Feature Channels: Environmental Science

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Many cultural sites vulnerable to climate-related changes such as rising sea levels, coastal erosion and flooding from stronger storms

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For most people, the drip, drip, drip of a leaking faucet would be an annoyance. But for Georgia Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Alexandros Fragkopoulos, what happens inside droplets is the stuff of serious science.

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Droughts can travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers from where they started, like a slow-moving hurricane. A new study sheds light on how these droughts evolve in space and time, bringing vital new insight for water managers.

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Studies have shown that hazardous waste sites have the potential to adversely affect human health and disrupt ecological systems. Florida has the sixth highest number of hazardous waste sites, known as Superfund sites, in the United States. In 2016, the state was projected to have the second largest number of new cancer cases in the country. Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and the University of Florida studied cancer incidence rates in relation to Superfund sites and found a possible association. Researchers believe this discovery could help direct public health efforts in the state.

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New analysis uses detection and attribution methods to establish multiyear trends of vegetation growth in northern-extratropical latitudes.

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Understanding interactions among organisms in complex microbial communities sheds new light on a globally significant environmental process.

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Researchers discover the first CRISPR-Cas9 system in archaea, which may enable new technologies for biological research.

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Graduate student has found some synthetic chemicals in greater concentrations than many other pollutants, including the previously banned flame retardants.

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XPRIZE officials say Rhyner is among the leaders in underwater exploration.

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Feedbacks of clouds on climate change strongly influence the magnitude of global warming.

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Scores of American chestnut seedlings growing in upstate New York are the vanguard in the restoration of what was once the most dominant tree in the eastern forests. The trees carry one gene, added by scientists, that makes them capable of withstanding the invasive blight that wiped out billions of their ancestors a century ago.

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Global Temperature Report: February 2017

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Global and local climate conditions predict variation in natural selection across diverse plant and animal populations

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Most Michigan residents would prefer policymakers prioritize the environment over economic growth, finds a new survey by Michigan State University researchers.

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Iron particles generated by cities and industry are being dissolved by man-made air pollution and washed into the sea – potentially increasing the amount of greenhouse gases that the world’s oceans can absorb, a new study suggests.

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Research by the University of Southampton has found that methods used to predict the effect of species extinction on ecosystems could be producing inaccurate results. This is because current thinking assumes that when a species vanishes, its role within an environment is lost too. However, scientists working on a new study have found that when a species, (for example a group of sea creatures), is wiped out by a catastrophic event, other species can change their behaviour to compensate, exploiting the vacant role left behind.

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While poison ivy is probably the most well-known hazardous plant, there are a multitude of other plants, as well as many insects, that can irritate your skin.

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Birds exhibit an astonishing variety of nest designs, and in no group is this variety more striking than in the passerines.

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University of Arkansas at Little Rock Biology Professor Mariya Khodakovskaya, her collaborators, and her graduate students are among a handful of scientists around the world pioneering research on the potential benefits of nanotechnology for crops. Their research was recently published in a book by Springer International Publishing, “Plant Nanotechnology: An Overview on Concepts, Strategies, and Tools.”

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Carbon emissions to the atmosphere from streams and rivers are expected to increase as warmer water temperatures stimulate faster rates of organic matter breakdown. But a new study led by University of Utah researcher Jennifer J. Follstad Shah, in collaboration with a team of 15 scientists in the U.S. and Europe, suggests these decay rates may not increase as much as expected. In fact, the study indicates average breakdown rates may increase 5 percent to 21 percent with a 1 degree to 4-degree Celsius rise in water temperature — half as much as the 10 percent to 45 percent increase predicted by metabolic theory.

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Campaign funds will support high school students 15 and older to come to the UC Berkeley campus to explore architecture, sustainable city planning and fabrication techniques for one month during the summer of 2017.

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Assistant Professor of Biology Kirsten Deane-Coe investigates the drivers of diversity in an ecologically important clade of dryland mosses.

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New publicly available database of DNA viruses and retroviruses debuts.

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Sticky molecules hop aboard oily floaters and may influence the amount of sunlight reflected by marine clouds.

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Water conservation will be one of many topics at this year’s UF/IFAS Urban Landscape Conference, scheduled for March 16-17 in Gainesville, Florida. Protecting the water Floridians will need for the 15 million additional residents projected to live here 50 years from now means getting today’s 20 million Floridians to conserve water, says University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor Michael Dukes.

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Don’t forget winter snows when considering the water cycle! The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) March 1 Soils Matter blog post explains how winter snowpack helps recharge groundwater.

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Irvine, Calif., March 1, 2017 – The combination of prolonged hot spells with poor air quality greatly compounds the negative effects of each and can pose a major risk to human health, according to new research from the University of California, Irvine.“The weather factors that drive heat waves also contribute to intensified surface ozone and air pollution episodes,” said UCI professor of Earth system science Michael J.

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New Iowa State University research shows nitrogen fertilizer plays an essential role in maintaining soil carbon in corn and soybean fields. Adequate soil carbon is one of the most important metrics of soil health.

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The True´s beaked whale is a deep-diving mammal so rarely seen that it often defies recognition at sea by researchers. Scientists have now obtained the first images of a calf along with the first underwater video of these whales – helping to reveal the secrets of this species.

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Organic farmers can use a combination of cover crops and no-till methods to improve soil health, suppress weeds, and retain moisture.

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A University of Kansas researcher and colleagues from Cornell University have revealed daunting challenges to changing the DNA of entire populations of species via the most promising techniques available today to produce “gene drive.”

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A new treatment for tuberculosis (TB) is set to be developed using compounds derived from bacteria that live in soil - according an international collaboration of researchers, including the University of Warwick.

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Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories, The University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will adapt previously developed sensors to monitor root function and plant health in new, noninvasive ways.

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The Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) announced the launch of four new multi-disciplinary teams aimed at tackling global issues including land use, soil carbon, conservation offsets, and human health and the environment.

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Organic additives found in road salt alternatives — such as those used in the commercial products GeoMelt and Magic Salt — act as a fertilizer to aquatic ecosystems, promoting the growth of algae and organisms that eat algae, according to new research published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Low levels of magnesium chloride — an alternative type of salt found in the commercial product Clear Lane – boost populations of amphipods, tiny crustaceans that feed on algae and serve as an important food source for fish.

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A new report says St-Barthélemy’s environment may be rapidly degrading, with major impacts stemming from land-based pollution, urbanization, and overfishing.

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“We really look at this study and South Korea as information to see if we can increase younger consumers in other countries,” said Lisa House, a UF/IFAS professor of food and resource economics and a study co-author. In addition to eating grapefruit, South Koreans also use grapefruit in beer, tea and ice cream, so marketing opportunities abound.

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Using living organisms such as bacteria or fungi, as an alternative to chemical fertilisers, can improve the soil biodiversity of green roofs, according to new research from the University of Portsmouth.

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By growing phytoplankton called coccolithophores in the lab, scientists were able to understand the large biological overprint on the climate signal encoded by their remains, clearing the way for their use as climate proxies.

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Some fruit flies build up tolerance to the toxin α-amanitin; the genetic mechanisms behind this adaptation link to an important metabolic pathway. A team from Michigan Technological University used genome-wide association mapping to draw the connections for 180 fruit fly lines.

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An international research team found a rapid rise in acidification in the western Arctic Ocean, a potential threat to shellfish, the marine ecosystem and the fishing industry. Since the 1990s, acidified waters have expanded north about 300 nautical miles from Alaska to just below the North Pole.

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Partly inspired by the dynamics of a flock of birds, engineers devised a computational method for drones to quickly record whether they are over water, oil or the edge of the spill. This simple information is shared with the other drones in the swarm, as opposed to sharing actual images or video, which would require too much bandwidth.