Earth

Washington wine grape vineyards experimenting with sustainable pest management systems are seeing an unexpected benefit: an increase in butterflies.

Over the years, loss in natural habitat has seen the decline in numbers of around 50 species of butterflies in eastern Washington. But in a recent Washington State University study published in the June issue of the Journal of Insect Conservation, researchers found that vineyards that create nearby natural habitats have three times the number of butterfly species and four times more butterflies than conventional vineyards.

Photosynthesis leaves behind a unique calling card in the form of a chemical signature that is spelled out with stable oxygen isotopes, UCLA geochemists reported April 24 in the journal Science. The findings suggest that similar isotopic signatures could exist for many biological processes, including some that are difficult to observe with current tools.

New research has questioned the role played by ocean acidification, produced by the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs, in the extinction of ammonites and other planktonic calcifiers 66 million years ago.

Ammonites, which were free-swimming molluscs of the ancient oceans and are common fossils, went extinct at the time of the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact, as did more than 90 per cent of species of calcium carbonate-shelled plankton (coccolithophores and foraminifera).

New England's spring and summer red tides will be similar in extent to those of the past three years, according to the 2015 Gulf of Maine red tide seasonal forecast. The forecast is the eighth seasonal Gulf of Maine red tide forecast funded by NOAA and issued by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and North Carolina State University.

The forecast is part of a larger NOAA effort to deliver ecological forecasts that support human health and well-being, coastal economies, and coastal and marine stewardship.

Research by the U.S. Forest Service at the Finger Lakes National Forest (FLNF) is exploring whether native trees can restore a degraded stream corridor and whether degraded stream corridors can help one of those native trees -- the American elm -- stage a comeback.

"Forest Service research is a vital part of keeping our rural and urban forests healthy, sustainable and more resilient to disturbances now and for future generations," said Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory.

Duke University scientists have discovered a previously unknown dual mechanism that slows peat decay and may help reduce carbon dioxide emissions from peatlands during times of drought.

"This discovery could hold the key to helping us find a way to significantly reduce the risk that increased drought and global warming will change Earth's peatlands from carbon sinks into carbon sources, as many scientists have feared," said Curtis J. Richardson, director of the Duke University Wetland Center and professor of resource ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

On Sunday, May 10, 2015, Super Typhoon Noul (designated Dodong in the Philippines) made landfall in Santa Ana, a coastal town in Cagayan on the northeastern tip of the Philippine Islands. Close to 2,500 residents evacuated as the storm crossed over, and as of today no major damage or injuries have been reported.

This was no Mother's Day gift to South Carolina as Ana made landfall on Sunday. Just before 6 am, Ana made landfall north of Myrtle Beach, SC with sustained winds of 45 mph, lower than the 50 mph winds it was packing as a tropical storm over the Atlantic.

After making landfall, Ana transitioned to a tropical depression and is currently moving northward through North Carolina and will continue its trek northward. Heavy rain and storm surges are expected in the storm's wake.

Over nearly 15 years spent studying ticks, Indiana University's Keith Clay has found southern Indiana to be an oasis free from Lyme disease, the condition most associated with these arachnids that are the second most common parasitic disease vector on Earth.

He has also seen signs that this low-risk environment is changing, both in Indiana and in other regions of the U.S.

A researcher from the University of Pennsylvania has identified a species of dinosaur closely related to Velociraptor, the group of creatures made infamous by the movie "Jurassic Park." The newly named species likely possessed a keen sense of smell that would have made it a formidable predator.

Researchers have discovered a new gene that enables plants to regulate their growth in different temperatures.

Published in PLoS Genetics today, the finding could lead to new ways of optimising plant growth when it comes to climate change.

Associate Professor Sureshkumar Balasubramanian, from Monash University, along with colleagues in Spain, made the discovery after analysing natural populations of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, commonly known as thale cress.

Research by an Indiana University environmental scientist and colleagues at universities in Iowa and Washington finds that potentially harmful growth-promoting hormones used in beef production are expected to persist in the environment at higher concentrations and for longer durations than previously thought.

How did the first complex eukaryotic cells with their organelles develop from simple prokaryotes, i.e. bacteria or archaea? This is a highly debated topic in evolutionary research but the question remains largely unresolved. Genomic research has shown that the organelles delivering energy in eukaryotic cells stem from an early bacterial symbiont. Since Archaea have also played an important role in the evolution of eukaryotes, current models suggested, that a primordial Archaeon might have engulfed a bacterium and in this event transformed into a complex eukaryotic cell.

Much attention has been given to dedicated, perennial bioenergy crops to meet the revised Renewable Fuel Standard mandating production of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by the year 2022. Even so, concern remains over the impending need to convert as much as 30 million acres of U.S. crop land, which would include food crops, to land for perennial energy crops in order to meet that demand.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found using animal models that the new recreational drug alpha-PVP ("flakka") seems equivalently potent as a stimulant, and therefore as addictive, as its chemical cousin MDPV ("bath salts").

News stories in recent months have blamed flakka for incidents of extreme violence, paranoid psychoses, compulsive nudity, zombie-like behavior and even "superhuman strength." One man, allegedly high on the drug, tried to break into a police station. Another ran naked through Fort Lauderdale traffic.