Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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New research from Dartmouth provides the first evidence that the Arctic’s frozen soil is the dominant force shaping Earth’s northernmost rivers.

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New research from Washington University in St. Louis and Sichuan University in China explores how and why ancient communities built social relationships and cultural identities across the extreme terrain in Tibet.

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Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, have discovered a change in what scientists already knew about global warming dynamics.

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Mangroves and saltmarshes sequester large amounts of carbon, mitigating the greenhouse effect.

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PNNL scientists developed a new method to map exactly how a fungus works with leafcutter ants in a complex microbial community to degrade plant material at the molecular level. The team’s insights are important for biofuels development.

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In a new study, engineers at the University of Notre Dame have presented clear images of nanoplastics in ocean water off the coasts of China, South Korea and the United States, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, lower occupancy in buildings led to reduced water use, raising concerns about water quality due to stagnation.

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The study delves into hypersaline lakes in Xinjiang, China, exploring the genetic and metabolic diversity of microbial communities termed "microbial dark matters."

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In a significant development for personalised nutrition, researchers in Italy have cultivated microgreens with bespoke nutritional profiles to serve individual dietary requirements.

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Researchers model sea ice dynamics and thermodynamics to understand its role in global climate.

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Green roofs have become increasingly popular thanks to their benefits related to climate adaptation, mitigation, and urban biodiversity management.

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The economic impact of the complete lack of irrigation water for crop production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in 2024 would be an estimated $495.8 million in direct revenue loss, according to a recent report by the Center for North American Studies, CNAS.

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Connor Bleisch, a graduate research assistant in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), has won the 2023 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Michael H. Freilich Data Visualization Competition grand prize. The honoree is being recognized for a data visualization project that places the user in the middle of a first-hand recreation of a raging wildfire in the Sequoia National Park in 2021.

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Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have concluded that the methane uptake in dry landscapes exceeds methane emissions from wet areas across the ice-free part of Greenland.

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A multi-institutional team of researchers studied how solar radiation from the sun interacts with individual tar balls. This research, featured on the cover of ACS Publications' Environmental Science & Technology, provides insights into how wildfires influence climate change.

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As global temperatures continue to rise, glaciers are melting, and soils with communities of microorganisms are now exposed. Researchers are studying the microorganisms in these soils to determine how they influence carbon flux and climate change.

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A study focusing on Northwest China's cotton fields by UNDP found persistent endosulfan residues from historical agricultural production despite its ban now.

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More than half of the world’s population—4.4 billion people—lives in cities, and that proportion will grow to two-thirds by the year 2050, according to the United Nations.

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The 37th International Geological Congress (IGC 2024) in August 2024, Busan, Korea, will highlight a growing concern amid urgent threats posed by accelerated climate and environmental changes.

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In a new paper published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, WHOI scientists Collin Ward, Bryan James, Chris Reddy, and Yanchen Sun put different types of plastics and paper drinking straws head-to-head to see which degrade the fastest in the coastal ocean.

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Modeling shows that stratospheric aerosol injection has the potential to reduce ice sheet loss due to climate change.

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According to recent data, bird populations in North America have declined by approximately 2.9 billion birds, a loss of more than one in four birds since 1970. Experts say this bird loss will continue to grow unless changes are made in our daily lives. 

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A team of researchers who developed tools for investors, academics, and businesses to measure economic risks from the loss of the planet’s biodiversity has won the inaugural Berkeley Haas Sustainable Business Research Prize.

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A trip to the deep floor of the ocean is somewhat akin to going to the moon. Like the landers on the moon, a benthic lander can make it happen, just a little closer to home.At the University of Rhode Island, a fleet of these observational systems is now taking shape, all being built at the University’s Narragansett Bay Campus, in preparation for their journey nearly two miles deep.

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As part of the Ice Memory initiative, researchers analysed ice cores drilled in 2018 and 2020 from the Corbassière glacier at Grand Combin in the canton of Valais. A comparison of the two sets of ice cores published in Nature Geoscience shows: Global warming has made at least this glacier unusable as a climate archive.

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Visual Sample Plan, a free software tool developed at PNNL that boosts statistics-based planning, has been recognized with a 2024 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award.

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The technique yields a chemical fingerprint that is unique to each tree species, allowing authorities to quickly determine whether the harvested wood is from a protected species.

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The intricate dance of nature often unfolds in mysterious ways, hidden from the naked eye. At the heart of this enigmatic tango lies a vital partnership: the symbiosis between plants and a type of fungi known as arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.

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Leading scientists are today calling for an urgent step change in global governance to save the future of worldwide cities and the planet at large.

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European forests with a greater diversity of tree species are more resilient to storms, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society journal, Functional Ecology.

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The pore-like structure of permeable pavements may help protect coho salmon by preventing tire wear particles and related contaminants from entering stormwater runoff, according to a Washington State University study.

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Measuring the amount of precipitation that falls in a specific location is simple if that location has a device designed to accurately record and transmit precipitation data.

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A new study reveals how soil erosion caused by sika deer foraging reduces the growth of the beech trees.

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Horticultural research remains at epicenter of growing field.

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West Virginia University is being recognized as a certified affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program for its buzzworthy efforts to support pollinators on campus by increasing native plants and providing nest sites.

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Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are good at cleaning up common pollutants but often miss tiny amounts of other harmful substances, known as trace organic pollutants.