|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
Public Release: 9-Feb-2010
 Ecology LettersNew UC Davis study: Climate 'tipping points' may arrive without warning, says top forecaster A new University of California, Davis, study by a top ecological forecaster says it is harder than experts thought to predict when sudden shifts in Earth's natural systems will occur -- a worrisome finding for scientists trying to identify the tipping points that could push climate change into an irreparable global disaster. 
National Science Foundation
Contact: Alan Hastings
Public Release: 9-Feb-2010
Nature GeoscienceUrbanization, export crops drive deforestation The drivers of tropical deforestation have shifted in the early 21st century to hinge on growth of cities and the globalized agricultural trade, a new large-scale study concludes. The observations starkly reverse assumptions by some scientists that fast-growing urbanization and the efficiencies of global trade might eventually slow or reverse tropical deforestation. The study, which covers most of the world's tropical land area, appears in this week's early edition of the journal Nature Geoscience. Contact: Kevin Krajick
Public Release: 9-Feb-2010
Geological Society of America BulletinMarch/April 2010 GSA Bulletin Highlights GSA Bulletin spans the globe, from the Greater Caucasus Mountains separating Azerbaijan and Georgia from Russia; to the Altyn Tagh fault zone, Bohai Bay Basin, Yangtze craton, and Tian Shan of China; the collision zone between India and the Himalaya; the Southern Uplands of Scotland; and on to the western U.S., covering central Idaho, Mammoth Mountain and Long Valley caldera, California, the King Lear Formation, Nevada, the Grand Canyon, and the Fountain Formation of Colorado. Contact: Christa Stratton
Public Release: 9-Feb-2010
Journal of Life Cycle Assessment38 percent of world's surface in danger of desertification A team of Spanish researchers has measured the degradation of the planet's soil using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a scientific methodology that analyses the environmental impact of human activities, and which now for the first time includes indicators on desertification. The results show that 38 percent of the world is made up of arid regions at risk of desertification. Contact: SINC
Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
UB geographers help map devastation in Haiti In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, University at Buffalo geography students are participating in a global effort to enhance the international response and recovery effort by helping to assess damage, using images hosted by Google Earth and the Virtual Disaster Viewer, which shares imagery of disasters from various sources. Contact: Ellen Goldbaum
Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
New international satellite observations help assess future earthquake risk in Haiti Analyzing images captured using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) by Japan's ALOS satellite before and just after Haiti's earthquake on Jan. 12, University of Miami scientists are making new discoveries. The images show that the earthquake rupture did not reach the surface--unusual for an earthquake this size. More importantly, the images confirm that only the western half of the fault actually ruptured this time. Scientists are interpreting the data to establish the probability of another large quake in the next 20-30 years.
NASA, National Science Foundation, National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program
Contact: Barbra Gonzalez
Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Global Change BiologyAnimals cope with climate change at the dinner table Professor Yoram Yom-Tov of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology has been measuring the evolving body sizes of birds and animals in areas where climate change is most extreme. In higher latitudes, Professor Yom-Tov has identified a pattern of birds getting smaller and mammals getting bigger. The change, he hypothesizes, is likely a strategy for survival. Contact: George Hunka
Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesStudy challenges bird-from-dinosaur theory of evolution – was it the other way around? A new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides yet more evidence that birds did not descend from ground-dwelling theropod dinosaurs, experts say, and continues to challenge decades of accepted theories about the evolution of flight. Contact: John Ruben
Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Global Change BiologyWill earlier springs throw nature out of step? The recent trend towards earlier UK springs and summers has been accelerating, according to a study published today in the scientific journal Global Change Biology. The collaborative study, involving scientists from 12 UK research institutions, universities and conservation organisations, is the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment so far of long-term changes in the seasonal timing of biological events across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments in the UK.
Natural Environment Research Council
Contact: Barnaby Smith
Public Release: 8-Feb-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesBrown biologist solves mystery of tropical grasses' origin Brown University biologist Erika Edwards and a colleague have found that rainfall, not temperature, was the primary trigger for the evolutionary beginnings of C4 tropical grasses. Their results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Contact: Richard Lewis
Public Release: 7-Feb-2010
Ecology LettersConservation from space: Landscape diversity helps to conserve insects Rugged, hilly landscapes with a range of different habitat types can help maintain more stable butterfly populations and thus aid their conservation, according to new findings published today in the journal Ecology Letters. The research, carried out by scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Butterfly Conservation and the University of York, has implications for how we might design landscapes better to help conserve species.
Natural Environment Research Council
Contact: Barnaby Smith
Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
GeologyFebruary Geology and GSA Today Highlights GEOLOGY presents studies of mineralized microfossils in the Yukon; what the Great Barrier Reef tells us about sea level; a new find in Japan of fossilized iridescent leaf-beetle wings; the puzzle of Ediacara biota; mammalian fossils in Mongolia; a dust bowl long before the Dust Bowl in the North American Great Plains; fish-eating semi-aquatic spinosaurs; evidence against the Lilliput Effect; and geochemical mapping of Mars. GSA TODAY explains how rock is converted to soil. Contact: Christa Stratton
Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
International Journal of Green EconomicsRenewable oil companies The entry of oil companies into the realm of renewable energy could present major obstacles for the development of a sustainable economy that is not based on carbon resources, according to a report in the International Journal of Green Economics. Contact: Jack Reardon
Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
Earth and Planetary Science LettersUnderstanding past and future climate The notion that scientists understand how changes in Earth's orbit affect climate well enough for estimating long-term natural climate trends that underlie any anthropogenic climate change is challenged by findings published this week. The new research was conducted by a team led by Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Natural Environment Council, German Science Foundation
Contact: Dr. Rory Howlett
Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
ScienceCarbonate veins reveal chemistry of ancient seawater The chemical composition of our oceans is not constant but has varied significantly over geological time. In a study published this week in Science, researchers describe a novel method for reconstructing past ocean chemistry using calcium carbonate veins that precipitate from seawater-derived fluids in rocks beneath the seafloor. The research was led by scientists from the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Natural Environment Research Council
Contact: Dr. Rory Howlett
Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of AmericaSeismology highlights from BSSA February issue A new study identifies earthquakes through July 2007 that have produced 100 of the strongest peak accelerations and 100 of the strongest peak velocities ever recorded. Contact: Nan Broadbent
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
New ORNL system provides hybrid electric autos with power to spare An advancement in hybrid electric vehicle technology is providing powerful benefits beyond transportation. Contact: Kathy Graham
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Yes, ecology shapes evolution, but guppies show reverse also true In the natural stream communities of Trinidad, guppy populations live close together, but evolve differently. Upstream, fewer predators mean more guppies but less food for each; they grow slowly and larger, reproduce later and less, and die older. Downstream, where predators thrive, guppies eat more, grow rapidly, stay small, reproduce quickly and die younger. Contact: Joseph Travis
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Evolutionary AnthropologyAncient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis Ancient human teeth are telling secrets that may relate to modern-day health: Some stressful events that occurred early in development are linked to shorter life spans. "Prehistoric remains are providing strong, physical evidence that people who acquired tooth enamel defects while in the womb or early childhood tended to die earlier, even if they survived to adulthood," says Emory anthropologist George Armelagos, who recently published the first summary of prehistoric evidence for the Barker hypothesis. Contact: Beverly Clark
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
$32 million CU-Boulder instrument package to study space weather set for NASA launch Feb. 9 A $32 million University of Colorado at Boulder instrument package set for launch Feb. 9 by NASA should help scientists better understand the violent effects of the sun on near-Earth space weather that can affect satellites, power grids, ground communications systems and even astronauts and aircraft crews.
NASA
Contact: Tom Woods
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
OceanographyOceans reveal further impacts of climate change, says UAB expert The increasing acidity of the world's oceans -- and that acidity's growing threat to marine species -- are definitive proof that the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is causing climate change is also negatively affecting the marine environment, says world-renowned Antarctic marine biologist Jim McClintock, Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Biology. Contact: Andrew Hayenga
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
ScienceMoss helps chart the conquest of land by plants Clues to how the first land plants managed to avoid drying out might be provided by bryophytes, a group that includes the mosses, many of which retain remarkable drought tolerance. Some mosses can become so dry they crumble in the hand, but, if remoistened, will begin making proteins within minutes. Research published in the Jan. 29 issue of the journal Science, reveals several components of the signaling pathway that underlies the moss' Lazarus-like behavior. Contact: Diana Lutz
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Psychological ScienceStudy reveals potential evolutionary role for same-sex attraction Male homosexuality doesn't make complete sense from an evolutionary point of view. One possible explanation is what evolutionary psychologists call the "kin selection hypothesis." What that means is that homosexuality may convey an indirect benefit by enhancing the survival prospects of close relatives. Contact: Catherine Allen-West
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Habit-learning device will lower energy bills under new clean energy cashback scheme Smart control units that learn householders' energy habits and provide immediate feedback on consumption could give home energy savings of up to 20 percent without compromising comfort. Contact: EPSRC Press Office
Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Science ExpressYale scientists complete color palette of a dinosaur for the first time Deciphering microscopic clues hidden within fossils, scientists have uncovered the vibrant colors that adorned a feathered dinosaur extinct for 150 million years, a Yale University-led research team reports online Feb. 4 in the journal Science.
National Geographic Society and by the National Science Foundation.
Contact: Bill Hathaway
|
|
|
||||
|
|
 |
|
