Extent of forest degradation may be twice as high as previously estimated
Human activities are degrading the Amazonian forest at twice the rate previously estimated, suggests a new study that adds the effects of logging to those of clear-cutting. The research appears in the 21 October issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
Until now, satellite-based methods for measuring deforestation across large areas have only been capable of
Green lanes(1) are significantly more attractive to birds than your average hedgerow, according to the findings of new research from Staffordshire University.
The study was conducted by PhD student Mike Walker who carried out the research in Cheshire over three years.
Mike found green lanes had almost treble the number of bird species as hedgerows. As green lanes are made of two parallel hedges he compared the abundance of birds in 50 metres of green lane with 100 metres o
A new study of wild chimpanzees shows that the biggest predictor of territorial boundary patrols is the number of males in the group. The more males in the group, the more often they will patrol their territory.
Chimpanzees will sometimes attack and kill their neighbors during the rarely observed boundary patrols, said John Mitani, professor of anthropology at University of Michigan and co-author of the paper “Correlates of Territorial Boundary Patrol Behavior in Wild Chimpanze
This Friday, scientists from ICES will release a report calling for a complete overhaul of deep-sea fisheries. Scientists will recommend that all existing deep-sea fisheries should be cutback to low levels until they can demonstrate that they are sustainable. They will advise zero catch of depleted deep-sea sharks, and they will recommend that no new fisheries for deep-sea fish should be allowed until it can be demonstrated that they are capable of being sustainable.
David Gri
One of the world’s rarest grass species, the ‘Brome of the Ardennes’ (Bromus bromoideus) was until recently considered extinct. However, fresh, green shoots emerging from recently discovered seeds at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium, are causing quite a stir among European botanists in Belgium’s 175th anniversary of independence.
This species holds a particular interest to Belgians, since its world distribution was almost exclusively restricted to the calcareous meadows
The most comprehensive climate model to date of the continental United States predicts more extreme temperatures throughout the country and more extreme precipitation along the Gulf Coast, in the Pacific Northwest and east of the Mississippi.
The climate model, run on supercomputers at Purdue University, takes into account a large number of factors that have been incompletely incorporated in past studies, such as the effects of snow reflecting solar energy back into space and of
The ice ages made massive changes to the Earth’s landscape. But what was happening below the ice in the oceans?
Research by marine scientists reveals that it was a time of mass destruction as whole communities of animals were wiped out by ice sheets scouring the sea floor.
In the past it has been thought that these ecosystems somehow dodged extinction by recolonising from nearby habitats that escaped obliteration. But researchers at the National Oceanography Centre,
The retreat of coastlines due to rising sea levels may be accelerated by wildfires, a Duke University researcher has discovered. In the absence of such fires, forests can slow the encroachment, he found. At such fire scenes, though, finger-like patches of marshlands can extend into former forest by as much as several hundred yards. The result is a “punctuated” near-shoreline landscape, the scientist said. Such punctuated advance of the sea is in sharp contrast to the widespread belief that coastal
The Biscay Dolphin Research Programme (BDRP) has recorded an increasing number of whale & dolphin calves and juveniles in the Bay of Biscay and English Channel during the spring and summer months confirming the importance of the area as a calving ground and an area probably used by many species during the post-natal period.
Clive Martin, BDRP Director and Senior Wildlife Officer said: “In May we started to record calves amongst the Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) pods which are
On repeated occasions we have read that volatile organic compounds are danaging for the atmosphere and to our health. This is why a group of researchers at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country have put forward a process for “cleaning” these compounds before they are emitted into the atmosphere. Industry was chosen, amongst all the sources of these compounds, as the object for study.
To eliminate these compounds, they used catalytic oxidation, i.e. using oxyge
Storms will dump heavier rain and snow around the world as Earth’s climate warms over the coming century, according to several leading computer models. Now a study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) explains how and where warmer oceans and atmosphere will produce more intense precipitation. The findings recently appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
The greatest increases will occur over la
A few years ago the study of the effects of atmospheric deposition on forest ecosystems reached beyond the scientific sphere and the term “acid rain” was coined. This problem, which ignores frontiers, happens because, due to the burning of fossil fuels, the amount of sulphur and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere is greater than that derived from natural processes.
Oxides, in the presence of water vapour and under the oxido-reduction conditions present in the atmosphere, produce
New research from the University of Sheffield has shown that major oil spills and a changing climate have had a far greater impact on populations of British sea birds than was previously thought.
A team led by Professor Tim Birkhead from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, shows for the first time that major oil spills double the mortality rate of adult guillemots in Britain, even though the pollution occurs hundreds of miles from the bir
When researchers and policymakers consider the best ways to protect an endangered species, the phrase “best available science” is frequently used to describe the scientific basis behind decisions that are aimed at preserving natural habitat and preventing further decline in species population.
However, the “best available science” has been shortchanging the Florida panther, according to an article by Liza Gross in the Pulbic Library of Science Biology (Aug. 23, 2005) and a repo
New evidence from climate records of the past provides some of the strongest indications yet of a direct link between tropical warmth and higher greenhouse gas levels, say scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The present steady rise in tropical temperatures due to global warming will have a major impact on global climate and could intensify destructive hurricanes like Katrina and Rita.
The new evidence linking past tropical ocean temperatures to level
Much has been made of the economic impacts of recent biological invasions, but what are the implications of invasions in deep time? Luiz Rocha leads geneticists who time travel through ocean environments. The results of their travels, published online in Molecular Ecology, tell us that during warm, interglacial periods, reef-associated fish (goby genus Gnatholepis), leapt around the horn of Africa into the Atlantic, where their range expanded as the world warmed.
“We found that
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