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From obscurity to dominance: Tracking the rapid evolutionary rise of ray-finned fish

By Guest PostAugust 6, 2013Nature, Scienceadaptive radiation, age of fish, backboned animals, darwins comment, devonian era, end devonian extinction, evolutionary biologist, evolutionary rise, fossils from scotland, fouldenia, glaciers, hangenberg extinction, japanese amberjack, john megahan, lauren sallan, long extinct fish, mass extinctions, michael coates, misclassified fouldenia, oceans, post devonian tetrapods, predatory fish, ray finned fish, romers gap, sea levels, shell crushing, styracopterus, tropics, university of chicago, university of michigan, vertebrate species, yellowtail

ANN ARBOR — Mass extinctions, like lotteries, result in a multitude of losers and a few lucky winners. This is the story of one of the winners, a small, shell-crushing predatory fish called Fouldenia, which first appears in the fossil record a mere 11 million years after an extinction that wiped out more than 90 percent of the planet’s vertebrate species.

The extinction that ended the Devonian Era 359 million years ago created opportunities quickly exploited by a formerly rare and unremarkable group of fish that went on to become—in terms of the sheer number of species—the most successful vertebrates (backboned animals) on the planet today: the ray-finned fish. (more…)

Sea level rise: New iceberg theory points to areas at risk of rapid disintegration

By Guest PostAugust 6, 2013Environmentantarctic ocean, Antarctica, catastrophic breakup, catastrophic disintegration, coast, diverse calving patterns, glacier geometry, greenland, helheim glacier, ice shelf, iceberg calving, jakobshavn glacier, jeremy bassis, larsen b, new iceberg theory, new model, physics, pine island glacier, rapid disintegration, risk, sea-level rise, thwaites, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — In events that could exacerbate sea level rise over the coming decades, stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean, according to new iceberg calving simulations from the University of Michigan.

“If this starts to happen and we’re right, we might be closer to the higher end of sea level rise estimates for the next 100 years,” said Jeremy Bassis, assistant professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the U-M College of Engineering, and first author of a paper on the new model published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience. (more…)

How Mars’ atmosphere got so thin: New insights from Curiosity

By Guest PostJuly 29, 2013Scienceadditional neutron, carbon 12, carbon 13, carbon isotope, curiosity rover, heavier stable isotope, insights from curiosity, isotopes, lighter isotopes, mahli, mars atmosphere, martian air, NASA, sam, samples, solar system, sushil atreya, thin, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — New findings from NASA’s Curiosity rover provide clues to how Mars lost its original atmosphere, which scientists believe was much thicker than the one left today.

“The beauty of these measurements lies in the fact that these are the first really high-precision measurements of the composition of Mars’ atmosphere,” said Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan. (more…)

World’s melting glaciers making large contribution to sea rise

By Guest PostMay 29, 2013Environmentalaska, alex gardner, antarctic ice sheets, arctic canada, clark university, climate experiment, coastal greenland, columbia glacier, contribution, glacier mass changes, grace, gravity recovery, greenland, icesat, john wahr, melting glaciers, NASA, sea rise, sea-level rise, tad pfeffer, the himalayas, the southern andes, university colorado boulder, university of michigan, world

While 99 percent of Earth’s land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world’s glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009, says a new study led by Clark University and involving the University Colorado Boulder.

The new research found that all glacial regions lost mass from 2003 to 2009, with the biggest ice losses occurring in Arctic Canada, Alaska, coastal Greenland, the southern Andes and the Himalayas. The glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic sheets lost an average of roughly 260 billion metric tons of ice annually during the study period, causing the oceans to rise 0.03 inches, or about 0.7 millimeters per year. (more…)

Study of microcredit finds generally positive, but not transformative, impacts

By Guest PostMay 16, 2013Economyanti poverty initiatives, bank, bill, central mexico, compartamos banco, credito mujer, dartmouth college, dean karlan, economist, grameen bank, jonathan zinman, manuela angelucci, market capitalization, melinda gates foundation, Mexico, microcredit, microcredit program, muhammad yunus, nobel peace prize, poverty, poverty action, sonora state, ultra poor, university of michigan, yale university

Microcredit generally benefits borrowers, according to new research focused on Mexico’s biggest for-profit microlender — but it’s not lifting people out of poverty.

In a multi-year, randomized evaluation of microloans provided by Compartamos Banco, Yale University economist Dean Karlan, with collaborators Manuela Angelucci of the University of Michigan and Jonathan Zinman of Dartmouth College, show there are generally positive effects on average and find little evidence that some borrowers end up worse off while others end up better off. However, the canonical story that microcredit leads to higher enterprise income did not bear fruit. (more…)

Protected areas successfully prevent deforestation in Amazon rainforest

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2013EnvironmentAmazon, amazon deforestation rates, Amazon rainforest, arun agrawal, betty moore foundation, brazilian amazon, christoph nolte, datasets, deforestation pressure, deforestation rates, human settlements, indigenous groups, kirsten m silvius, prevent deforestation, protected areas, reducing carbon emissions, reducing deforestation, remote sensing, snre, statistical analysis, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — Strictly protected areas such as national parks and biological reserves have been more effective at reducing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest than protected zones that allow for controlled removal of trees and other natural resources.

In addition, protected areas established primarily to safeguard the rights and livelihoods of indigenous people performed especially well in places where deforestation pressures are high, two University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues determined. (more…)

Green Tea Extract Interferes with the Formation of Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease

By Guest PostMarch 15, 2013Healthakiko kochi, alaina detoma, alzheimer's disease, ayyalusamy ramamoorthy, benefit, bing ye, brain, brandon ruotoloa, copper, egcg, epigallocatechin 3 gallate, green tea, iron, jung suk choi, life sciences institute, metal associated amyloids, mi hee lim, molecule, neurodegenerative conditions, powerful antioxidants, sanghyun lee, specific proteins, structure centric, subramanian vivekanandan, suk joon hyung, tweak, university of michigan, zinc

ANN ARBOR — Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a new potential benefit of a molecule in green tea: preventing the misfolding of specific proteins in the brain.

The aggregation of these proteins, called metal-associated amyloids, is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. (more…)

Two-thirds of Americans Now Believe Global Warming is Real

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2013Environmentallentown, americans, barry rabe, belief, evidence, global temperatures, global warming, hurricanes, muhlenberg college, muhlenberg institute, planet, political factors, public opinion, religious, self identified republicans, superstorm sandy, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — An increasing number of Americans indicate that there is evidence of global warming, with 67 percent now expressing a belief that the planet has warmed over the past four decades, according to a University of Michigan survey.

It marks the highest level of belief in global warming since a 72 percent-measure in 2008 and is up from 52 percent in spring 2010.

The results come from the National Surveys on Energy and Environment, a joint effort of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at U-M’s Ford School of Public Policy and the Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. (more…)

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