ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Plant diversity is key to maintaining productive vegetation
• Ultrasound idea: Prototype bioreactor evaluates engineered tissue while creating it
• Rapid Sierra Nevada uplift tracked by scientists
• Early North Americans lived with extinct giant beasts, study shows
• Scientists core into California's Clear Lake to explore past climate change
• A needle in a haystack: How does a broken DNA molecule get repaired?
• Stalagmite research suggests Earth has two modes of responding to change
• Evolution of sex differences: Battles of sexes shown to spur adaptive sex differences
• Increasing speed of Greenland glaciers gives new insight for rising sea level
• Insect glands may illuminate human fertilization process
• Waking chick embryos before they are born
• Better housing conditions for zebrafish could improve research results
• 'Battle of the sexes' offers evolutionary insights: Role of genital spines in reproductive success of fruit flies
• Earth history and evolution: Cypress tree distribution reflects the breakup of Pangaea
• Mitigating disasters by hunting down Dragon Kings: Forecasting natural or economic disasters by identifying statistical anomalies

Plant diversity is key to maintaining productive vegetation Posted: 03 May 2012 05:05 PM PDT Vegetation, such as a patch of prairie or a forest stand, is more productive in the long run when more plant species are present, results of a new study show.

Ultrasound idea: Prototype bioreactor evaluates engineered tissue while creating it Posted: 03 May 2012 04:42 PM PDT Researchers have developed a prototype bioreactor that both stimulates and evaluates tissue as it grows, mimicking natural processes while eliminating the need to stop periodically to cut up samples for analysis.

Rapid Sierra Nevada uplift tracked by scientists Posted: 03 May 2012 01:20 PM PDT From the highest peak in the continental United States, Mt. Whitney at 14,000 feet in elevation, to the 10,000-foot-peaks near Lake Tahoe, scientific evidence shows the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range is rising at the relatively fast rate of 1 to 2 millimeters every year.

Early North Americans lived with extinct giant beasts, study shows Posted: 03 May 2012 12:39 PM PDT A new study that determined the age of skeletal remains provides evidence humans reached the Western Hemisphere during the last ice age and lived alongside giant extinct mammals. The study addresses the century-long debate among scientists about whether human and mammal remains found at Vero Beach in the early 1900s date to the same time period. Using rare earth element analysis to measure the concentration of naturally occurring metals absorbed during fossilization, researchers show modern humans in North America co-existed with large extinct mammals about 13,000 years ago, including mammoths, mastodons and giant ground sloths.

Scientists core into California's Clear Lake to explore past climate change Posted: 03 May 2012 11:27 AM PDT One of the oldest lakes in the world, Clear Lake in northern California has deep sediments that contain a record of the climate and local plants and animals going back perhaps 500,000 years. Scientists are drilling cores from the sediments to explore 130,000 years of this history and fine-tune models for predicting the fate of today's flora and fauna in the face of global warming and pressure from a growing human population.

A needle in a haystack: How does a broken DNA molecule get repaired? Posted: 03 May 2012 11:26 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a key element in the mechanism of DNA repair. Using a smart new dual-molecule technique, the group has now found out how the DNA molecule is able to perform this search and recognition process in such an efficient way.

Stalagmite research suggests Earth has two modes of responding to change Posted: 03 May 2012 11:26 AM PDT By analyzing stalagmites, a team of researchers has determined that the climate signature in the tropics through four glacial cycles looks different in some ways and similar in others when compared to the climate signature at high latitudes. The results suggest that Earth's climate system might have two modes of responding to significant changes.

Evolution of sex differences: Battles of sexes shown to spur adaptive sex differences Posted: 03 May 2012 11:25 AM PDT Male water striders benefit by mating frequently, females by mating infrequently: both have developed traits to give them the upper hand. The researchers modified a gene involved in the development of antennae in male water striders and found that as the antennae became more elaborate, mating success increased. The study is unusual in that it describes a direct linkage between known forces of selection, evolutionary change morphology, and its underlying genetic basis.

Increasing speed of Greenland glaciers gives new insight for rising sea level Posted: 03 May 2012 11:24 AM PDT Changes in the speed that ice travels in more than 200 outlet glaciers indicates that Greenland's contribution to rising sea level in the 21st century might be significantly less than the upper limits some scientists thought possible, a new study shows.

Insect glands may illuminate human fertilization process Posted: 03 May 2012 09:58 AM PDT Insect glands are responsible for producing a host of secretions that allow bees to sting and ants to lay down trails. New research focuses on secretions from glands in the reproductive tract that help sperm survive and guide the sperm on the trip to fertilize an egg. The gene that controls the development of these glands in fruit flies provides important information about gland development in all insects, as well as potential clues to similar human reproductive glands.

Waking chick embryos before they are born Posted: 03 May 2012 09:58 AM PDT Under some conditions, the brains of embryonic chicks appear to be awake well before those chicks are ready to hatch out of their eggs. That's according to an imaging study in which researchers woke chick embryos inside their eggs by playing loud, meaningful sounds to them. Playing meaningless sounds to the embryos wasn't enough to rouse their brains.

Better housing conditions for zebrafish could improve research results Posted: 03 May 2012 09:05 AM PDT Zebrafish behavior and the reliability of scientific results could be impacted if the environment zebrafish live in is altered, according to scientists.

'Battle of the sexes' offers evolutionary insights: Role of genital spines in reproductive success of fruit flies Posted: 03 May 2012 09:01 AM PDT The phrase "battle of the sexes" is taking on new meaning in research that has implications for our understanding of evolution. In a new paper, scientists examine the role of genital spines in the reproductive success of a species of fruit fly. Their investigation identifies the specific type of advantage these spines bestow in the competition to reproduce.

Earth history and evolution: Cypress tree distribution reflects the breakup of Pangaea Posted: 03 May 2012 09:01 AM PDT In classical mythology, the cypress tree is associated with death, the underworld and eternity. Indeed, the family to which cypresses belong, is an ancient lineage of conifers, and a new study of their evolution affords a unique insight into a turbulent era in the Earth's history.

Mitigating disasters by hunting down Dragon Kings: Forecasting natural or economic disasters by identifying statistical anomalies Posted: 03 May 2012 07:43 AM PDT Professional Dragon King hunters are exploring the ways in which natural or economic disasters can be predicted by identifying statistical anomalies.

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