Faced with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is eliminating hundreds of jobs (20% of jobs), cutting back programs and leaving more than 200 national wildlife refuges unstaffed.
The cuts also mean fewer law enforcement officers. In the Pacific region, only six officers will patrol a four-state area. In Oregon, just one full-time officer patrols the entire coastline, with a half-dozen wildlife refuges.
Read (AP via MSNBC)
[Carbon soot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soot “Wikipedia Article”) from China is warming and polluting the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and all the way to North America, according to a new study.
The airborne soot dims sunlight reaching the surface, causing cooling there, but it also heats the air higher where it resides, resulting in an overall heat gain for the climate.
The effect on the Pacific Ocean, the largest and most influential ocean on the planet, could have global climate implications.
Read (Discovery Channel)
Worldwide efforts to protect endangered waterbirds are falling short as industrial and urban development eat away at their habitats, and hunting and pollution take their toll.
In January, a global survey called the Waterbird Population Estimate found that 44 percent of the world’s 900 waterbird species numbers have fallen in the past five years, while 34 percent were stable, and 17 percent were rising. In the last such survey in 2002, 41 percent of waterbird populations worldwide were found to be decreasing.
Read (AP via MSNBC)
Pollution from China’s factories and vehicles is significantly reducing rainfall in hilly areas of the country.
Clouds form more easily when pollutant particles are abundant, but rain droplets and snowflakes are less likely to grow large enough to fall. A team of Israeli and Chinese scientists used more than 50 years worth of records to show a clear correlation between air pollution and decreased precipitation over hills in central China.
By comparing visibility and amounts of rain and snow, they have been able to demonstrate an average reduction of 20% over this 50-year period.
Read (BBC)
Caterpillars can fend off hungry birds and other predators by clicking at them, scientists now report. These clicks warn that the caterpillars will be unsavory to eat — at least, after they regurgitate a foul brown fluid.
Read (Live Science via MSNBC)
With spring approaching, Virginia scientists are planning a more comprehensive attack to find the cause of the mysterious fish kills in the [Shenandoah River](http://www.potomacwatershed.net/ijourney/shenando/shenando.html “Potomac Watershed’s Shenandoah River Page”) and its tributaries.
State agencies will continue practices of monitoring water quality and testing fish specimens that they’ve conducted since thousands of fish began dying for unexplained reasons three years ago.
For the first time, state officials will use monitoring devices containing a liquid that attracts certain types of compounds. This will be a way to find compounds that might not show up on regular measurements but would show high concentrations over time.
Scientists also will pay attention to water quality before, during and after storms to see what changes occur from runoff.
Read (AP via MSNBC)
People have long wondered how [cowbirds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowbird “Wikipedia Article”) can get away with leaving their eggs in the nests of other species, who then raise the baby cowbirds. Why don’t the hosts just toss the strange eggs out? Now researchers seem to have an answer — if the host birds reject the strange eggs, the cowbirds come back and trash the place.
The so-called “Mafia behavior” by brown-headed cowbirds is reported in this week’s online edition of [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences](http://www.pnas.org/ “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” Website).
Read (AP via MSNBC)
Coal companies want to fuel your car and lately, they’re getting a lot of political support for the idea.
Turning coal into gasoline-like fuel has several advantages. It would use America’s vast coal reserves. It would reduce the nation’s thirst for foreign oil and help dampen spikes in energy prices. There’s just one problem: It is not “climate friendly” – at least, not yet.
Coal-to-liquids fuels could end up emitting nearly double the carbon dioxide that the equivalent amount of gasoline does, mostly because of the way it’s manufactured.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate from 24 US states, threatening the production of numerous crops. The cause of the losses, which range from 30% to more than 70%, is a mystery, but experts are investigating several theories. American bee colonies have been hit by regional crises before, but keepers say this is the first national crisis.
The mystery disappearances highlight the important link that honeybees play in the chain that brings fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables.
Read (BBC)
Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates.
Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it.
In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside.
[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6387611.stm “Read the Story”)(BBC)
A mile offshore from Fort Lauderdale’s high-rise condos and spring-break bars lie as many as 2 million old tires, strewn across the ocean floor – a white-walled, steel-belted monument to good intentions gone awry.
The tires were placed there in 1972 to create an artificial reef that could attract a rich variety of marine life and to free up space in clogged landfills. Decades later, the idea has proved a huge ecological blunder.
Little sea life has formed on the tires. Some of the tires that were bundled together with nylon and steel have broken loose and are scouring the ocean floor across a swath the size of 31 football fields. Tires are washing up on beaches. Thousands have wedged up against a nearby natural reef, blocking coral growth and devastating marine life.
[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-17-florida-reef_x.htm “Read the Story”)(AP via USA Today)
Considered a cold-climate species, moose once ranged as far south as Pennsylvania in the Northeastern United States. But with New England’s transformation from a forested to agrarian landscape in Colonial times, they largely disappeared from the area. Beginning in the 1980s, however, a breeding population began to reestablish itself. Now Massachusetts boasts some 1,000 moose.
As moose crossing signs sprout along highways, foresters nervously wait to see how this large herbivore – the average moose eats up to 60 pounds of roughage daily – will affect the forest’s makeup, especially its valuable timber trees.
[Read](http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0214/p13s02-sten.html “Read the Story”)(Christian Science Monitor)
Something is wiping out honey bees across North America and a team of researchers is rushing to find out what it is.
What’s being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and way out in California. Some bee keepers have lost up to 80 percent of their colonies to the mysterious disorder. The disorder decimates the worker bee population in a matter of weeks.
[Read](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/05/bees_ani.html?category=animals “Read the Story”)(Discovery Channel)
A recent trend toward increasingly mild winters is disrupting normal hibernation patterns for many high-latitude and high-elevation species—and in some cases it may be a matter of life or death.
When animals hibernate they’re able to conserve the energy stored in their fat during periods when food is scarce. So when they are abnormally active, they risk using up their stored energy before they can replace it.
[Read](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070202-groundhog.html?source=rss “Read the Story”)(National Geographic)
Lingering crude from the [Exxon Valdez oil spill](http://www.answers.com/topic/exxon-valdez-oil-spill “Answers.com”) has weathered only slightly in some places almost 18 years after it ran aground and fouled hundreds of miles of Alaska shoreline.
The estimated 85 tons – or more than 26,600 gallons – of oil **remaining** at [Prince William Sound](http://www.answers.com/topic/prince-william-sound “Answers.com”) is declining about 4 percent a year and likely even slower in the [Gulf of Alaska](http://www.answers.com/gulf%20of%20alaska “Answers.com”). At that rate of decline, oil could persist for decades below the surface of some beaches.
[Read](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16909550/ “Read the Story”)(AP via MSNBC)