Feature Channels: Environmental Science

Filters close
13-Oct-2011 1:25 PM EDT
Study Identifies Chemicals Seaweeds Use to Harm Coral
Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications

Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral.

12-Oct-2011 4:30 PM EDT
New Study Shows Cellphones Exceed FCC Exposure Limits by As Much as Double for Children
Environmental Health Trust

A scholarly article on cell phone safety to be published online October 17 in the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine reports the finding that cell phones used in the shirt or pants pocket exceed FCC exposure guidelines and that children absorb twice as much microwave radiation from phones as do adults.

Released: 13-Oct-2011 2:35 PM EDT
Future Forests May Soak Up More Carbon Dioxide than Previously Believed
University of Michigan

North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated.

12-Oct-2011 11:40 AM EDT
Ecosystem Management Must Consider Human Impact Too
Michigan Technological University

Ecologists have identified factors other than climate that affect whether grasslands or forests grow. In a Perspectives piece in the journal Science, a Michigan Tech researcher urges future studies to consider human activities and grazing patterns too.

Released: 13-Oct-2011 11:00 AM EDT
Insoluble Dust Plays Important Role in Cloud Formation
Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications

New information on the role of insoluble dust particles in forming cloud droplets could improve the accuracy of regional climate models, especially in areas of the world that have significant amounts of mineral aerosols in the atmosphere.

Released: 13-Oct-2011 9:40 AM EDT
Method of Studying Roots Rarely Used in Wetlands Improves Ecosystem Research
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A method of monitoring roots rarely used in wetlands will help researchers effectively study the response of a high-carbon ecosystem to elevated temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide.

Released: 12-Oct-2011 1:00 AM EDT
Green Standards and Tariffs Foster Green Practices in China
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Trade and foreign direct investment can have a positive effect on the serious environmental degradation in China, according to political scientist Ka Zeng at the University of Arkansas.

   
Released: 11-Oct-2011 4:40 PM EDT
Countdown: America's No. 1 Solar Car Ready to Race the World
University of Michigan

With a cutting-edge solar car, an advanced strategy and an intrepid 16-student race crew, the University of Michigan's national champion solar car team is ready for the upcoming World Solar Challenge. The 1,800-mile international contest starts on the north shore of Australia in Darwin on Oct. 16.

Released: 11-Oct-2011 10:00 AM EDT
New Computer Programme Promises to Save the Whales
Universite de Montreal

Researchers at the University of Montreal have developed a computer programme that enables regulators to evaluate the ecological and economic tradeoffs between marine mammal conservation, whale watching and marine transportation activities in the Saint Lawrence Estuary.

Released: 10-Oct-2011 4:45 PM EDT
Turning Slash Piles to Soil Benefit
University of Washington

Students at the University of Washington have teamed up on a startup that promises to turn slash piles of forest refuse into biochar, a crumbly charcoal-like product for farmers that helps their soil hold water and nutrients. They received an Innovation Corps award from the Nat’l Science Foundation.

Released: 10-Oct-2011 2:20 PM EDT
Research Shows How Life Might Have Survived ‘Snowball Earth’
University of Washington

New research indicates that simple life in the form of photosynthetic algae could have survived a "snowball Earth" event, living in a narrow body of water with characteristics similar to today’s Red Sea.

Released: 10-Oct-2011 1:55 PM EDT
UC Riverside Chancellor Offers Sustainability Message to Pittsburgh for National Conference
University of California, Riverside

UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White said today it is the university community that must lead the way to a more sustainable nation during today’s keynote speech at The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference in Pittsburgh.

Released: 7-Oct-2011 6:00 AM EDT
La Niña Pacific Ocean Event Appears to be Forming
University of Alabama Huntsville

September 2011 was the fifth warmest September in the past 34 years — fifth warmest globally and in both hemispheres. Last winter’s La Niña Pacific Ocean cooling event has faded and a new one appears to be forming, the tropics continue to be warmer than seasonal norms.

Released: 5-Oct-2011 2:30 PM EDT
Long-Lost Lake Agassiz Offers Clues to Climate Change
University of Cincinnati

What caused water levels to drop in immense yet long-vanished Lake Agassiz? Research by a University of Cincinnati geologist suggests that conditions 12,000 years ago encouraged evaporation.

Released: 4-Oct-2011 11:30 AM EDT
Five-Story Biowall of Plants Serves as a Living Laboratory for Air Quality Research
Drexel University

Scientists and students at Drexel University are studying the largest biowall in North America and the only one at a U.S. university, to get a better understanding of how it works as an active living filter that removes volatile organic compounds from the air.

Released: 3-Oct-2011 5:00 PM EDT
Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels at End of Last Ice Age Not Tied to Pacific Ocean, as Had Been Suspected
University of Michigan

After the last ice age peaked about 18,000 years ago, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide rose about 30 percent. Scientists believe that the additional carbon dioxide---a heat-trapping greenhouse gas---played a key role in warming the planet and melting the continental ice sheets. They have long hypothesized that the source of the gas was the deep ocean.

3-Oct-2011 9:00 AM EDT
Health of Coral Reefs Linked to Human and Environmental Activity
Stony Brook University

Changing human activities coupled with a dynamic environment over the past few centuries have caused fluctuating periods of decline and recovery of corals reefs in the Hawaiian Islands, according to a study sponsored in part by the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University. Using the reefs and island societies as a model social-ecological system, a team of scientists reconstructed 700 years of human-environment interactions in two different regions of the Hawaiian archipelago to identify the key factors that contributed to degradation or recovery of coral reefs.

Released: 29-Sep-2011 2:30 PM EDT
Researchers: Apply Public Trust Doctrine to 'Rescue' Wildlife from Politics
Ohio State University

When a species recovers enough to be removed from the federal endangered species list, the public trust doctrine – the principle that government must conserve natural resources for the public good – should guide state management of wildlife, scientists say.

Released: 28-Sep-2011 9:00 AM EDT
Invasive Sea Squirt Threatens Connecticut’s $30 Million Shellfish Industry
Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)

The invasive sea squirt, Styela clava, has now been discovered along the Eastern Seaboard as far south as Bridgeport Harbor and poses a significant danger to Connecticut’s $30 million shellfish business, according to field research conducted by Carmela Cuomo, head of the marine biology program at the University of New Haven, and several of her students.

   
Released: 27-Sep-2011 8:00 AM EDT
'Lifetime' Savings Not Most Effective Approach to Influence Consumers on Green Products
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

A University of Arkansas study suggests that “lifetime” savings claims on product labels are not the most effective method to reach consumers regarding the benefits and potential savings from using energy-efficient products.

Released: 27-Sep-2011 7:00 AM EDT
Storm Forecasting Program Added to FAA Flight Planning
University of Alabama Huntsville

A system that uses data from satellites to predict “pop up” thunderstorms has been incorporated into the weather forecasting software used to plan thousands of airline and commercial airplane flights in the U.S. every day.

Released: 26-Sep-2011 12:20 PM EDT
Restorative Benefits of Beach Peak During Low Tides and Cooler Days
Washington University in St. Louis

People head to the beach to escape the stress of everyday life, but a new study out of the Brown School at Washington University In St. Louis finds that there are peak times to reap the restorative benefit. “Mild temperature days and low tides offer the most restorative environments when visiting the beach,” says J. Aaron Hipp, PhD, environmental health expert and assistant professor at the Brown School.

Released: 22-Sep-2011 3:00 PM EDT
New Approach Challenges Old Ideas About Plant Species and Biomass
Iowa State University

It is no longer hump day, according to new research in the current issue of the journal Science. Research that included Stanley Harpole of Iowa State University challenges a widely-accepted idea from the 1970s showing as plant biomass produced in a system increased, so did the number of plant species, to a point. After that point, the number of plant species is thought to decline. When plotted on a graph, the result is a hump shape, with maximum species richness occurring at the point of intermediate productivity. But, now it's time to get over the hump.

Released: 22-Sep-2011 2:15 PM EDT
Model Provides Successful Seasonal Forecast for the Fate of Arctic Sea Ice
University of Washington

Relatively accurate predictions for summer sea ice extent in the Arctic can be made the previous autumn, but forecasting more than five years into the future requires understanding of the impact of climate trends on the ice pack.

Released: 22-Sep-2011 11:55 AM EDT
Scientists Probe Indian Ocean for Clues to Worldwide Weather Patterns
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

An international team of researchers will begin gathering in the Indian Ocean next month to study an atmospheric pattern that affects weather worldwide. The six-month field campaign, supported in part by NCAR, will help improve long-range weather forecasts and computer models of climate change.

Released: 21-Sep-2011 4:40 PM EDT
Bionic Bacteria May Help Fight Disease and Global Warming
Salk Institute for Biological Studies

-A strain of genetically enhanced bacteria developed by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may pave the way for new synthetic drugs and new ways of manufacturing medicines and biofuels, according to a paper published September 18 in Nature Chemical Biology.

Released: 21-Sep-2011 11:30 AM EDT
RFID Holds Potential in Waste Management, Recycling Efforts
Southeastern Louisiana University

In the not too distant future, trash cans and recycling bins may bear scannable identification codes in an effort to reduce the volume of trash discarded while increasing the amount of recycled materials, says an expert in radio frequency identification.

Released: 21-Sep-2011 9:00 AM EDT
Book Traces Long Trail of Global Warming Scholarship
University of Chicago

The Warming Papers, a book co-edited by geophysical sciences professors David Archer and Ray Pierrehumbert, contains 32 classic scientific papers that laid the foundations of global-warming science, starting with Joseph Fourier’s 1824 work establishing what later was named the greenhouse effect.

15-Sep-2011 2:10 PM EDT
Causes of Gulf War Illness Are Complex and Vary by Deployment Area
Baylor University

Gulf War Illness (GWI)—the chronic health condition that affects about one in four military veterans of the 1991 Gulf War—appears to be the result of several factors, which differed in importance depending upon the locations where veterans served during the war, according to a Baylor University study.

15-Sep-2011 4:00 PM EDT
Deep Oceans Can Mask Global Warming for Decade-Long Periods
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

The planet’s deep oceans at times may absorb enough heat to flatten the rate of global warming for periods of as long as a decade even in the midst of longer-term warming, according to a new analysis led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Released: 16-Sep-2011 7:00 AM EDT
Researchers Spend 10 Days Underwater to Study Coral
Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications

A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology is using the Aquarius underwater laboratory off the coast of Florida to study how the diversity of seaweed-eating fish affects endangered coral reefs. The research mission began September 13.

Released: 15-Sep-2011 5:00 PM EDT
Are Genes Our Destiny?
Salk Institute for Biological Studies

A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Released: 15-Sep-2011 2:30 PM EDT
Invasive Plants Encourage Wildfires, with Negative Human and Ecological Consequences
Allen Press Publishing

The past decade has seen 77,951 fires burn about 6.7 million acres in the United States. One condition that facilitates the spread of wildfires is invasive plant species. Nonnative weeds can modify the vegetation of a landscape and provide a source of fuel that did not previously exist.

Released: 15-Sep-2011 12:00 PM EDT
From Subways to Dairy Barns, Is New York Ready for Climate Change?
Cornell University

David W. Wolfe, professor of plant and soil ecology and co-author of the upcoming NYSERDA study focused on preparing New York for climate change, talks about the security of food, water and city subways at the next Inside Cornell media luncheon.

Released: 15-Sep-2011 11:50 AM EDT
Invasive Amphibians, Reptiles in Florida Outnumber World
University of Florida

Florida has the world’s worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of the species’ introductions.

Released: 12-Sep-2011 1:10 PM EDT
Oil and Gas Operations in the Gulf of Mexico Claim 139 Lives in Helicopter Crashes Over 26-Year Period
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Helicopters that service the drilling platforms and vessels in the Gulf of Mexico crash on average more than six times per year resulting in an average of 5 deaths per year.

   
Released: 11-Sep-2011 9:00 AM EDT
Dangers of Exposure to "White Light"
University of Haifa

New study reveals: Exposure to the light of white LED bulbs suppresses melatonin 5 times more than exposure to the light of High Pressure Sodium bulbs that give off an orange-yellow light.

Released: 9-Sep-2011 2:20 PM EDT
Microbes Travel Through the Air; It Would be Good to Know How and Where
Virginia Tech

Preliminary research on Fusarium, a group of fungi that includes devastating pathogens of plants and animals, shows how these microbes travel through the air. Researchers at Virginia Tech now believe that with improvements on this preliminary research, there will be a better understanding about crop security, disease spread, and climate change.

Released: 9-Sep-2011 1:15 PM EDT
Researchers Find High Levels of Toxic PCBs in Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal
University of Iowa

University of Iowa researchers have found high levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the deep sediments lining the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal (IHSC) in East Chicago, Ind. Scientists say the discovery is cause for concern because the IHSC is scheduled to be dredged in spring 2012 to maintain proper depth for ship traffic in this heavily industrialized area of southern Lake Michigan.

Released: 9-Sep-2011 11:00 AM EDT
Testing Techniques for Restoring Native Prairies Leads to Better Decision-Making
Allen Press Publishing

Restoring prairies to their native vegetation can be approached from several directions. Managers might eliminate invasive plants through use of herbicides, encourage growth of native species through seeding, or manipulate conditions to favor native species. Research that provides evidence for making these decisions can be invaluable for resource management.

Released: 9-Sep-2011 5:00 AM EDT
August Global Temperatures Warmest in 34 Years
University of Alabama Huntsville

Averaged globally, August 2011 was the third warmest August in the past 34 years. The Southern Hemisphere saw its second warmest August in that time, while it was the fourth warmest August in the Northern Hemisphere.

Released: 8-Sep-2011 5:15 PM EDT
Researchers Predict Extreme Summertime Temperatures to Become a Regular Occurrence Even If Expected Increases in Global Temperatures Are Avoided
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences

Boston University researchers have estimated the impact near term increases in global-mean temperatures will have on summertime temperatures here in the U.S. and around the globe.

6-Sep-2011 9:05 AM EDT
Polymer from Brown Algae May Boost Battery Performance
Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications

By looking to Mother Nature for solutions, researchers have identified a promising new binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes that could not only boost energy storage, but also eliminate the use of toxic compounds now used in manufacturing the components.

Released: 8-Sep-2011 12:00 PM EDT
What Color is Your Resume? Go Green to Land a Job
Wake Forest University

As corporate and nonprofit recruiters prepare to storm college campuses this fall, applicants need new ways to distinguish themselves in an increasingly challenging job market. Viewing the world through the lens of sustainability and demonstrating practical experience with a “greener resume” can make a difference when applying for jobs, says Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, Director of Sustainability at Wake Forest University.

Released: 8-Sep-2011 11:15 AM EDT
Switching from Coal to Natural Gas Would Do Little for Global Climate
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Although the burning of natural gas emits far less carbon dioxide than coal, a new study by an NCAR researcher concludes that a greater reliance on natural gas would fail to significantly slow down climate change. Coal releases more carbon dioxide, but it also releases particles that cool the planet.

Released: 7-Sep-2011 3:50 PM EDT
Controlling Winter Moth Infestation in New England
University of Massachusetts Amherst

A six-year campaign to control winter moth pests with a natural parasite now has concrete evidence that a fly, Cyzenis albicans, is attacking the pest at four sites in eastern Massachusetts. It’s the beginning of the end for the decade-long defoliation of millions of trees by the invasive species.

Released: 7-Sep-2011 2:30 PM EDT
First Global Portrait of Greenhouse Gases Emerges from Pole-to-Pole Flights
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

A three-year series of research flights from the Arctic to the Antarctic has produced an unprecedented portrait of greenhouse gases. The HIPPO project, led by NCAR, Harvard, and NOAA, is enabling researchers to generate the first detailed mapping of the global distribution of gases and particles that affect Earth’s climate.

Released: 7-Sep-2011 10:40 AM EDT
Out of Fashion: Study Finds Faulty Perceptions Keep Some from Buying Sustainable Apparel
Kansas State University

A recent study found that when it comes to consumers' rationale for not purchasing sustainable clothing, perception and reality aren't always cut from the same cloth.

Released: 7-Sep-2011 10:25 AM EDT
Exceptional Drought Hits Record Levels in Three More U.S. States
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Land area under exceptional drought hit record levels in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas amid concerns about how long the conditions may persist, the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said.



close
3.39256