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Archive for May 11th, 2015
British species facing their ‘biggest threat in a generation’, say leading nature groups
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
Independent: British species and landscapes are facing their “biggest threat in a generation”, according to 100 leading nature groups which represent eight million people across the UK.
The Joint Links coalition, made up of organisations such as the WWF and the National Trust, warns that laws which have protected species and habitats for decades are now in danger of being watered down because of a European Commission “fitness check” on the Birds and Habitats Directives.
The directives give protected status...
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Why Food Companies Should Be More Afraid Of Water Scarcity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
National Public Radio: America's biggest food production companies face a growing threat of water scarcity, according to a new report from Ceres, an environmental sustainability group.
Producing food, after all, requires more water than almost any other business on Earth. And the outlook isn't pretty: One-third of food is grown in areas of high or extremely high water stress, while pollution and climate change are further limiting supplies of clean water around the world.
And yet two-thirds of the 37 U.S. food companies...
Carbon time-bomb Siberia threatens catastrophic climate change
Posted by Express: None Given on May 11th, 2015
Express: Experts have said thawing permafrost in little-known peat bogs in the frozen Russian wilderness could expedite the global warming process.
Vast swathes of marshland in Siberia are starting to emit greenhouse gases 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The threat comes from bogs around the size of mainland France which absorbed carbon dioxide over thousands of years before freezing over during the last Ice Age.
Now for the first time in 11,000 years, the thick permafrost...
Look out, Arizona! California isn’t the only state getting hit by drought
Posted by Grist: Eric Holthaus on May 11th, 2015
Grist: Two weeks ago, Lake Mead, which sits on the border of Nevada and Arizona, set a new record low — the first time since the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s that the lake’s surface has dipped below 1,080 feet above sea level. The West’s drought is so bad that official plans for water rationing have now begun — with Arizona’s farmers first on the chopping block. Yes, despite the drought’s epicenter in California, it’s Arizona that will bear the brunt of the West’s epic dry spell. The huge...
Harmful algal blooms Chesapeake Bay are becoming more frequent
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A recent study of harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science show a marked increase in these ecosystem-disrupting events in the past 20 years that are being fed by excess nitrogen runoff from the watershed. While algal blooms have long been of concern, this study is the first to document their increased frequency in the Bay and is a warning that more work is needed to reduce nutrient pollution entering the Bay's waters....
Research aims to restore riparian corridors and an iconic tree
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Research by the U.S. Forest Service at the Finger Lakes National Forest (FLNF) is exploring whether native trees can restore a degraded stream corridor and whether degraded stream corridors can help one of those native trees -- the American elm -- stage a comeback.
"Forest Service research is a vital part of keeping our rural and urban forests healthy, sustainable and more resilient to disturbances now and for future generations," said Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service's Northern...
Why California Farmers Are Conflicted About Using Less Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
National Public Radio: The drought across much of the Western U.S. is now in its fourth year. In California - where it's the most intense - farms are not under the same strict orders to conserve as cities are.
And inside the agriculture industry, farmers are quietly debating how best to respond to the drought. Given uncertainty around pending state regulations, some say there may be an incentive to not invest in water-saving technologies right now.
In the world of water conservation, there are a few no-brainer solutions....
Fear of Ruin as Disease Takes Hold of Italy’s Olive Trees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
New York Times: Across the stony heel of Italy, a peninsula ringed by the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean, olive trees have existed for centuries, shaping the landscape and producing some of the nation’s finest olive oils. Except now many of the trees are dying.
Sprinkled among the healthy trees are clusters of sick ones, denuded of leaves and standing like skeletons, their desiccated branches bereft of olives. The trees are succumbing to a bacterial outbreak that is sweeping across one of Italy’s most...
Gene could help plants resist climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
RedOrbit: Plants are highly sensitive to environmental changes. Temperature affects multiple aspects of plant development, yet we know little about the processes and mechanisms underlying thermo-sensitive growth. Too close to the sun But researchers recently discovered a new gene that enables plants to regulate their growth in different temperatures. This could lead to new methods of optimizing plant growth and may help combat the effects of climate change. The gene was named ICARUS1, after the figure from...
Water fleas genetically adapt to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 11th, 2015
ScienceDaily: The water flea has genetically adapted to climate change. Biologists from KU Leuven, Belgium, compared 'resurrected' water fleas -- hatched from 40-year-old eggs -- with more recent specimens. The project was coordinated by Professor Luc De Meester from the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation.
The water flea has genetically adapted to climate change. Biologists from KU Leuven, Belgium, compared 'resurrected' water fleas -- hatched from forty-year-old eggs -- with more recent...