Scientists Studying Idalia in Real-Time Available to Comment on Hurricanes and Warming Oceans
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
A portion of Amazonian lowland rainforest – areas critical to absorbing carbon dioxide and buffering climate change – may morph over time into dry, grassy savannas, according to a Rutgers-led study.
A study published in Nature found that, while protected areas in Southeast Asia were shown to be good for animals inside their borders, as expected, that protection also extended to nearby unprotected areas, which was a surprise.
A new study, which combines satellite thermal and in situ warming experiment data from across the world’s tropical forests, looks at the variation of leaf temperatures within forest canopies. The data collected revealed that a small percentage of tropical leaves are already reaching, and occasionally exceeding, the temperatures at which they can no longer function—suggesting that as climate change continues, entire canopies could die, eliminating a key regulator of Earth’s climate and putting the world’s biodiversity at risk.
The discovery that birds evolved from small carnivorous dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic was made possible by recently discovered fossils of theropods such as Tyrannosaurus rex and the smaller velociraptors. In a way, you could say that dinosaurs are still with us and seen tweeting from your own backyard! Below are the latest research headlines in the Birds channel on Newswise.
Humans have a positive view of nature. But is this due to an approach we have learned while growing up, or is it something we are born with?
Though cars are the biggest threat to coyotes taking up residence in U.S. cities, a new study suggests urban living poses a different kind of hazard to coyote health – in the form of chronic stress.
Corals and anemones engage in symbiotic relationships with algae and swap nutrients with them. A new study shows how this partnership is regulated at cell level.
Bats gather to feast as nocturnal insects fly through mountain passes in the Pyrenees each autumn, new research shows.
In the waters off the Hawaiian Islands, rates of calcification were measured in the deepest coral colonies and reported recently in a study led by a University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa oceanographer.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a way to use electricity to recycle polyoxymethylene (POM), a form of plastic that’s growing in use but more challenging to recycle.
The latest headlines from the Food and Water Safety channel on Newswise.
When we think of soil, most of us think of dirt on the ground. But a surprising amount of the planet’s soil thrives in the treetops of old-growth forests, high above terra firma.
Tropical forests often harbor hundreds of species of trees in a square mile, but scientists often struggle to understand how such a diversity of species can coexist.
The Department of Didactics of Mathematics, Experimental and Social Sciences has analysed the knowledge of birds of secondary school students, and their attitude towards conservation. Students have shown that they have scant knowledge about bird migration and species identification, and despite their good environmental attitudes, many consider that conservation efforts are excessive and hamper economic development.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) can help grand challenges, such as climate change and food security, but, as things stand, communities outside of Europe do not stand to benefit from these innovations.
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.
Photonic crystal structures have excellent light control properties and are hot topics in the field of photonics. For the preparation of photonic crystal structures with nanoscale three-dimensional spatial resolution inside the crystal, new femtosecond laser processing technologies are urgently needed. Scientists in China proposed a photonic crystal structure fabrication method based on nanoscale femtosecond laser multi-beam lithography. The technique will open possible ways to fabricate nanostructures for applications in optical communication and light manipulation.
Summertime is synonymous with fresh berries, and there may be no better place to be on a sunny day – besides the beach – than a berry-picking patch. Berry production is a $6 billion industry in the United States, and Virginia has been become a key contributor with a suitable climate and soil types for growing blueberries and blackberries, in particular.
While the smell of fresh pine or the softness of fir branches can ease holiday woes, West Virginia University researchers have discovered that even the act of shopping for real Christmas trees offers consumers mental health benefits they don’t get on a hunt for artificial ones.
Researchers led by a team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool, which was part of a study recently published in Nature, could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem biodiversity.
CABI joined an international team of researchers from 57 institutions around the world to share its expertise in a ground-breaking study which highlights the urgent need to protect the world’s forests from non-native pests amid climate change.
The fight against dengue fever has a new weapon: a mosquito infected with the bacteria Wolbachia, which prevents the spread of the virus. These mosquitoes have now been deployed in several trials demonstrating their potential in preventing disease transmission.
Many landscapes in the tropics consist of a mosaic of different types of land use. How people make use of these different ecosystems, with their particular plant communities, was unclear until now. Researchers, many of them from Madagascar, have now investigated this in an interdisciplinary Malagasy research project at the University of Göttingen.
Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are studying how pollen diversity affects the nutritional quality of honeybee diets, including asking foundational questions about how nutrition can sustain healthier colonies.
Financial payments made by land developers to offset their impacts on threatened species may fall short, according to University of Queensland-led research.
A new study highlights potential causes for changing foraging habits of bumblebees. Using advanced molecular techniques called pollen metabarcoding, researchers investigated interactions between bumblebees and plants in Cuxhaven, Germany, and how they changed over 60 years.
Science does not take a deep enough look at chemicals in the environment as one of the causes of the decline in biodiversity.
Oxidized organic molecules originating from the Amazon rainforest are crucial components contributing to the formation of aerosol particles in the tropical free troposphere, according to a new study led by the University of Helsinki.
By 2030, if the 30 by 30 initiative supported by more than 100 countries is successful, 30% of our land and ocean ecosystems will be designated protected areas meant to safeguard biodiversity and help limit the impacts of climate change.
The recent tragic loss of the Titan submersible in the depths of the North Atlantic has brought the fascinating (and very dangerous) world of Oceanography and Marine Science to the forefront. Below are some recent stories that have been added to the Marine Science channel on Newswise, including expert commentary on the Titan submersible.
Coastal sand dunes provide the first line of defense from storms for some of the most economically valuable and ecologically important landscapes in the world .
Current farming practices disrupt soil, release carbon into atmosphere
Leaf arrangements in the earliest plants differ from most modern plants, overturning a long-held theory regarding the origins of a famous mathematical pattern found in nature, research shows.
An innovative, decade-long experiment in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains shows carbon stocks buried deep underground are vulnerable to climate change. The findings have implications for mitigating global warming through the natural carbon sinks provided by soil and forests which capture 25% of all carbon emissions.
As we enter the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of extreme heat becomes more common, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the science of heat waves and take measures to protect ourselves from this growing public health threat.
With a group of core partners, Arizona State University is creating a new $25 million collaboration to preserve and restore vitality to Hawaiʻi’s coral reefs and the health of its coastlines.
A new study led by CABI has confirmed that the Samurai wasp (Trissolcus japonicus) – a natural enemy of the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) pest – has minimal impact on native stink bugs.
Seaside residents and holidaymakers have felt it for centuries, but scientists have only recently started to investigate possible health benefits of the coast. Using data from 15 countries, new research led by Sandra Geiger from the Environmental Psychology Group at the University of Vienna confirms public intuition: Living near, but especially visiting, the seaside is associated with better health regardless of country or personal income.
A new greenhouse gas budget shows coastal ecosystems globally are a net greenhouse gas sink for carbon dioxide (CO2) but emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) counteract some of the CO2 uptake, according to international researchers led by Australia’s Southern Cross University.
Every second, the planet loses a stretch of forest equivalent to a football field due to logging, fires, insect infestation, disease, wind, drought, and other factors.
Biologists from Washington University in St. Louis collaborated with a large number of butterfly and plant specialists to reconstruct the origin and global spread of butterflies. Working with researchers from dozens of countries, Michael Landis and Mariana P. Braga in Arts & Sciences helped create the world’s largest butterfly tree of life, assembled with DNA from more than 2,000 species representing all butterfly families.
Walking along a steep ridge, under large hemlock trees, ten miles outside of Burlington, Vermont—Bill Keeton is worrying about Europe’s remaining old forests. He’s so concerned, in fact, that he and some colleagues wrote a letter to the journal Science—published on May 5, 2023—calling for rapid action to protect them.
New research shows that smartphone activity actually increases during visits outdoors to city parks—a finding that contradicts popular notions. Thanks to two years of unparalleled access to 700 study participants' smartphone data, the study is the first to show that young adults now spend far more time on their smartphone screens than in nature. The study finds that people who visit forests or nature preserves experience significant declines in screen time, compared to visits to urban locations for the same duration.
Eric Bredahl, PhD, and his team of undergraduate research assistants are trusting that Nature, if asked nicely, or at least insistently, will yield another of her secrets.
Spread across 106 acres in southcentral Utah, the Pando aspen grove resembles a forest but is actually a single organism with more than 47,000 genetically identical aspen stems connected at the root. As an artist-in-residence for the nonprofit group Friends of Pando, Jeff Rice used a variety of microphones to record Pando’s leaves, birds, and weather. As part of the 184th ASA Meeting, Rice and Lance Oditt will describe their work to reveal a unique acoustic portrait of this botanical wonder.
Birds across the Americas are getting smaller and longer-winged as the world warms, and the smallest-bodied species are changing the fastest.
An international group of researchers re-examined the evidence for and against the so-called mother-tree hypothesis in a new study.
Researchers from Brazil showed that Amazonian dark earth (ADE), soils enriched by Amerindian people thousands of years ago, increases the establishment and growth of seedlings of tree species important for reforestation. By copying the composition of ADE, especially its microbes, reforestation in Brazil and elsewhere could be sped up