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Study shows critical need to reduce use of road salt in winter, suggests best practices
Across the U.S. road crews dump around 25 million metric tons of sodium chloride — much like table salt — to unfreeze roads each year and make them safe for travel. Usage varies by state, but the amount of salt applied to icy roads annually in some regions can vary between approximately 3 and 18…
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Locally sourced: Pelicans prefer native fish to sportfish at Utah’s strawberry reservoir
American white pelicans who pause their migration at Strawberry Reservoir in Utah are filling their bellies with native species like Utah sucker for the most part, leaving cutthroat trout to the human anglers, according to new research. Strawberry Reservoir is one of the most popular sport fisheries in Utah and has considerable economic value for…
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Old ice and snow yields tracer of preindustrial ozone
Using rare oxygen molecules trapped in old ice and snow, US and French scientists have answered a long-standing question: How much have ‘bad’ ozone levels increased since the start of the Industrial Revolution? «We’ve been able to track how much ozone there was in the ancient atmosphere,» said Rice University geochemist Laurence Yeung, the lead…
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Chinas crops at risk: Climate change boosts spread of crop pests and diseases
Crop pests and diseases in China have significantly increased, with climate change being one of the relevant drivers, new research finds. Based on a unique, previously unpublished data set ranging from 1970 to 2016, an international team including the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) compared long-term statistical records about pest and disease occurrence…
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Daily rainfall over Sumatra linked to larger atmospheric phenomenon
Atmospheric scientists reveal details of the connection between a larger atmospheric phenomenon, termed the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), and the daily patterns of rainfall in the Maritime Continent. In a new study led by atmospheric scientist Giuseppe Torri at the University of Hawai’i (UH) at M?noa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), researchers…
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Look whos talking now: The fishes!
A new study finds that fish are far more likely to communicate with sound than generally thought. «We’ve known for a long time that some fish make sounds,» said lead author Aaron Rice, a researcher at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. «But fish sounds were always…
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New tool to study stress in root-colonizing bacteria
One solution to agriculture’s many challenges is to develop smarter fertilizers that aim not only to nourish the plant but also to maximize soil bacteria’s positive effects on the plant. Researchers analyzed the effects of potential fertilizers on a health-promoting bacterium native to the roots of dryland wheat in Northern Utah, bringing the ‘microbiome revolution’…
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Humans managed shellfish and their predators for millennia
A new study confirms that for millennia, Indigenous people managed their relationship with shellfish and sea otters to safeguard their access to shellfish which remain important for food, social, and ceremonial uses today. «What our research found was that people actually kept sea otters out of particular areas which gave them access to large shellfish,»…
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COVID-19 mouse model will speed search for drugs, vaccines
Researchers have developed a mouse model of COVID-19 that is expected to speed up the search for drugs and vaccines for the potentially deadly disease. The mouse model is described in a paper published online June 10 in the journal Cell. In addition to drug and vaccine testing, scientists can use the model with mice…
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For some Greenlanders, eating sugar is healthy
A genetic variation among some Greenlanders makes sugar healthy — significantly more than for most people. According to a new study, gut bacteria and a unique diet that has nourished Greenlanders for millennia have provided them with a genetic variation that offers an incredible advantage. Two copies of a gene variant make it so that…