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Ancient Trash Heaps Gave Rise To Everglades Tree Islands

By Guest PostMarch 24, 2011Environmentalligators, birds, carbonate, charcoal, chmura, ecological richness, Environment, everglades, florida everglades tree islands, gail chmura, garbage mounds, human artifacts, margo schwadron, maria theresia, marshes, nesting site, panthers, perched carbonate layer, prehistoric humans, shark river slough, south florida, tree island, water control systems, wildlife

SANTA FE, N.M.— Garbage mounds left by prehistoric humans might have driven the formation of many of the Florida Everglades’ tree islands, distinctive havens of exceptional ecological richness in the sprawling marsh that are today threatened by human development.

Tree islands are patches of relatively high and dry ground that dot the marshes of the Everglades. Typically a meter (3.3 feet) or so high, many of them are elevated enough to allow trees to grow. They provide a nesting site for alligators and a refuge for birds, panthers, and other wildlife. (more…)

Reframing Climate Change: It’s as Much Cultural as Scientific

By Guest PostMarch 16, 2011Culture, EnvironmentAl Gore, andy hoffman, climate change, climate change exists, debate, democrats, diagnostic, Environment, evidence of global warming, logic schism, man made phenomena, newspaper editorials, political ideology, prognostic, republicans, united states, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— While debate on climate change often strikes a caustic tone, the real impediment to meaningful dialogue is that the two sides often talk past each other in what amounts to a “logic schism,” says a University of Michigan researcher.

“In a logic schism, a contest emerges in which opposing sides are debating different issues, seeking only information that supports their position and disconfirms their opponents’ arguments,” said Andy Hoffman, the Holcim (U.S.) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at U-M’s Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. “Each side views the other with suspicion, even demonizing the other, leading to a strong resistance to any form of engagement, much less negotiation and concession.” (more…)

Pollution Triggers Genetic Resistance Mechanism in a Coastal Fish

By Guest PostFebruary 24, 20112 commentsEnvironmentacushnet river estuary, ahr2, amino acids, antibiotics, atlantic tomcod, bacteria, diana franks, Environment, evolutionary change, fish, fish populations, general electric facilities, genetic receptor, genetic resistance, hudson environment, hudson river, insecticides, insects, isaac wirgin, mark hahn, natural selection, new york, pahs, PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, protein, receptor gene, stress factors, superfund basic research, tomcod, toxicity, vertebrate population

For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York’s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined colleagues from New York University (NYU) and NOAA to investigate this phenomenon and report that the tomcod living in the Hudson River have undergone a rapid evolutionary change in developing a genetic resistance to PCBs. (more…)

Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Worm-like Animals Tell Story of Ancient Oxygen

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2011Sciencealgae and worms, black shale, cambrian explosion, dynamic and complex nature, ediacaran period, Environment, eukaryotes, evolution of life, geochemical data, global ocean, lantian, lantian basin, macrofossils, macroscopic eukaryotes, organic rich black, oxygen, pristine fossils, richard lane, seaweeds, shuhai xiao, snowball earth, south china, virginia tech, xunlai yuan

*Geobiologists uncover Davy Jones Locker of fossils near small village in south China*

Almost 600 million years ago, before the rapid evolution of life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche near what is now Lantian, a small village in south China.

Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free and unbreathable waters. (more…)

Iceland Volcano’s Molten Rock Could Become Source of High-Grade Energy

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2011Environmentbasaltic, electric power, Environment, geologists, geothermal fluids, geothermal steam, geothermal well, hydrothermal alteration, hydrothermally altered basalt, Iceland, iceland deep drilling project, krafla caldera, krafla volcano, leonard johnson, magma, silica poor basalt magma, sources of power, southwest iceland, supercritical geothermal resources, supercritical pressures and temperatures, supercritical water, underground lava, volcanic rocks, volcano, wilfred elders

*Krafla volcano gives geologists unique, unexpected opportunity to study magma*

Geologists drilling an exploratory geothermal well in 2009 in the Krafla volcano in Iceland met with a big surprise: underground lava, also called magma, flowed into the well at 2.1 kilometers (6,900 feet) depth.

It forced the scientists to stop drilling. (more…)

Intelligence and Personality May Predict Illness and Death

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2011Culture, Healthalcohol abuse, alexander weiss, better lives, cancer, cardiovascular disease, controlling factors, coronary heart disease, david batty, diet, Environment, fast driving, homicide, ian deary, intelligence, intelligence and personality, key personality trait, live longer, negative emotions, personality types, predictor, premature death, smarter people, traits, type d

Do smarter people live longer and better lives? Are certain personality types more prone to premature death than are others? As our population continues to age in dramatic numbers, these questions become increasingly relevant. A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, provides an overview of research on possible associations between intelligence and personality traits and various health outcomes.

Although there is not much evidence to date that links intelligence with cancer, low intelligence has been shown to be related to increased risk of hospital admission and death due to cardiovascular disease. In addition, lower intelligence is associated with a greater incidence of accidents and risk of death by homicide than is higher intelligence. (more…)

Ants’ Ecosystem Role is ‘Key’

By Guest PostFebruary 4, 2011Natureant workers, ants, black garden ants, collembola, common red ants, density, dirk sanders, diversity, ecosystem engineers, Environment, Europe, food chain, frank van veen, grassland food web, lasius niger, myrmica rubra, nest building activity, nutrients, positive influence, predation, predators, sermany, soil, soil nutrient, uk, university of exeter

Research by the University of Exeter has revealed that ants have a big impact on their local environment as a result of their activity as ‘ecosystem engineers’ and predators.

The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, found that ants have two distinct effects on their local environment. (more…)

IBM Selected to Manage First Phase of New York City’s Data Center Consolidation and Modernization Program

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 20111 commentTechnologybridget van kralingen, citiserv, city, cloud computing, data center, Environment, ibm, modernization program, municipal cloud environments, new york, new yorkers, technology platform, technology solutions

*Project to Streamline IT Infrastructure to Improve Service Delivery, Reduce Energy Consumption and Strengthen Security*

NEW YORK, N.Y. – 31 Jan 2011: IBM today announced that it has been selected by the City of New York to build a more efficient, smarter technology platform for CITIServ, the City’s IT infrastructure modernization program. The goal of the project is to streamline delivery of City services by consolidating and updating outdated and incompatible IT, thereby reducing energy consumption, strengthening security, and providing City workers with faster access to the latest technologies. (more…)

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