“Ugly” reef fishes are most in need of conservation support
PLOSMachine learning enables largest study to date on aesthetic preferences and fish ecology.
Machine learning enables largest study to date on aesthetic preferences and fish ecology.
Zhiyang Zhai, an associate biologist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, is one of 83 scientists from across the nation selected to receive funding for research as part of the DOE Office of Science's Early Career Research Program. Zhai will use the funding to explore the role of a key enzyme in regulating plants’ metabolic processes, including the synthesis and accumulation of oil, with the ultimate aim of getting plants to produce net-zero carbon fuels.
The composition of the atmosphere, especially the abundance of greenhouse gases, influences Earth’s climate.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have uncovered the molecular mechanism responsible for turning migratory actions on and off in nematode worms.
Irvine, Calif., June 6, 2022 – Human-caused wildfires in California are more ferocious than blazes sparked by lightning, a team led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine reported recently in the journal Nature Communications. The research could help scientists better understand fire severity and how likely a blaze is to kill trees and inflict long-term damage on an ecosystem in its path.
Shinnecock Bay on the south shore of Long Island, New York, is being named a new “Hope Spot” by Mission Blue, an international organization that supports the protection of oceans worldwide. This distinction is the result of a decade of restorative work led by Stony Brook University scientists.
By: Bill Wellock | Published: June 6, 2022 | 12:19 pm | SHARE: The United Nations marks June 8 as World Oceans Day, an opportunity to celebrate the ocean and how it supports life on Earth.As director of Florida State University’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), Eric Chassignet leads investigations into the physical processes that govern the ocean and its interactions with the atmosphere.
Instead of focusing on carbon dioxide's effect on future temperature, new research includes the related human-generated emissions of methane, nitrogen oxide and particle pollution. Expanding the scope increases the amount of future warming that is already guaranteed by past emissions, and shortens the timeline to reach the Paris Agreement temperature targets.
Marine species don’t recognize international borders or exclusive economic zones — and a new article says science focused on conserving oceanic species and habitats should also transcend these human boundaries.
Climate change has long since been happening in central Europe, and it is no secret that it affects the populations and distribution of animals and plants.
Could the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use’s ambitions be too ambiguous? An international team of researchers looked into this question.
Global warming has a particularly pronounced impact on the Alpine region. Like the Arctic, this European mountain range is becoming greener.
Nocturnal moths, such as tobacco hawkmoths (Manduca sexta), rely primarily on their sense of smell when foraging for flowers that contain nutrient-rich nectar or searching for a host plant on which they lay their eggs.
Wasps and hornets have a remarkable capacity of surviving transportation and establishing invasive populations in new areas. In some cases, this can generate massive environmental and socio-economic impacts.
New research published in the June 3, 2022 journal Science reveals that 44 percent of Earth’s land area – some 64 million square kilometers (24.7 million square miles) requires conservation to safeguard biodiversity.
As planning for carbon-free energy production gains momentum across the Intermountain West, water has come to the forefront as a key enabling resource. To give stakeholders and the public an opportunity to learn about the issues and weigh in with their concerns about water availability, use and conservation during this transition, the Intermountain West Energy Sustainability & Transitions initiative is holding a free virtual workshop June 14.
They click. They whistle. They love seafood. They are New York City’s nearshore bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that return to feed in local waters from spring to fall each year, and a team of scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is tracking them.
To prevent the worst outcomes from climate change, the U.S. will need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in the next eight years. Scientists from around the nation have developed a blueprint for success.
Not a fan of mowing the lawn? Good news, cutting the grass less may be better for the environment. Trimming the number of times you run the mower around the yard, known as “low mow”, can help reduce carbon emissions, build soil organic matter and even enhance pollinating habitats for bees.
The global scientific community has issued another warning that increasing climate change and biodiversity loss will together reinforce negative impacts on people around the world, including food insecurity, health risks and disrupted livelihoods, as well as involuntary displacements leading to social unrest.
Argonne is working with local jurisdictions to develop dam-related emergency action plans through FEMA’s Collaborative Technical Assistance (CTA) program.
An integrated approach to land management practices in the U.S. can reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere far more than earlier estimates based on separate approaches, Michigan State University researchers say. Their research was published in the journal Global Change Biology.
Speakers provided updates on the ocean-observing infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. during the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System’s (GCOOS) recent spring meeting. The plenary speaker was Dr. William Burnett, Director of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), which uses marine buoys to collect and disseminate ocean observations that support maritime navigation as well as predictions to changes in weather, climate, oceans and coasts.
Pine cones open when dry and close when wet. In this way, pine seeds are released only under advantageous conditions, namely when it is dry and the seeds can be carried far by wind.
A new study by City, University of London and others suggests that the European cuttlefish (sepia officinalis) may combine, as necessary, two distinct neural systems that process specific visual features from its local environment, and visual cues relating to its overall background environment to create the body patterns it uses to camouflage itself on the sea floor.
Tree beta diversity — a measure of site-to-site variation in the composition of species present within a given area — matters more for ecosystem functioning than other components of biodiversity at larger scales. The finding has implications for conservation planning.
In many streams and rivers, water moves between the open channel and the adjacent groundwater, enabling reactions that can remove or transform carbon, contaminants, and nutrients. Researchers developed a new modeling strategy to represent these effects in watershed-scale models. The new model addresses current models’ limited ability to simulate how carbon, nutrients, and contaminants move and transform in river corridors and allows for a new generation of research on river networks.
Animals possess circadian clocks, or 24 h oscillators, to regulate daily behavior. These typically take their cues from the periodic change of sunlight and darkness. However, many animals are also exposed to moonlight, which reoccurs with ~25h periodicity.
Strong precipitation or extreme drought – the frequency of extreme weather events is increasing worldwide. Existing climate models, however, do not adequately show their dynamics. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) assume that ultrafine particles in the atmosphere have a significant impact on cloud physics and, hence, on weather. Their aircraft measurements confirm an increase in particle number emissions in spite of a decreasing coarse fine dust concentration and blame it to the combustion of fossil fuels in exhaust gas cleaning systems. Their results can be found in Scientific Reports: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11500-5
An iconic coral species found in UK waters could expand its range due to climate change, new research shows.
For the first time, an entirely new class of super-reactive chemical compounds has been discovered under atmospheric conditions.
When an offshore wind farm pops up, there is a period of noisy but well-studied and in most cases regulated construction. Once the turbines are operational, they provide a valuable source of renewable energy while emitting a constant lower level of sound.
Exclusively subterranean bivalves - the group of molluscs comprising clams, oysters, mussels, scallops - are considered a rarity.
Machine learning tool estimates extinction risk for species previously unprioritized for conservation.
In advance of World Ocean Day on June 8, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is launching its Give Reefs a Chance campaign, aimed at raising awareness of what WHOI scientists and engineers are doing to tackle the corals crisis, the importance of coral reefs, and what we can all do to give reefs a chance to survive.
With the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season forecast to be above average activity with a higher probability of major hurricanes making landfall along the continental U.S. coastline, several FAU faculty experts are available to discuss various issues surrounding hurricane preparedness, evacuation and aftermath.
Tree hyraxes are medium-sized mammals living in the canopies of tropical forests. They are shy and only move at night, which is why next to nothing has been known about their living habits or behaviour so far.
Urban construction, especially the ongoing large-scale expansion and utilization of underground space, has resulted in massive excavated soil and rock (ESR) from buildings and subways.
A new study led by Christopher Gobler, PhD, and a team of scientists at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) shows that the presence of kelp significantly reduces ocean acidification, a result of climate change.
About 41 million people live in U.S. Atlantic coastline counties. There isn’t an effective way to identify the impact of urban growth on tidal flats – the guardians of beachfront communities. Researchers have developed a new way to quantify these impacts from a geographic lens focused on place and space using data over three decades.
Thermal desorption is a quick way to treat contaminated soils. But how does it affect the recovery of soil biology?
A new study has highlighted the potential threat of pet fish to biodiversity.
Climate change will make the U.S. Corn Belt unsuitable for cultivating corn by 2100 without major technological advances in agricultural practices, an Emory University study finds.
Brookhaven scientist Stephen Schwartz is one of six recipients selected for the 2020–2021 Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award. The award recognizes his groundbreaking work in atmospheric chemistry and climate science, which has laid down the foundation for successful environmental policy changes and current environmental and climate research.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Georgia found that when presented with a smorgasbord of options, vertebrate scavengers were selective about what or whom they ate—providing insight into how nutrients can cycle through food webs.
On cold, dark winter mornings, small black crows known as jackdaws can be heard calling loudly to one another from their winter roosting spots in the U.K. before taking off simultaneously right around sunrise.
The surface of a coral is rugged. Its hard skeleton is populated by polyps that stretch their tentacles into the surrounding water to filter out food.
Policies that focus solely on decarbonization will not be sufficient to keep the Earth’s temperature below the “tipping point” threshold scientists have long warned could result in a runaway greenhouse warming effect, according to research published May 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.