ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Short lives, violent deaths: Two CT-scanned Siberian mammoth calves yield trove of insights
• Belize's lobster, conch, and fish populations rebuild in no-take zones
• Australia drying caused by greenhouse gases, study shows
• Deep within spinach leaves, vibrations enhance efficiency of photosynthesis
• Does this trunk make me look fat? Overweight zoo elephants no laughing matter
• When good gut bacteria get sick
• Nutritional, food safety benefits of organic farming documented by major study
• Ecologists make first image of food niche
• Beloved crape myrtle in nurseries now susceptible to bacterial leaf spot
• Technology developed to redirect proteins towards specific areas of genome
• Overfishing in English Channel leaves fisherman scraping bottom of the barrel
• Window of opportunity against HIV comes from 'fitness bottleneck'
• Feedback control could be key to robust conservation management

Short lives, violent deaths: Two CT-scanned Siberian mammoth calves yield trove of insights Posted: 13 Jul 2014 01:33 PM PDT CT scans of two newborn woolly mammoths recovered from the Siberian Arctic are revealing previously inaccessible details about the early development of prehistoric pachyderms. In addition, the X-ray images show that both creatures died from suffocation after inhaling mud.

Belize's lobster, conch, and fish populations rebuild in no-take zones Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A new report shows that no-take zones in Belize can not only help economically valuable species such as lobster, conch, and fish recover from overfishing, but may also help re-colonize nearby reef areas. According to past studies, the recovery of lobster, conch, and other exploited species within marine protected areas with no-take zones, or fully protected reserves, could take as little as 1-6 years. Full recovery of exploited species, however, could take decades.

Australia drying caused by greenhouse gases, study shows Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A new high-resolution climate model has been developed that shows southwestern Australia's long-term decline in fall and winter rainfall is caused by increases in human-made greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion, according to research. Several natural causes were tested with the model, including volcano eruptions and changes in the sun's radiation. But none of these natural climate drivers reproduced the long-term observed drying, indicating this trend is due to human activity.

Deep within spinach leaves, vibrations enhance efficiency of photosynthesis Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT Biophysics researchers have used short pulses of light to peer into the mechanics of photosynthesis and illuminate the role that molecule vibrations play in the energy conversion process that powers life on our planet.

Does this trunk make me look fat? Overweight zoo elephants no laughing matter Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:53 PM PDT The birthrate for African elephants in zoos is declining, and researchers look for a link between inflammation and obesity that may be connected to the increase in infertility. "Obesity affects about 40 percent of African elephants in captivity," said one researcher. "Much as we see in humans, excess fat in elephants contributes to the development of heart disease, arthritis, a shorter lifespan and infertility."

When good gut bacteria get sick Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:33 PM PDT Unique computational models have been used by researchers to show how infection can affect bacteria that naturally live in our intestines. The findings may ultimately help clinicians to better treat and prevent gastrointestinal infection and inflammation through a better understanding of the major alterations that occur when foreign bacteria disrupt the gut microbiota.

Nutritional, food safety benefits of organic farming documented by major study Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:33 PM PDT Organic foods and crops have a suite of advantages over their conventional counterparts, including more antioxidants and fewer, less frequent pesticide residues, the largest study of its kind has found. The study looked at an unprecedented 343 peer-reviewed publications comparing the nutritional quality and safety of organic and conventional plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, and grains. The study team applied sophisticated meta-analysis techniques to quantify differences between organic and non-organic foods.

Ecologists make first image of food niche Posted: 11 Jul 2014 07:13 AM PDT The ecological niche concept is very important in ecology. But what a niche looks like is fairly abstract. Now, for the first time, researchers have concretely visualized the ecological niche. The biologists have been able to determine the position of fourteen fish species in relationship to their food in a four-dimensional food diagram.

Beloved crape myrtle in nurseries now susceptible to bacterial leaf spot Posted: 10 Jul 2014 03:34 PM PDT Crape myrtle, an iconic tree in many yards around the country, has a new disease problem, researchers have found. Bacterial leaf spot doesn't kill the ornamental tree, but creates spots on its leaves that eventually turn yellow and drop. The researchers say, for now, the disease affects only crape myrtle commercial producers and is spread by factors such as overhead irrigation systems and large numbers of plants kept in close quarters.

Technology developed to redirect proteins towards specific areas of genome Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:16 AM PDT A research group has managed to reprogram the binding of a protein called BuD to DNA in order to redirect it towards specific DNA regions. The lead researcher says the discovery "will allow us to modify and edit the instructions contained in the genome to treat genetic diseases or to develop genetically-modified organisms."

Overfishing in English Channel leaves fisherman scraping bottom of the barrel Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:15 AM PDT Decades of overfishing in the English Channel has resulted in the removal of many top predators from the sea and left fishermen 'scraping the barrel' for increasing amounts of shellfish to make up their catch. Sharks, rays, cod, haddock and many other species at the head of the food chain are at historic lows with many removed from the area completely.

Window of opportunity against HIV comes from 'fitness bottleneck' Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:15 AM PDT New research on HIV transmission among heterosexual couples in Zambia shows that viral fitness is an important basis of a 'genetic bottleneck' imposed every time a new person is infected. The findings define a window of opportunity for drugs or vaccines to prevent or limit infection. HIV represents evolution on overdrive. Every infected individual contains a swarm of viruses that exhibit variability in their RNA sequence, and new mutations are constantly appearing. Yet nearly every time someone new is infected, this diverse population of viruses gets squeezed down to just one individual.

Feedback control could be key to robust conservation management Posted: 10 Jul 2014 10:10 AM PDT Mathematical algorithms used to control everyday household items such as washing machines could hold the key to winning the fight for conservation, a new study has claimed. A team of scientists and mathematicians has shown how techniques commonly used in control engineering, could be replicated in the natural world to help restock declining populations.

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