Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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— Sea turtles—a group of seven species thought to have evolved more than 200 million years ago—are currently under significant stress, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, primarily as a result of human negligence and industrialization. A group of more than 600 scientists, conservationists, students and others will meet in New Orleans April 10-17 to discuss this and a wide range of other topics at the 34th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, the main meeting of the International Sea Turtle Society

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The Vietnam CITES Management Authority of the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development today hosted a meeting marking the nation’s first step toward minimizing transnational wildlife crime affecting this nation.

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Wellesley scientists find that the teeth of the nerpa seal may hold the strongest evidence of the effects of decades of environmental pollution, nuclear testing, and climate change on Russia's Lake Baikal.

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During Pleistocene era climate changes, neotropical orchid bees that relied on year-round warmth and wet weather found their habitats reduced by 30 to 50 percent, according to a Cornell University study that used computer models and genetic data to understand bee distributions during past climate changes.

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Results from a new study co-authored by Netra Chhetri, a faculty member at the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes at Arizona State University, show global warming of only two degrees Celsius will be detrimental to three essential food crops in temperate and tropical regions. And beginning in the 2030s, yields from those crops will start to decline significantly.

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Climatologist predicts that climate change may increase the severity of storms this spring.

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A new study in Nature Geoscience shows that dust in the air in North Africa and West Asia absorbs sunlight west of India, warming the air and strengthening the winds carrying moisture eastward, raining down in India about a week later. The results explain one way that dust can affect the climate, filling in previously unknown details about the Earth system.

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An international team of scientists has discovered that the last remaining stable portion of the Greenland ice sheet is stable no more. The finding will likely boost estimates of expected global sea level rise in the future.

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Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) nearly doubled in 2013, but most won’t take you farther than 100 miles on one charge. To boost their range toward a tantalizing 300 miles or more, researchers are reporting progress on a “breathing” battery that has the potential to one day replace the lithium-ion technology of today’s EVs. They presented their work at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Imagine powering your cell phone by simply walking around your office or rubbing it with the palm of your hand. Rather than plugging it into the wall, you become the power source. Researchers at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, presented these commercial possibilities and a unique vision for green energy. To see a video of the team’s work, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVhJ4G-7na4.

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By the end of the 21st century, some parts of the world can expect as many as 30 more days a year without precipitation, according to a new study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego researchers.

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Social species, such as the African wild dog, require strict participation from group members to be successful. This strategy can enhance fitness benefits for the group, but also a higher critical threshold for extinction. Awareness of life history needs to guide management strategy.

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The spiny water flea, aka Bythotrephes, is devouring its way through the Great Lakes and into the surrounding inland waters, including Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park, disrupting an entire ecosystem from the bottom up.

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As the climate changes in the 21st century, more hurricanes may stray farther north along the eastern seaboard, like Superstorm Sandy did. During Sandy, researchers used crowdsourcing to collect the largest ever dataset of hurricane rain waters and analyze the storm's isotopic fingerprint.

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Aerosols in the atmosphere produced from human activities do indeed directly affect a hurricane or tropical cyclone, but not in a way many scientists had previously believed – in fact, they tend to weaken such storms, according to a new study that includes a team of Texas A&M University researchers.

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– By literally looking below the surface and digging up the dirt, Cornell researchers have discovered that a burgeoning deer population forever alters the progression of a forest’s natural future by creating environmental havoc in the soil and disrupting the soil’s natural seed banks.

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Scientists are aiming for a simple, practical way to remediate mine waste laced with copper and other toxic elements. And, they are shedding light on the inner workings of the plants and bacteria that do the cleanup.

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Researchers have debated for more than two decades the likely impacts, if any, of global warming on the worldwide incidence of malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that infects more than 300 million people each year.

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The zone of overlap between two popular, closely related backyard birds is moving northward at a rate that matches warming winter temperatures, according to a study by researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Villanova University, and Cornell University. The research was published online in Current Biology on Thursday, March 6, 2014.

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Global Temperature Report: February 2014.

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A life-cycle analysis led by Joshua Pearce of Michigan Technological University shows that making your own plastic 3D printer filament from milk jugs uses less energy—often a lot less—than recycling milk jugs conventionally.

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Several recent studies have generated a great deal of publicity for their claims that the warming climate is slowing the pace of the Gulf Stream. But 20 years of measurements find no evidence that the Gulf Stream is decreasing in strength.

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Shale, the source of the United States’ current natural gas boom, could help solve another energy problem: what to do with radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. The unique properties of the sedimentary rock and related clay-rich rocks make it ideal for storing the potentially dangerous spent fuel for millennia, according to a geologist studying possible storage sites. He presented his research today at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Scientists reported today on at least five new experimental substances — based on a tiny protein found in cone snail venom — that could someday lead to the development of safe and effective oral medications for the treatment of chronic nerve pain. They say the substances could potentially be stronger than morphine, with fewer side effects and lower risk of abuse. They presented the research at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Animal fat from chicken, pork, beef and even alligators could give an economical, ecofriendly boost to the biofuel industry, according to researchers who reported a new method for biofuel production here today. The report, following up on their earlier study on the potential use of gator fat as a source of biodiesel fuel, was part of the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Sunlight plus a common titanium pigment might be the secret recipe for ridding pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful pollutants from drinking water. Scientists reported today at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society that they have combined several high-tech components to make an easy-to-use water purifier that could work with the world’s most basic form of energy, sunlight, in a boon for water purification in rural areas or developing countries.

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Study shows the 1970s polynya within the Antarctic sea ice pack of the Weddell Sea may have been the last gasp of what was previously a more common feature of the Southern Ocean, and which is now suppressed due to the effects of climate change on ocean salinity.

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Advances in renewable and sustainable energy, including mimicking photosynthesis and optimizing lithium-ion batteries, are the topics of three plenary talks at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, taking place here through Thursday. The presentations will be held on Sunday, March 16, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Ballroom A of the Dallas Convention Center.

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If significant climate change occurs in the United States it may be necessary to change where certain foods are produced in order to meet consumer demand. In a paper published online this week in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University provide an overview of current farmland use and food production in the Northeastern U.S., identifying potential vulnerabilities of the 12-state region.

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A new Boston University study shows that the consequences of milder winters – a smaller snowpack leaving the ground to freeze harder and longer – can have a negative impact on trees and water quality of nearby aquatic ecosystems far into the warmer growing season.

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A new study from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures. These bison can then be used to seed conservation herds in other landscapes without the threat of spreading the disease.

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More than eight tons a month. That’s how much organic material in the form of spent coffee grounds the Austin-based Ground to Ground program diverts from area landfills and makes available to people in the community as compost.

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By analyzing four years of continuous measurements of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current at Drake Passage, the narrowest point in the Southern Ocean, three University of Rhode Island oceanographers have concluded that the current carries 20 percent more water than previous estimates. They also found that the current remains strong all the way to the seafloor.

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Reducing the size of the Lake Erie "dead zone" to acceptable levels will require cutting nutrient pollution nearly in half in coming decades, at a time when climate change is expected to make such reductions more difficult.

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A team of Florida State University scientists and a Panhandle high school are teaming to scour beaches for remnants of the 2010 BP oil spill.

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An aquaponics project studying the interdependence of fish and plants winds up rolled in tortillas and served with organic coleslaw.

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Judging the effects of climate change on extinction may be easier than previously thought, according to a paper published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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A group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is examining alternative materials that can be modified to absorb oil and chemicals without absorbing water. If further developed, the technology may offer a cheaper and “greener” method to absorb oil and heavy metals from water and other surfaces.

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Aerial images captured by a drone aircraft provide a new look at the extent of contaminants leaked into a North Carolina river from a Duke Energy coal ash dump as concerns about water pollution grow and a federal criminal investigation continues.

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By adjusting water discharges in ways designed to boost salmon productivity, officials at a dam in central Washington were able to more than triple the numbers of juvenile salmon downstream of the dam over a 30-year period.

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New research from the University of Toronto Scarborough shows that animal dispersal is influenced by a gene associated with feeding and food search behaviours. The study, which was carried out by UTSC Professor Mark Fitzpatrick and PhD student Allan Edelsparre, provides one of the first aimed at gaining a functional understanding of how genes can influence dispersal tendencies in nature.

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Field ecologists go to great lengths to get data: radio collars and automatic video cameras are only two of their creative techniques for documenting the natural world. So when a group of ecologists set out to see how wind moves seeds through isolated patches of habitat carved into a longleaf pine plantation in South Carolina, they twisted colored yarn to create mock seeds that would drift with the wind much like native seeds.

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New research by a large team of scientists suggests that as the climate warms, the productivity of Alaska fisheries will be increasingly dependent on the survival rate of plankton through the winter months. And warming temperatures may make it difficult for them to survive the season.

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Coastal managers can make better decisions and possibly save millions of dollars through a computer model developed partly by UF/IFAS scientists. The model uses 154 years of storm data.

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New research indicates that collecting and bleeding horseshoe crabs for biomedical purposes causes short-term changes in their behavior and physiology that could exacerbate the crabs’ population decline in parts of the east coast.

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