ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Sunday, March 11, 2012

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Sunday, March 11, 2012

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Don’t bite the hand that feeds: Using satellite technology to evaluate the effects of ecotourism on tiger sharks (March 9, 2012) -- Ecotourism activities that use food to attract and concentrate wildlife for viewing have become a controversial topic in ecological studies. This debate is best exemplified by the shark dive tourism industry, a highly lucrative and booming global market. Use of chum or food to attract big sharks to areas where divers can view the dwindling populations of these animals has generated significant criticism because of the potential for ecological and behavioral impacts to the species. However, the debate has been largely rhetorical due to a lack of sufficient data to make any conclusions either way. ... > full story

Meteorites reveal another way to make life's components (March 9, 2012) -- Creating some of life's building blocks in space may be a bit like making a sandwich -- you can make them cold or hot, according to new NASA research. This evidence that there is more than one way to make crucial components of life increases the likelihood that life emerged elsewhere in the Universe, according to the research team, and gives support to the theory that a "kit" of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by impacts from meteorites and comets assisted the origin of life. ... > full story

Environmentally friendly cleaning and washing (March 9, 2012) -- More and more everyday products are based on renewable resources, with household cleaners now containing active cleaning substances made from plant oils and sugar. These fat and dirt removers are especially environmentally friendly and effective when produced using biotechnology, with the aid of fungi and bacteria. ... > full story

Mid-Atlantic suburbs in U.S. can expect an early spring thanks to the heat of the big city (March 9, 2012) -- If you've been thinking our world is more green than frozen these days, you're right. A recent study has found that spring is in arriving earlier -- and autumn later -- in the suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, DC. The reason? The urban landscape traps heat in the summer and holds it throughout the winter, triggering leaves to turn green earlier in the spring and to stay green later into autumn. The result is an extended growing season. ... > full story

Orientation of ants: Every cue counts (March 9, 2012) -- Foraging desert ants always find their way back to the nest, even when it is only marked by a magnetic cue, vibration, or carbon dioxide. ... > full story

Mapping the Moho with GOCE (March 9, 2012) -- The first global high-resolution map of the boundary between Earth’s crust and mantle – the Moho – has been produced based on data from ESA’s GOCE gravity satellite. Understanding the Moho will offer new clues into the dynamics of Earth’s interior. Earth’s crust is the outermost solid shell of our planet. Even though it makes up less than 1% of the volume of the planet, the crust is exceptionally important not just because we live on it, but because is the place where all our geological resources like natural gas, oil and minerals come from. ... > full story

A test of the senses in the search for a 'shoal mate' (March 8, 2012) -- Young coral reef fish use sounds, smells and visual cues to find their nursery grounds, according to new research. By testing how young French grunts (a common fish in Curaçao and throughout the Caribbean) responded to local sounds, smells and visual cues, the researchers have unlocked, for the first time, the mystery of how centimeter-long juvenile fish can navigate from the high seas to find their shoal mates in amongst the roots of mangrove trees or blades of seagrass. ... > full story

Deeper view of HIV reveals impact of early mutations (March 8, 2012) -- Mutations in HIV that develop during the first few weeks of infection may play a critical role in undermining a successful early immune response, a finding that reveals the importance of vaccines targeting regions of the virus that are less likely to mutate. ... > full story

Drug helps purge hidden HIV (March 8, 2012) -- Researchers have successfully flushed latent HIV infection from hiding, with a drug used to treat certain types of lymphoma. ... > full story

Counting reef sharks with cameras: 'Chum cam' underwater video survey shows that reef sharks thrive in marine reserves (March 8, 2012) -- Scientists have used video cameras to count Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) inside and outside marine reserves on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea. Using survey data collected from 200 baited remote underwater video cameras, nicknamed "chum cams," the scientists compared the relative abundance of these reef sharks in two marine reserves with those in two areas where fishing is allowed, and demonstrated that the sharks were more abundant in the reserves. ... > full story

Eating wild: Foraging safely in a modern world (March 8, 2012) -- In an expanding “foodie” culture, people go to great lengths to get the best ingredients, seek out the most aesthetic desserts, and buy natural and organic. Less noted, though, is the movement of "foragers": people who “eat wild” on a regular basis, supplemented by naturally growing, edible plants for which they search in their local communities, whether urban or rural. ... > full story

Multiple species of seacows once coexisted (March 8, 2012) -- Sirenians, or seacows, are a group of marine mammals that include manatees and dugongs; Today, only one species of seacow is found in each world region. Scientists have discovered that this was not always the case. According to the fossil record of these marine mammals, which dates back 50 million years ago, it was more common to find three, or possibly more, different species of seacows living together at one time. ... > full story