Environment – Page 144 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

New Book Explores Water along Devil’s Highway

By Guest PostAugust 19, 2012Environmentarizona, armchair explorer, bill broyles, borderland explorers, borrego tank, cactus, desert aficionados, desert flats, devils highway, elcamino del diablo, gary paul nabhan, gayle harrison hartmann, gold seekers, high tanks, lava flows, mary charlotte thurtle, mexico border, natural watering holes, rock basin, sand dunes, thomas e sheridan, tinajas altas, water

Written by an expert cast of UA affiliates, “Last Water on the Devil’s Highway: A Cultural and Natural History of Tinajas Altas” is perfect for desert aficionados and armchair explorers wishing to learn more about southwestern Arizona.

The University of Arizona Press, in collaboration with the University of Arizona Southwest Center, has announced the release of “Last Water on the Devil’s Highway: A Cultural and Natural History of Tinajas Altas.“

Written by an expert cast of UA affiliates and well-known Tucsonans, this book is perfect for desert aficionados and armchair explorers wishing to learn more about the High Tanks, the iconic natural watering holes of southwestern Arizona.

The Devil’s Highway – El Camino del Diablo – crosses hundreds of miles and thousands of years of Arizona and Southwest history. This heritage trail follows a torturous route along the U.S. Mexico border through a lonely landscape of cactus, desert flats, drifting sand dunes, ancient lava flows and searing summer heat. (more…)

USGS Releases U.S. Oil & Gas Reserve Growth Estimates

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2012Environment, Politicsbillion barrels, domestic oil, energy economy, fossil fuel, gas liquids, gas reserve, geologic information, ken salazar, marcia mcnutt, natural gas, obama administration, operating condition, projection, public domain, tcf, trillion cubic feet, united states, usgs, usgs assessment

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released a new estimate for potential additions to domestic oil and gas reserves from reserve growth in discovered, conventional accumulations in the United States. The USGS estimates that the mean potential undiscovered, conventional reserve additions for the United States total 32 billion barrels (bb) of oil, 291 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, and 10 bb of natural gas liquids, constituting about 10 percent of the overall U.S. oil and gas endowment.

“As part of the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, we are taking aggressive steps to safely and responsibly expand domestic energy production,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. “USGS’s ongoing work to identify and estimate U.S. energy supplies – and to make that information available to everyone – is fundamental to our efforts to continue to grow America’s energy economy.” (more…)

UF Scientists Find State Record 87 Eggs In Largest Python From Everglades

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2012Environment, Naturealligator, anatomy, burmese python, claudia grant, egg, everglades, exotic snake, female snake, florida, kenneth krysko, leroy nunez, nicholas coutu, ornithologist, predator, reproductive capability, skip snow, snake, south florida, southeast asia, university of florida, wildlife management

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers curating a 17-foot-7-inch Burmese python, the largest found in Florida, discovered 87 eggs in the snake, also a state record.

Scientists at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus examined the internal anatomy of the 164.5-pound snake Friday. The animal was brought to the Florida Museum from Everglades National Park as part of a long-term project with the U.S. Department of the Interior to research methods for managing the state’s invasive Burmese python problem. Following scientific investigation, the snake will be mounted for exhibition at the museum for about five years, and then returned for exhibition at Everglades National Park. (more…)

MU Researchers Work to Further Biofuel Production without Increasing Food Prices

By Guest PostAugust 17, 2012Environmentbiofuel crops, biofuel production, food prices, switchgrass

COLUMBIA, Mo. – America is looking for more biofuel through the use of crops such as corn and soybeans, but concerns about higher food prices persist when land for biofuel displaces land for food crops. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri are hoping to increase biofuel production without impacting food production. This fall, MU scientists are beginning a study to determine how non-food biofuel crops, such as switchgrass, grow in marginal land along the floodplains, where most crops cannot thrive. (more…)

Climate and Drought Lessons from Ancient Egypt

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Culture, Environment, Scienceachilles heel, ancient egypt, babylonian, benjamin horton, charcoal, christopher bernhardt, climate, climate change, drought, egypt, egyptian history, evolution of societies, geological record, giza, great pyramid, human history, jean daniel stanley, marcia mcnutt, microscopic charcoal, middle east, modern iraq, nile basin vegetation, nile delta, nile delta sediment, old kingdom, pollen, pyramid building time, spinx, syrian kingdom, ugarit kingdom, university of pennsylvania, uruk kingdom

Using Fossil Pollen to Augment Historical Records

Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time.

“Humans have a long history of having to deal with climate change,” said Christopher Bernhardt, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey. “Along with other research, this study geologically reveals that the evolution of societies is sometimes tied to climate variability at all scales – whether decadal or millennial.” (more…)

Heather Leslie: Measuring ocean health

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Environmentaaas, artisanal fishing, biodiversity, carbon storage, clean waters, coastal livelihoods, coastal place, coastal protection, coral reefs, david orenstein, ecosystem, gulf of california, gulf region, habitat, heather leslie, index rate, mangroves, Mexico, ocean, ocean condition, ocean health index, ocean species, salt marshes, sea ice, seagrasses, sustainable management

Sustainable management of a huge, complex and valuable resource such as the ocean requires a comprehensive metric that did not exist until now. In the Aug. 16 edition of Nature a broad group of scientists including Heather Leslie, the Sharpe Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, describes the Ocean Health Index. The index rates coastal places, from regions to nations, on 10 goals: artisanal fishing opportunity, biodiversity, carbon storage, clean waters, coastal livelihoods and economies, coastal protection, food provision, natural products, sense of place, and tourism and recreation. Leslie recently answered questions posed by David Orenstein.

How does the Ocean Health Index’s focus on integrating human factors make it different and valuable?

Recognizing people’s integral roles in ocean ecosystems, this index evaluates how well the ocean provides 10 key benefits to people and how well we are protecting its ability to do so in the future. (more…)

Crowd Funding on Campus: UW Scientists Raise Money for Research Online

By Guest PostAugust 11, 2012Education, Environment, Science, Technologyacidification, alaska, cindy wu, climate change, crowdsourcing, david eaton, dee boersma, denny luan, Environment, internet, karen boenker, kickstarter, kiki jenkins, lauren kuehne, microcredit, microryza, new york, online campaign, pacific oysters, petridish, rachel aronson, rockethub, university of washington

When Rachel Aronson travels this month to Alaska, she and a local research assistant will interview people who are in danger of being displaced by climate change. She will also send about 100 postcards to her funders.

Aronson is among a growing number of University of Washington students, faculty and staff who are using online campaigns to pay for their research. Crowdsourcing uses the Internet to broadcast a question and pool the answers; crowd funding uses the Internet to post an idea and ask people to pony up money to make it a reality. (more…)

Yale Researchers Find New Cause of Climate Change: Trees

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2012Environmentangelita williams, cause, climate change, connecticut, diseased trees, emissions, fungus, global warming, greenhouse gas, groundbreaking, methane concentration, methane gas, methanogens, natural gas, organisms, rotting trees, trees, upland forest, yale, yale myers forest

Researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies have discovered that diseased trees may be a significant cause of global warming. The university’s researchers tested the trees at the Yale Myers Forest near their campus in Connecticut and discovered that rotting trees release a significant amount of methane gas, a highly flammable type of natural gas that can cause climate change in large quantities. The trees at the Yale Myers Forest produce emissions that are equivalent to burning 40 gallons of gas per acre of forest per year.

In their academic report on this matter, “Elevated Methane Concentrations in Trees of an Upland Forest,” the Yale University research team noted that trees that release methane gas look just like ordinary trees on the outside. However, on the inside, they’re being eaten alive by fungus. And the fungus that rots these trees helps fuel methane production because it makes the trees a hospitable breeding ground for methanogens, tiny organisms that create methane. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment