# recent environmental research: bio, ag, marine, env



## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Cleaner fish respond to the shadow of the future (w/ Video)

Desperate female spiders fight by different rules 
not size or strength decides the fight; sheer desperation fuels the fury.

Follow the money: Wealth, population are key drivers of invasive species

Millenium atoll: A pristine ecosystem 
relatively-pristine lagoon + reef

PC-assisted soil classification - definitively-ID wetland soils 
Taking the guesswork out of soil classification 
digital images for hue, value + chroma are robust + consistent

The Earth and Moon formed later than previously thought

Vit-B3 acts by shape-changing 
Vitamin B3 Controls Important Life Processes by Changing Shape in Response to Oxygen Level 
Rex-pathway + O2-levels

Ag - 
-----------------

'Psychedelic' maize may help increase crop and biofuel yields

New yeast can ferment more sugar, make more cellulosic ethan

emerging crop-diseases do more than kill plants 
Plant disease -- more than a crop killer 
new pandemics + socio-economic disasters - famine, social upheaval, poverty...

YIPE!!! 
----------------------------------------- 
GMO-eucalypts tested for paper-ind; 
Paper industry tests genetically altered trees 
req to plant 1/4-million trees over SEVEN states for paper-plantations!

Wider windrows can help dry alfalfa for dairy silage

components of S-uberis identified 
New discovery could aid development of elusive bovine mastitis vaccine

marine -

dispersants - 1-million gallons + counting 
Dispersants: lesser evil against oil spill or Gulf poison? 
the Gulf of Mexico as the worlds biggest test-tube... problem? its alive.


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

paleontology - 
humans developed in a hot climate... 
Some like it hot: Site of human evolution was scorching 
(and it looks to me like we are all headed there again.)

green radio-astronomy facility planned - 
Natural energy to help power exploration of the universe

new Large-Blue Butterfly spp discovered - 
Chinese-German collaboration yields new species of Large Blue butterfly 
named for a long-time butterfly researcher AND for the landscape - _XiChuan,_ *beautiful mountain*... 
this is a highly-specialized spp, like its relatives all very vulnerable to climate-change.

cadmium investigated as carcinogen - 
Cadmium investigated as cause of endometrial cancer


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

how do roots *know* where nutrients are? 
Getting to the root of nutrient sensing 
how does a root *decide* which way to grow?

detailed USA-veg-cover -- First-time release 
First detailed national map of land-cover vegetation released 
detailed data of plant types + coverage


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Cryptic worms encountered outside Sweden

New research into the deep ocean floor yields promising results for microbiologists

Scientists reveal cracks in egg theory


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Vital River Is Withering, and Iraq Has No Answer - NYTimes.com

Lament for a Once-Lovely Waterway - Green Blog - NYTimes.com


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

A Puzzling Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere



> *bold added - *
> 
> _"This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,"
> says John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding
> ...


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Oceanography: Dead in the water : Nature News

before this, such 'dead-zones' were clearly affiliated with fertilizer, sewage, manure runoff, INDUSTRIAL waste, and so on - 
these are new, and worrying - tentatively associated with warm-weather incursions of deepwater upwellings of naturally O2-depleted offshore waters.

the 1st identified in the USA was thought to be an anomaly - off the Oregon coast; but it has returned and expanded annually.


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Supercomputing for the birds : Nature News

creating an interactive map to predict bird movements and the species-likelihood in a given biome


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Birds flock online : Nature News


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

African dust keeps Amazon blooming : Nature News


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Mountain mining damages streams : Nature News



> _ ...the first conclusive evidence of a direct link between this type of mining and environmental damage. Their research has teased apart the effects of mountain-top mining and urbanization on local water quality in West Virginia, and found that *even relatively small mining operations can cause serious harm to ecosystems*.
> 
> "Even at very low levels of mining we found a dramatic impact on water quality and stream composition," Emily Bernhardt, a biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and one of the study's lead researchers, told Nature. The scientists have called on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tighten the water pollution limits faced by mining companies. _


*-opinion alert- 
'clean coal' is an oxymoron from one of the most polluting industries in the world, IMO - 
coal slurry, shale oils, and other recent developments in energy production are *not* cleaner - 
they are vaster, use more square-miles of the planet, dirty and use more water, produce less energy than 19th-century counterparts which used human-energy or steam-energy. 
these modern-day juggernauts use enormous machinery and huge investments of money and infrastructure; they are centralized and inefficient, needing to transport enormous amounts of waste and fossil-fuels, both - 
one for 'disposal', the other for USE elsewhere - as the deposits are not conveniently in downtown urban environs, but in remote, undeveloped areas. * 
JMO + IME, 
- terry


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Citizen science: People power : Nature News

Salamander's egg surprise : Nature News

A solar salamander : Nature News


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Demand for malaria drug soars : Nature News


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Census of marine life released : Nature News


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

Sewer studies based on leaky science : Nature News


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