5,532 results
5,532 results for: Forests
- Earth
Woods to Waters: Wildfires amplify mercury contamination in fish
Forest fires mobilize mercury from the soil and can send the toxic metal into nearby streams and lakes where it accumulates in fish.
- Earth
Northern Refuge: White spruce survived last ice age in Alaska
Genetic analyses of white spruce trees at sites across North America suggest that some stands of that species endured the harsh climate of Alaska throughout the last ice age.
- Earth
The Long Burn: Warming drove recent upswing in wildfires
Major forest fires in the western United States have become more frequent and destructive over the past two decades, in step with rising average temperatures in the region.
- Humans
Letters from the September 23, 2006, issue of Science News
Moo juiced? I live in Northern California, where forest-biomass power plants are common (“Radiation Redux: Forest fires remobilize fallout from bomb tests,” SN: 7/15/06, p. 38). One power plant takes the ashes that result and places them where cows forage. I’m wondering to what level of concentration this process will accumulate the cesium in organic […]
- Humans
Summer Reading
The staff of Science News presents wide-ranging recommendations of books for readers to pack for their summer vacations.
- Ecosystems
Top-Down Lowdown: Predators shape coastal ecosystem
The health of southern California kelp forests may depend more on the ecosystem's predator population than the forest's access to nutrients.
- Tech
Litmus test gets tiny
When zapped by a laser, new, light-sensitive nanobaubles could provide a reading of pH, or how acidic or basic a solution is, even from deep inside living cells.
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Oceans reveal secrets of viruses
Scientists have completed the first survey of virus DNA in oceans around the world.
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Mushroom Boom: Hobby records show climate-change boost
Mushrooms in England are starting to pop up earlier and staying around later than they used to, according to 55 years of amateur naturalists' records.
- Animals
Too Few Jaws: Shark declines let rays overgraze scallops
A shortage of big sharks on the U.S. East Coast is letting their prey flourish, and that prey is going hog wild, demolishing bay scallop populations.
- Earth
Cellulose Dreams
Turning cellulose from plants into ethanol for fuel could help lower greenhouse-gas emissions—but the conversion is far from straightforward.
- Animals
Family Tree: An arboreal genome is sequenced
Researchers have sequenced the genome of a tree for the first time.
