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Archive for May, 2013
Rare species perform unique roles, even in diverse ecosystems
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 28th, 2013
ScienceDaily: A new study, published 28 May in the open access journal PLOS Biology, has revealed the potential importance of rare species in the functioning of highly diverse ecosystems. Using data from three very different ecosystems -- coral reefs, tropical forests and alpine meadows -- a team of researchers led by David Mouillot at the University of Montpellier 2, France, has shown that it is primarily the rare species, rather than the more common ones, that have distinct traits involved in unique ecological...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Rare species perform unique roles, even in diverse ecosystemsIn Malawi, Evangelicals Don’t Doubt Climate Change
Posted by Huffington Post: Judd Birdsall on May 28th, 2013
Huffington Post: The river once teemed with fish and was lined by lush banana trees. Now it's a dry, scorched trail of barren sand. In Fombe village, Malawi, climate change is not a matter of political or scientific debate. It's a matter of survival. I recently visited Fombe and several other villages throughout Malawi with a group of American Christian leaders brought together by the Evangelical Environmental Network and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. We wanted to see the impact of climate disruption firsthand....
Ethiopia diverts Blue Nile for dam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 28th, 2013
BBC: Ethiopia has started diverting a stretch of the Blue Nile to make way for a $4.7bn (£3.1bn) hydroelectric dam that has caused a dispute with countries downstream, state media say.
The Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which is currently under construction, is part of a $12bn (£8bn) investment project to boost power exports.
The Blue Nile is one of two major tributaries of the Nile - one of the world's longest rivers.
Egypt and Sudan object to the dam.
They say it violates a colonial-era...
Dealing with ‘crap’ to improve water quality
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 28th, 2013
ScienceDaily: To better understand how bacteria impact the environment a former University of California, Riverside graduate student spent nearly a year building a system that replicates a human colon, septic tank and groundwater and "fed" the colon three times a day during weeklong experiments to simulate human eating.
Ian Marcus, who recently earned his Ph.D. from the UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering, said discussion of the research often left people a bit perplexed.
"People would give a kind-of-interested-but-definitely-don't-talk-about-it-during-dinner...
Antarctica’s ecosystem is 33 million years old
Posted by LiveScience: Stephanie Pappas on May 28th, 2013
LiveScience: he modern ecosystem of icy Antarctica is some 33.6 million years old, new research finds, with a system dating back to the formation of the polar ice caps. The date is revealed by fossilized remnants of plankton found in Antarctic sediments, which show how plankton diversity plummeted when a big chill came along at the end of the Eocene Epoch and the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. Before the transition, Earth was a toastier place, and a wide array of plankton survived even at the poles. The...
Monterey Shale Shakes Up California’s Energy Future
Posted by National Geographic: Josie Garthwaite on May 28th, 2013
National Geographic: It's easy to tick off the ways in which California is a leader in clean energy: It harvests more solar energy than any other state, has a program to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the vehicles on its famously long highways, and launched its own cap-and-trade system this year. ee accompanying photo gallery: "Pictures: Oil Potential and Animal Habitat in the Monterey Shale.")
And yet, a move is afoot for a quite different type of new energy development in the Golden State, beneath the same valley...
GE investing billions in fracking technology
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 28th, 2013
Associated Press: One of America's corporate giants is investing billions of dollars in the new boom of oil and gas drilling that relies on a controversial extraction method known as fracking. General Electric Co. is opening a new laboratory in Oklahoma, buying up fracking-related companies and placing a big bet that cutting-edge science will improve profits for clients and reduce the environmental and health effects of the boom. "We like the oil and gas base because we see the need for resources for a long time...
Turning up the temperature might save frogs’ lives
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 28th, 2013
Mongabay: Over the past 30 years, amphibians worldwide have been infected with a lethal skin disease known as the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis).
"The disease can cause rapid mortality, with infected frogs of susceptible species dying within weeks of infection in the laboratory." Jodi Rowley, a herpetologist with the Australian Museum told mongabay.com. "This disease has now been associated with declines and extinctions in hundreds of species of amphibians worldwide, and is a...
NYC and the U.S. East Coast Must Take Drastic Actions to Prevent Ocean Flooding
Posted by Scientific American: Mark Fischetti on May 28th, 2013
Scientific American: Thomas Abdallah has seen a lot of water in his 26 years of work for New York City's transit system. In December 1992 a nor'easter storm killed the subway's power, forcing rescue crews to evacuate passengers from flooding tunnels. In August 2007 a five-inch deluge that meteorologists called an “extreme climate event” shut down the system again. So did Hurricane Irene in August 2011. Then came Hurricane Sandy.
As Sandy's storm surge began to flood downtown Manhattan last October, dozens of New York...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on NYC and the U.S. East Coast Must Take Drastic Actions to Prevent Ocean FloodingSri Lanka: Jaffna aquifer depleting from overuse
Posted by SciDevNet: Dilrukshi Handunnetti on May 28th, 2013
SciDevNet: The single limestone aquifer, which is the main source of freshwater in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula, is gradually depleting through overuse, researchers say. "The area suffers from severe groundwater imbalance which might reach crisis proportions in the future," Shanti de Silva, one of two scientists who carried out the research for the agricultural department of the University of Jaffna, told SciDev.Net. At a presentation of the research results last month (18 April), de Silva called...