Word: runoff
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...could be much worse. That's one of the implications of a new study published Wednesday in Nature that tracks the ability of streams and rivers to absorb nitrogen runoff before it pollutes the seas. A team of 31 scientists led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee studied 72 streams in eight regions across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and found that only about a quarter of the nitrogen that spills into rivers makes it to open water, with most of the rest managed by bacteria that live in the waterways. In a process called denitrification, the microbes...
That line of defense, however, is weakening. Mulholland and his collaborators found that the filtering ability of streams couldn't keep pace with the flow of nitrogen pollution. So, as runoff from fertilizer increased, the natural denitrification system slowed, and more nitrogen survived untouched to the open ocean - worsening the dead zones. That's cause for concern as American farmers plant increasing amounts of corn, a crop that requires heavy fertilizer, to meet the growing global demand for grain and to supply America's corn-hungry ethanol makers. According to a separate study published by University of British Columbia...
...polling in France's third-largest city Lyon, as well as in Nantes, Rouen and Dijon. The left also posted dominant leads in Paris, Lille and Strasbourg, and was in tight races going into run-offs even in such traditional conservative bastions as Marseille and Toulouse. In many close runoff races next weekend, Socialist candidates appear more likely to gain the support of the centrist Modem party, which had once been a coalition partner of Sarkozy's UMP - although the centrists may demand a prohibitive price for throwing their support to the Socialists...
...upset for the city's parliamentary seat - a loss that made him ineligible to serve in the national government. Fifteen of the 22 members of Fillon's cabinet of 33 who were on Sunday's municipal ballots either won first-round victories, or were in strong positions for the runoff. Still, the left appears to have done well by trading on the increasing unpopularity of President Sarkozy...
Even if Nikolic wins the runoff, he will not be able to change Serbian politics dramatically or immediately. Kostunica and his moderate nationalism are likely to hold sway even if he and Tadic decide to call it quits. Kostunica's parliamentary bloc, while numerically small, is an essential ally to any larger party seeking to form a ruling coalition. Meanwhile, parliamentary elections are not scheduled until January 2011. "The government would probably survive, at least for a while, even with Nikolic as President", Svilanovic explains. "But Serbia's road towards the E.U. membership would certainly become much more complicated...