Global consumption driving tropical deforestation
Gothenburg, Sweden (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
International trade with agricultural and wood products is an increasingly important driver of tropical deforestation. More than a third of recent deforestation can be tied to production of beef, soy, palm oil and timber.
"The trend is clear, the drivers of deforestation have been globalized and commercialized", says assistant professor Martin Persson, Chalmers University of Technology. ...
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Some scientists share better than others
East Lansing MI (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
Some scientists share better than others. While astronomers and geneticists embrace the concept, the culture of ecology still has a ways to go.
Research by Michigan State University, published in the current issue of Bioscience, explores the paradox that although ecologists share findings via scientific journals, they do not share the data on which the studies are built, said Patricia Sora ...
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New Insights on Carbonic Acid in Water
Berkeley CA (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
Though it garners few public hDrones help show how environmental changes affect the spread of infectious diseasess, carbonic acid, the hydrated form of carbon dioxide, is critical to both the health of the atmosphere and the human body. However, because it exists for only a fraction of a second before changing into a mix of hydrogen and bicarbonate ions, carbonic acid has remained an enigma.
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Recently discovered microbe is key player in climate change
Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
Tiny soil microbes are among the world's biggest potential amplifiers of human-caused climate change, but whether microbial communities are mere slaves to their environment or influential actors in their own right is an open question.
Now, research by an international team of scientists from the U.S., Sweden and Australia, led by University of Arizona scientists, shows that a single specie ...
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Brisbane Sugarbag bees launch all-conquering raids
Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
They may be tiny and stingless but there's nothing sweet and innocent about a species of native sugarbag bee when it goes to war over a coveted honey-filled hive.
A study by behavioural ecologist Dr Paul Cunningham, from QUT, and molecular biologist Dr James Hereward, from the University of Queensland, published in American Naturalist, found the bees' used their jaws as lethal weapons when ...
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Mature forests store nitrogen in soil
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
Ecologists working in central Pennsylvania forests have found that forest top soils capture and stabilize the powerful fertilizer nitrogen quickly, within days, but release it slowly, over years to decades. The discrepancy in rates means that nitrogen can build up in soils. Forests may be providing an unappreciated service by storing excess nitrogen emitted by modern agriculture, industry, and t ...
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Cause of aging remains elusive
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Oct 24, 2014 -
A report by Chinese researchers in the journal Nature a few months ago was a small sensation: they appeared to have found the cause for why organisms age. An international team of scientists, headed by the University of Bonn, has now refuted a basic assumption of the Nature article. The reasons for aging thus remain elusive.
The Chinese article caused a stir amongst experts worldwide. Usin ...
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