For nature, gravel-bed rivers critical feature in western North America
Missoula MT (SPX) Jun 29, 2016 -
Gravel-bed river floodplains are some of the most ecologically important habitats in North America, according to a new study by scientists from the U.S. and Canada. Their research shows how broad valleys coming out of glaciated mountains provide highly productive and important habitat for a large diversity of aquatic, avian and terrestrial species.
This is the first interdisciplinary resea ...
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Beach replenishment helps protect against storm erosion during El Nino
San Diego CA (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
A team of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego compared sand levels on several San Diego beaches during the last seven winters. The El Ninos of winter 2009-10 and 2015-16 were the two most erosive. Three San Diego County beaches that received imported sand in 2012 were about 10 meters (33 feet) wider, and one to two meters (three to six fee ...
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Sea star death triggers ecological domino effect
Burnaby, Canada (SPX) Jun 29, 2016 -
A new study by Simon Fraser University marine ecologists Jessica Schultz, Ryan Cloutier and Isabelle Cote has discovered that a mass mortality of sea stars resulted in a domino effect on B.C.'s West Coast Howe Sound marine ecology.
In the summer of 2013, millions of sea stars along the West Coast contracted a wasting disease and died in one of the largest wildlife mass mortality events eve ...
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Fix for 3-billion-year-old genetic error could improve genetic sequencing
Austin TX (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
For 3 billion years, one of the major carriers of information needed for life, RNA, has had a glitch that creates errors when making copies of genetic information. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a fix that allows RNA to accurately proofread for the first time. The new discovery, published June 23 in the journal Science, will increase precision in genetic research ...
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New technique settles old debate on highest peaks in US Arctic
Munich, Germany (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
Finding out which is the highest mountain in the US Arctic may be the last thing on your mind, unless you are an explorer who skis from the tallest peaks around the globe. Ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers joined forces with glaciologist Matt Nolan to settle a debate of more than 50 years, while testing a new, affordable mapping technique in a steep mountainous region. Their research is published ...
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'Amazing protein diversity' is discovered in the maize plant
Cold Spring Harbor NY (SPX) Jun 29, 2016 -
The genome of the corn plant - or maize, as it's called almost everywhere except the US - "is a lot more exciting" than scientists have previously believed. So says the lead scientist in a new effort to analyze and annotate the depth of the plant's genetic resources.
"Our new research establishes the amazing diversity of maize, even beyond what we already knew was there," says Doreen Ware, ...
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Future global warming could be even warmer
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Jun 29, 2016 -
Future global warming will not only depend on the amount of emissions from man-made greenhouse gasses, but will also depend on the sensitivity of the climate system and response to feedback mechanisms. By reconstructing past global warming and the carbon cycle on Earth 56 million years ago, researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute among others have used computer modelling to estimate the potent ...
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As Alaska warms, methane emissions appear stable
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
Analysis of nearly three decades of air samples from Alaska's North Slope shows little change in long-term methane emissions despite significant Arctic warming over that time period, according to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Scientists estimate that Arctic permafrost, a thick layer of frozen soil that encircles the glo ...
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Google brings Earth into better focus
San Francisco (AFP) June 28, 2016 -
Google's free online mapping service is bringing the world into better focus with an updated version of Earth that takes advantage of photos from a US Landsat 8 satellite.
The Internet giant introduced a "cloud-free mosaic" of this planet three years ago at Google Earth, and on Monday began rolling out a new version that uses new techniques to process sharper images gathered by the satellite ...
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Researchers discover oldest evidence of farming by insects
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
Scientists have discovered the oldest fossil evidence of agriculture - not by humans, but by insects. The team, led by Eric Roberts of James Cook University along with researchers from Ohio University, discovered the oldest known examples of "fungus gardens" in 25 million-year-old fossil termite nests in East Africa.
Some termite species cultivate fungi in "gardens" in subterranean nests o ...
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What did Earth's ancient magnetic field look like
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
New work from Carnegie's Peter Driscoll suggests Earth's ancient magnetic field was significantly different than the present day field, originating from several poles rather than the familiar two. It is published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Earth generates a strong magnetic field extending from the core out into space that shields the atmosphere and deflects harmful high-energy partic ...
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Insects were already using camouflage 100 million years ago
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Jun 28, 2016 -
Those who go to a masked ball consciously slip into a different role, in order to avoid being recognized so quickly. Insects were already doing something very similar in the Cretaceous: They cloaked themselves in pieces of plants, grains of sand, or the remains of their prey, in order, for example, to be invisible to predators.
An international research team, with participation from the Un ...
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