Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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A movement is raising awareness of native gromwell plant's importance in preserving Japanese culture. For example, revival projects currently underway throughout Japan are investigating the seed's origins and educating the public on the importance of protecting the plant's homogeneity. Purple gromwell contains shikonin derivatives in the plant's root surfaces, which are red naphthoquinones. This natural pigment and medicinal properties are linked to ancient East Asian traditions.

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Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) during the Academy’s annual meeting May 2.

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New study analysed data on near-surface air temperatures recorded for North-West Europe over the past 60 years.

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The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) is pleased to announce Upstate 2.0, a partnership between ESF and Cornell University that aims to bolster economic development in upstate New York, has received a $1 million development award from the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines.

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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Sea Grant has been recommended for rapid response funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea Grant Program to study the pathways of circulation in Cape Cod Bay. This study is designed to shed light on the possible fate of 1.1 million gallons of radioactive wastewater from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, which the plant’s owner, Holtec, has proposed to release into Cape Cod Bay.

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Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) drive larger emissions reductions over time, due to increased operating efficiency and a greener electricity mix, according to a study.

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The National Virtual Climate Laboratory is a new web portal for those who have a stake in the climate crisis. Portal users will be able to find a wide range of national laboratory experts, programs, projects, activities and user facilities.

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About 13,000 years ago, a climate crisis caused a global drop in temperatures in the northern hemisphere. This episode of intense cold, known as the Younger Dryas, also caused severe aridity across the Mediterranean basin, which had a major impact on terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

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Approximately 700,000 years ago, a “warm ice age” permanently changed the climate cycles on Earth. Contemporaneous with this exceptionally warm and moist period, the polar glaciers greatly expanded.

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The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is assuming management of the Oleander Project, a 30-year effort to monitor circulation in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean using data gathered from sensors mounted on or launched from a cargo ship that makes regular crossings of the Gulf Stream. Magdalena Andres, an associate scientist in WHOI’s Department of Physical Oceanography will head the effort, which began in 1992 under the leadership of H. Thomas Rossby at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (URI GSO) and Charles Flagg at Stony Brook University, New York.

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Eight years ago, University of Illinois and USDA-ARS scientists turned weed control on its head. More and more herbicide resistant weeds were popping up, and the pest plants were getting harder to kill. It was clear farmers could no longer rely on the same chemicals year after year. Industry campaigns and herbicide applicators began touting the benefits of rotating herbicides annually to avoid developing resistance, and rotation quickly became common practice.

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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.

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The light pollution caused by coastal cities can trick coral reefs into spawning outside of the optimum times when they would normally reproduce, a new study has found.

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Tropical oceans are typically nutrient-poor, yet they host vast biologically diverse reef ecosystems built by symbiotic cnidarians (including corals and anemones).

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Wild bees living in cities like Toronto are facing increased environmental stressors compared to those in rural and even suburban areas, such as more pathogens and parasites, found researchers at York University.

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Researchers from Kyushu University and Asahi Kasei Corporation have developed a new way to estimate the age of microplastics found in the upper oceans.

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas emitted through various types of human activities. In an effort to decrease humanity’s carbon footprint, scientists and policymakers across the globe are continuously trying to explore new methods for reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions and converting them into useful forms.

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Inspired by clam fishermen reports, researchers used passive acoustic telemetry to gauge the interactions between two highly mobile rays. They monitored the tagged rays in the wild over two years to see how often and when they visited clam leases. Results provide both good news and bad news for clammers. Rays spent even more time in these clam lease sites than clammers reported or suspected, but it’s not necessarily where they prefer hanging out.

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Current conservation practices likely won’t do enough to save the black tern, a migratory bird species that nests in the northern U.S. and southern Canada, from disappearing. That’s according to new research from Michigan State University and the National Audubon Society published in the journal Biological Conservation. But the team’s report also reveals new opportunities to enhance the outlook for these birds by strategically expanding conservation and land management practices. Furthermore, the team’s approach can help inform conservation practices for other species.

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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.

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Scalloped hammerhead sharks hold their breath to keep their bodies warm during deep dives into cold water where they hunt prey such as deep sea squids. This discovery, published today in Science by University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa researchers, provides important new insights into the physiology and ecology of a species that serves as an important link between the deep and shallow water habitats.

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The University of Kentucky, as lead organization, together with partners across Kentucky and Tennessee, has been awarded $1 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, program. This team’s proposal, “Advancing carbon centric circular economy technologies for advanced manufacturing solutions (KY, TN),” is led by a coalition named Generate Advanced Manufacturing Excellence for Change (GAME Change).

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A new perspective piece in Science shows that abandoned lands could be both an opportunity and a threat for biodiversity, and highlights why abandoned lands are critical in the assessment of global restoration and conservation targets.

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A regional collaboration led by Case Western Reserve University has won a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) --the only award in Ohio--to plan economic, environmental and manufacturing growth across the 18-county Northeast Ohio region.

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The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal received a 2023 Climate Leadership Award recognizing Argonne National Laboratory’s collaboration with AT&T and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The portal provides projections and maps to enhance U.S. preparedness for climate risks.

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There are more than 80,000 sheep and lambs living on over 2,000 farms in New York State. Their wool has many uses including clothing, carpets, furniture, bedding, insulators, fertilizers, and more. However, about 10-15% of wool is wasted during the sorting and cleaning processes. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are aiming to turn that waste into a new profit source for farmers, and produce an eco-conscious, high-performance yarn in the process.

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At the 184th ASA Meeting, Colin Malloy of Ocean Network Canada will present his method to transform ocean data into captivating, solo percussion songs. He employs sound from hydrophones and introduces elements inspired by ocean-related data such as temperature, acidity, and oxygenation. For example, in his piece, Oil & Water, Malloy represents the impact of oil production on the oceans. He plays an eerily catchy melody on steel drums and inserts noise to represent oil production over the past 120 years.

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Salt marshes provide multiple ecosystem services, one of those is protection of the coast against flooding. This is especially important in low-lying countries like the Netherlands.

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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.

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Birds across the Americas are getting smaller and longer-winged as the world warms, and the smallest-bodied species are changing the fastest.

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Even without body parts that allowed for movement, new research shows — for the first time — that some of Earth’s earliest animals managed to be picky about where they lived.

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Fibre-optic cables line the coasts of the continents and criss-cross the oceans, carrying signals that are the backbone of communication in the modern world.

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Small-scale wildlife surveys can reveal the health of entire ecosystems, new research shows.

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More than three years ago, the Sandia National Laboratories-operated atmospheric measurement facility in Alaska switched from launching helium-filled weather balloons to launching weather balloons filled with hydrogen produced on-site. By switching the gas used in their weather balloons, it has reduced its metaphorical footprint on the fragile Arctic ecosystem. Since then, the site has launched nearly 5,000 hydrogen balloons with minimal issues.

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A new book by Christopher Reddy, marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), identifies the principal challenges that scientists face during an environmental disaster when communicating with different stakeholder groups, and offers advice on how to navigate the maze of competing interests and deliver actionable science when the clock is ticking. Science Communications in a Crisis: An Insider's Guide (Routledge; May 10, 2023), draws on Reddy’s decades of experience and offers his hard-won advice from the front lines of environmental disasters.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers from the University of Alberta study the flight performance of the mountain pine beetle from a fluid mechanics and an entomological perspective. Understanding these aspects of the insect’s flight could improve estimates of its spread through the environment and preserve pine forests. To examine insect flight, the team employed a type of model previously used for idealized airfoils. They showed that it can be successfully applied to multiple individual animals across biological sex, insect age, and body size. In doing so, the model can predict how these factors impact flight characteristics.

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An international group of researchers re-examined the evidence for and against the so-called mother-tree hypothesis in a new study.

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A new tool helps show how growing cities can remain carbon neutral.

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While conducting a study of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory uncovered a previously unseen way in which the ice and ocean interact. The glaciologists said their findings could mean that the climate community has been vastly underestimating the magnitude of future sea level rise caused by polar ice deterioration.

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New research provides clear evidence of a human “fingerprint” on climate change and shows that specific signals from human activities have altered the temperature structure of Earth’s atmosphere.