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Sole member of world's first single-species ecosystem depends on rocks and radioactivity for life. The rod-shaped D. audaxviator was recovered from thousands of litres of water collected deep in the Mponeng Mine in South Africa.Greg Wanger, J. Craig Venter Institute / Gordon Southam, University of Western Ontario Nestled kilometres down in the hot, dark vaults of Earth's crust, scientists have discovered a remarkably lonely bacterium species. The rod-shaped bacterium, Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, lives independently of any other organism in a part of the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, some 2.8 kilometres beneath Earth's surface. There, water flows from...

Human activities are cumulatively driving the health of the world's oceans down a rapid spiral, and only prompt and wholesale changes will slow or perhaps ultimately reverse the catastrophic problems they are facing. Such is the prognosis of Jeremy Jackson, a professor of oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, in a bold new assessment of the oceans and their ecological health. Jackson believes that human impacts are laying the groundwork for mass extinctions in the oceans on par with vast ecological upheavals of the past. ... "All of the different kinds of data and methods of...

PATERSON - A New York sect of Amitabha Buddhists bought hundreds of eels, frogs and turtles in Chinatown to set them free in the Passaic River, hoping they would not only survive but also realize their karmic potential. Saving the animals, though, did not do anything for the karma of the state Department of Environmental Protection. DEP pfficials say the Buddhists did not have a permit and may be subject to fines up to $1,000. Releasing critters into the wild takes a permit - and because of fears of harm being done by nonnative species, New Jersey is reluctant to...

After nearly disappearing three decades ago, grizzly bears are thriving in the Yellowstone ecosystem and no longer need the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett recently announced...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Bottled water consumption, which has more than doubled globally in the last six years, is a natural resource that is heavily taxing the world's ecosystem, according to a new US study. "Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing, producing unecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy," according to Emily Arnold, author of the study published by the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based environmental group. Arnold said although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can end up costing 10,000 times...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - America's growing appetite for exotic sushi may help preserve vanishing beds of seaweed seen as an important part of the ecosystem along the California coastline. Diners in sushi restaurants are eating ever greater amounts of sea urchin roe, known as Uni, creating a $23 million industry in California for harvesting the creatures, the California Sea Urchin Commission said this week. The spiny echinoderms, a potential peril to swimmers stepping on rocks, feast on kelp, which is dwindling along California's coastline. Divers in the state now harvest 800,000 pounds of Uni annually, the Sea Urchin Commission said,...

The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big trouble—with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere. _________________________________________________ It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - An expansive ecosystem of knee-high mud volcanoes, snowy microbial mats and flourishing clam communities lies beneath the collapsed Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica, say researchers. The discovery made in February in a deep glacial trough in the northwestern Weddell Sea was detailed this week in Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union. Such sunless, cold-vent ecosystems have been found elsewhere — near Monterey, Calif., in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Sea of Japan — but never in Antarctica, the report said. "Seeing those organisms on the ocean bottom, it's like lifting the carpet...

The Missouri legislators, who read, before voting to approve a water law (HB1433) in the waning moments of last year’s session, no doubt, thought that they were creating something to help protect clean water in a nine-county area. That’s what they were told by reputable employees of the state agencies, and influential lobbyists from environmental organizations. The new law created a nine-county district in which water policy would be developed and enforced by appointed--not elected--officials. None realized that the law they adopted was, in fact, an important step toward the implementation of a plan conceived more than 15 years ago...

GATLINBURG, Tenn. A new report by the National Parks Conservation Association on the future of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park paints a dire picture. "This park is beginning to die," said Tom Kiernan, the conservation group's president. "This assessment clearly shows the park is in danger, and its long-term viability is at risk." High ozone levels, acid rain, continued underfunding and a proposed road on the north shore of Fontana Lake in North Carolina are combining to endanger the park's future, Kiernan said. Much of the damage could be slowed or prevented if certain steps are taken, he said,...

Very few people like the idea of shooting Bambi's mother. But there may be no better way to slow the rapid expansion of deer populations that are devastating ecosystems in many areas of the country. At least 20 million white-tailed deer are ranging the nation at the moment, a huge jump from only 500,000 in 1900, according to a recent report by Andrew C. Revkin in The Times. They plunder farm crops and alter the ecology of forests by eating the low-lying vegetation and destroying the seedlings needed for new growth. In the process, they displace many smaller animals...

<p>State officials are cautioning people in Beaver County after a dog was killed by a bear over the weekend.</p> <p>Ann Swogger's 17-year-old mixed breed dog, Heidi, was killed by a black bear roaming the woods near her Hanover Township home on Sunday.</p>