Planetary boundaries and current status of the phosphorus (P) cycle. (A) Planetary boundary and current status for P input to freshwaters from terrestrial ecosystems, Tg y–1. (B) Planetary boundary and current status for P input to terrestrial soils, Tg y–1. (C) Planetary boundary and current status for P mass in terrestrial soils, Tg. In each […]
By ELISABETH ROSENTHALMarch 9, 2011 TIMBÍO, Colombia — Like most of the small landowners in Colombia’s lush mountainous Cauca region, Luis Garzón, 80, and his family have thrived for decades by supplying shade-grown, rainforest-friendly Arabica coffee for top foreign brands like Nespresso and Green Mountain. A sign in the center of a nearby town proclaims, […]
The switch from El Niño to La Niña across the South Pacific has brought cooler than average temperatures to eastern Australia for 2010. The President of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Prof. Neville Nicholls has described the current La Niña as ‘super strong’—either strongest or second strongest on record, with the highest December Southern […]
By Jacob Goldstein1 March 2011 China holds about $1.2 trillion in U.S. government debt, according to the Treasury Department’s latest figures. That’s about 30 percent higher than the previous estimate. This is part of those global imbalances we keep talking about. China exports more than it imports; the U.S. imports more than it exports. So […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com March 07, 2011 Expansion of industrial oil palm plantations across Malaysia and Indonesia have laid waste to vast areas of forest and peatlands, exacerbating greenhouse gas emissions and putting biodiversity at risk, reports a new satellite-based analysis that maps mature oil palm estates across Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra. The […]
Results of the Wilcoxon-signed ranks test are illustrated in Fig. 2. There was a statistically significant (p = 0.02) reduction in zona binding in RF-EMF-exposed sperms compared with that in controls. Controls bound an average of 31.8 ± 12.8 sperms per hemizona compared with 22.8 ± 12.4 sperms per hemizona of RF-EMF-exposed spermatozoa. Sperm […]
Scatterplot of the greater Central Valley, California calibration data showing the relationship between air quality score and the proportion of nitrophytic lichen abundance at each plot. Abstract: Lichens are highly valued ecological indicators known for their sensitivity to a wide variety of environmental stressors like air quality and climate change. This report summarizes baseline results […]
By Michael RicciardiMarch 3, 2011 Over the past decade, the Arctic’s annual “bloom” of phytoplankton has been arriving earlier each year. The trend in earlier blooms of this crucial, primary producer of the Arctic’s food web is occurring largely along coastal and ice edge areas within the Arctic circle, with the exception of large patches […]
Wet Desert Expeditions7 February 2011 Every year around this time I start to hear comments along the lines of “I heard the lake is supposed to go up 20 feet this winter” or “I was at the lake this weekend and it was up 10 feet!” I call this period the Winter Bump, where for […]
The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) rose for the seventh consecutive month, averaging 231 points in January 2011, up 3.4 percent from December 2010 and the highest (in both real and nominal terms) since the index has been backtracked in 1990. Prices of all the commodity groups monitored registered strong gains in January compared to […]
