Feature Channels: Environmental Science

• share
• favorite_border

Writing this week (Dec. 17, 2012) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), a group led by researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports on an expansive and detailed effort to map and cross-compare environmental stresses and the ecological services provided by the five lakes, which together encompass more than 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

From extreme drought to super storms, many wonder what the future holds for the climate of the eastern United States. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, does away with the guessing

• share
• favorite_border

A study by University at Buffalo researchers finds that damaged coral colonies can take years to recover their reproductive prowess.

• share
• favorite_border

Arctic hurricanes, complete with a central “eye,” extreme low barometric pressure and towering waves, can sink small ships. Now climate scientists report the first conclusive evidence that these storms, known as polar lows, play a key role in driving ocean water circulation and climate.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Delaware research team, led by Chandra Kambhamettu, professor of computer and information sciences, has developed a novel camera system to map the surface topography of Arctic sea ice to assess walrus habitat. The National Science Foundation project involves scientists at UD, the University of Virginia and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

• share
• favorite_border

A new tool developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners is being used by scientists and land managers to model how noise travels through landscapes and affects species and ecosystems— a major factor in land and wildlife management decisions such as where to locate new roads or recreational trails.

• share
• favorite_border

A new genetic analysis has revealed that many Amazon tree species are likely to survive human-caused climate warming in the coming century, contrary to previous findings that temperature increases would cause them to die out.

• share
• favorite_border

Residents of Chicago's Hispanic neighborhoods live farther from nature and its benefits than do residents of the city's non-Hispanic neighborhoods, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers say.

• share
• favorite_border

Winter contracting, snow season expected to be shorter, experts say. A new high-resolution study, the first to apply regional climate models to near-term temperature and precipitation changes in the Northeast U.S., suggests temperatures may be much warmer in the next 30 years, especially in winter.

• share
• favorite_border

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) today announced its support for the goals of a lawsuit filed against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the agency’s authorization of a pollution trading scheme to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of Roger Williams University (RWU), Boston University (BU), Conservation International(CI), and the New England Aquarium (NEAq) researchers have published their findings about this unique trade and its long-term implications.

• share
• favorite_border

A progressive approach to resolve the complex issues surrounding mountaintop mining needs to incorporate good civic science and meaningful routes for public involvement, Virginia Tech researchers say.

• share
• favorite_border

Studies have shown decreasing levels of the isotope nitrogen-15 in core samples from Greenland ice starting around the time of the Industrial Revolution. New research suggests the decline corresponds to increased acidity in the atmosphere.

• share
• favorite_border

Even though Hurricane Sandy helped create wet start, November 2012 went into the record books as the second-driest November since 1895 in the Northeast. With an average of 1.04 inches or precipitation, the region received only 27 percent of its normal level. The record driest November was 1917 when the Northeast received only 0.88 inches of precipitation.

• share
• favorite_border

Satellite observations have revealed the first direct evidence of smoke from Arctic wildfires drifting over the Greenland ice sheet, tarnishing the ice with soot and making it more likely to melt under the sun.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher provides the first direct chronological test of sequence stratigraphy, a powerful tool for exploring Earth’s natural resources.

• share
• favorite_border

When severe droughts and overgrazing in the late 19th century brought livestock mortality, soil erosion, and loss of native forage plants to the western United States, the profession of rangeland science was born. While the original intention was to create sustainable rangelands for livestock production, today’s world has additional needs. Rangeland science must progress to accommodate increasing demand for ecosystem services in changing environments.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

University of Florida scientists have co-authored a study describing a new Lepidoptera species found in Jamaica’s last remaining wilderness.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have made a genetic analysis of the microbes living deep inside a deposit of Marcellus Shale at a hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” site, and uncovered some surprises.

• share
• favorite_border

Research shows that the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands, long shrouded in secrecy by the Soviet government, are a seismic and volcanic hotbed with a potential to trigger tsunamis that pose a risk to the rest of the Pacific Basin.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite an international consensus reached in 2009 to limit climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, scientists say the likelihood of meeting that goal is diminishing. The Global Carbon Project’s most recent analysis by scientists from the United States, Norway, Australia, France and the United Kingdom published in the current issue of the journal Nature Climate Change shows that a global economy fueled with coal, oil and natural gas is putting increasing pressure on the global climate system.

• share
• favorite_border

If the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deep Water Horizon spill was a ecological disaster, the two million gallons of dispersant used to clean it up apparently made it even worse – 52-times more toxic. That’s according to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes (UAA), Mexico.

• share
• favorite_border

A new book describes urban-rural interactions and the issues facing both people and ecosystems at those interfaces

• share
• favorite_border

University of Michigan researchers are conducting a detailed study of the potential environmental and societal effects of hydraulic fracturing, the controversial natural gas drilling process known as fracking.

• share
• favorite_border

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) congratulates the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on environmentally sensitive ways to manage trade-sensitive animal diseases such as foot and mouth.

• share
• favorite_border

The hydraulic system of trees is so finely-tuned that predicted increases in drought due to climate change may lead to catastrophic failure in many species. A recent paper co-authored by George Washington University Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Amy Zanne finds that those systems in plants around the globe are operating at the top of their safety threshold, making forest ecosystems vulnerable to increasing environmental stress.

• share
• favorite_border

Given recent extreme weather events – the summer’s brutal heat and subsequent drought, followed by Superstorm Sandy’s disastrous path – newly green-conscious consumers may be wondering how to lessen their carbon footprint this holiday season. Plant biologist Clint Springer, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, says that buying a real Christmas tree may not solve the world’s climate ills, but it is a step in the right direction.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have developed a new system that adapts techniques used in weather prediction to generate local forecasts of seasonal influenza outbreaks. By predicting the timing and severity of the outbreaks as far as seven weeks in advance, the system can eventually help society better prepare for them.

• share
• favorite_border

Western Illinois University Department of Biological Sciences Professor and Fulbright Scholar Eric Ribbens has created one of the largest collections of the Opuntia fragilis, or prickly pear cactus, on the planet for his research of this rare and, in some places, endangered plant. The collection is housed on a University-owned farm near the Macomb, IL, campus.

• share
• favorite_border

Biologists at UC San Diego have demonstrated for the first time that marine algae can be just as capable as fresh water algae in producing biofuels.

• share
• favorite_border

A new University at Buffalo study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters examines maar craters, which resemble the bowl-like cavities formed by meteorites but are in some ways more mysterious.

• share
• favorite_border

In the first-ever experiment of its kind, researchers have demonstrated that clean energy hydrogen can be produced from water splitting by using very small metal particles that are exposed to sunlight. In the article, “Outstanding activity of sub-nm Au clusters for photocatalytic hydrogen production,” published in the journal Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Alexander Orlov, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at Stony Brook University, and his colleagues from Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory, found that the use of gold particles smaller than one nanometer resulted in greater hydrogen production than other co-catalysts tested.

• share
• favorite_border

The City of Boston is riddled with more than 3,000 leaks from its aging natural-gas pipeline system, according to a new study by researchers at Boston (BU) and Duke Universities.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Johnny Waters is co-leader of a United Nations International Geoscience Programme project to study the geologic history of climate change. Waters is a professor of geology in Appalachian State University’s Department of Geology. He is the only person from the United States selected to co-lead the five-year project that will involve more than 60 scientists from 19 countries. Other research sites are in Siberia, the Gobi Desert Africa, Mongolia, Southeast Asia and the United States.

• share
• favorite_border

Ethanol, a component of biofuel made from plants such as corn, is blended with gas in many parts of the country, but has significantly different fluid properties than pure gasoline. A group of researchers from the University of Michigan wondered how ethanol-based fuels would spread in the event of a large aquatic spill. They found that ethanol-based liquids mix actively with water, very different from how pure gasoline interacts with water and potentially more dangerous to aquatic life.

• share
• favorite_border

The number of wolves at Isle Royale National Park has dropped to its lowest ever. Should the wolves be let go extinct? Reintroduced? Wildlife ecologists and environmental ethicists weigh in.

• share
• favorite_border

Two years ago, a 71-year-old Indiana man impaled his hand on a branch after cutting down a dead crab apple tree, causing an infection that led University of Utah scientists to discover a new bacterium and solve a mystery about how bacteria came to live inside insects.

• share
• favorite_border

Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.

• share
• favorite_border

Filtrona Porous Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of custom fluid-handling components found in everyday products around the world, will exhibit a range of novel technologies including bonded-fibers, polyurethane-based foams for Advanced Wound Care applications, sintered porous plastics, cleanroom wiping materials, and brand protection products at the MEDICA / COMPAMED trade fair in Dusseldorf, Germany from 14 to 16 November 2012.

• share
• favorite_border

The pause in the anticipated El Niño Pacific Ocean warming event — seen in the sea surface temperatures in the Pacific during the past two months — is now appearing in the tropical upper air.

• share
• favorite_border

Eight researchers in a new report say that climate change is causing additional stress to many western rangelands, and as a result land managers should consider a significant reduction, or in some places elimination of livestock and other large animals from public lands.

• share
• favorite_border

New research indicates that flash flooding that swept through the mountain town of Leh, India, in 2010 was set off by a string of unusual weather events similar to those that caused devastating flash floods in Colorado and South Dakota in the 1970s.

• share
• favorite_border

Erosion caused by flowing water does not only smooth out objects, but can also form distinct shapes with sharp points and edges, a team of New York University researchers has found. Their findings reveal the unexpected ways that erosion can affect landscapes and artificial materials.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A geophysics team from the University of Haifa has identified a series of active gas springs on the Haifa Bay sea floor. “Geophysical information enables us to map out the entire system,” says Dr. Uri Schattner, head of the Department of Marine Geosciences.

• share
• favorite_border

Climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise, according to a new analysis by NCAR. The findings could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of expected global warming.

• share
• favorite_border

Corals under attack by toxic seaweed do what anyone might do when threatened – they call for help. A study reported this week in the journal Science shows that threatened corals send signals to fish “bodyguards” that quickly respond to trim back the harmful seaweed.