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Saturday, June 29, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Major changes needed for coral reef survival

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 10:10 AM PDT

To prevent coral reefs around the world from dying off, deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions are required, says a new study. Researchers find that all existing coral reefs will be engulfed in inhospitable ocean chemistry conditions by the end of the century if civilization continues along its current emissions trajectory.

Climate change threatens forest survival on drier, low-elevation sites

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 07:31 AM PDT

Predicted increases in temperature and drought in the coming century may make it more difficult for conifers such as ponderosa pine to regenerate after major forest fires on dry, low-elevation sites, in some cases leading to conversion of forests to grass or shrub lands, a report suggests.

Cattle grazing and clean water are compatible on public lands, study finds

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 07:31 AM PDT

Cattle grazing and clean water can coexist on national forest lands, according to new research.

Boat noise stops fish finding home

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 07:31 AM PDT

Boat noise disrupts orientation behavior in larval coral reef fish, according to new research. Reef fish are normally attracted by reef sound but the study, conducted in French Polynesia, found that fish are more likely to swim away from recordings of reefs when boat noise is added.

Is it alive or dead? How to measure the thermal signatures of single cells and assess their biological activity

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 07:29 AM PDT

To the ancients, probing the philosophical question of how to distinguish the living from the dead centered on the "mystery of the vital heat." To modern microbiology, this question was always less mysterious than it was annoying -- researchers have known that biological processes should produce thermal signatures, even within single cells, but nobody ever knew how to measure them. Now, a group of mechanical engineers in Korea have discovered a way to measure the "thermal conductivity" of three types of cells taken from human and rat tissues and placed in individual micro-wells.

How 'parrot dinosaur' switched from four feet to two as it grew

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 06:21 AM PDT

Tracking the growth of dinosaurs and how they changed as they grew is difficult. Using a combination of biomechanical analysis and bone histology, palaeontologists from Beijing, Bristol, and Bonn have shown how one of the best-known dinosaurs switched from four feet to two as it grew.

Complex activity patterns emerge from simple underlying laws, ant experiments show

Posted: 28 Jun 2013 06:19 AM PDT

A new study uses mathematical modeling and experiments on ants to show that a group is capable of developing flexible resource management strategies and characteristic responses of its own.

A new bizarrely shaped spoon worm, Arhynchite hayaoi, from Japan

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 09:53 AM PDT

A new species of the peculiarly shaped spoon worms has been recently discovered in Japan. These animals, formally referred to as echiurans, derive their name from their elongated spoon-like projection (the proboscis), issuing from a barrel-like roundish body (the trunk). The new species, once abundant on sandy flats in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan, somehow remained undescribed because of previous misidentification with a known species.

Beautiful but hiding unpleasant surprise: Three new species of fetid fungi from New Zealand

Posted: 27 Jun 2013 09:52 AM PDT

Scientists describe three new species of fungi from New Zealand. The new species belong to the genus Gymnopus and are mostly distinguished by their unpleasant odor typical for the subgroup of Gymnopus historically described in the genus Micromphale. The species live mostly on dead tree trunks and are seen in colonies from just a few up to hundreds of fruitbodies.

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