Ecosystems

Humans

Bat killer is still spreading

Since 2006, some 6 million to 7 million North American bats have succumbed to white-nose syndrome, a virulent fungal disease. That figure, issued in January by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, at least sextupled the former estimate that biologists had been touting. But the sharp jump in the cumulative death toll isn’t the only disturbing new development. On April 2, scientists confirmed that white-nose fungus has apparently struck bats hibernating in two small Missouri caves. The first signs of clinical disease have also just emerged in Europe.

Humans

Yet another study links insecticide to bee losses

Since 2006, honeybee populations across North America have been hammered by catastrophic losses. Although this pandemic has a name — colony collapse disorder, or CCD — its cause has remained open to speculation. New experiments now strengthen the case for pesticide poisoning as a likely contributor.

Life

Rising carbon dioxide confuses brain signaling in fish

Nerve cells respond to acidifying waters.

Ecosystems

Groundwater dropping globally

Nine-year record collected from orbit finds supply dropping mostly due to agriculture.

Tech

Hooking fish, not endangered turtles

A tuna fisherman has taken it upon himself to make the seas safer for sea turtles, animals that are threatened or endangered with extinction worldwide. He’s designed a new hook that he says will make bait unavailable to marine birds and turtles until long after it’s sunk well below the range where these animals venture to eat.

Humans

Infected bats can recover . . . with lots of help

Researchers reported new data today confirming that with enough coddling, many heavily infected bats can recover. The rub: These scientists also pointed out that there really aren’t sufficient resources to save more than a handful this way.

Earth

Eels point to suffocating Gulf floor

In June, scientists predicted that the Gulf of Mexico’s annual dead zone — a subsea region where the water contains too little oxygen to support life — might develop into the biggest ever. In fact, that didn’t happen. Owing to the fortuitous arrival of stormy weather, this year’s dead zone peaked at about 6,800 square miles, scientists reported on Aug. 1 — big but far from the record behemoth of 9,500 square miles that had been mentioned as distinctly possible.

Life

Microbes may sky jump to new hosts

The role of microbes in cloud formation and precipitation may not be an accident of chemistry so much as an evolutionary adaptation by certain bacteria and other nonsentient beings, a scientist posited at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

Humans

Geographic profiling fights disease

Widely used to snare serial criminals, a forensic method finds application in epidemiology.

Earth

Warming dents corn and wheat yields

Rising temperatures have decreased global grain production and may be partly responsible for food price increases.

Chemistry

Plants and predators pick same poison

Zygaena caterpillars and their herbaceous hosts independently evolved an identical recipe for cyanide.

Paleontology

Supersized superbunny

Fossils reveal a non-hopping giant rabbit that lived on the island of Minorca 5 million years ago.