Some slow-moving faults may help protect against destructive earthquakes, suggests new research. Until now, geologists thought when the crack between two pieces of the Earth's crust was at a very gentle slope, there was no movement along that particular fault line. Now geoscientists have found that such a low-angle normal fault in Italy is moving slowly and steadily.

(United States Geological Survey) Large trees have declined in Yosemite National Park during the 20th century, and warmer climate conditions may play a role. The number of large-diameter trees in the park declined 24 percent between the 1930s and 1990s. USGS and University of Washington scientists compared the earliest records of large-diameter trees densities from 1932-1936 to the most recent records from 1988-1999.

(University of Bristol) Fossil coral data and temperature records derived from ice-core measurements have been used to place better constraints on future sea level rise, and to test sea level projections.

Background

Adaptive radiation in Mediterranean plants is poorly understood. The
white-flowered Cistus lineage consists of 12 species
primarily distributed in Mediterranean habitats and is herein subject to
analysis.

We show that when ecologists act as reviewers their reported rejection rates recommended for manuscripts increases with their publication frequency in high impact factor journals. Rejection rate however does not relate to reviewer age.