ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Factors that influence spinach contamination pre-harvest determined
• Study of insect bacteria reveals genetic secrets of symbiosis
• The Red Queen was right: Life must continually evolve to avoid extinction
• Changing ocean temperatures, circulation patterns affecting young Atlantic cod food supply
• Flowers: Pistil leads pollen in life-and-death dance
• Making a beeline for the nectar: How patterns on flowers help bees spot their first nectar-rich flower
• Archaeologists make significant find of early 1800s artifacts on university campus
• Snail trail reveals ancient human migration
• Protected areas provide African birds with stepping stones to survival
• Expressly unfit for the laboratory: Little correlation between microbial gene expression and environmental conditions in the lab
• Urban trees remove fine particulate air pollution, save lives
• Scientists use DNA from a museum specimen to study rarely observed type of killer whale
• Pearly perfection: Odd explanation for why pearls are spherical in nature
• The discerning fruit fly: Linking brain-cell activity and behavior in smell recognition
• Detour ahead: Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climes
• Bay Area thrushes nest together, winter together, and face change together

Factors that influence spinach contamination pre-harvest determined Posted: 20 Jun 2013 01:28 PM PDT Scientists have identified a variety of factors that influence the likelihood of E. coli contamination of spinach on farms prior to harvest.

Study of insect bacteria reveals genetic secrets of symbiosis Posted: 20 Jun 2013 11:29 AM PDT Microbiologists recently delved deeper into the genes involved in the "tripartite nested mealybug symbiosis." The researchers discovered the already complex three-way symbiosis actually depends on genes from six different organisms -- three more than the number of species that currently exist in the symbiosis.

The Red Queen was right: Life must continually evolve to avoid extinction Posted: 20 Jun 2013 11:29 AM PDT Biologists quote Lewis Carroll when arguing that survival is a constant struggle to adapt and evolve. Is that true, or do groups die out because they experience a run of bad luck? Biologists tested these hypotheses using mammals that arose and died out (or are now dying out) in the past 66 million years, and found that it's not luck but failure to adapt to a deteriorating environment.

Changing ocean temperatures, circulation patterns affecting young Atlantic cod food supply Posted: 20 Jun 2013 10:24 AM PDT Changing ocean water temperatures and circulation patterns have profoundly affected key Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf zooplankton species in recent decades, and may be influencing the recovery of Atlantic cod and other fish stocks in the region. Researchers have found that zooplankton species critical for the survival of Atlantic cod larvae have declined in abundance in the same areas where Atlantic cod stocks have struggled to rebuild after an extended period of overfishing.

Flowers: Pistil leads pollen in life-and-death dance Posted: 20 Jun 2013 10:23 AM PDT Pollination, essential to much of life on earth, requires the explosive death of the male pollen tube in the female ovule. In new research, scientists describe the genetic and regulatory factors that compel the male's role in the process. Finding a way to tweak that performance could expand crop cross-breeding possibilities.

Making a beeline for the nectar: How patterns on flowers help bees spot their first nectar-rich flower Posted: 20 Jun 2013 08:12 AM PDT Bumblebees searching for nectar go for signposts on flowers rather than the bull's eye. A new study shows that the markings at the center of a flower are not as important as the markings that will direct the bees to the center.

Archaeologists make significant find of early 1800s artifacts on university campus Posted: 20 Jun 2013 07:07 AM PDT Archaeologists have uncovered a significant site on a university campus that has yielded thousands of artifacts from the early 1800s and is offering a glimpse into the lives of students of the era.

Snail trail reveals ancient human migration Posted: 20 Jun 2013 05:46 AM PDT Geneticists have used snails to uncover evidence of an ancient human migration from the Pyrenean region of France to Ireland.

Protected areas provide African birds with stepping stones to survival Posted: 20 Jun 2013 04:15 AM PDT The protected area network in Tanzania is playing a vital role in the survival of savannah bird species as they move west in response to climate and environmental changes, according to new research.

Expressly unfit for the laboratory: Little correlation between microbial gene expression and environmental conditions in the lab Posted: 19 Jun 2013 01:48 PM PDT A new study challenges the orthodoxy of microbiology, which holds that in response to environmental changes, bacterial genes will boost production of needed proteins and decrease production of those that aren't. The study found that for bacteria in the laboratory there was little evidence of adaptive genetic response.

Urban trees remove fine particulate air pollution, save lives Posted: 19 Jun 2013 01:47 PM PDT Biologists have estimated how much fine particulate matter is removed by trees in 10 cities, their impact on PM2.5 concentrations and associated values and impacts on human health.

Scientists use DNA from a museum specimen to study rarely observed type of killer whale Posted: 19 Jun 2013 10:25 AM PDT Researchers report using DNA from tissues samples collected in 1955 to study what may be a new type of killer whale (Orcinus orca).

Pearly perfection: Odd explanation for why pearls are spherical in nature Posted: 19 Jun 2013 10:24 AM PDT The mystery of how pearls form into the most perfectly spherical large objects in nature may have an unlikely explanation, scientists are proposing in a new study.

The discerning fruit fly: Linking brain-cell activity and behavior in smell recognition Posted: 19 Jun 2013 07:16 AM PDT Comparing apples to oranges, or different apples. Neuroscientists have visualized and quantified the activity of cells in the fruit fly brain that process smell. They found that the activity of as few as 25 cells correlated extremely well with the flies' ability to tell different smells apart, as well group similar smells together, and they could predict fly behavior patterns towards the odors based on these responses.

Detour ahead: Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climes Posted: 19 Jun 2013 07:15 AM PDT Half a dozen regions could provide some of the Western Hemisphere's more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals, birds and amphibians on their way to cooler environments in a warming world. This is the first broad-scale study to consider how animals might travel when confronted with cities, large agricultural areas and other human related barriers.

Bay Area thrushes nest together, winter together, and face change together Posted: 18 Jun 2013 01:15 PM PDT Swainson's thrushes, from a local population near Bolinas, Calif., spend their winters together in Mexico, according to a new tracking study. This result is important because it shows that the conservation of habitat for these local populations in California is tightly linked with climate and habitat changes in Mexico, where these birds spend their winters, 1,600 miles away.

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