Earth

Agriculture

The Ultimate Crop Insurance

A new treaty renews hope that the waning diversity in agricultural crops can be slowed, and important genes preserved, both in the field and in gene banks.

Earth

Paved Paradise?

The precipitation-fed runoff that spills from impervious surfaces such as buildings, roads, and parking lots in developed areas increases erosion in streams, wreaks ecological havoc there, and contributes to urban heat islands.

Earth

There’s a Catch: Recreation takes toll on marine fish

Recreational fishing isn't just a tiny, harmless nibble on saltwater-fish populations.

Earth

North and South: Equal melting from each hemisphere raised ice age sea levels

The gargantuan volumes of meltwater that boosted sea levels during the most recent round of ice ages derived equally from ice sheets in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Earth

Rounding Up Resistance: Weed sacrifices seeds to put up with a herbicide

Use of herbicides containing glyphosate can drive evolution in the tall morning glory, even though the weed must simultaneously sacrifice a measure of its fertility.

Earth

Early Shift: North Sea plankton and fish move out of sync

As ocean temperatures in the North Sea have warmed in recent decades, the life cycles of some species low in the food chain have accelerated significantly, sometimes wreaking ecological havoc.

Agriculture

Bees increase coffee profits

Scientists studying a Costa Rican coffee farm have estimated the monetary value of conserving nearby wooded habitat for the bees that pollinate coffee plants.

Earth

Protecting Baby: Calcium in pregnancy reduces lead exposure

By taking calcium supplements during pregnancy, a mother can significantly reduce the lead exposure of her fetus.

Earth

Infectious stowaways

A new study finds that ballast water can move huge quantities of cholera germs and other microbes between ports around the globe.

Earth

Problems with eradicating polio

The oral vaccine's live but attenuated virus may in rare cases revert to the disease-causing form, which can then turn up in natural waters even in regions now certified free of the wild-type virus.

Earth

Twin satellites track water’s rise and fall

A pair of satellites launched in 2002 has detected small, regional changes in Earth's gravitational field that are caused by seasonal variations in rainfall and soil moisture.

Earth

Hurricane Season

The U.S. Geological Survey offers a Web site devoted to the impact of hurricanes and extreme storms on coastal regions of the United States. Historical information reviews the effects of such hurricanes as 2003’s Isabel and 1996’s Fran. Another section looks at erosion along the U.S. West coast caused by El Niño-induced changes. The site […]