the potential impact that an introduced fish, the white sucker, could have on the evolutionary biology of fishes. ... > full story
'Flu Vaccination' Protects Bacteria Against Virus (August 15, 2008) -- Bacteria – like people animals and plants – can become infected by a virus. Researchers have now unravelled a mechanism with which bacteria can defend themselves for a longer period against threatening viruses. Over the long term, this research offers possibilities to protect bacteria used in industrial processes against viral infections by giving them a 'flu vaccination'. ... > full story
Distinguishing Between Two Birds Of A Feather (August 15, 2008) -- The bird enthusiast who chronicled the adventures of a flock of red-headed conures in his book "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" knows most of the parrots by name, yet most of us would be hard pressed to tell one bird from another. While it has been known for a long time that we can become acutely attuned to our day-to-day environment, the underlying neural mechanism has been less clear. ... > full story
Structural Biology Spin-out Tackles Major Diseases (August 15, 2008) -- A spin off company from basic structural biology has led to new technology that provides a way of creating therapeutic proteins to tackle major diseases such as cancer, diabetes and infertility. ... > full story
Managing the Conch Fishery (August 15, 2008) -- Massachusetts fisherman once considered the New England whelk or “conch” as nothing more than bycatch. Although demand existed for the large-shelled snail, traditionally used for cooking in East Asian cultures, it could more easily be trawled in the waters around South America, the Caribbean and Asia, making conch unprofitable in the Northeast. This turned around in the 1980s, however, when overfishing of whelk quickly transformed the small New England conch fishery into a multi-million dollar industry. ... > full story
Drinking Water In Gaza Strip Contaminated With High Levels Of Nitrate (August 14, 2008) -- Scientists have recommended to the authorities in the Gaza Strip that they take immediate measures to combat excessive nitrate levels in the drinking water. 90 per cent of their water samples were found to contain nitrate concentrations that were between two and eight times higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization. ... > full story
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