ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Snowball effect of overfishing highlighted
• Study of African forest elephants helps guide research efforts in US
• Found: New cellulose digestion mechanism by fast-eating enzyme
• Early sharks reared young in prehistoric river-delta nursery
• New, simple technique may drive down biofuel production costs
• Cold weather increases chances of carbon monoxide poisoning; toxicologist offers advice
• Stem cells on road to specialization
• Jumping snails left grounded in future oceans
• Vikings and superheroes: How interconnected characters may reveal the reality behind the stories
• First dinosaurs identified from Saudi Arabia
• After 49-million-year hiatus, Ectobius cockroach reappears in North America

Snowball effect of overfishing highlighted Posted: 07 Jan 2014 01:37 PM PST Researchers have completed a major review of fisheries data that examines the domino effect that occurs when too many fish are harvested from one habitat.

Study of African forest elephants helps guide research efforts in US Posted: 07 Jan 2014 10:59 AM PST Researchers are employing genotyping to study movement patterns of African forest elephants in protected and unprotected regions of Gabon to better understand how human occupation of these areas might affect elephants on the African continent. Genotyping is helping conservation biologists determine the best course of action to ensure biodiversity and the preservation of various species in the US and abroad.

Found: New cellulose digestion mechanism by fast-eating enzyme Posted: 07 Jan 2014 10:59 AM PST Researchers have discovered that an enzyme from a microorganism first found in the Valley of Geysers on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia in 1990 can digest cellulose almost twice as fast as the current leading component cellulase enzyme on the market.

Early sharks reared young in prehistoric river-delta nursery Posted: 07 Jan 2014 10:43 AM PST Like salmon in reverse, long-snouted Bandringa sharks migrated downstream from freshwater swamps to a tropical coastline to spawn 310 million years ago, leaving behind fossil evidence of one of the earliest known shark nurseries.

New, simple technique may drive down biofuel production costs Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:26 AM PST Researchers have developed a simple, effective and relatively inexpensive technique for removing lignin from the plant material used to make biofuels, which may drive down the cost of biofuel production.

Cold weather increases chances of carbon monoxide poisoning; toxicologist offers advice Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:25 AM PST Temperatures in the next few days are predicted to be the coldest of the winter so far, and people using space heaters to get some extra warmth into their living and working spaces need to be aware of a potential "silent killer" inside their homes and offices — carbon monoxide (CO).

Stem cells on road to specialization Posted: 07 Jan 2014 07:26 AM PST Scientists have gained new insight into how both early embryonic cells and embryonic stem cells are directed into becoming specialized cell types, like pancreatic and liver cells.

Jumping snails left grounded in future oceans Posted: 07 Jan 2014 06:33 AM PST Sea snails that leap to escape their predators may lose their extraordinary jumping ability because of rising carbon dioxide emissions, scientists have discovered. Researchers observed that the conch snail, which uses a strong foot to leap away from approaching predators, either stops jumping, or takes longer to jump, when exposed to carbon dioxide levels projected for the end of this century.

Vikings and superheroes: How interconnected characters may reveal the reality behind the stories Posted: 07 Jan 2014 06:29 AM PST The Icelandic sagas of the Norse people are thousand-year-old chronicles of brave deeds and timeless romances, but how true to Viking life were they? Researchers used a statistical network of associations between characters to find out.

First dinosaurs identified from Saudi Arabia Posted: 07 Jan 2014 06:28 AM PST Dinosaur fossils are exceptionally rare in the Arabian Peninsula. Scientists have now uncovered the first record of dinosaurs from Saudi Arabia. What is now dry desert was once a beach littered with the bones and teeth of ancient marine reptiles and dinosaurs. A string of vertebrae from the tail of a huge "Brontosaurus-like" sauropod, together with some shed teeth from a carnivorous theropod represent the first formally identified dinosaur fossils from Saudi Arabia.

After 49-million-year hiatus, Ectobius cockroach reappears in North America Posted: 06 Jan 2014 06:47 AM PST Four ancient cockroach species in the Ectobius genus were recently discovered in the 49-million-year-old Green River Formation near Rifle, Colo., and it now appears that Ectobius may have originated in the New World.

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