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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Scientists look to microbes to unlock Earth's deep secrets

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:39 PM PST

Of all the habitable parts of our planet, one ecosystem still remains largely unexplored and unknown to science: The igneous ocean crust. This rocky realm of hard volcanic lava exists beneath ocean sediments that lie at the bottom of much of the world's oceans. While scientists have estimated that microbes living in deep ocean sediments may represent as much as one-third of Earth's total biomass, the habitable portion of the rocky ocean crust may be 10 times as great.

Lake Erie algae and ice make a nice mix in winter

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:27 PM PST

Scientists have studied Lake Erie over the past five winters during mid-winter, a time when the lake is more than 70 percent covered by ice. They've documented very high concentrations of algae thriving in the water below the ice -- even in the ice itself.

New hope to save hemlock trees from attack

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 12:17 PM PST

Thousands of broken trees line the banks of the Chattooga River. The dead gray stabs were once evergreen monsters offering shade to trout and picturesque views to visitors. These Eastern hemlocks are dying rapidly, and researchers are working to save them.

Satellite imagery detects thermal 'uplift' signal of underground nuclear tests

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 12:17 PM PST

A new analysis of satellite data from the late 1990s documents for the first time the "uplift" of ground above a site of underground nuclear testing, providing researchers a potential new tool for analyzing the strength of detonation. The findings provide another forensic tool for evaluation, especially for the potential explosive yield estimates.

Dramatic links found between climate change, elk, plants, and birds

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 11:02 AM PST

Climate change in the form of reduced snowfall in mountains is causing powerful and cascading shifts in mountainous plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants, according to a groundbreaking study.

Renewable fuel: Clearing a potential road block to bisabolane

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 11:02 AM PST

Researchers have determined the three-dimensional crystal structure of a protein that is key to boosting the microbial-based production of bisabolane as a clean, green and renewable biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel fuel.

Reuse of municipal wastewater has potential to augment future drinking water supplies

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 11:02 AM PST

With recent advances in technology and design, treating municipal wastewater and reusing it for drinking water, irrigation, industry, and other applications could significantly increase the nation's total available water resources, particularly in coastal areas facing water shortages.

Molecular 'culprit' in rise of planetary oxygen

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 11:02 AM PST

A turning point in the history of life occurred two to three billion years ago with the unprecedented appearance and dramatic rise of molecular oxygen. Now researchers report they have identified an enzyme that was the first – or among the first – to generate molecular oxygen on Earth.

Comprehensive picture of the fate of oil from Deepwater Horizon spill

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:36 AM PST

A new study provides the composite picture of the environmental distribution of oil and gas from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It amasses a vast collection of available atmospheric, surface and subsurface chemical data to assemble a "mass balance" of how much oil and gas was released, where it went and the chemical makeup of the compounds that remained in the air, on the surface, and in the deep water.

Tortoise species thought to be extinct still lives, genetic analysis reveals

Posted: 09 Jan 2012 11:57 AM PST

Dozens of giant tortoises of a species believed extinct for 150 years may still be living at a remote location in the Galápagos Islands, a genetic analysis conducted by Yale University researchers reveals.

European mountain vegetation shows effects of warmer climate

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 11:36 AM PST

Researchers from 13 countries report clear and statistically significant evidence of a continent-wide warming effect on mountain plant communities in Europe.

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