Mercury in Dolphins: Study Compares Toxin Levels in Captive and Wild Sea Mammals
Johns Hopkins UniversityA small pilot study found higher levels of toxic mercury in dolphins downwind of power plants than in captive dolphins.
A small pilot study found higher levels of toxic mercury in dolphins downwind of power plants than in captive dolphins.
The nation's $1 billion stream restoration industry needs to do more to ensure that projects are guided by science, according to the co-editor of a new review of the field. Many expensive projects fail because they are not guided by science, experts say.
New simulation study shows that atmosphere warms when pollution intensifies storms.
Nearly 80 percent of disease in developing countries is linked to bad water and sanitation. Now a scientist has found a simple, cheap way to make water safe to drink, even if it’s muddy.
The molecular ballet to stay alive may be recorded, then passed to future generations.
How species diversity is maintained is a fundamental question in biology. In a new study, a team of Indiana University biologists has shown for the first time that diversity is influenced on a spatial scale of unparalleled scope, in part, by how well tree seedlings survive under their own parents.
For the first time, researchers have been able to combine different climate models using spatial statistics - to project future seasonal temperature changes in regions across North America.
A safe haven could be out of reach for 9 percent of the Western Hemisphere's mammals, and as much as 40 percent in certain regions, because the animals just won't move swiftly enough to outpace climate change.
If the world’s nations ever sign a treaty to limit emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide gas, there may be a way to help verify compliance: a new method developed by scientists from the University of Utah and Harvard.
When thousands of citizens opposed to “fracking” present their case to legislators in Albany this spring, chances are that some of them will carry posters of a controversial billboard created by New York City College of Technology (City Tech) graduate Svetlana (Lana) Akhmadieva.
A carbon nanotube sponge that can soak up oil in water with unparalleled efficiency has been developed with help from computational simulations performed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Allowing developers and communities to buy "credits" for pollution reductions made by others has the potential to significantly reduce the projected costs of cleaning up Chesapeake Bay, an economic analysis conducted by RTI International suggests.
Deb Jaisi, an assistant professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware, will be working to 'fingerprint' the phosphorus in Chesapeake Bay.
A 100-fold upsurge in human-produced plastic garbage in the ocean is altering habitats in the marine environment, according to a new study led by a graduate student researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
Accurate Predictions Found in Early Test Results of New Model, Timely Due to Emerging Questions Regarding Forest Land Use and the Environmental Impact
Volcanoes emit a broad spectrum of sonic energy. In the case of basaltic eruptions, most of that acoustical energy in the infrasound range. A new study reveals that this low-frequency sound can give scientists an enhanced understanding of the behavior of volcanoes and a tool to monitor the lifecycles of their eruptions.
National parks are prized for their visual splendor, but the sounds of nature are also part of that rich experience. Researchers and protected area managers are working together to help ensure that the sounds in U.S. national parks remain as natural as possible.
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Oceanographic Center graduate student Jenny Fenton is analyzing the survival rates of juvenile swordfish caught by fishermen using rod and reel and buoy gear. Her research is the first study of its kind.
Researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry found lakes in the undeveloped High Peaks area of the Adirondack Park are covered with ice for significantly shorter periods than they were 32 years ago, providing evidence that climate change is occurring rapidly. Not even the most pristine wilderness areas are immune.
University of Washington researchers have discovered a problem with a climate record that is often cited by climate change skeptics.
Researchers monitor trout movement and diet to study causes of declining populations in Norway. The Ocean Tracking Network collaborates on the study by loaning trout monitoring equipment.
Changes in the speed that ice travels in more than 200 outlet glaciers indicates that Greenland's contribution to rising sea level in the 21st century might be significantly less than the upper limits some scientists thought possible, a new study shows.
A new book produced by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Albertine Rift Conservation Society documents how well-managed protected areas with good law enforcement have saved wildlife in Africa’s Albertine Rift Valley despite decades of insecurity and war.
If you’ve noticed that spring seems to be arriving earlier, forcing blooms to burst and leaves to unfurl sooner than expected, scientists may have found one of the reasons. An international research team that includes Steven Travers, assistant professor of biological sciences at North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., USA, has shown that experiments underpredict how plants respond to climate change. The research, which included 22 institutions in the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, is being published in an advance online issue of the journal Nature. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11014
Big trees three or more feet in diameter accounted for nearly half the biomass measured at a Yosemite National Park site, yet represented only one percent of the trees growing there, according to the largest quantitative study yet of the importance of big trees in temperate forests.
Experiments may dramatically underestimate how plants will respond to climate change in the future. That’s the conclusion of an analysis of 50 plant studies on four continents, published this week in an advance online issue of the journal Nature, which found that shifts in the timing of flowering and leafing in plants due to global warming appear to be much greater than estimated by warming experiments.
Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study from an international research team.
A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society documents that intense development of the two largest natural gas fields in the continental U.S. are driving away some wildlife from their traditional wintering grounds.
Jessica Rennells, a climatologist and extension support specialist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, comments on data released today by the center that shows several cities in the region endured a rare weather juxtaposition – an April that was colder than March.
To burn or not to burn. That is the ecological question facing conservationists and landowners. Ecosystems that have evolved with repeated exposure to fire may be better managed with prescribed fire than other methods. Prescribed fire, however, brings risk and liability concerns.
Can a car really get 3,300 miles to the gallon? The University of Michigan’s Supermileage Team is on its way to proving it can --- with a lawnmower engine.
Scientists are targeting thunderstorms across the U.S. to discover what happens when clouds suck up air from Earth’s surface many miles into the atmosphere.
The world can significantly slow the pace of climate change with practical efforts to control so-called “short-lived climate pollutants” and by bringing successful Western technologies to the developing world, according to three UC San Diego scientists in the journal Foreign Affairs.
Decades of research into how much plastic litters the ocean, conducted by skimming only the surface, may in some cases vastly underestimate the true amount of plastic debris, according to a University of Washington oceanographer publishing in Geophysical Research Letters.
Researchers at McGill, Univ. of Minnesota call for combining best of both approaches.
Lakes have lifecycles of their own and results from more than two decades of research by North Dakota State University professor Malcolm Butler and his students are being used to help determine optimum ways to manage and restore a Minnesota lake managed for migratory waterfowl. Butler, professor of biological sciences at NDSU, is one of 10 co-authors contributing to “A 200-year perspective on alternative stable state theory and lake management from a biomanipulated shallow lake” being published in Ecological Applications.
As Arbor Day focuses attention on trees, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry makes available 100 vignettes about a variety of tree species.
Breast cancer cells are more aggressive the longer they’re exposed to cadmium
A Kansas State University team is researching how climate change is affecting rainfall and weather patterns to help with future adaptation and mitigation strategies. The researchers are updating rainfall distribution data to ensure current stormwater management systems can handle future weather changes.
C.S. Mott Children’s and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospitals get Silver LEED certification from U.S. Green Building Council
Two years since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 may seem a long time for some. This interval has provided partial healing of the environment and for the people whose livelihoods are dependent on the Gulf’s bounty.
The initial phase of Sandia National Laboratories’ Scaled Wind Farm Technology facility (SWIFT), currently being constructed in partnership with Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, will be a little bigger than originally planned. Leading wind turbine manufacturer Vestas will add its own 300-kilowatt, V27 research turbine to the two Sandia V27 research turbines.
Two years after leading a statewide academic task force to help the Gulf Coast region respond to the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Florida State University researchers continue to study the longer-term environmental and economic consequences of the disaster.
A group of environmental scientists say a problem-ridden economic model designed to slow deforestation can be improved by applying key concepts from the insurance industry.
Loblolly pines with improved genetics not only grow faster and produce more wood but also scrub more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
This Friday, April 20, will mark two years since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caused vast quantities of crude oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. But despite the size of the spill, "the natural recovery is far greater than what anybody hoped when it happened," said James Morris, a professor of biology at the University of South Carolina. "The fears of most people – that there would be a catastrophic collapse of the ecosystem in the Gulf – never materialized."
On the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, a pair of researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are using a 1-year, $350,000 contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior to test whether sound waves can be used to determine the size of oil droplets in the subsea—knowledge that could help guide the use of chemical dispersants during the cleanup of future spills.
As the 2nd- anniversary of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico approaches, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) offers environmental experts are available to speak about the impact of the spill, the lessons learned, and what remains to be done to clean up the environment and improve deep water oil drilling in the future NSU’s Oceanographic Center (OC) used part of a $10 million block grant from BP to conduct research on the Gulf Oil Spill’s impact on the marine ecosystem.
Chinese scientists employ risk assessment tools in urban planning efforts to analyze and quantify major industrial hazards in entire cities.
A study by the Woods Hole Research Center examined what needs to be done to achieve the IPCCs representative concentration pathways for nitrogen emissions. It found that meat consumption in the developed world would need to be cut by 50 percent per person by 2050, and emissions in all sectors – industrial and agricultural – would need to be reduced by 50 percent if we are to meet the most aggressive strategy set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to reduce the most potent of greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O).