Earth ChangesS

Bizarro Earth

Green is Cool, But United States Land Changes Generally Are Not

Map
© Souleymane FallThis map shows observation minus reanalysis (OMR) trends in the continental United States from 1979-2003.
Most land-use changes occurring in the continental United States reduce vegetative cover and raise regional surface temperatures, says a new study by scientists at the University of Maryland, Purdue University, and the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The study, which will appear in the Royal Meteorological Society's International Journal of Climatology, found that almost any change that makes land cover less "green" contributes to warming. However, a less intuitive finding is that conversion of any land to agricultural use results in cooling, even land that was previously forested.

Derived using a University of Maryland developed analytical approach known as OMR, the findings build on previous research and add significant weight to a growing recognition among climate scientists for the need to more fully incorporate land use change into computer models that are designed to forecast future changes in climate conditions.

Frog

Over 17,000 Species Threatened by Extinction

Eye
© AP Photo/IUCN, Tim LamanA Varanus mabitang is one of the species that could soon disappear in the wild.
A rare Panamanian tree frog, a rodent from Madagascar and two lizards found only in the Philippines are among over 17,000 species threatened with extinction, a leading environmental group said Tuesday.

The Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog, only discovered four years ago, is one of 1,895 amphibian species that could soon disappear from the wild because of deforestation and infection, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said.

The Switzerland-based group surveyed 47,677 animals and plants for this year's "Red List" of endangered species, determining that 17,291 of them are at risk of extinction.

More than one in five of all known mammals, over a quarter of reptiles and 70 percent of plants are under threat, according to the survey, which featured over 2,800 new species compared with 2008.

Bizarro Earth

Strong 5.9 quake jolts Ionian Sea, Greek Islands

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© USGS
An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter Scale jolted the Ionian Sea on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

There have been no reports of injuries or damage on the Peloponnese Peninsula, a popular tourist destination on the Gulf of Corinth.

According to the Athens Institute of Geodynamics, the magnitude of the quake was 5.5.

The quake's epicenter was located 110 kilometers (65 miles) from the city of Patra at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in the Ionian Sea. Patra is located 265 kilometers west of Athens.

The quake struck at 07:25 am local time (05:25 GMT).

According to Greek television, the earthquake was also felt on the islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea.

Bizarro Earth

Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean

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© AFP / Landsat satelliteA huge crater that is really a volcano that has been slowly eroded in Mauritania in Africa.
A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.

The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.

A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region's future.

Binoculars

Wolves, Moose And Biodiversity: An Unexpected Connection

Map
© Michigan Technological UniversityThe coastline of Isle Royale National Park is represented in two maps. Moose carcasses, like the ones on which wolves are feeding in lower map, produce pulses of nutrients that affect soil fertility, decomposition and the nutrition of nearby plants. Clustered hotspots of biogeochemical activity are seen in the yellow to white zones in upper map.
Moose eat plants; wolves kill moose. What difference does this classic predator-prey interaction make to biodiversity?

A large and unexpected one, say wildlife biologists from Michigan Technological University. Joseph Bump, Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich report in the November 2009 issue of the journal Ecology that the carcasses of moose killed by wolves at Isle Royale National Park enrich the soil in "hot spots" of forest fertility around the kills, causing rapid microbial and fungal growth that provide increased nutrients for plants in the area.

"This study demonstrates an unforeseen link between the hunting behavior of a top predator -- the wolf -- and biochemical hot spots on the landscape," said Bump, an assistant professor in Michigan Tech's School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science and first author of the research paper. "It's important because it illuminates another contribution large predators make to the ecosystem they live in and illustrates what can be protected or lost when predators are preserved or exterminated."

Bump and his colleagues studied a 50-year record of more than 3,600 moose carcasses at Isle Royale. They measured the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium levels in the soil at paired sites of wolf-killed moose carcasses and controls. They also analyzed the microbes and fungi in the soil and the leaf tissue of large-leaf aster, a common native plant eaten by moose in eastern and central North America.

Fish

Japanese Fishing Trawler Sunk by Giant Jellyfish

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Nomura's jellyfish: The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler
The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish.

Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months.

The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

Cloud Lightning

Major storm slams Vietnam; thousands evacuate

Vietnam Typhoon Mirinae
© Associated Press/Mike AlquintoA Filipino worker checks on a toppled electric post in suburban Manila, Philippines on Saturday Oct. 31, 2009
Tropical Storm Mirinae slammed into Vietnam's central coast Monday, unleashing heavy rains and winds and forcing more than 80,000 people to evacuate before losing steam as it moved inland.

The storm was packing winds of 63 miles per hour (102 kilometers per hour) as it made landfall in Phu Yen province Monday afternoon, toppling trees and utility poles and causing blackouts, said Nguyen Ba Loc, deputy chairman of the provincial People's Committee.

The storm lost force and was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved deeper inland later Monday, according to the national weather forecast center.

Bizarro Earth

From Barren Central Asian Steppes, a Devastated Sea is Reborn and Along with It - Hope

Kokaral dike
© AP Photo/Sergey PonomarevA man walking on the Kokaral dike protecting the Aral Sea some 150 kilometers from Aralsk, Kazakhstan.
Standing on the shore under the relentless Central Asian sun, Badarkhan Prikeyev drew on a cigarette and squinted into the distance as one fishing boat after another returned with the day's catch.

Until recently, this spot where the fish merchant was standing, in a man-made desert at the edge of nowhere, represented one of the world's worst environmental calamities.

Now fresh water was lapping at his boots, proclaiming an environmental miracle - the return of the Aral Sea.

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest body of fresh water, covering an area the size of Ireland. But then the nations around it became part of the Soviet Union. With their passion for planned economics and giant, nature-reversing projects, the communists diverted the rivers that fed the inland sea and used them to irrigate vast cotton fields. The result: The Aral shrank by 90 percent to a string of isolated stretches of water.

Binoculars

Air Pressure Changes Trigger Landslides

Colorado
© William Schulz/USGSThe slow-moving Slumgullion landslide in southwestern Colorado.
A river of rock and soil nearly 2.5 miles long and 1,000 feet wide, the Slumgullion landslide winds like an earthy freight train down the hills of southwestern Colorado. But this incredible force of nature is swayed by the tiniest push.

According to a new study, the daily ups and downs in air pressure -- equivalent to the weight of about half a glass of water -- are enough to get the behemoth rolling.

Just like the ocean, the atmosphere has tides of air that swish over the planet, controlled by the sun's heat. Around the hottest part of the day, air pressure is diminished -- 'low tide' -- and it gradually goes up as things cool off.

William Schulz of the United Stated Geological Survey in Denver compared detailed records of the Slumgullion landslide's movement against pressure readings taken in the area.

They fit hand-in-glove: each time pressure lowered during the warmest part of the day, the Earth slid a little bit faster.

Magnify

Venomous Shrew and Lizard: Harmless Digestive Enzyme Evolved Twice into Dangerous Toxin in Two Unrelated Species

Shrew
© iStockphotoA harmless digestive enzyme can be turned into a toxin in two unrelated species - a shrew (pictured) and a lizard - thereby giving each a venomous bite.
Biologists have shown that independent but similar molecular changes turned a harmless digestive enzyme into a toxin in two unrelated species - a shrew and a lizard - giving each a venomous bite.

The work, described this week in the journal Current Biology by researchers at Harvard University, suggests that protein adaptation may be a highly predictable process, one that could eventually help discover other toxins across a wide array of species.

"Similar changes have occurred independently in a shrew and a lizard, causing both to be toxic," says senior author Hopi E. Hoekstra, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences in Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. "It's remarkable that the same types of changes have independently promoted the same toxic end product."

Lead author Yael T. Aminetzach, a postdoctoral researcher in the same department, suggests that the work has important implications for our understanding of how novel protein function evolves by studying the relationship between an ancestral and harmless protein and its new toxic activity.