Most polluted ecosystems can recover

September 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Bid adieu to the fear of polluted or contaminated air making its way into your body, for researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have now developed a first-of-its-kind sensor called "Dust Alert" that can families and authorities monitor the quality of the air they breathe. Developed by Prof.

September 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Twenty-four areas around the country where water, air and soil pollution have reached critical levels are now being studied by experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to see what can be done about them, Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Thursday. "Meanwhile, no new industrial units are to come up in any of these areas unless a committee of experts is satisfied that it will not worsen the ambient air, water or soil quality," he added.

September 17th, 2009 AGRA - Just behind the Taj Mahal, thousands of dead fish have been floating down the Yamuna river here for the past three days. Residents have been gathering the dead fish and eating them, and there were reports Friday of some people falling ill because at least some of the fish may be carrying pollutants.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Google has developed an algorithm for ranking web-pages, which can be used to determine which species are critical for sustaining ecosystems. The algorithm, known as "PageRank", can be applied to the study of food webs, the complex networks describing who eats whom in an ecosystem, according to Drs.

August 30th, 2009 Cleanup set for polluted Rhode Island neighborhoodTIVERTON, R.I. — The cleanup is scheduled to start in a Rhode Island neighborhood so polluted with arsenic, cyanide, lead and other contaminants that its soil turned blue.

August 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found far more mosquitoes in sewage-contaminated streams than in clean ones, which are also bigger and faster than those in purer waters. ccording to a report in Discovery News, over a 16-week study period last summer, Luis Fernando Chaves, an ecologist at Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues sampled water quality and mosquito larvae from two streams - one that receives contaminated overflows and one that doesn't - in the Atlanta area.

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, an international team of scientists has determined that efforts to rebuild many of the world's fisheries are worthwhile and starting to pay off in many places around the world, thanks to appropriate management. Their study puts into perspective recent reports predicting a total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.

July 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Forestry researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have said in a new report that widely sought efforts to reduce fuels that increase catastrophic fire in Pacific Northwest forests will be counterproductive to another important societal goal of sequestering carbon to help offset global warming. The study showed that even if the biofuels were used in an optimal manner to produce electricity or make cellulosic ethanol, there would still be a net loss of carbon sequestration in forests of the Coast Range and the west side of the Cascade Mountains for at least 100 years - and probably much longer.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has warned that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems, with 58 percent of world's seagrass meadows currently declining. The assessment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows an acceleration of annual seagrass loss from less than 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990.

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have found that a rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels 200 million years ago led to a sudden ancient collapse in plant biodiversity. The evidence for the collapse in the plant biodiversity was unearthed by scientists in the form of 200 million-year-old fossil leaves collected in East Greenland.

June 4th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Noted green warrior Balbir Singh Seechewal Thursday expressed serious concern over the environmental degradation and depleting water table in Punjab and urged the people to join in efforts to improve matters. Speaking to reporters here on the eve of World Environment Day, Seechewal also criticised the people of the state for being culpable for the environmental degradation.

May 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An analysis of 240 independent studies by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has revealed that most polluted or damaged ecosystems worldwide can recover within a lifetime if societies commit to their cleanup or restoration. The Yale researchers found that forest ecosystems recovered in 42 years on average, while ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years.

April 22nd, 2009 What to do if you encounter a cougarHere are some safety suggestions for people who encounter cougars: — Stand your ground, try to look as large as possible and be aggressive, shouting and throwing rocks or sticks at the cat. — DO NOT turn and try to run.

March 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and the University of East Anglia have suggested that the Internet could be used as an early warning system for potential ecological disasters. Ecosystem services such as water purification and food production are of fundamental importance for all planetary life.

January 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists taking a leaf out of the social sciences are trying to read signs from nature to know whether they presage potential collapse of ecosystems. The idea of using leading indicators in science is not new.