Jeff Tomberlin’s research could lend a whole new meaning to the phrase “grub for a living.”

Tomberlin, a Texas A&M entomologist, is looking into the possibility that black soldier fly larvae – “grubs” to the uninitiated – could be used to turn livestock manure into high-protein feed.

The concept itself has been proven practical for reducing poultry litter: The flies lay their eggs in the animal manure without much encouragement. The eggs hatch into larvae that eat

A new agricultural research project is looking for ways to prevent phosphorus in manure from running off into the Bosque and Leon Watersheds. The challenge is to do so without sinking the region’s dairy industry.

Funded by $800,000 in grant monies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, the project pools the efforts of experts from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas Cooperative Extension and Tarleton State University.
At

A few years ago, NASA researcher Watson Gregg published a study showing that tiny free-floating ocean plants called phytoplankton had declined in abundance globally by 6 percent between the 1980s and 1990s. A new study by Gregg and his co-authors suggests that trend may not be continuing, and new patterns are taking place.

Why is this important? Well, the tiny ocean plants help regulate our atmosphere and the health of our oceans. Phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen generate

Milk prices dairy farmers received in 2004 were higher than in recent years but dairying, like all forms of agriculture is a vicious treadmill, demanding ever more increased efficiency to stay in place, said a dairy nutritionist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.

“And an accelerated calf growth program is one way they are looking to increase efficiency and productivity,” said Dr. Barry Lambert, who has a joint appointment with the Experiment Station and Tarleton

It’s common knowledge that the high price of crude oil has driven up fertilizer prices. But studies here have shown cattle can gain 3 pounds per day grazing spring pastures of a new disease-tolerant clover.

“That’s with no added nitrogen, as you’d have to do with ryegrass pastures,” said Dr. Ray Smith, legume breeder with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.

Commercial nitrogen fertilizer costs have increased to 40 cents per pound from about 35 cent

Nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide gases in the upper stratosphere climbed to their highest levels in at least two decades in spring 2004, scientists report. The increases led to ozone reductions of up to 60 percent, roughly 40 kilometers [25 miles] above Earth’s high northern latitudes, according to Cora Randall of University of Colorado at Boulder and 10 colleagues in Canada, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. Two natural processes were responsible, they say.

“This declin

The Sahelo-Sudanian band of Africa is an endemic area for meningococcal meningitis (MCM). The disease, an infection of the meninges by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, is highly contagious and affects 25 000 to 200 000 people per year, particularly children.

Outbreaks occur every year between February and May. Their geographical distribution is contained within what is called the Meningitis Belt circumscribed between 10° and 15° of latitude North. Several factors contribute

Near the coasts of Peru and Chile, the Humboldt Current ecosystem is the world’s most productive fishing zone. This cold-current zone, with frequent coastal upwellings (2), occupies less than 1 % of the world’s ocean surface and provides 15 to 20 % of global maritime catches.

Unlike other large regions of upwelling, this ecosystem proves to be more exposed to variations in climate. Its geographical location brings it under the direct influence of disturbances generated by the El

Neil Kinnock, Chair of the British Council today said that low-carbon cities were an imperative that must be achieved by the mid twenty-first century. He called for stronger links and combined action across the world to facilitate the exchange of information, ideas and tested solutions. Cities should learn rapidly from one another’s successes and mistakes through networks dedicated to the exchange of information tackling climate change.

Lord Kinnock was speaking at the launch of

Wildlife researchers are being warned that radio-tracking could be affecting the animals they are studying. According to new research published today in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, fitting radio-collars to water voles was associated with a “dramatic shift” in the sex ratio of the animals’ offspring, casting doubt on the assumption that radio-tracking does not fundamentally affect the biology of radio-collared water voles.

The water vole (A

Constructed wetlands in planned communities can aid in surface water cleanup and flood prevention, according to Purdue University scientists who completed a five-year study on the management system.

The research, begun in 1998 on three constructed ponds, or wetland cells, on a newly renovated golf course on the university campus, showed that 11 of 17 measurable chemicals in surface water were reduced after running through the system, said Ron Turco, soil microbiologist and senior

New insight for officials setting ecosystem goals, rebuilding fishery remnant

Once a dominant species, the volume of cod on the Scotian Shelf has plunged 96% since the 1850s, according to landmark research published today. In fact, just 16 small schooners of the pre-Civil War era could hold all adult cod currently estimated in the once-rich Scotian Shelf.

Writing in today’s edition of Frontier’s in Ecology (www.frontiersinecology.org), Census of Marine Life researchers

Studying how computer viruses spread through the internet is helping ecologists to prevent invasions of non-native species. New research published today in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, describes the use of network theory to predict how the spiny water flea – a native of Russia – will spread through the Canadian lake system.

Ecologists Jim Muirhead and Professor Hugh MacIsaac of the University of Windsor, Ontario have been studying the spread

The nation needs to establish a formal, “risk-informed” approach to decide what types and amounts of radioactive waste at U.S. Department of Energy sites should be buried or left in place rather than shipped to a geological repository, such as the one proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nev., says a new report from the National Academies’ National Research Council.

“Given the controversy surrounding this issue and the reality that not all of the waste will or can be recovered and disp

New keys to understanding the evolution of life on Earth may be found in the microbes and minerals vented from below the ocean floor, say scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The UCSB scientists are making new contributions to this field of inquiry in their studies of seafloor hydrothermal fluid discharge into the Earth’s oceans, which has been occurring ever since the oceans first formed four billion years ago. Conditions below the sea floor may most

Hawaiian residents who live downwind from the long-active Kilauea volcano may have elevated risks of adverse health conditions because of high levels of sulfur dioxide and aerosol particulates that drift downwind, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and Hawaii.

During a three-week period of average volcanic activity, the researchers measured the sulfur dioxide level in the Kau district south of Kilauea at 17.8 parts per billion – above the minimal ri