Environment

A threatened tree species in Alaska could serve as a model for integrating ecological and social research methods in efforts to safeguard species that are vulnerable to climate change effects and human activity. In a new study, scientists assessed the health of yellow cedar, a culturally and commercially valuable tree that is experiencing climate change-induced dieback and that is found throughout coastal Alaska. In an era when climate change threatens to touch every part of the globe, the traditional conservation approach of setting aside lands to protect biodiversity may no longer…

It sounded ridiculous when Gina McCarthy claimed nature was fixing itself after they created a toxic waste disaster in Colorado but that future methane needed the EPA to halt it right now, yet science has again shown that nature is more resilient than political bodies think. Biodiversity can often help protect ecosystems from extreme conditions, according to a study of 46 grasslands in North America and Europe. The results showed that increasing plant diversity decreased the extent to which extremely wet or dry conditions disrupt grassland productivity.  The researchers began by…

The very act of tolerating some forms of soil pollution may give trees an advantage in the natural world, says University of Montreal plant biologists. Their findings were published this week in BMC Plant Biology. High chemical tolerant plants can be used to rehabilitate land contaminated with heavy metals or petroleum by-products - some 30,000 such sites exist in Canada and 342,000 sites in Europe - through a process termed phytoremediation. The research team compared the molecular response of willow trees growing in contaminated or non-contaminated soil and found that several plant genes…

Renewable energy is not very sustainable in the European Union (EU) yet but the food industry, which is heavily reliable on subsidies to stay competitive with the rest of the world, needs renewable energy costs to come down to remain viable. Until then, the food sector is going to resist using renewable energy, which is a scant 7 percent of their usage, compared to 15 percent in the EU overall. Instead of advocating basic research to improve renewable energy, the call is out to lower meat consumption in a new report. And of course to reduce food choices by shopping locally and seasonally. The…

The productivity of organic farming is typically lower than that of comparable “conventional” farms. This difference is sometimes debated, but a recent USDA survey of organic agriculture demonstrates that commercial organic in the U.S. has a significant yield gap. I compared 2014 survey data from organic growers with overall agricultural yield statistics for that year on a crop by crop, state by state basis.  The picture that emerges is clear - organic yields are mostly lower. To have raised all U.S. crops as organic in 2014 would have required farming of one…

Our cabin is situated in one of the most remote places in Norway. My family got the place in the early 60ties and at the time there were no roads leading to what then was a fox farm kitchen. It is still one of the most remote areas of Norway. I grew up listening to the stories about the hardship of life in what for us was a recreational haven. The most exciting stories were about the predators, brown bear and wolves, that were roaming around our cabin. These wildlife observations were an integral part of the folklore and for the most part only recorded as part of the storytelling around the…

Green frogs in the suburbs are seeing a gender revolution. A new Yale study shows that estrogen in suburban yards is changing the ratio of male and female green frogs at nearby ponds. Higher levels of estrogen in areas where there are shrubs, vegetable gardens, and manicured lawns are disrupting frogs' endocrine systems, according to the study. That, in turn, is driving up the number of female frogs and lowering the number of male frogs. The research appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is based on tests conducted at 21 ponds in southwestern Connecticut…

A new study has revealed the presence of radioactive contaminants in coal ash from all three major U.S. coal-producing basins - levels of radioactivity in the ash were up to five times higher than in normal soil, and up to 10 times higher than in the parent coal itself because of the way combustion concentrates radioactivity. The finding raises concerns about the environmental and human health risks posed by coal ash, which is currently unregulated and is stored in coal-fired power plants' holding ponds and landfills nationwide. "Until now, metals and contaminants such as selenium and…

Green frogs in the suburbs are undergoing a gender switch - but it isn't pesticides doing it, according to a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the same journal that set off the craze in thinking pesticides were causing frogs to change sex, by letting a member walk a study through peer review for a friend of his, by not mentioning that study had no data. The issue in the new study is  estrogen in suburban yards. It is changing the ratio of male and female green frogs at nearby ponds by disrupting frogs' endocrine systems, according to the study. That, in…

A recent study found that the herbicide atrazine, common for weed control in corn and sorghum crops in large-scale farming operations, does not have any measurable impact on aquatic plant life over the long term. Atrazine has been used for decades and some studies have contended that it might have an impact in laboratory experiments. It has a “level of concern” as identified by United States Environmental Protection Agency, The study authors say this research is the first to address atrazine levels as they would “naturally occur in agricultural areas during rainfall runoff events…