Warm nights are filled with the light of thousands of stars. Along our coast, lapping wavelets mingle with the voices of otters romping in the white sands of a moonlight beach. Their soft chirping barks and chuckles mingle with the sounds of sleepy birds working the night shift.

Morning’s warming beams illuminate the bottoms of the passing clouds with a brilliant glow. A flight of long-necked egrets, with downcast bills and full of grace, sweeps inland, white bellies gleaming bright in the morning sun. From every tree and bush comes a melody of birdsong – chirping, tweeting, whistles and cooing, joyful voices full of cheer. And bobbing along a grassy roadway, a rusty-breasted robin searches for unwary earthworms that failed to come in after last night’s rain.

Dogwood and azalea blossoms put on their magic shows. Overhead, the forest’s great green canopy awakens, while a yellow blanket of pine pollen promises new life – and much work for brooms. April has taken center stage again. The News & Observer

The blue shift is not literal; rather, the color blue is used to represent rapid fluctuations in a system called “spectral color,” which ecologists use to describe environmental change. The increasing blueness of the environment may be altering species extinction risks, said study author Bernardo Garcia-Carreras, a graduate student at Imperial College London.

“From simple models, it appears that if the spectral color of the population becomes bluer, as our results seem to suggest, then extinction risk is reduced,” Garcia-Carreras told LiveScience. “It is good news in that sense.”

But there is a large caveat to the good news, Garcia-Carreras said. Environmental fluctuations are just one influence on species survival. Other factors — such as overall temperature change and habitat loss — put pressure on species that could offset any benefits from a bluer world. [Read: With Climate Change, Expect More Monster Winter Storms]

“We’ve only looked at change in spectral colors,” Garcia-Carreras said. “We’re not trying to say that climate change is great for populations.”

To assign a color to the environment, Garcia-Carreras and his colleagues used temperature data from the Climatic Research Unit and the Global Historical Climatology Network, which gave them a picture of daily weather throughout the 20th century. To gauge fluctuations in animal populations, they used the Global Population Dynamics Database, which tracks population changes for 147 species, ranging from insects to mammals, over the past 30 years.

Overall, global temperatures showed a small but significant shift from “red” (or slow fluctuations) to rapid, “blue” fluctuations in the last half of the century, Garcia-Carreras said. The change wasn’t identical for the entire world, he said. Asia saw shifts toward slower fluctuations. But on the whole, the “bluer” world also correlated with faster shifts in animal populations, Garcia-Carreras said.

The “blue”-ing of the environment may ease extinction risk because a swing toward unwelcoming conditions is usually followed by a fast return to more salutary surroundings. Understanding what these changes mean for individual species will require more work, Garcia-Carreras said.

“With this information in hand, we can try to look more specifically at what mechanisms underlie the effect the changing spectral color of the environment might be having on populations,” he said. Yahoo Daily News

It was an unusual place for the bats to hibernate, different from a mine or cave. But something else was different, too: None of them had white-nose syndrome, a fungus that’s killing bats across the country.

The group of bats found last winter in the New Hampshire bunker was small, recalled von Oettingen, an endangered species biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But two of the three species discovered there – the Northern Long-eared Bat and the Little Brown Bat – have been dying off from the disease.

Starting as early as next month, von Oettingen will be part of a group of state and federal biologists monitoring that bunker and a few others in the state. They’ll study temperature and humidity levels and put up footholds for the bats, hoping to attract more and figure out if there’s a way to control white-nose syndrome, first discovered near Albany, N.Y., in 2006.

“We may be able to maintain a white-nose-free site for these bats to return to,” she said.

The disease, which appears to affect bats mostly during winter hibernation, has killed more than a million in the Northeast and has spread to at least 11 states, as far west as Oklahoma, and parts of Canada. Some caves on federal lands were closed to people this year to prevent them from spreading the disease.

Because the bunkers would be controlled, artificial settings, biologists also might be able to experiment with different treatments for bats with the disease, without worrying about how a spray or drug might affect other organisms.

“This is one of the most promising things I’ve heard,” said Nina Fascione, executive director of Bat Conservation International, an Austin, Texas-based group that focuses on research initiatives involving bats and their ecosystems. “It presents an excellent opportunity to test things.”

One of the challenges is encouraging enough bats to use the bunkers, von Oettingen said. “They move around on the landscape, so it may be that they will naturally colonize it, or we may bring some in,” she said.

Von Oettingen said New Hampshire plans to reach out to neighboring states to examine their bunkers. Some, such as the one she visited, are on state parks land. Others are part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

“There’s tons of bunkers of all different kinds out there on the landscape,” from World War II, the Cold War-era, and afterward, she said. “Now the question is, do some of these have bats? And so far, we haven’t found any more.”

Bats hang out in all sorts of manmade structures, but the idea of monitoring them for white-nose syndrome in an artificial setting is relatively new. In Tennessee, the Nature Conservancy has proposed building a large dome-shaped cave, “like a giant upside-down underground swimming pool,” said Cory Holliday, the program’s cave and karst director. “You can apply whatever control you wanted in there and you wouldn’t be affecting a natural ecosystem.”

Tennessee has about 15 species of bats, roughly half of which are potentially susceptible to white-nose syndrome. At least several hundred bats were found with symptoms last year. No deaths have been reported yet.

“We don’t know with real certainty if it will work,” Holliday said of the cave, “but with white-nose syndrome, it’s moving really fast. We don’t want to be left five years from now thinking, ‘Well, I wish we could have.’ “

In October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came out with a plan to investigate the cause of disease, in which a white fungus develops around bat muzzles, ears and wing membranes, and find ways to manage it.

Biologists say fewer bats, which eat insects, could lead to increased numbers of insect pests, resulting in harm to agriculture and forests. It is anticipated that white-nose syndrome will continue to spread, partly because the fungus can be carried on humans’ clothing.

Under the plan, state agencies will monitor bat populations and design disease management programs. The federal government will assist in areas including research, education, funding and testing. Goals include setting up a central database, developing testing standards and continually reviewing knowledge of the disease to identify gaps and research needs.

In New Hampshire alone, surveys last year showed that the state lost over half of its hibernating bats.

“They’re dead. They’re gone. They’re not here,” said Emily Brunkhurst, a wildlife biologist for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.

“The thing about white-nose is it is an unprecedented disease,” Brunkhurst said. “We have never seen a disease in wildlife that affects so many species and is so rapidly fatal and spread so incredibly rapidly.” By Kathy McCormack, PhysOrg

At 102ft long, 29ft wide and 25ft high, it’s hard to miss the Tûranor PlanetSolar catamaran, the largest solar-powered sea vessel.

And with 500 solar high-efficiency units that cover some 540sq. ft the 200-person capacity boat, which is silent and pollution-free, can motor along at a fair old lick, too: the top speed is about 15 knots.

It cost a cool £10million to build and is in the process of achieving a series of record-breaking feats as it circumnavigates the globe, while also promoting the use of sustainable energy.

Building of Tûranor (which means ‘The Power of the Sun’ in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings language) by Knierim Yachtbau at Kiel, Germany, was completed in March this year.

And on September 27 it set off from Monaco on the round-the-world trip, which should be completed in the spring of 2012 at a average speed of eight knots an hour, if everything goes to schedule.

Completion of the 31,000-mile journey will see the vessel set the following world records:

* First solar-powered circumnavigation by any means of transportation

* First round-the-world voyage by a solar-powered boat

* First Indian Ocean crossing by a solar-powered boat

* First Red Sea crossing by a solar-powered boat

How does it work? Here’s the science bit… Styled by LOMOcean Design, Tûranor uses over 5,780 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels which, in turn, connect to one of the two electric motors in each hull.

SunPower, a California-based solar-panel company, are the best in the business according to PlanetSun spokesman Dany Faigaux.

He said: ‘The advantage of SunPower is they have the most efficient cells available on the market with more than 22 per cent efficiency.’

The boat’s hull was model tested in wind tunnels and tank tested to determine the hydrodynamics and aerodynamics.

And, as German investor Immo Stroether – who partnered Swiss adventurer Raphael Domjan to bankroll the project – believes, the clever design heralds a ‘new generation of catamaran’.

‘This is a milestone in the progress of solar mobility,’ he said. ‘It is my vision to see solar power take its rightful place – not only on rooftops, but also on the roads, seas and in the skies of the future.

‘The aim is to offer future-proof solutions for sustainable living in major cities and environmentally responsible mobility concepts. Solar mobility can make a significant contribution to this endeavor.’

According to the mission statement on the website, ‘the PlanetSolar team intends firstly to show that current technologies aimed at improving energy efficiency are reliable and effective, and secondly to advance scientific research in the field of renewable energy.

‘At the heart of this project is the conservation of our planet by the promotion of solar energy, energy efficiency and eco-mobility.

‘This is a great occasion to advance knowledge and to inform and make the general public aware of the importance of renewable energy.’

But there is no sun-bathing on deck allowed, as it will interfere with the efficiency of the panels.

Captain of the expedition is Frenchman Patrick Marchesseau, and he, along with Mr Stroether and Mr Domjan, is joined by Swiss Christian Ochsenbein, Michaela von Koskull  from Finland and German Jens Langwasser.

And after the epic, record-breaking trip, the boat will be used as a luxury yacht. By Oliver Pickup, The Daily Mail

“Stones play a very crucial role in the arena of landscaping. Stone art can enhance the appeal of landscaping. Moreover, landscape architecture can generate many jobs. But unfortunately, the capacity of stone art is not being utilised to its best. So this year, we are focusing on the idea of stone art, in order to create more jobs and better landscaping,” says S Jafar Naqvi, president of Indian Flowers and Ornamental Plants Welfare Association (IFLORA).

The event will be inaugurated by Mayor Mohan Singh Rajpal after which landscape enthusiasts will be able to get an insight into quite a few crucial topics at a panel discussion. Issues like environmental horticulture, creative use of plants and trees in airport landscaping, maintenance of plants in landscape gardening according to different climatic conditions, importance of horticulture in real estate sector, new products and concepts in nurseries that will fetch more revenue, use of plants in highway development, modern irrigation concept in landscaping, efficient water management for landscape and nurseries, significance of artificial grass and its impact on urban development are some of the issues that will be addressed in the discussion.

“The seminar will mostly focus on improving the quality of life of people by preserving the environment through proper planning of public places, parks and recreation centres,” adds Naqvi. This stone fiesta will bring together professionals from the sector of environment and landscaping to boost their business through interaction and productive business dealings. And it will also be a good platform for producers, exporters, importers, traders and service providers. Indian Express

The demonstration that flies do become obese on a high-fat diet (HFD), much as humans do, indicates that the ability to become obese goes way, way back, researchers said.

It is harder to survive in times of scarcity. As a result, organisms may be poised to maximize their food intake. At the other extreme, this can lead to obesity. It may be that the propensity has always been there,” said Sean Oldham of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

In the new study, the team fed flies a HFD consisting of 30 percent fat in the form of coconut oil. And the flies got fat.

Flies can only grow so big because they have a rigid exoskeleton, the researchers said.

The obese flies also showed many of the familiar signs of obesity; they developed high triglycerides and disruptions in the balance between insulin and blood sugar, along with heart dysfunctions reminiscent of diabetic cardiomyopathies.

Detailed studies of heart function in the flies revealed an increase in cardiac lipids, reduced cardiac contractility, blockages, and structural pathologies.

“Whether this directly relates to what we see in humans, we don’t know. As in diabetic cardiomyopathy, the fly hearts become less efficient,” said Bodmer.

Treatments that reduced the insulin-TOR activity prevented the accumulation of excess fat in the insects and protected their heart.

“When we manipulate this pathway in the hearts of flies, they are still obese, but their heart is ‘blind’ to the systemic effects,” said Bodmer.

The finding suggested that treatments designed to alter insulin-TOR signalling in specific tissues might hold promise.

The findings were published in Cell Metabolism. Newstrack India

As part of the drive, restoration and beautification works have already begun in some of the heritage gardens that were built by the Mughal emperors in medieval times.

G. S. Naqash, Director of Floriculture, said that maintaining the gardens was a challenge due to the tense situation in the Kashmir Valley.

“This was a great challenge for us and it is still a challenge that we should maintain the gardens. The infrastructure that was available to us, we used that effectively and put our workers in action so that we should be able to preserve our heritage,” he added.

Locals also complained that they had been disappointed in the ill-kept gardens.

“Due to the ongoing strikes and curfews since the past three-four months, the situation was worsening here, and it has affected the roads as well as the gardens of the region. We say that the kind of work they have started in Pratap Park, they should do the same in other parks as well, to bring back the beauty and essence of Kashmir,” said Altaf Ahmed.

The number of gardeners has been doubled in all the gardens as the beautification drive gains momentum.

A three-month-long spate of strikes, curfews and security lockdowns has kept the Kashmir Valley on the boil, shutting down much of a region. Newstrack India

The blast eased pressure that had been building up behind a lava dome perched on the volcano’s crater, but experts said the worst may not be over. The lava dome could unleash deadly gases and debris if it collapses.

“It’s a little calmer today,” said Surono, the chief of Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. “No hot clouds, no rumbling. But a lot of energy is pent up back there. There’s no telling what’s next.”

Mount Merapi, which translates as “Fire Mountain,” has erupted many times over the last 200 years, often with deadly results. In 1994, 60 people were killed, while in 1930, more than a dozen villages were incinerated, leaving up to 1,300 dead.

Still, as with other volcanoes in Indonesia, many people call its fertile slopes home. More than 11,000 live near Merapi.

Though thousands streamed into makeshift emergency shelters after Tuesday’s powerful eruption, many started returning Wednesday saying they had to tend to their crops and protect their homes.

“I keep thinking about what’s happening up there, with my cows, my property,” said Hadi Sumarmo, who has a farm in Srumbung, a village three miles (seven kilometers) from the crater’s mouth. “I just want to go back to check. If I hear sirens, I’ll get out again quickly.”

Even as rescue officials contended with the volcano — one of 129 to watch in the world’s largest archipelago — officials were trying to assess the impact of a 7.7-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra island that triggered a three-meter (10-foot) -high tsunami, killing more than 100 people and leaving scores missing.

The twin disasters happened hours apart in one of the most seismically active regions on the planet.

Officials said earlier that by closely monitoring the famously active volcano they thought they could avoid casualties, but the death toll was quickly rising.

Aris Triyono, of the national search and rescue agency, said his teams were scouring the southern slope of the mountain, which has been pounded by rocks and debris, in search of victims and survivors.

Twenty-five bodies have been brought to the main hospital in the city of Yogyakarta, said Endita Sri Andiyanti, a spokeswoman, and more than a dozen others were admitted with respiratory problems, burns and other injuries.

Among the dead was Maridjan, an 85-year-old man who had been entrusted by a highly respected late king to watch over the volcano’s spirits.

“We found his body,” said Suseno, a member of the search and rescue team, amid reports that the old man was found in the position of praying, kneeling face-down on the floor.

Maridjan, who for years led ceremonies in which rice and flowers were thrown into the crater to appease spirits, has angered officials in the past by refusing to evacuate even during eruptions. Indian Express

The fashion for collecting wild mushrooms began with celebrity chefs such as Antonio Carluccio, and has been encouraged by those with a revived interest in local food, such as Jamie Oliver.

This year’s wet summer and mild autumn has produced bumper crops of colourful wax caps, common ceps and luscious chanterelles.

But this new generation of foodies and foragers are beginning to trample the forests and fields that feed them – as well as many animals and insects, warn those who look after the UK’s woodlands and nature reserves.

Concern is particularly high at some of the country’s best-known beauty spots, including the New Forest, Epping Forest, and around the North Downs hills and the Chilterns.

So serious is the problem in some areas that a few big collectors, found with bagfuls of mushrooms from one trip, are being prosecuted. In just one weekend earlier this month, forest managers reportedly confiscated 45kg (100lbs) of fungi at a site near London.

Conservation managers and organisations appear to agree that small-scale collecting for personal use is not the problem. The Forestry Commission and the National Trust organise courses to help people identify safe mushrooms and teach how to collect them without damaging the surrounding landscape. Crucially, collectors are also urged to leave enough behind for the deer, rabbits, mice and insects such as flies and beetles, which also feast on fungi.

Matthew Oates of the National Trust, which is one of the UK’s biggest land owners, said: “If one or two people visit a place and pick a few, that’s probably not much of a problem. But if a couple of people go there repeatedly, visit the same place and collect as many as possible for commercial gain, that could be a problem.”

Not everybody is worried. Carluccio, who has written two books about his passion for mushrooms and presented a BBC2 series on the subject, still goes collecting for his family’s use, and believes environmental fears are exaggerated.

Carluccio said that this year’s bumper crop, and the parallel reduction in mushroom species that are not collected for eating suggest fungiphiles are not the problem. He also points out that once a mushroom cap is open it has released breeding spores, and that centuries of collection in other countries in Europe, such as Italy and France, have not appeared to lead to long-term damage.

“The mushrooms are there every year, so it’s not true that picking mushrooms would destroy the place,” Carluccio said.

The chef, who does not use wild mushrooms in his cafes and delis, believes there should be licences for commercial collectors to ensure they behave responsibly, as there are in many other European countries. “There should be more discipline in collecting: not trampling everything, not destroying everything and to be limited to what you can consume. But don’t deprive people of the wonders of going to the woods for the mushrooms,” he added.

Despite Carluccio’s comments, there are plenty who are worried. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said commercial collecting was a growing problem on its reserves near London and other cities. The National Trust is also worried about commercial collectors, especially on the sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) that it manages and warned that it is illegal to collect in protected areas. Several SSSIs are in the New Forest in south-west England, which is managed by the Forestry Commission, which reported that “fungi picking is becoming an increasing problem … with more and more large-scale, potentially commercial picking being observed year-on-year”.

Perhaps one of the most visited SSSIs, is Epping Forest, on the north-east edge of London, where keepers report that illegal fungi picking has reached record highs this year. Individuals have been found with five bags full of mushrooms at a time, including poisonous species. This has led managers to suspect they are being collected commercially for sorting elsewhere. The City of London Corporation, which owns the forest, has already issued 20 formal warnings this year. It has successfully prosecuted one person and is currently prosecuting a further six.

“Fungi play a vital role in the ecology of all natural habitats,” said Keith French, the forest services manager. “They are nature’s recyclers, as they break down organic matter from plants and animals. Many creatures feed on fungi, and they are host to some rare invertebrates that are unique to these ancient woodlands.

He added: “We welcome people visiting the forest and admiring the many fascinating shapes, forms and colours the fungi world has to offer, but please leave them there for the next visitor and future generations to enjoy.” By Juliette Jowit, The Observer

Damage to natural capital including forests, wetlands and grasslands is valued at $2-4.5 trillion annually, the United Nations estimates, but the figure is not included in economic data such as GDP, nor in corporate accounts.

That “invisibility” needs to change so steps can be taken to save ecosystems that are a vital source of food, water and income, said Pavan Sukhdev, study leader for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a U.N.-backed initiative.

“We can not treat this lightly,” he told a news conference on the sidelines of an Oct 18-29 U.N. meeting in Nagoya, Japan, where envoys from nearly 200 countries are aiming to set targets for 2020 to fight losses in biological diversity.

“Unfortunately, the lack of an economic lens to reflect these realities, has meant that we have treated these matters lightly, that they are not centre-stage when it comes to policy discussions nor centre-stage when it comes to business discussions.”

Sukhdev, on secondment from Deutsche Bank, unveiled the final installment of several TEEB reports that analyse the value of nature, including forests that clean the air, bees that pollinate crops and coral reefs that are home to millions of species.

For example, halving deforestation rates by 2030 would cut damage from climate change estimated at more than $3.7 trillion, while Swiss bee colonies ensured yearly agricultural production worth $213 million by providing pollination, the report said.

Destruction of coral reefs was not only damaging to marine life but also posed risks to communities, the report said. Some 30 million people are reliant on reef-based resources for food production, incomes and livelihoods.

“It has exacerbated the suffering of human beings, especially of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” Sukhdev said.

“Development and biodiversity cannot be seen as competing choices. They are not only the same coin but they are literally the same side of the same coin.”

The report highlighted recommendations for policymakers, such as the need to include the value of nature and the role of ecosystems in national accounts. Businesses must disclose values in their annual reports and accounts, it said.

Emerging economies Brazil and India threw their support behind the U.N. effort, saying they would use the TEEB findings as a guide.

“At a national level we are in discussion to implement a TEEB study of our natural capital, and the Brazilian business sector is also in planning to move towards this practical and sustainable approach to decision-making,” Braulio Dias, secretary for biodiversity and forests at Brazil’s environment ministry, said in a statement.

Putting a price on the role of nature has been a major focus at the Nagoya talks on biodiversity, an issue that environmental groups say has so far received far less attention from policymakers and the public than climate change.

“The conservation community has a translation problem,” said Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations at The Nature Conservancy.

“We’ve spent decades talking about habitat degradation and species loss. The people who run the world talk in terms of economic growth and employment rates. This report could be our Rosetta Stone.” Khaleej Times