'At the 28 november press conference, Corinne Lepage, a Member of the European parliament and former French environment minister, said that SÃ ralini s paper asked"good questions about the long-term toxicity of GMOS GM
The publication of his team's study was greeted by a storm of protest from scientists,
researching invasive mechanisms and ecological impact, and developing control technologies. This has led to an"explosion of research
says Wan Fanghao, an ecologist at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Plant Protection in Beijing.
and its Chinese fungal variant, says Daniel Simberloff, an ecologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville."
says Helen Roy, an ecological entomologist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wallingford, UK.
"With climate warming, increasing international trade and rapid urbanization, the problem of biological invasions will only get worse,
Behavioural ecologist Peter Wrege directs the Elephant Listening Project. Nature interviewed behavioural ecologist Peter Wrege of the The Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New york,
who directs the project, which is funded largely by the US Fish and Wildlife Service programme Wildlife Without Borders.
it is possible to monitor aspects of its ecology and behaviour by placing efficient recorders in multiple,
since global climate records began in 1850, according to a preliminary assessment released on 13 Â November by the World meteorological organization.
The test cloud was created on 30 Â October by spraying particles collected from Iceland s Eyjafjallajã kull volcano into the air off the west coast of France (see Nature 502,422-423;
The news comes as United nations climate talks are under way in Warsaw. See Nature 503,174-175 (2013) and page 311 for more.
Biofuel rules The US Environmental protection agency proposed reducing requirements for the use of biofuels on 15 Â November
and climate-change denial in schools. Reid, formerly director of the American Academy of Microbiology in Washington  DC, will replace retiring NCSE director Eugenie Scott,
Our chemical ecology group which is led by chemist John Pickett is world leading. The idea of introducing aphid alarm pheromones into wheat to protect it against aphid attack that comes out of that group.
The spatial ecologists have done remarkable work on monitoring the movement of a whole range of insects using horizontal and vertical radar to follow migration paths.
Jason Chapman s group has demonstrated there s a lot more to insect migration than simply following the wind.
would give enormous ecological benefit, because it would avoid using insecticides in widespread spraying. Definitely.
JMA/EUMETSATRECORD storm ravages Philippines One of the most powerful tropical cyclones on record, Super Typhoon Haiyan, devastated the central Philippines
wind speeds topped 310 kilometres per hour as the storm reached the coast, placing Haiyan at or near the top of the list of strongest known storms.
The storm surge destroyed much of the coastal city of Tacloban. Buildings collapsed, and flooding ravaged a region still recovering from a magnitude-7. 1 earthquake last month.
Officials estimate that at least 10,000 Â people have died, giving Haiyan a second grim title: the deadliest storm in Philippine history.
In 2012, Super Typhoon Bopha killed nearly 2, 000 people in the southern part of the country.
Shutdown scars Last month s shutdown of the US government, during which many nonessential federal workers were sent home,
but only in areas where ecosystems are deemed especially vulnerable. The move disappointed campaigners who have pushed for a total ban on this method of fishing,
Climate politics Republican Kenneth Cuccinelli lost his bid on 5 Â November to become the next governor of Virginia,
As the state s attorney-general, in 2010 Cuccinelli launched an investigation of climate scientist Michael Mann.
During the gubernatorial campaign, Cuccinelli s opponent, Democrat Terry Mcauliffe, called him a climate-change denier and accused him of running a witch-hunt against Mann.
Ozone-hole treaty slowed global warminghuman actions that were intended not to limit the greenhouse effect have had large effects on slowing climate change.
Francisco Estrada, an ecological economist at the Free University in Amsterdam, and his colleagues analysed annual temperature data collected from 1850 to 2010,
Instead of relying on climate-model simulations the researchers used a statistical approach that they say helped them to get a better look at how components of the climate system contribute to its warming or cooling by trapping heat,
an effect called radiative forcing. They found that changes in warming coincided with human-initiated adjustments in greenhouse-gas emissions.
and you have the onset of modern climate change, says Estrada. For the 1940-70 period, the way the paper shows how economic factors drove emissions down is"very nice,
International negotiators are gathering in Warsaw this month for a United nations climate-change meeting to forge the beginnings of an agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
But the effects of the Montreal Protocol on climate show that a similar international agreement could be effective against some of the other secondary greenhouse gases,
a team of Chinese ecologists has made a discovery that could halt the march of the nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus).
says Nicolas Vuichard, an ecosystem researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental sciences in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
and climate change threatening traditional breadbasket regions, researchers are seeking ways to squeeze more food from the land.
"It s a real paradigm shift in plant ecology, says company founder and plant biologist Rusty Rodriguez."
ecologists are getting to grips with plant microbiomes. The result is powerful. Instead of having to find
Those findings led him to look for other endophytes optimized to tackle the problems likely to be caused to particular food crops by climate change (R.  S.  Redman et  al.
compared to untreated seeds, the product increased maize yields by 85%in Michigan during a 2012 drought, increased seed germination rates by two to five times during 5 °C cold snaps,
and regulating their growth in different environmental conditions will be tricky.""It will be very hard to control,
a metric used in ecology to position species in the food chain. The metric puts plants and algae,
it s big, says Thomas Kastner, an environmental scientist at Alpen-Adria University in Vienna,
Calculating human trophic levels reveals our place in the ecosystem and can help scientists to understand human impact on energy consumption and resource strength.
the environmental impact of producing meat in terms of everything from carbon emissions to water use is typically many times larger than that of producing vegetable foods.
we ll start to have a bigger impact on ecosystems, says Bonhommeau
Seven days: 24-30 january 2014eu climate package The European commission unveiled a package of climate and energy proposals on 22 Â January, with targets for 2030.
European union member states are to reduce their collective greenhouse-gas emissions by 40%relative to 1990 levels (see page  597.
but not the binding environmental regulation that had been under consideration. Instead, the commission will weigh up over the next 18 months
and other African nations and Europe s Alpine region saw intense rains and floods. 30-31 january In Berlin,
and climate change. 3 february The World health organization releases its Third world Cancer Report, six years after its previous publication.
A study in the humid rainforests of Belize shows that plant-killing fungi can help preserve diversity in such ecosystems.
provides experimental support for a leading ecological hypothesis on why any given plant species does not take over in species-rich forests.
says Keith Clay, a plant ecologist at Indiana University in Bloomington, who was not involved with the study."
Owen Lewis, an ecologist at the University of Oxford, UK, and his colleagues decided to test the hypothesis experimentally.
Lewis notes that the work could be important for understanding how forests might react to climate change
an ecologist at Washington University in St louis, Missouri, adds that the Belize study could inform forest-restoration efforts by highlighting the importance of fungi in the soil."
saying that the government has estimated under  the threat that climate change poses to the bears food supply,
dry climate have devastated the trees, depriving grizzlies of energy-rich pine nuts. Moreover, say conservationists, invasive fish have crowded out native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake at the heart of the park,
and an ecosystem that is unravelling, says Louisa Willcox, the Northern Rockies representative at the Center for Biological Diversity in Livingston, Montana.
says David Mattson, an ecologist at Yale university in New haven, Connecticut. A reliance on meat heightens the risk that adult bears will come into contact with humans,
but aren t. Behavioural ecologist Tanya Latty of the University of Sydney, Australia, who has observed violations of IIA in the food choices of a slime mould4,
says Nathan Stephenson, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey in Three Rivers, California, and the first author of the study, which appears today in Nature1."
and adding ever more girth high in the sky. Although they relied mostly on existing data, the team calculated growth rates at the level of the individual trees,
Noah Baker spoke about the findings with Nathan Stephenson, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey.
And in older forests, fewer large trees dominate growth trends until they are brought eventually down by a combination of fungi, fires, wind and gravity;
says Maurizio Mencuccini, a forest ecologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. The younger trees may grow faster on a relative scale,
and their role in regulating the climate
Seven days: 10 16 january 2014industrial blast An explosion at a chemical plant in Japan on 9 Â January killed 5 and injured 12.
and graffiti around the neighbourhoods where the scientists live, giving their names, photographs, addresses and telephone numbers.
and Mars. Power-plant rules The US Environmental protection agency (EPA) published a controversial rule on 8 Â January governing greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants.
The EPA will now accept public comments on the rule while working on a second standard governing existing power plants.
Pesticide risks On 8 Â January, the US Environmental protection agency announced the award of nearly US$500,
Kimball has worked also as an assistant professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville,
See page 269 for more. go. nature. com/ivxmmo22 January The European union is set to unveil a package of long-term climate and energy goals and proposals
Other applications of space video include the monitoring of floods, post-earthquake zones and other natural disasters and humanitarian crises,
Potential scientific applications of space video include observing volcanic eruptions, forest fires, hurricanes and the movement of wildlife,
By contrast, satellite eyes in the sky need no permission to fly, and have access to even the most remote zones.
and environmental stewardship. By making their images cheaper, the new entrants into the marketplace hope to spur a proliferation of innovative uses.
Five days after the closure, the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research center at New mexico State university announced that it had elevated found levels of radioactive plutonium and americium at an independent air-sampling station nearly 1 â°kilometre
This is the conclusion of two reports published on 20 Â February detailing the state of the continent s marine ecosystems.
According to the other report, from the European Environment Agency 88%of the assessed fish stocks in the Mediterranean sea
Tracking forests A tool enabling the public to track deforestation around the globe was launched on 19 Â February by the World Resources Institute (WRI),
It is expected to include a request for a US$1 â billion fund to fight climate change. 5-7 march The Wellcome Trust biomedical charity hosts the Genomic Disorders 2014 conference in Cambridge, UK.
says lead author Michael Worobey, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
said French environment minister Philippe Martin. UK animal research The british government says that it is committed still to cutting the number of animals used in research,
Climate hubs US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack announced the creation of seven regional climate hubs on 5 Â February,
and cope with climate change. The hubs will provide climate data and assessments, and will support agricultural research.
They are part of a move by President Barack Obama s administration to advance climate science at regional and local levels. UK funding cuts English universities will lose an extra £125
 million (US$205  million) from their funding in 2014-15. The government s Department for Business
ecologists have watched wolf and moose populations on Isle Royale in Lake superior wax and wane in response to each other, disease and the weather.
But for the longest predator-prey study in the world, the wolf is now at the door.
 That would put an end to a study that has provided textbook ecology lessons for generations.
when wolf numbers plummet, moose populations tend to soar (see Ecosystem in flux. And it has offered insights into wolf behaviour, moose physiology,
and effect in the ecosystem has been rendered much easier by isolation from the mainland s human and animal populations.
but snow fills wolf tracks very quickly. If new wolves do arrive their presence will probably be confirmed in the coming months,
John Vucetich/Rolf Petersonjohn Vucetich, co-leader of the project and an ecologist at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, says that the need for an influx of genes is becoming urgent.
According to work led by Vucetich and Rolf Peterson, also an ecologist at Michigan Technological University, this might explain why the number of moose needed to support a given number of wolves has increased:
) For Vucetich, genetic rescue is required not so much to maintain the continuity of the study as to preserve the ecosystem.
which is a really basic component of a boreal forest ecosystem.""A genetic rescue could set a precedent for intervention in other parks.
Climate change has led to the decreasing frequency of ice bridges. Canine parvovirus, probably caught from a domestic dog,
the argument that leaving the wolves alone would be allowing nature to take its course does not sway most ecologists.
but a genetic rescue could set a precedent for interventions to counteract the effects of climate change in other parks.
All five bees could hover at air pressures equivalent to elevations of 7 400 metres; three could fly above 8, 000 metres;
14 20 march 2014azwar/epa/Corbisillegal fires ravage Sumatra The number of fires raging across the Indonesian island of Sumatra (pictured) last week is the highest in recent years.
Climate consensus The American Association for the Advancement of Science issued a report on 18 Â March called
summarizing the science behind climate change (see go. nature. com/ewy8cd). It follows an overview of climate science by the UK Royal Society
and the US National Academy of Sciences that was launched on 27 Â February (see go. nature. com/puvn4v).
The documents come ahead of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change s report focusing on the impacts of climate change,
and are now causing environmental and economic damage. Inflation evidence A telescope at the South pole has revealed strong evidence that the Universe went through a period of rapid inflation just after the Big bang. To great excitement,
Water returns to arid Colorado river deltaone of North america s most iconic rivers is about to undergo an unprecedented experiment in ecological engineering.
and Mexico have put water back into the parched riverbed for environmental purposes. It is both a practical
as well as a rare opportunity for ecologists worldwide to watch what happens. The mighty Colorado rises on the western slope of the Rocky mountains
But it also mandates the experimental release of what it calls"water for the environment.
ecologists will count saplings and determine whether that new habitat is attracting birds. The experiment could benefit the almost 400 bird species that live in the delta,
says Osvel Hinojosa Huerta, an ecologist with Pronatura Noroeste, a conservation group with offices in San luis R Â o Colorado, Mexico.
says Patrick Shafroth, a plant ecologist with the US Geological Survey in Fort Collins, Colorado.
says John Schmidt, an ecologist at Utah State university in Logan, who also heads the US Geological Survey s Grand canyon Monitoring and Research center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
In 1996, Schmidt helped to lead some larger engineered floods much higher up the Colorado. The goal was to restore sandbars and beaches in areas such as Grand canyon national park,
Cellulosic ethanol fights for lifeon the flat plains of Kansas, a stack of gleaming steel towers and pipes stretches 16 storeys into the sky.
Administered by the US Environmental protection agency (EPA the standard mandates annual increases in the volumes of various renewable fuels included in the country s fuel supply.
Yet its delayed arrival has prompted the EPA to reduce the amount of cellulosic ethanol that refiners are required to blend into their petrol.
But in November, the EPA proposed that the mandate should be reduced to 64 million litres, a mere trickle in comparison.
"We think the EPA under  estimated the capacity of the industry, says Christopher Standlee, executive vice-president of global affairs for Abengoa.
"the EPA sticks with the programme
Seven days: 28 february 6 march 2014repatriated bones Two German universities this week handed over 32 Â human skulls and three skeletons of Namibian origin to Namibian officials.
and the data it will collect could aid the accuracy of forecasts of severe weather, estimates of freshwater supplies and projections of climate change.
and environmental impacts of the leak seem to be minor, but traces of plutonium and americium were detected as far as 1 Â kilometre from the site.
and built a shelter (a little snow cave with some pine needles for insulation) within the hour.
I could hear animals walking all through the snow. I didn't think anything of it everyone whose been out deep in the woods knows there's every type of animal all around you.
but my car started after sitting four days in minus 20 degees or colder weather and
what appears to be quite a lack of appreciation of this guy's been through to deliver to you researched information about specifically an endangered species that is vital to the natural environment it lives in.
and the sky is falling bovine feces. Their genetic viability is NOT in peril. Opal Wolf-For those who have spread
This even after an endless succession of lawsuits brought forth by environmental groups ultimately shifted the goal posts on the USFWS.
Their loss or gain in numbers still impacts their environment nonetheless. I would recommend contacting some agencies such as wolf centers that are dedicated to the subspecies'reintroduction into their natural habitat.
neighbors in the area were warned by my family (my father witnessed the occurance) and that's basically how it was handled back then in rual Canada
when it comes to wolves in general but more specifically to their recovery ecology history population status and more.
and the environment they live in. We are doing a horrible job and idiots that argue for their death are the more useless ones that should go.
We are a part of an ecosystem that changes -and always will change. Human kind have only been here for such a short time that we have not really a historical tradition of seing how much things have changed.
If we were here at the dawn of earth we would have experienced a completely different environment
this is an animal that's vital to the ecosystem...What? The Earth wouldn't even blink
and to different environments allowing the species to thrive. If it does not make these changes it is doomed.
and adapt to more changes in their local environment. Again this would help them to not merely survive
Of course as long as the local environment isn't overrun. Too many pandas too soon would mean a huge population crash as they fight for food.
a free design for a high-tech beehive that can monitor your bees'environment and a chance to contribute to citizen science.
Glancing out the windows at the ruggedly handsome countryside with its moody grey-clad skies deep green rolling hills gnarled and wiry ancient trees it s easy to understand the pride history
which is good for the environment. The deadly genes should only work in flies unlike pesticides
It's a widespread enormously successful and adaptive species living worldwide in all sorts of climates in forests on mountains in suburbs and sometimes even cities.
The short answer is that we don't know much about orgasms in other species--in fact scientists are still studying the significance/evolution of female orgasms in humans Marlene Zuk a professor of ecology evolution
Some environmental groups such as the council are worried also about the Forest Service encouraging logging for biomass plants.
10am on August 29 2005 the eye of Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Buras-Triumph La. going on to devastate much of the Gulf Coast.
In a report only a few months later the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration (NOAA) called it one of the strongest storms to hit the U s. coast in the last 100 years.
After entering the Gulf of mexico it intensified rapidly going from a Category 1 hurricane when it passed through southern Florida on August 25 2005 then gaining momentum and jumping from a Category 3 all the way up to Category 5 status over the span of about a day later that weekend.
what actually goes on inside a hurricane the computational models we use to predict hurricanes have gotten much better.
Meteorologists have gotten reasonably good at figuring out where a tropical cyclone is headed. What we're not so good at is figuring out how strong it's going to be
Hurricane prediction involves a number of different computer-generated models. Each is a little bit different and has different strengths.
and that's the answer explains John Cangialosi a hurricane specialist at NOAA's National Hurricane Center.
Current models are fairly accurate at forecasting the track of a hurricane--that is where it's going to Go for this we can use global dynamical models
but they don't have the resolution to tell you much about the hurricane itself. For instance they can't predict very well
when a storm like Katrina will suddenly intensify. It can't really tell you how strong the hurricane is even at the current time Cangialosi says.
When it comes to modeling the intensity of a particular storm we tend to turn to less sophisticated statistical models.
They compare basic information from the current storm like location and time of year to historic storm behavior and spit out an averaged prediction.
Cangialosi says a statistical model is not trying to resolve and model what this storm is going to do
but it will tell usã¢Â# a storm in this location and this environment on average it will do this.
They're quicker to run and don't require as much data or computational power. It's still somewhat mysterious.
We observe them but we don't actually understand them to a large factor. There are more complex forecast models
and they are generally more accurate than their simple counterparts. I'm amazed we can shove a whole world's worth of weather data into a computer Mock says.
So when storms pop up or change quickly researchers have to rely on quicker statistical models that can crunch the numbers fast.
Another reason we can't run more accurate dynamic models on the intensity of hurricanes is that we don't entirely understand how hurricanes function.
For example it was only recently that we learned that the wall around the hurricane's eye can deteriorate
This can affect the intensity of the hurricane but not always in the same way.
Sometimes it makes the hurricane stronger sometimes weaker. Those are the things we can't quite model.
That's why hurricane forecasting still relies not just on a computer crunching numbers but on human intervention--an actual forecaster who looks at the details of the storm
and determines whether the model seems to be painting an accurate picture that makes sense based on the conditions.
And that's why sometimes a storm predicted to be a doozy barely seems like a blip in the radar or vice versa.
We have begun to learn a little bit more about hurricane dynamics by flying planes into the eye of the storm.
Besides sounding badass (INTO THE STORM FOR SCIENCE!)) sending aircraft straight to the source to drop weather balloons
and sensors to collect data on aspects like wind direction pressure water vapor can help us learn more about how storms work.
This is kinda why I find the climate change predictions so ludicrous. We can observe a hurricane very frequently
and because we don't have all of the data we can't make any predictions about
How are we to believe that we can model the entire WORLD's climate and predict what's going to happen?
It used to be that you could tell what the weather was going to be by listening to the forecast
Climate predictions are not the same thing as forecasting a hurricane. The physics of each are sensitive to different physical properties
For example in a climate model we may say: Over 100 years we're going to slowly increase the carbon dioxide
You don't need to understand exactly where a storm might go to answer this question. That's a very very very different question than saying In the next twelve hours what's the wind speed
and storm surge going to be off of Atlantic city NJ To answer this question you don't need to know what the temperature is in the middle of the Pacific ocean.
Climate and weather and their representative models are two very different things that should not be confused.
I compare guessing the direction of a hurricane to that of a toy spinning top and knowing which way it will follow too.
are the trolls we have to deal with around here who don't understand the differences between global warming and climate change.
They don't understand why weather is harder to predict than climate. They prefer to SELECTIVELY quote sources that agree with their non-expert opinions
which is influencing climate change. They love to point at the scientists and say they're doing it for the money
and business will also cater to you to not be such a polluter of the environment.
but its the climate change fanatics who are doing so. Why look only at the last 100 some-odd years?
That's why our climate is so unstable that we are bouncing between glacial periods. In addition to that the increase in CO2 is both ridiculously minuscule compared to the total atmosphere.
According to the EPA N2o comprises 8%of our emissions and methane is 14%.%Considering how powerful these greenhouse gasses are they VASTLY offset CO2.
Because climate change is a tool to control the people. But go ahead. Only believe what your government
Frosttty If you read two article you will find the cycles of the sun effect global warming with the alignment of the planetsand the cycles of Earths polar flip reduce magnetic field allowing more solar radiation to create cloud cover warms the planet. http://www
. earth-climate. com/http://www. viewzone. com/magnetic. weather. html Frosttty Those links are winded long articles.
and the cycles of Earths polar flip reduce magnetic field allowing more solar radiation to create cloud cover warms the planet.
Note we are 700k years past do our last magnetic polar shift. http://www. earth-climate. com/http://www. viewzone. com/magnetic. weather. html Those links
Lolso we don't have any firm understanding of the physical processes behind hurricanes yet we know for a fact that human activity is making them occur more frequently and cause more devastation?
and then affecting the atmosphere below with more cloud cover in a spinning vortex manner...I am brain storming making a guess here.
which in turn effect how much solar radiation effects our atmosphere which effects cloud cover and global atmospheric weather
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011