Baylor University environmental researchers have proposed in a new study a different approach to predict the environmental safety of chemicals by using data from other similar chemicals.
In rural areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America, poor farmers supplement their livelihoods by hunting and cutting wood, but such practices can seriously threaten biodiversity in the developing world. Now, two Cornell University researchers are leading the way to explore solutions that not only protect biodiversity but also improve the livelihoods of the poor.
If so many poor people live around national parks in developing countries, does that mean that these parks are contributing to their poverty? Yes, according to the conventional wisdom, but no, according to a 10-year study of people living around Kibale National Park in Uganda that was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) documents the success of a Wildlife Conservation Society program that uses an innovative business model to improve rural livelihoods while restoring local wildlife populations.
David Flaspohler, a conservation biologist at Michigan Technological University, and colleagues are studying the effects of forests fragmented by lava flows, called kipukas in Hawaii, on the creatures that live there.
University of Iowa assistant professor Scott Spak and students participating in a six-week NASA summer program have found that taking into account local atmospheric conditions can improve the accuracy of satellite surface imagery.
Hamilton College Professor of Biology Ernest H. Williams co-authored an article presenting the results of a study showing that the number of monarchs overwintering on the mountains in Mexico has declined significantly over the past 17 years. He and his co-authors feel that this decline calls into question the long-term survival of the monarchs’ migratory phenomenon.
Geologists recently descended into caves on a small island in the middle of the South Pacific to try and gain a better understanding of weather patterns occurring as far back as 10,000 years ago.
Yafang Cheng, a University of Iowa post-doctoral researcher, and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, have found that soil nitrite can be released into the air in the form of nitrous acid (HONO) and indirectly enhance the self-cleansing capacity of the atmosphere.
New University of Washington research indicates that even if Earth warmed enough to melt all polar sea ice, the ice could recover if the planet cooled again.
The cisco, a key forage fish found in Wisconsin’s deepest and coldest bodies of water, could become a climate change casualty and disappear from most of the Wisconsin lakes it now inhabits by the year 2100, according to a new study.
Tennessee Tech University civil engineering professor Faisal Hossain recently went to Washington, D.C. to present his research about dams' effects on local climate. He went at the invitation of policymakers who were looking to learn about the need for more flexibility when building large dams.
A global study by an international team including professor John Graves of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science quantifies the threat to tuna and billfish populations around the world.
A new educational website, “American Indian Responses to Environmental Challenges,” targets middle and high school teachers, students and the general public.
Marine researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups have created a map of the world’s corals and their exposure to stress factors, including high temperatures, ultra-violet radiation, weather systems, sedimentation, as well as stress-reducing factors such as temperature variability and tidal dynamics.
A type of fungus that's been lurking underground for millions of years, previously known to science only through its DNA, has been cultured, photographed, named and assigned a place on the tree of life.
Although Arctic sea ice appears fated to melt as the climate continues to warm, the ice may temporarily stabilize or somewhat expand at times over the next few decades, new research indicates.
Algae-based fuel is one of many options among the array of possible future energy sources. New University of Virginia research shows that while algae-based transportation fuels produce high energy output with minimal land use, their production could come with significant environmental burdens.
Rocks from the fossil Permian Reef in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas reveal secrets about changes in sea level and marine life 265 million years ago, according to two Texas A&M University researchers.
According to a new analysis of plants in grasslands around the world, 84 percent of plant species are important to their ecosystem. Brian Wilsey and Stanley Harpole, both in Iowa State University's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, are authors of a study on plant diversity published in today's issue of the journal Nature. The study's lead author, Forest Isbell, is a former graduate student of Wilsey who now works at McGill University, Canada.
Several crops produced in the U.S. could play a significant role in biobased resins and coatings recently developed by researchers at North Dakota State University, Fargo. The NDSU researchers have developed a family of resins from renewable raw materials, creating resins that eliminate hazardous components such as formaldehyde and bisphenol-A. The resins are based on sucrose and vegetable oils, and can be varied to perform in many applications and industries.
For many students, going to college or university also means moving away from home and starting a new life in a new city. Take the opportunity to also start a new eco-friendly chapter and go back green with these tips.
Washington and Lee University has signed an agreement with Secure Futures L.L.C., a solar-energy developer based in Staunton, Va., to install two solar photovoltaic arrays, totaling approximately 450 kilowatts, at two separate locations on the W&L campus.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers Adrian Treves and Kerry Martin surveyed 2,320 residents of Wisconsin, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming – including both hunters and non-hunters – between 2001 and 2007. Their findings, appearing in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal Society and Natural Resources, reveal hunter attitudes toward wolves that are largely inconsistent with stewardship.
New computer modeling work shows that by 2100, if society wants to limit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to less than 40 percent higher than it is today, the lowest cost option is to use every available means of reducing emissions.
University of Denver's Sturm College of Law Environmental Law Clinic filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 4 to protect the porbeagle shark because it cannot protect itself from overfishing that has pushed it to the brink of extinction.
Umami Sustainable Seafood, a holding company of fish farming operations supplying sashimi-grade Northern Bluefin Tuna to the global market, has obtained DNA evidence confirming natural spawning of Bluefin Tuna at its Kali Tuna facility in Croatia.
New PNNL research explains how the carbon involved in crop production is unevenly distributed. More populated regions that depend on others to grow their food end up releasing the carbon that comes with those crops, leading those areas to become carbon sources.
Aerosol particles, including soot and sulfur dioxide from burning fossil fuels, essentially mask the effects of greenhouse gases and are at the heart of the biggest uncertainty in climate change prediction. New research from the University of Michigan shows that satellite-based projections of aerosols' effect on Earth's climate significantly underestimate their impacts.
Researchers in the Pacific Northwest have developed a new catalyst material that could replace chemicals currently derived from petroleum and be the basis for more environmentally friendly products including octane-boosting gas and fuel additives, bio-based rubber for tires and a safer solvent for the chemicals industry.
Ozone and particles in the air mean the EPA has declared an air pollution alert for Chicago and many with sensitive systems and chronic conditions are at risk, says Dr Joseph Leija, allergist who performs the official allergy count for the Midwest on behalf of the National Allergy Bureau.
Scientists are descending into caves on a small island in the middle of the South Pacific to try and gain a better understanding of weather patterns occurring as far back as 10,000 years ago.
The poet William Blake once wrote that we could “see a world in a grain of sand.” Today, environmental engineers are seeing the world beneath the surface through a greener part of nature: the trunks and branches of trees.
Data from NASA's Terra satellite shows that when the climate warms, Earth's atmosphere is apparently more efficient at releasing energy to space than models used to forecast climate change have been programmed to "believe."
University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscience assistant professor Anders Carlson’s new results, published July 29 in Science, reveal surprising patterns of melting during the last interglacial period that suggest that Greenland’s ice may be more stable – and Antarctica’s less stable – than many thought.
In the last 30 years, more than 90 percent of the reef-building coral responsible for maintaining major marine habitats and providing a natural barrier against hurricanes in the Caribbean has disappeared because of a disease of unknown origin.
Excessive heat, flooding in Midwest have culminated in dangerous air quality alert for a mold count high of more than 50,000, says Loyola University Health System allergist, Dr. Joseph Leija.
Two Vermont geologists have created the first-ever standardized view of pre-human erosion rates for the whole planet. Their study is part of an effort to create a model that can predict global patterns of erosion—and how these patterns will respond to climate change.
A new study sheds light on why the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, is more than 20 times hotter than its surface. The research, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), may bring scientists a step closer to understanding the solar cycle and the Sun’s impacts on Earth.
After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a University of Florida study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames.
A paper by noted WCS conservationist Elizabeth Bennett says that an immense, increasingly sophisticated illegal trade in wildlife parts conducted by organized crime, coupled with antiquated enforcement methods, are decimating the world’s most beloved species including rhinos, tigers, and elephants on a scale never before seen.
Can satellites attuned to curbing human rights violations become an instrument for stopping genocide here on Earth? This issue and others are considered in the Summer 2011 issue of Imaging Notes - a distinctive publication that is partnered with Secure World Foundation and focuses on Earth remote sensing for security, energy and the environment.
Research by UC Merced Professor Anthony Westerling shows large fires could become annual events by 2050, transforming the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in fundamental ways
A mathematical formula that describes predator-prey population dynamics has been used by the Weizmann Institute and NOAA to model the relationship between cloud systems, rain, and aerosols. This model may help climate scientists understand, among other things, how human-produced aerosols affect rainfall patterns.