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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Patterns in sand dunes explained

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:43 PM PST

In a study of the harsh but beautiful White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, researchers have uncovered a unifying mechanism to explain dune patterns. The new work represents a contribution to basic science, but the findings may also hold implications for identifying when dune landscapes like those in Nebraska's Sand Hills may reach a "tipping point" under climate change, going from valuable grazing land to barren desert.

Why common tree is toxic to snowshoe hares

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:42 PM PST

Biologists have uncovered why the chemical defenses in birch, a common type of tree found in North America, are toxic to snowshoe hares.

Domestic cats, and wild bobcats and pumas, living in same area have same diseases

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 01:46 PM PST

Scientists found evidence that domestic cats and wild cats that share the same outdoor areas in urban environments also can share diseases such as Bartonellosis and Toxoplasmosis. Both can be spread from cats to people.

A bug's (sex) life: Diving beetles offer unexpected clues about sexual selection

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:41 PM PST

Studies of diving beetles suggest sperm evolution may be driven by changes in female reproductive organs, challenging the paradigm of post-mating sexual selection being driven mostly by competition among sperm. In the process, the researchers discovered an unexpected and stunning variety of sperm form and behavior.

Copper + love chemical = big sulfur stink

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:41 PM PST

When a researcher set out to study a chemical in male mouse urine called MTMT that attracts female mice, he didn't think he would stumble into a new field of study. But the research has led scientists to the discovery that it's the copper in our bodies that makes mammals recoil from sulfur chemical smells.

Fossil cricket reveals Jurassic love song

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:41 PM PST

The love song of an extinct cricket that lived 165 million years ago has been brought back to life by scientists. The song – possibly the most ancient known musical song documented to date – was reconstructed from microscopic wing features on a fossil discovered in North East China. It allows us to listen to one of the sounds that would have been heard by dinosaurs and other creatures roaming Jurassic forests at night.

More environmental rules needed for shale gas, says geophysicist

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:41 AM PST

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama praised the potential of the country's tremendous supply of natural gas buried in shale. But the "Halliburton exclusion" passed by Congress says gas companies don't have to disclose the chemicals used in fracturing fluids. That was a real mistake because it makes the public needlessly paranoid, says a geophysicist.

Satellite tracking reveals sea turtle feeding hotspots

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:39 AM PST

Satellite tracking of threatened loggerhead sea turtles has revealed two previously unknown feeding "hotspots" in the Gulf of Mexico that are providing important habitat for at least three separate populations of the turtles.

Researchers examine consequences of non-intervention for infectious disease in African great apes

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:39 AM PST

Infectious disease has joined poaching and habitat loss as a major threat to the survival of African great apes as they have become restricted to ever-smaller populations. Despite the work of dedicated conservationists, efforts to save our closest living relatives from ecological extinction are largely failing, and new scientific approaches are necessary to analyze major threats and find innovative solutions.

New species of bamboo-feeding plant lice found in Costa Rica

Posted: 06 Feb 2012 09:26 AM PST

Several periods of field work during 2008 have led to the discovery of a new species of bamboo-feeding plant lice in Costa Rica's high-altitude region Cerro de la Muerte. The discovery was made thanks to molecular data analysis of mitochondrial DNA. The collected records have also increased the overall knowledge of plant lice (one of the most dangerous agricultural pests worldwide) from the region with more that 20 percent.

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