Selos

Is Air Pollution a Major Cause?

Every breath we take - air quality in Europe

Getting better estimates of air pollution’s effect on health

How does air pollution affect health?

Beijing cloaked in heavy smog as schools, factories ordered shut

India's capital New Delhi chokes under air pollution

Urban noise 'killing baby house sparrows'

Noise in urban areas could be increasing the mortality rate among young house sparrows, a study has suggested.

Researchers say the noise could stop adult birds hearing the hunger calls from their dependent offspring.

In their study, the team found that birds nesting in noisy areas were less effective at feeding their chicks as those that nested in quieter places.

The findings have been published in the journal Plos One.

Scientists from the University of Sheffield reached their conclusion after carrying out a study on Lundy, a 445-hectare (1,100-acre) island located 19km (12mi) off the North Devon coast.

Co-author Julia Schroeder explained that the project happened more-or-less by chance.

"When I first went to the island, which is very remote and quiet - apart from gulls and shearwaters - I entered a barn and it was very loud," she recalled.

The barn contained an electricity generator, yet sparrows were still choosing to nest in the building, so Dr Schroeder wondered whether the conditions affected the songbirds.

"I found that there was a reduced fitness - a reduced reproductive output from the nest boxes located in the noisy area," she told BBC News.

So she decided to test her findings against classic hypotheses on how noise could affect birds.

"The main hypothesis regarding breeding output is that it affects mate choice decisions," she explained.

more BBC News 

 

no comments

Scientists warn of 3 faults under soon-to-restart reactors

Thousands of protesters in front of his office last week weren't enough to dissuade Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda from his plan to restart Japan's nuclear reactors, starting with a pair in Oi, Fukui Prefecture. 

Fukushima nuclear crisis

 
NISA admits it was negligent, apologizes for shoddy management

Radiation hotspots found in Tokyo park

Radiation levels exceeding official standards have been detected at a park in Tokyo, after a metropolitan government inspection carried out under pressure from the Japanese Communist Party.
The Tokyo metropolitan government said June 25 that it had detected a maximum radiation reading of 1.22 microsieverts per hour at Mizumoto Park in Katsushika Ward.
Officials took readings at two points in the shrubbery in the parking areas. Both readings exceeded the central government standard for decontamination of 1 microsievert per hour above background radiation. The metropolitan government said it will decontaminate the area.
The cause of the high radiation levels is still being investigated, but officials say both spots are likely places where rainwater and mud build up.
Metropolitan assembly members of the Japanese Communist Party demanded the radiation survey at the park, which is operated by the Tokyo government.

Peter Carl Fabergé