Carbon exists in many forms in the air, soil, and water, and is an integral part of most living organisms. In a recent study, Stuart Findlay (Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York) discovered changes in the amount of carbon in the Hudson River. Exactly why the amounts changed, and what’s causing these changes, remains a mystery.

In “Increased carbon transport in the Hudson River: unexpected consequence of nitrogen deposition?” published in the April issue of Fronti

Dealing a new blow to the dominant evolutionary paradigm, Luiz Rocha and colleagues from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Harvard University the University of Florida and the University of Hawaii, report coral reef fish from neighboring habitats may differ more from one another than from fish thousands of miles away. An ecological speciation model for coral reef organisms may spur the development of a more synthetic treatment of speciation on land and sea.

Coral re

Salting and sanding roads in the Northeast is a routine part of winter, but changes in climate patterns caused by global warming may alter the established policies on snow removal, incurring higher costs and influencing road safety, according to a Penn State geographer.

“I am working with the Consortium for Atlantic Regional Assessment on a case study in New York State’s Adirondack Park that investigates many aspects of climate change and land use change on local communities

The warm El Niño episodes are generally accepted to be harmful to the development of cold-water anchovy populations, but favourable for abundant populations of sardine, adapted to warmer waters. IRD researchers and their Peruvian partners (1) have been studying fluctuations in pelagic fish populations in the world’s richest oceanic ecosystems for fish, the Peru-Humboldt Current system, off Peru. They showed that the traditional explanation does not always hold true. During the 1997-98 El Niño ev

Erosion and human activities are inducing large amounts of terrigenous sediment input to the southwest lagoon of New Caledonia. Such deposits can pose a threat to the lagoon’s ecological balance and biological richness. Scientists from the IRD’s Noumea centre have for several years been applying modelling techniques in order to unravel the system of current circulation and sediment transport (1). Satellite remote sensing provides reliable quantified data on the concentration of suspended matter

Purdue University study of tornado formation indicates that twisters can develop in unexpected ways and at unexpected times and places, a discovery that presents a new twist to weather watchers across the country.

Although tornadoes are often conceived of as arising from springtime storms that develop in early evenings out of isolated weather cells, a new study spearheaded by Purdue’s Robert “Jeff” Trapp indicates those conceptions often fail to hold, especially in the Midwe

Climate changes in the northern and southern hemispheres are linked by a phenomenon by which the oceans react to changes on either side of the planet. A research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Cardiff University has shown for the first time that ocean circulation in the southern hemisphere has, in the past, adapted to sudden changes in the north. The research published today in Science will enable more accurate forecasts to be made on how the oceans will react to climate cha

Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, in the seas are as vital to the survival of life on earth as the oxygen producing plants are on land. But marine bacteria are attacked by viruses, which can seriously affect their life-sustaining abilities. Scientists have now discovered that these viruses don’t work in the dark, according to research presented today (Monday, 04 April 2005) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 156th Meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Our earth

A project to map the presence of whales and dolphins off the North East coast has recorded sightings of no fewer than 614 individual creatures in the space of 12 months.

The Newcastle University project was led by Joanna Stockill, of the University’s Dove Marine Laboratory, at Cullercoats, which is located on the coast near Tynemouth.

Joanna enlisted the help of local fishermen and members of Royal Northumberland Yacht Club to carry out the study, as part of a project

The herbicide Roundup® is widely used to eradicate weeds. But a study published today by a University of Pittsburgh researcher finds that the chemical may be eradicating much more than that.

Pitt assistant professor of biology Rick Relyea found that Roundup®, the second most commonly applied herbicide in the United States, is “extremely lethal” to amphibians. This field experiment is one of the most extensive studies on the effects of pesticides on nontarget organisms in a na

The development of a huge observing network to monitor ocean currents and temperature and understand the conditions that bring rain – and drought – to nearly two thirds of the world’s population is underway in the Indian Ocean.

The development of a huge observing network to monitor ocean currents and temperature and understand the conditions that bring rain – and drought – to nearly two thirds of the world’s population is underway in the Indian Ocean.

“This is

Several companies are extracting black gold – petroleum – from the North Sea. But scientists are questioning this activity and asking if this activity has environmental consequences. By law, these companies are obliged to carry out annual analyses.

At the request of the companies, a number of researchers at the Science Faculty of the University of the Basque Country have analysed what type of contaminants are released as a result of extraction of crude oil in the North Sea a

Scientists have developed a method of determining whether eggs labelled as ‘free-range’ or ‘barn’ have in fact been laid under battery conditions. The procedure, published in Journal of the Science of Food & Agriculture this month, means eggs can be tested without the need to visit farms.

The give-away is the dust that the eggs pick up from the surface on which they are laid.

Because the eggs are wet when freshly-laid, the dust attaches to the shell surfaces. The pattern

The American Geological Institute (AGI) has released a report on the state of introductory geoscience enrollment in the United States during the 2003-2004 academic year. Typically, introductory courses are viewed as one of the major recruitment tools for the field of geosciences. This survey was intended to establish a baseline metric of enrollments in general geoscience courses and how they translate into recruitment of majors.

Conducted between October 2004 and February 2005, the survey wa

In the late 1980s, Dr. Leonard Pike stood at a roadside vegetable market in Russia and watched a produce man chop, chop, chop much like a butcher slicing deli meat. When he was finished, the thin, yellow medallions under his knife were gathered up like poker chips, weighed in a bag, and handed to the customer.

“He was cutting carrots. They sold them sliced, even back then. I thought that was fascinating,” said Pike, a horticulturist who was in Russia on a seed-collecting missio

The 240-km-long River Arno winds its way seaward through the tranquil countryside of Umbria and Tuscany, but this tranquillity masks potential danger. There are more than 300 areas within Italy’s Arno Basin at high risk of landslides, and over 20 000 individual landslides have been recorded.

Italy’s combination of geography, geology and climate makes it one of Europe’s most landslide-prone territories, with an average of 54 lives lost for each year of the last half