ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Carbon storage recovers faster than plant biodiversity in re-growing tropical forests
• Stressed-out trees boost sugary rewards to ant defenders
• Early bird catches the worm - for dinner
• Spider's super-thin ribbons key to silk tech
• Staying alive in the high and dry
• Clay may have been birthplace of life on Earth, new study suggests
• The next big thing in the energy sector: Photovoltaic generated DC electricity
• How pigeons may smell their way home
• Centuries-old elephant imposter unmasked
• Motion of the ocean: Predicting the big swells
• Hurricane Sandy's impact measured by millions of Flickr pictures
• Global map provides new insights into land use
• Visual representations improved by reducing noise in the brain
• Oldest ice core: Finding a 1.5 million-year record of Earth's climate
• Endometriosis risk linked to two pesticides

Carbon storage recovers faster than plant biodiversity in re-growing tropical forests Posted: 05 Nov 2013 04:46 PM PST A new study of re-growing tropical forests has concluded that plant biodiversity takes longer to recover than carbon storage following major disturbances such as clearance for farming.

Stressed-out trees boost sugary rewards to ant defenders Posted: 05 Nov 2013 02:13 PM PST When water is scarce, Ecuador laurel trees ramp up their investment in a syrupy treat that sends resident ant defenders into overdrive, protecting the trees from defoliation by leaf-munching pests.

Early bird catches the worm - for dinner Posted: 05 Nov 2013 12:27 PM PST Birds, such as great and blue tits, scout for food in the morning but only return to eat it in late afternoon to maximize their chances of evading predators in the day without starving to death overnight.

Spider's super-thin ribbons key to silk tech Posted: 05 Nov 2013 12:26 PM PST The silk of a spider feared for its venomous bite could be the key to creating new super-sticky films and wafer-thin electronics and sensors for medical implants that are highly compatible with the human body.

Staying alive in the high and dry Posted: 05 Nov 2013 12:16 PM PST New research published this week sheds light on how desert plants gain nutrients they desperately need -- even in the driest circumstances.

Clay may have been birthplace of life on Earth, new study suggests Posted: 05 Nov 2013 10:20 AM PST Clay -- a seemingly infertile blend of minerals -- might have been the birthplace of life on Earth. Or at least of the complex biochemicals that make life possible, biological engineers report.

The next big thing in the energy sector: Photovoltaic generated DC electricity Posted: 05 Nov 2013 09:14 AM PST A viable solution for sustainable energy transmission is the onsite generation of electricity using the photovoltaic method of converting solar energy directly into electrical energy.

How pigeons may smell their way home Posted: 05 Nov 2013 07:35 AM PST Homing pigeons are extraordinary navigators, but how they manage to find their way back to their lofts is still debated. To navigate, birds require a 'map' (to tell them home is south, for example) and a 'compass' (to tell them where south is), with the sun and the Earth's magnetic field being the preferred compass systems. A new paper provides evidence that the information pigeons use as a map is in fact available in the atmosphere: odors and winds allow them to find their way home.

Centuries-old elephant imposter unmasked Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:32 AM PST Through state-of-the-art ancient DNA and protein research and an extensive investigation of historical literature, researchers have determined a 300-year-old type specimen for Asian elephants is actually an African elephant.

Motion of the ocean: Predicting the big swells Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:32 AM PST New research will help you every morning with the surf report. It is estimated that 75 per cent of waves across the world are not actually generated by local winds. Instead, they are driven by distant storms which propagate as swell.

Hurricane Sandy's impact measured by millions of Flickr pictures Posted: 05 Nov 2013 06:31 AM PST A new study has discovered a striking connection between the number of pictures of Hurricane Sandy posted on Flickr and the atmospheric pressure in New Jersey as the hurricane crashed through the US state in 2012.

Global map provides new insights into land use Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:14 AM PST In order to assess the global impacts of land use on the environment and help provide appropriate countermeasures, a group of researchers has created a new world map of land use systems. Based on various indicators of land-use intensity, climate, environmental and socio-economic conditions, they identified twelve global patterns called land system archetypes.

Visual representations improved by reducing noise in the brain Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:13 AM PST Neuroscientists have revealed how the activity of neurons in an important area of the rhesus macaque's brain becomes less variable when they represent important visual information during an eye movement task. This reduction in variability can improve the perceptual strength of attended or relevant aspects in a visual scene, and is enhanced when the animals are more motivated to perform the task.

Oldest ice core: Finding a 1.5 million-year record of Earth's climate Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:12 AM PST How far into the past can ice-core records go? Scientists have now identified regions in Antarctica they say could store information about Earth's climate and greenhouse gases extending as far back as 1.5 million years, almost twice as old as the oldest ice core drilled to date.

Endometriosis risk linked to two pesticides Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:11 AM PST A study has found that two organochlorine pesticides are associated with an increased risk of endometriosis, a condition that affects up to 10 percent of reproductive-age women.

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