Environmental Health

A safe haven could be out of reach for 9 percent of the Western Hemisphere's mammals, and as much as 40 percent in certain regions, because the animals just won't move swiftly enough to outpace climate change.

National parks often are established to help preserve species native to a particular region, but it appears that some species preservation is more successful if a significant portion of land adjacent to a park also is left as natural habitat.

The Cerrado region in Brazil has been identified as the most biologically diverse savanna on Earth, and Emas National Park is an important protected area for populations of wide-ranging large mammals such as giant anteaters, jaguars and puma.

The UW will become a base for one of the nation's four new Clean Air Research Centers funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency announced the funding of the centers March 7.  Each center will receive approximately $8 million over five years.

The centers will study the health impact of the complex, varying  mixtures of particles, vapors and gas that pollute the air.