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Environment
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Environment

Improving resilience to tsunamis and earthquakes via predictions of waste disposal times

Tsunamis and earthquakes pose devastating threats to coastal communities worldwide. However, beyond the immediate destructive power of these events, the negative impact of the disaster waste they produce is sometimes overlooked. For example, when the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake struck, approximately 23 million tons of waste were generated, severely hindering post-disaster recovery processes. Similarly, the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake produced 2.7 million tons of waste—equivalent to seven years of normal waste disposal. Thus, rapid processing of disaster waste is essential for restoring community functionality, making it a critical ...

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Environment

Wet soils increase flooding during atmospheric river storms

Atmospheric rivers are responsible for most flooding on the West Coast of the U.S., but also bring much needed moisture to the region. The size of these storms doesn’t always translate to flood risk, however, as other factors on the ground play important roles. Now, a new study helps untangle the other drivers of flooding to help communities and water managers better prepare. The research, published June 4 in the Journal of Hydrometeorology, analyzed more than 43,000 atmospheric river storms across 122 watersheds on the West Coast between 1980 and 2023. The researchers found that one ...

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Environment

Turning carbon dioxide into fuel just got easier, thanks to acid bubbles

A team of researchers at Rice University have discovered a surprisingly simple method for vastly improving the stability of electrochemical devices that convert carbon dioxide into useful fuels and chemicals, and it involves nothing more than sending the CO 2 through an acid bubbler. Their study, published in Science, addresses a major bottleneck in the performance and stability of CO 2 reduction systems: the buildup of salt that clogs gas flow channels, reduces efficiency and causes the ...

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Environment

How ‘supergenes’ help fish evolve into new species

Researchers have found that chunks of ‘flipped’ DNA can help fish quickly adapt to new habitats and evolve into new species, acting as evolutionary ‘superchargers’. Why are there so many different kinds of animals and plants on Earth? One of biology’s big questions is how new species arise and how nature’s incredible diversity came to be. Cichlid fish from Lake Malawi in East Africa offer a clue. In this single lake, over 800 different species have evolved from a common ancestor in a fraction of the time it took for humans and chimpanzees to evolve from their common ancestor. What’s ...

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Environment

Targeted management of invasive species could reduce EU species extinction risk by 16%

Gland, Switzerland (IUCN) –Experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have analysed how targeted management of invasive alien species (IAS) can reduce extinction risks for threatened species across the European Union (EU), in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, and funded by the European Commission, a new study identifies where and how targeted action against IAS (species that have been introduced to areas outside their ...

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Environment

Hanyang University researchers discovered new breakthrough catalyst for cheaper green hydrogen production

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change, the world urgently needs clean and renewable energy sources. Hydrogen is one such clean energy source that has zero carbon content and stores much more energy by weight than gasoline. One promising method to produce hydrogen is electrochemical water-splitting, a process that uses electricity to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen. In combination with renewable energy sources, this method offers a sustainable way to produce hydrogen and can contribute ...

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Environment

Centuries-old mercury pollution hidden in the ocean threatens arctic wildlife

New Danish research reveals ocean currents as a major source of mercury contamination in the Arctic Despite global reductions in mercury emissions, mercury concentrations in Arctic wildlife continue to rise. A new study published in Nature Communications by researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen reveals that ocean currents may be transporting legacy mercury pollution to the Arctic—posing a long-term threat to ecosystems and human health. “We’ve ...

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Environment

Study finds ethical justification to eradicate certain harmful species

Under what conditions would it be right — or is it never acceptable — to eliminate a harmful species from our planet? That’s what an international team of researchers, including Professor of Philosophy Dr. Clare Palmer from Texas A&M University, explores in a study published in Science. In the study, “Deliberate extinction by genome modification: An ethical challenge,” researchers examine the controversial idea of using genetic engineering for local and full species extinction as a conservation strategy. They conducted ...

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Environment

Leading scientists: Trees and tech needed for carbon removal to help meet the 2C goal of the Paris agreement

Researchers released a peer-reviewed analysis in the academic journal Climate Policy today arguing that the urgent work of removing excess carbon from the atmosphere — known as carbon dioxide removal (CDR) — can’t just rely on complex, untested techniques to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and inject it deep underground or pump it into the ocean. Rather, they show that nature-based solutions, which include restoring forests and other ecosystems that capture atmospheric CO2 using the ancient biochemical process ...

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Environment

How trace elements are recycled in the deep sea

The oceans are full of living things, with microscopic algae (phytoplankton) at the base of the marine food chain. These organisms make a living in the same way as land plants, using the sunlight that penetrates the upper 100 meters or so of the ocean as the energy source by which they synthesise organic matter for their cells. Every year, these tiny algae make about as much organic carbon as land plants. Like land plants, they obtain the building blocks of their cells from the surrounding environment – not a soil in this case but the seawater solution they live in. But unlike the land ecosystem, when these algae die, they fall into the dark ...

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Environment

Green seaweed replaces seagrass, but slugs pose new threats

Seagrasses are critical to coastal ecosystems – offering habitat, stabilizing the seafloor and buffering wave energy – but globally they’re increasingly under threat. Beginning in 2011, a series of intense algal blooms – fueled by pollution and nutrient overload – wiped out vast stretches of vital seagrass beds in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon (IRL). In the wake of this collapse, the fast-growing green seaweed Caulerpa prolifera has spread across areas once dominated by native seagrass species like Halodule wrightii, filling in the ...

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Environment

From plastic waste to clean hydrogen: A scalable solar-powered solution

A team of Korean scientists has developed an innovative green technology that transforms plastic waste into clean hydrogen fuel using only sunlight and water. Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) Center for Nanoparticle Research, led by Professor KIM Dae-Hyeong and Professor HYEON Taeghwan of Seoul National University, announced the successful development of a photocatalytic system that produces hydrogen from PET bottles. The key innovation lies in wrapping the photocatalyst in a hydrogel polymer, which helps it float on water and stay active even under harsh environmental ...

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Environment

SwRI-led PUNCH mission images huge solar eruption

SAN ANTONIO — June 10, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Craig DeForest discussed the latest accomplishments of NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission during a media event at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. As the spacecraft constellation completes commissioning, early PUNCH data showed coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, as they erupted from the Sun and traveled across the inner solar system. “These preliminary movies show that PUNCH can actually track space weather across ...

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Environment

Why common climate messaging often backfires – and how to fix it

In brief: Climate behavior gap: Most Americans overrate the climate impact of actions like recycling and underrate high-impact choices like skipping long flights or eating less meat, a new study finds. Spillover risk: Interventions that focus only on personal behavior can reduce willingness to engage in collective climate action, such as voting or protesting. What works: Active learning boosts climate literacy and commitment to impactful lifestyle changes – but must be paired with strategies that also support collective action. Many Americans misjudge which personal behaviors have the biggest impact ...

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Environment

New study offers detailed look at winter flooding in California’s central valley

California’s Central Valley — one of the nation's most critical agricultural regions and home to over 1.3 million people — is prone to flooding. Mapping the extent of winter floods has been challenging for experts, however, because clouds can obscure the view of satellites. Recent efforts to improve satellite flood mapping have been incorporated into a new study that offers insight into where winter flooding is occurring and inform how floodwaters can be used to replenish depleted aquifers. The research, published June 4 in ...

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Environment

The development of China’s national carbon market: An overview

The launch of China’s national carbon market has doubled the emissions covered by global carbon pricing mechanisms, making it the world’s largest carbon market. It is expected to be a crucial tool for China in achieving its climate goals of peaking CO2 emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. A research team composed of members from Tsinghua University and Carnegie Mellon University, recently published a review article in the journal Energy and Climate Management, outlining the development background and process of China’s national ...

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Environment

Largest twin study explores whether the environment affects people differently depending on their genes

An international team of researchers led by King’s College London have identified genetic factors that may make some individuals more or less sensitive to the environments they experience. Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the study examined how individuals’ varying sensitivity to environmental factors can influence levels of ADHD symptoms, autistic traits, anxiety and depression symptoms, psychotic experiences and neuroticism. The researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology ...

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Environment

New oil and gas fields incompatible with Paris climate goals

Opening any new North Sea oil and gas fields is incompatible with achieving the Paris Climate Agreement goals of limiting warming to 1.5°C or holding warming to “well below 2°C” relative to preindustrial levels, finds a new report published by UCL academics. Researchers behind the study, based at the UCL Energy Institute, UCL Department of Political Science and UCL Policy Lab, are now calling on the UK Government to stop licensing new oil and gas exploration, and refuse development consent for already-licensed ...

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Environment

Virginia Tech study sheds light on solar farm impacts to property values

As solar energy becomes more affordable and widespread, farmland has emerged as a prime location for large-scale solar development. But with this expansion comes a persistent question: Do nearby property values suffer when solar farms move in? In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers in Virginia Tech’s Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences looked at millions of property sales and thousands of commercial solar sites to shed some light on one of the mostly commonly cited downsides of large-scale solar adoption. “As the ...

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Environment

Rings of time: unearthing climate secrets from ancient trees

Deep in the swamps of the American Southeast stands a quiet giant: the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). These majestic trees, with their knobby “knees” and towering trunks, are more than just swamp dwellers – they’re some of the oldest living organisms in Eastern North America. Some have been around for more than 2,500 years, quietly thriving in nutrient-poor, flooded forests where most other trees would wither. But life isn’t easy for these ancient trees. They’re under siege ...

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Environment

Fossilized dinosaur gut shows that sauropods barely chewed

Plant fossils found in the abdomen of a sauropod support the long-standing hypothesis that these dinosaurs were herbivores, finds a study publishing June 9 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology. The dinosaur, which was alive an estimated 94 to 101 million years ago, ate a variety of plants and relied almost entirely on its gut microbes for digestion. “No genuine sauropod gut contents had ever been found anywhere before, despite sauropods being known from fossils found on every continent and despite the group ...

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Environment

Protected Antarctic oceanic life threatened by ships anchoring, first underwater videos show

Ships operate in every ocean, and even the most remote waters aren’t off-limits. When they anchor, they leave behind a footprint. Anchoring cannot only disrupt marine life but also may damage undersea cables or pipelines, disrupt communication and cut off power supply. Yet, global ship activity and therefore anchoring is becoming more widespread, even in the most remote regions of the planet. Now, an international team of scientists has gathered the first video evidence of anchoring and chain damage in Antarctic waters. The team’s results are ...

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Environment

Hurricanes create powerful changes deep in the ocean, study reveals

With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico. The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed and found that the storms churn the ocean so powerfully and deeply — up to thousands of meters — that nutrient-rich, cold water is brought to the surface. The resulting phytoplankton blooms — visible in satellite imagery taken from space — are a feast for bacteria, zooplankton, small fish, and filter-feeding animals such as shellfish ...

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Environment

Drought-resilient plant holds promise for future food production, study finds

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated in an intact plant a long-contested process that allows some plants to rebound from extended drought. The team of Colorado State University, University of Colorado and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists says understanding this special trait could improve agricultural productivity and food security. Drought costs the United States billions in agricultural losses and increased irrigation. Lost productivity lowers food availability and raises prices for ...

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Environment

UN-backed research team shows benefits of tracking ocean giants for marine conservation

A global research project endorsed by the United Nations called "MegaMove" has tracked over 100 marine megafauna species, identifying the most critical locations in our global oceans for better marine conservation efforts, drawing from UC Santa Cruz's vast data sets on marine-mammal movements and behaviors. In a report published today in Science, the international team of scientists comprising MegaMove show where protection could be implemented specifically for the conservation of marine megafauna. This category of creatures include some of the ocean’s most recognizable denizens: sharks, whales, turtles, and seals. They ...

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