Tag: "runoff" at biology news

Pesticides choke pathway for nature to produce nitrogen for crops

...– through application or exposure to crops through runoff – disrupt natural nitrogen-fixing communications between crops and soil bacteria. The disruption results in lower yields or significantly delayed growth. In a paper appearing online this week ahead of the regular publication by the Proceedings of ...

Mine runoff continues to provide clues to microbial diversification

...nk microbial biofilm communities found in the mine runoff provide perfect research subjects because they have fewer organisms than most communities found in nature. The reason, Hettich noted, is that these environmental conditions ?a pH of 0.8 -- are too extreme for most organisms to survive. A pH level of ...

What's in the water? Estrogenic activity documented in fish caught in Pittsburgh's rivers

...hich may include toxic metals, farm and industrial runoff and wastes from aging municipal sewer systems," said Conrad D. Volz, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., principal investigator, department of environmental and occupational health, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. "The goals of this project a...

Researchers uncover protection mechanism of radiation-resistant bacterium

... may prove significant in efforts to contain toxic runoff from radioactive Cold War waste sites. Fifty years ago, scientists discovered D. radiodurans, leading to speculation that the incredible degree of resistance exhibited by the bacteria has to do with its mechanism of DNA repair, and the majority of...

CSIRO imagery shows Outer Great Barrier Reef at risk from river plumes

...reeks ands rivers coupled with increased sediment runoff from the land is causing a significant transport of terrestrial material to all areas of the affected reefs and reef waters. Managers of the GBR have long been examining the effects of run-off of sediments, including pesticides, herbicides and fer...

Researchers to study why dead zone returned to Lake Erie

...arming. Of the three causes, nitrogen from farm runoff and treatment plants is the most well known. The nitrogen in fertilizer causes algae blooms that sink to the bottom and are consumed by bacteria, which consumes oxygen. The second theory is that the zebra mussels may shunt the oxygen-consuming org...

Pollution threatens coral health by preventing lesions from healing, UCF study shows

...utions include additional treatment of storm-water runoff and wastewater discharges and enforcing regulations on industries that are likely causing pollution. ...

Mosquito spray increases toxicity of pyrethroids in creek, study finds

...thrin and PBO residue degrade rather than send the runoff into the creeks. ...

Too much sugar not good for coral reefs

... increased development can mean more nutrient rich runoff that threatens the very coral reefs attracting tou...nama so that I could test individual components of runoff on live corals. I was very surprised to find that, rather than the usual suspects measured to deter...

Marine mammals are on the frontline of failing ocean health

... retardants (PBDEs) are linked to areas near urban runoff and sewage outfalls. The signal of pollutants is so distinct that it is echoed in the tissues of killer whales. Sub-populations once thought to feed mainly on salmon in Alaska are now suspected to be feeding on high trophic-level fish, such as shar...

UCR environmental scientists propose chemical solution to cleaning California's Salton Sea

...er contains fertilizer nutrients from agricultural runoff and municipal effluent. These nutrients, particularly phosphorus, deteriorate the quality of the lake's water by encouraging algae growth. "Water treatment technology and on-farm management of fertilizers appear to be the best approaches for reducin...

Katrina floodwaters not as toxic to humans as previously thought, study says

...evels were within the range of typical storm-water runoff in the city, the scientists say. They also detected high levels of lead, arsenic and chromium and noted that levels of these toxic metals were also similar to those typically found in the area's stormwater. In general, these particular findings were ...

Storing carbon to combat global warming may cause other environmental problems, study suggests

... water quality as nutrient, pesticide, and erosion runoff from crop production is reduced," they wrote. ...

Researchers: Treated wood poses long-term threat

...wood leached high levels of arsenic into rainwater runoff and the soil -- and treated wood only continued le...i, Townsend and their colleagues studied rainwater runoff from a CCA-treated deck for a year. Their conclusion: Arsenic contamination was 100 times higher tha...

New class of antibiotics effective against drug-resistant bacteria discovered in fungi

... finding from water samples from streams receiving runoff is that low concentrations of arsenic are transported to streambeds instead of being retained by the aquifers, Schreiber said. "We think that the arsenic is adsorbed onto nanoscale particles that pass though our filters and through the soil column," ...

Geoscientists follow arsenic from chicken feed to streambeds

... finding from water samples from streams receiving runoff is that low concentrations of arsenic are transported to streambeds instead of being retained by the aquifers, Schreiber said. "We think that the arsenic is adsorbed onto nanoscale particles that pass though our filters and through the soil column," ...

Beach pollution is worst during new and full moon

... with health risk the same way as enterococci from runoff or sewage. "We just don't know for sure, since no one has done an epidemiological study to connect human illness to enterococci from non-point sources other than runoff," Boehm says. "We need to do additional work to understand the source of enteroco...

Toxic flood lifts lid on common urban pollution problem

...search, Sansalone and three co-authors report that runoff from an elevated section of Interstate 10 in Baton.... The findings were based on periodic analysis of runoff that drains off Interstate 10 into Baton Rouge's City Park Lake just below the highway. Based on dat...

Use of high hydrostatic pressure to inactivate Hepatitis A virus in oysters studied

...amination of harvesting areas, either from coastal runoff or ship discharges, has been shown to result in HAV contamination of oysters. Several studies have demonstrated remarkable concentration and persistence of HAV in shellfish exposed to the virus through their surrounding seawater. Even with depuration...

Digging in the dirt for life's biochemical foundations

...ncreasing, however, as are concerns about nitrogen runoff from large agricultural operations. Nitrogen also is a component of acid rain, which remains common in rapidly industrializing parts of the world, such as China. Eventually, an intricate knowledge of the nitrogen cycle might lead to more efficient u...

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