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Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
 Ecology LettersPlants' internal clock can improve climate-change models The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. In a study published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Ecology Letters, an international team has studied this circadian clock from a molecular viewpoint, and has found an ecological implication: It makes climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate. Contact: SINC
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
ScienceA question of height Intelligent countryside management could improve the survival chances of animal and plant species threatened by climate change. The creation of small heat-shielded habitats and better links between habitats would counteract a moderate temperature increase, and give threatened species more time to adapt better and/or to migrate to cooler regions. This is the conclusion drawn by scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research from a British study on saving the Large Blue butterfly. Contact: Tilo Arnhold
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Geophysical Research LettersAGU journal highlights - July 2, 2009 Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Ancient supervolcano's eruption caused decade of severe winters"; "Understanding fault movement during Wenchuan earthquake"; "First direct measurement of lunar backscatter from solar wind"; "Reducing uncertainty in estimates of global sea level rise"; "Boost in freshwater content of Arctic Ocean "; "Data gaps in records hinder detection of climate trends"; "Glaciers cause seismic activity in Iceland"; and more. 
Various
Contact: Maria-Jose Vinas
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Ecological ApplicationsPacific Northwest forests could store more carbon, help address greenhouse issues The forests of the Pacific Northwest hold significant potential to increase carbon storage and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, a recent study concludes, if they are managed primarily for that purpose through timber harvest reductions and increased rotation ages.
US Department of Energy
Contact: Beverly Law
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
ScienceClimate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheep Milder winters are causing Scotland's wild breed of Soay sheep to get smaller, despite the evolutionary benefits of possessing a large body, according to new research due to be published in this week's Science Express.
Natural Environment Research Council
Contact: danielle reeves
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
ScienceMars data published in Science this week Four papers in the journal Science this week offer new details about the history of water on Mars, gleaned from the 2008 NASA Phoenix Mars Mission that was operated from the University of Arizona.
NASA
Contact: Johnny Cruz
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
ScienceNew type of El Nino could mean more hurricanes make landfall A new study, in the journal Science, suggests that the form of El Nino may be changing potentially causing not only a greater number of hurricanes than in average years, but also a greater chance of hurricanes making landfall.
National Science Foundation
Contact: David Terraso
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
World Conference of Science Journalists ScienceClimate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheep Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller despite the evolutionary benefits of having a large body, researchers report in a study that shows how climate change can trump natural selection.
Natural Environment Research Council, NIH/National Institute on Aging
Contact: Natasha D. Pinol
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
Nature GeoscienceEarth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years. If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator may be starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner.
National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Gary Comer Science and Education Foundation
Contact: Sandra Hines
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
Desert rhubarb -- a self-irrigating plant Researchers from the department of science education-biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim have managed to make out the "self-irrigating" mechanism of the desert rhubarb, which enables it to harvest 16 times the amount of water than otherwise expected for a plant in this region based on the quantities of rain in the desert. This is the first example of a self-irrigating plant worldwide. Contact: Rachel Feldman
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
Climate DynamicsThe least sea ice in 800 years New research, which reconstructs the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now. The research results from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, are published in the scientific journal Climate Dynamics. Contact: Gertie Skaarup
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
NaturePlants put limit on ice ages When glaciers advanced over much of the Earth's surface during the last ice age, what kept the planet from freezing over entirely? This has been a puzzle to climate scientists because leading models have indicated that over the past 24 million years geological conditions should have caused carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to plummet, possibly leading to runaway "icehouse" conditions. Now researchers writing in Nature report on the missing piece of the puzzle -- plants. Contact: Ken Caldeira
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
NaturePlants save the earth from an icy doom Fifty million years ago, the North and South poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. Since then, a long-term decrease in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has cooled the Earth. Researchers at Yale University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Sheffield now show that land plants saved the Earth from a deep frozen fate by buffering the removal of atmospheric CO2 over the past 24 million years.
Yale Climate and Energy Institute, National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, Leverhulme Trust, Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award
Contact: Suzanne Taylor Muzzin
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
BioScienceMangrove-dependent animals globally threatened An assessment in the July/August issue of BioScience finds that substantial numbers of terrestrial vertebrates are restricted to mangrove forests. Many of these specialized species are listed as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Prospects for mangrove-restricted animals are bleak, because more than two percent of mangrove forests are lost each year. Contact: Jennifer Williams
Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
Global Biogeochemical CyclesSuper-size deposits of frozen carbon threat to climate change The vast amount of carbon stored in the Arctic and boreal regions of the world is more than double that previously estimated, according to a study published this week. The new estimate is over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere. Contact: Pep Canadell
Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main MeetingYour own private global warming Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey subjected species found in Antarctic waters to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how well they would cope with a warmer ocean. The study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on Tuesday, June 30, shows that several of these species are already living really close to their upper temperature range, and that further increases could easily provoke serious ecological imbalances in this region.
British Antarctic Survey
Contact: Cristian C. A. Bodo
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Journal of Geophysical Research - AtmospheresHand-held aerosol sensors help fill crucial data gap over oceans Since NASA researchers began assembling the Aerosol Robotic Network in the 1990s, the worldwide network of ground-based aerosol sensors has grown to 400 sites across seven continents. The trouble is that two-thirds of the planet is covered by ocean. And aerosols -- the tiny atmospheric particles that can have an outsized impact on the climate -- are just as likely to be found in the air above the oceans as they are over land.
NASA
Contact: Sarah DeWitt
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
World's largest aerosol sensing network has leafy origins From his office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Brent Holben helps manage the world's largest network of ground-based sensors for aerosols -- tiny specks of solids and liquids that waft about in the atmosphere. These particles come from both human and natural sources, and can be observed everywhere in the world.
NASA
Contact: Sarah DeWitt
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesDesert dust alters ecology of Colorado alpine meadows Accelerated snowmelt -- precipitated by desert dust blowing into the mountains -- changes how alpine plants respond to seasonal climate cues that regulate their life cycles, according to results of a new study reported this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These results indicate that global warming may have a greater influence on plants' annual growth cycles than previously thought. Contact: Cheryl Dybas
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
EcologyWater webs: Connecting spiders, residents in the Southwest If you are a cricket and it is a dry season on the San Pedro River in Arizona, on your nighttime ramblings to eat leaves, you are more likely to be ambushed by thirsty wolf spiders. A potential horror story for any cricket. However, it is also a tale of water limitation that looks beyond how most ecosystem studies are considered.
National Science Foundaiton
Contact: Margaret Coulombe
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
PLoS MedicineWater should be a human right In this month's PLoS Medicine editorial, the editors argue that -- despite recent international objections -- access to clean water should be recognized as a human right. At the March 2009 United Nations meetings, coinciding with the World Water Forum, Canada, Russia and the United States refused to support a declaration that would recognize water as a basic human right. But this flies in the face of considerable evidence that access to water, which is essential for health, is under threat, argue the editors. Contact: Andrew Hyde
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesLoss of coastal seagrass habitat accelerating globally An international team of scientists warns that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems. The team has compiled and analyzed the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass observations and found that 58 percent of world's seagrass meadows are currently declining.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Christopher Conner
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesStanford researchers find a quicker, cheaper way to sort isotopes Stanford chemist Richard Zare and his research team have taken a novel approach to building a new device to determine the isotope ratios within a certain substance. It's a new twist on a old procedure used to solve crimes, identify chemicals and date ancient artifacts (think carbon-14 dating). In Zare's device, magnets are replaced with mirrors, and a laser is pointed into the gas produced by burning a sample of the substance.
Picarro Inc.
Contact: Dan Stober
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting Journal of Chemical EcologyNew crops needed for new climate Plants grown under high CO2 and drought conditions show an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decrease in yield. Dr. Ros Gleadow will present her findings at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on Monday, June 29, where she will discuss these results and the consequent requirement for new cultivars in order to sustain food production in a future environment. Contact: Tess Livermore
Public Release: 29-Jun-2009
Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main MeetingOzone depletes oil seed rape productivity With rising ozone levels scientists have found that high ozone conditions cause a 30 percent decrease in yield and an increase in the concentration of a group of compounds with toxic effects to livestock, but anticarcinogenic effects for humans, within oilseed rape plants. Maarten de Bock will present his findings at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on Monday, June 29.
Belgian Science Policy Office
Contact: Tess Livermore
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