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Categories: Ecology: Research, Offbeat: Space

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Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Dark energy camera captures galaxies in lopsided tug of war, a prelude to merger      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The spiral galaxy NGC 1532, also known as Haley's Coronet, is caught in a lopsided tug of war with its smaller neighbor, the dwarf galaxy NGC 1531.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research
Published

An inverse model for food webs and ecosystem stability      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers invert a classical approach to modeling food webs. Instead of trying to replicate stable, complex ecosystems using simplistic representations of species interactions, the authors' novel inverse method assumes the ecosystems exist and works backward to characterize food webs that support that assumption. Their work represents a significant step toward addressing a fundamental ecological question of how biodiversity promotes ecosystem stability. The findings offer insights into how nature may respond to growing anthropogenic disturbances.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Research supports use of managed and prescribed fires to reduce fire severity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists found that fires in America's dry conifer forests are burning hotter and killing more trees today than in previous centuries. The main culprit? Paradoxically, a lack of fires.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

New image reveals secrets of planet birth      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have gained new clues about how planets as massive as Jupiter could form. Researchers have detected large dusty clumps, close to a young star, that could collapse to create giant planets.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research
Published

Road salt pollution in many US lakes could stabilize at or below thresholds set by the EPA      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For lakes in areas with light to moderate road density, the authors found that holding road salt application rates steady could help lakes stabilize below 230 mg/l of chloride per liter of water, the threshold designated by the EPA to protect aquatic life. Reducing application could yield additional environmental and economic benefits without threatening road safety.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life
Published

Scientists discover new isopod species in the Florida Keys      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have discovered a new species of marine cryptofauna in the Florida Keys. Cryptofauna are the tiny, hidden, organisms that make up the majority of biodiversity in the ocean. The tiny crustaceans are the first new gnathiid isopod to be discovered from the Floridian ecoregion in 100 years and are named after singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Webb detects water vapor in rocky planet-forming zone      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Water is essential for life as we know it. However, scientists debate how it reached the Earth and whether the same processes could seed rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars. New insights may come from the planetary system PDS 70, located 370 light-years away. The star hosts both an inner disk and outer disk of gas and dust, separated by a 5 billion-mile-wide (8 billion kilometer) gap, and within that gap are two known gas-giant planets.

Offbeat: Space Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
Published

Ancient, high-energy impacts could have fueled Venus volcanism      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team has modeled the early impact history of Venus to explain how Earth's sister planet has maintained a youthful surface despite lacking plate tectonics. The team compared the early collision histories of the two bodies and determined that Venus likely experienced higher-speed, higher-energy impacts creating a super-heated core that promoted extended volcanism and resurfaced the planet.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Galaxy J1135 reveals its water map      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers look at water in galaxies, its distribution and in particular its changes of state from ice to vapor, as important markers indicating areas of increased energy, in which black holes and stars are formed. A new study has now revealed the distribution of water within the J1135 galaxy, which is 12 billion light years away and formed when the Universe was a 'teenager', 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang . This water map, with unprecedented resolution, is the first ever to be obtained for such a remote galaxy. The map can help scientists to understand the physical processes taking place within J1135 and shed light on the dynamics, still partially unclear, surrounding the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies themselves.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Picturing where wildlands and people meet at a global scale      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem biodiversity.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Wildfires
Published

Understanding the many different ways animals are evolving in response to fire could help conservation efforts      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In our modern era of larger, more destructive, and longer-lasting fires -- called the Pyrocene -- plants and animals are evolving quickly to survive. By synthesizing the wide body of research about rapid animal evolution in response to fire, a multidisciplinary team of ecology experts hopes to leverage what we already know to help foster evolution-informed conservation plans. In this way, they suggest, we can try to harness the ways in which fire impacts animals to protect vulnerable species -- working with evolution instead of against it.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Does this exoplanet have a sibling sharing the same orbit?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found the possible 'sibling' of a planet orbiting a distant star. The team has detected a cloud of debris that might be sharing this planet's orbit and which, they believe, could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. If confirmed, this discovery would be the strongest evidence yet that two exoplanets can share one orbit.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Structures and Features
Published

The puzzle of the galaxy with no dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research has found the first evidence of a massive galaxy with no dark matter. The result is a challenge to the current standard model of cosmology.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Unusual white dwarf star is made of hydrogen on one side and helium on the other      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In a first for white dwarfs, the burnt-out cores of dead stars, astronomers have discovered that at least one member of this cosmic family is two faced. One side of the white dwarf is composed of hydrogen, while the other is made up of helium.

Ecology: Extinction Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Some corals may survive climate change without paying a metabolic price      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

If, as the saying goes, 'nothing in life is free,' then corals might pay a price for being resilient to climate change. Indeed, the prevailing belief among scientists has been that corals must suffer reduced growth or other tradeoffs when they partner with symbiotic algae that help them tolerate warmer water. Yet, new research demonstrates that certain corals can have their cake and eat it too, and as a result, these coral-symbiont partnerships may come to dominate reef ecosystems in a climate-changed future.

Ecology: General Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems Space: Exploration
Published

Into the unknown: NASA space laser provides answers to a rainforest canopy mystery      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The space laser GEDI has allowed researchers to 3D map Earth's rainforests for the first time ever, helping us understand the forest canopy and providing vital information for understanding Earth's carbon cycle and how it is changing.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
Published

Giant swirling waves at edge of Jupiter's magnetosphere      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team has found that NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The waves are an important process for transferring energy and mass from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, to planetary space environments.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

James Webb Telescope catches glimpse of possible first-ever 'dark stars'      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Three bright objects initially identified as galaxies in observations from the James Webb Space Telescope might actually represent an exotic new form of star. If confirmed, the discovery would also shed light on the nature of dark matter.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Rare, double-lobe nebula resembles overflowing cosmic 'jug'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A billowing pair of nearly symmetrical loops of dust and gas mark the death throes of an ancient red-giant star. The resulting structure, said to resemble an old style of English jug, is a rarely seen bipolar reflection nebula. Evidence suggests that this object formed by the interactions between the dying red giant and a now-shredded companion star.