Showing 20 articles starting at article 421

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Ecology: Sea Life, Geoscience: Earth Science

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

When plastic ends up in the ocean, it gradually weathers and disintegrates into small particles. If marine animals ingest these particles, their health can be severely affected. Large accumulations of plastic can therefore disrupt the biological balance of marine ecosystems. But which areas are particularly affected?

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have used a series of artificial stream channels to mimic the behavior of headwater creeks under future climate change scenarios. They found that drier conditions shifted the life cycles of the algae and insects that form the base of the alpine food web. However, because species adjusted to the shifts in a variety of ways, the stream ecosystems were generally resilient to the changing conditions.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new report uncovers how hydrogen gas, the energy of the future, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago. Hydrogen gas is clean fuel. It burns with oxygen in the air to provide energy with no CO2. Hydrogen is a key to sustainable energy for the future. Though humans are just now coming to realize the benefits of hydrogen gas (H2 in chemical shorthand), microbes have known that H2 is good fuel for as long as there has been life on Earth. Hydrogen is ancient energy.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

When climate scientists look to the future to determine what the effects of climate change may be, they use computer models to simulate potential outcomes such as how precipitation will change in a warming world. Some scientists are also looking at something a little more tangible: coral.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study has found a decline in the abundance of marine fish species that move rapidly toward the poles to escape rising sea temperatures. The researchers explain that many animal species are currently moving toward cooler regions as a result of global warming, but the velocity of such range shifts varies greatly for different species. Examining thousands of populations from almost 150 fish species, the researchers show that contrary to the prevailing view, rapid range shifts coincide with widescale population declines.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Everything is everywhere -- under certain conditions microbial communities can grow and thrive, even in places that are seemingly uninhabitable. This is the case at inactive hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. An international team is presently working to accurately quantify how much inorganic carbon can be bound in these environments.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the Arctic.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In order to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 C, it is essential to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. This would mean not exploiting most of the existing coal, conventional gas and oil energy resources in regions around the world, according to new research. The study presents the atlas of unburnable oil in the world, a world map designed with environmental and social criteria that warns which oil resources should not be exploited to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015 to mitigate the effects of climate change.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Perfectly adapted microorganisms live in extreme environments from deep-sea trenches to mountaintops. Learning more about how these extremophiles survive in hostile conditions could inform scientists about life on Earth and potential life on other planets.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers believe a group of killer whales observed hunting marine mammals including sperm whales, as well as a sea turtle, in the open ocean off California and Oregon could be a new population. Based on available evidence, the researchers posit that the 49 orcas could belong to a subpopulation of transient killer whales or a unique oceanic population found in waters off the coast of California and Oregon.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study provides groundbreaking findings that offer insights on the migration and foraging patterns of leatherback sea turtles along the Northwest Atlantic shelf.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

We are all aware of the dangers of pollution to our air, water, and earth. In a recently published letter, scientists are advocating for the recognition and mitigation of another type of environmental pollution that poses equivalent personal and societal dangers: information overload.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The period that liquid water was present on the surface of Mars may have been shorter than previously thought. Channel landforms called gullies, previously thought to be formed exclusively by liquid water, can also be formed by the action of evaporating CO2 ice, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

We expect tropical animals to handle a certain degree of heat, but not wild swings in temperature. That seems to be true for tropical ectotherms, or 'cold-blooded' animals such as amphibians, reptiles, and insects. However, in a new study of 'warm-blooded' endotherms, a research team found tropical birds can handle thermal variation just fine.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study shines a spotlight on sulfur, a chemical element that, while all familiar, has proved surprisingly resistant to scientific efforts in probing its role in the origin of life.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study identifies the role aerosols over Asia is having on the AMOC, a complex system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Females of some whale species have evolved to live drastically longer lives so they can care for their families, new research shows.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Biologists announce the discovery of numerous species of roundworm in the highly saline waters of Great Salt Lake, the vast terminal lake in northwestern Utah that supports millions of migratory birds. Previously, brine shrimp and brine flies were the only known multicellular animals living in the water column. The scientists found nematodes, belonging to a family known for inhabiting extreme environments, in the lake's microbialites, reef-like structures covering about a fifth of the lakebed.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Marine heat waves in the northeast Pacific Ocean create ongoing and complex disruptions of the ocean food web that may benefit some species but threaten the future of many others, a new study has shown.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New findings show the severe impact of fishing gear entanglements on the survival of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, with every injury from entanglements impacting population recovery.