news 2012

A team of scientists from The Australian National University has discovered a new species of lizard hidden among the sand dunes of Western Australia's coastline. However, mankind's encounter with this new species may be short-lived. Urban sprawl and habitat destruction are already pushing the tiny creature towards extinction.

  Princeton University researchers led by Peter Andolfatto (above), an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, found that evolution may be driven by a simple and repeated genetic solution to an environmental pressure that a broad range of species happen to share.

Seven beetle species new to science have been discovered by a young University of Alberta researcher just starting out in her career. Charlene Wood, who just finished her master's degree in the Department of Renewable Resources , noted the tinier-than-usual species while studying beetles in decaying aspen trees in northwestern Alberta.

October 22, 2012 — A new study by scientists at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science shows that corals may be more severely impacted by climate warming when they contain too many symbiotic algae. The single-celled algae living inside corals are usually the key to coral success, providing the energy needed to build massive reef frameworks.

New study suggests that solar geoengineering can be tailored to reduce inequality or to manage specific risks like the loss of Arctic sea ice By tailoring geoengineering efforts by region and by need, a new model promises to maximize the effectiveness of solar radiation management while mitigating its potential side effects and risks.

Scientists have discovered why the 'broken world' following the worst extinction of all time lasted so long - it was simply too hot to survive. The end-Permian mass extinction, which occurred around 250 million years ago in the pre-dinosaur era, wiped out nearly all the world’s species. Typically, a mass extinction is followed by a ‘dead zone’ during which new species are not seen for tens of thousands of years.

Ice-sheet retreat can halt temporarily during long phases of climate warming, according to scientists. A UK team led by Durham University has found that the geometry of channels beneath the ice can be a strong control on ice behaviour, temporarily hiding the signals of retreat. The findings, which provide the first simulation of past ice-sheet retreat and collapse over a tenthousand year period in Antarctica, shed new light on what makes ice stable or unstable and will help refine predictions of future ice extent and global sea-level rise, the researchers say.

Ice-sheet retreat can halt temporarily during long phases of climate warming, a UK team including an expert from the University of Sheffield have revealed. The team has found that the geometry of channels beneath the ice can be a strong control on ice behaviour, temporarily hiding the signals of retreat.

Northern Alberta's boreal forest shows a surprising resiliency to human intrusion, but University of Alberta researchers warn the landscape has a definite breaking point. The research team, led by graduate student Stephen Mayor , found that up to a certain point, plant life in the boreal forest responded to intrusions such as roadways and farm fields by actually increasing its biodiversity.

Researchers have released the first-ever footage of a little-known seahorse species. The video shows a West African seahorse ( Hippocampus algiricus ) being caught and released by local fishers off the coast of Senegal. The animal swims away, unharmed. Footage was captured by researcher Kate West during an investigation into West Africa's burgeoning seahorse trade, The study is being carried out by scientists at Zoological Society of London 's (ZSL) Project Seahorse , Imperial College London, and the University of British Columbia (UBC).

There may be many times more animal species than previously estimated after a new study has identified more reliable ways to predict biodiversity across the planet. Professor Timothy Barraclough, from the Department of Life Sciences, and his former Imperial colleague Diego Fontaneto were among a multinational team that has proposed a new way to measure the number of species of tiny creatures.

The button mushroom occupies a prominent place in our diet and in the grocery store where it boasts a tasty multibillion-dollar niche, while in nature, Agaricus bisporus is known to decay leaf matter on the forest floor. Now, thanks to an international collaboration involving Andy Bailey and Professor Gary Foster from the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, the full repertoire of A. bisporus genes has been determined.

A team of marine biologists and geologists have unveiled the first-ever set of maps detailing where vulnerable deep-sea habitats including cold water coral reefs and sponge fields are likely to be found in the North East Atlantic. The team from Plymouth University, the Marine Biological Association, and the British Geological Survey, have used complex modelling techniques to chart a surface area more than three times the size of the UK’s terrestrial boundaries.

ANN ARBOR-An international team of scientists, including a University of Michigan graduate student, has demonstrated that a clear difference exists between the marine microbial communities in the Southern and Arctic oceans, contributing to a better understanding of the biodiversity of marine life at the poles.

New data extracted from Greenland's glaciers show that methane in the atmosphere follows the waxing and waning of civilizations. Humans have been producing substantial amounts of greenhouse gases since long before the industrial revolution 2012. By studying the tiny amounts of gases trapped in air bubbles in Greenland's glaciers, researchers have been able to add details to an emerging picture of historical human induced environmental change that reaches as far back as the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty.

AUSTIN, Texas — A research team led by The University of Texas at Austin, and including engineering and environmental testing firms URS and Aerodyne Research, is conducting a major field study to measure methane emissions from natural gas production, about which little empirical data exist.

New models are being developed to predict how changing land use in the tropics could affect future climate, air quality and crop production. Is this change in land use resulting in unwelcome side-effects on ground-level ozone?" —Professor John Pyle Ozone has a dual personality best described as "good up high, bad nearby": the atmospheric gas is both vital - and potentially fatal - for our health.

A fossil unearthed in Great Britain may end a long-running debate about the mollusks, one of life's most diverse invertebrate groups: Which evolved first, shelled forms like clams and snails, or their shell-less, worm-like relatives? The small new fossil, found in marine rocks along the English-Welsh border, provides the best fossil evidence yet that the simpler worm-like mollusks evolved from their more anatomically complex shelled brethren, rather than the other way around.

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/02/2012) —Plants' ability to absorb increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air may have been overestimated, a new University of Minnesota study shows. The study, published this week , shows that even though plants absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and actually can benefit from higher levels of it, they may not get enough of the nutrients they need from typical soils to absorb as much CO2 as scientists had previously estimated.

Extensive environmental regulations have brought cleaner air and health improvements to the United States, but they also have increased the cost of manufacturing and reduced industrial productivity, according to a study by economists at the University of Chicago and MIT. Some economists have suggested that the regulations encouraged companies to become more efficient, thus reducing costs at upgraded plants.