Environment
press releases.

Environment6 May 2025

McGill researchers develop practical new tool for detecting nanoplastics and microplastics in the environment

A team of McGill University researchers has developed a cost-effective, high-throughput technology for detecting nanoplastics and microplastics in the environment. These particles are pervasive, posing health and environmental risks, yet detecting them at the nanoscale has been difficult. The 3D-printed HoLDI-MS test platform overcomes the limitations of traditional mass spectrometry by enabling direct analysis of samples without requiring complex sample preparation. The researchers say it also will work for detection of waterborne plastic particles. HoLDI-MS stands for hollow-laser ...

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Environment6 May 2025

Research update: Okra, fenugreek extracts remove most microplastics from water

The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer. Previously, researchers proposed using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now, they report in ACS Omega that okra and/or fenugreek extracts attracted and removed up to 90% of microplastics in ocean water, freshwater and groundwater. Rajani Srinivasan and colleagues have been exploring nontoxic, plant-based approaches to attract ...

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Environment6 May 2025

Heat and drought are quietly hurting crop yields

More frequent hot weather and droughts have dealt a significant blow to crop yields, especially for key grains like wheat, barley, and maize, according to a Stanford study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The analysis finds that warming and air dryness – a key factor in crop stress – have surged in nearly every major agricultural region, with some areas experiencing growing seasons hotter than nearly any season 50 years ago. The study also pointed to two important ways that models have missed the mark ...

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Environment6 May 2025

Ultra-thin bismuth holds unexpected promise for green electronics: researcher

Electronic devices rely on materials whose electrical properties change with temperature, making them less stable in extreme conditions. A discovery by McGill University researchers that challenges conventional wisdom in physics suggests that bismuth, a metal, could serve as the foundation for highly stable electronic components. The researchers observed a mysterious electrical effect in ultra-thin bismuth that remains unchanged across a wide temperature range, from near absolute zero (-273°C) to room temperature. “If we can harness this, it could become important for green electronics,” said Guillaume ...

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Environment6 May 2025

Scientists discover a new way to convert corn waste into low-cost sugar for biofuel

RICHLAND, Wash. — Scientists at Washington State University have found a new way to produce sugar from corn stalks and other crop waste, potentially opening a new pathway to sustainable biofuels. Newly published in Bioresource Technology, their experimental process used ammonium sulfite-based alkali salts to convert corn stover—leftover corn stalks, husks, and other residues—into low-cost sugar for production of biofuels and bioproducts, making the process more economically feasible. "Inexpensive sugar is the key to commercial success for new technologies that make fuels and useful products from renewable biomass," ...

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Environment6 May 2025

Hebrew University’s Dr. Chaim Garfinkel named 2025 Blavatnik Awards Laureate for Pioneering Climate Research

Jerusalem, Israel – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is proud to announce that Dr. Chaim Garfinkel, Professor in the Institute of Earth Sciences, has been named a 2025 Laureate of the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel, one of the country’s most prestigious honors for early-career researchers. Dr. Garfinkel is the recipient in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category for his pioneering work in climate modeling and atmospheric dynamics and will receive US$100,000 in unrestricted funds for his research, which focuses on advancing the global scientific community’s understanding of how large-scale atmospheric phenomena influence climate variability ...

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Environment6 May 2025

Halo patterns around coral reefs may signal resilience

In coral reefs throughout the world, visually striking bands of bare sand surrounding reefs are often visible in satellite imagery but their cause remains a mystery. One theory is fear. Parrotfish and other herbivores will leave a reef's shelter to eat algae or the surrounding seagrass, but their fear of being gobbled up by predators may keep them from roving too far or eating too much, creating, what's known as "grazing halos"–bands encircling reefs where vegetation once existed. Prior studies have proposed that ...

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Environment5 May 2025

ED visits for asthma spiked during 2023 Canadian wildfires

New research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241506 found an increase in asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits across Ontario following heavy smoke in early June 2023. Canada experienced the most destructive wildfire season to date in 2023, with difficult-to-control fires across the country, including 29 mega-fires. One fire in Quebec, the province’s largest-ever wildfire, extended 1.2 million acres. Smoke from fires blanketed Canada and the United States, causing substantial damage, loss, and displacement. “The ...

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Environment2 May 2025

Vegetation changes accelerated climate shifts during the late Miocene, study finds

New research reveals that shifts in plant life played a key role in speeding up major climate changes during the late Miocene, a period spanning 11.6 to 5.3 million years ago. During this time, Earth’s climate shifted from the warm conditions of the middle Miocene to conditions closer to what we experience today, turning forests into grasslands and forcing animals like horses and elephants to evolve tougher teeth for eating gritty plants. At the same time, predators like big cats adapted to hunting in open plains, reshaping life on ...

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Environment2 May 2025

Dust in the system — How Saharan storms threaten Europe’s solar power future

As Europe increases its reliance on solar energy to meet climate and energy security targets, a growing atmospheric phenomenon is complicating the path forward: Saharan dust. New research presented at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU25) shows that mineral dust carried on the wind from North Africa is not only reducing photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation across Europe but also making it harder to predict. In their presentation at EGU25, The shadow of the wind: photovoltaic power generation under Europe’s dusty skies, Dr. György Varga and collaborators from Hungarian and European institutions reveal how dust-laden skies disrupt PV performance ...

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Environment2 May 2025

How mid-Cretaceous events affected marine top predators

Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous oceans are known for enormous and fierce predators like pliosaurids with 2-meter-long jaws, toothy thalattosuchia crocodyliforms, and fast, fish-like ichthyosaurians. Then, during the middle Cretaceous, the fossil record shows an abrupt change . Ichthyosaurs, thalattosuchians, and pliosaurids disappeared. Meanwhile, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and sharks diversified and expanded. What changed to cause species that had ruled the oceans for millions of years to suddenly die out and new species to ...

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Environment2 May 2025

How will 13 million farmers fight back against sea level rise? New global model simulates adaptation, migration, and survival in the face of climate crises

Embargoed until 02 May 2025 Researchers from the Institute for Environmental Sciences (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have unveiled DYNAMO-M, a groundbreaking global agent-based model that projects how farmers across the world’s coasts may respond to the growing threat of coastal flooding and salt intrusion due to sea level rise (SLR). The model, which will be presented at the EGU General Assembly 2025 in Vienna, offers new insights into the challenges faced by 13 million farming households globally. Using decision-making logic rooted in discounted expected ...

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Environment2 May 2025

PSU study gauges public's willingness on microplastic interventions

Laundry is a major source of microplastic pollution into the environment, and in-line washing machine filters are one potential solution for preventing fibers from entering waterways. But how likely would people be willing to pay for them? Portland State researchers surveyed a sample of registered voters and environmental interest groups in Oregon to gauge respondents' general knowledge and concerns surrounding microplastics, as well as their willingness to pay for high-efficiency washing machine filters. ...

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Environment1 May 2025

Adaptation and sluggish gene flow cannot save mountain plants from climate change

New findings challenge assumptions about species’ ability to persist under climate change. Following a nine-year study of over 100,000 individual Drummond's rockcress plants – a common plant found in mountains across North America – researchers reveal that climate change is outpacing natural gene flow, threatening population survival even within a broadly distributed plant species’ native range. The findings highlight the potential role of assisted gene flow in plant conservation. Climate change is rapidly altering where ...

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Environment1 May 2025

Study shows how millions of bird sightings unlock precision conservation

ITHACA, N.Y. —A groundbreaking study published today in Science reveals that North American bird populations are declining most severely in areas where they should be thriving. Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology analyzed 36 million bird observations shared by birdwatchers to the Cornell Lab’s eBird program alongside multiple environmental variables derived from high-resolution satellite imagery for 495 bird species across North America from 2007 to 2021. The team set out to develop reliable ...

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Environment1 May 2025

Intensifying farmland can sometimes degrade biodiversity more than expansion

The intensification of existing farmland can sometimes be more harmful to local biodiversity than expanding the area covered by agricultural land, finds a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. They showed that neither expansion nor intensification is consistently better for biodiversity, as it varies by factors including region, crop type and local vegetation. The findings, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, challenge the conventional wisdom in favour of intensification, that encourages farmers to improve the productivity of existing farmland with techniques such as increased fertiliser and pesticide use. Lead author Dr Silvia ...

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Environment1 May 2025

Cornstarch sanitary pads cheap enough to avoid tonnes of ocean plastics

A new lifecycle study published in IOP Publishing’s journal Sustainability Science and Technology has discovered a promising alternative to plastic sanitary products, potentially leading to far reduced sanitary waste. Sanitary pads made with cornstarch are 17 times more environmentally friendly compared to plastic equivalents. The high concentration of plastic in disposable products is a direct threat to the environment. An estimated 200,000 tonnes of sanitary products are disposed of every year, and the vast majority of them end up in the ocean. Key statistics: Sanitary pads made with cornstarch are 17 times more environmentally ...

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Environment30 Apr 2025

Ecological Society of America announces 2025 Fellows

The Ecological Society of America is pleased to announce its 2025 Fellows. The Society’s fellowship program recognizes the many ways in which its members contribute to ecological research, communication, education, management and policy. This year, the ESA Governing Board has confirmed eight new Fellows and ten new Early Career Fellows. Fellows are members who have made outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by ESA, including, but not restricted to, those that advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, ...

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Environment30 Apr 2025

Plastics may trigger hormone disruption in seabirds, new study finds

SAN DIEGO (April 30, 2025) — Many are aware of the dire challenges with plastic waste polluting the ocean, but new research shows it may harm wildlife in ways not previously understood. In a new study just published in the journal Environmental Pollution, researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance found that plastic swallowed by northern fulmars— seabirds found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans—can leak chemicals that interfere with the birds’ hormone systems. This ...

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Environment30 Apr 2025

Giant croclike carnivore fossils found in the Caribbean

Imagine a crocodile built like a greyhound — that’s a sebecid. Standing tall, with some species reaching 20 feet in length, they dominated South American landscapes after the extinction of dinosaurs until about 11 million years ago. Or at least, that’s what paleontologists thought, until they began finding strange, fossilized teeth in the Caribbean. “The first question that we had when these teeth were found in the Dominican Republic and on other islands in the Caribbean was: What are ...

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Environment29 Apr 2025

Forest in sync: Spruce trees communicate during a solar eclipse

A ground breaking international study has revealed spruce trees not only respond to a solar eclipse but actively anticipate it by synchronising their bioelectrical signals hours in advance into a cohesive, forest-wide phenomenon. The discovery, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, shows older trees exhibit a more pronounced early response, suggesting these ancient sentinels retain decades of environmental memory and may use it to inform younger trees of impending events. This study adds to the emerging evidence that plants ...

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Environment29 Apr 2025

Missed school is an overlooked consequence of climate change

In brief: · Exposure to tropical cyclones during early childhood significantly reduces school enrollment. · The effect is greater in areas unaccustomed to frequent storms. · Girls shoulder an uneven share of the burden. · Possible solutions include increased investment in disaster preparedness, resilient infrastructure, and community-based adaptation programs. New Stanford-led research sheds light on an overlooked climate consequence: the impact of tropical cyclones on schooling opportunities and education in low- and ...

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Environment29 Apr 2025

Gold for sports, green silver for industry!

A research team led by Dr. Ju-Yul Lee and Dr. Seil Kim from the Energy & Environment Materials Research Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has developed the world’s first eco-friendly silver (Ag) plating technology using a phosphorus (P) compound as a key plating component. This breakthrough technology enables silver plating without the use of highly toxic cyanide, by formulating an acidic plating solution based on phosphorus compounds that successfully produces uniform and stable silver thin films. Silver plating is an essential process for enhancing electrical signal transmission in semiconductors, electronic components, and circuit boards. Conventional ...

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Environment29 Apr 2025

Biodiversity and ecosystem stability

Microbial research suggests that biodiversity does not always increase ecosystem stability. Although many conservationists believe biodiversity is intrinsically valuable, the protection of biodiversity has also been argued for on the basis that diversity makes ecosystems healthier and more stable. But are highly diverse ecosystems more stable and productive than ecosystems with low diversity? The question has been investigated in plants and animals, where some evidence suggests a link between biodiversity and various measures of ecosystem function, but few studies have investigated the hypothesis’ applicability among microbes, ...

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Environment29 Apr 2025

Greasing the wheels of the energy transition to address climate change and fossil fuels phase out

The global energy system may be faced with an inescapable trade-off between urgently addressing climate change versus avoiding an energy shortfall, according to a new energy scenario tool developed by University of South Australia researchers and published in the open access journal Energies. The Global Renewable Energy and Sectoral Electrification model, dubbed ‘GREaSE’, has been developed by UniSA Associate Professor James Hopeward with three civil engineering graduates. ‘In essence, it’s an exploratory tool, designed ...

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