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Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment
The first worldwide study of animals and the seeds they eat has overturned a long-held assumption - that large animals mainly eat large seeds. The finding by UNSW Australia scientists has implications for conservation showing that a wider variety of plants than is often thought could be at risk if large animals go extinct and do not disperse their seeds.
Hawai…el solo nombre provoca imágenes de rítmicos bailes tradicionales, impresionantes costas del mar azul celeste y escenas de pájaros vibrantes revoloteando través de una exuberante jungla. Por desgracia, el futuro de muchas aves nativas de Hawai se ve sombrío conforme las enfermedades transmitidas por los mosquitos los obligan a expandirse hacia zonas elevadas de seguridad.
En un nuevo estudio publicado en Global Change Biology, los investigadores del Servicio Geológico de los Estados Unidos y la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison, evalúan cómo el cambio climático global afectará en el futuro el riesgo de malaria a las poblaciones de aves nativas de Hawai en el próximo siglo.
In the last seven years, an estimated one person every second has been forced to flee their home by a natural disaster, with 19.3 million people forced to flee their homes in 2014 alone, according to a new report. The research suggests disaster displacement is on the rise, and as policy leaders worldwide advance towards the adoption of a post-2015 global agenda, the time has never been better to address it.
The automotive industry needs to face up to the hazard to health posed by its diesel engines. That stark reality was brought home again to Europeans and, in particular, Londoners last week when Transport for London and the Greater London Authority revealed that an additional 5,900 early deaths annually in the EU’s largest city are attributable to long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic gas emitted in urban areas largely from diesel engines.
Concern about the health effects of NO2 is growing fast. The gas was known to irritate lungs and cause respiratory infections and asthma, including acute respiratory illnesses in children. It has also been linked to birth abnormalities. But this new research by King’s College London estimates for the first time the number of premature deaths caused. The study also shows an additional 3,500 deaths are caused by PM2.5, bringing the total number of people who die early because of air pollution annually in London to 9,400.
Greenland's glaciers flowing into the ocean are grounded deeper below sea level than previously measured, allowing intruding ocean water to badly undercut the glacier faces. That process will raise sea levels around the world much faster than currently estimated, according to a team of researchers led by Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
The researchers battled rough waters and an onslaught of icebergs for three summers to map the remote channels below Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers for the first time. Their results have been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and are now available online.
The negative health effects of international air travel are well documented but now it seems that the common elderberry can provide some relief.
