ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Scientists used a nuclear dating technique to study the dynamics of the Floridan Aquifer. The findings show the promise of this emerging technique to help understand geological processes and to forecast the effects of climate change on coastal aquifers.

A new study on foot-and-mouth disease among buffalo in South Africa could help explain how certain extremely contagious pathogens are able to persist and reach endemic stage in a population, long after they've burned through their initial pool of susceptible hosts.

Researchers can now rapidly isolate and chemically characterize individual organelles within cells. The new technique tests the limits of analytical chemistry and rapidly reveals the chemical composition of organelles that control biological growth, development and disease.

A new study has found that recent bigleaf maple die-off in Washington is linked to hotter, drier summers that predispose this species to decline. These conditions essentially weaken the tree's immune system, making it easier to succumb to other stressors and diseases.

A paper article identifies five ways that people of high socioeconomic status have a disproportionate impact on global greenhouse gas emissions - and therefore an outsized responsibility to facilitate progress in climate change mitigation.

A nationwide team of researchers has determined how a genetic mutation found in mice and monkeys interferes with viruses such as HIV and Ebola. They say the finding could eventually lead to the development of medical interventions in humans.

Researchers used decades of measurements of earthshine -- the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon to find that there has been a significant drop in Earth's reflectance over the past two decades. The Earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square meter than it was 20 years ago, with most of the drop occurring in the last three years.

Scientist have utilized so-called SNAP-tag technology to radioactively label cells in living organisms. In a proof-of-principle study they developed a SNAP-tag substrate equipped with the radioactive signal emitter fluorine-18 and used it to make tumor cells in the bodies of mice visible in PET images. The labeling method, already established in microscopy, opens up the prospect of studying cells with different imaging techniques and at different temporal stages -- for example, when inflammation begins, continues and resolves again. This may help reveal more about how the functions of individual cells and entire organs are interconnected.

Domestic cats that regularly catch wild animals still get most of their nutrition from food provided at home, new research shows.

Trilobites of the suborder Phacopina had a unique eye in which about 200 large lenses in each eye spanned at least six individual facets, each of which in turn formed its own small compound eye.

The microbiomes of corals -- which comprise bacteria, fungi and viruses -- play an important role in the ability of corals to tolerate rising ocean temperatures, according to new research. The team also identified several genes within certain corals and the symbiotic photosynthetic algae that live inside their tissues that may play a role in their response to heat stress. The findings could inform current coral reef conservation efforts, for example, by highlighting the potential benefits of amending coral reefs with microbes found to bolster corals' heat-stress responses.

New research shows groundwater takes an average of three years to recover from drought -- if it ever recovers at all. In the largest study of its kind, scientists found that this recovery time only applies to aquifers that aren't touched by human activity, and the recovery time might be even longer in regions with excessive pumping.

Amid historic drought and changing rainfall patterns, a groundwater market in the California desert could serve as a template for the future of water management.

Intermittent fasting is a trendy weight loss strategy. A new study of fasting fruit flies shows how the diet, if properly timed, also slows the aging process and increases longevity by cleaning our cells.

The accelerated proliferation of lianas in old-growth forest due to natural disturbance may be altering forest structure, regeneration, and functioning.