ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• New light shed on wandering continents
• Seismic survey at the Mariana trench will follow water dragged down into the Earth's mantle
• Cooking better biochar: Study improves recipe for soil additive
• Do animals have reflective minds able to self-regulate perception, reasoning, memory?
• Cell protein interactions favor fats
• Trace element plays major role in tropical forest nitrogen cycle
• What is the monetary value of a healthy ocean?
• False killer whales use acoustic squint to target prey
• Antibiotic resistance genes accumulating in Lake Geneva

New light shed on wandering continents Posted: 22 Mar 2012 01:19 PM PDT A layer of partially molten rock about 22 to 75 miles underground can't be the only mechanism that allows continents to gradually shift their position over millions of years, according to a new research. The result gives insight into what allows plate tectonics -- the movement of the Earth's crustal plates -- to occur.

Seismic survey at the Mariana trench will follow water dragged down into the Earth's mantle Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:22 AM PDT Seismologists have just returned from a cruise in the Western Pacific to lay the instruments for a seismic survey that will follow the water chemically bound to or trapped in the down-diving Pacific Plate at the Mariana trench, the deep trench to which Avatar director James Cameron is poised to plunge.

Cooking better biochar: Study improves recipe for soil additive Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:15 AM PDT A simple way to remove carbon from the atmosphere is by adding charcoal, or biochar, to topsoil -- a centuries-old practice that also boosts crop production. A new study finds that when it comes to helping get water to plants, not all biochar is equal.

Do animals have reflective minds able to self-regulate perception, reasoning, memory? Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:15 AM PDT There is an emerging consensus among scientists that animals share functional parallels with humans' conscious metacognition -- that is, our ability to reflect on our own mental processes and guide and optimize them, one expert says.

Cell protein interactions favor fats Posted: 22 Mar 2012 10:13 AM PDT Scientists are learning how the fat molecules within cell membranes help the cells' signaling proteins to assemble and function. Their initial findings suggest the lipids play an important role in regulating cellular protein interactions.

Trace element plays major role in tropical forest nitrogen cycle Posted: 22 Mar 2012 08:36 AM PDT New research sheds light on the critical part played by a little-studied element, molybdenum, in the nutrient cycles of tropical forests. Understanding the role of molybdenum may help scientists more accurately predict how tropical forests will respond to climate change.

What is the monetary value of a healthy ocean? Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:04 AM PDT Scientists have attempted to measure the ocean's monetary value and to tally the costs and savings associated with human decisions affecting ocean health. The study estimates that if human impacts on the ocean continue unabated, declines in ocean health and services will cost the global economy $428 billion per year by 2050, and $1.979 trillion per year by 2100.

False killer whales use acoustic squint to target prey Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT Toothed whales and dolphins are remarkable accurate hunters, considering that they locate prey using echolocation alone, so how do they pull this off? Biologists tested the echolocation skills of a false killer whale called Kina and discovered that she focuses her echolocation beam on targets, effectively "squinting" to locate far off objects or objects that are hard to differentiate.

Antibiotic resistance genes accumulating in Lake Geneva Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:00 AM PDT Large quantities of antibiotic-resistant bacteria enter the environment via municipal – and especially hospital – wastewater streams. Although wastewater treatment plants reduce the total number of bacteria, the most hazardous – multiresistant – strains appear to withstand or even to be promoted by treatment processes.

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