El Nino drives Panama butterfly migrations

September 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have determined that El Nino, the periodic eastern Pacific phenomenon credited with shielding the US and Caribbean from severe hurricane seasons, may be overshadowed by its brother in the central Pacific due to global warming. "There are two El Ninos, or flavors of El Nino," said Ben Kirtman, co-author of the study and professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami's Rosentstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

September 24th, 2009 Butterfly antennas key to navigating in migrationWASHINGTON — Millions of Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico for the winter and scientists have long speculated on how the insects find their way. Turns out, their antennas are the key.

September 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research conducted at Texas A and M University, US, has shown evidence of a possible link between El Nino and a severe flu pandemic in 1918 that adversely affected India. The findings are based on analysis of the 1918 El Nino, which the new research shows to be one of the strongest of the 20th century.

September 10th, 2009 Mild El Nino continues, strengthening expectedWASHINGTON — A weak El Nino is under way and it is expected to strengthen and last through winter, government climate researchers said Thursday. The periodic climate phenomenon is marked by warming of the central Pacific Ocean and changes in wind direction and air pressure that can affect weather around the world.

August 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Meteorologists have warned that a new El Nino has begun, which may lead to increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, and may make 2010 one of the hottest years on record. El Nino is a periodic warming of the normally cold waters of the eastern tropical Pacific, the ocean region westwards out from South America along the line of the equator.

July 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON — El Nino's back. Government scientists say the periodic warming of water in the tropical Pacific Ocean that can affect weather around the world has returned.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - The successful reintroduction of a once extinct butterfly in Britain has led scientists to determine that intelligent countryside management could improve the survival chances of animal and plant species threatened by climate change. This is the conclusion drawn by scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) from a British study on saving the Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion).

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A study by climatologists at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that a new form of El Nino may be changing potentially causing not only a greater number of hurricanes than in average years, but also a greater chance of hurricanes making landfall. "Normally, El Nino results in diminished hurricanes in the Atlantic, but this new type is resulting in a greater number of hurricanes with greater frequency and more potential to make landfall," said Peter Webster, professor at Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

July 2nd, 2009 New form of El Nino may increase Atlantic stormsWASHINGTON — El Nino may have a split personality. The warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean has long been known to affect weather around the world, but researchers now say it may come in two forms with different impacts.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A paleontologist has unearthed a set of fossil teeth of a browsing horse in Panama Canal earthworks, which roamed the area between 15 and 18 million years ago. The fossil was found by Aldo Rincon, a paleontology intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, US.

June 8th, 2009 Forecasters say El Nino may be developingWASHINGTON — A new El Nino could be approaching. Sea-surface temperatures have been warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean, suggesting the potential for the development of the El Nino climate phenomenon this summer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

June 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has indicated that human activities have played a large part in wiping out the world's mass migrations. The researchers determined that all of the world's large-scale terrestrial migrations have been severely reduced and a quarter of the migrating species are suspected to no longer migrate at all because of human changes to the landscape.

May 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have come up with a theory that attributes the historic migrations of the Polynesians from the Cook islands to New Zealand, Easter Island and Hawaii in the 11th to 15th centuries, to fish poisoning. The theory has been proposed by Teina Rongo, a Cook Island Maori from Rarotonga and a Ph.D.

April 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a team of scientists, led by Durham University, UK, have determined that bird migrations are likely to get longer, as a result of climate change. This is the first ever study of the potential impacts of climate change on the breeding and winter ranges of migrant birds.

January 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Hind wings help butterflies and moths evade predators by taking swift turns. 'To escape a predator, you don't have to be fast, you just have to be more erratic,' said Tom Eisner, who co-authored a new study on the subject.