Earth
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Ecosystems
Online map tracks forest shifts from space
By layering more than 650,000 satellite images onto a Google map, researchers have created a new tool to track forest cover.
By Meghan Rosen -
Earth
Earth’s plate boundaries may nurture diamond formation
An experiment mimicking conditions deep in the Earth suggests that some tectonic plate boundaries may make ideal diamond nurseries.
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Earth
Cryovolcano
An ice volcano that erupts slurries of volatile compounds such as water or methane instead of lava.
By Erin Wayman -
Climate
Methane emissions may be far higher than estimated
U.S. fossil fuel and cattle industries may emit far more methane than government estimates indicate.
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Agriculture
Probiotics may protect piglets from E. coli infection
Beneficial bacteria could replace antibiotics in pig feed.
By Beth Mole -
Animals
Malformed frogs rarer than thought
Frogs with skin cysts or shortened or missing legs make up only 2 percent of the amphibians collected during a 10-year study.
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Climate
Arctic algae crusts preserve climate data
The records show that sea-ice cover has been declining since 1850.
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Earth
Fire may smolder under Antarctic ice
Quakes hint at moving magma that could influence glacial flow.
By Beth Mole -
Oceans
Extremely salty water is at least 100 million years old
Supersaline sediments off East Coast shed light on Atlantic Ocean’s early history.
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Animals
Gassed snails can’t jump
When exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide, some snails move like slugs and others don’t jump at all.
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Climate
Storms are becoming more intense, moving toward poles
Researchers find that altered rainfall patterns have the fingerprints of human-caused climate change.
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Climate
Historical events linked to changes in Earth’s temperature
Ozone treaty, wars and Great Depression influenced global warming rate, scientists find.