How much water does your lawn really need? A University of Utah study re-evaluated lawn watering recommendations by measuring water use by lawns in Los Angeles. The standard model of turfgrass water needs, they found, lacked precision in some common urban southern California conditions, like the Santa Ana winds, or in the shade.
Crows are performing a useful function and keeping our environment free from rotting carcasses, research carried out at the University of Exeter in Cornwall has discovered.
Europe will be spared the worst economic impacts of climate change by a slowing down of the Gulf Stream, new research predicts.
For the first time in New Zealand waters an extremely rare grouping of Shepherd's Beaked Whales has been spotted from a University of Otago research vessel off the coast of the city of Dunedin in the South Island.
Utah State, Eco Logical Research, NOAA, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, South Fork Research Publish in Nature's Scientific Reports.
A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) says that breeding populations of white-naped cranes have decreased by 60 percent in Ulz River basin – an important stronghold for the species in Eastern Mongolia.
Charismatic species—such as felines and primates or whales, sharks, and turtles—are attractive to tourists, and the opportunity of seeing them in the wild motivates tourists to visit protected areas. New research indicates that tourists’ preferences are not restricted to charismatic species, however, and they extend to less charismatic biodiversity, as well as to landscapes.
For the valerian plant, higher elevations in the Colorado Rocky Mountains are becoming much more co-ed. And the primary reason appears to be climate change.
The latest comprehensive analysis of national plans to address climate change after 2020 shows the world will not reach its target of keeping warming to below 2C off pre-industrial levels.
A single microbe dominated thawed permafrost sites, with its relative abundance strongly correlating with the magnitude and specific type of methane produced at any given site.
C. thermocellum uses a previously unknown mechanism to degrade cellulose, in addition to other known degradation mechanisms.
A European study led by Umeå University Professor Lars Nyberg, has shown that the dopamine D2 receptor is linked to the long-term episodic memory, which function often reduces with age and due to dementia. This new insight can contribute to the understanding of why some but not others are affected by memory impairment. The results have been published in the journal PNAS.
A common close partnership which sees baby fish sheltering from predators among the poisonous tentacles of jellyfish will be harmed under predicted ocean acidification, a new University of Adelaide study has found.
DNA tests have confirmed that one of the three southern rockhopper penguin chicks born at Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan between June 4 and 6 was conceived through artificial insemination. This is the result of a project led by Kaiyukan with the collaboration of Associate Professor KUSUNOKI Hiroshi (Kobe University Graduate School of Agricultural Science). It is the world's first successful case of a southern rockhopper penguin being conceived through artificial insemination.
Circadian rhythms are internal clocks that determine many of an organism's daily rhythms, for example sleep-wake, feeding, urinary output and hormone production. Aligned with the environment by external forces such as sunlight and ambient temperature, circadian rhythms are important for animal health and survival. Disturbances of the circadian clock are associated with a variety of diseases in humans and animals, including cancer, mental illnesses and metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and obesity.
Sparrows form pair bonds that are normally monogamous, but many females are unfaithful to their partner and have offspring with other males.
Even with this winter's strong El Niño, the Sierra Nevada snowpack will likely take until 2019 to return to pre-drought levels, according to a new analysis led by UCLA hydrology researchers.
Crop yields will fall within the next decade due to climate change unless immediate action is taken to speed up the introduction of new and improved varieties, experts have warned.
An array of GPS instruments near the San Andreas Fault System in Southern California detects constant motion of Earth's crust--sometimes large, sudden motion during an earthquake and often subtle, creeping motion. By carefully analyzing the data recorded by the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory's GPS array researchers from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM), University of Washington and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) discovered nearly 125 mile-wide "lobes" of uplift and subsidence--a few millimeters of motion each year--straddling the fault system. This large scale motion was previously predicted in models but until now had not been documented.
Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field, protects our planet from the harsh battering of the solar wind. Like a protective shield, the magnetosphere absorbs and deflects plasma from the solar wind which originates from the Sun. When conditions are right, beautiful dancing auroral displays are generated. But when the solar wind is most violent, extreme space weather storms can create intense radiation in the Van Allen belts and drive electrical currents which can damage terrestrial electrical power grids. Earth could then be at risk for up to trillions of dollars of damage.
An oft-quoted proverb says it takes a village to raise a child, and new research from ecologists at LSU and Rice University suggests that a similar concept may be at work in natural ecosystems. The research, which appears in this week’s Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that the early life experiences of individual animals can have wide-reaching impacts on entire species.
For plants and animals fleeing rising temperatures, varying precipitation patterns and other effects of climate change, the eastern United States will need improved “climate connectivity” for these species to have a better shot at survival.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield have provided a unique glimpse into one of the least understood environments on Earth by revealing for the first time former subglacial lakes and their drainage routes beneath the North American ice sheets.
Nesting birds time their escape from an approaching predator depending on how well camouflaged their eggs and their own bodies are, researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Cambridge have discovered.
A new study provides the first evidence that links melting ice in Greenland to a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification—faster warming of the Arctic compared to the rest of the Northern Hemisphere as sea ice disappears.
A study appearing in the journal PLOS ONE this week shows that bioluminescence -- the production of light from a living organism -- is more widespread among marine fishes than previously understood.
Overall impact of recreation on wildlife was minor compared with factors such as large undisturbed forest habitat and local housing density.
Cheap cameras on drones can be used to measure environmental change which affects billions of people around the world, new research from the University of Exeter shows.
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Inaccessibility and mysticism surrounding the mist-veiled mountains of the central Andes make this region promising to hide treasures. With an area of 2197 km2, most of the Llanganates National Park, Ecuador, is nearly unreachable and is traversed only by foot. However, fieldwork conducted by researchers from the Museo de Zoología at Catholic University of Ecuador resulted in the discovery of a more real and tangible gem: biodiversity.
A study led by the Laboratory Evolutionary Biology and Ecology of the Université libre de Bruxelles published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that the humivorous French Guianan termite Cavitermes tuberosus routinely practice asexual queen succession (parthenogenesis).
A University of Montana graduate student's research on Alaskan brown bears and red salmon is the May cover story of the high-profile journal Ecology.
Using a reverse paint-by-numbers approach, scientists have located another gene that controls the brilliant patterning of Heliconius butterfly wings. Led by former Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) fellow Nicole Nadeau, the researchers identified variations in the gene that correspond to wing color and pattern variation in three different Heliconius species.
June is national Great Outdoors Month, and that may have religious implications as people spend more time outside — in particular if they live in or visit an area with beautiful weather and scenery. U.S. counties with more pleasant weather and such attractions as mountains and waterfronts also have lower rates of affiliation with religious organizations, according to a Baylor University study.
At least 50 percent of the tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills is burned every three to four years or less frequently and is susceptible to becoming shrubland if fire frequencies are not increased.
Fossil remains of a previously unknown family of carnivorous Australian marsupials that lived 15 million years ago have been discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site in north-western Queensland by a UNSW Australia-led team of researchers.
Spring snowpack, relied on by ski resorts and water managers throughout the Western United States, may be more vulnerable to a warming climate in coming decades, according to a new University of Utah study.
Study shows that sea urchins defy aging, regardless of lifespan.
New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun - and thus no simple solution - to halting or reversing these declines.
University of Adelaide environmental researchers have called for a ‘code of best practice’ in using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for wildlife monitoring and protection, and other biological field research.
Unlike the declining populations of many fish species, the number of cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish and squid) has increased in the world’s oceans over the past 60 years, a University of Adelaide study has found.
A hominin in the same genus as humans and an ape nicknamed “Laia” are among the discoveries identified by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry as the Top 10 New Species for 2016. Also on the list are a giant Galapagos tortoise, a seadragon, an anglerfish, three invertebrates, a carnivorous sundew and a small tree.
Spotting native alligators and crocodiles in Florida is common, but anyone who sees a large reptile may want to take a second look -- man-eaters that can grow to 18 feet long and weigh as much as a small car have been found in the Sunshine State.
Scientists have mapped changes in composition of plant cell walls over space and time, providing new insights into the development and growth of all plants.
A school has joined a landmark health research project at the University of Louisville designed to use nature to tackle the health impact of busy city streets
Scientists from Austria, Finland and Hungary are using laser scanners to study the day-night rhythm of trees. As it turns out, trees go to sleep too.
With the help of between 4,000 and 5,000 strategically deployed trail cameras, a suite of remote sensing satellites and a global crowd-sourced database, Wisconsin’s wildlife will soon have its prime time moment. May 17 marks the official start of Snapshot Wisconsin, an unprecedented effort to capture in space and time the deer, bears, elk, coyotes, bobcats, badgers and any other wild animal that lumbers, hops, lopes or slithers across the Badger state.
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In a landmark finding, Cornell University and Florida State University researchers report they have identified 1 to 2 percent of the maize genome that turns genes on and off, so they may now focus their attention on these areas for more efficient plant breeding.
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