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TAMPA, United States (AFP) — When fishing, local laws often require anglers to throw back any fish that are too small. But a study Thursday found it is more important to toss back big ones, especially females. That’s because they produce far more eggs — and larger ones — than small fish, and do a disproportionate amount of work when it comes to perpetuating their species, said the report in the journal Science. “Our results […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — California on Wednesday became the first US state to require solar panels on all new residential buildings as part of efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The California Energy Commission said the new building standards, adopted unanimously by its members, will go into effect on January 1, 2020. “We are the first, we will not be the last,” commissioner David Hochschild said after the new mandate was adopted. “This […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — A new sinkhole on a North Island farm as deep as four double-decker buses and almost the length of two football fields has grabbed the attention of New Zealand volcanologists. The chasm appeared after heavy rainfall near the town of Rotorua and left a jagged scar on the landscape, exposing rock deposits from 60,000 years ago. Experts believe rain dissolved underground limestone over thousands of years, eventually causing the ground to […]
NYMFAIO, Greece (AFP) — Orphaned as an infant, three-year-old Patrick takes a wary view of visitors. He crouches low, licks his claws and starts humming — a bear’s equivalent of thumb-sucking. “It soothes him when he’s stressed,” says Melina Avgerinou, a caretaker at the Arcturos bear sanctuary in northern Greece. Patrick’s tale is typical of many bears that have found refuge in the Arcturos sanctuary at Nymfaio on the slopes of Mount Vitsi, some 600 kilometres […]
by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Why have some birds opted for a taxing life of constant migration — seeking out temperate climes to feed as winter arrives, only to return months later to breed? Seemingly paradoxically, the behavior is driven by a quest for energy efficiency, a study said Monday. Migrating birds, researchers found, gain more energy from whatever is on the destination menu than they expend getting there […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — A third of Australia’s threatened species are not being tracked, scientists said Friday, warning they could easily slide into extinction without anyone noticing. The first national assessment on the monitoring of threatened birds, mammals, frogs, freshwater fish, reptiles and ecological communities found 217 species were not being watched. Plants and insects were not included. The government-funded Threatened Species Recovery Hub said the results were poor for most groups, although keeping tabs […]
By Melissa Allen EBC Florida Bureau TAMPA, FL (Eagle News) — Over 4,000 volunteers hit the sandy shorelines and parks of Hillsborough County to help with the community’s annual beautification effort, The Great American Cleanup, which was hosted by the local organization, Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. Alan Donn, a Board Member for Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, said that their primary mission is to educate people about the environment […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain and the United States on Monday launched a research program billed “the most detailed and extensive examinations of a massive Antarctic glacier ever undertaken” to gauge how quickly it could collapse. Teams from Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) will visit the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica to assess if its cave-in could begin in the next few decades or centuries. […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The world’s oldest known spider has died at the ripe old age of 43 after being monitored for years during a long-term population study in Australia, researchers said Monday. The trapdoor matriarch comfortably outlived the previous record holder, a 28-year-old tarantula found in Mexico, according to a study published in the Pacific Conservation Biology Journal. The spider did not die of old age but was killed by a wasp sting, researchers […]
by Martin Parry Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia pledged half a billion dollars to restore and protect the Great Barrier Reef Sunday in what it said would be a game-changer for the embattled natural wonder, but conservationists were not convinced. The World Heritage-listed site, which attracts millions of tourists, is reeling from significant bouts of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change. It is also under threat from […]
TAMPA, United States (AFP) — US scientists said Thursday they have made progress toward a kind of plastic that can be recycled “infinitely,” and that it appears durable enough to compete with regular plastics. Unlike plastics made from petroleum products, the new kind can be converted back to its original small-molecule state, and remade into new plastics over and over, said the report in the journal Science. “The polymers can be chemically recycled and reused, […]
by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Researchers warned Tuesday of a “troubling” accumulation of microplastics in sea ice floating in the Arctic ocean, a major potential source of water pollution as global warming melts the sheets of frozen water. A team from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) found 17 different plastic types in ice samples gathered during three Arctic expeditions on board the research icebreaker Polarstern […]
