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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


NASA's Wind mission encounters 'SLAMS' waves

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 03:00 PM PDT

To tease out what happens at that boundary of the magnetosphere and to better understand how radiation and energy from the sun can cross it and move closer to Earth, NASA launches spacecraft into this region to observe the changing conditions. From 1998 to 2002, NASA's Wind spacecraft traveled through this foreshock region in front of Earth 17 times, providing new information about the physics there.

Scientists discover new materials to capture methane

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 10:28 AM PDT

Scientists have discovered new materials to capture methane, the second highest concentration greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.

Love at first sniff: Male moths go by first impressions

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 09:17 AM PDT

Entomologists now have an explanation for why we see so many hybrid moths in nature. The team closely examined the behavior and the olfactory circuitry of male moths and found an answer in female-produced pheromones.

Catch me if you can: Two new species of moth from the Russian Far East

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 08:44 AM PDT

Showing a range of peculiar habits and difficult to be discovered and collected, Ypsolophid moths present an exciting catch for scientists. Russian entomologists have discovered and described two species of these engaging moths, coming from the southernmost areas of the Russian Far East.

Biodiversity crisis: The impacts of socio-economic pressures on natural floras and faunas

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 07:23 AM PDT

A new study on extinction risk has shown that proportions of plant and animal species being classified as threatened on national Red Lists are more closely related to socioeconomic pressure levels from the beginning than from the end of the 20th century.

Scientists transform cellulose into starch: Potential food source derived from non-food plants

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 05:53 AM PDT

A team of researchers has succeeded in transforming cellulose into starch, a process that has the potential to provide a previously untapped nutrient source from plants not traditionally though of as food crops.

Resurgence of endangered deer in Patagonian ‘Eden’ highlights conservation success

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 05:51 AM PDT

The Huemul, a species of deer found only in the Latin American region of Patagonia, is bouncing back from the brink of possible extinction.

Escalating cost of forest conservation

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 05:51 AM PDT

In the face of unprecedented deforestation and biodiversity loss, policy makers are increasingly using financial incentives to encourage conservation.

A look at the world explains 90 percent of changes in vegetation

Posted: 16 Apr 2013 05:51 AM PDT

In the last thirty years, vegetation has changed significantly the world over. Until recently, the extent to which the climate or humankind was responsible remained unclear. However, geographers now reveal that over half of these changes are climatological, humans or as yet unknown human-climate interactions cause about a third and around ten percent cannot be explained fully by either the climate or human activity.

Tiny colorful snails are in danger of extinction with vanishing limestone ecosystems

Posted: 15 Apr 2013 02:24 PM PDT

Three new species of brightly colored carnivorous snails have been described from north and northeastern Thailand, as a part of an extensive study of the terrestrial snails family Streptaxidae. The new species have been found in highly endangered limescale ecosystems, including quarried areas, thus showing extraordinary survival mechanisms and biodiversity persistence.

Findings confirm early South African hominins

Posted: 15 Apr 2013 09:43 AM PDT

Close examination of the lower jawbone, teeth and skeleton of the hominid species Australopithecus sediba proves conclusively that it is uniquely different from a closely related species, Australopithecus africanus.

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