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Categories: Biology: Marine, Offbeat: Earth and Climate

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Biology: Marine Ecology: Animals Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Sea Life
Published

Feathered 'fingerprints' reveal potential motivation for migratory patterns of endangered seabirds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research shows that the feathers of seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross can provide clues about their long-distance foraging, which could help protect these species from further decline.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published

Keeping drivers safe with a road that can melt snow, ice on its own      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Slipping and sliding on snowy or icy roads is dangerous. Salt and sand help melt ice or provide traction, but excessive use is bad for the environment. And sometimes, a surprise storm can blow through before these materials can be applied. Now, researchers ave filled microcapsules with a chloride-free salt mixture that's added into asphalt before roads are paved, providing long-term snow melting capabilities in a real-world test.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Sea Life Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

How the fastest fish hunts its prey      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have designed a novel electronic tag package incorporating high-tech sensors and a video camera in order to document a detailed view of exactly how sailfish behave and hunt once they are on their own and out of view of the surface.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Sea Life Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Whale warning as clock ticks towards deep-sea mining      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Seabed mining could soon begin in the deep ocean -- but the potential impact on animals including whales is unknown, researchers have warned.

Biology: Microbiology Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Kangaroo fecal microbes could reduce methane from cows      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Baby kangaroo feces might help provide an unlikely solution to the environmental problem of cow-produced methane. A microbial culture developed from the kangaroo feces inhibited methane production in a cow stomach simulator. After researchers added the baby kangaroo culture and a known methane inhibitor to the simulated stomach, it produced acetic acid instead of methane. Unlike methane, which cattle discard as flatulence, acetic acid has benefits for cows as it aids muscle growth.

Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published

Better understanding on the way to a carbon-neutral economy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

What role could rifted margins play in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy? Researchers summarize the current state of knowledge about the so-called rifting of continents. Rifting is the term researchers use to describe the process by which continental plates break and new oceans are formed.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Extinction Ecology: General Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Coral reefs in the Eastern Pacific could survive into the 2060s      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists found that some reefs in the tropical Pacific Ocean could maintain high coral cover into the second half of this century by shuffling the symbiotic algae they host. The findings offer a ray of hope in an often-dire picture of the future of coral reefs worldwide.

Biology: Evolutionary Biology: Marine Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Biodiversity
Published

Biodiversity engine for fishes: Shifting water depth      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Fish, the most biodiverse vertebrates in the animal kingdom, present evolutionary biologists a conundrum: The greatest species richness is found in the world's tropical waters, yet the fish groups that generate new species most rapidly inhabit colder climates at higher latitudes. A new study helps to explain this paradox. The researchers discovered that the ability of fish in temperate and polar ecosystems to transition back and forth from shallow to deep water triggers species diversification. Their findings suggest that as climate change warms the oceans at higher latitudes, it will impede the evolution of fish species.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Sea Life Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Due to their feed, chicken and farmed salmon have remarkably similar environmental footprints      (via sciencedaily.com) 

We love our chicken. We love our salmon. Thanks to how we farm these two popular proteins, their environmental footprints are surprisingly similar.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Fossil discovery reveals complex ecosystems existed on Earth much earlier than previously thought      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

About 250 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic mass extinction killed over 80 per cent of the planet's species. In the aftermath, scientists believe that life on earth was dominated by simple species for up to 10 million years before more complex ecosystems could evolve. Now this longstanding theory is being challenged by a team of international researchers.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Sea Life Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

The cod population off the coast of Sweden is not extinct      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Through DNA analyses, researchers have identified that there are still juvenile coastal cod off the west coast of Sweden. However, it is still difficult to find any mature adult cod in the area.

Biology: Marine Ecology: General Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Biodiversity Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Marine reserves unlikely to restore marine ecosystems      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Protected marine areas are one of the essential tools for the conservation of natural resources affected by human impact -- mainly fishing --, but, are they enough to recover the functioning of these systems? A study now highlights the limitations of marine reserves in restoring food webs to their pristine state prior to the impact of intensive fishing.

Archaeology: General Biology: Marine Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals
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Caribou have been using same Arctic calving grounds for 3,000 years      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Caribou have been using the same Arctic calving grounds for more than 3,000 years. Female caribou shed their antlers within days of giving birth, leaving behind a record of their annual travels across Alaska and Canada's Yukon that persists on the cold tundra for hundreds or even thousands of years. Researchers recovered antlers that have sat undisturbed on the arctic tundra since the Bronze Age.

Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

New Zealand one of few island nations with potential to produce enough food in a nuclear winter, researchers say      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New Zealand is one of only a few island nations that could continue to produce enough food to feed its population in a nuclear winter, researchers have found.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published

Why icicles are rippled      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Winter is coming to an end; the last nights of below zero temperatures are here. In the morning, one still spots the occasional icicle on a gutter or car bumper. When you look at these icicles carefully, you may notice that they show a characteristic pattern of ripples -- always around one centimetre wide. What causes these ripples? Using an icicle machine of their own design, physicists and chemists investigated this question, and discovered that salt plays an important part in the formation process of the ripples.

Biology: Marine Biology: Microbiology
Published

Why microbes in the deep ocean live without sunlight      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study reverses the idea that the bulk of life in the ocean is fueled by photosynthesis via sunshine, revealing that many ocean microbes in fact get their energy from hydrogen and carbon monoxide. It has always been a mystery as to how microbes growing in deepest parts of the sea survive, with no sunlight. A new study shows that a distinct process called chemosynthesis -- growth using inorganic compounds -- fuels microbes in these darkest depths.

Biology: Marine
Published

Shark bites tied for 10-year low in 2022 but spiked in regional hotspots      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The number of unprovoked shark attacks worldwide decreased last year, tying with 2020 for the fewest number of reported incidents in the last 10 years. There were a total of 57 unprovoked bites in 2022, most of which occurred in the United States and Australia. Of these, five attacks were fatal, down from nine deaths in 2021 and 10 the year prior.

Biology: Evolutionary Biology: Marine Ecology: Extinction
Published

How species partnerships evolve      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Biologists explored how symbiotic relationships between species evolve to become specific or general, cooperative or antagonistic.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published

Nematodes can help us detect indoor air impurities      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Good quality indoor air is crucial to our well-being, while impurities in the air can compromise our working capacity and health. Researchers have developed a new method for measuring indoor air quality, making use of fluorescent strains of nematodes.

Geoscience: Severe Weather Offbeat: Earth and Climate
Published

Far-off storms fuel sneaker waves along Pacific Northwest coast, new research suggests      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Sneaker waves are likely fueled by a specific type of wave condition generated by far-off storms and paired with just the right conditions closer to shore, a new study has found.