The art of avian war With cash earmarked for murrelets from offshore-oil-spill restoration funds the parks have the rare ability to fund research studies
Their density in campgrounds is nine times higher than in other forest areas said Portia Halbert an environmental scientist with the California State Parks.
Plus jays are part of the natural ecosystem said Richard Golightly a biologist at Humboldt State university in California.
A retched success The tests were so successful that Halbert applied for oil-spill restoration funds to start training Steller's jays in the state parks.
and co-author of a study published recently in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. It's hard to understate the importance of eelgrass
In the 1930s an outbreak of wasting disease and an enormous hurricane virtually wiped out these eelgrass beds which provide a bedrock for marine life.
The environmental impact was so great that bay scallops (a type of shellfish) disappeared; until that time the scallops had supported a significant local fishery.
Animals consuming seeds in one location and then excreting them in another location where they can germinate is said not new Matt Harwell a seagrass ecologist who was involved not in the study.
#Florida's Mangrove forests Expand with Climate Change Fewer deep freezes attributable to Earth's warming climate have caused mangrove forests to expand northward in Florida over the past three decades new research suggests.
Mangroves showed the largest increases in regions where cold snaps became less frequent over the past 30 years study co-author Kyle Cavanaugh an ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research center in Maryland wrote in an email.
The findings published today (Dec 30) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggest that climate change could alter ecosystems even more dramatically in the years to come.
Mangrove forests typically grow in tidal regions in tropical and subtropical climates. They serve a vital ecological function:
The trees and shrubs that live in these regions can thrive in salty water shifting sands
To see how climate changes have affected Florida's mangrove forests Cavanaugh and his colleagues looked at 28 years of satellite data from Florida's East Coast.
This expansion wasn't connected to changes in average temperature sea level rise rain or land use.
Instead the regions with expanding mangroves experienced fewer cold snaps periods when the temperature dips below 25 degrees Fahrenheit minus 4 degrees Celsius.
 We knew virtually nothing about it in terms of ecology other than the fact that it lived on this small set of atolls study co-author Gary Wiles a researcher with the Washington Department of Fish
A potentially more serious threat to the animals than predators is future sea level rise associated with climate change.
if average global sea level rises by as much as 3. 2 feet (0. 98 m) by 2100 as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This latest work detailed Tuesday (Oct 29) in the journal Zookeys only scratches the surface of P. pelagicus ecology Wiles said andhe hopes that it will motivate other naturalists
and involved a salad mix (iceberg and romaine lettuce red cabbage carrots) sourced from the Mexican processing facility of a group of farms.
Neither the natural environments of this process nor the exact manner of transmission are known yet
#Forest Snow Can Melt Faster Than Flakes In Open Fields (ISNS)--As fresh snow turns us into grumbling commuters
Melted snow in many parts of the world becomes the water people drink year-round. Seasonal snow replenishes streams creeks
and groundwater when it melts in the spring; how long this frozen reservoir of water lasts strongly influences a region's water supply during drier months especially in areas like western Washington state.
Tree cover that obscures spring sunshine might be expected to retain snow longer. But recent research published in the journal Water Resources Research suggests that in some areas snow melts faster under forests than it does in open spaces.
Though researchers and snow enthusiasts have known long forests affect how long the fat wet piles of snow persist it wasn't clear precisely how trees made a difference.
Conventional wisdom is that snow lasts longer under forests because a lot of studies have been done in colder climates
and that's typically true there said Susan Dickerson-Lange a graduate student at the University of Washington Seattle
and balmier winters the authors combed through existing research on how forests affect snow. In studies from all over the world they found a surprising connection between tree cover and snowmelt times.
Quicker melting in forests was unrelated also to the tree well phenomenon familiar to skiers the well of soft snow that forms around a tree trunk sheltered by branches.
and wind speed the team's model considered energy coming from the sun at different times of the year
Trees became key players in melting snow in warmer locations they found. In colder places like Colorado snow still lasts longer in forests
which protect it from sun and wind according to Dickerson-Lange. But in maritime climates like western Washington or California the air itself is much warmer.
It's a pretty intuitive finding to those of us who work in the field
In places where temperatures are already close to water's melting point the infrared energy can accelerate the melting of snow.
Several other factors such as wind or the incline and steepness of a mountainside can change how long snow cover lasts as well.
which it is with deeper snow and colder environments said Link. But this paper shows that in warmer environments it really can be long-wave-radiation-dominated.
Though this study only compared areas with forest cover to those without it many other subtle effects can influence how long snow cover lasts.
One factor the team plans to analyze in future work is how well sparse deciduous forest cover compares with a dense canopy in preserving snow.
Another is the direction a mountain slope faces. South-facing slopes are sunnier in the Northern hemisphere
so snow tends to last longer on northern sides of mountains. Â On a north-facing slope where sunlight is less of a factor the energy from trees may have a stronger effect Dickerson-Lange said.
In the long term one of the projected impacts of climate warming is that snow will begin to melt earlier in the year shifting up to a few weeks.
and how will climate change come into play as we consider forest management decisions in the future. Inside Science News Service is supported by the American Institute of Physics.
#Forests Recover Quickly After Bark beetles Attack SAN FRANCISCO A forest ravaged by the red hand of death also known as a bark beetle attack recovers quickly with little ecosystem damage scientists said here today (Dec 9) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
what the ecosystem itself is doing Ewer said. Email Becky Oskin or follow her@beckyoskin. Follow us@livescience Facebook & Google+.
while those from southern Australia have longer fur that is a browner color due to the colder climate in
In April 2012 the Australian government listed koalas as a threatened species facing threats from both urban expansion and climate change.
and resourceful scavengers and they can adapt to almost any environment. The color and length of a leopard's fur can vary depending on where it lives.
Leopards from cold climates have longer grayer fur and rainforest leopards have golden coats. Leopards'spots called rosettes can be
either round or square to help them blend in even better with their surroundings. Leopards eat anything from carcasses fish and reptiles to mammals such as baboons antelopes warthogs hares and rodents.
but they can adapt to almost any environment from tropical rainforests to deserts mountains and the outskirts of cities.
Moose can move through deep snow with their long legs insulated from the cold by a thick coat of hollow hairs.
Overgrazing by livestock is leading to significant environmental degradation as zebras compete with the ever-increasing livestock population and agricultural crops for water.
Most of these spiders live in the tropics of Central and South america but they are found worldwide including Australia Africa and Central asia.
They typically live for less than a year dying in the cold weather. In warmer places they can live for two years.
They prefer humid climates as they are susceptible to drying out. During the summer males leave their burrows
Is a New Species In the cloud forests of Ecuador scientists have discovered the olinguito the first new carnivore species reported in the Western hemisphere in 35 years.
The team found the nocturnal carnivores on the western slopes of the Andes prowling the cloud forests for figs nectar and insects.
Cloud forests are tropical moist forests with persistent fog or cloud cover. A genetic analysis proved the olinguitos were a distinct species. The new species is described today (Aug 15) in the journal Zookeys.
#Giant Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctic Glacier A massive iceberg larger than the city of Chicago broke off of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier on Monday (July 8)
The newborn iceberg measures about 278 square miles (720 square kilometers) and was seen by Terrasar-X an earth-observing satellite operated by the German Space agency (DLR.
Scientists with NASA's Operation Icebridgefirst discovered a giant crack in the Pine Island Glacier in October 2011 as they were flying over
As a result of these cracks one giant iceberg broke away from the glacier tongue Angelika Humbert a glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute said in a statement.
Antarctica s Pine Island Glacier Cracks Humbert and her colleagues studied high resolution radar images taken by the Terrasar-X satellite to track the changes in the two cracks
and to observe the processes behind glacier movements. Using the images we have been able to follow how the larger crack on the Pine Island Glacier extended initially to a length of 28 kilometers 17 miles Nina Wilkens one of the team researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute
said in a statement. Shortly before the'birth'of the iceberg the gap then widened bit by bit
so that it measured around 540 meters 1770 feet at its widest point. As the Pine Island Glacier retreats
and flows out to sea it develops and drops icebergs as part of a natural and cyclical process Humbert said.
But the way the ice breaks or calves is still somewhat mysterious. Glaciers are constantly in motion she said.
They have their very own flow dynamics. Their ice is exposed to permanent tensions and the calving of icebergs is still largely unresearched.
The Pine Island Glacier ice shelf the part of the glacier that extends out into the water last produced large icebergs in 2001 and 2007.
The glacier is the longest and fastest-changing on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. While Humbert and her colleagues did not draw direct connections between this week's calving event
and climate change other scientists including marine geologists at The british Antarctic Survey are investigating whether global warming is thinning Antarctica's ice sheets and speeding up the glacier's retreat.
Yet the flow of the Pine Island Glacier may be driven by other factors Humbert said. The glacier flows to the Amundsen Sea at a rate of about 2. 5 miles (4 km) per year.
She says whether the flow speeds up or slows down is based more on changing wind directions in the Amundsen Sea and less by rising air temperatures.
The wind now brings warm sea water beneath the shelf ice Humbert said. Over time this process means that the shelf ice melts from below primarily at the so-called grounding line the critical transition to the land ice.
Still if the glacier's flow speeds up it could have serious consequences the researchers said.
The Pine Island Glacier currently acts as a plug holding back part of the immense West Antarctic Ice Sheet whose melting ice contributes to rising sea levels.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow Ouramazingplanetâ@OAPLANET Facebookâ and Google+.+Original article at Livescience's Ouramazingplanet l
#Giant panda Cub Celebrates 1st Birthday Xiao Liwu the charismatic panda cub born at the San diego Zoo last year celebrated his first birthday today with a towering three-tiered cake made from ice and bamboo
decked out with yams apples and shaved carrots. The giant panda cub whose name means little gift was born on July 29 2102 the sixth offspring for mother Bai Yun.
and the beloved bears'home in the mountains of China is threatened increasingly by climate change and human activity.
and other commercial development activities Russell Mittermeier president of environmental organization Conservation International said in a statement.
which is burning toward those groves said Matt Brooks Yosemite Field Station leader for the U s. Geological Survey's Western Research Ecology Center.
Under natural conditions these forests have burned for millions of years with frequent fires said Jon Keeley a fire ecologist with the U s Geological Survey who is based in Sequoia
Several years of lower than average snowfall in the Sierra nevada have made also the mountain forests dry
and they would burn fairly frequently said David Parsons an expert on Sierra nevada fire ecology and the retired director of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute in Missoula Mont.
Rain falls year-round in the Amazon but most of the annual deluge drops during the wet season.
The length of the dry season in the southern Amazon is the most important climate condition controlling the rain forest Rong Fu a climate scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences said in a statement.
The new findings forecast a more parched future for the Amazon rain forest than the climate report released last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the study authors said.
Fu and her colleagues analyzed rainfall patterns across the Southern Amazon rain forest since 1979 and plugged the data into 50 simulations from eight climate models.
The climate models from the IPCC's AR5 report released in September reported smaller dry season changes than actually measured since 1979.
This means the IPCC models likely underestimate future predictions of rain forest climate change effects the researchers conclude.
Global warming can limit tropical rainfall across the southern Amazon in two ways Fu explained. First shifts in the southern jet stream can block cold fronts that trigger rainfall.
In the Northern hemisphere extremes in the northern jet stream pattern have been linked to wacky weather such as the unusually warm winter in 2012.
Rising surface temperatures attributed to global warming also make it harder for storms to start. The heat inhibits convective energy keeping warm dry air near the surface from rising
and mixing with cool moist air above. Â Email Becky Oskin or follow her@beckyoskin. Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
Environment (Op-Ed) Katherine Tallmadge M. A r. D. is registered a dietitian; author of Diet Simple:
and the environment and much attention has been focused on one product widely made from GMO sources:
Environmental consequences of GM foods As for the environment GMOS seem to have impact. Recently a rogue strain of Monsanto GM wheat was found in a field in Oregon.
Although the impact of GMOS on health and nutrition is unclear the impact on the environment seems much more definite and detrimental.
According to the U s. Environmental protection agency about 84 million acres in the United states are devoted to corn and about 73 million acres are dedicated to soybeans a close second.
Omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) are a second type of essential fatty acid that studies suggest promote heart health
A large number of anti-GMO activists who refer to GMO crops as Frankenfoods believe GMOS can cause environmental damage and health problems for consumers.
The European colonists who came to America instituted massive deforestation from the start. The East Coast easily competed with the enormous Redwoods of the Pacific seaboard.
Northrop had researched previously forestry in Europe triggering a wave of environmental self-examination back in Connecticut
We see faces in clouds and patterns in events where they do not exist. It shouldn't be surprising that superstitions have always been with us.
The company allegedly had a hand in ghostwriting some 11 articles published in reputable scientific journals such as Inhalation Toxicology The Journal of Occupational & Environmental Hygiene Annals of Occupational Hygiene
They even hired a detective agency to investigate scientists on a federal advisory panel to try to stave off potential EPA regulation.
and gas companies like Exxonmobil that try to undermine climate science and before that by Big Tobacco to disseminate disinformation about the health effects of smoking.
and gas companies to misinform about climate science; he previously worked for Phillip Morris distorting the scientific evidence about the hazards of cigarettes and secondhand smoke.
Climate change has made the high-elevation whitebark pines more accessible to the destructive beetles. Bear battle The fight over the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly population is a years-long saga.
The new recommendations to delist come to the USFWS from the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly bear Committee.
but it is likely to do so said Kristin Carden an attorney with Earthjustice an environmental advocacy group.
Whatever happens Yellowstone grizzlies face extraordinary challenges as climate change drives the loss of habitat and food sources.
Help your neighbor start a garden. We can help protect our ecology and waterways and help people to have access to fresh food It's all connected.
We are connected all. The Dejoria family is committed to contributing to a sustainable planet through investing in people protecting animals and conserving the environment.
This article originally appeared as Growing Appalachia: A Better Food System for America on the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship a premier international platform for accelerating entrepreneurial approaches and innovative solutions to the world's most pressing
which is a provider of green and environmental career courses and degrees. Reiley has 20 years of experience as an environmental attorney in the government and private sector.
His specialties include legal counseling regulatory development and litigation. He contributed this Op-Ed to Livescience's Expert Voices:
The ever-increasing complexity of environmental regulation across a wide spectrum of industries and the groundswell of consumer support for green industry practices are creating greater demand for professionals who can navigate the changing landscape of environmental policy
In fact policymakers and those who wish to influence environmental policy don't have an easy time either.
Governmental authority on environmental issues in the United states is disjointed extremely. While the U s. Environmental protection agency (EPA) is the most comprehensive environmental agency
because it regulates air and water pollution solid waste radiation pesticides and toxic substances to name a few its authority on those matters is not exclusive.
Many of the executive branch's departments have some jurisdiction over environmental policy like the U s. Department of the interior
which oversees mineral development on public lands or the U s. Department of agriculture which is responsible for forestry and soil conservation efforts.
and shape environmental policy within its borders. Â Â Â To be sure many of these challenges have been around
since the 1970s but the growth in environmental regulations has subsided not and the challenges that face companies and society continue unabated.
A diverse range of companies from dog food manufacturers to botanical gardens might be affected by environmental regulations.
Moreover there are emerging issues to deal with like sustainability climate change genetically modified foods and endocrine disruptors in drinking water.
While the federal government is experiencing gridlock on a whole host of issues including those related to the environment the private sector sees growth and opportunity in the greening economy.
Generally people think of the green economy as that which is limited to the conversion of fossil fuels to renewable energy and a green job as one that benefits the environment.
or provide services that benefit the environment. Additionally this government agency defines green jobs as those that produce goods
and provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics green goods and services fall into one or more of the following five categories:
The greener the job that is the portion of the job that focuses largely on environmental issues the more important one's education training and credentials become.
and demonstrate a solid understanding of larger environmental issues job hunters should focus on additional training or education that is multidisciplinary with an emphasis on critical-thinking skills.
'The same environmental sensitivity that brought Bambi back from the brink now makes it painfully controversial to do
So what can keep them away from our neighborhoods? Only the pushback from the No. 1 predator of them all:
Instead they are an important part of the ecosystem America has nursed successfully back from the brink.
Bats also are vulnerable to being killed by wind turbines. That risk can be reduced through careful siting of wind-power developments away from important bat roosts
so that they aren't spinning in low wind (read low power) conditions when bats are most active.
and next year it's the neighbor's turn to do it Mackinnon speculated. Neighborhoods might sponsor these kinds of things
so people do it to curry favor. Â The next step Mackinnon said is to look for other possible signs of ancient feasting at different sites.
In fact the Countermeasure and Functional Testing study is part of NASA's long-term bed-rest research that seeks to mimic the antigravity environment of space On earth by positioning participants in bed head tilted slightly downward day in and day out.
but Coburn's report focuses on a $9. 6 million portion going to six institutions as part of a study combating climate-induced bovine weight loss according to the report.
The Coburn report conflates the USDA grant with a separate study on the effects of climate change on cattle and bison.
The 10 Most Visited National parks Coburn also criticizes NASA funding for a study on how climate change affects the migration of red crabs on Christmas Island in the Indian ocean.
Curbing Them Is Key to Climate-Change Strategy (Op-Ed) Hallie Kennan a research assistant at Energy Innovation:
but there are some lesser-known gases that also jeopardize the Earth's climate future. This list includes methane nitrous oxide chlorofluorocarbons (CFCS) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCS) and several others.
in addition to those from carbon dioxide is critical to achieving a stable climate. Taking action against greenhouse-gas emissions For decades climate-change discussions have centered on actions to curb carbon-dioxide emissions.
Now government officials are beginning to focus their attention on reducing other types of harmful gases including HFC emissions.
industry at the Advancing Ozone and Climate Protection Technologies: Next Steps conference. Several nations are already taking action:
HFCS which belong to a category of substances known as short-lived climate forcers (SLCFS) have an incredibly high potential to contribute to global warming yet a relatively short atmospheric lifetime.
Similarly HFCS have GWPS ranging from 140 to 11700 according to the U s. Environmental protection agency. Therefore avoiding HFC emissions will make a huge difference in tackling climate change.
 However it's critical to consider atmospheric lifetime or the average length of time a molecule of gas exists in the atmosphere before being converted into another chemical compound or absorbing back into a sink like a forest or ocean.
Eliminating HFCS and other SLCFS will help decelerate climate change in the immediate future since they only linger in the atmosphere for a brief period of time once emissions are curbed.
According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions SLCFS may be responsible for as much as 40 percent of human-induced climate change
which means that reducing their emissions could have a considerable impact on the Earth's climate future.
when other international climate agreements have been weak or nonexistent. All of the United nations member nations now comply with it which has led to the effective phaseout of 97 percent of all ozone-depleting substances the equivalent of more than 200 gigatons of greenhouse gases and nearly six years'worth of total
but powerful climate forcers limiting their use now will result in environmental benefits within this lifetime.
These fires destroy several times more forest than is taken out by deforestation each year according to a new study published recently in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Unlike fires in the Amazon's grassy areas
Amazon forests are quite vulnerable to fire given the frequency of ignitions for deforestation and land management at the forest frontier but we've never known the regional extent
and are likely an important source of carbon emissions that hasn t been accounted adequately for in climate models according to NASA.
The results of that work also showed that the signs of a hidden body vary with the soil type and climate.
For the researchers'newest project they plan to bury pigs in Colombia in simulated secret graves under eight scenarios of different soil types and climates.
We're trying to do rigorous research in real environments to figure out what methods work best.
#Himalayan Adventure Foretells Climate's Effects NEW YORK The distribution of water in Asia's highest mountains
and driest deserts tells an important story of climate change. Almost half the world's population gets its water from glacier melt
and rainfall in The himalayas and other lofty peaks yet little is understood about how climate change will affect these water sources.
Now using sophisticated technology and old-fashioned fieldwork scientists are looking into the past to solve this mystery.
We're trying to understand the relationships between climate and glaciers and Earth's water resources from the perspective of Earth's paleoclimate geologist Aaron Putnam of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory said in a talk at the Columbic Club in New york on March 12 He described his recent
expeditions along the Silk road from the Tien shan Mountains to the Taklamakan Desert to the Bhutanese Himalayas.
and rock debris built up by glaciers called moraines which held clues to the past climate.
which researchers to reconstruct the glaciers'past positions. We can see what the ice looked like
Putnam and his team think the wetting of the desert allowed grasslands to expand enabling the Mongols to spread throughout Asia. 10 Surprising Ways Weather Changed History Atop The himalayas Next Putnam
We don't know how the monsoon will affect glacier behavior in The himalayas Putnam said adding We just needed to go there
The team made a six-day trek to their study site a glacier-laden plateau.
They ventured out onto the glaciers and took ice sample to measure the amount of melt.
The team had to leave before the snows came with the approaching winter. Though the scientists haven't finished their analysis yet it's clear that the glaciers have receded substantially over the last century Putnam said
and this will have an impact on the many people who depend on the mountains for water.
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