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Environment
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Environment

The Arctic could become ‘ice-free’ within a decade

The Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as early as the next couple of years, according to a new study out of the University of Colorado Boulder. The findings, published March 5 in the journal Nature Reviews Earth ­­& Environment, suggest that the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur over 10 years earlier than previous projections, which focused on when the region would be ice-free for a month or more. The trend remains consistent under all future emission scenarios. By ...

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Environment

Call for articles: Trends in Peace and Sustainability

The Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) at Hiroshima University is inviting submissions for Trends in Peace and Sustainability (TRENDS), an innovative academic platform dedicated to exploring the complex interplay between peace and sustainability. TRENDS aims to become a forum for scholars, professionals, and advocates to share their research, insights, and viewpoints on the pursuit of peace amid sustainability challenges. It aims to promote interdisciplinary engagement, stimulating conversation ...

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2024 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award-Call for nominations
Environment

2024 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award-Call for nominations

The call for the 2024 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award is open! About The Award Tsinghua University Press announces the 2024 Carbon Future Young Investigator Award. This award is intended to recognize and encourage outstanding early career researchers in the areas of carbon-related materials, catalysis, energy conversion and storage, as well as low carbon emission process and engineering. The award includes an honorarium of $1,000 for each awardee (up to 10 awardees). Eligibility The nominee must be a current PhD student or postdoctoral researcher. The nominee’s ...

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Environment

Multinational collaborative research to improve climate-smart grain for Ethiopian farmers receives $4.9 million grant

ST. LOUIS, MO, March 5, 2024 – The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) have received a $4.9 million grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build on previous advances in gene editing of tef for reduced height and lodging resistance in advanced, farmer preferred tef lines. The grant will support research to validate the improved semi dwarf tef in Ethiopia under greenhouse and multi location field conditions and generate lodging resistance ...

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Environment

Hazardous heat and humidity is widespread in US jails and prisons, and climate change is worsening conditions

An estimated 1.8 million incarcerated people in the United States have been recently exposed to a dangerous combination of heat and humidity, and on average experience 100 days of these conditions each year—many of them in the 44 states that do not provide universal air conditioning to inmates. Tracking with climate change, in recent decades, the number of dangerous humid heat days in carceral facilities has increased, with those in the south experiencing the most rapid warming. The findings by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Montana State University, ...

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Environment

8 in 10 lizards could be at risk due to deforestation

In Colorado, people flock to the Rocky Mountains when the summer heat gets unbearable. Animals seek shelter too when temperatures become extreme, and forests serve as critical sanctuaries for small tree-dwelling animals like lizards. In a new study published March 5 in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder and Tel Aviv University in Israel revealed that deforestation combined with climate change could negatively impact 84% of North America’s lizards by ...

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Environment

Gen Z’s climate anxiety is real and needs action — for everyone’s wellbeing

New Curtin University research has shown Australian young people have major concerns about climate change, which is having a significant impact on their lives and could have broader consequences decades into the future. Published in Sustainable Earth Reviews, the study surveyed Australian university students belonging to Generation Z (people born between 1995 and 2010) and found climate change was their number one environmental concern. More than 80 per cent reported being ‘concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ about climate change, with many revealing they felt anxious over the issue. Climate anxiety ...

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Less ice in the arctic ocean has complex effects on marine ecosystems and ocean productivity
Environment

Less ice in the arctic ocean has complex effects on marine ecosystems and ocean productivity

Over the past 25 years, the amount of summer Arctic sea ice has diminished by more than 1 million square kilometers. As a result, vast areas of the Arctic Ocean are now, on average, ice free in summer. Scientists are closely monitoring how this impacts sunlight availability and marine ecosystems in the far north. “Many questions arise when such large areas become ice-free and can receive sunlight. A prevailing paradigm suggests that the Arctic Ocean is rapidly becoming more productive as sunlight becomes ...

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Antarctica’s coasts are becoming less icy
Environment

Antarctica’s coasts are becoming less icy

EMBARGOED UNTIL MARCH 4, 2024 AT 3:00PM U.S EASTERN TIME An increase in pockets of open water in Antarctica’s sea ice (polynyas) may mean coastal plants and animals could one day establish on the continent, University of Otago-led research suggests. The research, published in the prestigious international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, aimed at understanding where open water might allow coastal species to settle in the future. Led by Research Fellow Dr Grant Duffy from Otago’s Department ...

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Editor-in-Chief of Sustainability and Climate Change Madhavi Venkatesan named USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Massachusetts for leading plastic bottle ban efforts
Environment

Editor-in-Chief of Sustainability and Climate Change Madhavi Venkatesan named USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Massachusetts for leading plastic bottle ban efforts

Madhavi Venkatesan, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Sustainability and Climate Change and founder of Sustainable Practices, has been named USA TODAY Woman of the Year for the state of Massachusetts in recognition of her outstanding efforts to eliminate single-use plastic bottles across Cape Cod and the Islands. With economics and sustainability at the forefront, Venkatesan established Sustainable Practices in 2016, aiming to address pressing environmental issues through innovative solutions. Since then, she and her nonprofit team have spearheaded ...

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Environment

Conservation value of field research stations grossly misunderstood and underfunded according to 173 conservation scientists in new study

SAN DIEGO – Funding of field conservation research stations worldwide has been drastically reduced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the alarm of more than 170 conservation researchers representing 157 field stations in 56 countries in a new paper published in Conservation Letters. The authors contend that field research stations have a high return on investment and are essential and highly effective tools for biodiversity conservation. Trillions of U.S. dollars were mobilized in economic recovery following the pandemic, yet the authors raise concerns ...

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UMaine researchers use GPS-tracked icebergs in novel study to improve climate models
Environment

UMaine researchers use GPS-tracked icebergs in novel study to improve climate models

Over the last four decades, warming climate and ocean temperatures have rapidly altered the Greenland Ice Sheet, creating concern for marine ecosystems and weather patterns worldwide. The environment has challenged scientists in their attempts to measure how water moves around and melts the ice sheet because equipment can be destroyed by icebergs floating near the glaciers. Collected using a novel approach, research from the University of Maine has unearthed new information to help scientists better understand circulation patterns of ocean water around glaciers. A group of pioneers in glacial research attached GPS devices to icebergs and used their mobility to understand fjord circulation, ...

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Environment

The secret lives of roots: Tropical forest root systems are central to improving climate change predictions

International research co-authored by Joshua Fisher, associate professor in Chapman University’s Schmid College of Science and Technology, suggests that studying root function in tropical forests could help vegetation models improve predictions of climate change. Their study was published on Feb. 28 in New Phytologist. When it comes to understanding climate change, vegetation models are vital tools that help scientists study plants’ adaptation strategies to changing environmental conditions, including drying, warming and elevated carbon ...

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Environment

Pelagic fish more impacted by human pressures and protections than benthic species

Pelagic fish – species that occupy the water column of the open ocean, neither near the bottom nor near the shore – are more impacted by both human pressure and protection than bottom-dwelling benthic species, researchers report. The findings highlight the need for increased marine protection in remote pelagic locations. Body size is a universal biological property that influences a range of ecological processes in marine ecosystems. Measuring body-size-structured variation can be a useful framework for understanding and predicting the impacts of overfishing or the success ...

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Environment

Climate change is altering the seasonal pattern of river flow globally

Climate change is altering the seasonality of river flow, particularly at high northern latitudes, according to a new study. Patterns in river flow vary with the seasons – a cycle that plays a critical role in floods and droughts, water security, and the health of biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide. Although recent studies have shown that climate change has already altered river flow seasonality (RFS), much of the evidence is limited to local regions or fails to consider the impact of climate change explicitly, independent of other human impacts to river flow. Consequently, the impact of climate warming on RFS isn’t ...

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Environment

Climate change disrupts seasonal flow of rivers

Climate change is disrupting the seasonal flow of rivers in the far northern latitudes of America, Russia and Europe and is posing a threat to water security and ecosystems, according to research published today. A team of scientists led by the University of Leeds analysed historical data from river gauging stations across the globe and found that 21% of them showed significant alterations in the seasonal rise and fall in water levels. The study used data-based reconstructions and state-of-the-art simulations to show that river flow is now far less likely to vary with the seasons in latitudes ...

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Environment

Emergency atmospheric geoengineering wouldn’t save the oceans

WASHINGTON — Climate change is heating the oceans, altering currents and circulation patterns responsible for regulating climate on a global scale. If temperatures dropped, some of that damage could theoretically be undone. But employing “emergency” atmospheric geoengineering later this century in the face of continuous high carbon emissions would not be able to reverse changes to ocean currents, a new study finds. This would critically curtail the intervention’s potential effectiveness ...

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Rice lab finds better way to handle hard-to-recycle material
Environment

Rice lab finds better way to handle hard-to-recycle material

HOUSTON – (Feb. 29, 2024) – Glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP), a strong and durable composite material, is widely used in everything from aircraft parts to windmill blades. Yet the very qualities that make it robust enough to be used in so many different applications make it difficult to dispose of ⎯ consequently, most GFRP waste is buried in a landfill once it reaches its end of life. According to a study published in Nature Sustainability, Rice University researchers and collaborators have developed a new, energy-efficient upcycling method to transform glass fiber-reinforced plastic ...

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Environment

Ice shell thickness reveals water temperature on ocean worlds

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University astrobiologists have devised a novel way to determine ocean temperatures of distant worlds based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from space. Available data showing ice thickness variation already allows a prediction for the upper ocean of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, and a NASA mission’s planned orbital survey of Europa’s ice shell should do the same for the much larger Jovian moon, enhancing the mission’s findings about whether it could support ...

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New study: Deforestation exacerbates risk of malaria for most vulnerable children
Environment

New study: Deforestation exacerbates risk of malaria for most vulnerable children

Malaria kills more than 600,000 people each year worldwide, and two thirds are children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists have found a treatment that could prevent thousands of these deaths: trees. New research conducted at the University of Vermont (UVM) and published today in the journal GeoHealth suggests forests can provide natural protection against disease transmission, particularly for the most vulnerable children. Malaria spreads through the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes. While malaria is a disease long associated with lower socioeconomic status, the UVM study links deforestation with higher risk of the disease, particularly for ...

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Environment

Climate: 2023 – 24 El Niño likely to cause record-breaking average temperatures in some areas

Several areas of the globe — including the Bay of Bengal, the Philippines, and the Caribbean Sea — are likely to experience record-breaking average surface air temperatures in the year period up to June 2024 as a result of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon. The modelling results, published in Scientific Reports, also suggest that there is an estimated 90 percent chance of record-breaking global mean surface temperatures occurring over the same period under a moderate or strong El Niño scenario. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation, centred ...

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Environment

Uncertainty in measuring biodiversity change could hinder progress towards global targets for nature

More than ever before, there is a growing interest in dedicating resources to stop the loss of biodiversity, as recently exemplified by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) decided at COP15 in December 2022. The GBF focuses on understanding why biodiversity is declining and what actions are needed to reverse this trend. However, according to researchers at McGill University, implementing the plan is challenging because information about biodiversity changes is not evenly available everywhere, and is uncertain in many places. With the available data, can the ...

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Zero emissions of carbon dioxide! Successful production of ammonia-based clean hydrogen
Environment

Zero emissions of carbon dioxide! Successful production of ammonia-based clean hydrogen

Dr. Jung Unho's research team at the Hydrogen Research Department of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) has developed Korea's first clean hydrogen production technology. This technology is based on ammonia decomposition and does not use fossil fuels. The team's breakthrough could pave the way for a more sustainable and eco-friendly energy source. This allows for the production of high-purity hydrogen that meets international standards for hydrogen-powered vehicles, without the carbon dioxide emissions produced by using fossil fuels. Ammonia, a compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, has a hydrogen storage density 1.7 times ...

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Black mountain unveils fossil trove
Environment

Black mountain unveils fossil trove

A team of researchers led by Alexander Pohle has unveiled a treasure trove of ancient fossils from Queensland's Black Mountain. The findings, published in PeerJ Life & Environment, shed new light on the complex three-dimensional siphuncle morphology of Plectronoceratids, a pivotal group of molluscs from the latest Cambrian period. The study surpasses the entirety of previously documented Plectronoceratid fossils, presenting over 200 well-preserved specimens. These fossils, meticulously collected by the late Mary Wade and her team during the 1970s and 1980s, offer unprecedented insights into the intricate structures of these ancient creatures. Pohle's team focused on specimens ...

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Slimming down a colossal fossil whale
Environment

Slimming down a colossal fossil whale

A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists at UC Davis and the Smithsonian Institution. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded. The work is published Feb. 29 in PeerJ. A fossil skeleton of Perucetus was discovered in Peru and described in a paper in Nature last year. The animal lived about 39 million years ago and belonged to an extinct group of early whales called ...

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