ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Losing wetlands to grow crops
• Nature versus nurture: Better looking birds have healthier babies, finds study of great tits
• Peach genome offers insights into breeding strategies for biofuels crops

Losing wetlands to grow crops Posted: 24 Mar 2013 05:18 PM PDT Getting enough to eat is a basic human need – but at what cost to the environment? New research demonstrates that as their crops on higher ground fail due to unreliable rainfall, people in countries like Uganda are increasingly relocating to wetland areas. Unless the needs of these people are addressed in a more sustainable way, overuse of wetland resources through farming, fishing, and hunting will continue.

Nature versus nurture: Better looking birds have healthier babies, finds study of great tits Posted: 24 Mar 2013 05:18 PM PDT A female great tits' (Parus major) appearance is shown to signal healthy attributes in offspring in a new paper. The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick's weight at two weeks and immune strength respectively -- though the former seems to signal a genetic benefit and the latter can affect an 'adopted' chick's health, suggesting nurture is involved.

Peach genome offers insights into breeding strategies for biofuels crops Posted: 24 Mar 2013 12:23 PM PDT Rapidly growing trees like poplars and willows are candidate "biofuel crops" from which it is expected that cellulosic ethanol and higher energy content fuels can be efficiently extracted. Domesticating these crops requires a deep understanding of tree physiology and genetics. Scientists are turning to fruit trees for hints, leading to an international initiative, publishing the 265-million base genome of the Lovell variety of Prunus persica.

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