ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Wetter Arctic could influence climate change, study finds
• Albatross 'dynamic soaring' achieved by repeated curve-altitude oscillation
• Picky penguins: Does mate choice depend on genes that help resist disease?
• Dinosaur die out might have been second of two closely timed extinctions
• Carbon sequestration on U. S. rangelands offers promise, but not profit
• How ocean energy impacts life in the deep sea: Results will help scientists understand what to expect under future climate change
• Loss of tropical forests reduces rain
• List of Asian species at conservation crossroads released by Wildlife Conservation Society
• Salamanders display survival techniques in period of extreme drought
• Concern about plans to close unique Canadian environmental project
• Glacial thinning has sharply accelerated at major South American icefields
• It pays to keep salmon fit: Salmon farmers could save big by exercising their fish more -- without overexerting them
• Archaeology team announces 'huge step forward' in King Richard III search
• Trout will become extinct in the Iberian Peninsula in less than 100 years, Spanish study predicts
• Northwest Barents Sea warmed substantially during the last decades
• Ecosystems cope with stress more effectively the greater the biodiversity
• In elk hunting, success depends on the animal's personality

Wetter Arctic could influence climate change, study finds Posted: 05 Sep 2012 05:05 PM PDT Increased precipitation and river discharge in the Arctic has the potential to speed climate change, according to the results of a new study.

Albatross 'dynamic soaring' achieved by repeated curve-altitude oscillation Posted: 05 Sep 2012 02:16 PM PDT Albatrosses leverage the energy of the wind to fly with essentially no mechanical cost to themselves, very rarely flapping their wings, and new work offers insight into how exactly they accomplish this feat.

Picky penguins: Does mate choice depend on genes that help resist disease? Posted: 05 Sep 2012 01:37 PM PDT Magellanic penguins have a high level of variation in genes associated with the ability to fight infectious disease, but a recent study found that the mechanism the penguins use to ensure that diversity is far from black and white. A recent study tested whether the significant diversity in the Major Histocompatibility Complex genome region observed in these birds is attributable to mate choice or genetic selection based on disease exposure.

Dinosaur die out might have been second of two closely timed extinctions Posted: 05 Sep 2012 12:43 PM PDT New research indicates that shortly before an asteroid impact spelled doom for the dinosaurs, a separate extinction triggered by volcanic eruptions killed life on the ocean floor.

Carbon sequestration on U. S. rangelands offers promise, but not profit Posted: 05 Sep 2012 11:16 AM PDT Nearly 239 million hectares of land in the United States are devoted to pastures and rangeland. Worldwide, rangelands cover about 3.6 billion hectares. Harnessing the potential for carbon sequestration from these lands could have a global impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

How ocean energy impacts life in the deep sea: Results will help scientists understand what to expect under future climate change Posted: 05 Sep 2012 10:53 AM PDT A new study of deep-sea species worldwide examines how gradients in food and temperature in the deep sea's dark, frigid waters affect the creatures that live there. Similar studies have been conducted in the shallow oceans, but our understanding of the impact of food and temperature on life in the deep sea -- the Earth's largest and most remote ecosystem -- is more limited. The results will help scientists understand what to expect under future climate change.

Loss of tropical forests reduces rain Posted: 05 Sep 2012 10:50 AM PDT Deforestation can have a significant effect on tropical rainfall, new research confirms. The findings have potentially devastating impacts for people living in and near the Amazon and Congo forests. Continued destruction of these forests would reduce rain across the Amazon basin by up to a fifth (21 percent) in the dry season by 2050.

List of Asian species at conservation crossroads released by Wildlife Conservation Society Posted: 05 Sep 2012 10:48 AM PDT The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today released a list of Asian species that are at a conservation crossroads calling for governments to take immediate action with The Three Rs Approach: Recognition, Responsibility, Recovery.

Salamanders display survival techniques in period of extreme drought Posted: 05 Sep 2012 09:27 AM PDT The stress of drought is acutely felt by aquatic animals such as salamanders. The extreme drought in the southeastern United States in 2007–2008 provided an opportunity to study how salamanders react and survive during such dry conditions. It also gave us clues as to how salamanders and other aquatic organisms may react to global warming.

Concern about plans to close unique Canadian environmental project Posted: 05 Sep 2012 08:11 AM PDT The Canadian government's plans to discontinue in 2013 a unique environmental research project that has yielded insights into water pollution, climate change and other topics for almost 40 years would be a "huge loss not only to science but to the scientific heritage of humanity."

Glacial thinning has sharply accelerated at major South American icefields Posted: 05 Sep 2012 08:05 AM PDT For the past four decades scientists have monitored the ebbs and flows of the icefields in the southernmost stretch of South America's vast Andes Mountains, detecting an overall loss of ice as the climate warms. A new study, however, finds that the rate of glacier thinning has increased by about half over the last dozen years in the Southern Patagonian Icefield, compared to the 30 years prior to 2000.

It pays to keep salmon fit: Salmon farmers could save big by exercising their fish more -- without overexerting them Posted: 05 Sep 2012 05:39 AM PDT Salmon farmers could save huge sums by exercising their fish more. Researchers in Norway have tested various swimming exercise regimes for three years on salmon fry. The findings indicate that proper exercise can improve smolt health enough to significantly reduce losses at sea.

Archaeology team announces 'huge step forward' in King Richard III search Posted: 05 Sep 2012 05:39 AM PDT A UK team confirms it has found medieval Grey Friars Church -- the burial place of Richard III.

Trout will become extinct in the Iberian Peninsula in less than 100 years, Spanish study predicts Posted: 05 Sep 2012 05:38 AM PDT Climate change, pollution, the extraction of water for irrigation and overfishing all threaten the survival of the common trout. This fish is very sensitive to changes in its environment and, according to a Spanish study, its habitat will have reduced by half by the year 2040 and will have completely disappeared from Iberian rivers by 2100, so its population will become extinct.

Northwest Barents Sea warmed substantially during the last decades Posted: 05 Sep 2012 05:37 AM PDT A recent study by researchers in Norway shows that the northwest Barents Sea warmed substantially during the last decades. The temperature of the subsurface Atlantic Water in the northern Barents Sea increased rapidly during the late 1990s.

Ecosystems cope with stress more effectively the greater the biodiversity Posted: 05 Sep 2012 05:37 AM PDT Ecosystems with a high degree of biodiversity can cope with more stress, such as higher temperatures or increasing salt concentrations, than those with less biodiversity. They can also maintain their services for longer, as botanists and ecologists have discovered. Their study provides the first evidence of the relationship between stress intensity and ecosystem functioning.

In elk hunting, success depends on the animal's personality Posted: 04 Sep 2012 04:37 PM PDT New research shows an elk's personality type is a big factor in whether or not it survives the hunting season. Data collected from GPS collars on more than 100 male and female elk in southwestern Alberta showed researchers the study population could be divided into two categories: bold runners and shy hiders, researchers found far more bold-runners were taken by elk hunters than shy hiders.

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