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Categories: Ecology: Animals, Environmental: Water

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Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Botany Ecology: Endangered Species Environmental: General Environmental: Water Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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Electronic 'soil' enhances crop growth      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate. Researchers have now developed an electrically conductive 'soil' for soil-less cultivation, known as hydroponics.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Botany Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
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Insects already had a variety of defense strategies in the Cretaceous      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Analyses of amber show that insect larvae were already using a wide variety of tactics to protect themselves from predators 100 million years ago.

Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography
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Reduced air pollution during pandemic points to way to preserve Himalayan glaciers      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Reducing air pollution to levels similar to those during the coronavirus pandemic could protect the glaciers in the Himalayas and prevent them from disappearing by the end of the century. This is the conclusion reached by an international research team analyzing the situation during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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World's smallest 'fanged' frogs found in Indonesia      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have identified a species of frog new to science. The Indonesian amphibian is the size of a quarter, unlike its two-pound cousins, and has tiny fangs. Nearly uniquely among amphibians, they lay their eggs on the leaves of trees, and the males guard and tend to the nests. 

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Biology: Zoology Environmental: Water
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The evolutionary timeline of diminished boric acid and urea transportation in aquaporin 10      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Aquaporin (Aqp) 10 water channels in humans allow the free passage of water, glycerol, urea, and boric acid across cells. However, Aqp10.2b in pufferfishes allows only the passage of water and glycerol and not urea and boric acid. Researchers sought to understand the evolutionary timeline that resulted in the variable substrate selection mechanisms among Aqp10s. Their results indicate that Aqp10.2 in ray-finned fishes may have reduced or lost urea and boric acid permeabilities through evolution.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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Scientists provide recipe to halve pollution from food production      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A major report has put forward solutions to halve nitrogen pollution from agriculture and the food system in Europe, including reducing meat and dairy consumption, fertilizer use and food waste. Inefficiencies in farms, retail and wastewater practices mean that the nitrogen use efficiency of the food system in Europe is only 18%, leaving most of the remainder leaking into air, water and soils. The new report, Appetite for Change, has been produced by a group of researchers coordinated by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), the European Commission, Copenhagen Business School and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) of The Netherlands.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Ecology: Animals Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues
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Genetic diversity of wild north American grapes mapped      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Wild North American grapes are now less of a mystery after researchers decoded and catalogued the genetic diversity of nine species of this valuable wine crop.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Microbiology Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Severe Weather
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Genetic sequencing uncovers unexpected source of pathogens in floodwaters      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers report that local rivers and streams were the source of the Salmonella enterica contamination along coastal North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018 -- not the previously suspected high number of pig farms in the region.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Botany Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Endangered Species
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Genetics of host plants determine what microorganisms they attract      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Plants often develop communities with microorganisms in their roots, which influences plant health and development. Although the recruitment of these microbes is dictated by several factors, it is unclear whether the genetic variation in the host plants plays a role.

Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research
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Study uncovers major hidden human-driven bird extinctions      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Humans have wiped out around 1,400 bird species -- twice as many as previously thought -- with major implications for the ongoing biodiversity crisis, a new study has found. The estimated extinctions would mean almost 12 per cent of bird species have died out over modern human history, since the Late Pleistocene around 130,000 years ago, with the vast majority of them becoming extinct directly or indirectly due to human activity.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geology Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: The Solar System
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Exoplanets' climate -- it takes nothing to switch from habitable to hell      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The Earth is a wonderful blue and green dot covered with oceans and life, while Venus is a yellowish sterile sphere that is not only inhospitable but also sterile. However, the difference between the two bears to only a few degrees in temperature. A team of astronomers has achieved a world's first by managing to simulate the entirety of the runaway greenhouse process which can transform the climate of a planet from idyllic and perfect for life, to a place more than harsh and hostile. The scientists have also demonstrated that from initial stages of the process, the atmospheric structure and cloud coverage undergo significant changes, leading to an almost-unstoppable and very complicated to reverse runaway greenhouse effect. On Earth, a global average temperature rise of just a few tens of degrees, subsequent to a slight rise of the Sun's luminosity, would be sufficient to initiate this phenomenon and to make our planet inhabitable.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Ecology: Animals
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Scientists collect aardvark poop to understand how the species is impacted by climate in Africa      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In a new study of aardvarks, researchers spent months in sub-Saharan Africa collecting poop from the animal and concluded that aridification of the landscape is isolating them, which they say could have implications for their long-term survival.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Animals
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New method could help estimate wildlife disease spread      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new method could be used to estimate the prevalence of disease in free-ranging wildlife and help determine how many samples are needed to detect a disease.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Marine Biology: Zoology Ecology: General Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Biodiversity Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography
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15 most pressing issues for conservation, including invertebrate decline and changing marine ecosystems      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Since 2009, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative has coordinated an annual horizon scan, a well-established method for predicting which threats, changes, and technologies will have the biggest impact on biological conservation in the following year. This year, the 15th horizon scan included 31 scientists, practitioners, and policymakers who developed a list of 96 issues, which they eventually narrowed down to the fifteen most novel and impactful. Their findings include topics related to sustainable energy, declining invertebrate populations, and changing marine ecosystems.

Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Severe Weather
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Understanding atmospheric flash droughts in the Caribbean      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The word 'drought' typically conjures images of parched soil, dust-swept prairies, depleted reservoirs, and dry creek beds, all the result of weeks or seasons of persistently dry atmospheric conditions. In the sun-soaked islands in the Caribbean, however, drought conditions can occur much more rapidly, with warning signs appearing too late for mediation strategies to limit agriculture losses or prevent stresses on infrastructure systems that provide clean water to communities.

Environmental: Water
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How an overlooked study over a century ago helped fuel the Colorado River crisis      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

At the start of World War I, a scientist named Eugene Clyde La Rue hiked the American West to estimate how much water flows down the Colorado River. His findings were ignored, but leaders today don't have to make the same mistake.

Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology
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Drones capture new clues about how water shapes mountain ranges over time      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Drones flying along miles of rivers in the steep, mountainous terrain of central Taiwan and mapping the rock properties have revealed new clues about how water helps shape mountains over geological time.