ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Locally sourced: Pelicans prefer native fish to sportfish at Utah's strawberry reservoir

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 04:06 PM PST

American white pelicans who pause their migration at Strawberry Reservoir in Utah are filling their bellies with native species like Utah sucker for the most part, leaving cutthroat trout to the human anglers, according to new research.

Human-induced disease outbreak in animals causes cascading ecological effects

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 04:06 PM PST

A study that investigated the impacts of a mange outbreak that killed vicunas in a protected area in the Argentine Andes found that it had unique effects on the ecology of the region.

How baboons keep healthy family boundaries

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 01:20 PM PST

Drawing on 48 years of data on the family trees and mate choices of 1,624 wild baboons in Kenya, a new study finds that baboons generally steer clear of mates that are half-siblings or closer. But baboons proved less discriminating with their father's side of the family than their mother's, the researchers report.

Researchers create tool to help protect native fish from hybridizing with non-natives

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 01:20 PM PST

Researchers have created a tool to assess the risk of hybridization among native and non-native fish, a development that could aid natural resource managers trying to protect threatened or endangered freshwater fish species.

Lead exposure in last century shrank IQ scores of half of Americans, study finds

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 01:20 PM PST

Researchers calculate that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from over 170 million Americans alive today, more than half of the population of the United States.

Early killer whales ate fish — not other marine mammals

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 10:20 AM PST

A new study provides vital clues on when killer whales began feeding on other marine mammals.

World Trade Center responders at higher risk for blood cancer-associated mutations, study finds

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 10:20 AM PST

Scientists determined that 9/11 first responders to the World Trade Center have increased levels of mutations that escalate their risk for blood cancers or cardiovascular disease, according to a new study.

The secret to longevity? Ask a yellow-bellied marmot

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 10:19 AM PST

A new study shows that aging slows to a crawl when yellow-bellied marmots hibernate. These large ground squirrels are able to virtually halt the aging process during the seven to eight months they spend hibernating in their underground burrows, the researchers report. The study is the first to analyze the rate of aging among marmots in the wild.

New maps show airplane contrails over the U.S. dropped steeply in 2020

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 10:19 AM PST

Researchers have generated new maps of jet contrails over the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which show a steep reduction in the area covered by contrails in 2020.

New study questions explanation for last winter's brutal U.S. cold snap

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 10:19 AM PST

A new study challenges a commonly accepted explanation that a 'sudden stratospheric warming' caused the unusually cold weather over the U.S. early last year, a view which was widely reported in the media and discussed among scientists at the time.

Increasing frequency of El Niño events expected by 2040

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

Global weather fluctuations called El Niño events are likely to become more frequent by 2040, a new study shows.

CO2 could be stored below ocean floor

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. To combat its potentially catastrophic effects, scientists are searching for new technologies that could help the world reach carbon neutrality. One potential solution that is drawing growing attention is to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the form of hydrates under ocean floor sediments, kept in place by the natural pressure created by the weight of the seawater above. A major question, however, has been how stable this stored CO2 would be for the extended periods of storage required to keep the carbon in place and out of the atmosphere. A research team has shown that CO2 hydrates, under the ocean's cold and high-pressure environment, can remain stable in oceanic sediments for up to 30 days. Going forward, the team says, the same process can be used to validate the stability of CO2 hydrates for much longer periods.

New micro-protein helps yeast cells cope with nutrient scarcity

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

Researchers have discovered that a micro-protein, which they named Nrs1, supports cell division and proliferation when nutrients are scarce.

Collectors in the prehistoric world recycled old stone tools to preserve the memory of their ancestors

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

A new study asks what drove prehistoric humans to collect and recycle flint tools that had been made, used, and discarded by their predecessors. After examining flint tools from one layer at the 500,000-year-old prehistoric site of Revadim in the south of Israel's Coastal Plain, researchers propose a novel explanation: prehistoric humans, just like us, were collectors by nature and culture.

Climate mitigation measures could impact food security, study finds

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

Many countries have set carbon neutrality as a policy goal, but according to a new study, there are various risks associated with the reduction of greenhouse gases, especially in the agriculture, forestry, and land use sectors, that need to be considered when formulating mitigation strategies.

Common houseplants can improve air quality indoors

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

Ordinary potted house plants can potentially make a significant contribution to reducing air pollution in homes and offices, according to new research.

Using raw materials more sustainably

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:31 AM PST

Insights into the oxidation of hydrocarbons at vanadium pentoxide pave the way for a new catalyst design.

An aromatic tomato could be looming – a la heirloom varieties

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

Scientists helped discover a way to enhance tomato smell and taste. Scientists showed that five of the compounds are part of a biochemical pathway for synthesis of these important flavor compounds.

How stress hormones guide bacteria in their host

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

A newly discovered protein helps bacteria recognize stress hormones in the human body and direct their motion in the host.

Cellular rejuvenation therapy safely reverses signs of aging in mice

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

Age may be just a number, but it's a number that often carries unwanted side effects, from brittle bones and weaker muscles to increased risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Now, scientists have shown that they can safely and effectively reverse the aging process in middle-aged and elderly mice by partially resetting their cells to more youthful states.

Tiny worms make complex decisions, too

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

How does an animal make decisions? Scientists have spent decades trying to answer this question by focusing on the cells and connections of the brain that might be involved. Scientists are taking a different approach -- analyzing behavior, not neurons. They were surprised to find that worms can take multiple factors into account and choose between two different actions, despite having only 302 neurons compared to approximately 86 billion in humans.

Tiny 'skyscrapers' help bacteria convert sunlight into electricity

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

Researchers have made tiny 'skyscrapers' for communities of bacteria, helping them to generate electricity from just sunlight and water.

Safer, more powerful batteries for electric cars, power grid

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

A new study tackled a long-held assumption that adding some liquid electrolyte to improve performance would make solid-state batteries unsafe. Instead, the research team found that in many cases solid-state batteries with a little liquid electrolyte were safer than their lithium-ion counterparts. They also found, if the battery were to short-circuit, releasing all its stored energy, the theoretically super-safe, all-solid-state battery could put out a dangerous amount of heat.

Field-based patient trial for cell-free Zika testing delivers highly accurate results

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

Researchers have led one of the first field trials for a synthetic biology-based diagnostic using patient samples. This work, conducted on-site in Latin America, reveals the potential for cell-free synthetic biology tools and companion hardware for providing rapid, de-centralized, and low-cost patient testing for infectious diseases like the Zika virus.

Amazon rainforest is losing resilience: New evidence from satellite data analysis

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:30 AM PST

The Amazon rainforest is likely losing resilience, data analysis from high-resolution satellite images suggests. This is due to stress from a combination of logging and burning -- the influence of human-caused climate change is not clearly determinable so far, but will likely matter greatly in the future. For about three quarters of the forest, the ability to recover from perturbation has been decreasing since the early 2000s, which the scientists see as a warning sign. The new evidence is derived from advanced statistical analysis of satellite data of changes in vegetation biomass and productivity.

Lensless camera captures cellular-level, 3D details in living tissue

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 08:29 AM PST

The lensless Bio-FlatScope is a small, inexpensive camera to monitor biological activity that can't be captured by conventional instruments. The device could eventually be used to look for signs of cancer or sepsis or become a valuable endoscopy tool.

Cell division in microalgae: Mitosis revealed in detail

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 06:17 AM PST

Cell division ensures growth or renewal and is thus vital for all organisms. However, the process differs somewhat in animals, bacteria, fungi, plants, and algae. Until now, little was known about how cell division occurs in algae. Researchers have used confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) to capture the very first high-resolution three-dimensional images of cell division in live cells of the microalga Volvox carteri, and have identified new cellular structures involved in the process.

Electric Truck Hydropower, a flexible solution to hydropower in mountainous regions

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 06:17 AM PST

Researchers have developed an innovative hydropower technology based on electric trucks that could provide a flexible and clean solution for electricity generation in mountainous regions.

Cameras reveal snowshoe hare density

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 06:17 AM PST

The number of hares in a forest is a good indicator of how healthy that ecosystem is -- and now there's a better way to find out. A new study shows recently developed camera-trapping methods could be a viable alternative to live-trapping for determining the density of snowshoe hares and potentially other small mammals that play a critical role in any forest ecosystem.

Cooler waters created super-sized Megalodon

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 05:23 AM PST

A new study reveals that the iconic extinct Megalodon or megatooth shark grew to larger sizes in cooler environments than in warmer areas.

Pig grunts reveal their emotions

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 05:23 AM PST

We can now decode pigs' emotions. Using thousands of acoustic recordings gathered throughout the lives of pigs, from their births to deaths, an international team of researchers has translated pig grunts into the emotions they appear to express.

Higher risk of temperature-related death if global warming exceeds 2°C

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 05:23 AM PST

The death rate linked to extreme temperatures will increase significantly under global warming of 2°C, finds a new report. Temperature-related mortality -- where a death is directly linked to climate temperature -- in England and Wales during the hottest days of the year will increase by 42% under a warming scenario of 2°C from pre-industrial levels. This means an increase from present-day levels of around 117 deaths per day, averaged over the 10 hottest days of the year, to around 166 deaths per day. The findings underline the importance of keeping global warming levels to below 2°C.

Closer look helps experts ponder when a protein’s prone to wander

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 05:23 AM PST

Using sophisticated microscopy techniques, researchers show why proteins stick better to some surfaces than others. The details could be important to manufacturers fine-tuning drug purifications, biosensors or anti-fouling surfaces.