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Categories: Ecology: Extinction, Space: Astrophysics
Published Frogs were Florida's first-known vertebrates from the Caribbean
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new fossil study shows that frogs from the genus Eleutherodactylus are geologically the oldest Caribbean vertebrates to be found in Florida. They made the journey 20 million years ago, when much of Florida was still underwater.
Published Crust-forming algae are displacing corals in tropical waters worldwide
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Over the past few decades, algae have been slowly edging corals out of their native reefs across the globe by blocking sunlight, wearing the corals down physically, and producing harmful chemicals. But in recent years, a new type of algal threat has surfaced in tropical regions like the Caribbean -- one that spreads quickly and forms a crust on top of coral and sponges, suffocating the organisms underneath and preventing them from regrowing. Marine biologists report that peyssonnelioid alga crusts, or PACs, are expanding quickly across reefs worldwide, killing off corals and transforming entire ecosystems.
Published Black holes are messy eaters
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New observations down to light-year scale of the gas flows around a supermassive black hole have successfully detected dense gas inflows and shown that only a small portion (about 3 percent) of the gas flowing towards the black hole is eaten by the black hole. The remainder is ejected and recycled back into the host galaxy.
Published Adult coral can handle more heat and keep growing thanks to heat-evolved symbionts
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Adult fragments of a coral species can better tolerate bleaching and recover faster when treated with tougher heat-evolved symbionts, new research indicates. The study also found that treatment with the heat-evolved symbionts did not compromise the coral's ability to grow. This differs from previous studies on Great Barrier Reef corals which found that naturally heat tolerant symbionts could enhance heat resistance in adult corals, but at a cost to its growth.
Published Researchers find gravitational lensing has significant effect on cosmic birefringence
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Future missions will be able to find signatures of violating the parity-symmetry in the cosmic microwave background polarization more accurately after a pair of researchers has managed to take into account the gravitational lensing effect, reports a new study.
Published Exploding stars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source When massive stars or other stellar objects explode in the Earth's cosmic neighborhood, ejected debris can also reach our solar system. Traces of such events are found on Earth or the Moon and can be detected using accelerator mass spectrometry, or AMS for short.
Published Buzz around new centralized pollination portal for better global bee data
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A powerful new way to fill major gaps in public bee data -- including from Africa, Asia and other under-reported zones -- has been addressed with a centralized tool for consolidating bee pollinator occurrences around the globe.
Published Advanced assisted reproduction in white rhinos is safe and reliable, shows evaluation of procedures
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The BioRescue project develops and pioneers advanced assisted reproduction technologies (aART) for conservation in the face of the imminent extinction of most rhino species and subspecies. In a new scientific analysis, the team evaluated 65 aART procedures conducted from 2015 to 2022. The evaluation showed that aART is safe for the donor females with no detrimental health effects, and successful in that it yielded 51 embryos.
Published New map of 20th century land use in Britain helps researchers demystify biodiversity change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have mapped how land use changed across Britain throughout the last century. The new map reveals how and where some 50 per cent of semi-natural grassland was lost, including 90 per cent of the country's lowland meadows and pasture, as the nation intensified its agriculture.
Published Australasia's hidden pollination crisis could threaten biodiversity and food security
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Australasia's hidden pollination crisis, mirroring global threats, could pose a significant risk to regional biodiversity and food security, new research has found.
Published Amazon deforestation linked to long distance climate warming
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Deforestation in the Amazon causes land surfaces up to 100 kilometers away to get warmer, suggests a new study. The research suggests that tropical forests play a critical role in cooling the land surface -- and that effect can play out over considerable distances.
Published Amphibians have one more thing to worry about--mercury
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The first widescale assessment of methylmercury in adult amphibians in the U.S. to date shows that, in amphibians, this toxic compound is common, widespread and, at least for some, can reach very high levels.
Published Offset markets: New approach could help save tropical forests by restoring faith in carbon credits
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new approach to valuing the carbon storage potential of natural habitats aims to help restore faith in offset schemes, by enabling investors to directly compare carbon credit pricing across a wide range of projects.
Published The importance of the Earth's atmosphere in creating the large storms that affect satellite communications
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Large geomagnetic storms disrupt radio signals and GPS. Now, researchers have identified the previous underestimated role of the ionosphere, a region of Earth's upper atmosphere that contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons, in determining how such storms develop. Understanding the interactions that cause large geomagnetic storms is important because they can disrupt radio signals and GPS. Their findings may help predict storms with the greatest potential consequences.
Published 75% of exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The tropical wood type ipe is popular for building exclusive wooden decks, and in North America and Europe, the demand for the material has increased sharply. Now, a study shows that more than three-quarters of all ipe from the top producing region in Brazil could have been harvested illegally.
Published Endangered whales live in area earmarked for gas exploration
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Endangered whales and dolphins live year-round in an area of the Mediterranean earmarked for oil and gas exploration, new research shows.
Published Deep learning speeds up galactic calculations
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Supernovae, exploding stars, play a critical role in the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, key aspects of them are notoriously difficult to simulate accurately in reasonably short amounts of time. For the first time, a team of researchers apply deep learning to the problem of supernova simulation. Their approach can speed up the simulation of supernovae, and therefore of galaxy formation and evolution as well. These simulations include the evolution of the chemistry which led to life.
Published Massive space explosion observed creating elements needed for life
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have observed the creation of rare chemical elements in the second-brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen -- casting new light on how heavy elements are made.
Published Research reveals three new marsupial species -- though all likely extinct
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The exciting discovery of three new species of a small Australian marsupial has been tempered by the sad fact that each of the newly identified species of mulgara is likely already extinct.
Published Raining cats and dogs: Global precipitation patterns a driver for animal diversity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has identified several factors to help answer a fundamental ecological question: why is there a ridiculous abundance of species some places on earth and a scarcity in others? What factors, exactly, drive animal diversity? They discovered that what an animal eats (and how that interacts with climate) shapes Earth's diversity.