Boreal ecosystems encircle the planet's high latitudes covering swaths of Canada Europe and Russia in coniferous trees and wetlands.
In some areas like Lake County Forest Preserve District where Sacerdote-Velat works regularly ecologists and land managers have been committed to removing buckthorn from the area.
's research uniquely demonstrates that the effects of glades cascade to a far broader swath of the savanna's plant and animal inhabitants.
The images of fish consumption by white-lipped peccaries were taken by Douglas Fernandes in the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands one morning back in 2011.
On that day Fernandes a researcher for the Instituto Arara Azul a partner organization observed a group of approximately 30 white-lipped peccaries at Caiman Lodge near the town of Miranda in the Pantanal one of the world's largest tropical wetlands.
The white-lipped peccary is sized a medium animal that occurs in both humid tropical forests as well as open savanna and wetland habitats throughout Central and South america.
In areas with similar climate and soils then there is potential for reducing the likelihood of flood generation based on increased soil water storage within a river's catchment.
#Deep, permeable soils buffer impacts of crop fertilizer on Amazon streamsthe often damaging impacts of intensive agriculture on nearby streams rivers
and rivers leading to over-fertilization and low-oxygen conditions that endanger fish and other aquatic life.
so stream levels don't fluctuate dramatically during either the wet and dry seasons even in cropland watersheds.
But in the bigger rivers we see a cumulative impact of all the extra water from those small streams piling up
When larger rivers have to handle that extra water caused by deforestation they change geomorphically;
Those are also rivers that people use for water supplies fishing and transportation. Finally the study showed that the agricultural streams were warmer than the forested streams caused both by a reduction in bordering forest
#Strengthening legumes to tackle fertilizer pollutionthe overuse of nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture can wreak havoc on waterways health and the environment.
when sulfates in the oceans were decomposed by sulfur bacteria is believed to have played a significant role in several extinction events in particular the Great Dying at the end of the Permian period.
Our idea is to use an enzyme cascade to break up the bonds in cellulose enabling their reconfiguration as starch.
requiring a boat trip of two days along the region's stunning fjords to reach.
The organic salts used to make GUMBOS are not the familiar organic sea salt products sold for cooking and other uses.
but foster Gulf of mexico Dead Zonenew ORLEANS April 9 2013#The most serious ongoing water pollution problem in the Gulf of mexico originates not from oil rigs as many people believe but rainstorms and fields of corn and soybeans a thousand
An expert on that problem#the infamous Gulf of mexico#oedead Zone##today called for greater awareness of the connections between rainfall and agriculture in the Midwest and the increasingly severe water quality problems in the gulf.
#oethe oxygen disappears as a result of fertilizer that washes off farm fields in the Midwest into the Mississippi river.
and soybeans grow it stimulates the growth of plants in the water#algae in the Gulf.
The Gulf also seems to be more sensitive to the nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers that wash down the Mississippi river
and the Atchafalaya River today than it was in the past. Concentrations of fertilizer that caused a relatively small amount of oxygen depletion now are having a more profound effect.
Fish and shellfish either leave the oxygen-depleted water or die causing losses to commercial and sports fisheries in the Gulf she noted.
Dead fish sometimes wash up onto beaches with a negative impact on recreational activities and tourism.
Oil spills and other local pollution compound those negative effects on marine life Rabalais noted By day 77 of the Deepwater horizon disaster for instance the oil slick had covered about one-third of the Dead Zone making it even more inhospitable.
I annually bring water from the Gulf of mexico dead zone to a water ceremony at the Unitarian church in Baton rouge where it is combined with waters from others from all over the world and locally.
Each year I bring my intent to continue to work for water quality in the Mississippi river watershed and its coastal ocean.
but surprisingly short for a drop of water from the Gulf of mexico to be transported inland and then flow with other droplets down the river to the ocean.
protecting water resources and restoring an economically vital coastline we will need to invest in the characterization of our water microbiological communities and shift the pollution science paradigm toward an understanding of risk and resilience under global change.
This paper also describes research at Clear Creek watershed (270 km2) a tributary of the Iowa River in eastern Iowa to create an environmental observing facility
#First expansion of sea potato seaweed into New Englandthere's a new seaweed in town a brown bulbous balloon befitting the nickname sea potato.
now researchers are keeping a close eye on the sea potato's progress to determine whether there is cause for alarm.
UNH graduate students Lindsay Green and Hannah Traggis discovered the rapid southern expansion of Colpomenia peregrina also known as sea potato or oyster thief during a SCUBA DIVING trip in Kittery Maine in the summer
The seaweed was documented in Nova scotia in the 1960s but never on the U s. Atlantic coast until Green and Traggis's diving trip in 2011.
In the summer of 2012 the sea potato had spread as far south as Sandwich Mass. on the north shore of Cape cod.
Ranging in size from just a few centimeters to the size of a soccer ball the sea potato is a greenish to yellowish brown sac that fills with air or water.
--and it's quickly become prominent in the rocky intertidal zone of the Gulf of Maine attached to common seaweeds like rockweed or Corallina officinalis also known as coral weed.
Colpomenia peregrina looks strikingly similar to a native species Leathesia marina or sea cauliflower. Sea potato however is smoother thinner and greenish-light brown
while sea cauliflower tends to be smaller stiffer brain-like and dark brown; the researchers turned to microscopy
and DNA analysis to make a definitive identification. Traggis and Green are quick to characterize the sea potato as an introduced not invasive species in New england waters.
Nonetheless its rapid expansion into the Gulf of Maine raises concern. The seaweed earned its oyster thief nickname after its introduction to France in the early 1900s led to significant damage to the oyster industry.
The seaweed was like a balloon attached to the oysters. Literally whole oyster beds disappeared because they floated away says Traggis a master's student from Buzzards Bay Mass.
As the warming days bring more people to New england's shoreline we want people to know that this is here
while there's no need for citizens to eradicate the sea potato if they find it they shouldn't move it around.
The project was supported by the NH Sea Grant College Program and received partial funding from the New hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at UNH.
A NASA C-20a piloted aircraft carrying the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) is wrapping up studies over the U s. Gulf Coast Arizona and Central and South america.
of wetlands across the greater Amazon river basin including Pacaya-Samiria National park in Peru. Pacaya-Samiria contains large expanses of flooded palm swamps Mcdonald said.
Other subsidence studies in New orleans and the Mississippi Delta are aimed at better understanding what causes Gulf Coast subsidence
The effects of acid rain can propagate through aquatic ecosystems such as lakes rivers and wetlands and terrestrial ecosystems including forests
and soils negatively impacting ecological health. Researchers have used now publicly accessible data collected weekly or monthly at numerous monitoring sites during the period from 1980-2010 to track wet deposition of nitrate and sulfate near several U s. and East Asian cities.
but along the shores of Cape cod where grass-eating crabs have been running amok and destroying the marsh an invasion of a predatory green crabs has helped turn back the tide in favor of the grass.
#Tiny grazers play key role in marine ecosystem healthtiny sea creatures no bigger than a thumbtack are being credited for playing a key role in helping provide healthy habitats for many kinds of seafood according to a new study
and buffer our coastal communities by providing shoreline protection from storms Grace said. These tiny animals by going about their daily business of grazing are integral to keeping healthy seagrass beds healthy.
and Pine nut Mountains and from Reno south to Topaz Lake--an area collectively referred to as the Carson front.
and towns of the Lake Tahoe Basin were included. Nevada's Black bear History Unraveledin looking to integrate information on the historical demographics of black bears into their study the authors found that little published scientific research
In 1999 scientists at the Forest Service's Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New hampshire restored soil calcium levels to preindustrial levels in a small watershed in an effort
within 5 months of the application of wollastonite across a 30-acre watershed there was a substantial increase in forest water use compared to a nearby watershed that was treated not with calcium.
#Losing wetlands to grow cropsgetting enough to eat is a basic human need--but at what cost to the environment?
& Food security demonstrates that as their crops on higher ground fail due to unreliable rainfall people in countries like Uganda are increasingly relocating to wetland areas.
Unless the needs of these people are addressed in a more sustainable way overuse of wetland resources through farming fishing
In 2009 it was estimated that about a third of Uganda's wetlands had been lost to growing crops and grazing.
While the environmental significance of wetland loss is important so are National Food security targets and the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.
In order to evaluate how people are using the wetlands researchers from Makerere University Uganda with financial support from IDRC surveyed residents living in either Lake victoria crescent Kyoga plains and South Western farmlands.
The survey revealed that more than 80%of people in these areas use wetland resources including collecting water catching fish hunting bush meat (Sitatunga a type of antelope
Over half admitted to growing crops in the nutrient rich soil wetlands with its ready water supply.
The families who were most likely to use the wetlands in this way were the ones who had the least access to other sources of food.
Large families were also at high risk of not having enough to Eat in these cases use of wetlands allows families to survive.
In designing sustainable use policies for wetlands the needs of humans also needs to be considered.
If we make simple adjustments to completely optimise the process biodiesel obtained by cultivating these marine microalgae could be an option for energy supplies to towns near the sea points out Sergio Rossi an ICTA researcher at the UAB.
Secondly they do need not fresh water as sea water is sufficient which makes them viable even in deserts or arid areas near the coast.
Finally marine algae are not a priori sources of food for human consumption which avoids the ethical problem of monoculture to provide fuel rather than food.
and Puerto rico underscores the value of long-term data in understanding the patterns and causes of water quality changes in streams and rivers.
In the study Argerich and colleagues analyzed concentrations of stream nitrogen which despite regulations have been on the rise across the country as energy and food production release reactive forms of the compound into waterways.
The seasonally flooded grasslands around the Tonle Sap Southeast asia's largest freshwater lake are of great importance for biodiversity
The area around the Tonle Sap lake is the largest remaining tropical flooded grassland in Southeast asia.
and Egypt's Nile Delta are danger zones where bird flu could combine with human flu to create a virulent kind of super-flu.
which groups of up to several hundred individuals drive themselves up onto a beach apparently intentionally.
when they end up on the beach during a stranding event explained Marc Oremus of the University of Auckland and first author of the study.
In some strandings the researchers assessed the spatial relationships of individual whales on the beach.
when the group drove itself onto the shore. Most surprising was the evidence of missing mothers--that is many of the stranded calves
To answer this question the researchers conclude that genetic samples are needed from all whales involved in strandings including from those individuals that do eventually make it back to sea.
or skim feeding) yet both feeding styles rely on a remarkable substance in the whales'mouths to filter nutrition from the ocean:
Since then it has spread to caves throughout the East Coast and killed millions of bats
#Making fuel from bacteriain the search for the fuels of tomorrow Swedish researchers are finding inspiration in the sea.
shortly after the earliest documented Pacific Northwest Coast plank house villages said the study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Prior to this recent testing which used sensitive gas chromatography/mass spectrometry researchers were unsure of the historical use of tobacco on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
The study sites are located in the traditional homeland of the Tolowa people in the Smith River basin and vicinity of northwestern California.
Farmers use various water sources in the production of fresh fruits and vegetables including well water and different types of surface water such as river water or lake water--sources
or in the UK scheduled before the 2100 watershed they write. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal.
and snowfall thus delaying the onset of the monsoon rains until enough moisture can be moved in from the oceans.
The warming reduces the extent of polar sea ice and snow cover on the large land mass that surrounds the Arctic ocean thereby increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed by the no longer energy-reflecting surface.
and loss of sea ice and snow cover thus amplifying the base greenhouse effect. The amplified warming in the circumpolar area roughly above the Canada-USA border is reducing temperature seasonality over time
The specific name of the species refers to the type locality the town Kei Mouth located at the estuary of the Great Kei River in the Eastern cape Province.
and coauthors Paul Heady of the Central Coast Bat Research Group and John Hayes of the University of Florida also contributed to the study.
and is listed as a noxious weed along the West Coast of the United states. It is aggressively invasive within its current range--near monocultures of this grass occupy thousands of hectares of mixed coniferous understory
and the Puget sound Blood Center (PSBC) has revealed how stresses of flow in the small blood vessels of the heart
In 2008 the Wildlife Conservation Society reported that the inaccessible Lake T l swamp forest in the Republic of the Congo was home to 125000 lowland gorillas--more than were thought to exist in the wild.
and Pacific Northwest research stations universities and Region 5 Ecology Program recently released a synthesis of relevant science that will help inform forest managers as they revise plans for the national forests in the Sierra nevada and southern Cascades of California.
and southern Cascades said Malcolm North a PSW research forest ecologist who worked on the report.
and therefore early rapid and robust detective methods are required especially presymptomatic diagnosis. The study's author Dr Hailing Jin of The University of California Riverside explains srnas are important gene expression modulators some
#Reduced sea ice disturbs balance of greenhouse gasesthe widespread reduction in Arctic sea ice is causing significant changes to the balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
According to the study the melting of sea ice in the Arctic has a tangible impact on the balance of greenhouse gases in this region both in terms of uptake and release.
because globally plants and the oceans absorb around half of the carbon dioxide that humans release into the air through the use of fossil fuels.
The researchers observed that a vicious circle is formed when the sea ice melts. Normally the white ice reflects sunlight which then bounces out into space
but when the sea-ice cover shrinks the amount of sunlight reflected is reduced also. Instead a larger proportion is absorbed by the surface of the ocean
which causes warming that contributes to the rise in air temperatures around the Arctic. On the one hand the rising temperatures make vegetation grow more vigorously
In addition to the changes on land the present study shows that there are a number of uncertainties surrounding the effects of the melting ice on the amount of greenhouse gases exchanged by the ocean through natural processes.
We know very little about how the shrinking sea ice cover disturbs the balance of greenhouse gases in the sea in the long term says Dr Parmentier.
They are now moving east from Michigan killing ash trees on the Eastern Seaboard as far south as North carolina.
In the GCEP report Field and lead author Jennifer Milne describe a suite of emerging carbon-negative solutions to global warming--from bioenergy technologies to ocean sequestration.
The report also explored the possibility of sequestering carbon in the ocean with a particular focus on the problem of ocean acidification
Ocean acidification results from the increased uptake of atmospheric CO2 which causes seawater to become more acidic.
and other minerals could be added to the ocean to reduce acidity and sequester atmospheric CO2 absorbed in seawater.
Although the potential for CO2 sequestration in the ocean is associated large the risks to the marine environment need to be assessed adequately the authors concluded.
#Wetland trees a significant overlooked source of methanewetland trees are overlooked a significant source of the potent greenhouse gas methane according to a new study by researchers at The Open University and the Universities of Bristol and Oxford.
Wetlands are established a well and prolific source of atmospheric methane. Yet despite an abundance of seething swamps and flooded forests in the tropics ground-based measurements of methane have fallen well short of the quantities detected in tropical air by satellites.
Pangala and colleagues have shown that these common adaptations in wetland trees are two-way conduits that also allow soil gas to escape to the atmosphere.
This work challenges current models of how forested wetlands exchange methane with the atmosphere. Ground-based estimates of methane flux in the tropics may be coming up short
Although willow is a familiar inhabitant of wet soil it was not among the trees studied in the Sebangau River catchment in Borneo.
Establishing whether tree-mediated emissions of methane are ubiquitous in tropical wetlands is now the focus of a new three-year Natural Environment Research Council grant to Dr Gauci
It was discovered first in the vicinity of Lake victoria in East Africa in 1861 and was identified later
If we can put an anaerobic barrier at the point where a lagoon drains into the environment we will essentially exert selective pressure for the loss of antibiotic-resistant genes
His study of the Haihe River in China funded by the Chinese government and published last year found tetracycline resistance genes are common in the environment there as well.
We tested water and river sediment and couldn't find a sample that didn't have said them he Our philosophy in environmental engineering is that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of remediation Alvarez said.
Dr Helen Wickstead spotted an opportunity to delve below the surface of an area of land at the University's Seething Wells hall of residence after looking at historic maps and images of the area alongside the River Thames.
I expect it came from the river at some point and was caught up in the gravel used in the filter beds.
when oceans are forming and continents are breaking apart. The continental arc volcanoes that arise during these periods are located on the edges of continents
The standard view of the greenhouse state is that you draw carbon dioxide from the deep Earth interior by a combination of more activity along the mid-ocean ridges--where tectonic plates spread--and massive breakouts of lava called'large igneous
whose research interests include the formation and evolution of continents as well as the connections between deep Earth and its oceans and atmosphere..
and he mentioned that 93.5 million years ago there was a mass extinction of deepwater organisms that coincided with a global marine anoxic event--that is the deep oceans became starved of oxygen Lee said.
Jerry was talking about the impact of anoxic conditions on the biogeochemical cycles of trace metals in the ocean but
The research was supported by the Packard Foundation the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo the National Science Foundation and the Miller Institute at the University of California Berkeley.
A team of researchers at the University of California Riverside focused on Phytophthora the pathogen that triggered The irish Famine of the 19th century
Ma was joined in the study by UC Riverside's Yongli Qiao Lin Liu Cristina Flores James Wong Jinxia Shi Xianbing Wang Xigang Liu Qijun Xiang
The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Riverside. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Astonishing ten new species of semiaquatic freshwater earthworms revealedthe semiaquatic earthworms in the genus Glyphidrilus are somewhat unfamiliar species that live between the terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems of rivers streams canals
In Thailand the species demonstrate astonishing biodiversity due to the monsoon climate contributing to drastic river system changes and a large variety of microhabitats.
The animals orient themselves vertically with their bodies in the wet soil along the banks
This information helps us measure the health of our oceans that sustain albatross. Almost as amazing as being a parent at 62 is the number of miles this bird has logged likely--about 50000 miles a year as an adult
and pollution especially from garbage floating on the ocean. The birds ingest large amounts of marine debris--by some estimates 5 tons of plastic are fed unknowingly to albatross chicks each year by their parents.
or fingerprinted in other so-called proxy archives such as lake sediments speleothems and corals allow researchers to quantify climate variation prior to instrumental measurements.
This particular ecosystem between the earth and the sea plays a major role in protecting the particularly unstable muddy coastline (2) against erosion.
and the University of Aix-Marseille. Gaining ground on the seaalthough The french Guiana coastline remains protected by human developments for the time being that of Guyana is disrupted already highly.
Less protective dikesmore than three quarters of Guyana's 450 km of coastline along the Atlantic are diked currently up.
Coastal stability in dangerscientists have identified the main geomorphological processes at work across the entire Guyana coast.
Thus they could assess the high risk of destabilisation of the coastline due to the reduction in mangroves.
This assessment will enable the Guyana government to specify the measures for action that should be implemented to help the mangroves recolonise the coastline.
River lake and wetland ecosystems--encompassing approximately one-fifth of the Amazon basin area--are being degraded increasingly by deforestation pollution construction of dams
and waterways and over-harvesting of plant and animal species. The study was led by Dr. Leandro Castello a research associate at the Woods Hole Research center (WHRC) in collaboration with scientists from various institutions in the United states and Brazil.
The Madeira river basin for example is threatened by oil exploration deforestation and dams in its headwaters even though protected areas cover 26%of the catchment area.
The pressures that the authors detail need to be addressed now before conservation opportunities are lost. Restoration can be far costlier than proactive protection cautioned Abell.
By building upon existing protected areas it is possible to develop a river catchment-based conservation framework that protects both aquatic
and terrestrial ecosystems effectively protecting the Amazon river-forest system. The Amazon watershed spans six countries with Brazil Bolivia and Peru accounting for most of the area.
Therefore A pan-Amazonian catchment-based approach is critical in addition to national conservation and management efforts said coauthor Dr. Laura Hess of Earth Research Institute UCSB.
Previous research suggests that this southward shift in the jet stream has contributed to changes in ocean circulation patterns and precipitation patterns in the Southern hemisphere both
and other possible mechanisms for how greenhouse gases and ozone influence the jet stream as well as Antarctic sea ice.
While earlier studies on vegetation change through this period relied on the analysis of individual sites throughout the Rift valley--offering narrow snapshots--Feakins took a look at the whole picture by using a sediment core taken in the Gulf of Aden where winds funnel
#West Nile virus spreading due to mosquitoes in orchards and vineyards, experts warnwashington State university researchers have linked orchards
and vineyards with a greater prevalence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes and the insects'ability to spread the virus to birds horses and people.
Since it was seen first in New york in 1999 West Nile virus has reached across the country and shown few signs of abating.
Crowder working with fellow entomologist Jeb Owen other WSU colleagues and the State department of Health merged data from a variety of sources including West Nile infections in humans horses
and American robins abundance of mosquitoes and the actual prevalence of West Nile in mosquitoes--are increasing in landscapes with a higher proportion of land in orchard habitats.
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