ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Extreme heat raises climate change questions, concerns
• Turning history's 'lost' into 'found': Pictorial history-map of Santa Catarina Ixtepeji, a village in Mexico rediscovered
• Drought monitor shows record-breaking expanse of drought across United States
• Jekyll and Hyde bacteria helps or kills, depending on chance
• Smaller volcanoes could cool climate
• Natural climate shifts drove coral reefs to a total ecosystem collapse lasting 2,500 years
• Eddies, not sunlight, spur annual phytoplankton bloom in North Atlantic
• Nitrogen pollution changing Rocky Mountain National Park vegetation
• Scientists identify critical 'quality control' for cell growth
• Endowment effect in chimpanzees can be turned on and off
• Yak genome provides new insights into high altitude adaptation
• Hormones dictate when youngsters fly the nest, says new research
• Toward a Better Understanding of Earthquakes

Extreme heat raises climate change questions, concerns Posted: 05 Jul 2012 05:49 PM PDT The recent heat wave baking much of the country has prompted many people to ask: Is this due to climate change?

Turning history's 'lost' into 'found': Pictorial history-map of Santa Catarina Ixtepeji, a village in Mexico rediscovered Posted: 05 Jul 2012 05:49 PM PDT When antiquities go MIA, sometimes the sleuthing of a network of scholars can lead to rediscovery . That's what happened recently.

Drought monitor shows record-breaking expanse of drought across United States Posted: 05 Jul 2012 04:41 PM PDT More of the United States is in moderate drought or worse than at any other time in the 12-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, officials have said.

Jekyll and Hyde bacteria helps or kills, depending on chance Posted: 05 Jul 2012 04:41 PM PDT Living in the guts of worms are seemingly innocuous bacteria that contribute to their survival. With a flip of a switch, however, these same bacteria transform from harmless microbes into deadly insecticides. Scientists have revealed how a bacteria flips a DNA switch to go from an upstanding community member in the gut microbiome to deadly killer in insect blood.

Smaller volcanoes could cool climate Posted: 05 Jul 2012 04:41 PM PDT Scientists have discovered that aerosols from relatively small volcanic eruptions can be boosted into the high atmosphere by weather systems such as monsoons, where they can affect global temperatures. The massive eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 temporarily dropped temperatures by half a degree Celsius world-wide.

Natural climate shifts drove coral reefs to a total ecosystem collapse lasting 2,500 years Posted: 05 Jul 2012 03:12 PM PDT A new article shows how natural climatic shifts stopped reef growth in the eastern Pacific for 2,500 years. The reef shutdown, which began 4,000 years ago, corresponds to a period of dramatic swings in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Eddies, not sunlight, spur annual phytoplankton bloom in North Atlantic Posted: 05 Jul 2012 03:09 PM PDT Researchers have long believed that the longer days and calmer seas of spring set off an annual bloom of plants in the North Atlantic, but scientists have now discovered that warm eddies fuel the growth three weeks before the sun does.

Nitrogen pollution changing Rocky Mountain National Park vegetation Posted: 05 Jul 2012 02:21 PM PDT A new study indicates air pollution in the form of nitrogen compounds emanating from power plants, automobiles and agriculture is changing the alpine vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Scientists identify critical 'quality control' for cell growth Posted: 05 Jul 2012 02:20 PM PDT Scientists have identified a series of intricate biochemical steps that lead to the successful production of proteins, the basic working units of any cell.

Endowment effect in chimpanzees can be turned on and off Posted: 05 Jul 2012 12:14 PM PDT Groundbreaking new research in the field of "evolutionary analysis in law" not only provides additional evidence that chimpanzees share the controversial human psychological trait known as the endowment effect -- which in humans has implications for law -- but also shows the effect can be turned on or off for single objects, depending on their immediate situational usefulness.

Yak genome provides new insights into high altitude adaptation Posted: 05 Jul 2012 11:46 AM PDT Scientists have completed the genomic sequence and analyses of a female domestic yak, which provides important insights into understanding mammalian divergence and adaptation at high altitude.

Hormones dictate when youngsters fly the nest, says new research Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:38 AM PDT Seabirds feed their young less as they reach an age to fly the nest, but it's hormones that actually control when the chicks leave home, according to new research.

Toward a Better Understanding of Earthquakes Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:37 AM PDT The earth is shaken daily by strong earthquakes recorded by a number of seismic stations worldwide. Tectonic tremor, however, is a new type of seismic signal that seismologist started studying only within the last few years. Tremor is less hazardous than earthquakes and occurs at greater depth.  The link between tremor and earthquakes may provide clues about the more destructive earthquakes that occur at shallower depths. Geophysicists have collected seismic data of tectonic tremor in California. These data are now being evaluated in order to better understand this new seismic phenomenon.

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