SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
'A Long, Long Steady Climb Back ... From the Brink of Extinction'
Last week brought good news in the field of conservation. In the U.S., the brown pelican was removed from the endangered species list, and scallops appear to be making a comeback in the waters off Long Island. Meanwhile, giraffes have made a surprising comeback in West Africa.
In other environmental news, American botanists are sending teams out across the Midwest and West to collect seeds from different populations of prairie species. The goal is to preserve and perhaps even help establish them in new areas.
Keeping an eye on plants species will soon be easier now that a new "DNA barcode" has been adopted by an international group of scientists. Among other things, the technology will help to identify plants in the illegal trade in endangered species.
Some researchers estimate that garbage now pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.
And Peruvians pose what might be a final challenge to the fragile ecosystem supported by the huarango tree near their country's southwestern coast. Villagers are cutting down the last of these once vast forests for charcoal and firewood.