ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Top predators key to extinctions as planet warms
• Arctic climate more vulnerable than thought, maybe linked to Antarctic ice-sheet behavior
• Elephant seals help uncover slower-than-expected Antarctic melting
• Waves of responders deploy omics to track Deepwater Horizon cleanup microbes
• Focusing on water for Central Everglades essential to reversing whole ecosystem's continuing decline
• Genomics and African queens: Diversity within Ethiopian genomes reveals imprints of historical events
• Our microbes, ourselves: Billions of bacteria within, essential for immune function, are ours alone
• Spiders enlisted in fight against woodworms: Could they also help control malaria?
• Giant Ibex lived in the Southern Pyrenees after the Ice Age
• Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' predictions feature uncertainty
• A virtual look at the zebrafish brain
• Darwin’s principles say cancer will always evolve to resist treatment
• How cheetahs outpace greyhounds
• Toward super-size wind turbines: Bigger wind turbines do make greener electricity

Top predators key to extinctions as planet warms Posted: 21 Jun 2012 12:15 PM PDT Global warming may cause more extinctions than predicted if scientists fail to account for interactions among species in their models, researchers argue in a new article.

Arctic climate more vulnerable than thought, maybe linked to Antarctic ice-sheet behavior Posted: 21 Jun 2012 12:15 PM PDT First analyses of the longest sediment core ever collected on land in the Arctic provide dramatic, "astonishing" documentation that intense warm intervals, warmer than scientists thought possible, occurred there over the past 2.8 million years. Further, these extreme inter-glacial warm periods correspond closely with times when parts of Antarctica were ice-free and also warm, suggesting strong inter-hemispheric climate connectivity. The Polar Regions are much more vulnerable to change than once believed, they add.

Elephant seals help uncover slower-than-expected Antarctic melting Posted: 21 Jun 2012 11:13 AM PDT A team of scientists have drilled holes through an Antarctic ice shelf, the Fimbul Ice Shelf, to gather the first direct measurements regarding melting of the shelf's underside. A group of elephant seals, outfitted with sensors that measure salinity, temperature, and depth sensors added fundamental information to the scientists' data set, which led the researchers to conclude that parts of eastern Antarctica are melting at significantly lower rates than current models predict.

Waves of responders deploy omics to track Deepwater Horizon cleanup microbes Posted: 21 Jun 2012 11:13 AM PDT In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago, a team of researchers found that marine microbial communities also played a role in the dispersal process.

Focusing on water for Central Everglades essential to reversing whole ecosystem's continuing decline Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:07 AM PDT Twelve years into a multibillion-dollar state and federal effort to save the Florida Everglades, little progress has been made in restoring the core of the ecosystem, says a new congressionally mandated report.

Genomics and African queens: Diversity within Ethiopian genomes reveals imprints of historical events Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:06 AM PDT Researchers have started to unveil the genetic heritage of Ethiopian populations, who are among the most diverse in the world, and lie at the gateway from Africa. They found that the genomes of some Ethiopian populations bear striking similarities to those of populations in Israel and Syria, a potential genetic legacy of the Queen of Sheba and her companions.

Our microbes, ourselves: Billions of bacteria within, essential for immune function, are ours alone Posted: 21 Jun 2012 10:06 AM PDT Gut bacteria's key role in immunity is tuned to the host species, suggesting that the superabundant microbes lining our digestive tract are ultimately our evolutionary partners. This study, the first to demonstrate that microbes are specific to their host species, also sheds light on what's called the hygiene hypothesis.

Spiders enlisted in fight against woodworms: Could they also help control malaria? Posted: 21 Jun 2012 09:55 AM PDT Property owners who need to banish destructive woodworm could have an eight-legged alternative to chemical sprays that are potentially dangerous and only partially effective.  They could enlist the aid of very special spiders that will seek and devour the destructive grubs. And a further, exciting possibility is that malaria could be curtailed by the creatures.

Giant Ibex lived in the Southern Pyrenees after the Ice Age Posted: 21 Jun 2012 09:54 AM PDT The sub-species of the Iberian mountain goat Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica became extinct in the year 2000 before its biological and phytogenetic characteristics could be explored in depth. A new study has shed light on their size, origin and post-Ice environmental conditions after discovering three skull fossils from between 4,000 and 7,000 years ago in the southwest of the Pyrenees.

Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' predictions feature uncertainty Posted: 21 Jun 2012 08:34 AM PDT Scientists are predicting that this year's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone could range from a low of approximately 1,197 square miles to as much as 6,213 square miles. The wide range is the result of using two different forecast models. The forecast is based on Mississippi River nutrient inputs compiled annually by the US Geological Survey.

A virtual look at the zebrafish brain Posted: 21 Jun 2012 07:20 AM PDT Scientists have long dreamed of being able to grasp the brain as a whole rather than just understanding the function of individual nerve cells. Researchers have now taken a big step toward making this dream a reality. The researchers developed microscopic imaging techniques and software for observing and comparing all of the genes of the zebrafish brain, and thus also the factors influencing its nerve cells, in a three-dimensional virtual model.

Darwin’s principles say cancer will always evolve to resist treatment Posted: 21 Jun 2012 07:19 AM PDT Cancer is subject to the evolutionary processes laid out by Charles Darwin in his concept of natural selection, experts say. Natural selection was the process identified by Darwin by which nature selects certain physical attributes, or phenotypes, to pass on to offspring to better "fit" the organism to the environment.

How cheetahs outpace greyhounds Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:09 AM PDT Cheetahs are the high-performance sports cars of the animal kingdom, but how do they outstrip other elite athletes when using the same sprint technique? Biologists compared the performance of captive cheetahs and greyhounds and found that in addition to increasing their stride frequency, the cheetahs spend longer in contact with the ground, probably to protect their limbs from stress fractures at high speed.

Toward super-size wind turbines: Bigger wind turbines do make greener electricity Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:33 AM PDT In a study that could solidify the trend toward construction of gigantic windmills, scientists have concluded that the larger the wind turbine, the greener the electricity it produces.

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