In past ice ages, the intensity of summer insolation affected the emergence of warm and cold periods and played an important role in triggering abrupt climate changes, a study by climate researchers, geoscientists, and environmental physicists suggests.
The REPLANT Act provides money for the US Forest Service to plant more than a billion trees in the next nine years. The World Economic Forum aims to help plant a trillion trees around the world by 2030.
The first bees evolved on an ancient supercontinent more than 120 million years ago, diversifying faster and spreading wider than previously suspected, a new study shows.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $13.1 million in funding for 17 new projects to universities, academic institutions, federal research labs, and nonprofits, within the area of Environmental System Science (ESS) research. Awards focus on measurements, experiments, field data, modeling, and synthesis to provide improved understanding and representation of ecosystems and watersheds in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of models that span from individual environmental processes to Earth-system scales.
Michael Berkowitz, who built the 100 Resilient Cities initiative, and later Resilient Cities Catalyst, from ideas into global movements, will serve as the executive director of the fledgling Climate Research Academy, which supports the University of Miami’s 12 schools and colleges in their efforts to conduct research, train the next generation of climate scientists and practitioners, and solve the most pressing problems caused by climate change.
A pioneering approach to managing water quality in eutrophic lakes, called Dynamic Water Diversion Optimization (DWDO), has demonstrated remarkable results in simultaneous improvement of lake water quality and reduction in the volume of water diverted.
A new paper from researchers at UD, the University of Maryland and George Washington University published in Nature Sustainability shows the spread and cost of saltwater intrusion from 2011-2017 in farms located in those mid-Atlantic states. The paper highlights how between the years 2011-2017, the area covered by visible salt patches almost doubled, with over 19,000 acres converted to marsh. Potential economic losses from the salt patches during that time period totaled over $427,000.
Individual features in a community, like microbes or types of chemicals, affect the overall community’s development and help determine the similarity of different communities over time and space. Scientists developed a novel ecological metric, called βNTIfeat, that helps to investigate the roles of different features in community development. The resulting information can inform models of how ecosystems respond to disturbances such as climate change.
Polystyrene, the main material in plastic tableware and insulating materials, is a widely used polymer but is currently difficult to recycle. Reporting in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of US researchers have now developed a thermochemical approach, making it possible to recover valuable chemicals from polystyrene waste in a simple two-step process.
Now that the world has experienced its hottest day in history, it is more urgent than ever for natural and social scientists to work together to address the climate crisis and keep global temperature increases below 2°C. To this end, an international group of esteemed researchers recently published an innovative research paper that highlights the importance of integrating knowledge from natural and social sciences to inform about effective climate change policies and practice.
Resilient corals, often referred to as ‘super corals’, have recently been seen as potential saviours in the face of climate change and its detrimental effects on coral reefs. Now, a team of scientists is working to better understand these corals in order to develop strategies to protect fragile ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef.
Steamboat Geyser’s spray slowly fossilizes the trees it lands on – preserving the geyser’s past and providing a glimpse into Steamboat’s uncertain future.
Developing disease-resistant, high-quality improved crop varieties to benefit agricultural producers and consumers may seem like a “hairy” task, but Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists may have gotten to the root of the issue.
While composting and organic waste ban policies are gaining popularity across the United States, a new study from the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management finds dynamic pricing could be the most effective way for grocery chains to keep perishables out of landfills, reducing food waste by 21% or more.
Some of the world’s most distinct and ancient animal species, which play crucial roles in our planet’s ecosystems, are exploited for the wildlife trade across large parts of the world, according to new research from the University of Sheffield.
A new study by Simon Fraser University researchers shows that efforts to reduce methane emissions are needed immediately if we are to meet global climate change goals.
A new study published in PNAS evaluates the effects of Saharan dust clouds on atmospheric methane. An international research team found that when mineral dust that mixes with sea-spray to form Mineral-Dust-Sea Spray Aerosol (MDSA), this MDSA is activated by sunlight to produce an abundance of chlorine atoms ultimately mitigating methane totals.
A new innovative and immersive program created by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) is introducing climate science, offering career exploration, and addressing issues of access from an equity and justice perspective for high school sophomores and juniors from New York City.
All plants and lichens listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act are sensitive to climate change but there are few plans in place to address this threat directly, according to a new study.
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An international research team, led by Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen of the University of Manitoba and University of Copenhagen, has reached a significant milestone by drilling through 2670 m of ice on the North Greenland Ice Stream and reaching bedrock after seven long years.
About 15 years ago, researchers reported that the timing of spring in high-Arctic Greenland had advanced at some of the fastest rates of change ever seen anywhere in the world.
California's climate has changed drastically over the past hundred years, and it will continue to change as the Earth gets warmer, resulting in higher temperatures and more severe heat waves.
Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist.
Whether it’s recycled aluminum at Apple’s MacBook Air or compensation payments from Microsoft for emissions over the life of an Xbox, climate-friendly products are becoming more and more popular.
Jakarta … San Francisco … Shanghai … Phoenix … Houston. These major cities and others around the globe have many similarities, but they share one particular commonality that is concerning for residents. They are among the global cities most affected by climate change.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have been awarded two projects designed to investigate the characteristics and evolution of convective clouds through advanced modeling. The projects are aimed at improving the capabilities of Earth system models to predict weather and climate changes.
In a multi-generation experiment, researchers from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants’ cries for help. Instead, the environment itself selected for drought-tolerant microbes. And while those hardy microbes were doing their thing, they just happened to make plants more drought-tolerant, too.
Did an ancient island facilitate migration amongst the Ryukyu Islands? Compiling the latest geological and biological data, a research group from Tohoku University has provided compelling evidence that this was the case.
University of Miami Rosenstiel School researchers Daniel Suman and Claire B. Paris-Limouzy are co-authors of a recent journal article that outlines ways to achieve greater equity in ocean governance and science in the global tropics. And one of those ways is by allowing residents to have a say in policy making.
Delving into the intricacies of waste management, researchers in China explore the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technology for the identification and classification of recyclable waste and discuss their work in AIP Advances.
From 2000 to 2021, climate change caused the loss of more than 40 trillion liters (10 trillion gallons) of water in the Colorado River Basin — about equal to the entire storage capacity of Lake Mead — according to a new study that modeled humans’ impact on hydrology in the region.
Researchers are still puzzling over how animal collectives behave, but recent advances in machine learning and computer vision are revolutionizing the possibilities of studying animal behaviour. Complex behaviours, like social learning or collective vigilance can be deciphered with new techniques.
Using electrochemistry to separate different particles within a solution (also known as electrochemical separation) is an energy-efficient strategy for environmental and water remediation: the process of purifying contaminated water.
Reducing waste is one way to help combat hunger around the world, but stricter control over food loss and waste does not lead to better environmental outcomes, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Colorado Boulder. In a paper published recently in Nature Food, the scientists stress that curbing food spoilage increases the amount of produce in markets, which leads to lower costs.
An international team of researchers has uncovered “unprecedented” snake venom resistance in an unexpected species – the legless amphibian known as caecilians.
A new study shows that skin-feeding does more than provide nutrients for young caecilians. It also helps the mother pass microbes from her skin and gut down to her young, inoculating them to jump-start a healthy microbiome. This is the first direct evidence that parental care in an amphibian plays a role in passing microbes from one generation to the next.
In a new study published in JMIRx Bio, one of JMIR Publications’ new overlay journals, scientist Floe Foxon explores whether the Loch Ness Monster, a creature in Scottish folklore, could be a giant eel. Using previous estimates of the monster’s size to predict the probability of encountering a large eel of a similar size, the study found that giant eels could not account for sightings of larger animals in Loch Ness, a freshwater lake in the Scottish Highlands.
Researchers from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences have conducted a study to assess the impact of environmental factors and microbial communities on the mobilization of arsenic (As).
Analysing satellite data spanning the past 20 years, the research team based at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge examined how vegetation has been changing along the Pacific coast of Peru and northern Chile.