UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Rare beetle killing So. Calif. oak trees

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- A rare beetle is attacking oak trees in Southern California's Cleveland National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service said.

The Forest Service said Agrilus coxalis is a wood borer that is so rare it doesn't have an accepted common name, although it will most likely become known as "gold-spotted oak borer." The San Diego Union-Tribune said the wood borer is believed to be at least partly responsible for the death of 10,000 coast live oak and California black oak trees.

The beetle was first found in Southern California in 2004. While it has been found previously in Arizona, Guatemala and Mexico, there is no history of the insect attacking oak trees, the Forest Service said.

The newspaper said scientists suspect the oak borer lacks natural predators in California. Stress from drought may play a secondary role because the trees are unable to defend themselves properly from attack.

Bering glacier melting at a faster rate

HOUGHTON, Mich., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- New measurements show the Bering Glacier in Alaska is melting at double the rate that scientists had thought, researchers said Friday.

Robert Shuchman, co-director of the Michigan Tech Research Institute, said the glacier, the largest in North America, is releasing about 30 cubic kilometers of water a year -- more than twice the amount of water in the entire Colorado River.

"This could potentially change the circulation of coastal currents in the Gulf of Alaska," Shuchman said.

The measurements were made with a new sensor -- designed by Michigan Tech, the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Land Management -- that provides a more accurate measurement of glacial ice melt, the university said Friday in a release.

"Our glacier observations are 10 times better and 10 times less costly than data collected the old way," Shuchman said.

California declares victory over Medflies

SACRAMENTO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The Mediterranean fruit fly has been eradicated from California, agricultural officials said.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture said Thursday quarantines in Santa Clara and Solano counties have been lifted and the Los Angeles County quarantine is no longer being enforced.

"The Medfly is a pest that poses a serious threat to California agriculture," said CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura. "I would like to thank the residents and growers who helped us eradicate these infestations by cooperating with the three quarantines."

The fruit flies were eradicated by releasing sterile male Medflies in the area.

Mediterranean fruit flies can infest over 260 types of fruits and vegetables, threatening crops, exports and landscaping, the CDFA said.

Wolf bones show environment change

HOUGHTON, Mich., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers said the bones of wolves can provide scientists with a better picture of environmental change than tree rings can.

"Since the widespread combustion of fossil fuels, we have put a human fingerprint on atmospheric carbon dioxide," Joseph Bump, a forest science researcher at Michigan Technological University, said in a release. "That fingerprint shows up in trees, and it shows up in animals that eat trees, but it shows up with the least variation in the top predators."

Bump and his colleagues studied moose and wolf bone samples dating back to 1958 from Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. They also looked at 30,000-year-old bones from extinct dire wolves and prehistoric bison pulled from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. They found the wolves provide a clearer record of environmental change than the plants, the moose or the bison.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.