A new nonprofit group is shipping 18-inch (46 centimeters) saplings of the trees for people to plant to help fight deforestation
and climate change according to USA Today. The trees are actually clones of enormous redwoods that were cut down more than a century ago.
#Cocoa Frog Among New Species Discovered in'Pristine'Ecosystem A chocolate-covered frog and one of the tiniest dung beetles ever found are among the new species discovered during a survey of
what scientist called one of the most pristine environments left On earth. The location? Southeastern Suriname a dense South american Eden for rain forest species. Scientists led by Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program spent three weeks in the region in 2012 surveying animal
Dung beetles play critical ecological roles that help support healthy ecosystems Trond Larsen the director of the Rapid Assessment Program said in a statement.
An important ecosystem Southeastern Suriname is important above and beyond its role as a biodiversity hotspot the scientists found.
Scientists predict the region will be resilient to climate change even as other areas of Suriname dry out with warming leaving the southeastern area as a crucial water resource.
Coffee is a finicky plant extremely sensitive to fluctuations in rainfall and temperature. The international coffee market is finicky too unpredictable and subject to extreme fluctuations in price.
The cool mountains where coffee grows are getting warmer as a result of climate change; and in places like Costa rica farms lower down on the mountains are producing less coffee.
Climate change will have pronounced impacts on agriculture as average temperatures climb and precipitation patterns alter. In the past those impacts seemed like they might turn out to be mixed a bag across the globe some crops might do better in a warmer climate
and some regions might find new opportunities opening up in agriculture. But a leaked draft of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report to be released officially in March 2014 warns that the impacts of climate change on agricultural overall will end up squarely in the minus column.
Evidence is mounting that plants are not adapting to the rapid changes especially in tropical regions.
The draft predicts that the world will lose two percent of its food supply due to the changing climate
But the impacts of climate change on agriculture are pretty clear in Costa rica. This growing season Costa rica's coffee production is expected to fall 10 percent largely because of a fungus called coffee rust or la roya
In addition to the outbreak of fungus rainfall patterns are changing. And while some farmers are starting to plant coffee higher up on the mountains to take advantage of the temperature shift at some point they're going to run out of room.
Costa rica with its venerable coffee industry as well as a flourishing ecotourism industry to protect has taken a proactive stance on climate.
The government and corporations like Starbucks are also working with coffee farmers to adapt growing techniques to the changing climate such as planting more shade trees
and served it to delegates at climate talks in Doha Qatar. But Costa rica of course cannot battle climate change on its own.
The country produces just a few-hundredths-of-a-percent of global carbon pollution. The rest of the world including the United states needs to take strong action not merely to adapt to the changes that are already upon us
The IPCC draft maintains that it's not too late for emissions cuts to change the planet's climate course
and reduce the predicted risks of climate change. President Barack Obama recently signed an executive order to step up climate preparedness efforts in the United states such as reassessing flood risks and encouraging investments in climate-resilient infrastructure.
And many states by improving energy efficiency and shifting to clean energy are already moving into position to meet upcoming limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants
which the U s. Environmental protection agency (EPA) is expected to issue next year. The impacts of climate change are varied widespread
and from extreme weather events that swamp cities to subtle shifts in temperature that threaten the survival of farms and crops.
I could say that it's time to wake up and smell the coffee but I think more than 20 years after the first IPCC report people are finally awake.
Awake not just to the fact that climate change is real and happening now but to the fact that people have solutions in our hands
When our nation takes strong action on climate change we set a model for the rest of the world.
The EPA is considering a vital climate change solution right now: limits on carbon pollution from power plants.
Urge the EPA to support strong limits on carbon pollution. Because Costa rica no matter how much coffee it makes
They are providing a lot of meat to their community they are truly a keystone species Elbroch said referring to a species that provides multiple irreplaceable services that keep an ecosystem productive.
while population growth drought and climate change pose imminent threats to water sources and the ecosystems communities and businesses that depend on them.
But here's the good news. Earth's accessible fresh water all 22312 cubic miles (93000 cubic kilometers) of it is infinitely renewable.
There is enough water to meet our environmental physiological and economic needs. Even better we already know how to fix many of the world's water problems by treating moving conserving
and the clouds and the world's most iconic species to thrive. So in order to help ensure a water-secure future for the planet we must all become a driving force for better smarter water stewardship.
</p><p>Researchers grew human stem cells in an environment that encouraged them to form pea-size gobs of brain tissue
</p><p>Officials with New york's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are planning to survey a lake in Central park for signs of the dreaded northern snakehead fish aka Frankenfish NBCNEWS. com reports.</
</i>)could help scientists develop robots that are able to sense environmental spills and leaks by smell according to the new study.</
The find may unveil clues of the surrounding environment in the lake according to scientists.</</p><p>The bacteria said to be only 86 percent similar to other types known to exist On earth was discovered in a water sample taken from Lake Vostok
lore has suggested that the Vikings used special crystals to find their way under less than-sunny skies.
</p><p>The Sunshine state already home to man-eating sinkholes invading Burmese pythons swarming sharks tropical storms
><p>A real-time look at plant sex in an environment simulating microgravity reveals that agriculture in space might face challenges.</
But tiny drone airplanes made of foam may be more useful in rural environments one researcher says.
This research was published in the October 2011 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Cranberry meets Proteus mirabilis After observing E coli's impaired motility after exposure to cranberries Tufenkji tested the cranberry's effect on another bacteria common to urinary tract infections:
Facts About Animals, Plants & Climate The Cretaceous period was the last and longest segment of the Mesozoic era.
There is also evidence of a series of huge volcanic eruptions along the tectonic border between India
Cretaceous period climate All over North america the highest Cretaceous fossils are found directly beneath a thin layer of sediments that contain an unusual amount of iridium an element otherwise uncommon in Earth s crust.
and a tsunami inundated much of the Eastern United states. It is hypothesized that debris aerosols from the asteroid impact
which police investigators said was caused likely by a natural phenomena such as a dust devil or waterspout).
Some people have suggested that the circles are created somehow by incredibly localized and precise wind patterns or by scientifically undetectable Earth energy fields and meridians called ley lines.
and North seas where it has caused serious environmental and economic damage by eating native zooplankton and fish.
In warm weather blooms of blue-green algae are not uncommon in farm ponds in temperate regions particularly ponds enriched with fertilizer according to a classic toxicology reference book Casarett and Doull's Toxicology:
As these pines are high-altitude trees growing best above 8000 feet (about 2400 meters) some have proposed that the warming climate might facilitate outbreaks of native mountain pine beetles
Climate change could mean the trees'high altitude can't protect them from infestations any longer.
Other participants in the ongoing bear research study include the U s. Forest Service the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service the Wind River tribe and the wildlife agencies for Idaho Montana Wyoming.
Their populations have taken a hit from volcanic eruptions in the southern Andes the researchers say. What's more the African clawed frog was introduced to Chile in the 1970s.
and their relatives are more vulnerable to environmental changes because they have permeable skin and a complex water-and-land life cycle.
and the peak bloom date there is shifting earlier according to an analysis performed by Jason Samenow at the Washington post's Capital Weather Gang blog.
Reaping the Benefits of Cover crops (Op-Ed) Margaret Mellon is a senior scientist for food and the environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS.
An expert on sustainable agriculture and the potential environmental risks of biotechnology Mellon holds a doctorate in molecular biology and a law degree.
Use of cover crops can also help farms survive the droughts expected to become more common in the era of climate change.
and prevent erosion. But a cover-crop/cash-crop system is complex. If not managed properly cover crops can deprive cash crops of water
Farmers expected to pay for the ecosystem services provided by cover crops and were willing to pay median costs of $25 an acre to purchase seeds and $15 an acre for cover-crop establishment (aerial distribution of seed and the eventual killing of the plants at the end of the growing season).
#Deforestation Plants the Seed for Rapid Evolution in Brazil The deforestation of the Brazilian rain forest has created a hidden consequence:
Combined with climate change the result could be devastating for palms said study leader Mauro Galetti an ecologist at Paulista State university in Brazil.
If we think about climate change we will have less rainfall and we know that for smaller seeds they lose more water than large seeds Galetti told Livescience.
and spread them through their droppings over many miles making the animals crucial to the forest ecosystem.
Other factors such as soil fertility forest cover and climate could not explain the change in seed size the researchers reported.
Human deforestation in the Atlantic Forest dates back to the 1800s more than enough time for the observed changes to evolve.
#Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses.
An estimated 18 million acres (7. 3 million hectares) of forest roughly the size of Panama are lost each year according to the United nations'Food and agriculture organization (FAO.
Deforestation is considered to be one of the contributing factors to global climate change. Trees absorb greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.
Location Deforestation occurs around the world though tropical rainforests are targeted particularly. Countries with significant deforestation currently or in the recent past include Brazil Indonesia Thailand the Democratic Republic of congo
and other parts of Africa and parts of Eastern Europeaccording to GRID-Arendal a United nations Environment Program collaborating center.
Though deforestation has increased rapidly in the last 50 years it has been practiced throughout history. For example since 1600 90 percent of continental United states indigenous forest has been removed.
The World Resources Institute estimates that most of the world s remaining indigenous forest about 22 percent of its original amount is located in Canada Alaska Russia and the Northwestern Amazon basin.
The Amazon is targeted a highly area of recent deforestation. Causes of deforestation Deforestation is done typically to make more land available for housing and urbanization timber large scale cash crops such as soy and palm oil and cattle ranching.
The World Wildlife Fund reports that much of the logging industry that contributes to deforestation is done illegally (about half of it used for firewood.
Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear cutting which is the controversial practice of complete removal of a given tract of forest.
A forestry expert quoted by the Natural resources Defense Council describes clear cutting as an ecological trauma that has no precedent in nature except for a major volcanic eruption.
Burning can be done quickly in vast swaths of land for plantation use or more slowly with the slash-and-burn technique.
Effects of deforestation Forests are complex ecosystems that are important to the carbon and water cycles that sustain life on earth.
and are losing their habitats to deforestation. Loss of habitat can lead to species extinction.
and contribute to global climate change. Without trees more carbon and greenhouse gasses enter the atmosphere.
or otherwise removed. oetropical forests hold more than 210 gigatons of carbon and deforestation represents around 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions according to the WWF.
In the Amazon more than half the water in the ecosystem is held within the plants. Without the plants the climate may become dryer.
Soil erosion: Without tree roots to anchor the soil and with increased exposure to sun the soil can dry out leading to problems like increased flooding and inability to farm.
The WWF states that scientists estimate that a third of the world s arable land has been lost to deforestation since 1960.
Or they work on plantations worsening the deforestation problem and at times being subjected to inhumane working conditions.
You can learn more about this environmental problem in a video the National Science Foundation created with NBC Learn Sustainability:
In fact as part of the Dognition citizen-science project we have begun chipping away at the iceberg.
or end up in the path of a rockslide. For this reason Jones said evolution favors those who reproduce early before anything bad can befall them.
Organisms that grow with age without stopping at a certain size like some trees may be less vulnerable in old age to environmental fluctuations or other threats.
Do certain environments promote longevity? There's good evidence that a lot of these plants that live a very long time tend to live in arid regions Jones said.
While some question the cost-effectiveness of using the substances environmental groups are concerned that the bright red chemical slurry can have a deadly effect on plants and wildlife.
It looks good on television Andy Stahl executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) in Eugene Ore. told Livescience.
Protecting sensitive areas These environmental problems have been addressed by changes to the compounds used in the fire retardant slurry mixture the AP reports
Climate change is heating up and drying up the American West and these two changes are weakening trees
What we're interested in is trying to understand what the climate might be in relation to a fire event Phil van Mantgem a research ecologist with the U s. Geological Survey who led the research told Livescience.
How Will Climate Change Impact Western Wildfires? A lot of previous studies were trying to understand or make predictions about
what the fire regime will look like going forward with climate change but they were focused on the physical aspects Van Mantgem said.
because the information about these forests before and after these events is entered into an ecological database called FFI (FEAT/FIREMON Integrated).
Different than uncontrolled burns Predicting the effects of climate change on trees is difficult because some of the data is not hard numbers said Philip Higuera a fire ecologist at the University of Idaho who did not participate in the study.
Ecologists typically use the term fire severity for example to describe how a tree is hurt a measurement that relies on qualitative observations and less on quantitative measurements.
It's similar to the Mercalli intensity scale in earthquakes Higuera said which notes if things fell off of walls
The study was published in the journal Ecology Letters and includes participation from the U s. Geological Survey the National park service and the U s. Forest Service.
But after that despite living in a very similar environment their diet underwent a radical transformation to include C4 and CAM plants.
But Do They Influence Climate Change?(ISNS)--Earthworms have long been the organic gardener's friend.
Their influence on the environment has interested scientists since Charles darwin. Â So it came as a shock earlier this year
when researchers reported in Nature Climate Change  that earthworms contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
 Jan Willem van Groenigen of Wageningen University in The netherlands and lead author on the Nature Climate Change article doesn't advocate exterminating earthworms. oeyou cannot say earthworms are good or bad.
Their excrement also adds physical structure to the soil that holds in the carbon reduces erosion
 A lot of microbial ecologists have looked only at the bacteria and fungi and not at the role of the earthworms that are said eating them Neher.
The second study was conducted over 54 days too short a time to judge the total effect of earthworms on the environment.
and help reduce greenhouse gases in the environment. Whether or not earthworms contribute to climate change both sides agree that earthworms have unmistakable benefits.
As Darwin mused It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have organized these lowly creatures.
that a crazed maniacal group destroyed their environment by cutting down trees to transport gigantic statues said study co-author Carl Lipo an anthropologist at California State university Long beach.
and led to deforestation and environmental ruin that would've caused the population to plummet.
The Polynesian settlers did cause deforestation through slashing -and-burning of the forest to make way for sweet potatoes
But that deforestation didn't cause the civilization to die out: The palm trees were probably not economically useful to the islanders anyway Lipo said.
Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental protection agency. Email Bahar Gholipour or follow her@alterwired. Followâ Livescienceâ@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
Insects offer a clear environmental benefit because they can convert their own food to body mass more efficiently than traditional livestock
Benefits associated with vegetables from the Solanaceae family seemed to be said fairly specific study researcher Susan Searles Nielsen an environmental and occupational health researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The newly released images and videos from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) show the famously endangered bears as well as some of their neighbors red pandas leopard cats
Biodiversity can refer to variability of life within a species'gene pool an ecosystem and on a much larger scale the entire planet.
which is considered a signature of a healthy ecosystem. Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+.
and that each remains clean in their respective environment says Bhushan. This observation lead the investigators to suspect that like shark skin
#Environmental Lessons Found in 19th-century Cemeteries NEW YORK Society needs to reframe its approach to environmental problems and the past offers potentially valuable inspiration on how to do this according to a historian and author.
The environmental movement has fed on this sense of panic and fear said Aaron Sachs a professor of history at Cornell University.
However he said these principles were transmitted not to the modern environmental movement which Sachs described as exalting places inaccurately portrayed as pristine and far removed from people s daily lives and consumption patterns.
10 Tales from the Crypt & Beyond A modern problem As an example of the modern rhetoric that Sachs believes sets back the environmental movement he read from a plea he had received from actor Robert Redford supporting a Natural resources Defense Council fight
The text of the letter from the moviemaker and environmental activist described the site saying nothing like this place exists anywhere else On earth
and conveys a sense of urgency even panic is common to modern environmental politics he said.
He used Yosemite and much later Bristol Bay as examples of a less constructive approach to the natural environment than that embodied by the garden-style cemeteries and urban parks.
I think places like that have affected always the way we think about environmental politics said Sachs who is the author of Arcadian America:
The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition (Yale university Press 2013. Places like Yosemite and Bristol Bay are portrayed as stunningly beautiful sites people visit temporarily while on vacation.
That's the lesson one runaway goat learned the hard way after a late-night breakout from a slaughterhouse in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn N y. according to WABC News. At about 1 a m. ET
Panicked the goat ran through the neighborhood banging his head against doors in an effort to evade the cops scrambling after it according to the Daily mail. The police chased the goat into a parking lot across from Interfaith Medical center where the animal encountered Seydou Ndiaye a parking lot attendant and as luck would have it a former goat herder
Though goat meat doesn't appear commonly on North american menus it's very popular in many immigrant neighborhoods especially throughout Latino Middle Eastern Caribbean and Asian communities according to the Washington post.
The idea is that you coordinate treatments to change fire behavior across a landscape a big landscape said John J. Battles a Berkeley forest ecologist who helped develop the method.
or ridgetops exposed to wind. Fire tends to race up steeper slopes more swiftly than flatter areas.
on the wind. The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus or PEDV was assumed long to be spread only by direct contact
It moved too fast for tires too fast for feet Smith told Reuters. The only thing that touched each pig was the wind.
and was even against a federal policy to help pets in disasters the amendment is an attack on states'rights to impose reasonable standards on agriculture to protect animals workers the environment and consumers.
#Fenced in, Animal Migrations Cannot Survive (Op-Ed) Bradnee Chambers Executive secretary of the United nations Environment Program Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices:
and environmental concerns to go hand-in-hand. Second only to the Serengeti the steppes of Kazakhstan are a migration hotspot where expansive ecosystems have remained largely intact into the present day.
The country emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet union in 1991 adopted economic reforms and has enjoyed an economic boom based on exports of minerals oil
and agricultural products successfully weathering recent financial storms. But the vast landlocked country wants to modernize further.
or avoid harsh weather conditions the animals become vulnerable to predators and disease and their reproduction rates fall.
and Mongolian Ministries of the Environment and the German Nature Conservation Agency and participants have devised and published mitigation measures.
and meeting international environmental obligations by making the minimal adjustments required to ensure that 21st-century transport especially
if serious efforts aren't made to reduce feral-pig populations according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
If a feral-hog sow produces a dozen piglets 13 survive goes an old joke according to the Avalanche-Journal.
Extreme heat and drought during the country's summer wildfire season have helped fierce winds spark about 100 bushfires across southeastern Australia.
Parts of both the United states and Australia share a combustible mix of fire hazards such as an ecology adapted to fire-prone conditions and a climate conducive to wildfires.
because homes are being put into hazardous conditions said Jon Keeley a fire ecologist with the U s Geological Survey (USGS). The important thing is not to blame it on the fire event
Thanks to work by Keeley and his colleagues researchers now know techniques that work for firefighters in the Colorado mountains won't help Californians battling wind-driven wildfires in the chaparral.
The loss of lives and property increased every decade in the past century according to a 2001 study in the journal Conservation Biology by Keeley and USGS ecologist C. J. Fotheringham.
The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Management. It's wrongheaded to think there's just one fire story out there Keeley said.
Frequent prescribed burns combined with the rising numbers of human-sparked conflagrations weakens the ecosystem.
We're accelerating the environmental destruction of California's most characteristic ecosystem Halsey told Ouramazingplanet.
There was this mindset that this beautiful ecosystem is unnatural and we need to burn it up
and nearly torching Los alamos National Laboratory one of the nation's nuclear testing labs. The Santa monica mountains national recreation area had prescribed their last burn in 2005 said Marti Witter a fire ecologist with the park.
'To help spread news of the findings the USGS Western Ecological Research center in Sacramento Calif. will launch a public outreach program this spring
Fighting fires with fuel Clearing chaparral for firebreaks a gap meant to slow spreading flames also does little to help fire fighters battle the chaotic infernos driven by California's Santa ana winds Fotheringham told Ouramazingplanet.
In the fall fierce winds called the Santa anas rush down from the California mountains. The winds can be of tropical storm strength (winds less than 74 mph or 119 kph) at lower elevations and hurricane-strength (74 mph or greater) above 1000 feet (305 meters.
Amazing Video: Speed of Wildfire It's fire season in the West when the winds blow.
Firebreaks can help fire fighters battle small burns in chaparral. Without fire fighters at the breaks however flames skip past the gaps found a study led by ecologist Alexandra Syphard of the Conservation Biology Institute in the June 2011 issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
The nonnative species that eagerly occupy open space on fire breaks and in cleared chaparral act as kindling for flying embers said Fotheringham.
The whirling winds carry embers as far as a mile in front of the actual wildfire. Defending your space In California
In October 2007 more than 2000 homes burned in Southern California during Santa ana-driven firestorms. None of the homes ignited from direct contact with flames.
Researchers with the Western Ecological Research center analyzed homes in the Santa monica Mountains and part of San diego County that burned between 2001 and 2010 during several devastating wildfires in the region.
so in the fall the Santa ana wind-driven fires coincide with leaf drop. It's a perfect storm.
To really save homes Fotheringham wants Californians to spend their fall weekends cleaning the nooks and crannies around their homes.
But time after time in infernos created by Santa ana winds thousands of homes with defensible barriers burst into flames.
Bring a little of the natural environment into your yard recommended Halsey who trained as a firefighter to better understand the challenges California must overcome to solve its fire mess.
Building in a wind corridor where the Santa anas are fiercest is also more likely to lead to destruction.
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