ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Climate warming unlikely to cause near-term extinction of ancient Amazon trees, but multiple threats to the forest remain
• Researchers find first evidence of Ice Age wolves in Nevada
• Team solves mystery associated with DNA repair
• Three new species of venomous primate identified; May help protect rare primate from illegal trades
• Dark Ages scourge enlightens modern struggle between humans and microbes
• Predatory fungi are listening for worms, then devouring prey
• Tracing humanity's African ancestry may mean rewriting 'out of Africa' dates
• Insurance industry paying increasing attention to climate change
• Pheromone helps mice remember where to find a mate
• For every species of mammal, 300 arthropod species lurk in rainforest
• Too many antibiotics? Bacterial ecology that lives on humans has changed in last 100 years
• Your Christmas tree and its genome have remained very much the same over the last 100 million years
• Cloud forest trees drink water through their leaves
• Disaster map predicts bleak future for mammals
• Breaking ground in slime mold research
• Dolphin hearing system component found in insects
• Rhesus monkeys cannot hear the beat in music

Climate warming unlikely to cause near-term extinction of ancient Amazon trees, but multiple threats to the forest remain Posted: 13 Dec 2012 04:29 PM PST A new genetic analysis has revealed that many Amazon tree species are likely to survive human-caused climate warming in the coming century, contrary to previous findings that temperature increases would cause them to die out.

Researchers find first evidence of Ice Age wolves in Nevada Posted: 13 Dec 2012 03:11 PM PST A research team recently unearthed fossil remains from an extinct wolf species in a wash northwest of Las Vegas, revealing the first evidence that the Ice Age mammal once lived in Nevada.

Team solves mystery associated with DNA repair Posted: 13 Dec 2012 02:23 PM PST Scientists have long sought to understand how a DNA repair protein, known as RecA in bacterial cells, helps broken DNA find a way to bridge the gap. In a new study, researchers report they have identified how the RecA protein does its job.

Three new species of venomous primate identified; May help protect rare primate from illegal trades Posted: 13 Dec 2012 02:23 PM PST A venomous primate with two tongues would seem safe from the pet trade, but the big-eyed, teddy-bear face of the slow loris (Nycticebus sp.) has made them a target for illegal pet poachers throughout the animal's range in southeastern Asia and nearby islands. Researchers recently identified three new species of slow loris. The primates had originally been grouped with another species.

Dark Ages scourge enlightens modern struggle between humans and microbes Posted: 13 Dec 2012 12:15 PM PST New discoveries help explain how the stealthy agent of Black Death avoids tripping a self-destruct mechanism inside germ-destroying cells. The host defense mechanism pyroptosis ("going up in flames") eliminates places for the germs to reproduce and signals the recruitment of disease-fighting cells. Specifically, the findings may hold ideas for biodefense vaccines against plague, and more generally offer clues to controlling excessive inflammatory responses in arthritis, heart and lung diseases, colitis and autoimmune disorders.

Predatory fungi are listening for worms, then devouring prey Posted: 13 Dec 2012 11:52 AM PST For over 25 years, Paul Sternberg has been studying worms -- how they develop, why they sleep, and, more recently, how they communicate. Now, he has flipped the script a bit by taking a closer look at how predatory fungi may be tapping into worm conversations to gain clues about their whereabouts.

Tracing humanity's African ancestry may mean rewriting 'out of Africa' dates Posted: 13 Dec 2012 11:23 AM PST New research may lead to a rethinking of how, when and from where our ancestors left Africa. Explorations in the Iringa region of southern Tanzania yielded fossils and other evidence that records the beginnings of our own species, Homo sapiens. New research may be key to answering questions about early human occupation and the migration out of Africa about 60,000 to 50,000 years ago, which led to modern humans colonizing the globe.

Insurance industry paying increasing attention to climate change Posted: 13 Dec 2012 11:23 AM PST The insurance industry, the world's largest business with $4.6 trillion in revenues, is making larger efforts to manage climate change-related risks, according to a new study.

Pheromone helps mice remember where to find a mate Posted: 13 Dec 2012 11:23 AM PST Scientists have found that male mice produce a pheromone that provokes females and competitor males to remember a preference for the place where the pheromone was previously encountered. The research shows that the pheromone stimulates very rapid learning of spatial cues associated with its location, so that females remember a preference for this location when they return to the area.

For every species of mammal, 300 arthropod species lurk in rainforest Posted: 13 Dec 2012 11:23 AM PST During 2003-2004 scientists sampled the rainforest canopy from canopy cranes, inflatable platforms, balloons, climbing ropes and along the forest floor to collect a total of 130,000 insects.

Too many antibiotics? Bacterial ecology that lives on humans has changed in last 100 years Posted: 13 Dec 2012 10:25 AM PST A new study has demonstrated that ancient DNA can be used to understand ancient human microbiomes. The microbiomes from ancient people have broad reaching implications for understanding recent changes to human health, such as what good bacteria might have been lost as a result of our current abundant use of antibiotics and aseptic practices.

Your Christmas tree and its genome have remained very much the same over the last 100 million years Posted: 13 Dec 2012 10:25 AM PST Biologist have shown that the genome of conifers such as spruce, pine, and fir has remained very much the same for over 100 million years. This remarkable genomic stability explains the resemblance between today's conifers and fossils dating back to the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Cloud forest trees drink water through their leaves Posted: 13 Dec 2012 07:42 AM PST Using water flow sensors and plastic "leaves" that measure wetness, biologists have discovered that trees living in tropical montane cloud forests drink through their leaves as well as their roots. This survival strategy, also adopted by California's redwoods, tides the trees over during dry seasons, but could lead to problems as clouds disappear because of global climate change.

Disaster map predicts bleak future for mammals Posted: 13 Dec 2012 07:41 AM PST Mammals could be at a greater risk of extinction due to predicted increases in extreme weather conditions, according to a new paper.

Breaking ground in slime mold research Posted: 13 Dec 2012 07:35 AM PST This past summer, Laura Walker became the first scientist to collect slime molds from soils in Panama's Barro Colorado Nature Monument. In doing so, she became one of the first researchers to systematically take samples of slime molds, the most abundant predators of soil bacteria and fungi, in tropical soils.

Dolphin hearing system component found in insects Posted: 13 Dec 2012 05:49 AM PST A hearing system component thought to be unique in toothed whales like dolphins has been discovered in insects, following research involving the University of Strathclyde.

Rhesus monkeys cannot hear the beat in music Posted: 13 Dec 2012 05:49 AM PST Beat induction, the ability to pick up regularity -- the beat --  from a varying rhythm, is not an ability that rhesus monkeys possess, researchers have found.

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