Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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In the August 28 issue of the journal Nature a multi-institution research network called modENCODE (the Model Organism ENCylopedia Of DNA Elements) published three major papers that map and compare the genomes and epigenomes of humans and two model organisms, the fly, D. melanogaster, and the worm, C. elegans, in unprecedented detail. The fly and worm could serve as model organisms for screening drugs and micronutrients that might alter the epigenome, which is implicated in many diseases.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today the successful release of 17 juvenile critically endangered Siamese crocodiles into a protected wetland in Lao PDR.

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The UALR Professor and Chair of Chemistry examines the cycling of mercury through soil and water as it impacts atmospheric loadings in a recently published peer-reviewed journal article.

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Some fish will leap out of water to escape a predator, but Northern Arizona University researcher Alice Gibb has observed that the mosquitofish chooses the most energy-efficient method for returning—a finding that has evolutionary implications.

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Due to global warming, scientists say, the chances of the southwestern United States experiencing a decade long drought is at least 50 percent, and the chances of a “megadrought” – one that lasts over 30 years – ranges from 20 to 50 percent over the next century.

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Unregulated trash burning around the globe is pumping far more pollution into the atmosphere than shown by official records. A new study led by NCAR estimates that more than 40 percent of the world’s garbage is burned in such fires, with emissions that can substantially affect human health and climate.

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New questions about geology, oceanography and seafloor ecosystems are being raised because of research by a Mississippi State University geologist.

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Research by Indiana University geologists suggests that an intermediate amount of vegetation -- not too little and not too much -- is most effective at stabilizing freshwater river deltas.

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Two Colorado State University researchers are examining how nanoparticles move underground, knowledge that could eventually help improve recovery in oil fields and discover where hydraulic fracking chemicals travel.

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Just how much Arctic permafrost will thaw in the future and how fast heat-trapping carbon dioxide will be released from those warming soils is a topic of lively debate among climate scientists.

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Pacific corals and fish can both smell a bad neighborhood, and use that ability to avoid settling in damaged reefs.

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Colorado State University is hosting an intensive laboratory testing campaign for biomass cookstoves this month as part of a $1.5 million study on the air quality, climate and health effects of cookstove smoke.

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If we can better understand scientifically how wildland fires behave, we’ll have a better chance to accurately predict their evolution.

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New research led by Colorado State University has revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012. The study shows these losses are driving population declines of the world's wild African elephants on the order of 2 percent to 3 percent a year.

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An interdisciplinary lab at Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center brings air, earth and water scientists together to study climate and environmental issues.

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Fish species native to a major Arizona watershed may lose access to important segments of their habitat by 2050 as surface water flow is reduced by the effects of climate warming, new research suggests.

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As climate change alters habitats for birds and bees and everything in between, so too does the way humans decide to use land. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Aarhus University in Denmark have, for the first time, found a way to determine the potential combined impacts of both climate and land-use change on plants, animals and ecosystems across the country.

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An international team of conservationist scientists and practitioners has published new research showing the precarious state of the world’s primary forests.

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Novel ecosystems arise when human activities transform biological communities through species invasions and environmental change. They are seemingly ubiquitous, and thus many policymakers and ecologists argue for them to be accepted as the "new normal"—an idea the researchers say is a bad one.

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In research to be published in the journal Ecology — and currently posted online as a preprint — Thomas Givnish, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attempts to resolve a debate as to which factors actually set maximum tree height, and how their relative importance varies in different parts of the world.

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Researchers at Texas Tech's Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory necropsied hundreds of birds throughout a 19-million-acre area of land and discovered large numbers of parasitic eyeworms in many of the birds they sampled.

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Turtles are well known for their longevity and protective shells, but it turns out these reptiles use sound to stick together and care for young, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and other organizations.

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Researchers at NCAR and partner organizations are making significant headway in predicting the behavior of the atmosphere on a variety of fronts. Highlights include improving weather forecasts, advancing renewable energy capabilities, helping satellites avoid space debris, and estimating the risk of a crop slowdown due to climate change.

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A 57-acre research plot at a University of Michigan forest preserve northwest of Ann Arbor has been added to a Smithsonian Institution global network used to study tropical and temperate forest function and diversity.

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An international team of scientists compared mainstream bioeconomic theory with the lesser-known “fishing-down” theory, to discover that a large, commercially important fish from the Amazon Basin has become extinct in some local fishing communities.

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A team of materials chemists, polymer scientists and device physicists this week report a breakthrough technique for controlling assembly of nanoparticles over multiple length scales that may allow cheaper, ecologically friendly manufacture of organic photovoltaics and other electronic devices.

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96 Elephants and Partners Commemorate World Elephant Day, Today, August 12

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Scientists who sequenced the genome of the Antarctic midge suspect the genome’s small size – the smallest in insects described to date – can probably be explained by the midge’s adaptation to its extreme living environment.

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When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently requested a figure on global temperature trends for its annual report, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Zhengyu Liu knew that was going to be a problem. Liu and his colleagues describe a consistent global warming trend over the course of the Holocene counter to a study published last year.

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A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Idaho State University (ISU) explored how habitat alterations, including the addition of energy transmission towers, affect avian predators nesting in sagebrush landscapes.

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Seismic events aren’t rare occurrences on Antarctica, where sections of the frozen desert can experience hundreds of micro-earthquakes an hour due to ice deformation. Some scientists call them icequakes. But in March of 2010, the ice sheets in Antarctica vibrated a bit more than usual because of something more than 3,000 miles away: the 8.8-magnitude Chilean earthquake. A new Georgia Institute of Technology study published in Nature Geoscience is the first to indicate that Antarctica’s frozen ground is sensitive to seismic waves from distant earthquakes.

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Many of today’s technological innovations from the iPhone to electric motors for hybrid cars require the use of materials — elements — that are scarce or difficult to obtain. As demand for these devices grows, the problem of dwindling critical element supplies must be addressed. That’s the conclusion of a white paper written by eminent scientists. The product of the 5th Chemical Sciences and Society Summit (CS3), the white paper recommends focusing research on finding alternative materials and new approaches to technology development in order to prevent these elements from disappearing.

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As the Food and Drug Administration mulls over whether to rein in the use of common antibacterial compounds that are causing growing concern among environmental health experts, scientists are reporting today that many pregnant women and their fetuses are being exposed to these substances. They will present their work at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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A plastic sponge that sops up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) might ease our tranisition away from polluting fossil fuels to new energy sources like hydrogen. At the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, a researcher will describe a relative of food container plastics that could play a role in President Obama’s plan to cut CO2 emissions. The material might also someday be integrated into power plant smokestacks.

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A new approach for formulating the active chemical ingredients of common drugs and agricultural products has been developed by researchers in Italy, and it holds broad potential to make such products more durable, safer, cheaper, easier to manufacture and less harmful to the environment.

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The message is simple: to save elephants, all ivory markets must close and all ivory stockpiles must be destroyed, according to a new peer-reviewed paper by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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Elizabeth Addis, assistant professor of biology at Gonzaga University, and three senior biology majors are spending this summer researching why the local population of yellow-bellied marmots – those gregarious, burrowing rodents ubiquitous near the Spokane River – are not only surviving but thriving in the urban areas of Spokane. Most research exploring patterns of species survival has focused on birds; little is known about the physiological mechanisms that allow animals to survive in urban environments.

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New research by a Florida State University geography professor shows that climate change may be playing a key role in the strength and frequency of tornadoes hitting the United States.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When the ants come marching in, having miles of linked habitats may not be such a good idea after all.

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Global Temperature Report: July 2014

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As production of shale gas soars, the industry's effects on nature and wildlife remain largely unexplored, according to a study by a group of conservation biologists published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on Aug. 1.

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Carmakers like Toyota have long touted the eco-friendly virtues of zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, but commercialization was hindered by the high cost of critical materials and infrastructure. Now, Toyota has cut costs by 90 percent and German industrial gases and engineering company Linde AG will start small-series production of hydrogen fueling stations. Some of the stations are slated to open in California as Toyota debuts its Highlander hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) in 2015.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released a report that, for the first time, provides uniform scientific methods for quantifying the changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon storage from various land management and conservation activities. Colorado State University faculty members served as authors and external science advisors on the new report, and a CSU team is leading the implementation of a new online tool that provides customized GHG reports and management plans in accordance with the new guidelines.

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A new study looks at 20 years of data concerning the consequences of burning Flint Hills prairie at different times of the year. It finds that burning outside of the current late spring time frame has no measurable negative consequences for the prairie, and in fact, may have multiple benefits.

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Nonwoven cotton could become the new picker-upper for oil spills.

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The Kavli Foundation Lecture series features two prominent scientists: one in the booming area of ionic liquids, the other in medical materials. The former has made a novel compound with the potential to lower the energy it takes to capture carbon dioxide. The latter has engineered tissues and medical materials such as a stretchy glue that could transform surgery. They are presenting at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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As the oil and gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing proliferates, a new study on the contents of the fluids used raises concerns over several ingredients. The scientists presenting the work today at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society say out of nearly 200 commonly used compounds in “fracking,” there’s very little known about the potential health risks of about one-third, and eight are toxic to mammals.