ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

Rapid snowmelt can be dangerous, and understanding its drivers is important for understanding the world under the influence of climate change.

The transportation sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a lot of attention has been devoted to electric passenger vehicles and their potential to help reduce those emissions.

Australia's coastal ecosystems alone save the rest of the world costs of around 23 billion US dollar a year by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. Coastal ecosystems such as seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangrove forests make an important contribution to mitigating climate change.

Ecologists have applied stable isotope techniques to determine whether birds in the pet trade are captive or wild-caught, a key piece of evidence required in many cases to determine whether a trade is legal or not. They have applied this technique to the yellow-crested cockatoo, a critically endangered species from Indonesia/Timor-Leste with a global population of fewer than 2,500.

Plant material that lies to rot in soil isn't just valuable as compost. In fact, agricultural crop residue plays a crucial role in sequestering carbon, which is vital for reducing global CO2 emissions.

Forest clearance in Southeast Asia is accelerating, leading to unprecedented increases in carbon emissions, according to new research. The findings show that forests are being cut down at increasingly higher altitudes and on steeper slopes in order to make way for agricultural intensification.

Researchers examined the number of households unable to pay for damages from coastal flooding to reveal how sea-level rise could threaten the fabric of Bay Area communities over the next 40 years.

An international study of parks and gardens finds even the humble roadside verge plays an important role in the environment and for our health.