ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Evolution on the inside track: How viruses in gut bacteria change over time
• Potential well water contaminants highest near natural gas drilling
• What can plants reveal about global climate change?
• Global warming to cut snow water storage 56 percent in Oregon watershed
• Removing pollutants and contaminants from wastewater
• Traditional forest management reduces fungal diversity
• Rocks can restore our climate ... after 300,000 years
• Fossil shows fish had sucker on its back
• Molecular monkey arranges X-chromosome activation
• Pesticides contaminate frogs from Californian national parks

Evolution on the inside track: How viruses in gut bacteria change over time Posted: 26 Jul 2013 04:15 PM PDT The digestive tract is home to a vast colony of bacteria, as well as the myriad viruses that prey upon them. Because the bacteria species vary from person to person, so does this viral population, the virome. By closely analyzing the virome of one individual over two-and-a-half years, researchers have uncovered new insights on the virome can change and evolve -- and why the virome of one person can vary so greatly from that of another.

Potential well water contaminants highest near natural gas drilling Posted: 26 Jul 2013 09:16 AM PDT Researchers tested 100 samples from water wells in and near the Barnett Shale natural gas drilling area and found elevated levels of potential contaminants such as arsenic closest to active gas extraction sites. Increased presence of these metals could be due to a variety of factors, including industrial accidents such as faulty gas well casings or mechanical vibrations from natural gas drilling activity disturbing particles in neglected water well equipment.

What can plants reveal about global climate change? Posted: 26 Jul 2013 08:22 AM PDT While the media continues to present climate change as a controversial issue, many scientists are working hard to gather data, collaborate across disciplines, and use experimental and modeling techniques to track how organisms and ecosystems are responding to the current changes in our Earth's global environment. What role do plants play in helping to regulate climate change and how will they fare in future times?

Global warming to cut snow water storage 56 percent in Oregon watershed Posted: 26 Jul 2013 06:24 AM PDT A new report projects that by the middle of this century there will be an average 56 percent drop in the amount of water stored in peak snowpack in the McKenzie River watershed of the Oregon Cascade Range -- and that similar impacts may be found on low-elevation maritime snow packs around the world.

Removing pollutants and contaminants from wastewater Posted: 26 Jul 2013 06:24 AM PDT Scientists have developed several effective processes for eliminating persistent pollutants from wastewater. Some of these processes generate reactive species which can be used to purify even highly polluted landfill leachate while another can also remove selected pollutants which are present in very small quantities with polymer adsorber particles.

Traditional forest management reduces fungal diversity Posted: 26 Jul 2013 06:23 AM PDT In the beech groves of Navarre, biologists have analyzed the influence exerted by forestry management on the fungi populations that decompose wood.

Rocks can restore our climate ... after 300,000 years Posted: 26 Jul 2013 04:49 AM PDT A study of a global warming event that happened 93 million years ago suggests that Earth can recover from high carbon dioxide emissions faster than thought, but that this process takes around 300,000 years after emissions decline.

Fossil shows fish had sucker on its back Posted: 26 Jul 2013 04:42 AM PDT A 30-million year-old fossil has revealed how remoras -- also called sharksuckers -- evolved the sucker that enables them to stick to other fishes and 'hitch a ride'.

Molecular monkey arranges X-chromosome activation Posted: 26 Jul 2013 04:40 AM PDT X chromosomes are very special genetic material. They differ in number between men and women. To achieve equality between sexes, one out of two X chromosomes in women is silenced. In flies, the opposite happens: in male flies, the only available X chromosome is highly activated, to compensate for the absence of the second X-chromosome. Researchers have now shown how the RNA molecules and proteins involved in the activation find and stick to each other. Similar to a monkey that grabs a liana with hands and feet, one of the proteins holds on to the RNA. Then it moulds the molecular liana with its hands and thus generates a dynamic RNA -- protein meeting place.

Pesticides contaminate frogs from Californian national parks Posted: 26 Jul 2013 04:40 AM PDT Pesticides commonly used in California's Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions, have been found in remote frog species miles from farmland. Researchers have demonstrated the contamination of Pacific Tree Fogs in remote mountain areas, including national parks; supporting past research on the potential transport of pesticides by the elements.

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