ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Jay OwenEarth Systems Science

Record Missouri flooding was humanmade calamity, scientist says

Posted: 05 Feb 2016 02:30 PM PST

Why was the New Year’s flood in Missouri so bad? Most news reports blamed it on the heavy rain, but a professor of earth and planetary sciences says analysis of the flood data shows much of the damage was due to recent modifications to the river.

Central Appalachia flatter due to mountaintop mining

Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:49 AM PST

Forty years of mountaintop coal mining have made parts of Central Appalachia 60 percent flatter than they were before excavation, researchers say. This study, which compares pre- and post-mining topographic data in southern West Virginia, is the first to examine the large-scale impact of mountaintop mining on landscape topography and how the changes influence water quality.

Climate change’s frost harms early plant reproduction

Posted: 05 Feb 2016 07:04 AM PST

Climate change may harm early-flowering plants not through plant-pollinator mismatch but through frost damage, a new study shows.

How forest management and deforestation are impacting climate

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST

Two new studies reveal how altering the composition of trees in forests is influencing not only the carbon cycle, but air surface temperatures to a significant degree as well.

Half of the large carnivore attacks are due to the imprudence of human behaviour

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 08:13 AM PST

Close to 50 percent of large carnivore attacks on humans have involved risk-taking human behaviors. This is one of the main conclusions reached by a study which have analyzed the circumstances of 700 documented attacks of six carnivore species (brown bear, black bear, polar bear, puma, wolf and coyote) since 1955 in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Spain.

Cause for hope: Secondary tropical forests put on weight fast, and draw carbon dioxide from atmosphere

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 12:01 PM PST

Half of the world’s tropical forests are secondary forests, forests that are growing back after being cut or logged. Authors compared the growth of secondary forests across Latin America, finding that most, but not all grow back very quickly. As they put on weight, they pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Warming ocean may bring major changes for US northeast fishery species

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 11:57 AM PST

Scientists have released the first multispecies assessment of just how vulnerable U.S. marine fish and invertebrate species are to the effects of climate change. The study examined 82 species that occur off the Northeastern U.S., where ocean warming is occurring rapidly. Researchers found that most species evaluated will be affected, and that some are likely to be more resilient to changing ocean conditions than others.