Ecological impact of microbial respiration in oxygen-starved oceans
Vancouver, Canada (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
A sulfur-oxidizing bacterial group called SUP05 will play an increasingly important role in carbon and nutrient cycling in the world's oceans as oxygen minimum zones expand, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
University of British Columbia researchers plumbed the depth of a seasonally anoxic fjord, Canada's Saanich Inlet, to ch ...
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Radio frequency ID tags on honey bees reveal hive dynamics
Champaign IL (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
Scientists attached radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to hundreds of individual honey bees and tracked them for several weeks. The effort yielded two discoveries: Some foraging bees are much busier than others; and if those busy bees disappear, others will take their place.
The findings are reported in the journal Animal Behaviour.
Tagging the bees revealed that about 20 per ...
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Meat turns up the heat
Stanford CA (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
Eating meat contributes to climate change, due to greenhouse gasses emitted by livestock. New research finds that livestock emissions are on the rise and that beef cattle are responsible for far more greenhouse gas emissions than other types of animals. It is published by Climactic Change.
Carbon dioxide is the most-prevalent gas when it comes to climate change. It is released by vehicles, ...
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15-year analysis of blue whales off California finds conflict with shipping lanes
Newport OR (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
A comprehensive 15-year analysis of the movements of satellite-tagged blue whales off the West Coast of the United States found that their favored feeding areas are bisected by heavily used shipping lanes, increasing the threat of injury and mortality.
The researchers note that moving the shipping lanes off Los Angeles and San Francisco to slightly different areas - at least, during summer ...
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Seals forage at offshore wind farms
St Andrews, UK (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
By using sophisticated GPS tracking to monitor seals' every movement, researchers have shown for the first time that some individuals are repeatedly drawn to offshore wind farms and pipelines.
Those man-made structures probably serve as artificial reefs and attractive hunting grounds, according to a study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology.
"I was shocked when I firs ...
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How honey bees stay cool
Somerville MA (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
Honey bees, especially the young, are highly sensitive to temperature and to protect developing bees, adults work together to maintain temperatures within a narrow range. Recently published research led by Philip T. Starks, a biologist at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences, is the first to show that worker bees dissipate excess heat within a hive in process similar to how humans and ...
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K computer runs largest ever ensemble simulation of global weather
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 24, 2014 -
Ensemble forecasting is a key part of weather forecasting today. Computers typically run multiple simulations, called ensembles, using slightly different initial conditions or assumptions, and then analyze them together to try to improve forecasts.
Now, using Japan's flagship 10-petaFLOPS K computer, researchers from the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (AICS) have succee ...
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