ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Scrub jays react to their dead, bird study shows: 'Funerals' can last for up to half an hour
• Microbiologist patents process to improve biofuel production
• Extreme Life Forms Might be Able to Survive on Eccentric Exoplanets
• At least 200,000 tons of oil and gas from Deepwater Horizon spill consumed by Gulf bacteria
• World's smallest fossil footprints: Small amphibian roamed Earth 315 million years ago
• Invader of the invader: Tiny crustaceans found on red swamp crayfish
• Pregnancy exposures determine risk of breast cancer in multiple generations of offspring
• Droughts are pushing trees to the limit
• More accurate method for predicting hurricane activity
• Aussie wasp on the hunt for redback spiders
• Crows react to threats in human-like way
• Priceless or worthless? 100 most threatened species first in line to disappear completely if nothing is done, conservationists warn
• Reining in red meat consumption cuts chronic disease risk and carbon footprint
• Princesses become warriors: Young queens of leafcutter ants change roles if they cannot reproduce

Scrub jays react to their dead, bird study shows: 'Funerals' can last for up to half an hour Posted: 11 Sep 2012 01:20 PM PDT Western scrub jays summon others to screech over the body of a dead jay, according to new research. The birds' cacophonous 'funerals' can last for up to half an hour.

Microbiologist patents process to improve biofuel production Posted: 11 Sep 2012 12:18 PM PDT Biofuel production can be an expensive process that requires considerable fossil fuels, but a Missouri S&T microbiologist's patented process could reduce the cost and the reliance on fossil fuels, while streamlining the process.

Extreme Life Forms Might be Able to Survive on Eccentric Exoplanets Posted: 11 Sep 2012 12:09 PM PDT Astronomers have discovered a veritable rogues' gallery of odd exoplanets -- from scorching hot worlds with molten surfaces to frigid ice balls. And while the hunt continues for the elusive "blue dot" -- a planet with roughly the same characteristics as Earth -- new research reveals that life might actually be able to survive on some of the many exoplanetary oddballs that exist.

At least 200,000 tons of oil and gas from Deepwater Horizon spill consumed by Gulf bacteria Posted: 11 Sep 2012 09:53 AM PDT Researchers have found that, over a period of five months following the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, naturally-occurring bacteria that exist in the Gulf of Mexico consumed and removed at least 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas that spewed into the deep Gulf from the ruptured well-head.

World's smallest fossil footprints: Small amphibian roamed Earth 315 million years ago Posted: 11 Sep 2012 09:51 AM PDT A new set of fossil footprints discovered in Joggins, Nova Scotia, have been identified as the world's smallest known fossil vertebrate footprints. The footprints belonged to a small amphibian which would have roamed Earth 315 million years ago, a creature not unlike a salamander.

Invader of the invader: Tiny crustaceans found on red swamp crayfish Posted: 11 Sep 2012 09:51 AM PDT The invader of the invader has been discovered for the first time in Europe. The small ostracod Ankylocythere sinuosa measures no more than half a millimeter in length and lives on other crayfish. And, Spanish scientists have discovered it for the first time in Europe. The finding suggests that it arrived along with the invader crayfish Procambarus clarkii some 30 years ago but it is still unknown whether it can invade other crustacean species or whether it benefits or damages the expansion of the already established red swamp crayfish.

Pregnancy exposures determine risk of breast cancer in multiple generations of offspring Posted: 11 Sep 2012 08:28 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated, in animals, that maternal exposure to a high-fat diet or excess estrogen during pregnancy can increase breast cancer risk in multiple generations of female offspring -- daughters, granddaughters and even great-granddaughters.

Droughts are pushing trees to the limit Posted: 11 Sep 2012 07:34 AM PDT Southwestern droughts made more severe by warming temperatures are pushing plants up against extremely stressful growing conditions, a new study has found, identifying an increasingly water-thirsty atmosphere as a key force that sucks moisture from plants, drying out the region as temperatures rise in the wake of climate change.

More accurate method for predicting hurricane activity Posted: 11 Sep 2012 07:34 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new method for forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent more accurate than previous techniques.

Aussie wasp on the hunt for redback spiders Posted: 11 Sep 2012 07:29 AM PDT Researchers say a small native wasp that scientists had forgotten about for more than 200 years is now making a name for itself -- as a predator of Australia's most common dangerous spider, the redback.

Crows react to threats in human-like way Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:17 AM PDT Crows and humans share the ability to recognize faces and associate them with negative and positive feelings. The way the brain activates during that process is something the two species also appear to share, according to new research.

Priceless or worthless? 100 most threatened species first in line to disappear completely if nothing is done, conservationists warn Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:17 AM PDT Tarzan's chameleon, the spoon-billed sandpiper and the pygmy three-toed sloth have all topped a new list of the species closest to extinction released by the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Reining in red meat consumption cuts chronic disease risk and carbon footprint Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:16 AM PDT Reducing red and processed meat consumption would not only prompt a fall in chronic disease incidence of between three and 12 per cent in the UK, but our carbon footprint would shrink by 28 million tons a year, suggests new research.

Princesses become warriors: Young queens of leafcutter ants change roles if they cannot reproduce Posted: 11 Sep 2012 06:12 AM PDT Biologists have discovered that queens of the ant genus Acromyrmex are flexible in the event that they cannot found their own colony. The queens of other species die as soon as they can no longer fulfill their life's task. The unsuccessful Acromyrmex queens, on the other hand, change their entire repertoire of behavior and help defend and tend to their mother colony, as the scientists report.

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