News in Brief: Earth/Environment

Flameproofing baby products, early tectonics, the future of tomatoes and more in this week's newsWeb edition : Saturday, June 4th, 2011 Early plate tectonics

Slivers of ancient rock may show that plate tectonics, the movement of large chunks of crust that is a defining feature of Earth’s surface today, has been happening for at least 3.7 billion years. Researchers in England, Australia and China say they’ve identified intact pieces of the Earth’s mantle in the ancient, highly squished rocks of southern Greenland. If so, the slivers must have come from one early crustal plate diving beneath another, scraping up pieces of the deeper Earth, the team writes in a paper appearing May 24 in Geology. —Alexandra Witze

Tomatoes: CO2 is galling

As concentrations of carbon dioxide rise, certain plants may lose more battles with pests, Chinese scientists report in the May 24 PLoS One. Researchers grew tomatoes at concentrations of carbon dioxide representing current levels (390 parts per million) and at those predicted to exist near the end of the century (780 ppm). When exposed to tiny nematodes, which are common soil parasites, tomatoes breathing the elevated carbon dioxide suffered most. They developed more tumorlike galls in their roots than did plants at current carbon dioxide levels and produced fewer flavonoids and other antioxidant compounds. The researchers linked this greater parasite damage to the reduced activity of genes managing certain plant defense compounds. —Janet Raloff

Babies face high flame-retardant exposures

Eighty percent of baby products containing polyurethane foam are treated with flame retardant chemicals, a U.S. team of chemists finds. After testing 101 common products, they calculate that babies’ exposure to TDCPP, the flame retardant that turned up most, would be higher than adults encounter — and “higher than acceptable daily intake levels of TDCPP set by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.” The testing found five products still in use that had been treated with a flame retardant that has since been banned: decabrominated diphenyl ether, the scientists reported May 18 in Environmental Science & Technology. And two products contained organophosphate flame retardants never before reported in the environment or commercial products. —Janet Raloff

China’s pollution cuts downstream rains

Industrial growth in China since the early 1980s has darkened its skies with plenty of pollutant particles. A team of U.S. researchers now reports that satellite data show the concentrations of tiny aerosol particles climbed some 40 percent throughout that period over the Shanghai-Nanjing and Jinan industrial regions. Downwind rains over the East China Sea, meanwhile, diminished by one-third over the same period, they report May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. The scientists say that learning why pollution had this effect might suggest weather impacts of possible geoengineering tactics, like seeding skies with particles to slow global warming. —Janet Raloff

Found in: Earth and Environment

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News in Brief: Earth/Environment

How Antarctica got its ice, plus Chinese dust-ups and rising bird malaria in this week’s newsWeb edition : Saturday, April 30th, 2011 How Antarctica got its ice
East Antarctica’s great ice sheet was already present — and bigger than today — by 14.7 million years ago, about a million years earlier than some scientists had thought. A 1,100-meter-long core drilled off the Antarctic coast in McMurdo Sound shows when ice affected the sediments settling on the seafloor. Knowing Antarctica’s glacial history helps scientists better understand past climate and how the modern ice sheet might respond to warming temperatures. Sandra Passchier of Montclair State University in New Jersey and her colleagues report the discovery in an upcoming Geological Society of America Bulletin. —Alexandra Witze

Extreme Chinese dust-ups
Storms in parched regions of Asia fling major dust clouds into American airspace each spring, but five events in April 2010 contributed to the thickest and most divided pollutant streams ever recorded, a U.S.-Japanese team reports. The researchers used NASA satellites to track multiple layers of airborne dust stemming from China’s Taklimakan and Gobi deserts. Dust clouds entered North American air at between 2 and 10 kilometers altitude, maintaining an average width of more than 2000 kilometers, the scientists reported online April 19 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions. Excessively strong, sustained winds ferried the dust north into Canada and east to at least Virginia. —Janet Raloff

Heating up malaria risks in birds
For every 1 degree Celsius increase in local temperature, the rate of malaria infection in wild birds has doubled or tripled, a new study finds. This link proved especially robust for populations in Europe and Africa. László Garamszegi of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, surveyed records spanning 70 years and involving 3,335 avian species. His analysis, detailed in the May Climate Change Biology, shows that changes in infection rates are strongly linked to local temperature, and “the increase in prevalence has accelerated in recent years.” These data suggest that there could be similar climate-related increases in human malaria risks, he says. —Janet Raloff

Found in: Climate Change, Earth and Environment

View the original article here

News in Brief: Earth/Environment

How Antarctica got its ice, plus Chinese dust-ups and rising bird malaria in this week’s newsWeb edition : Saturday, April 30th, 2011 How Antarctica got its ice
East Antarctica’s great ice sheet was already present — and bigger than today — by 14.7 million years ago, about a million years earlier than some scientists had thought. A 1,100-meter-long core drilled off the Antarctic coast in McMurdo Sound shows when ice affected the sediments settling on the seafloor. Knowing Antarctica’s glacial history helps scientists better understand past climate and how the modern ice sheet might respond to warming temperatures. Sandra Passchier of Montclair State University in New Jersey and her colleagues report the discovery in an upcoming Geological Society of America Bulletin. —Alexandra Witze

Extreme Chinese dust-ups
Storms in parched regions of Asia fling major dust clouds into American airspace each spring, but five events in April 2010 contributed to the thickest and most divided pollutant streams ever recorded, a U.S.-Japanese team reports. The researchers used NASA satellites to track multiple layers of airborne dust stemming from China’s Taklimakan and Gobi deserts. Dust clouds entered North American air at between 2 and 10 kilometers altitude, maintaining an average width of more than 2000 kilometers, the scientists reported online April 19 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions. Excessively strong, sustained winds ferried the dust north into Canada and east to at least Virginia. —Janet Raloff

Heating up malaria risks in birds
For every 1 degree Celsius increase in local temperature, the rate of malaria infection in wild birds has doubled or tripled, a new study finds. This link proved especially robust for populations in Europe and Africa. László Garamszegi of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, surveyed records spanning 70 years and involving 3,335 avian species. His analysis, detailed in the May Climate Change Biology, shows that changes in infection rates are strongly linked to local temperature, and “the increase in prevalence has accelerated in recent years.” These data suggest that there could be similar climate-related increases in human malaria risks, he says. —Janet Raloff

Found in: Climate Change, Earth and Environment

View the original article here

News in Brief: Earth/Environment

How Antarctica got its ice, plus Chinese dust-ups and rising bird malaria in this week’s newsWeb edition : Saturday, April 30th, 2011 How Antarctica got its ice
East Antarctica’s great ice sheet was already present — and bigger than today — by 14.7 million years ago, about a million years earlier than some scientists had thought. A 1,100-meter-long core drilled off the Antarctic coast in McMurdo Sound shows when ice affected the sediments settling on the seafloor. Knowing Antarctica’s glacial history helps scientists better understand past climate and how the modern ice sheet might respond to warming temperatures. Sandra Passchier of Montclair State University in New Jersey and her colleagues report the discovery in an upcoming Geological Society of America Bulletin. —Alexandra Witze

Extreme Chinese dust-ups
Storms in parched regions of Asia fling major dust clouds into American airspace each spring, but five events in April 2010 contributed to the thickest and most divided pollutant streams ever recorded, a U.S.-Japanese team reports. The researchers used NASA satellites to track multiple layers of airborne dust stemming from China’s Taklimakan and Gobi deserts. Dust clouds entered North American air at between 2 and 10 kilometers altitude, maintaining an average width of more than 2000 kilometers, the scientists reported online April 19 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions. Excessively strong, sustained winds ferried the dust north into Canada and east to at least Virginia. —Janet Raloff

Heating up malaria risks in birds
For every 1 degree Celsius increase in local temperature, the rate of malaria infection in wild birds has doubled or tripled, a new study finds. This link proved especially robust for populations in Europe and Africa. László Garamszegi of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, surveyed records spanning 70 years and involving 3,335 avian species. His analysis, detailed in the May Climate Change Biology, shows that changes in infection rates are strongly linked to local temperature, and “the increase in prevalence has accelerated in recent years.” These data suggest that there could be similar climate-related increases in human malaria risks, he says. —Janet Raloff

Found in: Climate Change, Earth and Environment

View the original article here

News in Brief: Earth/Environment

How Antarctica got its ice, plus Chinese dust-ups and rising bird malaria in this week’s newsWeb edition : Saturday, April 30th, 2011 How Antarctica got its ice
East Antarctica’s great ice sheet was already present — and bigger than today — by 14.7 million years ago, about a million years earlier than some scientists had thought. A 1,100-meter-long core drilled off the Antarctic coast in McMurdo Sound shows when ice affected the sediments settling on the seafloor. Knowing Antarctica’s glacial history helps scientists better understand past climate and how the modern ice sheet might respond to warming temperatures. Sandra Passchier of Montclair State University in New Jersey and her colleagues report the discovery in an upcoming Geological Society of America Bulletin. —Alexandra Witze

Extreme Chinese dust-ups
Storms in parched regions of Asia fling major dust clouds into American airspace each spring, but five events in April 2010 contributed to the thickest and most divided pollutant streams ever recorded, a U.S.-Japanese team reports. The researchers used NASA satellites to track multiple layers of airborne dust stemming from China’s Taklimakan and Gobi deserts. Dust clouds entered North American air at between 2 and 10 kilometers altitude, maintaining an average width of more than 2000 kilometers, the scientists reported online April 19 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions. Excessively strong, sustained winds ferried the dust north into Canada and east to at least Virginia. —Janet Raloff

Heating up malaria risks in birds
For every 1 degree Celsius increase in local temperature, the rate of malaria infection in wild birds has doubled or tripled, a new study finds. This link proved especially robust for populations in Europe and Africa. László Garamszegi of the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, surveyed records spanning 70 years and involving 3,335 avian species. His analysis, detailed in the May Climate Change Biology, shows that changes in infection rates are strongly linked to local temperature, and “the increase in prevalence has accelerated in recent years.” These data suggest that there could be similar climate-related increases in human malaria risks, he says. —Janet Raloff

Found in: Climate Change, Earth and Environment

View the original article here