ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Key to new antibiotics could be deep within isolated cave
• Buy coal? New analysis shows purchasing fossil fuel deposits best way to fight climate change
• Exotic manure is sure to lure the dung connoisseur
• Ocean acidification linked to larval oyster failure
• Sparrow migration tracked for first time from California to Alaska
• Seed size is controlled by maternally produced small RNAs, scientists find
• Powerful sequencing technology decodes DNA folding pattern
• Tackle fungal forces to save crops, forests and endangered animals, say scientists
• Global effort launched to save turtles from extinction
• Duck-billed dinosaurs endured long, dark polar winters
• Feral pigs can carry nasty bacteria that can be transmitted to people
• Gene switches do more than flip 'on' or 'off': Can exhibit much more complex binding behavior
• New insights into when beach sand may become unsafe for digging and other contact
• Could 'advanced' dinosaurs rule other planets?
• Oldest-ever reptile embryos unearthed
• Bats save energy by drawing in wings on upstroke
• Widespread adaptability: Coral reefs may be able to adapt to climate change with help from algae
• Wildlife thriving after nuclear disaster? Radiation from Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents not as harmful to wildlife as feared

Key to new antibiotics could be deep within isolated cave Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:54 PM PDT Researchers discovered a remarkable prevalence of antibiotic resistance bacteria isolated from Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, one of the deepest and largest caves in the world and a place isolated from human contact for more than four million years.

Buy coal? New analysis shows purchasing fossil fuel deposits best way to fight climate change Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:16 PM PDT New research suggests that actually buying coal, oil and other dirty fossil fuel deposits still in the ground could be a far better way to fight climate change.

Exotic manure is sure to lure the dung connoisseur Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:16 PM PDT A two-year study involving more than 9,000 dung beetles evaluated their preferences for exotic herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore dung in the Great Plains of North America.

Ocean acidification linked to larval oyster failure Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT Researchers have definitively linked an increase in ocean acidification to the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon, where larval growth had declined to a level considered by the owners to be "non-economically viable."

Sparrow migration tracked for first time from California to Alaska Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT Using tiny tags to track a bird's location, biologists have unlocked the mystery of where golden-crowned sparrows, which overwinter in California, go to breed in the spring. By using tags that record day length to estimate location, the biologists determined that four golden-crowned sparrows tagged in central coastal California spent the breeding season along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska.

Seed size is controlled by maternally produced small RNAs, scientists find Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT Seed size is controlled by small RNA molecules inherited from a plant's mother, a discovery that has implications for agriculture and understanding plant evolution.

Powerful sequencing technology decodes DNA folding pattern Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT Using a powerful DNA sequencing methodology, researchers have now investigated the three-dimensional structure of DNA folds in the nucleus of a chromosome. The findings provide scientists with a greater understanding about the basic principles of DNA folding and its role in gene regulation.

Tackle fungal forces to save crops, forests and endangered animals, say scientists Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:20 AM PDT More than 600 million people could be fed each year by halting the spread of fungal diseases in the world's five most important crops, according to new research.

Global effort launched to save turtles from extinction Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT A global effort to take direct responsibility for the continued survival of some of the world's most endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles has just been launched.

Duck-billed dinosaurs endured long, dark polar winters Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT Duck-billed dinosaurs that lived within Arctic latitudes approximately 70 million years ago likely endured long, dark polar winters instead of migrating to more southern latitudes.

Feral pigs can carry nasty bacteria that can be transmitted to people Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT A new study shows that, for the first time since testing began several years ago, feral pigs in North Carolina have tested positive for Brucella suis, an important and harmful bacteria that can be transmitted to people.

Gene switches do more than flip 'on' or 'off': Can exhibit much more complex binding behavior Posted: 11 Apr 2012 10:19 AM PDT Scientists have found that transcription factors don't act like an 'on-off' switch, but instead can exhibit much more complex binding behavior.

New insights into when beach sand may become unsafe for digging and other contact Posted: 11 Apr 2012 09:05 AM PDT With summer days at the beach on the minds of millions of winter-weary people, a new study provides health departments with information needed to determine when levels of disease-causing bacteria in beach sand could pose a risk to children and others who dig or play in the sand.

Could 'advanced' dinosaurs rule other planets? Posted: 11 Apr 2012 09:05 AM PDT New scientific research raises the possibility that advanced versions of T. rex and other dinosaurs -- monstrous creatures with the intelligence and cunning of humans -- may be the life forms that evolved on other planets in the universe. "We would be better off not meeting them," concludes the study, which appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Oldest-ever reptile embryos unearthed Posted: 11 Apr 2012 09:03 AM PDT Dating back 280 million years or so, the oldest known fossil reptile embryos have been unearthed in Uruguay and Brazil. They belong to the ancient aquatic reptiles, mesosaurs. The study of these exceptionally well-preserved fossils suggests that mesosaurs were either viviparous (pushing back this mode of reproduction by 60 million years) or that they laid eggs in advanced stages of development.

Bats save energy by drawing in wings on upstroke Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:41 AM PDT Bat wings are like hands: meaty, bony and full of joints. A new study finds that bats take advantage of their flexibility by folding in their wings on the upstroke to save inertial energy. The research suggests that engineers looking at flapping flight should account for wing mass and consider a folding design.

Widespread adaptability: Coral reefs may be able to adapt to climate change with help from algae Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:41 AM PDT Large-scale global survey of corals using high sensitivity genetic analysis shows many coral species can host multiple algal symbionts -- including some thought to help survive warming oceans.

Wildlife thriving after nuclear disaster? Radiation from Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents not as harmful to wildlife as feared Posted: 11 Apr 2012 05:41 AM PDT Radiation from the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents may not have been as harmful to wildlife as previously thought.

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