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Environment
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Environment

Team studies beryllium-7 variations over Antarctic regions of the Southern Ocean

A Japanese research team has studied the variations in beryllium-7 concentrations in the surface air over the Antarctic regions of Southern Ocean. Beryllium-7 is a radioactive isotope of beryllium produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. The team explored, over space and time, how the beryllium-7 is transported from the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface. Their goal was to better understand the mechanisms of atmospheric mixing on Earth. Their research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres on October 14, 2025. “We aimed to clarify where and by what atmospheric flows the radioactive isotope beryllium-7, produced in the stratosphere ...

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Environment

The human costs of climate overshoot

In a Perspective, the authors suggest that the social and humanitarian impacts of overshooting the Paris Agreement’s aspirational goal of a 1.5 degrees Celsius rise in global mean temperature remain largely unknown, despite robust knowledge of physical climate impacts. Andrew Kruczkiewicz and colleagues outline five factors that policymakers and planners should take into account when considering the human impacts of climate overshoot: peak warming and duration of overshoot, localized amplification of effects, timing of arrival, adaptation limits, and dynamics of overshoot reversal. The ...

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Environment

UC Irvine researchers link Antarctic ice loss to ‘storms’ at the ocean’s subsurface

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 18, 2025 — Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have identified stormlike circulation patterns beneath Antarctic ice shelves that are causing aggressive melting, with major implications for global sea level rise projections. In a paper published recently in Nature Geoscience, the scientists say their study is the first to examine ocean-induced ice shelf melting events from a weather timescale of just days versus seasonal or annual timeframes. This enabled them to match “ocean storm” activity with intense ice melt at Thwaites Glacier ...

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Environment

Ancient sediments reveal Earth’s hidden wildfire past

An international team of scientists, including a senior researcher at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, has uncovered new evidence of ancient wildfires that reshapes our understanding of Earth’s turbulent Early Triassic epoch, about 250 million years ago. The findings, reported in Communications Earth & Environment, published by Nature Portfolio under the title Wildfire, ecosystem and climate interactions in the Early Triassic, challenge the long-standing belief in a global “charcoal gap”, a time interval with little or no evidence of fire following the world’s ...

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Environment

Climate resilience found in traditional Hawaiian fishponds

Traditional Hawaiian fishponds (loko iʻa) are emerging as a model for climate resilience, according to a study from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). The research, published in npj Ocean Sustainability, revealed Indigenous aquaculture systems effectively shield fish populations from the negative impacts of climate change, demonstrating resilience and bolstering local food security. "Our study is one of the first in academic literature to compare the temperatures ...

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Environment

Breakthrough material advances uranium extraction from seawater, paving the way for sustainable nuclear energy

A team of scientists has developed a groundbreaking material that dramatically boosts the ability to extract uranium from seawater, addressing one of the key challenges in the sustainable development of nuclear energy. The study introduces a special type of covalent organic framework (COF) that shows record-high efficiency and selectivity in isolating uranium from the vast reservoirs hidden in the world's oceans. Uranium-235, a primary fuel for nuclear power, is essential to the global effort to curb carbon emissions and move toward carbon neutrality. However, terrestrial ...

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Environment

Medieval communities boosted biodiversity around Lake Constance

One of the major realizations of the Anthropocene era has been the importance of biodiversity for the functioning of the earth system, as well as for human societies. Recent trends show that human activities are driving biodiversity loss around the globe, but previous research has also shown an increase in biodiversity in Holocene Europe, showing that human societies can in fact support the health and resilience of their environments. The cultural phenomena that accompanied the increase in biodiversity, however, are less understood. Now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences integrates data from interdisciplinary ...

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Environment

Groundbreaking research identifies lethal dose of plastics for seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals: “It’s much smaller than you might think”

“Ocean Plastics are an Existential Threat to the Diversity of Life on Our Planet”: Data Show that Nearly Half of Animals that Ingested Plastics were Red-Listed as Threatened Species WASHINGTON — The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today released a new study, “A quantitative risk assessment framework for mortality due to macroplastic ingestion in seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles.” Led by Ocean Conservancy researchers, the peer-reviewed paper is the most comprehensive study yet to quantify the extent to which a range of plastic types — from soft, flexible plastics like bags and food wrappers; ...

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Environment

Can we tap the ocean’s power to capture carbon?

The oceans have to play a role in helping humanity remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to curb dangerous climate warming. But are we ready to scale up the technologies that will do the job? The answer, according to an expert group reporting to the European Union, is no. At least, not yet – not until there are measures in place to ensure these technologies, called marine carbon dioxide removal technologies, are doing what they are supposed to do and won’t do more harm than good. Marine carbon dioxide removal technologies build on the ocean’s ability to ...

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Environment

Species in crisis: critically endangered penguins are directly competing with fishing boats

A new study led by the University of St Andrews, has found that Critically Endangered African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are significantly more likely to forage in the same areas as commercial fishing vessels during years of low fish abundance, increasing competition for food and adding pressure to a species already in crisis. Published today (17 November) in the Journal of Applied Ecology, the research introduces a novel metric called “overlap intensity” ...

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Environment

Drift logs destroying intertidal ecosystems

Logs are a familiar sight on the beaches along the coast of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii and are often viewed positively, as they can stabilize the banks, be used for firewood or act as benches by beach-goers. However, new research from the University of Victoria (UVic) shows that these logs are not as innocuous as they seem. According to a study published by UVic biologist Tom Reimchen and two of his students, free-floating logs that wash ashore, referred to as drift logs, are causing widespread destruction of rocky intertidal ecosystems communities along the coast of Western Canada. “In this study, we looked at both the ecological impact of drift ...

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Environment

Researchers identify mangrove tree stems as previously underestimated methane source offsetting blue carbon benefits

Mangrove ecosystems rank among the most efficient "blue carbon" systems on Earth, capable of absorbing and storing vast quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, mangroves also release methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas, potentially offsetting a portion of their climate mitigation benefits. While prior research has focused primarily on methane emissions from mangrove soils and water surfaces, the role of tree stems as an emission pathway and its significance for global blue carbon accounting have remained largely unexamined. In a new study, researchers from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a global-scale ...

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Environment

New review shows how iron powered biochar can transform pollution control and sustainable agriculture

A new scientific review highlights major advances in the use of iron enhanced biochar as a powerful tool for cleaning contaminated environments and supporting sustainable agriculture. The study synthesizes recent breakthroughs in modifying biochar with iron to dramatically improve its ability to capture pollutants, catalyze chemical reactions, and stabilize nutrients in soil and water systems. Biochar is a carbon rich material created when agricultural residues, wood waste, or other biomass are heated under limited ...

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Environment

What happens to ecosystems when you restore iconic top predators? It’s more complicated than you might think.

Across North America, mountain lions, bears, and gray wolves have made a remarkable comeback over the last 50 years. Once nearly exterminated, these animals have been recovering their populations and returning to the landscapes they historically roamed, thanks to protections like the Endangered Species Act, hunting limits, and reintroduction programs. The ecological impact of restoring these large carnivores is potentially huge, in part because of the way they could help to balance ecosystems by keeping prey populations under control. One ...

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Environment

Arctic fossils reveal complex and diverse Early Triassic marine vertebrate communities

Just a few million years after the end-Permian mass extinction event (EPME), aquatic reptiles and other vertebrates had recovered to form thriving and diverse oceanic ecosystems, according to a study of an Early Triassic-age fossil site in the Arctic. The findings challenge previous assumptions of a slow and gradual establishment of mid-Triassic marine communities and suggest that vertebrate evolution paralleled the rapid resurgence of invertebrate life in the Early Triassic. The EPME, which occurred roughly 251.9 million years ago (Ma), wiped out upwards of 90% of all marine species on Earth. It has long been thought that recovery of ocean ecosystems following this event was slow, taking ...

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Environment

‘Beautiful energy sandwich’ could power next-generation solar and lighting

Researchers have achieved a new level of control over the atomic structure of a family of materials known as halide perovskites, creating a finely tuned ‘energy sandwich’ that could transform how solar cells, LEDs and lasers are made. Due to their remarkable ability to absorb and emit light, and because they are cheaper and can be configured to convert more of the solar spectrum into energy than silicon, perovskites have long been touted as a potential replacement for silicon in solar cells, LEDs and quantum technologies. However, their instability and durability has, so far, largely limited perovskite devices to the laboratory. ...

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Environment

Oldest oceanic reptile ecosystem from the Age of Dinosaurs found on Arctic island

The fossils were found in 2015, but took nearly a decade of painstaking work to excavate, prepare, sort, identify, and analyse. The long-awaited research findings have now been published by a team of Scandinavian palaeontologists from the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, and the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago is world famous for producing marine fossils from the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs. These are preserved in rock layers that were once mud at ...

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Environment

COP30 climate pledges favour land-based carbon removal over emission cuts

An analysis of national climate plans released today at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil warns that countries are failing to carry out core work required to reduce emissions by halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation, and are instead pushing unrealistic carbon removal schemes, such as large-scale tree planting. The Land Gap 2025 report, led by the University of Melbourne alongside a global consortium of experts, explains why countries are relying on impractical levels of land-based efforts to achieve net-zero emissions, rather than pursuing more realistic climate solutions ...

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Environment

Reducing the risks of wildlife corridors

Peer-reviewed. Literature Review. Ecology. University of Leeds news Efforts to join up isolated plant and animal habitats across the world should also protect against unintentionally harming them, new research shows. The paper, led by the Universities of Leeds and Oxford and published today in Nature Reviews Biodiversity journal, states that work to connect fragmented wildlife habitats is essential - but it may also pose ecological risks including the unintentional spread of wildlife diseases and invasive species. Wildlife or ecological corridors ...

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Environment

Pusan National University researchers reveal how sea ice decline intensifies ocean mixing in warming polar regions

“Shaken, not stirred” — it is widely known how James Bond prefers his martinis. In physics, stirring stretches a fluid into thin streaks, creating turbulence and mixing its properties. In the ocean, a similar process occurs as winds and other forces move seawater. When this happens horizontally over tens to hundreds of kilometres, it is called mesoscale horizontal stirring (MHS). MHS plays a crucial role in redistributing heat, nutrients, and dissolved substances in the upper ocean, shaping plankton distribution and influencing ...

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Environment

Researchers use living fossils to uncover a wealth of genes for seed improvement

Seed plants are essential as a source of food, fuel, medicine, and more. Now, a multidisciplinary team of researchers has combined deep botanical knowledge with powerful genomic technology to decode and mine the DNA of non-flowering seed plants and uncover genes that evolved to help plants build seeds. These findings, published in Nature Communications, may aid scientists in improving seed crop production in agriculture and in the conservation of these ancient endangered seed plants. In this study by members of the New York Plant Genomics Consortium—a multi-institutional collaboration of botanists, evolutionary and genomics scientists, and bioinformaticians—the researchers ...

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Environment

Ocean in coastal areas becoming more acidic than previously thought

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL THURSDAY 13TH NOVEMBER 1000 GMT New research from the university of St Andrews has found that some coastal areas will become much more acidic than previously anticipated. With added atmospheric CO2, these areas are acidifying more quickly than thought, posing an existential threat to coastal economies around the world. ...

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Environment

Fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit record high in 2025

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to rise by 1.1% in 2025 – reaching a record high, according to new research by the Global Carbon Project. The 2025 Global Carbon Budget projects 38.1 billion tonnes of fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions this year. Decarbonisation of energy systems is progressing in many countries – but this is not enough to offset the growth in global energy demand. With projected emissions from land-use change (such as deforestation) down to 4.1 billion ...

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Environment

How climate change brings wildlife to the yard

As climate change increases the frequency of droughts, UCLA and UC Davis researchers found one overlooked side effect: People report more conflicts with wildlife during drought, when resources are scarce. For every inch that annual rainfall decreases, scientists found a 2% to 3% increase in reported clashes with a variety of carnivores during drought years, according to a paper published today, Nov. 12, in the journal Science Advances. The researchers pored through seven years of data from the Wildlife Incident Reporting database, run by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The results are likely broadly applicable outside of California, said lead author Kendall Calhoun, ...

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Environment

Hourly weather data reveals climate trends in U.S.

Studying historical hourly weather data – and the amount of time that temperatures remain above or below certain thresholds – reveals several impacts of U.S. regional climate change trends. In a new study, researchers from North Carolina State University found that over the past four and a half decades, areas in the northeastern U.S. have lost almost 1 1/2 weeks of temperatures below freezing, while portions of some states in the Gulf and Southwest have gained almost 1 1/2 weeks of temperatures that cause heat ...

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