Poison: It's what's for dinner
As the U.S. Southwest grew warmer from 18,700 to 10,000 years ago, juniper trees vanished from what is now the Mojave Desert, robbing packrats of their favorite food. Now, University of Utah biologists...
View ArticleOil is more toxic than previously thought, study finds
Bad news for the Gulf of Mexico: a study released in late December sheds new light on the toxicity of oil in aquatic environments, and shows that environmental impact studies currently in use may be...
View ArticleMesquite trees displacing Southwestern grasslands
As the desert Southwest becomes hotter and drier, semi-arid grasslands are slowly being replaced by a landscape dominated by mesquite trees, such as Prosopis velutina, and other woody shrubs, a team of...
View ArticleRichard the Lionheart 'had mummified heart'
Forensic scientists on Thursday announced they had delved into the embalmed heart of Richard the Lionheart, finding chemical evidence that the remains of England's Crusader king were handled with holy...
View ArticleA long-sought goal: Crystallizing an elusive protein
(Phys.org) —Plants use an enzyme known as "rubisco" to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, with energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil, build up the shoots, leaves, and stems that...
View ArticleFoul fumes derail dinner for hungry moths
Car and truck exhaust fumes that foul the air for humans also cause problems for pollinators.
View ArticleFecal transplants let packrats eat poison
Woodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes. Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with...
View ArticleVirgin Galactic gets back on track toward space tourism
The only thing interrupting the creosote and mesquite that make up one of New Mexico's most remote stretches of desert is a pristine runway where Virgin Galactic plans one day to launch the world's...
View ArticlePoison warmed over: Climate change may hurt animals' ability to live on toxic...
University of Utah lab experiments found that when temperatures get warmer, woodrats suffer a reduced ability to live on their normal diet of toxic creosote - suggesting that global warming may hurt...
View ArticleWhy Christmas trees are not extinct
Conifers such as Christmas trees suffer a severe plumbing problem. The "pipes" that carry water through firs, pines and other conifers are 10 times shorter than those in flowering trees. But a...
View ArticleAgent slows aging in mice
Aspirin didn’t pan out. Neither did two other potential anti-aging agents. But a synthetic derivative of a pungent desert shrub is now a front- runner in ongoing animal experiments to find out if...
View ArticleClimate change caused widespread tree death in California mountain range
Warmer temperatures and longer dry spells have killed thousands of trees and shrubs in a Southern California mountain range, pushing the plants' habitat an average of 213 feet up the mountain over the...
View ArticleNative foods are key to preserving rodent gut bacteria in captivity
As Rodolfo Martinez-Mota well knows, from the cactus spines in his clothes and skin, white-throated woodrats love to eat prickly pear cactus (from the Opuntia genus). They like the cactus so much that...
View ArticleTrue colors: Scientists discuss evolution of white coloration of velvet ants
Driving across the arid American Southwest, one views miles upon miles of scrubby creosote bushes. Well-adapted to the hot, thirsty landscape, the evergreen shrub, also known as greasewood, chaparral...
View ArticleCacti and other iconic desert plants threatened by solar development
With their tough skins, pointy armor and legendary stamina, cacti are made to defend themselves from whatever nature throws at them.
View Article"Big data" enables first census of desert shrub
The creosote is the king of the desert. This scraggly shrub dominates the landscape of the American southwest, creating mini-oases from the harsh heat for desert wildlife.
View ArticleHow regional climate variability affects animals in North American drylands
As the visual evidence of climate change continues to shine a glaring light on a huge problem around the globe, scientists studying at several National Science Foundation (NSF) Long Term Ecological...
View ArticleClimate change is driving plant die-offs in Southern California, study finds
A shift is happening in Southern California, and this time it has nothing to do with earthquakes. According to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, climate change is...
View Article
