Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduate biology student Nicole Nolan recently looked into the murky water of a fish tank here, checking on hundreds of zebra mussel larvae that she studied in the laboratories of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute. Nolan was part of the first class of students to spend an entire “Semester of Study” at the Institute, a Rensselaer research and education facility located on the western shores of Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

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On Sunday, April 25, Earth Day Network is organizing a massive rally on The National Mall to demand Congress pass a comprehensive climate bill in 2010. The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is a unique moment to drive an agenda of environmental service, advocacy and education. Earth Day Network takes this agenda online with the official debut of EarthDay.org, the digital action center for individuals and groups who want to organize around a common message of progress and sustainability.

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In a surprise with implications for air quality, researchers found that chemistry involving airborne chloride, thought to be restricted to sea spray, occurs at similar rates in air nearly 900 miles from any ocean.

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Stormwater runoff is the main source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pollutants to the NY/NJ Harbor.

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At first glance, two cars parked in reserved spots on the Binghamton University campus don’t seem that out of the ordinary. But get closer and you’ll notice they both have card-readers on the windshield, denoting that they’re part of a new car-sharing program — Connect by Hertz. Students, faculty and staff who register as members of Connect by Hertz can reserve one of the cars for an hour, a day or up to a week at a time.

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An article in ES&T that contradicted years of government assertions that no residents in Washington D.C. had been harmed by years of unnecessary exposure to very high levels of lead in their potable water has received the Editor’s Choice Award for Best Science Paper of 2009.

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Education, labor, and conservation institutions head to Capitol Hill to encourage senators to support comprehensive jobs education and training in climate legislation.

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The Maurepas Swamp, an important wetland located near New Orleans, is on a clear path toward becoming open water unless a Mississippi River diversion or some other source of freshwater is introduced.

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Safeway Inc. has joined The Sustainability Consortium, a leading organization in the movement to consider the social and environmental factors of consumer production and manufacturing practices. The consortium is jointly administered by Arizona State University and University of Arkansas.

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Following an intense study of agricultural ecosystems near Montreal, a new tool that enables the simultaneous analysis and management of a wide range of ecological services has been developed. Environmental management typically focuses on nature’s resources like food, wildlife and timber, but can miss hidden ecosystem services such as water purification, climate moderation and the regulation of nutrient cycling.

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With concern over mercury contamination of tuna on the rise and growing information about the health effects of eating contaminated fish, scientists would like to know exactly where the pollutant is coming from and how it's getting into open-ocean fish species.

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The melting of glaciers is well documented, but when looking at the rate at which they have been retreating, a team of international researchers steps back and says not so fast.

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In his recent book, Strategic Bargaining and Cooperation in Greenhouse Gas Mitigations, Binghamton University’s Zili Yang suggests ways governments might realistically work together to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He also makes a case for curbing the use of fossil fuels — whether they contribute to climate change or not.

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A first-of-its-kind study of a Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon (Huso huso) fishery demonstrates current harvest rates are four to five times higher than those that would sustain population abundance. The study’s results, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Conservation Biology, suggest that conservation strategies for beluga sturgeon should focus on reducing the overfishing of adults rather than heavily relying upon hatchery supplementation.

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Wider adoption of the practice of recycling medical equipment — including laparoscopic ports and durable cutting tools typically tossed out after a single use — could save hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars annually and curb trash at medical centers, the second-largest waste producers in the United States after the food industry.

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Today, scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a significant regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause ‘red tides’ in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New England shellfish industry.

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Commentary in The Journal of Wildlife Management: Many state wildlife agencies are dependent, financially and politically, on a single user group—hunters. Although this group should continue to be an integral part of wildlife conservation, agencies should adhere to the foundation upon which they were built—stewardship of the public trust. The Public Trust Doctrine postulates that wildlife is owned by no one and held in trust for the benefit of all.

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Dead and deformed fish indicate selenium pollution from mountaintop coal mining is causing permanent damage to the environment and poses serious health risks, says a Wake Forest University biologist who will brief U.S. Senators on his research Feb. 23.

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Conventional wisdom among many ecologists is that industrial-scale agriculture is the best way to produce lots of food while preserving biodiversity in the world's remaining tropical forests. But two University of Michigan researchers reject that idea and argue that small, family-owned farms may provide a better way to meet both goals.

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Steve Luoni and his colleagues in the University of Arkansas Community Design Center lead the movement toward intelligent design of urban landscapes that will reduce energy consumption and limit man’s impact on the environment. Luoni will present the main principles of this movement at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Diego. He will participate in the panel Urban Design and Energy Demand: Transforming Cities for an Eco-Energy Future.

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As biologists and ecologists propose ever-larger conservation areas in the tropics, ones that encompass multiple countries, social scientists say it’s local people banding together with their community leaders who ultimately determine the success of such efforts in many parts of the world.

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Solar arrays of the future may be more energy efficient and reliable, thanks to one Missouri researcher’s efforts to reconfigure the way panels are connected.

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University of Kentucky geography professor Morgan Robertson, University of North Carolina's Martin Doyle and Indiana University's Rebecca Lave recently won a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the ecological, economic and political consequences of wetland, carbon and stream credits and who the real winners are in the environmental credit swap.

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How does a natural forest respond to harvesting under global change conditions? Michigan Technological University and the US Forest Service Institute for Applied Ecosystem Studies (FS IAES) are conducting research that explores that question.

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The GDP severely overstates the standard of living as experienced on Main Street, say University of Maryland researchers, who are working with state officials to use a more accurate, index, the GPI. “In 2000, the classic economic measure showed Maryland more than 50 percent wealthier than we actually were, as measured by the GPI,” says UMD’s Matthias Ruth.

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Missouri S&T environmental experts are available to speak to the media on topics ranging from water resources and indoor and outdoor air quality to wastewater recycling and the policing of “space trash.”

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Depicting a cause-and-effect scenario that spans thousands of miles, a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and his collaborators discovered that ocean waves originating along the Pacific coasts of North and South America impact Antarctic ice shelves and could play a role in their catastrophic collapse.

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A new worldwide study shows marine protected areas (MPAs), underwater parks where fishing and other potentially harmful activities are regulated, provide an added bonus – helping coral reef ecosystems ward off and recover from threats to their health. Researchers also found the protective effects of MPAs generally strengthen over time.

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Scientists analyze the literature to establish relationships between pollutant removal efficacy and key buffer design features.

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Waters from warmer latitudes — or subtropical waters — are reaching Greenland's glaciers, driving melting and likely triggering an acceleration of ice loss, reports a team of researchers led by Fiamma Straneo, a physical oceanographer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

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Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), in collaboration with international partners in Spain and Switzerland and colleagues in California, have found that exposure to air pollution accelerates the thickening of artery walls that leads to cardiovascular disease.

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Theories about the rates of ice accumulation and melting during the Quaternary Period -- the time interval ranging from 2.6 million years ago to the present -- may need to be revised, thanks to research findings published by a University of Iowa researcher and his colleagues in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Science.

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An international panel of scientists is urging dramatically changed ideas about sustainable agriculture to prevent a major starvation catastrophe by the end of this century among more than 3 billion people who live in the tropics.

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A study by University of Michigan researchers offers new insight into what happens to mercury deposited onto Arctic snow from the atmosphere.

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U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute today announced that they have completed sequencing the genome of a kind of wild grass that will enable researchers to develop hardier varieties of wheat and improved varieties of biofuel crops.

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The University of New Hampshire and the State of New Hampshire have partnered to create the Green Launching Pad, an initiative that will bring new green technologies to the marketplace, help innovative clean technology companies succeed, and support the creation of “green” economy jobs in New Hampshire.

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Rafael Reuveny, a professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University, says President Obama should bypass the gridlocked Congress and issue an executive order to cut greenhouse gases.

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The increasing acidity of the world’s oceans – and that acidity’s growing threat to marine species – are definitive proof that the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is causing climate change is also negatively affecting the marine environment, says world-renowned Antarctic marine biologist Jim McClintock, Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Biology.

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Extensive commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations in the Mediterranean. This has been shown in a new study carried out at the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations. "Unfortunately, we turn our backs to the sea and do not give much consideration to our marine neighbors," states researcher Dr. Aviad Scheinin.

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National Wildlife Federation (NWF), more than 200 health, conservation, youth, and other organizations, and 16,300 Americans are urging the new surgeon general to make time outdoors a health priority for children.

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Warmer, drier climate will have negative effects on waterfowl that need prairie pothole region of central North America for wetlands & nesting habitat.

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Washington and Lee University has increased is use of local food in its dining services operation from 8.5 percent in 2007-2008 to an estimated 32 percent this year.

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At times this winter, greater Salt Lake City has harbored the nation's most polluted air. Now, researchers from the University of Utah are leading a three-year, $1.3 million study to better understand winter weather “inversion” conditions associated with poor air quality.

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Painting the roofs of buildings white has the potential to significantly cool cities and mitigate some impacts of global warming, a new study indicates. The research, which is the first computer modeling study to simulate the impacts of white roofs on urban areas worldwide, suggests there may be merit to an idea advanced by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other policymakers that white roofs can be an important tool to help society adjust to climate change.

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Studies conducted by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are helping to increase understanding about the environmental factors that regulate production of avenanthramides (Avns), metabolites with potent antioxidant properties, in oat grain.

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History has shown that previous industrial revolutions, such as those involving asbestos and chloroflurocarbons, have had some serious environmental impacts. Might nanotechnology also pose a risk?

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American University is a charter participant, and the first university in Washington, D.C., to enroll in a new national effort to encourage sustainability practices at colleges and universities around the country.

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A new study suggests that improvements in air quality over the past decade have resulted in fewer cases of ear infections in children.

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National Wildlife Federation applauds Obama State of the Union.

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According to one Ryerson University researcher and newly elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the key to greener vehicles is found in magnesium alloys.