Ecosystems

Ecosystems

Groundwater dropping globally

Nine-year record collected from orbit finds supply dropping mostly due to agriculture.

Tech

Hooking fish, not endangered turtles

A tuna fisherman has taken it upon himself to make the seas safer for sea turtles, animals that are threatened or endangered with extinction worldwide. He’s designed a new hook that he says will make bait unavailable to marine birds and turtles until long after it’s sunk well below the range where these animals venture to eat.

Humans

Infected bats can recover . . . with lots of help

Researchers reported new data today confirming that with enough coddling, many heavily infected bats can recover. The rub: These scientists also pointed out that there really aren’t sufficient resources to save more than a handful this way.

Earth

Eels point to suffocating Gulf floor

In June, scientists predicted that the Gulf of Mexico’s annual dead zone — a subsea region where the water contains too little oxygen to support life — might develop into the biggest ever. In fact, that didn’t happen. Owing to the fortuitous arrival of stormy weather, this year’s dead zone peaked at about 6,800 square miles, scientists reported on Aug. 1 — big but far from the record behemoth of 9,500 square miles that had been mentioned as distinctly possible.

Life

Microbes may sky jump to new hosts

The role of microbes in cloud formation and precipitation may not be an accident of chemistry so much as an evolutionary adaptation by certain bacteria and other nonsentient beings, a scientist posited at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

Humans

Geographic profiling fights disease

Widely used to snare serial criminals, a forensic method finds application in epidemiology.

Earth

Warming dents corn and wheat yields

Rising temperatures have decreased global grain production and may be partly responsible for food price increases.

Chemistry

Plants and predators pick same poison

Zygaena caterpillars and their herbaceous hosts independently evolved an identical recipe for cyanide.

Paleontology

Supersized superbunny

Fossils reveal a non-hopping giant rabbit that lived on the island of Minorca 5 million years ago.

Life

Songbird’s testosterone surges at sight of thistle blooms

Seeing the right flowers in summer temperatures triggers male goldfinches’ reproductive readiness.

Science & Society

Methane from BP spill goes missing

Latest sampling suggests either that microbes have already devoured the most abundant hydrocarbon produced by the leak — or that researchers have simply lost track of it.

Life

Genes separate Africa’s elephant herds

Genetic work reveals forest and savanna pachyderms as distinct species.