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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
LRO's first moon images NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has transmitted its first images since reaching the moon on June 23. The spacecraft's two cameras, collectively known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, were activated June 30. The cameras are working well, and have returned images of a region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds).
NASA
Contact: Nancy Neal Jones
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
Academic MedicineUT multimedia program increases middle school interest in science Middle school students who were part of a unique science learning program developed by the University of Texas School of Public Health showed significant increases in interest and achievement scores compared to other students, a recent study found. Contact: Jade Waddy
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesFerns took to the trees and thrived As flowering plants like giant trees quickly rose to dominate plant communities during the Cretaceous period, the ferns that had preceded them hardly saw it as a disappointment.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Karl Leif Bates
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Journal of BiogeographyEvolution: Crabs go deep to avoid hot water Researchers from the National Oceanography Center, Southampton, have drawn together 200 years' worth of oceanographic knowledge to investigate the distribution of a notorious deep-sea giant -- the king crab. The results, published this week in the Journal of Biogeography, reveal temperature as a driving force behind the speciation and radiation of a major seafloor predator -- globally, and over tens of millions of years of Earth's history.
National Environment Research Council and Royal Society
Contact: Dr. Rory Howlett
Public Release: 2-Jul-2009
Proceedings of the Royal Society BScientists 'rebuild' giant moa using ancient DNA Scientists have performed the first DNA-based reconstruction of the giant extinct moa bird, using prehistoric feathers recovered from caves and rock shelters in New Zealand. Contact: Nicolas Rawlence
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
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: 1-Jul-2009
Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main MeetingA young brain for an old bee Scientists have found that by switching the social role of honey bees, aging honey bees can keep their learning ability intact or even improve it. The research team is hoping to use them as a model to study general aging processes in the brain and how to prevent or ameliorate cognitive impairments associated with old age. The results will be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Meeting on Wednesday, July 1. Contact: Cristian C. A. Bodo
Public Release: 1-Jul-2009
Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting Journal of Experimental BiologyKey to evolutionary fitness: Cut the calories Charles Darwin postulated that animals eat as much as possible while food is plentiful, and produce as many offspring as this would allow. However, new research shows that, even when food is abundant, intake reaches a limit. Dr. Teresa Valencak will discuss the theory that animals actively limit their energy turnover to maintain a higher level of reproductive success over their lifetime at the Society for Experimental Biology Meeting on Wednesday, July 1. Contact: Tess Livermore
Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
GeologyJuly 2009 Geology and GSA Today Media Highlights GEOLOGY articles extract information on forces shaping Earth's surface, solve the puzzle of LIPs on land, trace the leading edges of dispersing continents, expose magmatic plumbing, argue over gold deposits, show how fungi break down rocks, unveil tightly kept secrets about the Amazon River, investigate deep geological structures associated with the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, settle the debate over porphyroblasts, and define neptunian eruptions. GSA TODAY uncovers the impact of Cenozoic snow melt in the Rockies. Contact: Christa Stratton
Public Release: 30-Jun-2009
UB geologists to help communicate the dangers of Colombian volcano During the past decade, residents of Pasto, Colombia, and neighboring villages near Galeras, Colombia's most dangerous volcano, have been threatened with evacuation, but compliance varies. With each new eruption Colombian officials become increasingly concerned about the safety of the residents who live within striking there. Now, geologists from the University at Buffalo and the Universidad de Nariņo have organized a special workshop in Colombia designed to tackle the communication issue.
National Science Foundation, Universidad de Nariņo
Contact: John DellaContrada
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
Proceedings of the Royal Society BNew fossil primate suggests common Asian ancestor, challenges primates such as 'Ida' According to new research published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) on July 1, 2009, a new fossil primate from Myanmar (previously known as Burma) suggests that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, not Africa as many researchers believe.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Leigh Kish
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
American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- June 24, 2009 The American Chemical Society Weekly Press Package with reports from 34 major peer-reviewed journals on chemistry, health, medicine, energy, environment, food, nanotechnology and other hot topics. Contact: Michael Woods
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