ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Foraging baboons are picky punters: Baboon foraging choices depend on their habitat and social status
• Surviving without ice: Arctic crustaceans use currents, deep-water migration to survive sea ice melts
• Warmer temperatures make new USDA plant zone map obsolete
• Long menopause allows killer whales to care for adult sons
• Genes render some rice species sterile: System of three genes prevents hybrid rice from reproducing, new study shows
• How fast can ice sheets respond to climate change?
• Snakes minus birds equals more spiders for Guam: Ecologists look for effects of bird loss caused by invasive brown treesnake
• Study of giant viruses shakes up tree of life
• Fruit flies reveal new evolutionary link for studying human health: How they control body temperature through circadian rhythm
• Devastating red alga discovered creeping north to maine
• Migratory moths profit from their journey
• World's hottest temperature cools a bit
• Gestational exposure to urban air pollution linked to vitamin D deficiency in newborns
• Feeding microbials to chickens leads to mysterious immune response
• Summer rain more likely over drier soils, new satellite data show
• Amazing photos chronicle staggering diversity of Bolivia's Madidi National Park
• New analysis of drinking water-related gastrointestinal illness in U.S.
• Over fishing tips scales towards a fish population of slow growing, couch potatoes
• Insecticide resistance caused by recombination of two genes: Novel enzyme makes cotton bollworm resistant against pyrethroids

Foraging baboons are picky punters: Baboon foraging choices depend on their habitat and social status Posted: 13 Sep 2012 05:39 PM PDT Baboons choose which tree to find food in and who to take foraging, just like humans decide where to shop and who to go shopping with.

Surviving without ice: Arctic crustaceans use currents, deep-water migration to survive sea ice melts Posted: 13 Sep 2012 02:30 PM PDT With sea ice in the Arctic melting to record lows in summer months, marine animals living there face dramatic changes to their environment. Yet some crustaceans, previously thought to spend their entire lives on the underside of sea ice, were recently discovered to migrate deep underwater and follow ocean currents back to colder areas when ice disappears.

Warmer temperatures make new USDA plant zone map obsolete Posted: 13 Sep 2012 12:11 PM PDT Gardeners and landscapers may want to rethink their fall tree plantings. Warming temperatures have already made the US Department of Agriculture's new cold-weather planting guidelines obsolete, according to Dr. Nir Krakauer, assistant professor of civil engineering in The City College of New York. He developed a new method to map cold-weather zones and overhauled the USDA's latest plant zone map.

Long menopause allows killer whales to care for adult sons Posted: 13 Sep 2012 11:14 AM PDT Scientists have found the answer to why female killer whales have the longest menopause of any non-human species -- to care for their adult sons. The research shows that, for a male over 30, the death of his mother means an almost 14-fold-increase in the likelihood of his death within the following year.

Genes render some rice species sterile: System of three genes prevents hybrid rice from reproducing, new study shows Posted: 13 Sep 2012 11:14 AM PDT Researchers have identified a set of three genes that are responsible for hybrid sterility in rice, or the inability of many hybrid rice species to pass their genes on to the next generation. These findings inform a model that suggests how such hybrid sterility is maintained across rice species, and they may lead to the genetic improvement of rice as a food stock.

How fast can ice sheets respond to climate change? Posted: 13 Sep 2012 11:11 AM PDT A new Arctic study is helping to unravel an important mystery surrounding climate change: How quickly glaciers can melt and grow in response to shifts in temperature. According to the new research, glaciers on Canada's Baffin Island expanded rapidly during a brief cold snap about 8,200 years ago. The discovery adds to a growing body of evidence showing that ice sheets reacted rapidly in the past to cooling or warming, raising concerns that they could do so again as Earth heats up.

Snakes minus birds equals more spiders for Guam: Ecologists look for effects of bird loss caused by invasive brown treesnake Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:36 AM PDT Ecologists have found as many as 40 times more spiders in Guam's remote jungle than are found on nearby islands. The booming spider population is likely due to the destruction of the island's forest birds, including those that eat insects, by the invasive brown treesnake. The large-scale cross-island comparison uncovered a larger effect of birds on spiders than had been predicted from small-scale experiments.

Study of giant viruses shakes up tree of life Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:35 AM PDT A new study of giant viruses supports the idea that viruses are ancient living organisms and not inanimate molecular remnants run amok, as some scientists have argued. The study reshapes the universal family tree, adding a fourth major branch to the three that most scientists agree represent the fundamental domains of life.

Fruit flies reveal new evolutionary link for studying human health: How they control body temperature through circadian rhythm Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT New research reveals that fruit flies and mammals may share a surprising evolutionary link in how they control body temperature through circadian rhythm, unlocking new ways to study the insects as models of human development and disease. The study reports that similar to people, Drosophila fruit flies have a genetically driven internal clock. This circadian clock prompts the insects to seek out warmer or cooler external temperatures.

Devastating red alga discovered creeping north to maine Posted: 13 Sep 2012 09:28 AM PDT The shores of Appledore Island, Maine -- just six miles from the New Hampshire coast -- are being invaded by an aggressive red algae that can foul popular tourist beaches and damage vital local fisheries, according to researchers.

Migratory moths profit from their journey Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:50 AM PDT It isn't only birds that move south as autumn approaches. Some insects also live their lives on the same principle. A new study of migratory insects has just been published that shows that a considerably higher number of insects survive and migrate back south in the autumn than was previously believed.

World's hottest temperature cools a bit Posted: 13 Sep 2012 06:21 AM PDT If you think this summer was hot, it's nothing compared to the summer of 1913, when the hottest temperature ever recorded was a searing 134 F in Death Valley, Calif. But while that reading was made 99 years ago, it is only being recognized today by the World Meteorological Organization as the most extreme temperature ever recorded. That's because an international team of meteorologists recently finished an in-depth investigation of what had been the world-record temperature extreme of 58 degrees Celsius (136.4 F), recorded on Sept. 13, 1922, in El Azizia, Libya. The group found that there were enough questions surrounding the measurement and how it was made that it was probably inaccurate, overturning the record 90 years to the day it was recorded.

Gestational exposure to urban air pollution linked to vitamin D deficiency in newborns Posted: 13 Sep 2012 05:39 AM PDT Gestational exposure to ambient urban air pollution, especially during late pregnancy, may contribute to lower vitamin D levels in offspring, according to a recent study.

Feeding microbials to chickens leads to mysterious immune response Posted: 12 Sep 2012 01:16 PM PDT A recent article helps researchers further understand how microbials and probiotics affect poultry health. These findings could have long standing implications as producers feel the pressure to move away from the sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics.

Summer rain more likely over drier soils, new satellite data show Posted: 12 Sep 2012 12:29 PM PDT Where does it rain on a hot day's afternoon? New satellite data show that soil moisture plays an important role. It influences precipitation in a way which is quite different from what models have predicted so far.

Amazing photos chronicle staggering diversity of Bolivia's Madidi National Park Posted: 12 Sep 2012 12:28 PM PDT A remote park in northwest Bolivia may be the most biologically diverse place on earth, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which helped put together a comprehensive list of species found there.

New analysis of drinking water-related gastrointestinal illness in U.S. Posted: 12 Sep 2012 09:58 AM PDT The distribution system piping in U.S. public water systems that rely on non-disinfected well water or "ground water" may be a largely unrecognized cause of up to 1.1 million annual cases of acute gastrointestinal illness, involving nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, scientists are reporting. Their study concludes that such illnesses may become more of a problem as much of the nation's drinking water supply system continues to deteriorate.

Over fishing tips scales towards a fish population of slow growing, couch potatoes Posted: 12 Sep 2012 06:38 AM PDT Fish populations around the world could soon be full of slow growing, unproductive 'couch potatoes' if the current levels of intensive fishing continue, according to new research. Scientists found that faster growing fish, regardless of their size, fall prey to fishing nets at twice the rate of slower growing fish.

Insecticide resistance caused by recombination of two genes: Novel enzyme makes cotton bollworm resistant against pyrethroids Posted: 12 Sep 2012 06:35 AM PDT Insecticide resistance in crop pests is a serious global problem. Scientists have now found out what causes the strong resistance of an Australian strain of cotton bollworms to fenvalerate. The larvae evolved a novel enzyme capable of detoxifying fenvalerate in one single chemical reaction from the group of so-called P450 monooxygenases. The gene encoding the enzyme is a chimera -- a combination of parts of two precursor genes.

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