science news 3.7.2019

Today's selection of science news. Links are normally to press releases on EurekAlert (at the bottom end I may also add a couple of newspaper stories). I include quotes from the summary (using quotation marks) in cases where the title alone doesn't reveal what the story is about. My own thoughts appear without quotation marks, if I have any.


astrobiology

Atmosphere of mid-size planet revealed by hubble and spitzer

Methane vanishing on Mars: Danish researchers propose new mechanism as an explanation


ecology

Is wildfire management 'for the birds?'
"Spotted owl populations are in decline all along the West Coast, and as climate change increases the risk of large and destructive wildfires in the region, these iconic animals face the real threat of losing even more of their forest habitat. Wildfire management -- through prescribed burning and restoration thinning -- could help save the species, argues a new paper."



Spotted owls, native to the old-growth forests of the West Coast, have already lost much of their former habitat to logging. Without active forest management, the birds now risk losing even more of their remaining habitat to wildfire, a new paper argues.
Credit: Tom Munton photo


humans

Millet farmers adopted barley agriculture and permanently settled the Tibetan Plateau
"The permanent human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau was facilitated by the introduction of cold-tolerant barley around 3600 years before present, however, how barley agriculture spread onto the Tibetan Plateau remains unknown. Researchers revealed that the barley agriculture was mainly brought onto the plateau by the millet farmers from northern China. Moreover, the genetic contribution from millet farmers largely promoted the formation of genetic landscape of the contemporary Tibetans."

Can we feed 11 billion people while preventing the spread of infectious disease?


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from the news media:

Chris Packham writes about deep-sea mining in the Guardian.