Genomewide evolutionary changes in farmed salmon adds further threats to wild populations
There is growing concern about the threats that farmed Atlantic salmon escapees constitute to wild salmon populations.
Consumers and environmentalists are concerned about farmed salmon yet heritable changes that have accumulated in farmed strains at the genetic level are largely unknown.
In new research published in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers have found scie
The temperature of the northern hemisphere has increased over a larger area in the last century than at any time in the past millennium a report published in Science reveals this week.
The study finds that the number of “hot spots” has increased dramatically in the Northern Hemisphere in the last century compared to the past 1200 years – adding to the growing evidence of wide-scale global warming.
Dr Tim Osborn and Prof Keith Briffa, of the Climatic Research Unit team
A unifying physics principle that describes design in nature predicts, in surprisingly straightforward fashion, the basic features of global circulation and climate, according to researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and the University of Evora in Portugal. They said the new approach to climate may have important implications for forecasting environmental change.
The researchers found that the “constructal theory” can predict the global circulation that
A recent decrease in Rocky Mountain snowpack has slowed the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gases from forest soils into the atmosphere during the dead of winter, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.
Professor Russell Monson of CU-Boulder’s ecology and evolutionary biology department said the lack of snow has decreased the winter insulation of the soils, cooling them and slowing the metabolism of microbes that release large amounts of CO2. Bu
Something wicked this way comes, if you’re a frog or salamander living near El Cope, Panama.
An outbreak of an infectious disease called chytridiomycosis, attributed to the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, has infected and caused rapid die-offs in eight families of Panamanian amphibians, scientists report in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
A survey of amphibian populations in central Panama has uncovered a case of chyt
Lost bird of paradise found in isolated Foja mountains of Papua, along with new honeyeater bird, new frogs and a rare tree kangaroo
An expedition to one of Asia’s most isolated jungles – in the mist-shrouded Foja Mountains of western New Guinea – discovered a virtual ’’Lost World” of new species, giant flowers, and rare wildlife that was unafraid of humans.
The December 2005 trip by a team of U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists led by Conservatio
Working in cooperation with Maine trawler captain Cameron McLellan and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, UMaine graduate student Emily Knight and UMaine Marine Science professor Les Watling recently completed a long-term study that examines the effects of groundfish trawling on the complex ecology of the sea floor in the Gulf of Maine.
Based on the gradual increases in complexity and diversity of seafloor communities that have been protected from bottom trawling for two, four, and s
Introduced foxes throw a wrench in the food web
Indirect effects of predators
In an extensive study, researchers from the University of Montana, University of California – Santa Cruz, and the University of California – Davis have shown that a top predator strongly affected plants and animals at the bottom of an island food web by eating organisms that transport nutrients between ecosystems. “An introduced predator alters Aleutian island plant communities by thw
Scientists devise technique to detect squid egg clusters on the seafloor
California’s $30-million-a-year squid fishery has quadrupled in the past decade, but until now there has been no way to assess the continuing viability of squid stocks. A multi-institutional team of scientists this month reported a new sonar technique to locate squid egg clusters in the murky depths, offering a window onto next year’s potential squid population in its nursery.
The scientists demonstra
New research on Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), a shrimp-like animal at the heart of the Southern Ocean food chain, reveals behaviour that shows that they absorb and transfer more carbon from the Earth’s surface than was previously understood. The results are published this week in the journal Current Biology.
Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Scarborough Centre of Coastal Studies at the University of Hull discovered that rather than doing so once per 24 hours, Ant
El-Niño events are both worse and more frequent than before, perhaps due to global warming. The major event in 1997-1998 burned an area in Borneo larger than Switzerland.
Besides causing massive air pollution throughout Southeast Asia, more than a hundred butterfly species were locally exterminated from the affected area. Writing in Ecology Letters, Dr. Daniel Cleary and Dutch, French, British and Canadian colleagues now present evidence for a new pattern that further dims the future of th
Corporate Sustainable Development (CSD) – also referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility – is now at the heart of business practices. Earth Observation from space has the potential to provide a global and cost-effective way to objectively measure progress towards sustainability of business activities.
ESA has begun working with large multinational companies – including Alcan, AMEC, Aon, B&Q, Lafarge, Shell, SUEZ Energy, and UPM – to integrate satellite data into CSD reportin
Agri-environment schemes (AES) in Europe appear to be largely ineffective as policy instruments. Research in five European countries has shown that common species of birds, insects and plants do not benefit very much from this kind of nature management and rare species benefit much less. There are virtually no benefits for threatened species (listed in the Red Data Books). These conclusions were drawn by researchers from six European research institutions during a conference on 30 and 31 January at
A new report released today finds that the illegal trade in the Roti Island snake-necked turtle, found only on one island in Indonesia, has left it all but extinct in the wild. Exotic pet enthusiasts in Europe, North America and East Asia are fueling the illegal trade for the turtle, often without realizing that they are contributing to its demise. No legal trade of this species has been allowed since 2001.
The report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of WWF and IUCN, “T
Scientists at the University of Southampton have devised a new method of examining how much of the earth’s surface is covered by vegetation and assessing the state of health of the foliage. The European Space Agency (ESA) has recognised the value of this information which is likely to be a vital tool for researchers examining models of terrestrial productivity, gas exchange and climate change.
Dr Jadunandan Dash and Visiting Professor Paul Curran from the School of Geography use dat
Work could help definitively determine whether fish populations are shrinking
Researchers at MIT have found a new way of looking beneath the ocean surface that could help definitively determine whether fish populations are shrinking.
A remote sensor system developed by Associate Professor Nicholas Makris of mechanical engineering, along with others at MIT, Northeastern University and the Naval Research Laboratory, allows scientists to track enormous fish populatio
Feedback
