Nature & Environment : Science World Report

Mar 02, 2012 10:21 AM EST

Effects of Environmental Toxicants Reach Down Through Generations

A Washington State University researcher has demonstrated that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on not just an exposed animal but the next three generations of its offspring. The animal's DNA sequence remains unchanged, but the compounds change the way genes turn on ...

Mar 02, 2012 07:45 AM EST

Ocean Acidification Rate May be Unprecedented, Study Says

The world's oceans may be turning acidic faster today from human carbon emissions than they did during four major extinctions in the last 300 million years, when natural pulses of carbon sent global temperatures soaring, says a new study in Science. The study is the first of its kind to survey the g...

Mar 02, 2012 07:37 AM EST

Current Rates of Ocean Acidification are Unparalleled in Earth's History

The study, based on an expert workshop led by Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Bristol, assessed in detail a number of climate change events in the planet's history, including the asteroid impact that made the dinosaurs go extinct and the Permian mass-exti...

Mar 02, 2012 07:30 AM EST

New Study links Dust to Increased Glacier Melting, Ocean Productivity

A University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led study shows a link between large dust storms on Iceland and glacial melting. The dust is both accelerating glacial melting and contributing important nutrients to the surrounding North Atlantic Ocean. The results prov...

Mar 01, 2012 10:33 AM EST

Millennium Development Goals Progress Reports Overestimate Access to Safe Water

The researchers show that the current methods oversimplify the measure by not accounting for water quality; the key measure of safety. In four of the five developing countries studied, the reduction in reported progress would be substantial. It is likely that MDG safe-water progress in other develop...

Mar 01, 2012 07:18 AM EST

NASA Finds Thickest Parts of Arctic Ice Cap Melting Faster

A new NASA study revealed that the oldest and thickest Arctic sea ice is disappearing at a faster rate than the younger and thinner ice at the edges of the Arctic Ocean's floating ice cap.

Feb 29, 2012 02:42 PM EST

Contamination of La Selva Geothermal System in Girona, Spain

Monitoring the construction of wells, avoid over-exploiting cold groundwater close to hot groundwater, and controlling mineral water extraction. These are the recommendations from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the University of Barcelona, after analysing the contamination of La Selva g...

Feb 29, 2012 09:54 AM EST

Genetics of Endangered African Monkey Suggest Troubles from Warming Climate

A rare and endangered monkey in an African equatorial rainforest is providing a look into our climatic future through its DNA. Its genes show that wild drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus), already an overhunted species, may see a dramatic population decline if the forest dries out and vegetation becomes...

Feb 29, 2012 09:17 AM EST

UMD and Chinese Partner to Track and Predict World Climate Change

Scientists from the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University are partnering to track and predict the impact of climate change internationally. When fully developed, the project will provide monitoring and predictive tools that can help, for example, predict crop failure and changes in...

Feb 29, 2012 08:39 AM EST

Iowa State, Ames Lab Chemists Aid Study of Mutated Plants that May be Better for Biofuels

Genetic mutations to cellulose in plants could improve the conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels, according to a research team that included two Iowa State University chemists.

Feb 28, 2012 04:32 PM EST

Land-ocean connections

Scientists from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii â€“ Manoa (UHM) and colleagues recently discovered that land-based plant material and coastal macroalgae indirectly support the increased abundances of bottom fish in submarine canyons, like...

Feb 28, 2012 04:15 PM EST

3 Days of NASA Infrared Images Show System 92S Tropically Developing

NASA satellites have been watching the low pressure area called System 92S for days, and infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed cloud temperatures were cooling, indicating the storm was getting more organized after it moved over northern Madagascar. Now it may be headed for landfall in M...