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Archive for October 15th, 2013
Illinois River Otters Being Exposed to Industrial Chemicals Banned Decades Ago
Posted by Nature World: James A. Foley on October 15th, 2013
Nature World: Otters living in rivers in Central Illinois are being exposed to high concentrations of chemicals such polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides, despite the compounds being banned decades ago, according to new research published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.
Samantha Carpenter, a wildlife technical assistant, and wildlife veterinary epidemiologist Nohra Mateus-Pinilla, both of whom are with the Illinois Natural History Survey, teamed up with Jan Novakofski, an animal...
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Climate Change Has Complicated Effects on Forests
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on October 15th, 2013
Nature World News: The most comprehensive review to-date of scientific papers on climate change effects on forests reveals a diverse set of consequences for forests across North America, according to researchers from Dartmouth University.
Writing in the journal Ecological Monographs, the authors say their analysis of 500 scientific papers reveals that climate change is the source of insect outbreaks in forests, plant diseases, wildfires and other problems in forests, but also that warmer temperatures are making...
First-Ever Footage of Aging Tar Sands Pipelines Beneath Great Lakes
Posted by EcoWatch: Beth Wallace on October 15th, 2013
EcoWatch: This past July, National Wildlife Federation (NWF) conducted a diving expedition to obtain footage of aging oil pipelines strung across one of the most sensitive locations in the Great Lakes, and possibly the world: the Straits of Mackinac. Footage of these pipelines has never been released to the public until now.
This NWF map simulates a 3, 6 and 12 hour spill from the tar sands oil pipeline based on Enbridge spill response plans, average current speeds and “worse case” discharge estimates....
Warming could make El Niño more intense
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Anna Salleh on October 15th, 2013
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: El Nino future Global warming is expected to increase the severity of droughts and floods due to El Niño in the tropical Pacific, new Australian research has found.
Dr Scott Power, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, and colleagues, report their findings today in the journal Nature.
During El Niño, the ocean surface temperature in the eastern Pacific warms and this leads to droughts in the western tropical Pacific and floods in the eastern part.
This in turn has...
How is Climate Change Jeopardizing the Sounds of Nature?
Posted by AccuWeather.com: Kristen Rodman on October 15th, 2013
AccuWeather.com: Climate change has brought once lively and loud habitats to utter silence as their inhabitants of birds, frogs and insects have either vanished or drastically changed their migration patterns.
A relatively new study known as biophony, or the signature of collective sounds that occur in any given habitat at any given time, has provided scientific evidence to show that the sounds of nature have been altered by both global warming and human endeavors.
"Biophony is changing," bioacoustician and...
Newly Discovered Caves Aid Researchers Study Melting Glacier
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2013
National Public Radio: Two explorers have discovered more than a mile of caves underneath a glacier on Mt. Hood near Portland, Oregon. They suspect the beautiful formations account for a significant loss of the glacier's ice, and they have set out to measure how much the inside of the glacier is melting each year. It's dangerous work, but it could reveal that some glaciers in the Pacific Northwest are retreating faster than anyone realized.
First evidence that dust and sand deposits in China are controlled by rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2013
PhysOrg: New research published today in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews has found the first evidence that large rivers control desert sands and dust in Northern China.
Northern China holds some of the world's most significant wind-blown dust deposits, known as loess. The origin of this loess-forming dust and its relationship to sand has previously been the subject of considerable debate.
The team of researchers led by Royal Holloway University, analysed individual grains of fine wind-blown dust...