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Scientists Find Possible Solution to an Ancient Enigma

By Guest PostJune 20, 2013Environmentamoeba, ancient enigma, anna mcintyre wressnig, calcium carbonate, cat scans, ciliates, clotted stones, coastal sediment, colchicine, disappearance, earth history, evolution, extinction of dinosaurs, foraminifera, geobiologist, highborne cay, hypotheses, joan bernhard, layered rocks, life on earth, meteorite, microbes, microbial ecologist, microfabric, minerals, multicellular life, oceanic sediments, paleontologists, photosynthetic cyanobacteria, proterozoic eon, protozoa, remote valleys, rrna, scientists, sediment, solution, stromatolites, thecate, thrombolites, velociraptors, virginia edgcomb, whoi

The widespread disappearance of stromatolites, the earliest visible manifestation of life on Earth, may have been driven by single-celled organisms called foraminifera.

The findings, by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI); Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of Connecticut; Harvard Medical School; and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, were published online the week of May 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Unraveling the Napo’s mystery

By Guest PostJune 18, 2013Environmentamazon basin, amazon river, aquatic mammals, ecohydrology, ecological sustainability, economic, ecotourism, ecuador, environmental treasures, floodplain, jorge celi, michigan state university, mysterious, mystique, napo floodplains, napo mystery, napo river, NASA, national geographic society, oil reserves, peru, pink freshwater dolphins, river, small scale agriculture, south american country, united states, world wildlife fund

In the United States, rivers and their floodplains are well-documented and monitored. Ecuador’s largest river, however, remains largely mysterious.

Research led by Michigan State University is helping the South American country unravel the Napo River’s mystique to better balance its economic and environmental treasures. (more…)

Study reveals how fishing gear can cause slow death of whales

By Guest PostJune 16, 2013Environment, Natureaerial survey, Christmas day, device, diving, dtag, eg 3911, fishing gear, florida, jacksonville, julie, marine mammals, michael moore, mmhsrp, noaa, north atlantic, oceanography, patient monitoring, paxarms nz, right whale, suction cupped, swimming behavior, van der hoop, whale, whoi

Using a “patient monitoring” device attached to a whale entangled in fishing gear, scientists showed for the first time how fishing lines changed a whale’s diving and swimming behavior. The monitoring revealed how fishing gear hinders whales’ ability to eat and migrate, depletes their energy as they drag gear for months or years, and can result in a slow death.

The scientists in this entanglement response suction-cupped a cellphone-size device called a Dtag to a two-year-old female North Atlantic right whale called Eg 3911. The Dtag, developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), recorded Eg 3911’s movements before, during, and after at-sea disentanglement operations. (more…)

Warm Ocean Causing Most Antarctic Ice Shelf Mass Loss

By Guest PostJune 15, 2013Environmentantarctic coastal waters, antarctic coastline, antarctic ice sheet, antarctic ice shelf, basal melt, bedrock, columbia university, east antarctica, eric rignot, filchner, glacier system, glaciers, global model, icebergs, mass loss, NASA, ocean circulation, operation icebridge, pole, rate, ronne, ross, stan jacobs, warm ocean, warming climate

PASADENA, Calif. — Ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent’s ice shelf mass loss, a new study by NASA and university researchers has found.

Scientists have studied the rates of basal melt, or the melting of the ice shelves from underneath, of individual ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers that empty into the sea. But this is the first comprehensive survey of all Antarctic ice shelves. The study found basal melt accounted for 55 percent of all Antarctic ice shelf mass loss from 2003 to 2008, an amount much higher than previously thought. (more…)

Amount of dust blown across the West is increasing, says CU-Boulder study

By Guest PostJune 14, 2013Environmentdrought cycle, dust emission, dust erosion, dust measurement, dust storm, land use pattern

The amount of dust being blown across the landscape has increased over the last 17 years in large swaths of the West, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. (more…)

Artificial Forest for Solar Water-Splitting

By Guest PostJune 14, 2013Environmentartificial forest, artificial leaf, artificial photosynthesis

Berkeley Lab Researchers Report First Fully Integrated Artificial Photosynthesis Nanosystem

In the wake of the sobering news that atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least three million years, an important advance in the race to develop carbon-neutral renewable energy sources has been achieved. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported the first fully integrated nanosystem for artificial photosynthesis. While “artificial leaf” is the popular term for such a system, the key to this success was an “artificial forest.” (more…)

Life underground

By Guest PostJune 14, 2013Environmentactive bacteria, beneath, bioinformatician, carbon, deep biosphere, ecosystem, Environment, fungi, genetic material, heavy pressure, jennifer biddle, life underground, messenger rna, metatranscriptome, microbes, microscopic organisms, million year old, mrna, nucleus containing cells, nutrient sources, ocean, ocean drilling program, oxygen, seafloor, sediment, teresa messmore, university of delaware, virginia edgcomb, volcano, whoi, william orsi

Active microbes discovered far beneath seafloor in ancient ocean sediment

Microbes are living more than 500 feet beneath the seafloor in 5 million-year-old sediment, according to new findings by researchers at the University of Delaware and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Genetic material in mud from the bottom of the ocean — called the deep biosphere —revealed an ecosystem of active bacteria, fungi and other microscopic organisms at depths deeper than a skyscraper is high. The findings were published in Nature on June 12. (more…)

Evolutionary study shows bridge species drive tropical engine of biodiversity

By Guest PostJune 12, 2013Environment19th century, biodiversity, biodiversity on earth, biological patterns, christina l belanger, david jablonski, dynamic, equator, evolutionary analysis, evolutionary study, fossil record, fossil species, hurricanes, living organisms, overexploitation, pattern, poles, pollution, present day patterns, sarah k berke, shan huang, temperate zones, temperature differences, tropical cradle, tropical engine, tropical species, university of chicago

Although scientists have known since the middle of the 19th century that the tropics are teeming with species while the poles harbor relatively few, the origin of the most dramatic and pervasive biodiversity on Earth has never been clear.

New research sheds light on how that pattern came about. Furthermore, it confirms that the tropics have been and continue to be the Earth’s engine of biodiversity. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment