ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Designer potatoes on the menu to boost consumption
• Intensity of hurricanes: New study helps improve predictions of storm intensity
• New system to detect mercury in water systems
• Monitoring rise and fall of the microbiome
• Less than 1% of UK public research funding spent on antibiotic research in past 5 years
• Bacteria manipulate salt to build shelters to hibernate
• GSAD and Plant rDNA database: Two open platforms with plant cytogenetic information
• 'Light pollution' may affect love lives of birds in the Viennese Forests
• New hope for powdery mildew resistant barley
• Steam energy from the sun: New spongelike structure converts solar energy into steam
• Saharan dust is key to formation of Bahamas' Great Bank, study finds
• Large raptors in Africa used for bushmeat, study indicates
• Moose drool inhibits growth of toxic fungus
• Antioxidant biomaterial promotes healing
• Humans share fairness concerns with other species
• Global wildlife decline driving slave labor, organized crime
• Tiny new species of frog from Brazil with a heroic name
• Newly discovered gut virus lives in half the world's population
• Urban heat boosts some pest populations 200-fold, killing red maples

Designer potatoes on the menu to boost consumption Posted: 25 Jul 2014 11:45 AM PDT A decline in overall potato consumption has breeders working on "designer" spuds that meet the time constraints and unique tastes of a younger generation.

Intensity of hurricanes: New study helps improve predictions of storm intensity Posted: 25 Jul 2014 08:08 AM PDT While predicting the path of hurricanes has gotten better, little has been done to improve predicting a storm's intensity. That is, until now. "The air-water interface -- whether it had significant waves or significant spray -- is a big factor in storm intensity," said one expert involved in a new study. "Hurricanes gain heat energy through the interface and they lose mechanical energy at the interface."

New system to detect mercury in water systems Posted: 25 Jul 2014 08:07 AM PDT A new ultra-sensitive, low-cost and portable system for detecting mercury in environmental water has been developed by researchers. "The promising sensing performance of this system along with its cost-competiveness and portability make it an excellent potential alternative to current analytical techniques," says the project's leader. "This technique could provide the basis for future point-of-analysis systems for monitoring water quality on site and may help implement better monitoring processes around the world."

Monitoring rise and fall of the microbiome Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:04 AM PDT Close analysis of bacteria in the human digestive tract reveals links to diet and other lifestyle factors, researchers report. Trillions of bacteria live in each person's digestive tract. Scientists believe that some of these bacteria help digest food and stave off harmful infections, but their role in human health is not well understood.

Less than 1% of UK public research funding spent on antibiotic research in past 5 years Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:03 AM PDT Less than 1% of research funding awarded by public and charitable bodies to UK researchers in 2008–13 was awarded for research on antibiotics, according to new research. The study, which is the first detailed assessment of public and charitable funding to UK researchers focusing on bacteriology and antibiotic research, suggests that present levels of funding for antibiotic research in the UK are inadequate, and will need to be urgently increased if the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance is to be tackled effectively by UK researchers.

Bacteria manipulate salt to build shelters to hibernate Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:03 AM PDT For the first time, researchers have detected an unknown interaction between microorganisms and salt. When Escherichia coli cells are introduced into a droplet of salt water that is left to dry, bacteria manipulate the sodium chloride crystallization to create biomineralogical biosaline 3-D morphologically complex formations, where they hibernate. Afterwards, simply by rehydrating the material, bacteria are revived. The discovery was made by chance with a home microscope.

GSAD and Plant rDNA database: Two open platforms with plant cytogenetic information Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:03 AM PDT Having cytogenetic information about plants is basic to classify species and promote new studies on agriculture and crop improvement. This is the main objective of two online platforms that collect chromosome information and provide it to the scientific community.

'Light pollution' may affect love lives of birds in the Viennese Forests Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:03 AM PDT Artificial light in cities exerts negative effects on humans, animals, and their environment. In an ongoing research project, behavioral biologists are investigating how blue tits in the Viennese Forests react to "light pollution." The study might help to understand effects of "light-at-night" on reproductive behavior of birds. In consequence, it could help developing concepts, minimizing negative effects on the lives of animals and the ecological system, by reducing light sources in specific regions.

New hope for powdery mildew resistant barley Posted: 25 Jul 2014 05:01 AM PDT New research has opened the way for the development of new lines of barley with resistance to powdery mildew. "Powdery mildew is a significant problem wherever barley is grown around the world," says the lead researcher. "Growers with infected crops can expect up to 25% reductions in yield and the barley may also be downgraded from high quality malting barley to that of feed quality, with an associated loss in market value."

Steam energy from the sun: New spongelike structure converts solar energy into steam Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:39 PM PDT A new material structure generates steam by soaking up the sun. The structure -- a layer of graphite flakes and an underlying carbon foam -- is a porous, insulating material structure that floats on water. When sunlight hits the structure's surface, it creates a hotspot in the graphite, drawing water up through the material's pores, where it evaporates as steam. The brighter the light, the more steam is generated.

Saharan dust is key to formation of Bahamas' Great Bank, study finds Posted: 24 Jul 2014 03:29 PM PDT Saharan dust played a major role in the formation of the Bahamas islands, a new study suggests. Researchers showed that iron-rich Saharan dust provides the nutrients necessary for specialized bacteria to produce the island chain's carbonate-based foundation. Persistent winds across Africa's 3.5-million square mile Sahara Desert lifts mineral-rich sand into the atmosphere where it travels the nearly 5,000-mile northwest journey towards the U.S. and Caribbean.

Large raptors in Africa used for bushmeat, study indicates Posted: 24 Jul 2014 03:29 PM PDT Bushmeat, the use of native animal species for food or commercial food sale, has been heavily documented to be a significant factor in the decline of many species of primates and other mammals. However, a new study indicates that more than half of the species being consumed are birds, particularly large birds like raptors and hornbills.

Moose drool inhibits growth of toxic fungus Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:20 PM PDT Research shows a surprisingly effective way to fight against a certain species of toxic grass fungus: moose saliva. Inspired by an earlier study that showed that moose grazing and saliva distribution can have a positive effect on plant growth, the research team set out to test an interesting hypothesis -- whether moose saliva may, in fact, "detoxify" the grass before it is eaten.

Antioxidant biomaterial promotes healing Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:19 PM PDT The first-ever inherently antioxidant biomaterial has been created by researcher. It has the potential to prevent failure in medical devices and surgical implants. The lead researcher said the new biomaterial could be used to create scaffolds for tissue engineering, coat or build safer medical devices, promote healing in regenerative medicine, and protect cells, genes, and viruses during drug delivery. He added that the new biomaterial is easy to make and inexpensive.

Humans share fairness concerns with other species Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:17 PM PDT Humans aren't the only species to react strongly to actions they consider unfair. A similar drive for fairness in monkeys and some dogs may offer insight into people's desire for equity, according to experts.

Global wildlife decline driving slave labor, organized crime Posted: 24 Jul 2014 11:42 AM PDT Global decline of wildlife populations is driving increases in violent conflicts, organized crime and child labor around the world, according to a experts. Researchers call for biologists to join forces with experts such as economists, political scientists, criminologists, public health officials and international development specialists to collectively tackle a complex challenge.

Tiny new species of frog from Brazil with a heroic name Posted: 24 Jul 2014 08:26 AM PDT Molecular analysis helps scientists discover and describe a tiny new species of narrow-mouthed frog from the genus Chiasmocleis. The news species, Chiasmocleis quilombola is named after the quilombos -- communities constituted by and used as refuges for slaves who had the brevity to escape in colonial Brazil.

Newly discovered gut virus lives in half the world's population Posted: 24 Jul 2014 06:42 AM PDT Odds are, there's a virus living inside your gut that has gone undetected by scientists for decades. A new study has found that more than half the world's population is host to a newly described virus, named crAssphage, which infects one of the most common gut bacterial species, Bacteroides. This bacterium thought to be connected with obesity, diabetes and other gut-related diseases.

Urban heat boosts some pest populations 200-fold, killing red maples Posted: 23 Jul 2014 11:17 AM PDT Urban 'heat islands' are slowly killing red maples in the southeastern United States, research shows. One factor that researchers have found that impacts the situation is that warmer temperatures increase the number of young produced by the gloomy scale insect -- a significant tree pest -- by 300 percent, which in turn leads to 200 times more adult gloomy scales on urban trees.

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