Earth

  1. Earth

    Compost reduces landfill gas

    Field tests suggest that covering solid waste with compost instead of conventional soil could reduce methane-gas emissions from landfills.

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

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  4. Earth

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

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

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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