Ecology articles

'Nymph of the sea' reveals remarkable brood
The scientists discovered the mother complete with her brood of some 20 eggs and 2 possible juveniles inside, together with other details of her soft part anatomy including legs and eyes.

The area of influence of earthquakes could be larger than currently thought
Dr Álvaro Corral, a Ramón y Cajal researcher for the UAB Department of Physics, studies the relationships between the time and place of earthquake occurrences (ie, the jumps between an initial earthquake and another earthquake at a later time in another place) using statistical physics methods. By analysing data on the distance between consecutive earthquakes, Dr Corral has concluded that the area of influence of seismic activity could be larger than was thought until now. The result of his work has been published in Physical Review Letters.

Evidence from hawaiian volcanoes shows that earth recycles its crust
A geologist at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has come up with evidence our planet practices recycling on a grand scale.

Scientists want to solve puzzle of excess water vapor near cirrus clouds
A number of researchers in recent years have reported perplexing findings of water vapor at concentrations as much as twice what they should be in and around cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere, a finding that could alter some conclusions about climate change.

Increase in carbon dioxide emissions accelerating
According to the co-Chair of the Global Carbon Project, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research scientist Dr Mike Raupach, 7.9 billion tonnes of carbon were emitted into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide in 2005 and the rate of increase is accelerating.

Voyage reveals extraordinary life around deep-sea gas seeps
An international team led by scientists from the United States and New Zealand, including Lisa Levin of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, have for the first time observed the bizarre deep-sea communities living around methane seeps off New Zealand's east coast.

Lucky break gives scientists unique view of underwater eruption
A combination of luck and being in the right place at the right time allowed a University of Florida geologist and other scientists to capture and record an undersea volcanic eruption for the first time ever.

Evolution of typhoid bacteria
In a study published in the latest issue of Science (24 November, 2006), an international consortium from the Max-Planck Society, Wellcome Trust Institutes in Britain and Vietnam, and the Institut Pasteur in France have elucidated the evolutionary history of Salmonella Typhi.

Research uses satellite observation to track avian flu
An international, interdisciplinary team of researchers led by professor Xiangming Xiao of the University of New Hampshire is taking a novel scientific approach in an attempt to understand the ecology of the avian influenza, develop better methods of predicting its spread, and provide an accurate early warning system.

Southern ocean could slow global warming
The Southern Ocean may slow the rate of global warming by absorbing significantly more heat and carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to new research.

Return of el Niño yields near normal 2006 Atlantic hurricane season
As the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season comes to a close, NOAA scientists announced that seasonal activity was lower than expected due to the rapid development of El Niño – a periodic warming of the ocean waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific which influences pressure and wind patterns across the tropical Atlantic.

Predicting the timing of major earthquakes
Forecasting when a major earthquake will erupt -- within a window of two to three years -- could be possible, based on mathematical studies by researchers at UC Davis, Boston University and the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Listening in on the birth pangs of Earth's crust
Scientific business-as-usual became an adventure in ocean floor geology for Donald Forsyth, Alberto Saal and their students when the instruments they were supposed to retrieve for another scientist went missing. The researchers quickly collected samples and data that strongly suggested they had just missed a major episode of seafloor spreading – and the missing instruments had been buried in lava.

Snottites, other biofilms hasten cave formation
Biofilms, which are complex layered communities of sulfur-consuming microbes, increase the rate of cave formation, but may also shed light on other biofilms, including those that grow on teeth and those that corrode steel ships hulls, according to a team of geologists.

Discovery sheds new light on cause of earthquakes
Research at the University of Liverpool into a large fault zone in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile has produced new insight into how fluid pressure can cause earthquakes.

Researchers identify driver for near-Earth space weather
New findings indicate that the aurora and other near-Earth space weather are driven by the rate at which the Earth's and Sun's magnetic fields connect, or merge, and not by the solar wind's electric field as was previously assumed. The merging occurs at a spot between the Earth and Sun, roughly 40,000 miles above the planet's surface, and appears fundamental to the circulation of particles and magnetic fields throughout near-Earth space.

Abrupt ice retreat could produce ice-free arctic summers by 2040
The recent retreat of Arctic sea ice is likely to accelerate so rapidly that the Arctic Ocean could become nearly devoid of ice during summertime as early as 2040, according to new research published in the December 12 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

Regional nuclear war would trigger mass death, devastating climate change
Even a small-scale regional nuclear war could produce as many fatalities as all of World War II, disrupt the global climate for a decade or more and impact nearly every person on Earth, according to two new studies by University of Colorado at Boulder, Rutgers University and University of California, Los Angeles researchers.

Polar ice
In the first test of a new radar instrument, scientists have seen through more than a mile of Greenland ice to reveal an image of land that has been hidden for millions of years.

Scientists reveal new insights into the secret lives of Archaea
In the world of microbes, as in politics, some groups just can't seem to shake the label "extremist." So it is with archaea (ar-KEY-uh), a collection of bacteria-like microorganisms whose unique genetics and chemical structure separate them from all other living things.