Authors of the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation's Paleoclimate Program and published online this week in the journal Science, say that global warming is real and that increases in atmospheric CO₂ will have multiple serious impacts.

The first climate study to focus on variations in daily weather conditions has found that day-to-day weather has grown increasingly erratic and extreme, with significant fluctuations in sunshine and rainfall affecting more than a third of the planet.

Huge, slimy snails from Africa have overrun a Miami-area town and the US government said Tuesday a potent pesticide is the best way to get rid of their exploding numbers.

Thousands of the four-to-eight inch (10-20 centimeter) giant African snails have been collected in Coral Gables, a town in Miami-Dade County, since the infestation was first discovered in September, said the US Department of Agriculture.

Dozens of foreign insects and plant diseases slipped undetected into the United States in the years after 9/11, when authorities were so focused on preventing another attack that they overlooked a pest explosion that threatened the quality of the nation's food supply.

Biological invasions, i.e. the spread of introduced, non-native species, not only serve as ecological model systems, but also bring out the importance of economic activities on ecological processes. Two recent books have shown the extent and variety of the interaction of economics with invasion science and also the variety of approaches to tackling these problems.

In the waters along Florida's east and west coasts, Florida State University marine biologists are collecting new data on the once severely overfished Atlantic goliath grouper, a native species that is making a comeback in the southeastern United States after a 21-year moratorium on its capture while remaining critically endangered everywhere else in the world.

The three-year study will determine what specific conditions and fishy behaviors are supporting the goliath grouper's population recovery in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico around the Sunshine State.

To defeat an enemy, know its lifestyle, where it works and its secret hiding places. That’s what researchers have done in a 10-year battle against two insects that bore into grassy crops such as rice, sugarcane, sorghum and corn.

“I think we’re winning the battle,” said Dr. Mo Way, Texas AgriLife Research entomologist in Beaumont. “But it’s a continuing battle, so that is why the research is needed.”

Way and a colleague, Dr. Gene Reagan, entomology professor with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, joined forces a decade ago – though the Mexican rice borer was found only partly across the Texas rice belt and not in neighboring Louisiana – in hopes of getting ahead of the damaging, yield-reducing pest.

Many different types of animals come together to form vast groups – insect swarms, mammal herds, or bird flocks, for example. Researchers in France added another example to the list, reported today in the online journal PLoS ONE: the huge Wels catfish, the world's third largest and Europe's largest fresh-water fish. Researchers observed these fish in the Rhone River from May 2009 to Feb. 2011 and found that they formed dense groups of 15 to 44 individuals, corresponding to an estimated total biomass of up to 1132 kilograms with a biomass density of 14 to 40 kilograms per square meter.

Japan will go ahead with its annual whale hunt in Antarctica while boosting security to guard against possible harassment by environmental protesters, the agriculture and fisheries minister said Tuesday.

"Japan will conduct the research whaling while strengthening measures against acts of sabotage, including dispatching Fisheries Agency escort ships," said Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Michihiko Kano.

In February, Japan for the first time cut short its Antarctic fleet mission for the 2010-2011 season by one month, when it had taken only one fifth of its planned catch, citing interference from Sea Shepherd's vessels.

The weather in Pennsylvania this year won't soon be forgotten -- one of the wettest springs ever, followed by a record-breaking dry heat wave in July, followed by the remnants of a hurricane and tropical storm in August and September that caused historic flooding.

But it turns out the extreme weather conditions may not cause a less brilliant foliage display this autumn, according to a forest expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Ironically, the climate extremes may not be so much to blame as what is happening now, explained Marc Abrams, professor of forest ecology and physiology.