ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

New DNA study provides critical information on conserving rainforest lizards

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 01:07 PM PDT

Researchers have provided an important road map to conserving rough-nosed horned lizards in Sri Lanka.

Thawing permafrost releases greenhouse gas from depth

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 01:07 PM PDT

Geologists compared the spatial and temporal distribution of methane concentrations in the air of northern Siberia with geological maps. The result: the methane concentrations in the air after last year's heat wave indicate that increased gas emissions came from limestone formations.

How headless hydra feel, react to prodding

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 01:06 PM PDT

Researchers identify redundant neural networks in jellyfish-like, freshwater hydra. The work is a step toward modeling how internal states and external stimuli shape the behavior of an organism with a highly dynamic neural architecture.

Decoding how salamanders walk

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:02 AM PDT

Salamanders can navigate complex and unstructured environments thanks to their impressive body-limb coordination. Researchers have built a model that mimics a salamander's walk with the hope it aids the development of agile and adaptive robots that can flexibly change their body-limb coordination.

Flood water: Toxins from the riverbed

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:01 AM PDT

A long-term hazard from flood water is often underestimated: The raging rivers swirl up pollutants out of their sediments that stem from environmental pollution decades or centuries ago. Such harmful substances can not only cause ecological damage in the river. They can also deposit themselves on flooded areas and affect crops, grazing livestock and humans.

Drug-resistant germ packs punch to US travelers

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 11:01 AM PDT

One type of the salmonella bacteria is much more likely to cause disease and fend off frontline antibiotics when acquired in Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa rather than domestically in the United States.

Oxygen spike coincided with ancient global extinction

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:50 AM PDT

Researchers have found that the extinction at the end of the Permian period coincided with a sudden spike and subsequent drop in the ocean's oxygen content.

Sea levels influence eruptions on volcanic island

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:50 AM PDT

The rise and fall of sea levels influence the likelihood of volcanic eruptions on the Greek island of Santorini, new research has discovered. Analyzing the timings of eruptions over hundreds of thousands of years, the researchers found that a 40 meter fall in sea level is a crucial point beyond which eruptions are more likely to occur. The findings could have implications for millions of people living on volcanic islands around the world.

Like matryoshka dolls: One insect species introduced decades ago to a small island had an effect on several insect populations

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:50 AM PDT

Researchers thought 30 years ago that they just introduced some Glanville fritillary butterfly larvae on a small island in the Åland islands, Finland. Little did they know that within the butterfly larvae there nested two other insect species and a bacterial symbiont. This created a unique opportunity to study how a local accidental introduction of insects can affect the dynamics and genetics of the neighbouring populations.

Russian Arctic losing billions of tons of ice as climate warms

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:49 AM PDT

Glaciers and ice caps in two archipelagos in the Russian Arctic are losing enough meltwater to fill nearly five million Olympic-size swimming pools each year, research shows.

Stinkweed could make a cleaner bio-jet fuel, study finds

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:49 AM PDT

A common farm weed could make a 'greener' jet fuel with fewer production-related environmental impacts than other biofuels, a new study indicates.

Overfishing and other human pressures are severely harming many marine protected areas around the world, study finds

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:49 AM PDT

A new study points to a strong 'edge effect' in marine protected areas (MPAs), sharply reducing by 60 percent the fish population living up to 1 - 1.5 km within the MPA. This significantly diminishes the effectiveness of the MPA. Most of the damage stems from fishing pressure around the MPAs.

Lake Huron sinkhole surprise: The rise of oxygen on early Earth linked to changing planetary rotation rate

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 08:44 AM PDT

The rise of oxygen levels early in Earth's history paved the way for the spectacular diversity of animal life. But for decades, scientists have struggled to explain the factors that controlled this gradual and stepwise process, which unfolded over nearly 2 billion years.

Common insecticide is harmful to bees in any amount

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:30 AM PDT

The dangers of neonicotinoid insecticides likely can't be watered down. That's the conclusion of a new study showing an insecticide made for commercial plant nurseries is harmful to a typical bee even when applied well below the label rate and the plant receives high levels of irrigation.

Host proteins that impair Ebola virus infection identified

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:30 AM PDT

Several proteins have been identified in hosts that interact with Ebola virus and primarily function to inhibit the production of viral genetic material in cells and prevent Ebola virus infection, according to a new study.

New York City's hidden old-growth forests

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:30 AM PDT

Tree-ring scientists have mined rare old-growth timbers from demolition at an iconic Manhattan building to produce historical and climate data. Ongoing salvage efforts at other buildings promise to expand on these findings.

Plastic creates 'evolutionary trap' for young sea turtles

Posted: 02 Aug 2021 07:30 AM PDT

Plastic pollution creates an 'evolutionary trap' for young sea turtles, new research shows. After hatching on beaches, sea turtles travel on currents and spend their early years in the open ocean. But these currents now accumulate vast quantities of plastic and -- feeding near the surface -- many young turtles swallow it.

Transforming amber waves of grain: New genome assembly for 'Fielder' wheat cultivar

Posted: 30 Jul 2021 07:43 AM PDT

Researchers have established an accurate genome assembly of 'Fielder' wheat, which -- unlike other wheat cultivars -- is very amenable to genetic editing through bacterial transformation. This genome sequence was generated using a technique that is easier than previous sequencing methods. The development has important implications for wheat genome-editing research and agriculture.

Not-so-blind mice can make strategic and acute visual choices

Posted: 29 Jul 2021 09:22 AM PDT

New research shows that mice can teach us about decision-making strategies. Mice in the study autonomously trained themselves to make decisions about detailed pictures on a screen, and the results illuminated the underlying, sometimes random nature of the decisions.