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Urban development may have thrown a kink into novelist Betty Smith’s central metaphor for life: It might not be so easy for a tree to grow in Brooklyn today. A new analysis of aerial photographs taken from above 20 cities shows an alarming and not-green trend. Trees seem to be dwindling across urban America. […] Read More »
Quick on the heals of the U.S. 2010 census, scientists are also taking a tally of slippery creatures: California salmon. And the news isn’t good. Close to 77% of California’s distinct populations of salmon and trout could go extinct within the state by the end of the century, a new analysis suggests.
California, known […] Read More »
Next time you shoot a rubber band, think about where it might end up. White Storks in France often snap up the stretchy strips, mistaking them for worms, a new study finds. Sometimes, the case of mistaken identity can be deadly.
“Contamination of the environment with nonedible items that mimic food can cause health […] Read More »
Henry David Thoreau famously fled to a small cabin on Massachusetts’ Walden Pond to recoup his mental faculties. The American writer, it seems, didn’t just inspire generations of poets both good and bad. He also may have stumbled across a prescription for better health. A new study shows that even brief encounters with parks […] Read More »
Soon, Salvador Dalí’s surrealist paintings could begin to droop like his famous clocks.
Unlikely, perhaps. But when it comes to preserving old buildings, chairs or paintings, many curators and art collectors haven’t considered an important variable, according to a new study: climate change. Researchers recently probed two historic European castles, now small museums, and […] Read More »
Marsh creatures may be down in a ditch in the Netherlands. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A new survey of semi-wet habitats in Holland finds that drainage ditches rival shallow lakes in hosting diverse populations of animals, from snails to fish. The soggy cul-de-sacs could be important refuges for Europe’s once-common bog […] Read More »
Eyesores. Fire traps. Rat manors. Abandoned homes aren’t popular with the neighbors. But their weedy, unkempt lawns may be helping suck carbon out of the atmosphere, a new study suggests.
“Residential abandonment is on the rise in many urban areas,” Christopher M. Gough and Hunter L. Elliott of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond write […] Read More »
Shoreline development is often fingered as a big problem for lake life, including nesting waterfowl. In northern Poland, however, built-up areas appear to be helping, not hurting, nesting birds – by scaring away rapacious exotic mink, a new study concludes.
“The Mazurian Lakeland, in northeastern Poland, has been recognized as an important region for […] Read More »
It’s one of the more controversial ideas out there for confronting climate change: Use high-flying airplanes to constantly replenish a layer of small particles in the stratosphere that would scatter sunlight back to space. But researchers have worried that such “sunshade geoengineering” could have unintended consequences for the world’s farmers. A preliminary modeling study, […] Read More »
Just a decade ago, moths were a bit of a dark secret for biologists. Dependable population statistics were scarce, leaving conservationists guessing about trends. Now, British biologists are getting a better idea of how the insects are doing in the United Kingdom (U.K.) – and the news is worrying. A new study takes a […] Read More »
Forget the dreamcatcher. The new age in energy savings could be the windcatcher, argues a recent analysis.
Windcatchers – towers or specially designed roof vents that pull fresh air into a building — aren’t a new idea, a trio of researchers note in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Windcatchers have been “utilized in the […] Read More »
If you want to be a successful invasive species, it helps to have a bad attitude. Take the Nile Tilapia. Even when pitted against a bigger foe in a watery arena, it won’t back down. That aggressiveness may explain why the exotic tilapia is displacing a native fish in Brazilian waters, a new study […] Read More »
Finding suitable sites for solar, wind and biofuel projects can be a challenge. The facilities often need big chunks of land that aren’t used to grow food, and don’t have much wildlife or conservation value. That’s one reason some experts have urged using degraded land or abandoned industrial sites. Now, one group of researchers […] Read More »
Jedi knights famously feel disturbances in the Force. Invasive species, on the other hand, react to disturbances to natural communities, often exploding following a destructive wildfire or flood. Or, at least, that’s the common thinking among ecologists. A new study challenges that maxim, however, showing that how the frequency of fires or storms changes […] Read More »
As climate change speeds up, British plants could be gone with the wind. Or not. In a new analysis, researchers explore how waning or waxing wind speeds across the United Kingdom in the future might alter the flow of gale-born seeds. And while uncertainties remain high, some plants, such as the native lizard orchid […] Read More »
