Solitary organisms can minimise fitness loss from parasitism with a facultative change to an earlier reproduction. Such a shift of the reproductive effort gives the host a chance to compensate for the cost on future reproduction resulting from the infection. In the case of social insects, where brood care and reproductive effort are shared between the queen and her workers, adjustments of the reproductive effort would depend on collective decision-making.

In the February issue of Ecology L

A promising new way of controlling the mites that can cause asthma and other allergies is now under development.

It could lead to dramatic progress in preventing these conditions and reduce the estimated £700 million a year spent in the UK on treating them.

The technique uses a computer model to assess how modifying a domestic environment can reduce numbers of house dust mites in beds, carpets and elsewhere.

Development of the model has been led by University College Londo

NASA scientists have the first evidence more regional pollution lurks in clouds than in clear skies off the Asian coastline. This finding has implications for space-based attempts to monitor global pollution and for other populated regions around the world.

Scientists estimate that roughly two-thirds of Asian pollution from the Pacific Rim flows to the western, North Pacific Ocean under cloudy conditions. They based the study on direct measurements taken in and around clouds by aircraft ins

Ruby deposits are the primary gem source in Central and South-East Asia. They are highly prized and have a special character: the rubies always occur as inclusions in marble. Geologists from the IRD and CRPG/CNRS (1) have investigated the tectonic and geochemical mechanisms involved in their formation and established a new model of how they generated. It involves feeder fluids resulting from solution of layers of salts present in the marble formations. These hot fluids were brought into circulation a

The deep layers of the Earth’s crust and the upper part of its mantle have been the target for investigation by a number of research groups at the EHU/UPV. This deep zone, and the processes that have taken place there in the past, can be investigated by means of studying those rocks which today are lying on the surface but which in past geological periods were at great depths.

On the Iberian Peninsula there are few places where one can find rocks which have been submerged at such depths (gr

A group of scientists and wildlife health experts from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) say that closing Asia’s wild bird markets would reduce the spread of Avian flu. The markets place tens of thousands of wild and domestic birds in close quarters, allowing diseases to make the jump between wild animals, livestock, and ultimately humans, WCS says. The group also expressed concern that policies calling for widespread killing of birds living in the wild to prevent disease wo

As winter rains come, thousands of square kilometres of territory across Europe’s heart face a looming threat: steep slopes and waterlogged soils combine to trigger landslides.

A build-up of groundwater within a slope increases its weight and decreases its cohesiveness, weakening the slope’s ability to resist the remorseless pull of gravity. The heavy earth flows downward. For all in the path of a landslide the results are devastating, and frequently lethal.

“In Italy, landslides

Research into the reasons for the recent world-wide spread of the devastating animal disease, bluetongue, could have major implications for the long-term future of Australia’s sheep industry.

According to a senior epidemiologist at CSIRO Livestock Industries’ Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, Dr Peter Daniels, bluetongue disease is spreading rapidly in Europe and new strains of bluetongue virus have been detected in Australia.

“While Australian sheep are cu

Reducing the amount of fat in lamb amongst the Navarra variety of sheep in order to breed weightier animals, suitable for market demands and with a lower production cost for the farmer, is the aim of the project being developed by a research team from Navarre Public University’s Department of Agricultural Production and Department of Health Sciences.

The Navarre breed – previously known as Rasa Aragonesa – is found in the midlands region of Navarre and the extensive Ebro river basin region

For years, scientists theorized that a molecule called ClOOCl in the stratosphere played a key role in destroying ozone. Now, using measurements from a NASA aircraft laboratory flying over the Arctic, Harvard scientist Rick Stimpfle and colleagues observed the molecule for the first time. They report their discovery in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, published by the American Geophysical Union.

“We knew from observations dating from 1987, that the high ozone loss was link

After years of searching for a rare African primate, anthropologist Scott McGraw and his colleagues believed that the Miss Waldron’s red colobus monkey, Procolobus badius waldroni, was probably extinct. They had written a paper in 2000 saying so.

But recent hard evidence of the Miss Waldron’s red colobus’ existence has rekindled McGraw’s hopes of finding the primate, reportedly last seen in 1978. McGraw, an associate professor of anthropology at Ohio State University, det

The European Commission today adopted an action plan on GMES – Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security. The plan outlines firm steps towards the establishment of a system that will harness, co-ordinate and enhance existing Earth observation and monitoring information from satellites and Earth-based sensors, in order to support better decision-making for the environment and security. The initiative aims at providing independent, cost-effective, and user-friendly services that can help to a

In der Praxis werden Biodiesel (RME) und fossiler Dieselkraftstoff (DK) sowohl in reiner Form als auch im Mischbetrieb eingesetzt. Es erhebt sich die Frage, inwieweit Mischungen beider Kraftstoffe eine nichtlineare Änderung der Emission über dem Mischungsverhältnis zur Folge haben. Verschiedentlich waren in der entsprechenden Literatur überproportionale Effekte vermutet bzw. sogar messtechnisch ermittelt worden.

Wenn sich die Emissionen von Mischungen aus Biodiesel und DK nicht proportional

Although a yearning to surf was what first drove native Tucsonan Edward Glenn to Hawaii, what keeps him going back is his life-long interest in marine agronomy. Now, instead of hanging out in the waves, Glenn spends his time on the leeward side of the island of Molokai, working with the local community on sustainable aquaculture projects for the ancient fishponds that dot the island’s south coast.

Rather than growing fish, Glenn, Stephen Nelson and their colleagues are focusing on the

The highest layers of the Earth’s atmosphere are cooling and contracting, most likely in response to increasing levels of greenhouse gases, according to a new study by scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). This contraction could result in longer orbital lifetimes for both satellites and hazardous space debris. In a paper to be published February 5 in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Space Physics, John Emmert, Michael Picone, Judith Lean, and Stephen Knowles report tha

It’s common knowledge that stealing is wrong. Even if the thief is a dumb animal, for instance, a fox in a hen house, it deserves punishment anyway. But what if a leopard, a rare animal registered in the Red Book (their population being extremely limited on the planet) is a thief or has killed someone’s sheep or horse? How can environment protection interests be reconciled with stock-breeders’ losses? Specialists of WWF Russia have clearly proved that such reconciliation is possible.

Th