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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the results of a national assessment showing that nutrient pollution is widespread in the nation’s lakes, with 4 in 10 lakes suffering from too much nitrogen and phosphorus. Excess nutrients can cause algae blooms, low

Recent surveys by Australian scientists have identified an apparent significant decline in the numbers of trapdoor spiders across southern Australia.  Famous for their carefully camouflaged burrows – some with lids or ‘trapdoors’ from which they launch themselves to catch their prey –

A multi-year study led by an Iowa State University scientist suggests the turbines commonly used in the state to capture wind energy may have a positive effect on crops. Gene Takle, a Distinguished Professor of agronomy and geological and atmospheric sciences, said tall wind turbines

Marine ecologists have shown how noise pollution is changing the behaviour of marine animals – and how its elimination will significantly help build their resilience. Laura Briggs reports. Building up a library of sound from marine creatures including cod, whelks and sea slugs i

The effects of climate change will likely cause smaller but stronger storms in the United States, according to a new framework for modeling storm behavior developed at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. Though storm intensity is expected to increase over today’

Scientists closely tracking the survival of endangered Sacramento River salmon faced a puzzle: the same high temperatures that salmon eggs survived in the laboratory appeared to kill many of the eggs in the river. Now the scientists from NOAA Fisheries and the University of California

Global businesses are increasingly pledging to obtain key commodities only from sources that do not contribute to deforestation. Now, nonprofit groups are deploying data tools that help hold these companies to their promises by tracing the origins of everything from soy to timber to b

Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Dec. 9 in the journal Science. While environmental change is outpacing the rate of evolution for many other spec

A new study predicts that warming temperatures will contribute to the release into the atmosphere of carbon that has long been locked up securely in the coldest reaches of our planet. Soil and climate expert Katherine Todd-Brown, a scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific

Coral genotypes can survive for thousands of years, possibly making them the longest-lived animals in the world, according to researchers at Penn State, the National Marine Fisheries Service and Dial Cordy Associates. The team recently determined the ages of elkhorn corals  — Acropora