Showing 20 articles starting at article 1101

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Environmental: Ecosystems, Mathematics: Statistics

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A study of vegetation across New York City and some densely populated adjoining areas has found that on many summer days, photosynthesis by trees and grasses absorbs all the carbon emissions produced by cars, trucks and buses, and then some. The surprising result, based on new hyper-local vegetation maps, points to the underappreciated importance of urban greenery in the carbon cycle.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Mass coral bleaching events are making it harder for some species of reef fish to identify competitors, new research reveals. Scientists studying reefs across five Indo-Pacific regions found that the ability of butterflyfish individuals to identify competitor species and respond appropriately was compromised after widespread loss of coral caused by bleaching. This change means they make poorer decisions that leave them less able to avoid unnecessary fights, using up precious limited energy.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new paper presents a mathematical model for the motion of bacteria that includes cell division and death, the basic ingredients of the cell cycle.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers now show. They reveal that the algal mucus called fucoidan is particularly responsible for this carbon removal and estimate that brown algae could thus remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year -- almost the amount of Germany's entire annual greenhouse gas emissions.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed accurate nation-wide mapping of the carbon content of trees based on aerial images.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study found bird diversity increased in North Carolina mountain forest areas severely burned by wildfire in 2016, reinforcing that while wildfire can pose risks to safety and property, it can be beneficial to wildlife. The study results could help forest managers better predict bird responses to wildfire, and manage forests to benefit birds.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Ocean warming is driving an increase in the frequency and severity of marine heatwaves, causing untold damage to coral reefs. Tropical corals, which live in symbiosis with tiny single celled algae, are sensitive to high temperatures, and exhibit a stress response called bleaching when the ocean gets too hot. In the last 4 decades, marine heatwaves have caused widespread bleaching, and killed millions of corals. Because of this, a global search is underway for reefs that can withstand the heat stress, survive future warming, and act as sources of heat-tolerant coral larvae to replenish affected areas both naturally and through restoration.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research shows that disproportionately large amounts of carbon accumulate at the bottom of deep-sea trenches. The trenches may thus play an important role for deep-sea storage of organic material -- and thus for the atmospheric Co2 balance.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using satellite monitoring data, researchers have developed a deep learning algorithm that could provide real-time monthly land use and land cover maps for parts of India.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

UK forests could store almost double the amount of carbon than previous calculations suggest, with consequences for our understanding of carbon stocks and humanity's response to climate change, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Traction is important. Humans have been continually interested in discovering how to better move across wet or frozen surfaces safely -- whether to improve shoes for walking on sidewalks or tires to maneuver the roadways. But what makes it possible for some Arctic animals to walk and run across the ice so effortlessly and gracefully without slipping and falling? Researchers took a deep dive into the paws of polar bears to find out. What the team discovered was that all bears (except sun bears) have papillae on their paw pads, but that the papillae on polar bears were taller -- up to 1.5 times. And, that the taller papillae of polar bears help to increase traction on snow relative to shorter ones. Even though polar bears have smaller paw pads compared to the other species (likely because of greater fur coverage for heat conservation), the taller papillae of polar bears compensate for their smaller paw pads, giving them a 30-50% increase in frictional shear stress.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New study examines the flow of ecological energy across old-growth forests, logged forests and oil palm. The study surveys mammal and bird species across these landscapes to calculate food energetic pathways: how photosynthetic energy cascades from sunlight to be distributed among organisms. Relative to energy flow in old-growth forests, study finds 2.5 times more total energy flows in logged forests. The study findings question the use of the word 'degraded' to describe logged tropical forests.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study shows machine-learning models trained using simple symptoms, demographic features are effective in predicting COVID-19 infections.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Study uses lab-grown coral clones to determine why some coral thrive when transplanted onto coral reefs and others die.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international collaboration of scientists has created the first inventory of flora introduced to the tropics, filling a knowledge gap about invasive plants in the tropics.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New study finds very few deep reefs have any form of protection, and face a multitude of threats, set only to escalate in the near future. Deep reefs are found below 30m and have a larger geographic range than shallow reefs. Deep reefs are biological hotspots, essential for climate change resilience, ocean health and food security, and a refuge for ocean life threatened in shallow waters.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The biochemical process by which cyanobacteria acquire nutrients from rocks in Chile's Atacama Desert has inspired engineers at the University of California, Irvine to think of new ways microbes might help humans build colonies on the moon and Mars.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

European forest-dwelling bats require complex woodland structures at both the micro-habitat and the landscape level for successful breeding in summer. Particularly, the results from Kharkiv region (Eastern Ukraine) demonstrate that large stands of mature forests older than 90 years improved the breeding activity of bats, their abundance and overall species richness. Abundance and species richness increased from upland plots surrounded by agricultural lands to riverine or waterside plots with high forest cover.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Kelp forests are one of the most diverse and productive natural ecosystems on the planet, but in the past 50 to 100 years significant swaths have been lost and many of the remaining systems show a declining trajectory.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have been studying the effects of the sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred about 8,200 years ago, the so-called 8.2-kiloyear event, with the help of mineral deposits present in White Moon Cave in Northern California. New indications show that oscillations between extreme wetness and aridity in California were closely linked with the occurrence of wildfires. The researchers have concluded that such events are likely to become more common in the face of human-induced climate change.