ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Report card shows Australia's oceans are changing
• Organisms cope with environmental uncertainty by guessing the future
• Triage for plants: Scientists develop and test rapid species conservation assessment technique
• Common parasite may trigger suicide attempts: Inflammation from T. gondii produces brain-damaging metabolites
• Researchers improve soil carbon cycling models
• 2,4-D resistance found in weeds could limit the herbicide’s future usefulness
• Democracy works for Endangered Species Act, study finds; Citizen involvement key in protecting and saving threatened species
• Mineral can reduce pollution from diesel engines by almost half
• Bioremediation of toxic metals using worms: Earthworms soak up heavy metal
• Polar bears dying in zoo from virus that jumped from zebras
• Poxviruses defeat antiviral defenses by duplicating a gene
• Climate and drought lessons from ancient Egypt
• Bird louse study shows how evolution sometimes repeats itself
• A GPS in your DNA
• Tibetan Plateau may be older than previously thought
• Sunflowers inspire more efficient solar power system
• 'Dinosaur bends' caused by prolonged diving
• Invasive brittle star species hits Atlantic Ocean
• Global warming causes more extreme shifts of the Southern Hemisphere's largest rain band, study suggests
• Some like it hot: Cold-blooded tropical species 'not as vulnerable' to climate change extinction
• Beetle mating requires strong grip as defensive behavior

Report card shows Australia's oceans are changing Posted: 16 Aug 2012 05:16 PM PDT The 2012 Marine Climate Change in Australia Report Card shows climate change is having significant impacts on Australia's marine ecosystems.

Organisms cope with environmental uncertainty by guessing the future Posted: 16 Aug 2012 05:16 PM PDT In uncertain environments, organisms not only react to signals, but also use molecular processes to make guesses about the future, according to a new study. The authors report that if environmental signals are unreliable, organisms are expected to evolve the ability to take random decisions about adapting to cope with adverse situations.

Triage for plants: Scientists develop and test rapid species conservation assessment technique Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:04 PM PDT Faced with a host of environmental threats, many of the world's plant species are believed to be at risk of extinction. But which species? To answer that question, scientists have developed a streamlined method for assessing the conservation status of large numbers of species. Evaluating the flora of Puerto Rico, they found that 459 species -- 23 percent of the flora -- should be classified as "At Risk." The process could help focus conservation efforts where they are most needed.

Common parasite may trigger suicide attempts: Inflammation from T. gondii produces brain-damaging metabolites Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:04 PM PDT A parasite thought to be harmless and found in many people may actually be causing subtle changes in the brain, leading to suicide attempts. New research adds to the growing work linking an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite to suicide attempts.

Researchers improve soil carbon cycling models Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:03 PM PDT A new carbon cycling model better accounts for the carbon dioxide-releasing activity of microbes in the ground, improving scientists' understanding of the role soil will play in future climate change.

2,4-D resistance found in weeds could limit the herbicide’s future usefulness Posted: 16 Aug 2012 12:18 PM PDT Even as crops resistant to 2,4-D herbicide are being developed, populations of weeds are also developing a resistance. A 2,4-D–resistant variety of the waterhemp weed has been found, and its spread could lessen the impact of an herbicide widely used in grassland and crop production. Despite worldwide use of 2,4-D since the 1940s, only 17 weeds were previously known to be resistant to it.

Democracy works for Endangered Species Act, study finds; Citizen involvement key in protecting and saving threatened species Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:15 AM PDT In protecting endangered species, the power of the people is key, an analysis of listings under the US Endangered Species Act finds. The analysis compares listings of "endangered" and "threatened" species initiated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that administers the Endangered Species Act, to those initiated by citizen petition. Researchers found that citizens, on average, do a better job of picking species that are threatened than does the FWS.

Mineral can reduce pollution from diesel engines by almost half Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:14 AM PDT A catalyst that can replace platinum in diesel engines has been shown to reduce pollution by up to 45 percent. The catalyst, mullite, is from the family of minerals known as oxides. The finding opens new possibilities to create renewable, clean energy technology without precious metals.

Bioremediation of toxic metals using worms: Earthworms soak up heavy metal Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:34 AM PDT Earthworms could be used to extract toxic heavy metals, including cadmium and lead, from solid waste from domestic refuse collection and waste from vegetable and flower markets, according to researchers.

Polar bears dying in zoo from virus that jumped from zebras Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:34 AM PDT Zoos bring together different animal species that would never encounter each other in the wild. On occasion, this can have unforeseen consequences. When in 2010 at the Wuppertal Zoo one polar bear died and another fell severely ill, zoo veterinarians were at a loss as to the cause of the symptoms. It has now been shown that the bears were infected with a recombinant zebra-derived virus that had jumped into other species.

Poxviruses defeat antiviral defenses by duplicating a gene Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:18 AM PDT Poxviruses, which are responsible for smallpox and other diseases, can adapt to defeat different host antiviral defenses by quickly and temporarily producing multiple copies of a gene that helps the viruses to counter host immunity.

Climate and drought lessons from ancient Egypt Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:08 AM PDT Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt's Nile Delta document the region's ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time.

Bird louse study shows how evolution sometimes repeats itself Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:08 AM PDT Birds of a feather flock together and -- according to a new analysis -- so do their lice. A study of the genetic heritage of avian feather lice indicates that their louse ancestors first colonized a particular group of birds (ducks or songbirds, for example) and then "radiated" to different habitats on those birds -- to the wings or heads, for instance, where they evolved into different species.

A GPS in your DNA Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:10 AM PDT Scientists have devised a method for more precisely determining the geographical location of a person's ancestral origins based on a model of genetic traits for every coordinate on the globe. He says that the method also has the potential to reveal new information about the migration patterns of many different human and animal populations.

Tibetan Plateau may be older than previously thought Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:10 AM PDT The growth of high topography on the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan, China, began much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of geologists who looked at mountain ranges along the eastern edge of the plateau.

Sunflowers inspire more efficient solar power system Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:09 AM PDT A field of young sunflowers will slowly rotate from east to west during the course of a sunny day, each leaf seeking out as much sunlight as possible as the sun moves across the sky through an adaptation called heliotropism. It's a clever bit of natural engineering that inspired imitation from an electrical and computer engineer, who has found a way to mimic the passive heliotropism seen in sunflowers for use in the next crop of solar power systems.

'Dinosaur bends' caused by prolonged diving Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:24 AM PDT Dinosaur-like creatures may have injured themselves during leisurely deep-sea diving trips and not from resurfacing too quickly, as previously thought.

Invasive brittle star species hits Atlantic Ocean Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:24 AM PDT Coral Reefs has published online a study about an invasive species of brittle star. The species was previously restricted to Pacific waters, but surprisingly, growing populations have established themselves at distant points in the Atlantic. Its presence near Brazilian and Caribbean ports indicates that O. mirabilis could have been spread by shipping.

Global warming causes more extreme shifts of the Southern Hemisphere's largest rain band, study suggests Posted: 16 Aug 2012 04:54 AM PDT South Pacific countries will experience more extreme floods and droughts, in response to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new article.

Some like it hot: Cold-blooded tropical species 'not as vulnerable' to climate change extinction Posted: 16 Aug 2012 04:54 AM PDT In the face of a changing climate, many species must adapt or perish. Ecologists studying evolutionary responses to climate change forecast that cold-blooded tropical species are not as vulnerable to extinction as previously thought. The study considers how fast species can evolve and adapt to compensate for a rise in temperature.

Beetle mating requires strong grip as defensive behavior Posted: 15 Aug 2012 02:48 PM PDT Sexual selection in the forked fungus beetle favors larger body and horn size, and a new study investigates the relationship between these traits and the beetles' grip strength.

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