ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Beneficial microbes are 'selected and nurtured' in the human gut
• Birch tree genome sequenced for first time
• Wormholes from centuries-old art prints reveal the history of the 'worms'
• Warming to shift heavy rainfall patterns in the UK
• High-speed video and artificial flowers shed light on mysteries of hummingbird-pollinated flowers
• Herbivore defense in ferns
• Natural fungus may provide effective bed bug control
• Seals gamble with their pups' futures
• Chimpanzees and bonobos may reveal clues to evolution of favor exchange in humans
• Ribosome regulates viral protein synthesis, revealing potential therapeutic target
• Engineered bacteria can make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the population
• Algae can take energy from other plants
• Urban noise makes flycatchers change length of their songs
• Fragile Western Isles ecosystem under threat: Misconceived sea defense measures will destroy machair, says expert
• Thousands of natural gas leaks discovered in Boston
• How does antibiotic resistance spread? Scientists find answers in the nose
• Bias in ecology and climate studies? How leaves shrink as they dry out is often overlooked
• Four-degrees briefing for the World Bank: The risks of a future without climate policy

Beneficial microbes are 'selected and nurtured' in the human gut Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:35 PM PST Animals, including humans, actively select the gut microbes that are the best partners and nurture them with nutritious secretions, suggests a new study.

Birch tree genome sequenced for first time Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:35 PM PST Scientists have sequenced the genetic code of a birch tree for the first time, which could help protect birch populations.

Wormholes from centuries-old art prints reveal the history of the 'worms' Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:35 PM PST A new technique is the first of its kind to use printed art as a "trace fossil" to precisely date insect species and to identify their geographical locations. A biologistsdeveloped the technique and used it to examine art printed from woodblocks spanning five centuries. He then identified the species responsible for making the ever-present wormholes in European printed art since the Renaissance.

Warming to shift heavy rainfall patterns in the UK Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:33 PM PST It appears that it's not just us Brits who are fascinated with the UK weather. A group of researchers from Germany has taken to investigating the potential changes in extreme rainfall patterns across the UK as a result of future global warming and has found that in some regions, the time of year when we see the heaviest rainfall is set to shift.

High-speed video and artificial flowers shed light on mysteries of hummingbird-pollinated flowers Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:33 PM PST How flowers have evolved particular colours, shapes and scents to attract pollinators has long fascinated ecologists. Now, using artificial flowers and high-speed video, researchers have gained intriguing insights into the intimate relationship between hummingbirds and the flowers they pollinate. The study is the first to measure how much energy hummingbirds use while hovering to feed from flowers of different orientation.

Herbivore defense in ferns Posted: 20 Nov 2012 04:33 PM PST They dominated the earth for 200 million years and numerous different species can still be found all over the world: mosses, horsetails and ferns. Researchers have now found out that bracken ferns do not release any volatiles when they are attacked − unlike many of the now dominant and evolutionary younger flowering plants. Such an emission of volatile compounds may attract the pest insects' enemies, such as ichneumon wasps or predatory bugs, that parasitize herbivores. Nevertheless, volatile emission could be also elicited in fern fronds, if they had been treated with plant hormone jasmonic acid.

Natural fungus may provide effective bed bug control Posted: 20 Nov 2012 01:09 PM PST "Don't let the bed bugs bite" is no longer a harmless adage. In reality today, these bloodthirsty bugs infest thousands of homes. According to entomologists, biopesticides -- naturally occurring microorganisms -- might provide an answer to this pest problem.

Seals gamble with their pups' futures Posted: 20 Nov 2012 12:24 PM PST Some grey seal mums adopt risky tactics when it comes to the future of their young, a strategy that can give their pup a real advantage, according to scientists.

Chimpanzees and bonobos may reveal clues to evolution of favor exchange in humans Posted: 20 Nov 2012 10:29 AM PST When your neighbor asks to borrow a cup of sugar and you readily comply, is your positive response a function of the give and take that characterize your longstanding relationship? Or does it represent payment -- or prepayment -- for the cup of sugar you borrowed last week, or may need to borrow a month from now?

Ribosome regulates viral protein synthesis, revealing potential therapeutic target Posted: 20 Nov 2012 10:29 AM PST Rather than target RNA viruses directly, aiming at the host cells they invade could hold promise, but any such strategy would have to be harmless to the host. Now, a surprising discovery made in ribosomes may point the way to fighting fatal viral infections such as rabies.

Engineered bacteria can make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the population Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:19 AM PST Scientists have engineered bacteria that are capable of sacrificing themselves for the good of the bacterial population. These altruistically inclined bacteria can be used to demonstrate the conditions where programmed cell death becomes a distinct advantage for the survival of the bacterial population.

Algae can take energy from other plants Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:19 AM PST Flowers need water and light to grow. Even children learn that plants use sunlight to gather energy from earth and water. Biologists have made an astounding discovery that one plant has another way of doing this. They have confirmed for the first time that a plant not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: it can draw it from other plants. This finding could also have a major impact on the future of bioenergy.

Urban noise makes flycatchers change length of their songs Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:19 AM PST Do birds change their tune in response to urban noise? It depends on the bird species, according to new research. Their work shows that while some birds do adapt their songs in noisy conditions by means of frequency changes, others like the vermilion flycatchers adapt their song by means of changes in song lengths.

Fragile Western Isles ecosystem under threat: Misconceived sea defense measures will destroy machair, says expert Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:19 AM PST The traditional crofting way of life is under threat in Scotland's Western Isles because of a fundamental misunderstanding of how Atlantic wave action affects their coastlines, a academic has revealed.

Thousands of natural gas leaks discovered in Boston Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:18 AM PST The City of Boston is riddled with more than 3,000 leaks from its aging natural-gas pipeline system, according to a new study.

How does antibiotic resistance spread? Scientists find answers in the nose Posted: 20 Nov 2012 09:18 AM PST Microbiologists studying bacterial colonization in mice have discovered how the very rapid and efficient spread of antibiotic resistance works in the respiratory pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae (also known as the pneumococcus). The team found that resistance stems from the transfer of DNA between bacterial strains in biofilms in the nasopharynx, the area just behind the nose.

Bias in ecology and climate studies? How leaves shrink as they dry out is often overlooked Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:04 AM PST The simple observation that leaves shrink when they dry out has far-reaching consequences for scientists studying how ecosystems work, a graduate student has discovered. Enlisting a team of 40 middle school students, he set out to study a phenomenon that has been largely overlooked by the scientific community but is likely to bias ecology and climate studies.

Four-degrees briefing for the World Bank: The risks of a future without climate policy Posted: 19 Nov 2012 07:48 AM PST Humankind's emissions of greenhouse gases are breaking new records every year. Hence we're on a path towards 4-degree global warming probably as soon as by the end of this century. This would mean a world of risks beyond the experience of our civilization – including heat waves, especially in the tropics, a sea-level rise affecting hundreds of millions of people, and regional yield failures impacting global food security. These are some of the results of a report for the World Bank. The poorest in the world are those that will be hit hardest, making development without climate policy almost impossible, the researchers conclude.

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