EUREKA!

EUREKA!

CAMPUS

[NEW FINDINGS AND RESEARCH]

Precipitous

Warmer ocean increases rainfall.

The northeastern United States has seen an increase in “extreme precipitation events” (two or more inches of rain or snowfall within 24 hours) following a major spike in 1996, reports geography professor Jonathan Winter in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Winter and his colleagues analyzed data from hundreds of weather stations and discovered that the Northeast is the only region of the country experiencing such a significant rise in extreme rainfall. The team identified a warming Atlantic Ocean—combined with warmer atmospheric temperatures and human-caused climate change—as the primary factor driving more intense tropical storms up the Eastern Seaboard. “Humans have been increasing the temperatures. It’s safe to say we’re causing part of it,” says Winter. “The dice are loaded for more precipitation.”

Buzz Off

Flies learn interspecies warning.

Fruit flies can learn to tip off other fly species about parasitoid wasps, according to a new study in PLOS Genetics by Balint Kacsoh,

Adv’18, a graduate student at the Geisel School of Medicine. Kacsoh’s research team exposed a group of flies to some wasps in a clear compartment. During the course of a week, researchers observed the initial cohort of “teacher” flies using wing movements to communicate the threat to a different species of “student” flies in a neighboring compartment. They responded to the alarm by laying fewer eggs. “It really surprised us that an insect we think is so simple and whose behavior is mostly thought of as being hard-wired has this complicated repertoire of language and that socialization has such a big impact on its ability to learn and interpret cues in its environment,” says Kacsoh.