ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Building a better fish trap: Reducing fish bycatch with escape gaps in Africa
• Methane seeps of the deep sea: A bacteria feast for lithodid crabs
• Study shows how neurons enable us to know smells we like and dislike, whether to approach or retreat
• Unlocking biology with math
• Infanticide linked to wet-nursing in meerkats
• Numerically identifying pollen grains improves on conventional ID method
• Plastic waste is a hazard for subalpine lakes, too
• Hurricane Sandy's impact on New Jersey coastal wetlands, one year later
• Bile salts: Sea lampreys' newest scent of seduction
• Dog's mood offers insight into owner's health
• Minute traits and DNA link grass species from Old and New Worlds
• Extrusive volcanism formed the Hawaiian Islands
• Stress a key factor in causing bee colonies to fail
• Genetically modified sweet corn can reduce insecticide use
• Air pollution and psychological distress during pregnancy
• Stroking could stress out your cat
• Proof of human migration from Sweden to Poland during the Early Bronze Age
• Plant diversity may affect climate–vegetation interaction
• Exceptional fossil fish reveals new evolutionary mechanism for body elongation
• How detergent of the atmosphere is regenerated
• Genetic study of river herring identifies conservation priorities

Building a better fish trap: Reducing fish bycatch with escape gaps in Africa Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:08 PM PDT Scientists have achieved a milestone in Africa: they've helped build a better fish trap, one that keeps valuable fish in while letting undersized juvenile fish and non-target species out.

Methane seeps of the deep sea: A bacteria feast for lithodid crabs Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:08 PM PDT Cold seeps are the basis for a surprising diversity in the desert-like deep sea. Off the coast of Costa Rica, an international team of scientists documented lithodid crabs of the genus Paralomis sp. grazing bacterial mats at a methane seep. The analysis show that not only sessile organisms benefit from the productivity around the cold seeps.

Study shows how neurons enable us to know smells we like and dislike, whether to approach or retreat Posted: 07 Oct 2013 12:17 PM PDT What underlying biological mechanisms account for our seemingly instant, almost unconscious ability to determine how attractive (or repulsive) a particular smell is? New research reveals a set of cells in the fruit fly brain that respond specifically to food odors. The degree to which these neurons respond when the fly is presented different food odors predicts "incredibly well how much the flies will 'like' a given odor."

Unlocking biology with math Posted: 07 Oct 2013 10:22 AM PDT Scientists have created a mathematical model that explains and predicts the biological process that creates antibody diversity -- the phenomenon that keeps us healthy by generating robust immune systems through hypermutation.

Infanticide linked to wet-nursing in meerkats Posted: 07 Oct 2013 09:25 AM PDT Mothers who lose their pups to infanticide by the dominant female in a meerkat group often then provide the dominant female with a wet-nurse service, say researchers who have carried out the most comprehensive study of wet-nursing in a single species to date.

Numerically identifying pollen grains improves on conventional ID method Posted: 07 Oct 2013 09:25 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new quantitative -- rather than qualitative -- method of identifying pollen grains that is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Plastic waste is a hazard for subalpine lakes, too Posted: 07 Oct 2013 09:25 AM PDT Many subalpine lakes may look beautiful and even pristine, but new evidence suggests they may also be contaminated with potentially hazardous plastics. Researchers say those tiny microplastics are likely finding their way into the food web through a wide range of freshwater invertebrates too. The findings, based on studies of Italy's Lake Garda and reported on October 7th in Current Biology, suggest that the problem of plastic pollution isn't limited to the ocean.

Hurricane Sandy's impact on New Jersey coastal wetlands, one year later Posted: 07 Oct 2013 09:24 AM PDT In a stroke of good luck, scientists captured detailed measurements of water level and salinity at a range of coastal wetland sites, even as they were overtaken by Hurricane Sandy. After the storm, she began working on an intensive year-long project to evaluate ecosystem processes in New Jersey's salt marshes before, during, and for a year following Hurricane Sandy.

Bile salts: Sea lampreys' newest scent of seduction Posted: 07 Oct 2013 07:51 AM PDT Bile salts scream seduction -- for sea lampreys, that is. New research shows that bile salts, secreted from the liver and traditionally associated with digestive functions, are being used as pheromones by sea lampreys. The interesting twist, though, is that this scent has evolved as the invasive species' cologne of choice.

Dog's mood offers insight into owner's health Posted: 07 Oct 2013 07:47 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated how remote-monitoring of a dog's behavior can be used to alert family and carers that an elderly relative is struggling to cope.

Minute traits and DNA link grass species from Old and New Worlds Posted: 07 Oct 2013 07:46 AM PDT It's not always the big and flashy traits that solve taxonomic puzzles. On the basis of minute and easily overlooked morphological characteristics and DNA analysis researchers link four grass species in a genus called Disakisperma for the first time.

Extrusive volcanism formed the Hawaiian Islands Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:45 AM PDT A recent study changes the understanding of how the Hawaiian Islands formed. Scientists have determined that it is the eruptions of lava on the surface, extrusion, which grow Hawaiian volcanoes, rather than internal emplacement of magma, as was previously thought.

Stress a key factor in causing bee colonies to fail Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:45 AM PDT Extended periods of stress can cause bee colony failures, according to new research.

Genetically modified sweet corn can reduce insecticide use Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:45 AM PDT A new study suggests that genetically modified sweet corn is better for the environment because it requires fewer pesticide applications than conventional corn.

Air pollution and psychological distress during pregnancy Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:45 AM PDT Maternal psychological distress combined with exposure to air pollution during pregnancy have an adverse impact on children's behavioral development. The study shows that maternal demoralization, a measure of psychological distress that can affect a mother's ability to cope with stressful situations, was linked with several behavioral problems, including anxiety, depression, and attention problems. Effects of demoralization were greatest among children with higher levels of prenatal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in air pollution.

Stroking could stress out your cat Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:43 AM PDT Animal behavior specialists suggests that cats who reluctantly allow their owners to stroke them could be more stressed out than kitties who carefully avoid being petted.

Proof of human migration from Sweden to Poland during the Early Bronze Age Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:42 AM PDT During the Early Bronze Age there was a very high level of territorial mobility of the Unetice culture in Silesia, a large community inhabiting the south western territories of Poland approximately 4,000 years ago. This research confirms the first case of human long-distance overseas journey to Silesia from Scandinavia, probably from southern Sweden.

Plant diversity may affect climate–vegetation interaction Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:40 AM PDT Biologists have analyzed to what extent plant diversity influences the stability of climate–vegetation interaction.

Exceptional fossil fish reveals new evolutionary mechanism for body elongation Posted: 07 Oct 2013 06:40 AM PDT Snake and eel bodies are elongated, slender and flexible in all three dimensions. This striking body plan has evolved many times independently in the more than 500 million years of vertebrate animals history. Based on the current state of knowledge, the extreme elongation of the body axis occurred in one of two ways: either through the elongation of the individual vertebrae of the vertebral column, which thus became longer, or through the development of additional vertebrae and associated muscle segments.

How detergent of the atmosphere is regenerated Posted: 06 Oct 2013 11:23 AM PDT It sounds unlikely: a washing machine recycles used detergent in order to use it again for the next load of dirty washing. But this is just what happens during the degradation of pollutants in the atmosphere.

Genetic study of river herring identifies conservation priorities Posted: 03 Oct 2013 10:22 AM PDT A genetic and demographic analysis of river herring populations along the US east coast has identified distinct genetic stocks, providing crucial guidance for efforts to manage their declining populations. River herring include two related species, alewife and blueback herring, which migrate between freshwater spawning grounds and the ocean. The species are important for both ecological and economic reasons.

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