Decline in snow cover spells trouble for many plants, animals

May 7, 2013 ? For plants and animals forced to tough out harsh winter weather, the coverlet of snow that blankets the north country is a refuge, a stable beneath-the-snow habitat that gives essential respite from biting winds and subzero temperatures.

But in a warming world, winter and spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is in decline, putting at risk many plants and animals that depend on the space beneath the snow to survive the blustery chill of winter.

In a report published May 2 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes the gradual decay of the Northern Hemisphere's "subnivium," the term scientists use to describe the seasonal microenvironment beneath the snow, a habitat where life from microbes to bears take full advantage of warmer temperatures, near constant humidity and the absence of wind.

"Underneath that homogenous blanket of snow is an incredibly stable refuge where the vast majority of organisms persist through the winter," explains Jonathan Pauli, a UW-Madison professor of forest and wildlife ecology and a co-author of the new report. "The snow holds in heat radiating from the ground, plants photosynthesize, and it's a haven for insects, reptiles, amphibians and many other organisms."

Since 1970, snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere -- the part of the world that contains the largest land masses affected by snow -- has diminished by as much as 3.2 million square kilometers during the critical spring months of March and April. Maximum snow cover has shifted from February to January and spring melt has accelerated by almost two weeks, according to Pauli and his colleagues, Benjamin Zuckerberg and Warren Porter, also of UW-Madison, and John P. Whiteman of the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

"The winter ecology of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest is changing," says Zuckerberg, a UW-Madison professor of forest and wildlife ecology. "There is concern these winter ecosystems could change dramatically over the next several years."

As is true for ecosystem changes anywhere, a decaying subnivium would have far-reaching consequences. Reptiles and amphibians, which can survive being frozen solid, are put at risk when temperatures fluctuate, bringing them prematurely out of their winter torpor only to be lashed by late spring storms or big drops in temperature. Insects also undergo phases of freeze tolerance and the migrating birds that depend on invertebrates as a food staple may find the cupboard bare when the protective snow cover goes missing.

"There are thresholds beyond which some organisms just won't be able to make a living," says Pauli. "The subnivium provides a stable environment, but it is also extremely delicate. Once that snow melts, things can change radically."

For example, plants exposed directly to cold temperatures and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles can suffer tissue damage both below and above ground, resulting in higher plant mortality, delayed flowering and reduced biomass. Voles and shrews, two animals that thrive in networks of tunnels in the subnivium, would experience not only a loss of their snowy refuge, but also greater metabolic demands to cope with more frequent and severe exposure to the elements.

The greatest effects on the subnivium, according to Zuckerberg, will occur on the margins of the Earth's terrestrial cryosphere, the parts of the world that get cold enough to support snow and ice, whether seasonally or year-round. "The effects will be especially profound along the trailing edge of the cryosphere in regions that experience significant, but seasonal snow cover," the Wisconsin scientists assert in their report. "Decay of the subnivium will affect species differently, but be especially consequential for those that lack the plasticity to cope with the loss of the subnivium or that possess insufficient dispersal power to track the retreating range boundary of the subnivium."

As an ecological niche, the subnivium has been little studied. However, as snow cover retreats in a warming world, land managers, the Wisconsin researchers argue, need to begin to pay attention to the changes and the resulting loss of habitat for a big range of plants and animals.

"Snow cover is becoming shorter, thinner and less predictable," says Pauli. "We're seeing a trend. The subnivium is in retreat."

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/czX4mLlUzow/130507134421.htm

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US calls for NKorea amnesty for sentenced American

A South Korean man watches a television news program showing Korean American Kenneth Bae at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Bae detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday ? a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean man watches a television news program showing Korean American Kenneth Bae at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Bae detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday ? a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A photo provided by Bobby Lee, shows Kenneth Bae, right, and Bobby Lee together when they were freshmen students at the University of Oregon in 1988. Bae is being detained in North Korea and could face the death penalty if he is convicted on charges that he planned to overthrow the North Korean government. (AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Bobby Lee)

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. called Thursday for North Korea to grant amnesty and immediately release a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state.

Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Analysts say Bae's sentencing could be an effort by Pyongyang to win diplomatic concessions in the ongoing standoff over its nuclear program. But there was no immediate sign a high-profile envoy was about to make a clemency mission to the isolated nation which has taken an increasingly confrontational stance under its young leader Kim Jong Un.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. was still seeking to learn the facts of Bae's case. He said the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular matters there for the U.S., did not attend Tuesday's Supreme Court trial and that there hasn't been transparency in the legal proceedings.

"There's no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad, and we urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," Ventrell told a news conference, referencing the socialist country's formal title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has faced increasing international criticism over its weapons development. Six-nation disarmament talks involving the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington. Tensions have escalated since it conducted its third nuclear test since 2006 in February.

Pyongyang's tone has softened somewhat recently, following weeks of violent rhetoric, including threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. There have been tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, and a major source of North Korean outrage ? annual U.S.-South Korean military drills ? ended Tuesday.

Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, called Bae's conviction "a hasty gambit to force a direct dialogue with the United States."

"While Washington will do everything possible to spare an innocent American from years of hard labor, U.S. officials are aware that in all likelihood the North Korean regime wants a meeting to demonstrate that the United States in effect confers legitimacy on the North's nuclear-weapon-state status," Cronin said in an email.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Mexico that if North Korea is interested in discussion, they should live up to their obligations under the six-party talks.

"Thus far, as you know, they have flouted their obligations, engaged in provocative actions and rhetoric that brings them no closer to a situation where they can improve the lot of the North Korean people or re-enter the community of nations," Carney said.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency announcement of Bae's sentencing came just days after it reported Saturday that authorities would soon indict and try him. It referred to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name. The State Department had appealed Monday for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Bae, from Lynnwood, Wash., was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae's alleged crimes has not been revealed.

"Kenneth Bae had no access to a lawyer. It is not even known what he was charged with," the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. "Kenneth Bae should be released, unless he is charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offense and retried by a competent, independent and impartial court."

Ventrell said the Swedish embassy's most recent access to Bae was last Friday. It has only had a handful of brief opportunities to see him since he was arrested in early November, according to U.S. officials.

Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans. Bae's mother in the United States did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.

There are parallels to a case in 2009. After Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket and its second underground nuclear test that year, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after sneaking across the border from China.

They later were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and released to Clinton, who met with then-leader Kim Jong Il. U.S.-North Korea talks came later that year.

In 2011, Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing illegally into the North from China.

On Thursday, Carter's press secretary, Deanna Congileo, said by email that the former president has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit.

Korean-American Eddie Jun was released in 2011 after Robert King, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, traveled to Pyongyang. Jun had been detained for half a year over an unspecified crime.

Jun and Gomes are also devout Christians. While the North Korean Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

U.N. and U.S. officials accuse North Korea of treating opponents brutally. Foreign nationals have told varying stories about their detentions in North Korea.

The two journalists sentenced to hard labor in 2009 stayed in a guest house instead of a labor camp due to medical concerns.

Ali Lameda, a member of Venezuela's Communist Party and a poet invited to the North in 1966 to work as a Spanish translator, said that he was detained in a damp, filthy cell without trial the following year after facing espionage allegations that he denied. He later spent six years in prison after a one-day trial, he said.

___

Kim reported from Seoul. Associated Press writers Lou Kesten and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-02-US-NKorea-American-Detained/id-b58ec65081db4a9aac2a59bad78dff28

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5 car bombs kill 26 in Shiite areas across Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Five car bombs exploded Monday in public areas in predominantly Shiite cities and districts in central and southern Iraq, killing 26 civilians and wounding dozens, officials said.

The blasts come amid a week-long spike in sectarian violence following clashes at a Sunni protest camp in the north of the country. No one has claimed responsibility, but coordinated bombings in civilian areas are a favorite strategy used by al-Qaida in Iraq.

Two parked car bombs went off simultaneously Monday morning in the city of Amarah near a gathering of construction workers and a market, killing 13 civilians and wounding 42, according to police.

Another police officer said a parked car bomb exploded near a restaurant in the city of Diwaniyah, killing eight civilians and wounding 25 others.

Amarah, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad and Diwaniyah, 30 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, are heavily Shiite and normally comparatively peaceful.

Hours later, another parked car bomb went off in the revered Shiite city of Karbala, killing two civilians and wounding 12 others, police said. Two early Islamic figures revered by Shiites are buried in the city, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad.

A parked car bomb ripped through a Shiite neighborhood in the otherwise predominantly Sunni town of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Baghdad, killing three and wounding 16, another police said.

Four medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

Sectarian violence has spiked since Tuesday, when security forces tried to make arrests at a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the northern city of Hawija. The move set off a clash that killed 23 people, including three soldiers.

The Hawija incident and a spate of follow-up battles between gunmen and security forces as well as other attacks, including Monday's, have left around 200 dead in the last week.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-car-bombs-kill-26-shiite-areas-across-091440443.html

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Sushi for peccaries?

Apr. 29, 2013 ? It turns out the white-lipped peccary -- a piglike animal from Central and South America -- will settle for fish when fruits (its main food) are no longer on the menu, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and partners revealing the first-ever photos of fish-eating peccaries.

The images of fish consumption by white-lipped peccaries were taken by Douglas Fernandes in the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands one morning back in 2011. A short description of the observations, along with the digital photographs taken, will appear in the latest edition of Suiform Soundings (IUCN Peccary Specialist Group Newsletter).

"As far as we know, these are the first images of fish consumption by white-lipped peccaries," said Dr. Alexine Keuroghlian of the Wildlife Conservation Society and an expert on peccaries. "This finding expands our knowledge of how this ecologically important species survives in highly seasonal habitats."

While there was one reported account by Dr. Joe Fragoso of the white-lipped peccary dining on fish in the Amazon, the behavior has been rarely seen and apparently never photographed until the morning of August 17, 2011. On that day, Fernandes, a researcher for the Instituto Arara Azul, a partner organization , observed a group of approximately 30 white-lipped peccaries at Caiman Lodge near the town of Miranda in the Pantanal, one of the world's largest tropical wetlands. Most of the peccaries fled as he approached, but five remained as they fed on aquatic plants in shallow ponds, created by the receding flood waters typical of the Pantanal's dry season. It was then that Fernandes noticed three of the peccaries eating traira, or wolf fish, from the oxygen-starved ponds.

"We know that peccaries are primarily fruit-eaters, but will consume aquatic plants, tubers, grasses, and small invertebrates, such as insect larvae, worms, and snails, when fruits are scarce," said Dr. Keuroghlian.

"At the time, I knew this was a rare observation but was unaware of the fact that I was taking perhaps the first images of this behavior," said Fernandes.

The white-lipped peccary is a medium-sized animal that occurs in both humid tropical forests as well as open savanna and wetland habitats throughout Central and South America. The species sometimes travels in herds of hundreds of individual animals, the only Neotropical ungulate (hoofed mammal) known to do so. As a major fruit-eater, the white-lipped peccary plays an important ecological role in rainforests and other habitats as a seed predator and disperser, and it is a favorite prey of jaguars and pumas. Additionally, white-lipped peccaries are considered an environmental indicator of a well-preserved forest.

The white-lipped peccary is listed as "Near Threatened"on the IUCN's Red List, but its status is currently under review as "Vulnerable." The two main threats faced by white-lipped peccaries are habitat loss and direct hunting.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/URNG_07zWp0/130429175919.htm

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Zombie worms eat whale bones ? with acid

Zombie worms don't actually drill through bone, as was previously believed. Instead, their skin produces enough acid to dissolve the zombie worms' path through bone.

By Douglas Main,?Our Amazing Planet staff writer / April 30, 2013

More than 100 female Osedax, or zombie worms, on the flipper-bone (phalange) of a grey whale collected from the Monterey Submarine Canyon off California.

Martin Tresguerres et al / Proceedings of the Royal Society B / LiveScience.com

Enlarge

So-called zombie worms ? and yes, they actually exist ? like to munch on whale bones for dinner. The creatures also use the bones for shelter. Spread throughout the world's oceans, zombie worms are quite adept at making the bones of whales and other large marine animals look like Swiss cheese. ? ?

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But these worms don't have any mouthparts with which to gnaw the holes. So how do they do it? A study published in the May 1 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that rather than being "bone-drilling" worms, they're actually "bone-dissolving" worms: The worms? skin produces acid in large quantities to break down bones.

The acid is produced by proton pumps, protein-containing structures abundant in the front end of the worm's body, said Martin Tresguerres, a marine physiologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.

'Off the charts'

Tresguerres has studied these acid-secreting structures in many other animals, including sharks and various fish. But he hasn't seen anything like this before. "The amount of proton pumps they have is off the charts," he told OurAmazingPlanet.

The cellular mechanism used to produce the acid is nearly identical to that used in osteoclasts, the human cells that break down bone so that it can be rebuilt. Insight into how the worm dissolves bone could possibly be applied to osteoclasts, Tresguerres said. Human kidneys also contain similar proton pumps involved in processing bodily waste, he added.

Even stranger, Tresguerres said, is that the worms lack digestive systems. The study suggests the acid the worms produce frees collagen and other proteins from the whale bones, but how they are broken down and absorbed by the worms is unclear. Tresguerres, along with co-authors Sigrid Katz and Greg Rouse, think that symbiotic bacteria help the animals digest the food. ?

The worms were first discovered by Rouse and colleagues in 2002 off the California coast in an underwater valley called the Monterey Submarine Canyon.

There are multiple species of these zombie worms, which belong to the Osedax genus. The worms? closest relatives, which also lack guts and mouths, inhabit deep-sea hydrothermal vents and rely on a different set of bacteria to allow them to survive in these hot and acidic conditions.

Email Douglas Main?or follow him @Douglas_Main. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or? Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/OP4uHrfj3jc/Zombie-worms-eat-whale-bones-with-acid

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Share Practice Aims To Give Doctors Treatment Information And Feedback From Colleagues On The Fly

During their work with patients, doctors will frequently contact colleagues with questions, to trade horror stories, or converse about treatment methods. There isn't really a technological solution to streamline this daily back and forth, but that's what SharePractice aims to bring.

Founders Dr. Andrew Brandeis and Alex Kawas built an easy to use the mobile app to serve as a sort of Wikipedia meets social networks. SharePractice, just announced at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013, allows doctors to ask questions and receive feedback quickly from other verified doctors in their field rather than having to take out their phone to just call, text, or email someone one at a time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/za6z4QNy9q0/

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Colorado State University - Pueblo announces 2013 ASG Election Results

Colorado State University - Pueblo announces 2013 ASG Election Results

PUEBLO?The results from the 2013 Associated Students? Government (ASG) elections at Colorado State University-Pueblo held April 9-11 have been announced.

ASG is a student-run government which represents and advocates on behalf of students. This student government works with the CSU-Pueblo administration, faculty and staff, and is responsive to student concerns, ideas, and needs, and actively works to ensure that the student body of CSU-Pueblo is justly and proactively recognized and represented with fairness and equity in all aspects of the University setting.
?
Next year?s ASG President is senior Vanessa Emerson, a business management major and mass communications minor from Aurora. Elected Vice President is junior Michael Weiner, a business management (marketing) major with leadership studies minor from Pueblo. Emerson and Weiner ran on the Students for Students party platform.

Elected as Senators representing the College of Education, Engineering, and Professional Studies are Henry Willauer, a sophomore exercise science major from Woodland Hills, Calif., and Damilola Ogunbayode, a freshman pre-engineering major from Lagos, Nigeria.?

Representing the College of Humanities and Social Sciences will be Trevor McKinney, a sophomore political science major and computer information systems minor from Pueblo and Michael E. Linsenman, a sophomore political science major with minors in business administration and homeland security from Commerce City.???

Elected Senators to represent the College of Science and Mathematics include freshman Vanessa Gallegos, a? pre-vet biology major with a Spanish minor from Pueblo, and Nikole Turner, a senior pre-vet biology major with chemistry minor from Olney Springs.

Luis Antonio Reyes, a sophomore pre-business major from Colorado Springs, was elected as a Senator for the Hasan School of Business (HSB) as was sophomore Anthony ?Turtle? Herrera, a pre-business major from Seguin, Texas.

Six students, Kristen Pough, a freshman social work/English double major from Aurora, Daniel Ullrich, a freshman pre-business major from Evergreen, Noelle Clark, a sophomore political science/Spanish double major with a leadership studies minor from Pueblo West, Freddy Anson, a sophomore pre-business major from Katy, Texas, Denys Frolkov a freshman? pre-business major from Denver, and Evan Martella, a junior history/political science double major from Pueblo, were elected as Senators at Large.

For more information, contact ASG at 719-549-2866, email asg@colostate-pueblo.edu, or visit their web site at colostate-pueblo.edu/ASG.

Source: http://www.colostate-pueblo.edu/Communications/Media/PressReleases/2013/Pages/4-23-2012.aspx

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