ScienceDaily: Top Environment News |
- Around the world in four days: NASA tracks Chelyabinsk meteor plume
- Warming climate pushes plants up the mountain
- Changing climate may have driven collapse of civilizations in Late Bronze Age
- Ostrich necks reveal sauropod movements, food habits
- How will crops fare under climate change? Depends on how you ask
- Beetles in rubber boots: Scientists study ladybugs' feet
- Extreme weather events fuel climate change
- Earth orbit changes key to Antarctic warming that ended last ice age
- Successful deployment of an autonomous deep-sea explorer to search for new forms of microbial life
- First documented report of swimming and diving in apes
- Burmese long-tailed macaques' use of stone tools is being threatened by human activity in Thailand
| Around the world in four days: NASA tracks Chelyabinsk meteor plume Posted: 14 Aug 2013 04:22 PM PDT Atmospheric physicist Nick Gorkavyi missed witnessing an event of the century last winter when a meteor exploded over his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia. From Greenbelt, Md., however, NASA's Gorkavyi and colleagues witnessed a never-before-seen view of the atmospheric aftermath of the explosion. |
| Warming climate pushes plants up the mountain Posted: 14 Aug 2013 04:22 PM PDT In a rare opportunity to directly compare plant communities in the same area now with a survey taken 50 years ago, biologists have provided the first on-the-ground evidence that Southwestern plants are being pushed to higher elevations by an increasingly warmer and drier climate. |
| Changing climate may have driven collapse of civilizations in Late Bronze Age Posted: 14 Aug 2013 04:19 PM PDT Climate change may have driven the collapse of once-flourishing Eastern Mediterranean civilizations towards the end of the 13th century BC, according to new research. |
| Ostrich necks reveal sauropod movements, food habits Posted: 14 Aug 2013 04:19 PM PDT A new analysis of ostriches reveals that a computer model of long-necked sauropods used to simulate the dinosaurs' movements, featured in BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and the focus of an installation at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, does not correctly reconstruct how flexible their necks were. |
| How will crops fare under climate change? Depends on how you ask Posted: 14 Aug 2013 11:48 AM PDT The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which type of model was used to make those projections, according to new research. |
| Beetles in rubber boots: Scientists study ladybugs' feet Posted: 14 Aug 2013 11:47 AM PDT During their evolution, insects have developed various unique features to survive in their environment. The knowledge of the working principles of insects' microstructures holds great potential for the development of new materials, which could be of use to humans. With this idea scientists have investigated how insects manage to efficiently cling to diverse surfaces. |
| Extreme weather events fuel climate change Posted: 14 Aug 2013 10:23 AM PDT In 2003, Central and Southern Europe sweltered in a heatwave that set alarm bells ringing for researchers. It was one of the first large-scale extreme weather events which scientists were able to use to document in detail how heat and drought affected the carbon cycle (the exchange of carbon dioxide between the terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere). Measurements indicated that the extreme weather events had a much greater impact on the carbon balance than had previously been assumed. It is possible that droughts, heat waves and storms weaken the buffer effect exerted by terrestrial ecosystems on the climate system. In the past 50 years, plants and the soil have absorbed up to 30% of the carbon dioxide that humans have set free, primarily from fossil fuels. |
| Earth orbit changes key to Antarctic warming that ended last ice age Posted: 14 Aug 2013 10:22 AM PDT New research from an ice core taken from West Antarctica shows that the warming that ended the last ice age in Antarctica began at least two, and perhaps four, millennia earlier than previously thought. |
| Successful deployment of an autonomous deep-sea explorer to search for new forms of microbial life Posted: 14 Aug 2013 09:49 AM PDT Scientists are reporting "a significant step forward" in proving the feasibility of launching fleets of autonomous robots that search Earth's deep oceans for exotic new life forms. Their description of successful deployment of the trailblazer for such a project -- an autonomous seafloor lander equipped with a mini-laboratory the size of a kitchen trash can that is able to detect minute traces of DNA in the deep oceans. |
| First documented report of swimming and diving in apes Posted: 14 Aug 2013 07:02 AM PDT Two researchers have provided the first video-based observation of swimming and diving apes. Instead of the usual dog-paddle stroke used by most terrestrial mammals, these animals use a kind of breaststroke. The swimming strokes peculiar to humans and apes might be the result of an earlier adaptation to an arboreal life. |
| Burmese long-tailed macaques' use of stone tools is being threatened by human activity in Thailand Posted: 14 Aug 2013 07:01 AM PDT The Burmese long-tailed macaques' use of stone tools is being threatened by human activity in Thailand. |
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