news 2012

A new study involving analysis of fossil and geological records going back 540 million years, suggests that biodiversity on Earth generally increases as the planet warms. But the research by scientists from the Universities of York, Glasgow and Leeds says that the increase in biodiversity depends on the evolution of new species over millions of years, and is normally accompanied by extinctions of existing species.

Moths that spend their summers in the UK experience a population explosion with numbers increasing fourfold, a new study suggests, findings that are changing how we view insect migration. Previously it was thought that the 10-240 million moths that migrate to the UK in the spring every year from southern Europe and Africa see their numbers dwindle and few of their offspring prosper to make the return journey southward when the British autumn arrives.

Forest carbon stocks in protected West African rainforests increased despite a 40-year drought, due to a dramatic shift in tree species composition. The new study by Ghanaian and UK scientists, led by the University of Leeds, shows that biodiversity can limit the negative impacts of drought on forest carbon storage.

They are one of the most destructive forces of nature on Earth, but now environmental scientists are working to tame the hurricane. In a paper, published in Atmospheric Science Letters, the authors propose using cloud seeding to decrease sea surface temperatures where hurricanes form. Theoretically, the team claims the technique could reduce hurricane intensity by a category.

Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes under the seabed. Some tsunamis - including the disaster that hit Japan last year - are unexpectedly large. Cambridge scientists suggest that their severity is caused by a release of gravitational energy as well as elastic energy. We hope that our research represents a step forward in understanding how large tsunamis occur." —Professor James Jackson Scientists at Cambridge University have developed a model that may show why some tsunamis - including the one that devastated Japan in March 2011 - are so much larger than expected.

A video game designed for predatory fish might have unraveled some lingering evolutionary questions about group formation and movement in animals, according to new research that took a unique approach to observing interactions between real and simulated animals. Princeton University researchers report some of the strongest direct evidence that collective motion in animal groups such as schools of fish can evolve as a finely tuned defense against attack from predators.

Research into Antarctic climate history has revealed the unusual nature of the recent rapid warming in the Antarctic Peninsula, according to an academic from The Australian National University. Nerilie Abram, from the Research School of Earth Sciences in the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, was part of an international research team that drilled into the ice on James Ross Island and extracted the first comprehensive temperature record for the Antarctic Peninsula.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Seoul National University shed light on efficiencies of socially networked local delivery MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (08/21/2012) —What if your cell phone and social network could help deliver packages for you? This may be more likely, easier and more beneficial to the environment than you might think, researchers at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and Seoul National University report in the current issue of Environmental Science & Technology .

Two new studies by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, provide a clearer picture of why some species move in response to climate change, and where they go. One study, published online Monday, Aug. 6, in the journal Global Change Biology , finds that changes in precipitation have been underappreciated as a factor in driving bird species out of their normal range.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-The global trade in bullfrogs, which are farmed as a food source in South America and elsewhere, is spreading a deadly fungus that is contributing to the decline of amphibians worldwide, according to a University of Michigan biologist and his colleagues. Amphibian populations are declining worldwide at an alarming rate, and the spread of the deadly chytrid fungus is believed to be a contributing factor.

Study successfully reconstructed temperature from the deep sea to reveal how global ice volume has varied over the glacial-interglacial cycles of the past 1.5 million years. The only way we can work out what the likely effects of the changes we are making to the climate will be is by finding analogues in the geological past.

Changing climates are impacting on squirrel populations by prolonging their hibernation, a study suggests. Research into Columbian ground squirrels, which live in the Rocky Mountains, has revealed that heavy winter snowfalls are delaying the animals' emergence from their winter burrows. This could prevent female ground squirrels from gaining enough weight during their short summer to give birth to healthy offspring and to survive the next season's hibernation.

New measure developed for sustainability of global groundwater water supply points to overuse of water in Asia and North America Farmers are unsustainably exploiting groundwater in a number of important agricultural regions, according to a team of researchers led by Tom Gleeson of McGill's Department of Civil Engineering, in collaboration with researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Fainting has complex causes involving both genetic predisposition and environmental triggers, a new study of twins led by the University of Melbourne and Austin Health has shown. The research found that identical twins were nearly twice as likely to both faint compared to non identical twins.

In a large epidemiologic study, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center found that babies of U.S.-born Latinas are at higher risk for retinoblastoma — a malignant tumor of the retina which typically occurs before the age of 6 — than children of Mexico-born mothers. The study, which focused on infants born in California, also found that children of older fathers and those born to women with sexually transmitted diseases were at greater risk for the disease, as were children from multiple-birth pregnancies, which may indicate an increased risk from in vitro fertilization.

Children often use language differently than adults when referring to a person or thing, which can result in misleading testimony, according to a new Cornell study. "This is the first study to examine developmental differences in referential language ability as a factor in children's ability to provide accurate testimony," said Stephen Ceci, professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

Such behavior problems in adolescence as aggression and delinquency are linked to chronic stress in early childhood, which interferes with children's development of self-control, reports a Cornell study published online in April in Developmental Psychology. To better understand the well-documented link between poverty and poor outcomes for children, the researchers analyzed data on risk factors, maternal responsiveness and child characteristics in 265 adolescents and their parents.

Research published today in the journal Nature gives a detailed picture of how scientists are looking to the much warmer Antarctic climate of the distant past to learn more about how the planet could look in the future if climate change continues unchecked. The University of Glasgow's James Bendle is one of the authors of the paper, which is part of a major international research project to examine the Earth's climate during the 'Greenhouse world' of the early Eocene epoch, between 48 and 55 million years ago.

Temperature rises can drastically alter relationships between predator and prey, including the success of invasive species, new research from the University of Sydney has shown. "The research highlights how the ability of a species to adapt to climate change may be less important than how climate change affects its relationships with other species and by extension the entire ecosystem," said Professor Frank Seebacher , from the University's School of Biological Sciences.

— Coral Gables — Scientists have embarked on a three-week expedition aboard the R/V F. G. Walton Smith in the Gulf of Mexico to understand how surface ocean currents near the site of the Deepwater Horizon influence the fate and transport of oil and dispersants, like those from the 2010 spill.