By Mike Carlowicz 27 September 2017 (NASA) – Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017, ravaging both urban and rural areas with category 4 winds and intense rainfall for several days. Most of the electric power grid and telecommunications network was knocked offline; towns both inland and at the coast were swamped […]
By James F. McCarty 11 October 2017 (The Plain Dealer) – Approaching the end of another summer marked by a substantial algal bloom in Lake Erie’s western basin, environmental and conservation groups released separate reports Tuesday that came to the same conclusion: Ohio, Michigan and Ontario are falling far short in their efforts to reduce […]
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní 11 October 2017LUQUILLO, Puerto Rico (The New York Times) – When you looked up, you could once see nothing but the lush, emerald canopy of tabonuco and sierra palm trees covering El Yunque National Forest. That was before Hurricane Maria obliterated the only tropical rain forest in the United States forest system. […]
By Lynda V. Mapes 9 October 2017 (The Seattle Times) – Just a week after the state Department of Fish and Wildlife approved shipment of 1 million more farmed Atlantic salmon to Cooke Aquaculture’s fish farm near Bainbridge Island, another state agency says it has found a hole in the nets and corrosion in the […]
By Lynda V. Mapes 9 October 2017 (The Seattle Times) – Scientists have been hauling survey nets through the ocean off the coasts of Washington and Oregon for 20 years. But this is the first time some have come up empty.“We were really worrying if there was something wrong with our equipment,” said David Huff, […]
By Karen Weintraub 2 October 2017MOUNT DESERT ROCK, Maine (The New York Times) – From the top of the six-story lighthouse, water stretches beyond the horizon in every direction. A foghorn bleats twice at 22-second intervals, interrupting the endless chatter of herring gulls. At least twice a day, beginning shortly after dawn, researchers climb steps […]
By Laurel Hamers 5 October 2017(Science News) – Neonicotinoid pesticides are turning up in honey on every continent with honeybees.The first global honey survey testing for these controversial nicotine-derived pesticides shows just how widely honeybees are exposed to the chemicals, which have been shown to affect the health of bees and other insects. Three out […]
By Robin McKie 2 September 2017 (The Observer) – Britain must prepare itself for invasions of growing numbers of foreign sea creatures attracted by our warming waters, a new report has warned. Some newcomers could have devastating effects, others could be beneficial, say the researchers. Examples provided by the team include slipper limpets that could […]
28 September 2017 (WHRC) – A revolutionary new approach to measuring changes in forest carbon density has helped WHRC scientists determine that the tropics now emit more carbon than they capture, countering their role as a net carbon “sink.” The shift from carbon sink to carbon “source” was caused by widespread deforestation, degradation and disturbance, […]
31 August 2017 (British Antarctic Survey) – A team of scientists has discovered that a 1°C rise in local sea temperature has massive impacts on an Antarctic marine community. These new results are published this week (31 August) in the journal Current Biology, and enable researchers to better understand the biological implications of the future […]