ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Predators affect the carbon cycle, study shows
• Study finds the sweet spot -- and the screw-ups -- that make or break environmental collective actions
• Underwater springs reveal how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification
• Pesticides significantly reduce biodiversity in aquatic environments
• Doctors in veterinary, human medicine team to give burned horse a second chance
• NASA's 2013 HS3 hurricane mission to delve into Saharan dust
• Bullfrogs may help spread deadly amphibian fungus, but also die from it
• Planes, trains, or automobiles: Travel choices for a smaller carbon footprint
• Genetic diversity key to survival of honey bee colonies
• Jet stream changes cause climatically exceptional Greenland Ice Sheet melt
• New 'embryonic' subduction zone found

Predators affect the carbon cycle, study shows Posted: 17 Jun 2013 01:09 PM PDT A new study shows that the predator-prey relationship can affect the flow of carbon through an ecosystem. This previously unmeasured influence on the environment may offer a new way of looking at biodiversity management and carbon storage for climate change.

Study finds the sweet spot -- and the screw-ups -- that make or break environmental collective actions Posted: 17 Jun 2013 01:08 PM PDT Sustainability programs are a Goldilocks proposition -- some groups are too big, some are too small, and the environment benefits when the size of a group of people working to save it is just right. Scientists have found a sweet spot -- a group size at which the action is most effective. More importantly, the work revealed how behaviors of group members can pull bad policy up or drag good policy down.

Underwater springs reveal how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification Posted: 17 Jun 2013 01:08 PM PDT Ocean acidification due to rising carbon dioxide levels will reduce the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion, according to a new study of corals growing where submarine springs naturally lower the pH of seawater. The study is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate to low pH conditions in nature.

Pesticides significantly reduce biodiversity in aquatic environments Posted: 17 Jun 2013 01:07 PM PDT The pesticides, many of which are currently used in Europe and Australia, are responsible for reducing the regional diversity of invertebrates in streams and rivers by up to 42 percent, researchers report.

Doctors in veterinary, human medicine team to give burned horse a second chance Posted: 17 Jun 2013 11:20 AM PDT The unlikely pairing of an equine veterinarian and a burn surgeon is providing a second chance at a normal life for a horse that was doused in flammable liquid and set on fire late last summer.

NASA's 2013 HS3 hurricane mission to delve into Saharan dust Posted: 17 Jun 2013 10:05 AM PDT NASA's 2013 Hurricane and Severe Storms Sentinel or HS3 mission will investigate whether Saharan dust and its associated warm and dry air, known as the Saharan Air Layer or SAL, favors or suppresses the development of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean. The effects of Saharan dust on tropical cyclones is a controversial area of science. During the 2012 campaign, NASA's Global Hawk unmanned aircraft gathered valuable data on the dust layer that swirled around Tropical Storm Nadine for several days.

Bullfrogs may help spread deadly amphibian fungus, but also die from it Posted: 17 Jun 2013 09:25 AM PDT Amphibian populations are declining worldwide and a major cause is a deadly fungus thought to be spread by bullfrogs, but a two-year study shows they can also die from this pathogen, contrary to suggestions that bullfrogs are a tolerant carrier host that just spreads the disease.

Planes, trains, or automobiles: Travel choices for a smaller carbon footprint Posted: 17 Jun 2013 08:13 AM PDT Planes, trains, or automobiles: what's the most climate-friendly way to travel? A new study by researchers from IIASA and CICERO brings better estimates of how much personal travel impacts the climate.

Genetic diversity key to survival of honey bee colonies Posted: 17 Jun 2013 08:13 AM PDT When it comes to honey bees, more mates is better. A new study shows that genetic diversity is key to survival in honey bee colonies -- meaning a colony is less likely to survive if its queen has had a limited number of mates.

Jet stream changes cause climatically exceptional Greenland Ice Sheet melt Posted: 17 Jun 2013 08:12 AM PDT Scientists have shown that unusual changes in atmospheric jet stream circulation caused the exceptional surface melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet in summer 2012.

New 'embryonic' subduction zone found Posted: 17 Jun 2013 07:46 AM PDT A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America.

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