During the most recent period in Earth’s past with a climate warmer than today, the tropical Pacific was in a stable state of El Niño-like conditions, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Whether this represents a likely scenario for the future, given the current rise in global temperatures, is uncertain. Nevertheless, the study has important implications for scientists trying to understand the global climate system and how it mi

Scientists will today explain to a meeting in London how their research has greatly improved our understanding of the flow of genetic material between organisms in the environment. Outcomes from the Gene Flow in Plants and Microorganisms Initiative, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), will be valuable in informing the future of both conventional and GM crops.

The outcomes of the initiativ

In response to the discovery of soybean rust in the U.S., plant pathologists are offering an opportunity to learn more about this disease at a symposium held during the annual meeting of The American Phytopathological Society (APS), July 30 – August 3, 2005 in Austin, TX.

“This is the first year that farmers in the U.S. are facing soybean rust and we have a lot of questions that need to be resolved,” said Vince Morton, soybean rust symposium organizer and president of Viva, Inc.,

Assistant Professor Mark Pagani in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale and his colleagues mapped the first detailed history of atmospheric carbon dioxide between 45 – 25 million years ago based on stable isotopes of carbon in a National Science Foundation study reported in Science Express.

“Through the energy we consume, each of us makes a contribution to increasing greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane, in the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Pagani

A new deadly disease, carried by an invasive fish species, is threatening European fish diversity according to a paper published in the journal Nature on 23 June 2005.

Lead author Rodolphe Gozlan from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) said: “We have found a parasite that may pose a severe threat to some freshwater fish species in Europe. This discovery has major biological implications and may have economic implications.”

The scientists working for CEH and the Cent

Researchers have discovered that a parasite carried by an invasive species of minnow is responsible for the dramatic declines and localized extinctions of a different minnow species in Europe during the past 40 years.

This parasite, which scientists have found can almost totally destroy the spawning success of the small sunbleak minnow, Leucaspius delineatus, may pose threats to the diversity and stability of freshwater ecosystems, and is genetically very similar to a parasite that c

Summertime arrives officially on June 21 in the northern hemisphere, and with it comes thunderstorms. As a result, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration named the week of June 19-25 National Lightning Safety Awareness Week.

NASA encourages summer swimmers, picnickers and others to keep an eye on the sky and stay safe during outdoor activities. NASA lightning expert Dr. Dennis Boccippio, of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala., warn

Accounts of the tsunami that killed over a quarter of a million people in Southeast Asia on the 26th of December, 2004, slowly disappear from the media, but the event is nevertheless heavily burned into the memories of those who are directly involved. In the aftermath of the disaster, academics and politicians alike are trying to investigate how the number of casualties could have been reduced and, more important, how such severe damage can be avoided if a tsunami ever strikes again. In an essa

Shaping the Potential for Global Environmental Governance
International Global Change Research Conference in Bonn, 9-13-October 2005

Global environmental change has led to increased risks for many and worsened existing inequities, in some cases leading to conflicts. The numbers of environmental refugees are on the rise. Who is responsible for climate change, and who, in turn, suffers most from it? How do individuals and communities cope with environmental stresses, and what i

An innovative concept for an Antarctic vehicle is unveiled this week at the Royal College of Art’s final year show. Working closely with experts from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), award-winning designer James Moon has come up with a lightweight, compact eco-friendly vehicle for use in one of the Earth’s most extreme environments.

The vehicle, called “Ninety Degrees South”, uses novel technology to keep drivers safe, warm and protected from the high levels UV exposure that occur und

Understanding how the Amazon River varies in time, what causes those variations, and how sensitive it will be to ongoing, and accelerating, deforestation is a focus of study for scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center. Population and development pressures in the last several decades have led to significant areas of deforestation in the Amazon, most in the eastern and southern portion of the basin. By using a combination of numerical models and data from several disciplines to assess the poss

Cutting edge research will be on display at The Royal Academy of Engineering’s annual Summer Soirée at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS), on Monday 27 June, hosted by the University of Southampton.

Highlights include:

Ocean floor energy: the University of Southampton and NOCS are at the forefront of research on methane hydrates, ice-like deposits occurring in deep ocean sediments. These show promise as a major source of energy but could also trigger a

Quad bikes and jet skis, as well as computer models, are being used by scientists and engineers to measure and predict storm damage.

Every winter hundreds of British homes are at risk from being flooded when storms hit our shores. Global warming is expected to make matters worse for the future.

Environmental scientists from the University of East Anglia and maritime computer modellers from the University of Liverpool have been collaborating on a project – funded b

Virginia Tech’s Freshwater Mussel Conservation Center and Virginia’s Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center in Marion, Va., released several thousand mussels that have been propagated into the Clinch River. Partners in this replenishing project include the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Town of Cedar Bluff, where the restocking took place. The site along Rt. 460 is owned by The Nature Conservancy.

Dick Neves,

An atmosphere rich in oxygen is the most likely source of energy for complex life to exist anywhere in the Universe

Recent research argues that an atmosphere rich in oxygen is the most likely source of energy for complex life to exist anywhere in the Universe, thereby limiting the number of places life may exist.

Professor David Catling at Bristol University, along with colleagues at the University of Washington and NASA, contend that significant oxygen in the air and o

Rare and fragmented chalk grasslands may take at least half a century to recover from the damage done to them by military training, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

Working with historical aerial photographs taken on the Salisbury Plain Training Area between 1945 and 1995, Dr Rachel Hirst and colleagues from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the University of Liverpool identified 82 sites from which th