Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Last updated on November 21st, 2009
| Unknowlingly consuming endangered tuna: Click here |
| While most of us would never willingly consume a highly endangered species, doing so might be as easy as plucking sushi from a bento box. New genetic detective work from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History shows that bluefin tuna is routinely plated in sushi bars sampled in New York and Colorado. A quarter of what was labelled as tuna on sushi menus was bluefin, and some was even escolar, a waxy, buttery fish often labelled 'white tuna' that is banned for sale in Japan and Italy because it can cause gastrointestinal distress. The new research is published in PLoS ONE... |
| Oceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing: Click here |
| The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions - a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature, and is expanded upon in a separate website... |
| ORNL, Los Alamos pioneer new approach to assist scientists, farmers: Click here |
| Sustainable farming, initially adopted to preserve soil quality for future generations, may also play a role in maintaining a healthy climate, according to researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories... |
| Brazil sets example on halting forest loss: Click here |
| The recent announcement by Brazil - one of the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases from deforestation - that it is adopting new emissions reduction targets could help steer negotiators in Copenhagen toward a stronger climate change deal... |
| Dogs to sniff out the state of Vietnam's critically endangered rhinos: Click here |
| Highly trained detection dogs are being used help to determine the population status of the Javan rhino in Vietnam, in an attempt to save one of the world's rarest mammals from extinction... |
| Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica: Click here |
| A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis of ice core records suggests that Antarctic temperatures may have been up to 6 C warmer than the present day... |
| Hidden threat: Elevated pollution levels near regional airports: Click here |
| Scientists are reporting evidence that air pollution - a well-recognised problem at major airports - may pose an important but largely overlooked health concern for people living near smaller regional airports. Those airports are becoming an increasingly important component of global air transport systems. The study, one of only a handful to examine airborne pollutants near regional airports, suggests that officials should pay closer attention to these overlooked emissions, which could cause health problems for local residents. It appears online in ACS' Environmental Science and Technology, a semi-monthly journal... |
| Alternative animal feed part of global fisheries crisis fix: UBC study: Click here |
| Finding alternative feed sources for chickens, pigs and other farm animals will significantly reduce pressure on the world's dwindling fisheries while contributing positively to climate change, according to University of British Columbia researchers... |
| Fossil fuel CO2 emissions up by 29 percent since 2000: Click here |
| The strongest evidence yet that the rise in atmospheric CO2 emissions continues to outstrip the ability of the world's natural 'sinks' to absorb carbon is published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience... |
| Human emissions rise 2 percent despite GFC: Click here |
| Despite the economic effects of the global financial crisis (GFC), carbon dioxide emissions from human activities rose 2 per cent in 2008 to an all-time high of 1.3 tonnes of carbon per capita per year, according to a paper published today in Nature Geoscience... |
| New climate treaty could put species at risk: Click here |
| Plans to be discussed at the forthcoming UN climate conference in Copenhagen to cut deforestation in developing countries could save some species from extinction but inadvertently increase the risk to others, scientists believe... |
| Glimpsing a greener future: Click here |
| It's the year 2060, and 75 percent of drivers in the Greater Los Angeles area have hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that emit only water vapour... |
| Volatile gas could turn Rwandan lake into a freshwater time bomb: Click here |
| A dangerous level of carbon dioxide and methane gas haunts Lake Kivu, the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and the Republic of Congo... |
| Growth spurt in tree rings prompts questions about climate change: Click here |
| The researchers studied bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) at three sites in California and Nevada, close to the upper elevation limit of tree growth. The tree-ring record showed wider rings in recent decades, indicating a surge in growth in the second half of the 20th century that was greater than at any time in the last 3,700 years... |
| Cautious conservation: How to ensure that slowing global warming will protect biodiversity: Click here |
| While it is clear that massive destruction of tropical rainforests poses a serious threat to the incredibly rich biodiversity found on Earth, other hazards are not so explicit. An international group of prominent scientists argue in the November 17th issue of the journal Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that the most promising new strategy to protect our planet may not live up to its full potential. The group calls for global implementation of careful and sensible protective policies... |
| Warmer means windier on world's biggest lake: Click here |
| Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren... |
| New water management tool may help ease effects of drought: Click here |
| Continued improvement of climate forecasts is resulting in better information about what rainfall and streamflow may look like months in advance. A researcher from North Carolina State University has developed an innovative water management framework that would take advantage of these forecasts to plan for droughts or excess rain in order to make the most efficient use of an area's water resources... |
| Falling Amazon deforestation rates create opportunity for other damaged forests: Click here |
| Fewer trees were cut down in the Amazon this year, creating an opportunity to apply sound government policies to halt deforestation in other damaged forests, WWF says... |
| A glimpse at the Earth's crust deep below the Atlantic: Click here |
| Long-term variations in volcanism help explain the birth, evolution and death of striking geological features called oceanic core complexes on the ocean floor, says geologist Dr Bram Murton of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton... |
| How much water does the ocean have?: Click here |
| The calculation of variations in the sea level is relatively simple. It is by far more complicated to then determine the change in the water mass. A team of geodesists and oceanographers from the University of Bonn, as well as from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Sciences, two centres of the Helmholtz Association, have now, for the first time succeeded in doing this. The researchers were able to observe short-term fluctuations in the spatial distribution of the ocean water masses. Their results are, amongst others, important for improved climate models... |
