ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Taking a bird's eye view could cut wildlife collisions with aircraft
• Pompeii-style volcanic ash fall preserved 'nursery' of earliest animals
• Corals on ocean-side of reef are most susceptible to recent warming
• Winds played important role in keeping oil away from South Florida
• New species of wirerush from the wetlands in northern New Zealand
• Good news about the glycemic index of rice
• 'Mad cow disease' in cattle can spread widely in autonomic nervous system before detectable in the central nervous system
• Sounds of Northern Lights are born close to ground
• Nitrogen dioxide air pollution lessens in parts of US and Europe, increases in Middle East and parts of Asia
• Climate in northern Europe reconstructed for the past 2,000 years: Cooling trend calculated precisely for the first time
• 'MRI' of the Sun's interior motions challenges existing explanations for sunspots

Taking a bird's eye view could cut wildlife collisions with aircraft Posted: 09 Jul 2012 08:10 PM PDT Using lights to make aircraft more visible to birds could help reduce the risk of bird strikes, new research has found. The study examined how Canada geese responded to different radio-controlled model aircraft.

Pompeii-style volcanic ash fall preserved 'nursery' of earliest animals Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:26 PM PDT A volcanic eruption around 579 million years ago buried a 'nursery' of the earliest-known animals under a Pompeii-like deluge of ash, preserving them as fossils in rocks in Newfoundland, new research suggests.

Corals on ocean-side of reef are most susceptible to recent warming Posted: 09 Jul 2012 11:28 AM PDT Marine scientists have linked the decline in growth of Caribbean forereef corals -- due to recent warming -- to long-term trends in seawater temperature experienced by these corals located on the ocean-side of the reef. The research was conducted on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System in southern Belize.

Winds played important role in keeping oil away from South Florida Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:35 AM PDT Winds played an important role in keeping oil from the Gulf oil spill away from South Florida.

New species of wirerush from the wetlands in northern New Zealand Posted: 09 Jul 2012 09:16 AM PDT The northern part of the North Island of New Zealand is marked at approximately 38 degrees S latitude by a distinct ecological boundary known as the "kauri line". This region forms the southern distributional limit of many plants and is the warmest part of New Zealand. A number of endemic plants are found there. Ecologists have recently discovered a new species of wirerush from peatlands north of the "kauri line."

Good news about the glycemic index of rice Posted: 09 Jul 2012 07:27 AM PDT Research analyzing 235 types of rice from around the world has found its glycemic index varies from one type of rice to another with most varieties scoring a low to medium GI.

'Mad cow disease' in cattle can spread widely in autonomic nervous system before detectable in the central nervous system Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:31 AM PDT Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") is a fatal disease in cattle that causes portions of the brain to turn sponge-like. This transmissible disease is caused by the propagation of a misfolded form of protein known as a prion, rather than by a bacterium or virus. Previous research has reported that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) becomes affected by the disease only after the central nervous system (CNS) has been infected. In a new study researchers found that the ANS can show signs of infection prior to involvement of the CNS.

Sounds of Northern Lights are born close to ground Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:30 AM PDT For the first time, researchers have located where the sounds associated with the northern lights are created. The auroral sounds that have been described in folktales and by wilderness wanderers are formed about 70 meters above the ground level in the measured case. Researchers located the sound sources by installing three separate microphones in an observation site where the auroral sounds were recorded. They then compared sounds captured by the microphones and determined the location of the sound source.

Nitrogen dioxide air pollution lessens in parts of US and Europe, increases in Middle East and parts of Asia Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:30 AM PDT Satellite measurements show that nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere over parts of Europe and the US has fallen over the past decade. More than 15 years of atmospheric observations have revealed trends in air quality. As the world's population increases, economies in many countries are also growing and populations are concentrating in large cities. With the use of fossil fuels still on the rise, pollution in large cities is also increasing.

Climate in northern Europe reconstructed for the past 2,000 years: Cooling trend calculated precisely for the first time Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:26 AM PDT Scientists have published a reconstruction of the climate in northern Europe over the last 2,000 years based on the information provided by tree-rings. Researchers used tree-ring density measurements from sub-fossil pine trees originating from Finnish Lapland to produce a reconstruction reaching back to 138 BC. In so doing, the researchers have been able for the first time to precisely demonstrate that the long-term trend over the past two millennia has been towards climatic cooling.

'MRI' of the Sun's interior motions challenges existing explanations for sunspots Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:24 AM PDT Scientists have created an "MRI" of the Sun's interior plasma motions, shedding light on how it transfers heat from its deep interior to its surface. The result upends our understanding of how heat is transported outwards by the Sun and challenges existing explanations of the formation of sunspots and magnetic field generation.

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