PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Certain communities of pond plants may increase greenhouse gases

2025-08-27
(Press-News.org) CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE

FOR RELEASE: August 27, 2025

 

Kaitlyn Serrao

607-882-1140

kms465@cornell.edu

 

Certain communities of pond plants may increase greenhouse gases

 

ITHACA, N.Y. - The composition of aquatic plant communities in shallow freshwater bodies, including floating plants, submerged plants and phytoplankton, can have important effects on greenhouse gas production, transport and emissions, according to a new study by Cornell University researchers.

 

The findings could lead to aquatic plant management strategies that help mitigate the release of gases such as methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O). About half of all the CH4 emissions on the planet originate from aquatic sources, with wetlands, ponds and shallow lakes accounting for most of it. CH4 is a powerful greenhouse gas that is roughly 28 times more potent over 100 years than CO2.

 

Meredith Theus, a doctoral student and the lead author of the study, set up a summer field experiment from late spring to early fall at the Cornell Experimental Ponds Facility. Within each of three ponds, she set up three corrals (mesocosms) to establish the following three treatments: submerged plants (whose roots are in sediment); submerged and floating plants (such as duckweed that float freely on the surface); and phytoplankton (tiny plants like algae that float in the water column). She then collected water column chemistry measurements, including dissolved greenhouse gas concentrations, every two weeks. She sampled greenhouse gas fluxes (gases emitting from the water into the atmosphere) for methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide using a portable greenhouse gas analyzer.

 

The experiments revealed that the treatment with submerged plants and floating plants had the highest water column concentrations of CO2 and CH4, and the lowest N2O concentrations, but those results weren’t reflected in the fluxes, which showed no differences between the three treatments.

 

“You’d think surface water concentrations would be similar to fluxes because if you had more of something in the water, you’d have more of that thing coming out, but we didn’t see that,” said co-author Meredith Holgerson, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

 

One reason for this result, she said, could be that floating plants like duckweed, while individually small, can collectively blanket the water and block gases from escaping into the atmosphere.

 

“Some of our previous research has found the highest concentrations of CH4 in ponds that are completely covered with duckweed, because the duckweed acts like a lid,” Holgerson said.

 

One caveat: Data wasn’t collected every day, so flux measurements may not have captured gases escaping when a big wind pushed duckweed to one side of the pond.

 

Also, the system is complicated, as tiny duckweed roots have been shown to house bacteria called methanotrophs, which consume CH4 and break it down. The study takes an important step toward informing future research that might explain the discrepancies between greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes.

 

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.

 

-30-

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Hormone therapy type matters for memory performance after menopause

2025-08-27
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2025 Highlights: People who went through menopause earlier had lower scores on memory and thinking tests. Those who used transdermal estradiol had better test scores for episodic memory—like remembering past events—compared to those who never used hormone therapy. Those who took estradiol pills had better test scores for prospective memory—like remembering to meet for an appointment or take a medication—compared to those who never used hormone therapy. Hormone therapy did ...

Stroke risk highest among Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander people

2025-08-27
MINNEAPOLIS — A new study found that Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander people had the highest rate of stroke among people from other race and ethnic groups, with a rate more than three times higher than that of white people. The study is published on August 27, 2025, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Multiple studies have shown racial and ethnic disparities in the rate of stroke in the United States, but there is little information on the rate among Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander people, especially ...

Scientists reveal warped protoplanetary discs, reshaping ideas about how planets form

2025-08-27
The textbook picture of how planets form – serene, flat discs of cosmic dust – has just received a significant cosmic twist. New research, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is set to reshape this long-held view. An international team of scientists, wielding the formidable power of the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), has found compelling evidence that many protoplanetary discs, the very birthplaces of planets, are in fact subtly warped.   These slight bends and twists in the disc plane, often just a few ...

Be it feast or famine, orangutans adapt with flexible diets

2025-08-27
Humans could learn a thing or two from orangutans when it comes to maintaining a balanced, protein-filled diet. Great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are marvels of adaptation to the vagaries of food supply in the wild, according to an international team of researchers led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientist. The critically endangered primates outshine modern humans in avoiding obesity through their balanced choices of food and exercise, the scientists found. The researchers reported their findings, based on 15 years of firsthand observations of wild orangutans ...

Insomnia patients report better sleep when taking cannabis-based medical products

2025-08-27
Insomnia patients taking cannabis-based medical products reported better quality sleep after up to 18 months of treatment, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health by Arushika Aggarwal from Imperial College London, U.K., and colleagues. About one out of every three people has some trouble getting a good night’s rest, and 10 percent of adults meet the criteria for an insomnia disorder. But current treatments can be difficult to obtain, and the drugs approved for insomnia run the risk ...

Intrusive distracting thoughts may be associated with anxiety and linked to lower well-being, and occur more often when alone than in company

2025-08-27
Intrusive distracting thoughts may be associated with anxiety and linked to lower well-being, and occur more often when alone than in company, per experience of sampling survey of students.    Article URL: https://plos.io/4lBYjWu Article Title: Patterns of ongoing thought in the real world and their links to mental health and well-being Author Countries: Canada, England, United States Funding: This research was supported by (i) a National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) graduate fellowship (author: BM), (ii) an award from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (grant ID: NFRF-2021-00183, ...

New crocodile-relative “hypercarnivore” from prehistoric Patagonia was 11.5ft long and weighed 250kg

2025-08-27
A newly-discovered species of a large, crocodile-relative predator has been described via a remarkably well-preserved fossil from Argentina, according to a study published August 27, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Fernando Novas from Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Argentina, and colleagues. The Chorrillo Formation formed around 70 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian age at the very end of the Cretaceous period. At this time, southern Patagonia was a warm, seasonally humid landscape of freshwater floodplains, home to creatures like dinosaurs, turtles, frogs, and various mammals. The new fossil unearthed in this formation is ...

“Unhappiness hump” in aging may have disappeared worldwide

2025-08-27
A new survey-based study suggests that the “unhappiness hump”—a widely documented rise in worry, stress, and depression with age that peaks in midlife and then declines—may have disappeared, perhaps due to declining mental health among younger people. David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on August 27, 2025. Since 2008, a U-shaped trend in wellbeing with age, in which wellbeing tends to decline from childhood until around age 50 before ...

Breathwork can induce altered states of consciousness linked with changes in brain blood flow

2025-08-27
Breathwork while listening to music may induce a blissful state in practitioners, accompanied by changes in blood flow to emotion-processing brain regions, according to a study published August 27, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Amy Amla Kartar from the Colasanti Lab in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, U.K., and colleagues. These changes occur even while the body’s stress response may be activated and are associated with reporting reduced negative ...

New research makes first broad-spectrum antiviral

2025-08-27
NEW YORK, August 27, 2025 — Researchers at the Nanoscience Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have made a breakthrough in the fight against viral diseases. Their study, published in the journal Science Advances, offers a promising path toward the development of the world’s first broad-spectrum antiviral (BSA), which could be deployed against a wide range of deadly viruses, including future pandemic threats. Unlike bacterial infections, which doctors often begin immediately treating with broad-spectrum antibiotics while they work to determine the specific bacteria, viral infections ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Artificial tongue uses milk to determine heat level in spicy foods

IU Kelley Futurecast: AI and energy infrastructure may buoy US economy in 2026

The biggest threats to maintaining fat bike trails: climate change and volunteer burnout

AI models for drug design fail in physics

Practice pattern of aerosol drug therapy in acute respiratory distress syndrome patients: An aero-in-ICU study

GLIS model as a predictor of outcomes in older adults with heart failure

Molecules in motion: pioneering the era of supramolecular robotics

Faster and more reliable crystal structure prediction of organic molecules

Thankful at work: A two-week gratitude journal boosts employee engagement

Fibroblasts: Hidden drivers of heart failure progression

IOCB Prague unveils a fundamentally faster, more affordable way to produce quantum nanodiamonds

Artificial intelligence takes the lead in revolutionizing cancer research explored at NFCR’s 2025 Global Summit and Award Ceremonies for Cancer Research and Entrepreneurship.

Switching memories on and off with epigenetics

This is your brain without sleep

3D DNA looping discovery in rice paves the way for higher yields with less fertilizer

Four subgroups of PCOS open up for individualized treatment

Perovskites reveal ultrafast quantum light in new study

New clues on how physical forces spread in neurons

Heart ‘blueprint’ reveals origins of defects and insights into fetal development

Some acute and chronic viral infections may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease

Flavanols in cocoa can protect blood vessel function following uninterrupted sitting - study

$100 Million gift will advance UCSF’s dementia research and care

The 4th Japan-India Universities Forum on 15 November

Arctic town Kiruna is colder after the move

Mayo Clinic study finds majority of midlife women with menopause symptoms do not seek care

Underwater robot ‘Lassie’ discovers remarkable icefish nests during search for Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica

Wearable robots you can wear like clothes: automatic weaving of “fabric muscle” brings commercialization closer

Researcher improves century-old equation to predict movement of dangerous air pollutants.

Heatwaves linked to rise in sleep apnoea cases in Europe

Down‑top strategy engineered large‑scale fluorographene/PBO nanofibers composite papers with excellent wave‑transparent performance and thermal conductivity

[Press-News.org] Certain communities of pond plants may increase greenhouse gases