ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Global experts question claims about jellyfish populations
• Yellow-cedar are dying in Alaska: Scientists now know why
• Sun delivered curveball of powerful radiation at Earth
• Spider web's strength lies in more than its silk
• Bacterial plasmids -- the freeloading and the heavy-lifters -- balance the high price of disease
• Chaos in the cell's command center
• Road runoff spurring spotted salamander evolution
• Tropical cyclones to cause greater damage, researchers predict
• Less summer Arctic sea ice cover means colder, snowier winters in Central Europe
• Available information on the free release of genetically modified insects into the wild is highly restricted
• First plants caused ice ages, new research reveals
• Genetic information migrates from plant to plant

Global experts question claims about jellyfish populations Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:12 PM PST Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants -- and recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. Now, a new study questions claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide and suggests claims are not supported with any hard evidence or scientific analyses to date.

Yellow-cedar are dying in Alaska: Scientists now know why Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:12 PM PST Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why -- until now.

Sun delivered curveball of powerful radiation at Earth Posted: 01 Feb 2012 11:24 AM PST A potent follow-up solar flare, which occurred Jan. 17, 2012, just days after the Sun launched the biggest coronal mass ejection seen in nearly a decade, delivered a powerful radiation punch to Earth's magnetic field despite the fact that it was aimed away from our planet.

Spider web's strength lies in more than its silk Posted: 01 Feb 2012 11:00 AM PST A study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations has shown that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously varying stresses.

Bacterial plasmids -- the freeloading and the heavy-lifters -- balance the high price of disease Posted: 01 Feb 2012 10:53 AM PST Studying self-replicating genetic units, called plasmids, found in one of the world's widest-ranging pathogenic soil bacteria -- the crown-gall-disease-causing microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- biologists are showing how freeloading, mutant derivatives of these plasmids benefit while the virulent, disease-causing plasmids do the heavy-lifting of initiating infection in plant hosts. The research confirms that the ability of bacteria to cause disease comes at a significant cost that is only counterbalanced by the benefits they experience from infected host organisms.

Chaos in the cell's command center Posted: 01 Feb 2012 10:53 AM PST Researchers have determined the critical role one enzyme, lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), plays as mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) differentiate. This research may provide targets for developing drugs to push cells with dysfunctional gene expression programs back to a more normal, healthier state.

Road runoff spurring spotted salamander evolution Posted: 01 Feb 2012 09:07 AM PST Spotted salamanders exposed to contaminated roadside ponds are adapting to their toxic environments, according to new research. The study provides the first documented evidence that a vertebrate has adapted to the negative effects of roads apparently by evolving rapidly.

Tropical cyclones to cause greater damage, researchers predict Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:52 AM PST Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by 2100, according to researchers in a new paper. That figure represents an increased vulnerability from population and especially economic growth, as well as the effects of climate change. Greater vulnerability to cyclones is expected to increase global tropical damage to $56 billion by 2100 -- double the current damage -- from the current rate of $26 billion per year if the present climate remains stable.

Less summer Arctic sea ice cover means colder, snowier winters in Central Europe Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:51 AM PST Even if the current weather situation may seem to go against it, the probability of cold winters with a lot of snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer.

Available information on the free release of genetically modified insects into the wild is highly restricted Posted: 01 Feb 2012 07:46 AM PST Scientists analyzing the release of genetically modified insects into the environment have found that access to accurate scientific information can be misleading.

First plants caused ice ages, new research reveals Posted: 01 Feb 2012 06:49 AM PST New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago. During this period the climate gradually cooled, leading to a series of 'ice ages.' This global cooling was caused by a dramatic reduction in atmospheric carbon, which this research now suggests was triggered by the arrival of plants.

Genetic information migrates from plant to plant Posted: 01 Feb 2012 06:31 AM PST To generate phylogenetic trees and investigate relationships between organisms, scientists usually look for similarities and differences in the DNA. Plant scientists were confounded by the fact that the DNA extracted from the plants' green chloroplasts sometimes showed the greatest similarities when related species grew in the same area. Scientists have now discovered that a transfer of entire chloroplasts, or at least their genomes, can occur in contact zones between plants. Inter-species crossing is not necessary. The new chloroplast genome can even be handed down to the next generation and, thereby, give a plant with new traits. These findings are of great importance to the understanding of evolution as well as the breeding of new plant varieties.

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