Earthworm activity can alter forests' carbon-carrying capabilities

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Earthworms can change the chemical nature of the carbon in North American forest litter and soils, potentially affecting the amount of carbon stored in forests, according to Purdue University researchers.

The Purdue scientists, along with collaborators from the Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University, study the habits of earthworms originally brought to North America from Europe. They want to determine the earthworms' effect on forest chemistry by comparing carbon composition in forests that vary in earthworm activity.

The Marine Mammal Center begins new leptospirosis study in California

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Impacts of climate change on lakes

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British scientists go cloud-hopping in the Pacific to improve climate predictions

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A 20-strong -team of cloud and climate experts from the UK's National Centre for Atmospheric Science will today set off for Chile to investigate how massive swathes of clouds that hang over the Pacific are affecting climate and weather all round the world, including the UK. This new £3M project aims to reduce some of the largest errors currently in our climate models and thus greatly improve predictions of future climate change.

Similar survival rates for Pacific salmon in Fraser, Columbia Rivers raises new questions

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Canadian and U.S. researchers have made a surprising discovery that some endangered Pacific salmon stocks are surviving in rivers with hydroelectric dams as well as or better than in rivers without dams.

This is the first study of its kind and is carried out by an international team of scientists that includes researchers from the University of British Columbia. Their findings will appear in the October 28 issue of the open access journal PLoS Biology, published by the Public Library of Science.

Genetic evidence for avian influenza movement from Asia to North America via wild birds

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Wild migratory birds may be more important carriers of avian influenza viruses from continent to continent than previously thought, according to new scientific research that has important implications for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus surveillance in North America.

Future of plant sciences explored in new primer

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Wetlands expert: China should think outside the flooding box with Three Gorges Dam

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – China's farmers and merchants should take advantage of new agricultural and business opportunities that could help mitigate some effects of the annual flooding behind the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, according to an Ohio State University wetland expert.

A new insight on ethanol-induced gastric mucosa injury

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Many people all over the world indulge themselves in drinking, which is correlated to a wide spectrum of medical, psychological, behavioral, and social problems. It is well known that chronic alcohol abuse may induce gastrointestinal dysfunction, chronic atrophic gastritis and is closely related with gastric carcinoma. However, the detailed mechanism by which ethanol affects the gastrointestinal mucosa remains to be elucidated.

Cattle fed distiller's grains maintain flavor and tenderness of beef

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AMARILLO – The availability and use of wet distiller's grains in beef finishing diets continues to increase as the ethanol industry expands, and some Texas AgriLife Research scientists are trying to determine if that will affect consumers' meat purchases.

While much of the research focus has been on the energy value of the distiller's grains relative to the corn it replaces, recent questions have been posed on how they may affect beef quality, said Dr. Jim MacDonald, AgriLife Research ruminant nutritionist.