New research shows that what was once considered a universal constant in oceanography could actually vary in the future – depending on the ecological scenarios that affect competition for resources among microscopic marine plants, which play a role in global climate.

The future of these plants, called phytoplankton, is important because they exist at the base of the marine food web and represent a large source of food for fish. Also, they affect global climate by using atmospheric carbon di

Extinction doesn’t just affect the species that disappears – it alters entire communities, changing both how the community as a whole and the individual species within it will respond to environmental degradation, according to results published in the May 13 issue of Nature.

With extinction continuously altering the fates of plants and animals, the researchers say it may be extremely difficult to predict which organisms will be the next to cease existing and that the wisest conservation

Browsing by mammals often has a serious impact on the growth of tree saplings and the regeneration of forests. However, there is much uncertainty with regard to effects on soil nutrient cycling and in turn, potential consequences for the growth of plants.

In a paper to be published in the June issue of Ecology Letters, researchers from Lancaster University and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have demonstrated a direct link between above-ground herbivory and below-ground nutrient cyclin

Throughout Europe the recovery of abandoned land known as ‘brownfield sites’ is becoming increasingly important. Former industrial or commercial properties where operations may have resulted in environmental contamination, they often impose environmental, legal and financial burdens on the surrounding communities. Left vacant, contaminated sites can threaten the economic viability of adjoining properties.

One obstacle to their re-use is the uncertainty over how blighted the land is, and sta

Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich have today reported that a very successful antibiotic, which is harmless to humans but lethal to most bacteria, also kills plants. They have found that an enzyme, which is an important target for several families of antibiotics and was thought to exist only in bacteria, is also present in plants. The discovery sheds further light on plant evolution and highlights a potential area for development of new herbicides, while it has no significance with re

Through the cycads and gingkoes of the floodplains, not far from the Sundance Sea, strode the 50-foot-long Suuwassea, a plant-eating dinosaur with a whip-like tail and an anomalous second hole in its skull destined to puzzle paleontologists in 150 million years. According to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Suuwassea emilieae (pronounced SOO-oo-WAH-see-uh eh-MEE-LEE-aye) is a smaller relative of Diplodocus and Apatosaurus and is the first named sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic of s

Ohio State University geologists and their colleagues have used two water-testing methods together for the first time to help a Gulf Coast tourist community manage its water supply.

The two methods could prove useful for gauging how rising sea levels — one of the possible effects of global climate change — might cause salt water to infiltrate drinking water along coastal areas in the future.

Anne Carey, assistant professor of geological sciences at Ohio State, likened Baldwin Cou

Scientists will soon be extracting the deepest Arctic sedimentary cores ever drilled from the Lomonosov Ridge, in the deep oceans more than 2,000 km off the coast of Norway. They will core to a depth of about 500 metres under the seabed. From studying these cores the researchers expect to answer questions such as ’what caused the ice-age?’ So far the deepest oceanic sediment core extracted from the Arctic is only from a depth of 16 metres.

Seafloor sediments conceal a rich history

Bolivia’s sprawling Kaa-Iya Gran Chaco National Park, known for some of the world’s highest densities of ticks, may now lay claim to another superlative: more jaguars than any protected area on earth. According to a recent study by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other groups, published in the Journal of Zoology, as many as 1,000 of these elusive big cats may call Kaa-Iya home.

Using methodologies developed by WCS to count tigers in India, the researchers employe

Remote sensing methods that could be used in future to monitor pollution from mining at less cost and to common standards across the EU were tested in six diverse sites across Europe by IST project MINEO.

Faced with increasing environmental pressure and regulatory controls due to surface and groundwater pollution, soil contamination, and terrain instability, the mining industry and decision makers need innovative and cost-effective tools for environmental data acquisition and processing that

A wedge of earth and sky 14 feet high and 3 feet deep near here may help scientists worldwide better understand the ecological impact of global climate change.

It’s an ecosystem where native plants must react to rain and temperature extremes along a dusty, winding road under an intricate, watchful plan of three Texas Agricultural Experiment Station scientists.

Thick white plastic stretches over 14-foot tall galvanized steel arches like giant, protective umbrellas to shelter 8

The trees of the future may stem from advances in gene discovery research at Purdue University that could lead to domesticated trees, the forestry equivalent of crop plants like corn and soybeans.

“I think this is the future of forestry,” said Richard Meilan, an associate professor of molecular physiology with Purdue’s Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center who has demonstrated a way to rapidly identify genes in poplar trees and determine their function.

“Our goal i

Chemicals have limited effects on controlling it and there are no known resistant varieties of processing pumpkin to withstand an attack of the deadly blight known as Phytophthora capsici (P. capsici). Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suspect that rotating crops that are not susceptible to the disease may be a solution to the problem.

In a recent study, 45 species of crop and weed plants were screened for their susceptibility to P. capsici. Although 22 crop

Biotech corn carrying a gene that confers protection from insects can pollinate corn plants as far as 100 feet (31 meters) away, reports a pair of researchers.

The gene, known as Bt, codes for a toxin that kills corn-munching caterpillars, including European corn borer and corn earworm.

The findings suggest measures are needed to reduce pollen spread from Bt corn to corn fields that should be Bt-free, according to the researchers.

The discovery is important because plan

’Strapped in’ by wing dykes

The oldest data available on the Missouri River – from the logs of Lewis and Clark – show that water flow on the river today is far more variable than it was 200 years ago. The data also show that the river is some 220 yards narrower at St. Charles, Mo., today at 500 yards across than in 1804 when it spread out some 720 yards.

These changes are due to modifications of the river by the Army Corps of Engineers, say Robert Criss, Ph.D., pro

ESA’s Proba satellite here shows a winding segment of the 7240-km long Great Wall of China situated just northeast of Beijing. The Great Wall’s relative visibility or otherwise from orbit has inspired much recent debate.

The 21 hours spent in space last October by Yang Liwei – China’s first ever space traveller – were a proud achievement for his nation. The only disappointment came as Liwei informed his countrymen he had not spotted their single greatest national symbol from