Tiananmen protest leaders, in US, blast China ahead of anniversary
Washington (AFP) June 02, 2014 -
Dissidents who helped spearhead the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests on Monday blasted China's one-party rule and called on the international community to pressure Beijing into embracing democracy.
Exiled former student activist Wang Dan and intellectual Wang Juntao marked the 25th anniversary of the deadly crackdown in Beijing by launching a new movement from the United States, roughly transl ...
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Decomposing logs show local factors undervalued in climate predictions
New Haven CT (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
A new Yale-led study challenges the long-held assumption that climate is the primary driver of how quickly organic matter decomposes in different regions, a key piece of information used in formulating climate models.
In a long-term analysis conducted across several sites in the eastern United States, a team of researchers found that local factors - from levels of fungal colonization to th ...
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Blunting rice disease
Newark DE (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
A fungus that kills an estimated 30 percent of the world's rice crop may finally have met its match, thanks to a research discovery made by scientists at the University of Delaware and the University of California at Davis.
The research team, led by Harsh Bais, associate professor of plant and soil sciences in UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, has identified a naturally oc ...
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Solving the puzzle of ice age climates
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
The paleoclimate record for the last ice age - a time 21,000 years ago called the "Last Glacial Maximum" (LGM) - tells of a cold Earth whose northern continents were covered by vast ice sheets. Chemical traces from plankton fossils in deep-sea sediments reveal rearranged ocean water masses, as well as extended sea ice coverage off Antarctica. Air bubbles in ice cores show that carbon dioxide in ...
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One step closer to a breath test for lung cancer
Denver CO (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Results of a University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) show that a test of organic compounds in exhaled breath can not only distinguish patients with lung cancer from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but can also define the stage of any cancer present.
"This could totally r ...
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The reproductive system's evolution from dinosaurs to birds
Beijing, China (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
As winged dinosaurs underwent a series of evolutionary changes during the transition into Aves, or birds, one pivotal transformation was the appearance of a single-ovary reproductive system.
"The most widely accepted hypothesis for the presence of a single functional ovary in living birds is that the right ovary ... was lost to reduce body mass in gravid females during flight," report a te ...
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Modern Ocean Acidification Is Outpacing Ancient Upheaval
New York NY (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Some 56 million years ago, a massive pulse of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere sent global temperatures soaring. In the oceans, carbonate sediments dissolved, some organisms went extinct and others evolved.
Scientists have long suspected that ocean acidification caused the crisis-similar to today, as manmade CO2 combines with seawater to change its chemistry. Now, for the first time, sci ...
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Satellites improving lives in rural Africa
Paris (ESA) Jun 03, 2014 -
An ESA-supported project is showing how satcoms can help farmers, voters and educators in rural Africa. The three elements of the Sway4edu project are helping to run elections, educate teachers and improve radio programming. Satellite terminals provide Internet connectivity, with solar panels and batteries (where needed), laptops, tablets, a projector with screen, and loudspeakers.
Sway4ed ...
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Rolling old river is indeed changing
New York NY (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
The Hudson River has changed in many far-reaching ways over the past quarter-century as a result of human activity, reports a team of researchers in the June issue of BioScience. Zebra mussels and other invasive species have changed the river's ecology-although the influence of the zebra mussels now seems to be waning.
A 40 percent increase in the freshwater flow has also had powerful effe ...
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Britain's urban rivers cleanest in 20 years
Cardiff, UK (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Scientists from Cardiff University have found that Britain's urban rivers are the cleanest they've been in over two decades. The 21-year study of over 2300 rivers measured the presence of clean-river invertebrates - a yardstick for river health - which during the days of heavy industry and poor sewage treatment had declined considerably, but now appear to be making a comeback.
Although cli ...
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Migrating birds stop off in Cyprus at their peril
Nicosia (AFP) May 20, 2014 -
Under the cover of night, activists patrol key poaching sites in southeast Cyprus, described as an ecological disaster zone for endangered migratory birds on their Mediterranean stopover.
"Cyprus is the worst country in Europe for the number of birds killed and the species," said Andrea Rutigliano of the Bonn-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS).
Blackcaps, thrushes and other so ...
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Big drop in wintertime fog needed by fruit and nut crops
Berkeley CA (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
California's winter tule fog - hated by drivers, but needed by fruit and nut trees - has declined dramatically over the past three decades, raising a red flag for the state's multibillion dollar agricultural industry, according to researchers at UC Berkeley.
Crops such as almonds, pistachios, cherries, apricots and peaches go through a necessary winter dormant period brought on and maintai ...
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Shrub growth decreases as winter temps warm up
Seattle WA (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.
"When winter temperatures fluctuate between being cold and warm enough for growth, plants deplete their ...
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With climate changing, Southern plants do better than Northern locals
Davis CA (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
Can plants and animals evolve to keep pace with climate change? A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that for at least one widely-studied plant, the European climate is changing fast enough that strains from Southern Europe already grow better in the north than established local varieties.
Small and fast-growing, Arabidopsis thaliana is wid ...
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The Added Value of Local Food Hubs
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
As the largest purchaser of wholesale produce in Santa Barbara County, UC Santa Barbara's residential dining services provided the perfect avenue for a pilot project incorporating local pesticide-free or certified organic produce into an institutional setting.
The idea was conceived almost 10 years ago, when a group of students approached environmental studies professor David Cleveland abo ...
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China Bright Food to buy majority stake in Israel's Tnuva
Shanghai (AFP) May 22, 2014 -
China's state-owned Bright Food will take a majority stake in Israel's biggest food producer Tnuva, it said Thursday in the latest step of an overseas buying spree.
Bright Food, which controls British cereals firm Weetabix, has signed a preliminary agreement with London-based private equity firm Apax Partners to acquire a 56 percent stake in Tnuva, the Chinese firm said in a statement.
B ...
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US Farmers Can Turn their Ag Waste Problems into Profit
Glen Allen VA (SPX) May 23, 2014 -
The time is now for U.S. farmers to fully monetize the massive amounts of biomass energy bound up in crop residues, animal manure and other forms of ag waste, advises Roy M. Palk, senior energy adviser for national law firm LeClairRyan, in a series of columns for Farm Industry News.
"Thanks to rapid technological development, as well as new regulatory carrots and sticks, today's energy com ...
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Deep-buried carbon may pose climate risk: study
Paris (AFP) May 25, 2014 -
Stocks of organic carbon buried deep underground could pose a global warming threat if disturbed by erosion, farming, deforestation, mining or road-building, a study warned Sunday.
Scientists from the United States and Germany discovered one such reserve in Nebraska, up to 6.5 metres (21 feet) under the surface, composed mainly of vast quantities of burnt plant material.
"We found almost ...
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European farmers adapting to climate change
Stanford CA (SPX) May 26, 2014 -
A new Stanford study finds that due to an average 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit of warming expected by 2040, yields of wheat and barley across Europe will drop more than 20 percent. New Stanford research reveals that farmers in Europe will see crop yields affected as global temperatures rise, but that adaptation can help slow the decline for some crops.
For corn, the anticipated loss is roughly 1 ...
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Wondering about the state of the environment? Just eavesdrop on the bees
London, UK (SPX) May 26, 2014 -
Researchers have devised a simple way to monitor wide swaths of the landscape without breaking a sweat: by listening in on the "conversations" honeybees have with each other. The scientists' analyses of honeybee waggle dances reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 22 suggest that costly measures to set aside agricultural lands and let the wildflowers grow can be very beneficia ...
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Asia's largest wine expo opens in Hong Kong
Hong Kong (AFP) May 27, 2014 -
Asia's biggest wine and spirits fair opened in Hong Kong on Tuesday, drawing the world's top producers from France to Chile despite China reporting the first decline in wine consumption for a decade.
According to a survey by Vinexpo Asia Pacific, mainland China's wine consumption fell by 2.5 percent last year, after ten years of uninterrupted growth at a rate of 25 percent per year.
The ...
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NMSU's drought-tolerant alfalfa variety created to meet New Mexico growers' needs
Las Cruces NM (SPX) May 28, 2014 -
Robert Flynn and Ian Ray, both alfalfa experts at New Mexico State University, have been researching a new drought-tolerant alfalfa variety. The Billy Melton variety, developed by Ray, NMSU professor of agronomy, was named in honor of Bill Melton, an NMSU professor who had an alfalfa-breeding program in the late 1970s and began developing varieties that had higher drought tolerance.
Ray an ...
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Satellite imagery shows drought-ridden Lake Powell at half capacity
Coconino County, Ariz. (UPI) May 26, 2013 -
Diminished by overzealous water withdrawals and a lengthy drought throughout the Southwest, Lake Powell, the meandering mass of water held by Glen Canyon dam, has slowly emptied in recent years. It now sits below half capacity.
NASA's Earth Observatory recently released satellite imagery showcasing the decade-plus drying-up of the reservoir that helps quench the thirst of more than 20 m ...
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Australian organic farmer loses GM test case
Sydney (AFP) May 28, 2014 -
An Australian farmer who lost his organic produce licence after his fields were contaminated by a neighbour's genetically modified canola crop failed Wednesday to win his test case for losses.
In a judgment which could influence how GM crops are grown in Australia, Justice Kenneth Martin also denied an injunction to protect Steve Marsh's crops against future contamination.
Marsh sued ne ...
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Weather Impacts on Food: A QandA with NASA's Molly Brown
Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 29, 2014 -
When floods, droughts, and other natural disasters hit isolated and poor regions of the world, it can have devastating impacts on the local price of food. Research scientist Molly Brown from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is using satellite data to investigate and model the relationship between weather shocks and food prices - an ambitious endeavor in light of a chang ...
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