Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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The Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST) announced that a collaborative research team led by Dr. Minah Lee of the Energy Storage Research Center, Professor Dong-Hwa Seo of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST), and Drs. Yong-Jin Kim and Jayeon Baek of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology(KITECH) has developed a nonflammable electrolyte that does not catch fire at room temperature by tailoring the molecular structure of linear organic carbonate to prevent fire and thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Bees and wasps have converged on the same architectural solutions to nest-building problems, according to a study.

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A soil nematode reanimated from Siberian permafrost had laid dormant for approximately 46,000 years, according to a study.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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In a new study published, authors invert a classical approach to modeling food webs.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Just in time for Shark Week, researchers are trawling deep underwater to learn more about the ghostlike fish that lurks on the ocean floor

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An international team of researchers has uncovered “unprecedented” snake venom resistance in an unexpected species – the legless amphibian known as caecilians.