news 2012

A type of caterpillar which defends itself by regurgitating on its predators is less likely to do so when in groups than when alone, a new study by researchers from the University of Liverpool and the University of Bristol has found. Such reluctance is sufficient to cancel out the benefits of being in a group.

A type of caterpillar which defends itself by regurgitating on its predators is less likely to do so when in groups than when alone, a new study by researchers from the University of Bristol and the University of Liverpool has found. Such reluctance is sufficient to cancel out the benefits of being in a group.

Scientists studying 1,600-year-old cotton from the banks of the Nile have found what they believe is the first evidence that punctuated evolution has occurred in a major crop group within the relatively short history of plant domestication. The findings offer an insight into the dynamics of agriculture in the ancient world and could also help today's domestic crops face challenges such as climate change and water scarcity.

A new study published in Conservation Letters aims to measure whether parks and reserves in the tropics succeed in protecting forests Just as deforestation rates in remote protected areas should not be compared with deforestation rates from more accessible and lower altitude unprotected areas, it is also critical to control for government-mediated access in the form of regulations governing unprotected lands.

A project running almost 10,000 climate simulations on volunteers' home computers has found that a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is 'equally plausible' as a rise of 1.4 degrees. The study, the first to run so many simulations using a complex atmosphere-ocean climate model, addresses some of the uncertainties that previous forecasts, using simpler models or only a few dozen simulations, may have over-looked.

By Simon Levey Thursday 22 March 2012 The capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to absorb carbon dioxide emissions from human activity may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change , which looks at how plants react to environmental change. The authors say these results improve our ability to look into the planet's future and predict the magnitude of climate change before it happens.

Hand-held lasers that can remove ink from scrap paper so that it can be used again may be coming to an office near you, results from a new Cambridge study show. What we need to do now is find someone to build a prototype. Thanks to hand-held scanners and laser-jet printers, the feasibility for reusing paper in the office is there." —Dr Julian Allwood Julian Allwood, Leader of the Low Carbon Materials Processing Group at the University of Cambridge, tested Toner-print removal from paper by employing a variety of lasers.

The long-term impact of climate change on communities of wild animals could be better understood thanks to a new study. The research will help predict how migration of animals or changes to their habitats associated with climate change could affect relationships between predators and their prey.

Young coral reef fish use sounds, smells and visual cues to find their nursery grounds, according to new research from the University of Bristol, published today in Ecology. Ever had to find your friend in a crowd?  Imagine at a festival your mate saying: "I'll be wearing a yellow t-shirt by the hotdog stall behind the jazz stage." Using this information, you could walk around listening out for the romping double bass, and as you get closer and start to hear the trills of the trumpet, begin to sniff out the frying onions and sizzling sausages.

By Simon Levey Thursday 8 March 2012 A little bit of lubrication could make a big energy saving when manufacturing sustainable biofuels and bio-chemicals from timber, according to research published in the journal Green Chemistry this month. Scientists at Imperial College London have demonstrated that a key part of biomass processing could be made 80 per cent more energy-efficient by taking advantage of the slippery properties of fluids called ionic solvents.

Research provides new insights about what caused the extinction of many of the world's big animals over the last 100,000 years. Our research suggests that a combination of human pressure and climate change was able to cause the extinctions of many large animals in the past.

Shortcuts in the design of payment schemes to persuade farmers to undertake conservation works could be putting the potential environmental benefits at risk, a study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham has found. Farmers in the EU and US receive billions of dollars/pounds in government subsidies.

Warming autumn evenings are causing plants to flower faster than they used to, scientists have found. The discovery sheds light on the influence of seasonal temperatures on plant growth and could help the development of crops suited to changing climates. Researchers studying the growth of plants have found that increasing night temperatures in autumn accelerate their growth.

An international team, including a Cardiff University researcher, who previously found evidence of the Earth's earliest tree, has gone one step further. The research team has now unearthed and investigated an entire fossil forest dating back 385 million years. The Gilboa fossil forest, in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, is generally referred to as 'the oldest fossil forest'.

University of Birmingham scientists are using parkour athletes - also known as free runners - to discover how orang-utans and other tree-dwelling primates maximise energy efficiency as they move through the forest canopy. Using a simulated arboreal habitat, the free runners are mimicking the primates' movements, including commonplace practices such as 'tree swaying' and vertical climbing.

Plants often regarded as common weeds such as thistles, buttercups and clover could be critical in safe guarding fragile food webs on UK farms according to new research from the University of Bristol funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Published in Science , the Bristol researchers detail the interactions that occur between the different food webs commonly found on farms throughout the UK and the robustness of these interactions to species loss.

The heat wave that struck western Russia in summer 2010, causing 55,000 deaths, was caused by a combination of manmade and natural factors. However, the frequency of occurrence of such heat waves has increased by a factor of three over recent decades, new research suggests. A study, led by Oxford University scientists, reconciles apparently contradictory results from two separate 2011 studies which attributed the extreme weather to, respectively, natural variability and human-induced climate change.

An innovative horizon-scanning exercise, which has just delivered its latest report, highlights emerging topics of relevance to the world's natural environment and the diversity of its species. We can't hope to spot all potential issues.

Farms that aim for high food production using environmentally-friendly practices could be better for the environment than both organic and conventional farms. A study, led by Oxford University scientists, compared the environmental impact of different farming systems.

A new study of tropical forests will provide a 50,000-year perspective on how animal biodiversity has changed, explored through an archaeological investigation of animal bones. The study of ancient animal bones can provide a remarkably long-range perspective. It can tell us about the nature of animal communities before humans intensively modified their habitats." —Dr Chris Stimpson As dawn breaks, a Cantor's Roundleaf bat flies through the lush rainforest canopy searching out its colony.