Ecology articles

Hot climate could shut down plate tectonics
A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place.

Global climate models both agree and disagree with actual antarctic data
Scientists who compared recorded Antarctic temperatures and snowfall accumulation to predictions by major computer models of global climate change offer both good and bad news.

Model successfully predicts large river system fish diversity
While scientists have developed methods to predict aspects of fish diversity in specific river locations, a model to understand what factors may drive a comprehensive suite of fish biodiversity patterns in a large and complex system of rivers has been elusive.

Chalk one up for coccolithophores
Scientists have feared that gradual acidification of the world's oceans would wreak havoc with organisms that build protective outer shells. But a new finding shows at least three species of coccolithophores -- single-celled algae that are major players in the ocean's cycling of carbon -- are responding to ocean acidification by building thicker cell walls and plates of chalk, contrary to what some recent lab experiments have shown.

Researchers uncover 'stirring' secrets of deadly supervolcanoes
Researchers from The University of British Columbia and McGill University have simulated in the lab the process that can turn ordinary volcanic eruptions into so-called "supervolcanoes."

Geoengineering could slow down the global water cycle
As fossil fuel emissions continue to climb, reducing the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth would definitely have a cooling effect on surface temperatures.

Scientists image a single HIV particle being born
A mapmaker and a mathematician may seem like an unlikely duo, but together they worked out a way to measure longitude - and kept millions of sailors from getting lost at sea. Now, another unlikely duo, a virologist and a biophysicist at Rockefeller University, is making history of its own. By using a specialized microscope that illuminates only a cell's surface, they have become the first to see, in real time and in plain view, hundreds of thousands of molecules coming together in a living cell to form a single particle of the virus that has, in less than 25 years, claimed more than 25 million lives: HIV.

Organic milk is cream of the crop
A new study by Newcastle University proves that organic farmers who let their cows graze as nature intended are producing better quality milk.

A novel bacterial species is found trapped in 120,000-year-old ice
A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles.

Mountain ranges rise much more rapidly than geologists expected
Mountains may experience a "growth spurt" that can double their heights in as little as two to four million years-several times faster than the prevailing tectonic theory suggests.

Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars
Scientists have confirmed for the first time that an important component of early genetic material which has been found in meteorite fragments is extraterrestrial in origin, in a paper published on 15 June 2008.

A novel bacterial species is found trapped in 120,000-year-old ice
A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles.

Acidifying oceans add urgency to CO2 cuts
It's not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases, human emissions of carbon dioxide have also begun to alter the chemistry of the ocean-often called the cradle of life on Earth. The ecological and economic consequences are difficult to predict but possibly calamitous, warn a team of chemical oceanographers in the July 4 issue of Science, and halting the changes already underway will likely require even steeper cuts in carbon emissions than those currently proposed to curb climate change.

Geologists push back date basins formed, supporting frozen Earth theory
Even in geology, it's not often a date gets revised by 500 million years.

Invisible waves shape continental slope
A class of powerful, invisible waves hidden beneath the surface of the ocean can shape the underwater edges of continents and contribute to ocean mixing and climate, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found.

Ridding meat of e. Coli
You may be able to enjoy a rare hamburger soon, thanks to a discovery made by a team of University of Alberta researchers.

Penguins setting off sirens over health of world's oceans
Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, penguins are sounding the alarm for potentially catastrophic changes in the world's oceans, and the culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist.

Species extinction threat underestimated due to math glitch
Extinction risks for natural populations of endangered species are likely being underestimated by as much as 100-fold because of a mathematical "misdiagnosis," according to a new study led by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher.

Early earthquake warning: new tools show promise
Using remarkably sensitive new instruments, seismologists have detected minute geological changes that preceded small earthquakes along California's famed San Andreas Fault by as much as 10 hours. If follow-up tests show that the preseismic signal is pervasive, researchers say the method could form the basis of a robust early warning system for impending quakes.

Ivory poaching at critical levels: elephants on path to extinction by 2020?
African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989. But the public outcry that resulted in that ban is absent today, and a University of Washington conservation biologist contends it is because the public seems to be unaware of the giant mammals' plight.