Environmental News Network

Climate change signals a whale of a shift in feeding patterns
Every summer and fall, endangered North Atlantic right whales congregate in the Bay of Fundy between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to gorge on zooplankton. Researchers have documented the annual feast since 1980, and well over 100 whales typically attend, a significant portion of the entire species. Only this year, they didn't. Just a dozen right whales trickled inâ€”a record low in the New England Aquarium's 34-year-old monitoring program. And that comes on the heels of two other low-turnout years, 2010 and 2012. >> Read the Full Article
"Location, location, location" on the wild side
The old real estate adage "location, location, location" is still the most important factor in purchasing property but the term "location" is bringing with it a different perspective today than it did years ago. While property sales have boasted bonus attributes such as proximately to shops, bus routes, beach front and features such as media rooms, offices and central air conditioning and "other amenities" little has been said about wildlife-friendly gardens. >> Read the Full Article
80,000 acres swallowed up
The United States has lost approximately 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands between 2004 and 2009 according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Much of this loss is blamed on development and has occurred in freshwater regions. Additionally, more than 70% of the loss is from the Gulf of Mexico. According to the EPA wetland loss in the eastern U.S. is happening at a rate double that of what is being restored. >> Read the Full Article
Stealth Hunter
Soaring silently above the landscape, owls search out their prey utilizing acoustic stealth. University of Cambridge, England researchers led by Dr. Justin Jaworski are studying the owlâ€™s wing structure and mechanics to better understand how it mitigates noise to apply that information conventional aircraft design. >> Read the Full Article
Pre-industrial Methane Emissions Triggered by Natural and Anthropogenic Causes
The climate change debate has been going back and forth between skeptics and believers for the last couple of years. While carbon dioxide is usually the greenhouse gas that gets the most attention, methane is considered another powerful greenhouse gas that can be emitted both naturally as well as human-induced. A new study suggests the increase in methane emissions since the industrial revolution cannot be blamed on anthropogenic sources alone. >> Read the Full Article
A bigger fish (tank) story - EcoQube
Aqua Design Innovations is a University of California San Diego (UCSD) undergraduate startup. Economics major, Eric Suen (2015) and Biology major Kevin Liang (2014) spent the last year designing the EcoQube, a miniature ecosystem that they hope will become a part of peoples' homes and will inspire more people, especially children, to be more environmentally aware, particularly about aquaponics. The EcoQube is a vision that underlines the potential possibility of changing the way agriculture and aquaculture traditionally work. >> Read the Full Article
Brazil Deforestation Up 28%
After a significant drop in the last several years, the annual deforestation rates in Brazil raised 28% for the period August 2012-July 2013, according to INPE, the Brazilian Spatial Institute. The total area deforested in 2012-2013 is 5,843 km2 - a trend led by the states of Mato Grosso, Roraima, MaranhÃ£o, and ParÃ¡. The area cleared in Mato Grosso rose 52% from 757 km2 in 2012 to 1,149. The area cleared in ParÃ¡ rose 37% from 1,741 km2 to 2,379 km. For Roraima deforestation increased 49% from 124 km2 to 185 km2. MaranhÃ£o registered 269 km2 cleared in 2012 and 382 km2 in 2013, an increase of 42%... >> Read the Full Article
Deadly Disease Causes Extinction of Darwin's Frog
Discovered by Charles Darwin in 1834, Rhinoderma darwinii (better known as Darwin's frogs) have been declared extinct after a killer disease is thought to have wiped out entire populations across Chile and Argentina. According to scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Universidad AndrÃ©s Bello (UNAB), Chile, chytridiomycosis is the main reason for this amphibian extinction. >> Read the Full Article
Modern Mobile Equipment Captures Thundersnow in Action
Thundersnow, also known as a winter thunderstorm, is an unusual kind of thunderstorm where snow falls instead of rain. The interaction of clouds and ice pellets inside these storms generates a charge, resulting in lightning and thunder. While these events are fairly rare around the globe, they are most common with lake-effect snow, especially near the Great Lakes. In order to capture these rare thundersnows in action, the National Science Foundation (NSF) will send out the Doppler-on-Wheels (DOW) and the King Air, a University of Wyoming instrumented aircraft. >> Read the Full Article
Quick tsunami sensors tested in Mediterranean
A new alert system could improve tsunami warnings in the Mediterranean, but most countries bordering the sea still lack evacuation plans, scientists have said ahead of a meeting of 20 countries in Italy this week (19-21 November). The tenth session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the North-Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas, Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (NEAMTWS) will discuss establishing new national tsunami warning centres. It will also work towards organising the next tsunami exercise, a simulation of tsunami alerts following several different kinds of earthquakes, to evaluate the communication and response mechanisms throughout the NEATWS network. >> Read the Full Article