Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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Research shows extraordinary commitment to science and soil physics and support of soil physicists

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New simulations by researchers at the University of Warwick and UCL’s Institute of Archaeology of plant evolution over the last 3000 years have revealed an unexpected limit to how far useful crops can be pushed to adapt before they suffer population collapse. The result has significant implications for how growers, breeders and scientists help agriculture and horticulture respond to quickening climate change.

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While Florida and Alaska are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, they share mutual concerns of the imminent challenges presented by environmental changes. The rapid melting of the Arctic ice is threatening coastal locations globally, and impacts include increased flooding from sea-level rise in Florida to infrastructure instability from permafrost melting in Alaska.

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In a joint North European and North American study led by Umeå researcher Christer Nilsson, a warning is issued of underdocumented results of ecological restorations. The researchers show that continuous and systematic evaluations of cost-efficiency, planning, implementations and effects are necessary in order to make use of experiences in future projects. The results have been published in the journal Ecology and Society.

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Longer monsoon seasons with increased daily rainfall, aspects of climate change, are contributing to reduced tea yield in regions of China, with implications for crop management and harvesting strategies, according to findings by a global interdisciplinary team led by Tufts University researchers and published online today in Climate.

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Plants share their carbohydrates with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that colonize their roots and, in exchange, these fungi provide their hosts with nitrogen and phosphorous. By exploiting this relationship, scientists may be able to increase the biomass production of bioenergy crops and the yield of food crops and to reduce the required fertilizer inputs. This could improve the environmental sustainability of agricultural production systems according to professor Heike Bücking of South Dakota State University.

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While farm soil grows the world’s food and fiber, scientists are examining ways to use it to sequester carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

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The world has more carbon dioxide than it needs, and a team of Brown University chemists has come up with a potential way to put some of it to good use.

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A multi-university collaboration has issued a report on steps to reduce harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie

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Scientists have found evidence that rising river waters deliver a feast of carbon to hungry microbes where water meets land, triggering increased activity and altering the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

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New regulations by the government of Ecuador to protect the waters around the Galapagos Islands as a marine preserve, including main feeding areas for Galapagos penguins.

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An international team that includes University of Montana researcher Jesse Johnson has learned that the Earth's internal heat enhances rapid ice flow and subglacial melting in Greenland.

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Thousands of loggerhead turtles are killed annually in areas of Syria, Libya and Egypt and Tunisia where they travel to find food, a new study led by researchers at the University of Exeter has highlighted.

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Even as 60 million people around the world face severe hunger because of El Niño and millions more because of climate change, top European and American media outlets are neglecting to cover the issues as a top news item, says a new research report funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today.

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Study provides new tool to probe meltwater drainage should also help project glacial response to climate change, says University of Oregon researcher.

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The ocean chemistry along the West Coast of North America is changing rapidly because of global carbon dioxide emissions, and the governments of Oregon, California, Washington and British Columbia can take actions now to offset and mitigate the effects of these changes.

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A new study offers hope for cold-water species in the face of climate change. The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses a longstanding paradox between predictions of widespread extinctions of cold-water species and a general lack of evidence for those extinctions despite decades of recent climate change.

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The journal Marine Resource Economics recognized James Anderson for his 1985 paper, “Market Interactions between Aquaculture and the Common-Property Commercial Fishery.” Most articles written 30 years ago have been forgotten, but some researchers are still looking at this one, Anderson said.

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Dr. Joshua Gellers, assistant professor of political science at the University of North Florida, has been awarded a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar Award to conduct research on public participation in the environmental decision-making process at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka.

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Climate change is a significant threat to the health of Americans, creating unprecedented health problems in areas where they might not have previously occurred, according to a report released April 4 by the White House.

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A revolutionary new type of laser developed by the University of Adelaide is promising major advances in remote sensing of greenhouse gases.

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New research on coral reefs suggests that existing biodiversity will be essential for the successful adaptation of ecosystems to climate change.

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Global Temperature Report: March 2016

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Pruning, watering and planting steps for long-term success

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A shocking new report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Fauna & Flora International documents a catastrophic collapse of the world’s largest great ape– the Grauer’s gorilla – due to a combination of illegal hunting around mining sites and settlements, prior civil unrest, and habitat loss.

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A study by economists at North Carolina State University finds that most people are unwilling to rent vacation homes that have a view of offshore wind turbines – and that those who will rent expect steep rental discounts unless the turbines are more than eight miles offshore.

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Tiny ocean dwellers witnessed climate cycles, report past conditions.

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Agricultural expansion in Brazil’s Cerrado is quickly chewing up rainforests and savannas--even altering the region’s water cycle, a first-of-its-kind study finds. The findings reveal that forest clearing, previously prevalent in the Amazon, has shifted--making Cerrado a new hotspot for tropical deforestation.

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A new study by researchers from Denmark and Canada's York University, published in Geophysical Research Letters, has found that the climate models commonly used to simulate melting of the Greenland ice sheet tend to underestimate the impact of exceptionally warm weather episodes on the ice sheet.

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The University of California, San Diego campus community will celebrate Earth Month throughout April to educate and raise awareness about sustainability, climate change and the impact of policy on the environment. This is the first year that UC San Diego’s activities around Earth Day, recognized nationally on April 22nd, have been extended to a month-long series of events.

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Art Sedlacek, an atmospheric scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has flown on planes outfitted with high tech equipment through wildfire plumes and over the ocean, and has visited stations all over the globe to observe aerosols and understand the potentially big impact these suspensions of tiny particles can have on climate.

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A grant program managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society is exploring new methods for helping wildlife in the United States to adapt to rapidly shifting environmental conditions brought about by climate change.

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When most people think of Earth Month they think of recycling bottles and choosing paper over plastic. But these activities are just a small piece of the sustainability puzzle that Florida State University researchers are helping to solve.

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Two invasive species of tumbleweed have hybridized to create a new species of tumbleweed that University of California, Riverside researchers found has dramatically expanded its geographic range in California in just a decade.

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A new study analyzes cloud cover around the world over 15 years. It finds that variations in cloud cover can help researchers predict where different species live — information that could aid conservation and management efforts.

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Agricultural expansion is quickly chewing up native vegetation in the vast wooded savannas of Brazil's Cerrado biome, and a new study shows that those changes in land use are altering the region's water cycle.

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Scientists study the most efficient way to conserve energy in hot and cold weather.

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If you’re a consumer in the market for a fruit-producing plant, you’re more likely to buy one if it’s locally grown or organic, an important finding for those making their living in the approximately $280 million-a-year niche U.S. market, new University of Florida research shows.

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A study published in today's Nature gives estimates of sea levels rising twice what previous studies have warned. The rapid melting of Antarctic's Ice Sheet could raise the sea level as much as three feet by the end of this century. The newer model suggests that sea levels could rise as much as 13 meters by 2500 should the Antarctic Ice Shelf, roughly the size of Mexico, continue to melt.

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The endangered southern resident killer whales of Puget Sound could soon get their own personal health records following a meeting of wildlife health experts being held March 28-29 in Seattle.

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A changing climate and reduced snow cover across the north is squeezing the snowshoe hare out of its historic range, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Most of us think nothing of rainfall or where it goes, unless it leads to flooding or landslides. But soil scientists have been studying how water moves across or through water soil for decades. Daniel Hirmas, a professor at University of Kansas, and his team may be taking the study of “soil hydrology” to some exciting new territory. Territory that may help soil scientists manage water resources better.

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The earliest instrumental records of Earth’s climate, as measured by thermometers and other tools, start in the 1850s. To look further back in time, scientists investigate air bubbles trapped in ice cores, which expands the window to less than a million years. But to study Earth’s history over tens to hundreds of millions of years, researchers examine the chemical and biological signatures of deep sea sediment archives.

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Monarch butterflies in North America may face quasi-extinction in the next 20 years unless something is done to expand their population capacity, according to an Iowa State University researcher. The eastern migratory monarch population declined 84 percent between 1996 and 2014.

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Major issues threaten American agriculture, but few outside the industry understand the gravity of these problems. University of Florida students are learning how to tell these stories.

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Researchers describe a new species, "Psychrophrynella chirihampatu," from the Peruvian Andes.

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Analyses across metropolitan Boston show the need for better detection of natural gas emissions.

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The formation of a distinct pattern of sea surface temperatures in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean can predict an increased chance of summertime heat waves in the eastern half of the United States up to 50 days in advance.