Rate of ocean acidification the fastest in 65 million years

Press release issued 14 February 2010 A new model, capable of assessing the rate at which the oceans are acidifying, suggests that changes in the carbonate chemistry of the deep ocean may exceed anything seen in the past 65 million years. The model also predicts much higher rates of environmental change at the ocean’s surface […]

Asian Carp Invade Lake Michigan

CHICAGO, Illinois, February 11, 2010 (ENS) – For the first time, genetic material from invasive Asian carp has been detected within Lake Michigan, scientists with the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Biological Sciences reported Wednesday. Researchers said samples taken last fall showed carp DNA in the Calumet Harbor on the southwest shore of Lake […]

Worst Mongolia winter in 30 years could kill 20 million cattle by Spring

By Matthew McDermott, New York, NY  on 02.12.10 What’s dzud you ask? Well, it’s the Mongolian word for the sort of weather they are now experiencing. Roughly translated by Shambala Sun, it’s an unusually dry summer where there isn’t enough grass growth to allow herd animals to grow strong, followed by an unusually cold winter […]

Warming causing radical changes in wildlife body size

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2010) — Some animals, it seems, are going on a diet, while others have expanding waistlines. It’s likely these are reactions to rapidly rising temperatures due to global climate change, speculates Prof. Yoram Yom-Tov of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Zoology, who has been measuring the evolving body sizes of birds and […]

Seaweed beds, the 'cradle of the sea,' vanishing

BY HITOSHI TANOHATA AND ERINA ITO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Fisherman Hideo Kawamura recalls how the Suruga Bay seabed full of kelp and other sea grasses gave him an eerie feeling as a novice abalone catcher. “I went down to find grasses dancing as if they were the long hairs of a woman. It was scary,” […]

Storm runoff and sewage treatment outflow contaminated with household pesticides

ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2010) — Pyrethroids, among the most widely-used home pesticides, are winding up in California rivers at levels toxic to some stream-dwellers, possibly endangering the food supply of fish and other aquatic animals, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Illinois University (SIU). Pyrethroid insecticides, […]

Officials fear another whooping crane die-off

Associated PressJan. 27, 2010, 5:58AM The world’s last remaining natural flock of endangered whooping cranes, which suffered a record number of deaths last year, will probably see another die-off because of scarce food supplies at its Texas nesting grounds this winter, wildlife managers said. The flock lost 23 birds in the 2008-2009 winter season, in […]

Brown pelican migration disrupted, birds starving

By STEVEN DUBOIS Associated Press WriterPosted: 01/26/2010 05:51:24 PM PSTUpdated: 01/26/2010 05:51:25 PM PST PORTLAND, Ore.—California brown pelicans are begging for food on the Oregon coast rather than migrating south to breeding grounds. An estimated 1,000 brown pelicans have remained on the state’s coast, an unheard of number at a time of year when they […]

With climate change, birds are taking off for migration sooner, but not reaching destinations earlier

  Migrating birds can and do keep their travel dates flexible, a new study published online on January 28th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveals. But in the case of pied flycatchers, at least, an earlier takeoff hasn’t necessarily translated into an earlier arrival at their destination. It appears the problem is travel […]

Little owl in decline across Britain and Europe

Nature Notebook: Unlike similar introductions, the little owl has been an attractive addition to Britain’s avifauna By Michael McCarthyTuesday, 26 January 2010 Here’s some sad news for birdwatchers and classicists alike: the wise old owl is in decline. Across Europe, the bird which began the association between owls and intelligence is dropping in numbers – […]

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