The remote region lies in the mid-eastern Tibetan-Himalayan highlands home to some 17000 glaciers--an area sometimes called the 3rd pole due to its Arctic-like conditions.
and regional projects in order to develop a sound basis for wildlife and environmental conservation in this region.
Berger and his colleagues found greater yak densities near glaciers which often support adjacent food-rich alpine meadow habitats.
The team's next steps will be to process data to understand more about climate change impacts on this high elevation ecosystem
whether the planet ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life. Curiosity landed in the crater five months ago to begin its two-year prime mission.
This area had a different type of wet environment than the streambed where we landed maybe a few different types of wet environments.
All of these are sedimentary rocks telling us Mars had environments actively depositing material here said MAHLI deputy principal investigator Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson Ariz.
Lyding compared graphene lattices made with the CVD method to pieces of a cyclone fence.
and U s. Geological Survey satellite program is resulting in for the first time the ability to tease out the small events that can cause big changes in an ecosystem.
One challenge in particular is finding images from the same time of year where the view of the ground is hidden not by clouds.
Kennedy's breakthrough was to combine cloud-free pixels from multiple scenes of the same area collected over the growing season in late summer.
While logging or damaging storms can drive stream nitrate concentrations up by 400 percent for multiple years the team found no significant increase in the nitrate concentrations following extensive pine beetle tree mortality
and severe storms said Lewis interim director of CU's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental sciences.
as a result of the beetle epidemic said Lewis also a faculty member in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department.
while having the smallest effect possible on downstream ecosystems. This study shows that at least in some areas it is possible to remove a large part of the tree biomass from a watershed with a very minimal effect on the stream ecosystem he said.
Understory vegetation left intact after beetle outbreaks gains an ecological advantage in terms of survival and growth since small trees no longer have to compete with large trees
and have more access to light water and nutrients said Mccutchan. Research by study co-author and former CU undergraduate Rachel Ertz showed concentrations of nitrate in the needles of small pines that survived beetle infestations were higher than those in healthy trees outside
beetle-killed areas another indication of how understory vegetation compensates for environmental conditions in beetle kill areas.
and Gene Likens of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook N y. The severe pine beetle epidemic in Colorado
Tree rings reveal climate variability and human historya total of 545 precisely dated tree-ring width samples both from living trees and from larch wood (Larix decidua Mill.)
The tree-ring data from the Tatra Mountains best reflects the climate history of Eastern europe with a geographical focus on the Baltic.
The amount of climate warming since the mid-20th century appears unprecedented in the millennium-long context.
In addition to the development of the tree ring-based temperature history the interdisciplinary research team*compared past climate variability with human history.
Moreover fluctuations in settlement activity appear to be linked to climate variability. The Black death in the mid-14th century the Thirty years war between 1618-1648 and the Russian crusade of Napoleon in 1812 are three most prominent examples of climate-culture interactions.
The new evidence from Eastern europe partially confirms similar observations from previous dendroclimatological investigations in Central europe.
#oethe relationship between climate and culture is extremely complex and certainly not yet well enough understood. Nevertheless we now better recognize that well documented
The above story is provided based on materials by Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL.
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences.
Secondly in high winds orchards with only honey bees present had almost no pollination service as the honey bees were not flying.
therefore help sustain pollination service under extreme weather conditions when the service by honey bees declines.
when the weather conditions can be unfavourable for bee flight. The findings presented in the two articles highlight different ways biodiversity is important for pollination service.
#Environmental impact of insecticides on water resources: Current methods of measurement and evaluation show shortcomingscommon practice for the monitoring of insecticides in water resources reveals shortcomings.
This is shown by a current study conducted by the Landau-based Institute of Environmental sciences of the University of Koblenz-Landau.
Although insecticides often show only short half-lives in the environment these highly toxic substances potentially enter water resources where they can be harmful to aquatic insects and other invertebrates.
or severe periods of rain wash these into the water. Due to lack of personnel insufficient financial allocation and logistical restrictions however mostly regular fixed dates are chosen.
Current practice unsuitableour study shows that current methods of sampling for the investigation of insecticides in water resources are unsuitable declares Ralf Schulz of the Institute of Environmental sciences in Landau.
as long as environmental impact monitoring takes place statically. Still better would be related event sampling at least in high-risk areas.
Efficient counter-measuresthe environmental pollution of water resources could be reduced with a number of cost-effective and efficient measures:
which according to previous studies of the Institute of Environmental sciences in Landau are capable of reducing pesticide exposure up to 70 per cent.
which may lay the genetic bases for DBM in adapting to various environmental challenges. They investigated a set of genes preferentially expressed at the larval stage that contribute to odorant chemoreception food digestion and metabolic detoxification.
The list of ecological political and ethical arguments for why we should safeguard biodiversity is long and all the arguments are sound.
Encouraging ecologists to think bigthis study has shown that the time has come to think big Frode à degaard says.
and global temperature continues to rise natural protection from tidal waves and cyclones is being degraded at alarming rates.
This will inevitably lead to species loss in this richly biodiverse part of the world if nothing is done to stop it.
Although mangroves are rare they are an important barrier against climate change providing protection to coastal areas from tsunamis and cyclones.
They are also the most carbon rich forests in the tropics with high carbon sequestration potential meaning their degradation
to reduce the escape of nitrogen in the environment. In a 4-year University of Illinois study that compared miscanthus switchgrass
Our results clearly demonstrate that environmental nitrogen fluxes from row-crop agriculture can be reduced greatly after the establishment of perennial biofuel crops said U of I postdoctoral research associate Candice Smith.
Smith said that this ability to reduce the loss of nitrogen into the environment will prove to be greatly beneficial.
Intensive corn production with large fertilizer inputs leads to large losses of nitrogen into the environment both through gas emissions of nitrous oxide and leaching of nitrate to surface waters through tile drainage systems
and greatly reduce nitrogen losses that have important environmental effects while providing a large biomass harvest.
Reduced Nitrogen Losses after Conversion of Row Crop Agriculture to Perennial Biofuel Crops was published in an issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality.
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences.
Now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular biology and Applied Ecology IME in MÃ nster have located the tobacco plant's very own fountain of youth
which means they cannot spread into the environment in an unplanned way. In the future the researchers want to go further
#Weight-control experts stress education, commitmentgenetics economics environment psychology and government policies have played all roles in why as a nation the United states has for a generation been getting heavier.
We have to be able to adjust to come up with new strategies to deal with the new environment that we're in
but also reduce the environmental impact of transportation and increase employment opportunities the team concludes. Story Source:
Passive smoking also known as'secondhand'smoke or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is known to cause serious cardiovascular
The study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine is a collaboration between scientists at King's college London and Anhui Medical University China along with colleagues in the UK and USA.
Since 2006 the Chinese government has promoted actively the introduction of smoke-free environments in hospitals schools on public transport
Recent data show that the prevalence of passive smoking is still high with over 50 percent of people exposed to environmental tobacco smoke on a daily basis. China also has the highest number of dementia sufferers in the world with increasing
and in the follow up in 2007-08 for ETS exposure and dementia further excluded the possibility that dementia syndromes caused people to be exposed more to environmental tobacco smoke.
& Dementia on the links between passive smoking and Alzheimer's disease strengthen the case for public health measures to protect people from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.'
However a forest contributes more ecosystem services than timber production such as biological diversity carbon storage and berries.
Many people have suggested that high diversity of tree species has a favorable impact on processes in the ecosystem
or ecosystem service at a time says Lars Gamfeldt from University of Gothenburg who directed the new study.
By examining the role played by the occurrence of diverse tree species for six different ecosystem services (tree growth carbon storage berry production food for wildlife occurrence of dead wood
The study also investigated the relationship between the various ecosystem services. For example high tree growth appears to be negatively related to the production of both berries and food for wildlife and to the occurrence of dead wood.
Sometimes you have to consider trade-offs between different ecosystem services says Jon Moen from Ume㥠University.
and nature conservation stand to gain by promoting a greater variety of tree types thereby providing more diverse ecosystem services says Jan Bengtsson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The findings were published January 8 in Restoration Ecology the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Ecological Restoration.
Willows planted low on the islands drowned during summer floods but plants above the waterline grew
and South korea where they were introduced for erosion control. Other contributors to the study include: former UCF biology student Luz M. Castro Morales and Ken Snyder of the St johns river Water Management District.
The discovery Tour said could be a boon in the cleanup of contaminated sites like the Fukushima nuclear plants damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
From a human health and environment point of view that's where they're least welcome. Naturally occurring radionuclides are also unwelcome in fracking fluids that bring them to the surface in drilling operations Tour said.
Environmental requirements have essentially shut down U s. mining of rare earth metals which are needed for cell phones Tour said.
because they're not subject to the same environmental standards. So if this technology offers the chance to revive mining here it could be huge.
and photograph birds control Scalextric cars and build interactive toys that react to the weather.
VTT's scientific role in the project related to discovering and developing enzymes from environmental samples as well as culture collections.
This project is an example of the innovation that can be sparked in a research-park environment.
#Exocomets may be as common as exoplanetscomets trailing wispy tails across the night sky are a beautiful byproduct of our solar system's formation icy leftovers from 4. 6 billion years ago
and Montgomery attributed to large clouds of gas emanating from the nuclei of comets as they neared their central stars.
#Global natural gas boom alone wont slow climate changea new analysis of global energy use economics
and the climate shows that without new climate policies expanding the current bounty of inexpensive natural gas alone would not slow the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide over the long term according to a study appearing today in Nature.
Because natural gas emits half the carbon dioxide of coal many people hoped the recent natural gas boom could help slow climate change
but also lower-emitting nuclear and renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar. Inexpensive natural gas would also accelerate economic growth
The effect is that abundant natural gas alone will do little to slow climate change said lead author Haewon Mcjeon an economist at the Department of energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
but greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow in the absence of climate policies that promote lower carbon energy sources.
Their computer models included not just energy use and production but also the broader economy and the climate system.
and climate and the way these different systems interact with one another. The groups each computed projections halfway into the century.
When we saw all five modeling teams reporting little difference in climate change we knew we were onto something.
Even at the lower end fugitive methane adds to climate change. The combined effect of the three the scientists found is that the global energy system could experience unprecedented changes in the growth of natural gas production
but without much reduction to projected climate change if new mitigation policies are not put in place to support the deployment of renewable energy technologies.
There's been some hope that slowing climate change could also be one of its benefits
the JGCRI a collaboration between PNNL and the University of Maryland BAECONOMICS the International Institute for Applied Systems analysis the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research the Centro Euromediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici
#Climate change not responsible for altering forest tree composition, experts saychange in disturbance regimes--rather than a change in climate--is largely responsible for altering the composition of Eastern forests according to a researcher in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Forests in the Eastern United states remain in a state of disequilibrium stemming from the clear-cutting
and early 1900s contends Marc Abrams professor of forest ecology and physiology. Moreover Abrams noted
Looking at the historical development of Eastern forests the results of the change in types of disturbances--both natural and man-caused--are much more significant than any change in climate said Abrams who is the Steimer Professor of Agriculture
in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. Over the last 50 years most environmental science has focused on the impact of climate change.
In some systems however climate change impacts have not been as profound as in others. This includes the forest composition of the eastern U s. To determine how forest tree species have responded to changes in disturbance regimes temperature
and precipitation over long periods of time Abrams collaborated with Gregory Nowacki a scientist with the U s. Department of agriculture Forest Service office in Milwaukee on a study of the tolerance and sensitivity of trees to various factors.
Many ecological phenomena combine to direct vegetation trends over time with climate and disturbance playing prominent roles said Nowacki who received his Ph d under Abrams.
In the research published online in Global Change Biology researchers analyzed 190 datasets to determine the relative impacts of climate
In most cases however European disturbance overrode regional climate change Abrams said. To the north intensive and expansive early European disturbance resulted in the ubiquitous loss of conifers
In both cases these shifts were attributed to fire suppression rather than climate change Abrams said.
Because mesophication is ongoing eastern U s. forests formed during the catastrophic disturbance era followed by fire suppression will remain in climate disequilibrium into the foreseeable future.
Overall he concluded the results of the study suggest that altered disturbance regimes rather than climate had the greatest influence on vegetation composition and dynamics in the eastern United states over multiple centuries.
or negated the impacts of warming climate and this needs greater recognition in climate change discussions scenarios and model interpretations he said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Penn State. The original article was written by Jeff Mullhollem.
#Food labels can reduce livestock environmental impacts, study showswith global food demand expected to outpace the availability of water by the year 2050 consumers can make a big difference in reducing the water used in livestock production.
Single vs. multiple label claimsit is difficult to tease out a product's true environmental impact from currently available labels said White.
Consumers may believe a label represents an environmental health or animal welfare benefit but it's difficult for them to really know.
and compare consumers'willingness to pay for meat products with labels that reflect a single attribute of reducing environmental impact
Among the purely environmental labels they evaluated different price premiums to find the sweet spot--where the lowest premium that consumers found palatable would also cover the costs to the producer of reducing water use.
However the price premiums associated with environmental labels can offset those costs. The livestock industry wants to demonstrate improvements in sustainability White said.
To do so growers need consumer cooperation and willingness to pay a little more for products produced with a reduced environmental impact.
Now we just need to connect the dots to accurately represent a product's environmental impact in a way that is meaningful understandable and attractive to consumers.
Ash trees are often found in neighborhoods making up 10 percent to 20 percent of the trees lining streets in urban cities.
and the overall stress of the marsh environment. Knowing more about how these organisms interact could help conservationists protect endangered species lead to healthier humanmade marsh environments
and give ecologists a glimpse into what climate change could mean for the marsh's future.
Urban naturesweetwater Marsh toward the southern end of San diego bay is a study in the dualism of an urban nature preserve.
Towering tankers block the horizon behind a vast field of cordgrass and pickleweed. Egrets and herons soar overhead as do airplanes and helicopters.
but this ability changes with environmental stress Long said. As for why the cordgrass seemed to overcompensate in fresh water
That's important information for ecologists and wildlife officials who manage the marsh as well as for future efforts to build humanmade salt marshes.
Also as climate change raises the sea level the marsh might see its natural salinity level increase.
It's a critical environmental element for all of us. This plant provides a bunch of functions he said.
It prevents erosion. It serves a buffer for river flow into the ocean. It's really the engineer of its ecosystem.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by San diego State university. The original article was written by Michael Price.
The technologies that our team developed to identify regulatory genes that enhance photosynthesis in C4 crops can be extended to identify control points for other processes including nitrogen and phosphate efficiency as well as a plant's response to environmental stresses like heat
and yield and improving carbon capture in both food and bioenergy crops said Mockler. Story Source:
because bacteria-based biofertilizers constitute an alternative to conventional chemical fertilizers that are expensive and less sustainable from the environmental point of view.
so that their use can be reduced with the resulting economic and environmental benefits. In this respect the bacteria used in biofertilizer formulations encourage plants to absorb on their own a greater quantity of nutrients
and pesticides that entail environmental hazards and constitute a significant economic cost for farmers. Story Source:
#How beavers have affected ecosystem at Voyageurs National Parkfelling trees building dams and creating ponds--beavers have a unique ability to alter the landscape in ways that are beneficial to other organisms according to South dakota State university professor Carol Johnston of the natural resource management department.
That's why they are known as a keystone species. The ecologist received a two-year National Science Foundation grant for more than $143000 to compile a book based on her previous NSF-funded research on how beavers have affected the ecosystem at Voyageurs national park near
Beavers influence the environment at a rate far beyond what would be expected given their abundance said Johnston who has been doing beaver research
because they cut down big trees and make dams that flood the landscape creating wet meadows and marshy vegetation Johnston explained.
and biofuels too by providing information for land managers farmers conservationists and policy makers as the bioenergy industry ramps up particularly in Wisconsin and the central U s as bioenergy production demand increases we should pay attention to the ecological consequences
#Environmental taxes encourage lower consumptiontobacco taxation and environmental taxes on electricity and gasoline is the most effective way for politicians to get consumers to understand the problems of smoking and pollution.
Expenditure on media campaigns from government and industry and lobbying by the industry most effectively influences consumers'consumption of tobacco
In the USA tobacco and environmental taxation on electricity and petroleum is an important component in explaining problems with consumption.
and the environment is known as the signaling effect of taxation. From analysis of US data there is a large signaling effect seen for tobacco electricity and petroleum taxation.
Environmental flows for ecosystem services in rivers natural and novellast spring the Colorado river reached its delta for the first time in 16 years flowing into Pacific ocean at the Gulf of california after wetting 70 miles of long-dry channels through the Sonoran Desert.
Now ecologists wait to see how the short drink of water will affect the parched landscape.
This year's spring pulse held less than 1 percent of the volume of the Colorado's annual spring floods before the construction of ten major dams and diversions to municipalities industry and agriculture.
Environmental flows for natural hybrid and novel riverine ecosystems in a changing worldthere are two primary ways to achieve environmental flows of water necessary to sustain river ecosystems write Mike Acreman
of the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and colleagues in a review published this month in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment:
controlled releases like the recent experiment on the Colorado that are designed with specific objectives for ecology
and ecosystem services in mind and hands-off policies that minimize or reverse alterations to the natural flow of the river.
For rivers like the Colorado already much altered and bearing heavy demands from many different user groups a designer approach is more practical than attempting to return the river closer to its natural pre-development state say the authors.
Designers work to create a functional ecosystem or support ecosystem services under current conditions rather than recreate a historical ecosystem.
Achieving ecological objectives requires planning beyond minimum flows and indicator species to encompass seasonal floods
and slack flows and a holistic look at the plants fish fungi birds and other life inhabiting the river its banks and its marshes.
Managers must plan to turn on the taps when ecosystems can capitalize on the flow lest water releases do more harm than good.
Several decades of applied research guided the planning for the engineered spring flood on the lower Colorado this year
and get the maximum value from ecosystem services river systems need to fluctuate in natural rhythms of volume velocity
As nonnative species land development and climate change remodel river ecosystems it is no longer easy to define what is natural for river systems.
But heavily used regulated and altered rivers have ecological value. The future of freshwater biodiversity is linked inextricably to land
and more by process-based understanding of organism-environment relationships he writes. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Ecological Society of America.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Automated imaging system looks underground to help improve cropsplant scientists are working to improve important food crops such as rice maize
#Mangroves protecting corals from climate changecertain types of corals invertebrates of the sea that have been On earth for millions of years appear to have found a way to survive some of their most destructive threats by attaching to and growing under mangrove roots.
More than 30 species of reef corals were found growing in Hurricane Hole a mangrove habitat within the Virgin islands Coral reef National monument in St john. Corals are animals that grow in colonies forming reefs over time as old corals die
It is from these threats that corals are finding refuge under the red mangroves of Hurricane Hole.
Adapting to Climate Change? Organisms throughout the world are threatened as climate and other conditions change.
If they can find ways to adapt as it appears these coral have they can continue to survive as part of an invaluable piece of this world's intricate ecological puzzle.
It is known not how many other mangrove areas in the world harbor such a high diversity of corals as most people do not look for corals growing in these areas.
#Food, fuel and more will be produced in sea farms of futuremeet the farm of the future where common seaweed is being upgraded from an environmental problem to a valuable natural resource and raw material.
and entire ecosystems can be threatened. But in our research we turn the argument on its head
At the present time humankind utilises 40 per cent of the production from land-based ecosystems
whereas only 1 per cent of the seas'ecosystems are utilised currently. Unfortunately this percentage at present consists largely of ruthless exploitation;
Algae feed in this case will be of great benefit for the environment he says. What's more we're counting on Seafarm's cultivation of algae being able to favour the marine environment as a whole
since they form secondary reefs in free bodies of water. This sort of reef attracts fish and other animal species
. What's more we're also acting to help the environment. Partly when we make use of the excess algae
Another problem the researchers will investigate in more detail is that really large cultivations of algae may prove to have a certain wave-damping effect that can influence movements in the water and the marine environment.
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