Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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Global and local climate conditions predict variation in natural selection across diverse plant and animal populations

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Most Michigan residents would prefer policymakers prioritize the environment over economic growth, finds a new survey by Michigan State University researchers.

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Iron particles generated by cities and industry are being dissolved by man-made air pollution and washed into the sea – potentially increasing the amount of greenhouse gases that the world’s oceans can absorb, a new study suggests.

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Research by the University of Southampton has found that methods used to predict the effect of species extinction on ecosystems could be producing inaccurate results. This is because current thinking assumes that when a species vanishes, its role within an environment is lost too. However, scientists working on a new study have found that when a species, (for example a group of sea creatures), is wiped out by a catastrophic event, other species can change their behaviour to compensate, exploiting the vacant role left behind.

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While poison ivy is probably the most well-known hazardous plant, there are a multitude of other plants, as well as many insects, that can irritate your skin.

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Birds exhibit an astonishing variety of nest designs, and in no group is this variety more striking than in the passerines.

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University of Arkansas at Little Rock Biology Professor Mariya Khodakovskaya, her collaborators, and her graduate students are among a handful of scientists around the world pioneering research on the potential benefits of nanotechnology for crops. Their research was recently published in a book by Springer International Publishing, “Plant Nanotechnology: An Overview on Concepts, Strategies, and Tools.”

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Carbon emissions to the atmosphere from streams and rivers are expected to increase as warmer water temperatures stimulate faster rates of organic matter breakdown. But a new study led by University of Utah researcher Jennifer J. Follstad Shah, in collaboration with a team of 15 scientists in the U.S. and Europe, suggests these decay rates may not increase as much as expected. In fact, the study indicates average breakdown rates may increase 5 percent to 21 percent with a 1 degree to 4-degree Celsius rise in water temperature — half as much as the 10 percent to 45 percent increase predicted by metabolic theory.

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Campaign funds will support high school students 15 and older to come to the UC Berkeley campus to explore architecture, sustainable city planning and fabrication techniques for one month during the summer of 2017.

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Assistant Professor of Biology Kirsten Deane-Coe investigates the drivers of diversity in an ecologically important clade of dryland mosses.

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New publicly available database of DNA viruses and retroviruses debuts.

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Sticky molecules hop aboard oily floaters and may influence the amount of sunlight reflected by marine clouds.

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Water conservation will be one of many topics at this year’s UF/IFAS Urban Landscape Conference, scheduled for March 16-17 in Gainesville, Florida. Protecting the water Floridians will need for the 15 million additional residents projected to live here 50 years from now means getting today’s 20 million Floridians to conserve water, says University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor Michael Dukes.

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Don’t forget winter snows when considering the water cycle! The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) March 1 Soils Matter blog post explains how winter snowpack helps recharge groundwater.

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Irvine, Calif., March 1, 2017 – The combination of prolonged hot spells with poor air quality greatly compounds the negative effects of each and can pose a major risk to human health, according to new research from the University of California, Irvine.“The weather factors that drive heat waves also contribute to intensified surface ozone and air pollution episodes,” said UCI professor of Earth system science Michael J.

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New Iowa State University research shows nitrogen fertilizer plays an essential role in maintaining soil carbon in corn and soybean fields. Adequate soil carbon is one of the most important metrics of soil health.

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The True´s beaked whale is a deep-diving mammal so rarely seen that it often defies recognition at sea by researchers. Scientists have now obtained the first images of a calf along with the first underwater video of these whales – helping to reveal the secrets of this species.

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Organic farmers can use a combination of cover crops and no-till methods to improve soil health, suppress weeds, and retain moisture.

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A University of Kansas researcher and colleagues from Cornell University have revealed daunting challenges to changing the DNA of entire populations of species via the most promising techniques available today to produce “gene drive.”

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A new treatment for tuberculosis (TB) is set to be developed using compounds derived from bacteria that live in soil - according an international collaboration of researchers, including the University of Warwick.

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Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories, The University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will adapt previously developed sensors to monitor root function and plant health in new, noninvasive ways.

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The Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) announced the launch of four new multi-disciplinary teams aimed at tackling global issues including land use, soil carbon, conservation offsets, and human health and the environment.

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Organic additives found in road salt alternatives — such as those used in the commercial products GeoMelt and Magic Salt — act as a fertilizer to aquatic ecosystems, promoting the growth of algae and organisms that eat algae, according to new research published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Low levels of magnesium chloride — an alternative type of salt found in the commercial product Clear Lane – boost populations of amphipods, tiny crustaceans that feed on algae and serve as an important food source for fish.

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A new report says St-Barthélemy’s environment may be rapidly degrading, with major impacts stemming from land-based pollution, urbanization, and overfishing.

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“We really look at this study and South Korea as information to see if we can increase younger consumers in other countries,” said Lisa House, a UF/IFAS professor of food and resource economics and a study co-author. In addition to eating grapefruit, South Koreans also use grapefruit in beer, tea and ice cream, so marketing opportunities abound.

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Using living organisms such as bacteria or fungi, as an alternative to chemical fertilisers, can improve the soil biodiversity of green roofs, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth.

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By growing phytoplankton called coccolithophores in the lab, scientists were able to understand the large biological overprint on the climate signal encoded by their remains, clearing the way for their use as climate proxies.

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Some fruit flies build up tolerance to the toxin α-amanitin; the genetic mechanisms behind this adaptation link to an important metabolic pathway. A team from Michigan Technological University used genome-wide association mapping to draw the connections for 180 fruit fly lines.

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An international research team found a rapid rise in acidification in the western Arctic Ocean, a potential threat to shellfish, the marine ecosystem and the fishing industry. Since the 1990s, acidified waters have expanded north about 300 nautical miles from Alaska to just below the North Pole.

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Partly inspired by the dynamics of a flock of birds, engineers devised a computational method for drones to quickly record whether they are over water, oil or the edge of the spill. This simple information is shared with the other drones in the swarm, as opposed to sharing actual images or video, which would require too much bandwidth.

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Through its Climate Adaptation Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) today solicited proposals from nonprofit conservation organizations to explore and implement new methods for helping wildlife adapt to rapidly-shifting environmental conditions brought about by climate change.

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Discovery of the genes that the insect parasite Wolbachia uses to control its hosts' reproduction provides a powerful new tool for enhancing biological control efforts for mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, Zika and malaria.

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Journalists registering for the American Chemical Society’s (ACS’) 253rd National Meeting & Exposition this spring will have a wealth of new scientific information available for their news stories. More than 14,000 presentations are planned on a wide range of topics from health to the environment. The meeting, one of the largest scientific conferences of the year, will be held April 2-6 in San Francisco.

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New Iowa State University research outlines how the genetic pathways that govern growth and stress response in plants sometimes clash. The research could lead to better performing crop varieties.

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Only 2 percent of the 78 million tons of manufactured plastics are currently recycled into similar products because polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), which account for two-thirds of the world’s plastics, have different chemical structures and cannot be efficiently repurposed together. That could all change with a discovery by a Cornell University research team. In this video, Geoffrey Coates, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, explains how his research team created a new, multiblock polymer that, when added in small measure to a mix of the two otherwise incompatible materials, creates a new and mechanically tough polymer. Not only does this tetrablock polymer show promise for improving recycling, it could spawn a whole new class of mechanically tough polymer blends.

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The Government of Myanmar and WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) announced today a comprehensive plan to protect the country’s diverse fisheries and marine life—including dolphins, sea turtles, and other species—and other marine resources.

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The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) recently signed an agreement officially lending its support to the national March for Science rally and teach-in in Washington, DC, scheduled for Earth Day, Saturday, April 22. ASCB was among the first to uphold the event’s mission to “unite the diverse universe of scientists and other community members in a non-partisan manner.”

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Florida avocados bring a $100 million-a-year impact to Florida’s economy, UF/IFAS economists say. They grow almost entirely in southern Miami-Dade County, but growers have battled the laurel wilt fungus, which can kill redbay and avocado trees, since it arrived in Georgia in 2003.

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To study the migration patterns of white-throated sparrows researchers kept track of how active the birds were by day and night. When the temperatures dropped , the birds all became restless at night, signifying they were in a migratory state. As temperatures raised none of the birds showed signs of migratory restlessness.

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Wastewater from oil and gas operations – including fracking for shale gas – at a West Virginia site altered microbes downstream, according to a Rutgers-led study. The study, published recently in Science of the Total Environment, showed that wastewater releases, including briny water that contained petroleum and other pollutants, altered the diversity, numbers and functions of microbes. The shifts in the microbial community indicated changes in their respiration and nutrient cycling, along with signs of stress.

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Because of the increasing severity of forest fires in New Mexico and Arizona in recent years, there are approximately 118,000 acres of high severity devastation that need reforestation, according to a white paper by the U.S. Forest Service.

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Much of the flood-inducing rainfall that has pummeled California over the last month flowed into the region via a river in the sky. But these so-called atmospheric rivers, which transport large quantities of water vapor poleward from the tropics, can wreak havoc in the Southeast as well.

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A study published in the journal PLOS ONE says that between 1990 and 2000, the average distance from any point in the United States to the nearest forest increased by 14 percent. The distance can present challenges for wildlife and have broad effects on ecosystems.

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A new, two-part project led by the UW’s Kristin Laidre aims to explore the interacting effects of climate change and subsistence hunting on polar bears, while also illuminating the cultural value of the species to indigenous peoples and the role they play in conservation.

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Canola and camelina are cool-season crops that produce oilseeds. Soon they may find a home in California fields as a rotational crop with smart water use and high demand.