https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/science/trump-zinke-pacific-marine-reserves.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
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The scarlet gilia can be found standing tall among the sagebrush on mountainsides, its red flowers blazing. The drought, shade, and the mule and elk grazing does not faze it. Biologists call plants like this the overcompenstors. Overcompensation was first observed in the scarlet gilia in 1987. Joanna Klein writes "In the study published this month in the journal Ecology, scientists showed for the first time that in an experiment, damaging some plants set off a molecular chain of events that caused them to grow back bigger, and produce more seeds and chemical defenses simultaneously."
Dr. Paige looked for a molecular mechanism behind oercompenstion in various types of Arabidopsis. He started seeing indications that not only did they get bushier and produce more seeds, but they also ramped up their chemical defenses. Most plants respond to damage with a process called endoreduplication, in which a cell can copy its DNA over and over without splitting into two cells. This gives the plant bigger cells with multiple energy factories to accomplish a variety of tasks. Many damaged plants only show minimal levels of endoreduplication. But the overcompensators go into overdrive with the process. In the case of the study’s mustard plants, they were able to grow bigger and also produce glucosinolate, the sulfurish, bitter chemical compound in mustard, kale, cabbage and horseradish. In ABBOT POINT, Australia, a grassy stretch of prime grazing land sits above a vein of coal so rich and deep that it could be mined for decades. Australian government is proposing building the world's largest coal mine. Jacqueline Williams writes "But the plan has met intense opposition in Australia and abroad, focusing attention on a question with global resonance: Given the threat of climate change and the slowing global demand for coal, does the world really need another giant mine, especially at the public’s expense?"
The project, known as the Carmichael mine, has provoked strong resistance in part because of its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, a natural wonder that is already dying because of overheated seawater blamed on climate change. The plan to ship coal to India would further damage the ecosystem of the world’s greatest system of reefs. Williams writes "A host of Australian celebrities — including the rock band Midnight Oil — and international groups have urged Mr. Turnbull to kill the project, arguing that such a large mine would violate Australia’s commitment in the Paris climate accord to work to prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels." Beneath Yellowstone National Park lies a supervolcano. It sparked when new magma moved into the system. Yellowstone's last supereruption was 631,000 years ago. Results show that the forces causing these erruptions move faster than anticipated.
Yellowstone's supervolcano has the ability to expel more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock and ash at once-- 2,500 times more material than erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980, which killed 57 people. This could blanket most of the United States in a thick layer of ash and put Earth into a volcanic winter. New York Times writes "As the research advances, scientists hope they will be able to spot future supereruptions in the making...But understanding the largest eruptions can only help scientists better understand, and therefore forecast, the entire spectrum of volcanic eruptions — something that Dr. Cooper thinks will be possible in a matter of decades" (1). Geologists must figure out what kick starts the rapid movements leading up to supereruptions. |
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March 2018
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