pressnews.MEDICINE · SCIENCE · EVIDENCE
RSSSearchMy library
The archive · since 2010
THE ORIGINAL COLLECTION · SINCE 2010

Environment
press releases.

Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.

Original publication datesPage 41
FIND A STORY

Find a past release.

Dates and source material belong to the original release.

Read our research explainers

Browse the collection · original publication order

Environment

How Germany’s 2021 floods could have been even worse

The devastating floods that killed nearly 200 people in Germany four years ago this month could have been even more damaging, new research suggests. The floods in July 2021 were among the worst disasters in German history. At least 196 people died in Germany, 43 people died in Belgium and the total damage to Central Europe amounted to €46 billion. The devastation of the floods was attributed to a climate change-driven shift in the jet stream that steered a huge storm that became “cut off” ...

Read the release
Environment

Study shows people perceive biodiversity

A new study published in People and Nature finds that both sight and sound influence perception of biodiversity, and participants were slightly more accurate when assessing forest biodiversity through sound alone than through sight alone. This interdisciplinary research, led by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, and Leipzig University, brings together methods from environmental psychology and forest and soundscape ecology. In a lab-based sorting study, two groups of 48 participants examined either photographs ...

Read the release
Environment

People can accurately judge biodiversity through sight and sound

People’s intuitive perception of biodiversity through visual and audio cues is remarkably accurate and aligns closely with scientific measures of biodiversity. This is according to new research published in the British Ecological Society journal, People and Nature. In a new study led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, participants with no ecological training were asked to sort ...

Read the release
Environment

How plants build the microbiome they need to survive in a tough environment

New research from Northern Arizona University points to the idea that under some conditions plants can “curate” their microbiomes—selecting good microbes and suppressing harmful ones—to adapt to their environments. The findings have significant implications for sustainable agriculture and offer a greater understanding of how complex ecosystems adapt in a changing environment. Regents’ Professor Nancy Collins Johnson in the School of Earth and Sustainability at NAU and professor César Marín from Universidad Santo Tomás in Chile authored the paper, published in July in The ISME ...

Read the release
Environment

Melting glaciers could trigger more explosive eruptions globally, finds research

Melting glaciers may be silently setting the stage for more explosive and frequent volcanic eruptions in the future, according to research on six volcanoes in the Chilean Andes. Presented today [Tuesday 8 July] at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague, the study suggests that hundreds of dormant subglacial volcanoes worldwide – particularly in Antarctica – could become more active as climate change accelerates glacier retreat. The link between retreating glaciers and increased volcanic activity has been known in Iceland since the 1970s, but this ...

Read the release
Environment

A nuanced model of soil moisture illuminates plant behavior and climate patterns

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Any home gardener knows they have to tailor their watering regime for different plants. Forgetting to water their flowerbed over the weekend could spell disaster, but the trees will likely be fine. Plants have evolved different strategies to manage their water use, but soil moisture models have mostly neglected this until now. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State University sought a way to move beyond simple on/off models to capture the nuanced ways that plants manage water stress. To ...

Read the release
Environment

Satellite observations provide insight into post-wildfire forest recovery

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 7, 2025 Contacts: Audrey Merket, NSF NCAR and UCAR Science Writer and Public Information Officer amerket@ucar.edu 303-497-8293 David Hosansky, NSF NCAR and UCAR Manager of Media Relations hosansky@ucar.edu 720-470-2073 Using satellite observations to evaluate forest recovery following a wildfire could be an innovative, cost-efficient way to assess the effectiveness of land management practices, according to research published earlier this year. Scientists at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research ...

Read the release
Environment

Climate change cuts milk production, even when farmers cool their cows

A new study finds extreme heat reduces milk production by up to 10 percent and adding cooling technologies only offsets about half of the loss. While recent studies have shown climate change will cut crop production, there has been less research into its impacts on livestock. Dairy farmers already know their cows are vulnerable to heat. What will more heat mean? In one of the most comprehensive assessments of heat’s impact on dairy cows, a study in the journal Science Advances finds one day of extreme heat can cut milk production by up to 10 percent. The effects ...

Read the release
Environment

Frozen, but not sealed: Arctic Ocean remained open to life during ice ages

For years, scientists have debated whether a giant thick ice shelf once covered the entire Arctic Ocean during the coldest ice ages. Now a new study published in Science Advances, challenges this idea as the research team found no evidence for the presence of a massive ~1km ice shelf. Instead, the Arctic Ocean appears to have been covered by seasonal sea ice—leaving open water and life-sustaining conditions even during the harshest periods of cold periods during the last 750,000 years. This discovery gives insights ...

Read the release
Environment

Unlocking the hidden biodiversity of Europe’s villages

Villages, often separated from larger towns and cities, consist of clusters of households and a few public buildings. Despite their long history, the biodiversity of European villages has been understudied compared to urban areas, forests, grasslands, or agricultural fields. A new study reveals their biodiversity potential and how nearby landscapes influence biodiversity patterns and human well-being. This research was led by an international team from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research with 20 other institutes contributing from Hungary, Romania, Germany, and Italy. Published in Nature Sustainability, ...

Read the release
Environment

Stuckeman professor’s new book explores ‘socially sustainable’ architecture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Alexandra Staub, author and professor of architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School at Penn State, examines how architects can better serve society by changing their approach to the building process in her latest book titled “Architecture and Social Sustainability: Understanding the New Paradigm.” Published by Routledge, the book presents examples of “how we can better design for stakeholder agency, serve historically marginalized populations, and further our theoretical thinking about sustainability writ large,” according to the book’s ...

Read the release
Environment

Forests can’t keep up: Adaptation will lag behind climate change

Ecologists are concerned that forest ecosystems will not keep pace with a rapidly changing climate, failing to remain healthy and productive. Before the rapid climate change of the past century, tree populations in the Northern Hemisphere adapted to colder and warmer periods over thousands of years. During onsets of Ice Ages, tree populations migrated south, seeking warmer conditions as global temperatures cooled, their seeds dispersed by winds and carried by animals. When the climate warmed again, tree species adapted by migrating north to more suitable conditions. Mature trees are long-lived, and their populations can’t migrate quickly. Current climate change ...

Read the release
Environment

Research reveals Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5˚ C higher than today

Scientists have found evidence that the Asian continent was free of permafrost all the way to its northerly coast with the Arctic Ocean when Earth’s average temperature was 4.5˚C warmer than today, suggesting that the whole Northern Hemisphere would have also been free of permafrost at the time. The stark findings indicate that if average global temperatures were to rise by this amount in the future, permafrost found in the Northern Hemisphere today would thaw. Such a temperature increase would release up to 130 billion tonnes of carbon currently frozen in the ground over the coming decades. The ...

Read the release
Environment

Ships trigger high and unexpected emissions of the greenhouse gas methane

Ship traffic in shallow areas, such as ports, can trigger large methane emissions by just moving through the water. The researchers in a study, led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, observed twenty times higher methane emissions in the shipping lane compared to nearby undisturbed areas. Despite the fact that methane is a greenhouse gas that is 27 times as powerful as carbon dioxide, these emissions are often overlooked with today's measurement methods. "Our measurements show that ship passages trigger clear pulses of high methane fluxes from the water to the atmosphere. This is caused by pressure changes and mixing ...

Read the release
Environment

Climate crisis could force wild vanilla plants and pollinating insects apart, threatening global supply

Vanilla flavoring is widely used in food, pharmaceutics, and cosmetics. The primary source, Vanilla planifolia, however, is vulnerable to diseases, drought, and heat – stressors expected to become more frequent under climate change. Wild Vanilla species offer a genetic reservoir of crop wild relatives ensuring the future of the vanilla crop. Scientists have now examined how climate change could cause mismatches in habitat overlap of wild vanilla and their pollinating insects. “Climate change may lead to a reduced habitat overlap between Vanilla orchid species and their pollinators, resulting in plant-pollinator decoupling that negatively ...

Read the release
Environment

Green transition will boost UK productivity

The green transition will boost productivity across the UK economy, new research suggests. Researchers analysed the impacts of the low-carbon transition in power, transport and heating. With renewable energy now cheaper than fossil fuels in most of the world – and still getting cheaper – the findings show these three industries benefit directly from the transition. But the far larger knock-on effect is an economy-wide productivity boost, as all businesses gain from cheaper power, transport and heating. The research team – led by the universities of Exeter and Manchester – warn that this boost depends on cheaper ...

Read the release
Environment

Upgrading biocrude oil into sustainable aviation fuel using zeolite-supported iron-molybdenum carbide nanocatalysts

Wet wastes, including food waste and biomass, are promising candidates for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production due to their triglyceride content, which can be converted into biocrude via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). SAF precursors must meet criteria derived from conventional fuels (e.g. Jet A), including complete oxygen removal to prevent jet engine corrosion and a higher heating value (HHV) close to Jet A. Currently, no HTL-derived biocrude meets these. This study, with contributions from researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation ...

Read the release
Environment

Extraterrestrial habitats: bioplastics for life beyond earth

Key takeaways SEAS researchers grew green algae inside shelters that recreated pressure conditions on Mars. The shelters were made from bioplastics derived from algae. The experiments demonstrate the possibility of closed-loop, sustainable habitats in space. If humans are ever going to live beyond Earth, they’ll need to construct habitats. But transporting enough industrial material to create livable spaces would be incredibly challenging and expensive. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) think there’s a better way, through biology. An international team of researchers led by Robin Wordsworth, ...

Read the release
Environment

Air pollution is linked to adverse birth outcomes in India

Prenatal exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and climatic factors, such as temperature and rainfall, are associated with adverse birth outcomes in India, according to a study published July 2nd, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Mary Abed Al Ahad from the University of St Andrews, U.K. Ambient air pollution poses a global threat to human health, with a disproportionate burden of its detrimental effects falling on those residing in low and middle-income countries. Referred to as the silent killer, ...

Read the release
Environment

The imitation game – why are some species better at fooling predators than others?

Experts from the University of Nottingham have created life-size 3D-printed insect models to explore how some species trick predators into thinking they're more dangerous than they really are — and avoid being eaten as a result. In the new study, published in Nature, a team of experts, led by Dr Tom Reader and Dr Christopher Taylor in the School of Life Sciences, used 3D printed models to investigate Batesian mimicry – a phenomenon where a harmless species evolves to resemble a harmful species, fooling ...

Read the release
Environment

Global drought hotspots report catalogs severe suffering, economic damage in 2023-2025

Fuelled by climate change and relentless pressure on land and water resources, some of the most widespread and damaging drought events in recorded history have taken place since 2023, according to a UN-backed report launched today. Prepared by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), with support from the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the report, "Drought Hotspots Around the World 2023-2025," provides a comprehensive account of how droughts compound poverty, ...

Read the release
Environment

New fossils from Earth’s most famous extinction show climate tipping point was crossed

University of Leeds news Embargoed until 10:30 BST, 2 July 2025 Images available here New fossils from Earth’s most famous extinction show climate tipping point was crossed The collapse of tropical forests during Earth’s most catastrophic extinction event was the primary cause of the prolonged global warming which followed, according to new research. The Permian–Triassic Mass Extinction – sometimes referred to as the "Great Dying," happened around 252 million years ago, leading to the massive loss of marine species and significant declines in terrestrial plants and ...

Read the release
Environment

Religion, politics and war drive urban wildlife evolution

The downstream consequences of religion, politics and war can have far-reaching effects on the environment and on the evolutionary processes affecting urban organisms, according to a new analysis from Washington University in St. Louis. Typically viewed from a sociological perspective, the implications of religion, politics and war are rarely discussed in the field of evolutionary biology. That should change, according to an international team of biologists, including Elizabeth Carlen in Arts & Sciences at WashU, co-lead author ...

Read the release
Environment

What about tritiated water release from Fukushima? Ocean model simulations provide an objective scientific knowledge on the long-term tritium distribution

Tokyo, Japan – Operators have pumped water to cool the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) since the accident in 2011 and treated this cooling water with the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which is a state-of-the-art purification system that removes radioactive materials, except tritium. As part of the water molecule, tritium radionuclide, with a half-life of 12.32 years, is very costly and difficult to remove. The ALPS-treated water was accumulating and stored at the FDNPP site and there is limited space to store this ...

Read the release
Environment

Efficient carbon integration of CO₂ in propane aromatization over acidic zeolites

Aromatics, as extremely crucial basic chemicals in the modern industrial system, are widely used in many fields such as energy, medicine, materials and the daily chemical industry. However, the traditional petroleum-based production routes, such as naphtha cracking and catalytic reforming, are facing the dual pressures of tight petroleum resources and carbon emissions. Meanwhile, CO2, as a typical greenhouse gas, its efficient and value-added utilization offers dual benefits in both environment and economic development, but is limited by its thermodynamic stability, and there are still challenges in producing aromatics with high selectivity through hydrogenation pathways. Propane, as a major ...

Read the release
From the original Press-News collection. Issuers of news releases are responsible for the accuracy of their content.