Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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The endangered Chittenango ovate amber snail, found only in one location alongside a Central New York waterfall, has achieved a step crucial to its recovery: captive breeding in a laboratory at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

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Fall is prime breeding season for deer across Georgia. It’s also when drivers are more likely to hit deer that run into the road, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

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New research involving scientists from University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS) has identified a crucial process behind the reason why dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels in the deep oceans are constant despite a continuous supply from the surface ocean.

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A new University of Iowa study documents that biomass burning has significant environmental and public-health effects. Co-firing oat hulls with coal reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and heavy metals compared with burning coal alone. Results appear in the journal Fuel.

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WCS released an analysis today on the contributions its conservation programs across the globe have on the proposed U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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By using powerful photon beams generated by the Advanced Photon Source, a DOE User Facility, researchers have shown that they can now control the chemical environment and provide nanoscale structural detail while simultaneously imaging the mineral calcite as it is pushed to its extremes.

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A low-cost method of removing phosphates from tile drainage water developed at South Dakota State University may help protect lakes and streams. Assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering Guanghui Hua is using steel byproducts to trap phosphates in simulated tile drainage water. He collaborates with assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and SDSU Extension water management engineer Chris Hay, who has been testing woodchip bioreactors since 2011. Hay envisions installing a steel-containing cartridge as an add-on to nitrate-capturing bioreactors.

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New research from an Iowa State University ecologist shows that agricultural inputs such as nitrogen and phosphorous alter soil microbial communities, which may have unintended environmental consequences.

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As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S. seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests.

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Expert can discuss the ways in which industries that produce low-BTU waste gases (such as methane) can remain profitable even while adopting the EPA’s new Clean Power Plan, and how the technology developed by his company, Ener-Core, Inc., can play a key role in effective this positive change.

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UD professor James Corbett examines the market potential and environmental trade-offs of using natural gas in marine fuels in a study that appeared in the international peer-reviewed journal Energy Policy.

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Researchers around the globe are on a quest for materials capable of capturing and storing greenhouse gases. This shared goal led researchers in Germany and India to team up to explore the feasibility of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) to trap and store two greenhouse gases in particular: carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). They report their findings in this week’s The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Deploying a set of tools called “exometabolomics,” a Berkeley Lab team harnessed the analytical capabilities of mass spectrometry techniques to quantitatively measure how individual microbes and the biocrust community transform complex mixtures of metabolites from soil. The study published September 22, 2015 in Nature Communications.

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Smokey Bear has spent decades reminding picnickers “only you can prevent forest fires” and has even been known to cry over the devastation they leave in their wake. University of Delaware researchers say the cartoon bear illustrates how mascots can most effectively protect the environment – by threatening disappointment.

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A University of Georgia study using a new method for calculating urban heat island intensities clarifies the conflict on whether urban density or sprawl amplify these effects more. It also provides a ranking of the top urban heat island cities among the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas.

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According to a study published1 on 14 September in Nature Climate Change, snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is its lowest level in 500 years. Snowpack is crucial for the water supply of California.

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University of Washington researchers have found the types of organisms in Seattle’s Elliott Bay change depending on the shoreline nearby, either armored or restored beaches. Young chum salmon adjusted their diets based on these changes.

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Researchers say diverse agroecosystems are more resilient to variable weather from climate change.

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Moisture content, organic matter, color of soil varies across the US

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New research at the University of Warwick with colleagues from the London School of Economics has identified changes in the shape of rainfall across Europe; changes in the amount of drizzle compared with downpours and everything in-between.

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A new spectroscopy method is bringing researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) closer to understanding – and artificially replicating – the solar water-splitting reaction at the heart of photosynthetic energy production.

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Associate Professor Edward L. Webb, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and NUS PhD graduate Dr Jacob Phelps, have uncovered a previously little recognised Southeast Asian wildlife trade – the illegal sale of wild-collected ornamental plants, especially orchids.

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South Florida is on the front lines in the war against invasive reptiles and amphibians because its warm climate makes it a place where they like to live, a new University of Florida study shows. Using computer models and data showing where reptiles live in Florida, UF/IFAS scientists predicted where they could find non-native species in the future. They found that as temperatures climb, areas grow more vulnerable to invasions by exotic reptiles. Conversely, they found that extreme cold temperatures protect against invasion.

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To address the challenge of rising CO2 levels, researchers from the University of Southampton will join leading scientists from around the world at the ‘Life In A High Carbon World’ conference next week.

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A research team led by Virginia Tech's James McClure are using resources at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility located at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to improve understanding of transport phenomena in multiphase systems.

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A team of Stony Brook University and international researchers have found that biogenic materials in sea spray may affect ice cloud formation and thus climate on a global scale.

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Global Temperature Report: August 2015

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A new wearable technology developed at the University of Washington called MagnifiSense can sense what devices and vehicles the user interacts with throughout the day, which can help track that individual’s carbon footprint, enable smart home applications or even assist with elder care.

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Wildfires have ravaged both populated and unpopulated regions of Southern California at an increasing rate over the past few decades, and scientists from three University of California campuses and partner institutions are predicting that by midcentury, as a consequence of climate change causing hotter and drier summers, a lot more will go up in flames.

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A new study co-authored by scientists at Drexel University, published in the most recent issue of Biological Conservation, reveals the devastating impact of illegal logging on bird communities in the understory layer of Ghana’s Upper Guinea rain forests, one of the world's 25 “biodiversity hotspots” where the most biologically rich ecosystems are most threatened.

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A greater understanding and appreciation of our oceans is essential for the wellbeing of the world’s population, according to the Global Marine Technology Trends 2030 (GMTT 2030) report launched today (Monday 7 September).

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A new study published in Park Science shows that nearly 90% of visitors to a major national park value viewing the night sky and want the National Park Service to reduce light pollution. The study also established a threshold below which visitors found light pollution of the night skies unacceptable.

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Click to read today's top stories.

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Understanding the role of freshwater lakes and reservoirs in the global carbon cycle is central to the work of Kevin Rose, who recently joined the faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

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A McGill-led team has discovered a pattern that is consistent across a range of ecosystems. They found that, in a very systematic way, in crowded settings, prey reproduced less than they do in settings where their numbers are smaller. Some scientists are already suggesting that it may well be the discovery of a new law of nature.

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Evidence from the tropical lowlands of Central America reveals how Maya activity more than 2,000 years ago not only contributed to the decline of their environment but continues to influence today’s environmental conditions, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Watershed health and water quality issues are a growing concern. Researchers examined the sediments traveling downstream toward Lake Winnipeg. In order to better understand where sediments are coming from, they used a technique called color fingerprinting to identify the specific origin of the erosion.

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Results of a groundbreaking Colorado State University study which were published this week in the journal Nature, show that guppies from transplanted populations initially respond to a lack of predators with coping mechanisms that include changes in the expression of genes in the brain; some of the changes were beneficial, while others were disadvantageous. When the researchers compared how the brains of the introduced guppies evolved to incorporate the initial coping responses, they found that the genes that exhibited the initially maladaptive responses evolved rapidly to allow future generations to thrive better in the new environment. The study, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, is being hailed as groundbreaking.

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Michael Willis is an earth and atmospheric sciences research associate at Cornell University and a member of the research team for ArcticDEM – a project announced today by the White House that will develop a high-resolution topographic map of the Arctic that, for the first time, will provide consistent coverage of the entire region to better monitor the effects of climate change. He is available to answer questions about the project, his work and the Arctic region in general.

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A new study by Florida State University is showing that rapid evolution can occur in response to environmental changes.

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Researcher at the University of Iowa is the first to use the Internet and social media to systematically show how a documentary film shaped public perception and ultimately led to municipal bans on hydraulic fracking.

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Scientists discovered a material that exhibits an unprecedented mechanism for carbon dioxide capture-and-release with only small shifts in temperature. The material’s structure closely resembles an enzyme found in plants that captures carbon dioxide for conversion into nutrients.

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A University of Iowa (UI) sociologist and his co-researchers are the first to use the Internet and social media to systematically show how a documentary film reshaped public perception and ultimately led to municipal bans on hydraulic fracking.