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Archive for May 18th, 2011
Waters still rising on the Mississippi
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
Independent: A US Army engineer inspects sandbags on the banks of the Mississippi river in Natchez yesterday, where cargo was slowly moving along the flooded river after a costly daylong standstill.
Floodwaters are still rising, threatening thousands of acres of farmland on the lower Delta.
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Scientists Clash on Claims Over Extinction ‘Overestimates’
Posted by Green Wire: Paul Voosen on May 18th, 2011
Green Wire: For decades, it has been an open secret among conservationists. An elegant equation widely used to calculate how many species will go extinct from deforestation and habitat destruction -- one of the "laws" of ecological theory -- was a little shaky.
More often than not, unless carefully calibrated, the equation seemed to overestimate extinction rates.
Early threats of mass global extinctions by 2000, based on the algorithm, failed to materialize. Exploring why, ecologists developed ideas like...
U.S. weather extremes show “new normal” climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
Reuters: Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are signs of a "new normal" of extreme U.S. weather events fueled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday.
"It's a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we're seeing," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University told reporters.
"We are used to certain conditions and there's a lot going on these days that is not what we're used to,...
Species Extinctions Overestimated by 160 Percent?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
National Geographic: Global extinction rates may have been overestimated by as much as 160 percent, according to a new analysis.
In recent decades numerous studies have predicted that habitat destruction will doom some 20 to 50 percent of Earth's species within 500 years.
"By 2050 Warming to Doom Million Species, Study Says.")
It's true that many species are still dying off, but the decline is happening at a slower pace than generally feared, according to study co-author Stephen Hubbell, an ecologist at the...
UF research aims to help preserve plants, animals caught between forest ‘fragments’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
EurekAlert: Maintaining the world's threatened animal and plant species may rest with something as simple as knowing how far a bird can fly before it must answer nature's call.
Birds disperse seeds as they travel, but deforestation can mean those seeds might land where they can't sprout and grow, according to a University of Florida researcher who co-wrote a study in last month's issue of Ecology that looks at how tropical birds disperse plant seeds in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.
If birds spread plant...
Preserving Plants and Animals Caught Between Forest ‘Fragments’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
ScienceDaily: Preserving Plants and Animals Caught Between Forest 'Fragments'
Maintaining the world's threatened animal and plant species may rest with something as simple as knowing how far a bird can fly before it must answer nature's call.
Birds disperse seeds as they travel, but deforestation can mean those seeds might land where they can't sprout and grow, according to a University of Florida researcher who co-wrote a study in last month's issue of Ecology that looks at how tropical birds disperse plant...
Species loss far less severe than feared: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
AFP: The pace at which humans are driving animal and plant species toward extinction through habitat destruction is at least twice as slow as previously thought, according to a study released Wednesday.
Earth's biodiversity continues to dwindle due to deforestation, climate change, over-exploitation and chemical runoff into rivers and oceans, said the study, published in Nature.
"The evidence is in -- humans really are causing extreme extinction rates," said co-author Stephen Hubbell, a professor...
3,000 amphibians, 160 land mammals remain undiscovered—that is if they don’t go extinct first
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
Mongabay: 3,000 amphibians, 160 land mammals remain undiscovered--that is if they don't go extinct first
This fruit bat was first discovered in a remote tropical forest in Papua New Guinea. Although scientists have yet to name the species, the popular media has already dubbed it the 'Yoda bat' given its resemblance to the Jedi master character from the Star Wars series. Fruit bats are vital to rainforests as they disperse seeds. Photo © Piotr Naskrecki/iLCP.
Remote little-explored rainforests probably...
Escaped nanoparticles hazardous to crops, says study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
SciDev.Net: Nanoparticles could reduce wheat yield Nanoparticles that escape during the manufacture and use of consumer products would substantially reduce the growth of wheat were they to end up in soil, according to Chinese scientists.
The production, use and disposal of nanomaterials from sectors such as cosmetics and electronics can lead to their release into air, water and soil. Their presence in wastewater, and their direct use in agricultural technologies, can bring them into contact with crops.
Once...
Plant, animal extinctions often exaggerated: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2011
Reuters: A projected spate of extinctions of animals and plants this century may be less drastic than feared because the most widely used scientific method can exaggerate losses by more than 160 percent, a study said on Wednesday.
"Extinctions caused by habitat loss require greater loss of habitat than previously thought," two experts, based in China and the United States, wrote in the journal Nature.
Despite that good news, the report also endorsed past findings that human activities are wrecking habitats...