ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Yellowstone's history of hydrothermal explosions over the past 14,000 years

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 12:58 PM PDT

While much of public attention on Yellowstone focuses on its potential to produce large supereruptions, the hazards that are much more likely to occur are smaller, violent hydrothermal explosions. Hydrothermal explosions occur when near-boiling water suddenly flashes into steam, releasing large amounts of energy. The energy release fractures the rock downward, often leaving behind a crater. The same sources that can produce these explosions are what give Yellowstone its well-known hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles.

How 'viral dark matter' may help mitigate climate change

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 12:58 PM PDT

A deep dive into the 5,500 marine RNA virus species scientists recently identified has found that several may help drive carbon absorbed from the atmosphere to permanent storage on the ocean floor.

As the ocean heats up hungrier predators take control

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 12:58 PM PDT

A hotter ocean is a hungrier ocean -- at least as far as fish predators are concerned. Scientists have discovered predator impacts in the Atlantic and Pacific peak at higher temperatures. The effects cascade down to transform other life in the ocean, potentially disrupting balances that have existed for millennia.

Superworms capable of munching through plastic waste

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 12:58 PM PDT

Researchers have found a species of worm with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale.

Chromatin originated in ancient microbes one to two billion years ago

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 10:19 AM PDT

Researchers now reveal that nature's storage solution first evolved in ancient microbes living on Earth between one and two billion years ago.

Pre-historic Wallacea: A melting pot of human genetic ancestries

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 10:19 AM PDT

The Wallacean islands of present-day Eastern Indonesia have a long history of occupation by modern humans. Notably, the maritime expansion of Austronesian speakers into Wallacea left archaeological traces of a Neolithic lifestyle and a genetic imprint still detectable in Eastern Indonesians today. To gain further insights into Wallacea's settlement history, scientists sequenced and analyzed sixteen ancient genomes from different islands of Wallacea, finding evidence for repeated genetic admixtures starting at least 3,000 years ago.

'Fantastic giant tortoise,' believed extinct, confirmed alive in the Galápagos

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 10:19 AM PDT

A tortoise from a Galápagos species long believed extinct has been found alive. Fernanda, named after her Fernandina Island home, is the first of her species identified in more than a century. Geneticist successfully extracted DNA from a specimen collected from the same island more than a century ago and confirmed that Fernanda and the museum specimen are members of the same species and genetically distinct from all other Galápagos tortoises.

Antarctic glaciers losing ice at fastest rate for 5,500 years

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 10:18 AM PDT

New evidence suggests that two major glaciers in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) are losing ice at the fastest rate for at least 5,500 years.

Development of a user-friendly, hot-melt, wound-healing adhesive

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 07:18 AM PDT

Scientist have developed a hot-melt tissue adhesive (i.e., medical glue that is applied in a molten state) capable of healing operative wounds. This adhesive has excellent medical material properties in terms of its ease of use, adhesiveness to tissues, biocompatibility and ability to prevent postoperative complications.

Extreme, severe drought impacting the upper Colorado River basin in the second century, new study finds

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 07:01 AM PDT

The Colorado River is in an extremely severe drought and has been for the last 22 years. To better understand this drought, researchers looked at the drought history within the Colorado River Basin. Previous studies have gone back 1,200 years, but this paper goes back 2,000 years. The findings, using paleo hydrology, show that there was an even more severe drought in the Colorado River Basin in the second century.

New research shows climate change impacts on whale habitat use in the warming Gulf of Maine

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 07:00 AM PDT

New research finds climate change is having an impact on how large whale species, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, use habitats in the warming Gulf of Maine, showing that right whales' use of Cape Cod Bay has shifted significantly over the last 20 years.

New species of alga named for poet Amanda Gorman

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 05:45 AM PDT

Researchers discovered a new species of alga in central New York and named it Gormaniella terricola, with the genus named after poet Amanda Gorman. The new species is quite interesting in that its chloroplast genome is highly repetitive and contains quite a bit of DNA from fungi and bacteria, meaning it was likely invaded multiple times from other species through a process called horizontal transfer.

Europe's largest land predator unearthed on the Isle of Wight

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 05:22 AM PDT

Palaeontologists have identified the remains of one of Europe's largest ever land-based hunters: a dinosaur that measured over 10m long and lived around 125 million years ago.

Phage therapy for mycobacterium infections: More than 50% success rate

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 05:22 AM PDT

The number of reported cases using viruses to treat deadly Mycobacterium infections just went up by a factor of five. Researchers report 20 new case studies on the use of the experimental treatment, showing the therapy's success in more than half of the patients.

Researchers reveal add-on benefits of natural defenses against sea-level rise

Posted: 09 Jun 2022 05:22 AM PDT

Researchers modeled how investing in environmental conservation and protection can help San Mateo County adapt to rising seas. The findings provide incentives for policymakers to prioritize nature-based approaches when planning for sea-level rise.

Bizarre meat-eating dinosaur joins 'Rogues' Gallery' of giant predators from classic fossil site in Egypt's Sahara Desert

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 01:14 PM PDT

The fossil of a still-unnamed species provides the first known record of the abelisaurid group of theropods from a middle Cretaceous-aged (approximately 98 million years old) rock unit known as the Bahariya Formation, which is exposed in the Bahariya Oasis of the Western Desert of Egypt.

The Southern Ocean as never seen before

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 01:14 PM PDT

With the second version of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO v2), an international group of researchers recently presented the best and most detailed seafloor map of the Southern Ocean, which plays a pivotal role in the Earth system.

The secret lives of Darwin's finches reveal daily commutes the equivalent of 30 soccer fields

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 11:29 AM PDT

Using radio transmitters, scientists have gained new insights into the behavior of medium ground finches in the Galapagos Islands. A study reveals daily movement patterns covering an area equivalent to the size of 30 soccer fields.

Climate change and human exploitation to blame for historic decline in Atlantic Salmon

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 10:36 AM PDT

Research has revealed that an abrupt change in climate conditions in the North Atlantic around 800 years ago played a role in a decline in Atlantic salmon populations returning to rivers. Subsequent human exploitation of salmon combined to reduce their populations still further.

Amazon River freshwater fish show signs of overexploitation

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 10:36 AM PDT

As the cherished rainforest in South America's Amazon River region continues to shrink, the river itself now presents evidence of other dangers: the overexploitation of freshwater fish.

Updating our understanding of Earth's architecture

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 08:26 AM PDT

New models that show how the continents were assembled are providing fresh insights into the history of the Earth and will help provide a better understanding of natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes.

Rapid Ebola diagnosis may be possible with new technology

Posted: 08 Jun 2022 08:25 AM PDT

A new tool can quickly and reliably identify the presence of Ebola virus in blood samples, according to a new study. The technology, which uses so-called optical microring resonators, potentially could be developed into a rapid diagnostic test for the deadly Ebola virus disease, which kills up to 89% of infected people.

Antagonistic interactions of plant defense compounds

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 03:12 PM PDT

A combined defense of different chemical defense substances could result in a negative interaction and mutual detoxification, according to a new study on the wild tobacco species Nicotiana attenuata and one of its specialized herbivores. Chemical analyses of frass revealed that larvae of the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta are able to split off components of one defense substance and use them to detoxify another. However, tobacco plants have also developed a counter-strategy to minimize the mutual detoxification of their defenses: They avoid producing the two substances involved in detoxification simultaneously in high concentrations.