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ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News |
| How legumes give oxygen to symbiotic bacteria in their roots Posted: 28 Oct 2021 11:37 AM PDT Scientists discover the genetics inside legumes that control the production of an oxygen-carrying molecule, crucial to the plant's close relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The finding offers the potential to give other plants the ability to produce ammonia from bacteria -- reducing the need for the fossil fuel-dependent and polluting practice of applying synthetic fertiliser to crops. |
| Satellite images show positive impact of conservation efforts for China's coastal wetlands Posted: 28 Oct 2021 11:36 AM PDT An international, interdisciplinary research team is using satellite images to measure the changes of coastal wetlands in China from the early 1980s to the present. The research team is also assessing the effects of conservation efforts on preserving and recovering these important ecosystems. |
| Warming climate will increase number of harmful algae blooms Posted: 28 Oct 2021 11:36 AM PDT A new study shows how changes in light conditions have a significant influence on the growth and impact of harmful algae blooms. The bottom line: a warming climate looks good for the growth of toxic algae and may disrupt other organisms that are part of the food web -- whether they graze on this algae or are consumed by it. |
| After California’s 3rd-largest wildfire, deer returned home while trees were ‘still smoldering’ Posted: 28 Oct 2021 11:36 AM PDT While many animals have adapted to live with wildfires of the past -- which were smaller, more frequent and kept ecosystems in balance across the West -- it's unclear to scientists how animals are coping with today's unprecedented megafires. A team of researchers tracked a population of black-tailed deer before, during and after the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire and found that most of the deer returned home within hours of the fire, while trees were still smoldering. |
| Intriguing insect fossils preserved in amber Posted: 28 Oct 2021 11:36 AM PDT What zoologists have discovered in samples of ancient amber -- insect larvae with unusual morphologies and larvae of early flying insects. |
| Reducing vessel activity key to southern resident killer whale survival Posted: 28 Oct 2021 09:04 AM PDT Reducing ship speed and noise levels would increase the probability that endangered West Coast southern resident killer whales will spend more time hunting for Chinook salmon, a new study has found. |
| Heatwaves like ‘the Blob' could decrease role of ocean as carbon sink Posted: 28 Oct 2021 09:03 AM PDT Researchers have found the two-year heatwave known as 'the Blob' may have temporarily dampened the Pacific's 'biological pump,' which shuttles carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea where it can be stored for millennia. |
| Plant from plastics: Bio-based polymers can be transformed into fertilizer Posted: 28 Oct 2021 06:32 AM PDT Bioplastics can be chemically recycled into nitrogen-rich fertilizers in a facile and environmentally friendly way, as recently demonstrated. Their findings pave the way towards sustainable circular systems that simultaneously address issues such as plastic pollution, petrochemical resource depletion, and world hunger. |
| Giant pandas’ distinctive black and white markings provide effective camouflage, study finds Posted: 28 Oct 2021 06:32 AM PDT The high-contrast pattern of giant pandas helps them blend in with their natural environment. |
| Industry must prepare now for a new world of green electricity Posted: 27 Oct 2021 06:18 PM PDT Industry must speed up investment in new technologies that allow manufacture of materials using renewable electricity if net zero emissions targets are to be met, research warns. The study cautions that national strategies for replacing fossil fuels with renewables need an integrated approach to energy use and material production -- or risk industry being unable to use electricity produced from renewable sources. |
| Living descendant of Sitting Bull confirmed by analysis of DNA from the legendary leader’s hair. Posted: 27 Oct 2021 12:07 PM PDT A man's claim to be the great-grandson of legendary Native American leader Sitting Bull has been confirmed using DNA extracted from Sitting Bull's scalp lock. This is the first time ancient DNA has been used to confirm a familial relationship between living and historical individuals. |
| More than ceremonial, ancient Chaco Canyon was home, new study says Posted: 27 Oct 2021 12:07 PM PDT New research reveals ancestral puebloans in ancient Chaco Canyon interacted with local ecosystem to thrive for more than a millennium, but unsustainable deforestation practices likely contributed to destabilizing environmental impact prior to their final exodus. |
| Twenty-four trillion pieces of microplastics in the ocean and counting Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:21 AM PDT Based on a total of 8,218 pelagic microplastic samples from the world's oceans collected between 2000 and 2019, a team of scientists has developed a publicly available dataset for assessing the abundance of microplastics and their long-term trend in the world's upper oceans. The team found 24.4 trillion pieces (82,000--578,000 tons) of microplastics in the world's oceans, but the actual amount is likely to be much greater. |
| Farming reboot could lay seeds for prosperity in poor and food insecure regions Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:21 AM PDT An irrigation re-think in sub-Saharan Africa is improving food security, reducing water waste and lifting people out of poverty. |
| A novel solution to a combinatorial optimization problem in bicycle sharing systems Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:21 AM PDT Bicycle sharing systems have become an attractive option to alleviate traffic in congested cities. However, rebalancing the number of bikes at each port as time passes is essential, and finding the optimal routing paths for the vehicles in charge of rebalancing constitutes a combinatorial optimization problem. Now, scientists propose an innovative algorithm that can find near-optimal solutions more quickly even for a large number of ports, paving the way for more efficient bicycle sharing systems. |
| A lab in the sky: Physics experiment in Earth’s atmosphere could help improve GPS performance Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:20 AM PDT The Earth's atmosphere has been used as a 'laboratory' to carry out a physics experiment which could help to improve the performance of GPS. |
| Polar bear diet may indicate prey distribution changes due to climate shifts Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:20 AM PDT How are warming temperatures and a loss of sea ice affecting polar bears and their marine mammal prey in the Arctic? A York University-led research team used a novel approach to the question by monitoring what polar bears eat across Nunavut and where they are catching their prey. |
| Optimal concentrations of enzymes and their substrates Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:19 AM PDT Biological cells invest much of their resources into the production of enzymes, which catalyze the conversion of substrates into products. An international team of bioinformaticians and biophysicists discovered that these processes are most efficient at a certain relationship between the intracellular enzyme and substrate concentrations. |
| Genetic risk of mental health conditions may influence where people choose to live, study suggests Posted: 27 Oct 2021 09:19 AM PDT Research on around 386,000 UK adults has found that a high genetic risk for schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder, anorexia and autism, is associated with living in and moving to urban areas. In contrast, people with low genetic risk of ADHD preferentially moved from rural/suburban environments to cities. |
| Fossil dental exams reveal how tusks first evolved and why they are unique only to mammals Posted: 27 Oct 2021 05:53 AM PDT Researchers trace the first tusks back to ancient mammal relatives that lived before the dinosaurs and shed light on the evolution of mammalian tusks by first defining what makes a tusk a tusk. |
| The ripple factor: Economic losses from weather extremes can amplify each other across the world Posted: 27 Oct 2021 05:53 AM PDT Weather extremes can cause economic ripples along our supply chains. If they occur at roughly the same time the ripples start interacting and can amplify even if they occur at completely different places around the world, a new study shows. The resulting economic losses are greater than the sum of the initial events, the researchers find in computer simulations of the global economic network. Rich economies are affected much more strongly than poor ones, according to the calculations. Currently, weather extremes around the world are increasing due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. If they happen simultaneously or in quick succession even at different places on the planet, their economic repercussions can become much bigger than previously thought. |
| Advancing agriculture threatens the livelihoods of forest-dependent people Posted: 26 Oct 2021 12:33 PM PDT Forest-dependent people living across the Gran Chaco have been put on the map for the first time. As agribusiness expands into the dry forest on which they rely, the impact of that expansion on them has been difficult to document because their homesteads are dotted over 1 million km2. But now an international team of researchers has used high resolution satellite imagery to systematically identify these homesteads across this vast area. |
| The nutritional value of giant kelp decreases as sea temperatures increase Posted: 26 Oct 2021 12:33 PM PDT As a foundational species, giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is vital to the ecosystem of the temperate, shallow, nearshore waters where it grows. When the kelp flourishes, so do the communities that rely on the fast-growing species for food and shelter. |
| Rapid echolocation helps toothed whales capture speedy prey Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:43 AM PDT Whales use a combination of rapid echolocation adjustments and nimble brain responses to zero in on fast-moving prey, suggests a new study. |
| Using overpasses as shelter from tornado? Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:43 AM PDT Meteorologists and emergency workers continue to contest the popular thinking that waiting out a tornado under an overpass is safe. According to the National Weather Service, doing so could actually increase the risk of death, in part because the wind from a tornado is thought to accelerate as it flows under the overpass, in what's known as the wind tunnel effect. |
| A new model could help stall shifting sand dunes, protecting infrastructure and ecosystems Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:43 AM PDT Scientists have used down-scaled laboratory models to show how sand dunes move through a landscape, revealing the conditions that determine whether they will pass through hurdles in their path -- like pipelines or walls -- or get stopped in their tracks. |
| A cost effective and quick way to find groundwater in arid regions Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:43 AM PDT Water is a scarce commodity in many countries worldwide, but new cost-effective technology pioneered by researchers in Australia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia could ensure sustainable water supplies for decades to come. |
| How a natural disaster can bring couples closer Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:42 AM PDT According to a study of couples in the Houston area before and after Hurricane Harvey, natural disasters can actually bring married couples closer together, at least temporarily. This surprised researchers because in previous studies looking at everyday stressors, couples typically experience 'stress spillover' in their relationships, which can decrease their satisfaction with their relationships. |
| Affordable policy which could stop fossil fuels causing global warming Posted: 26 Oct 2021 09:42 AM PDT Imagine a single policy, imposed on one industry, which would, if enforced consistently, stop fossil fuels causing global warming within a generation. The Carbon Takeback Obligation could do just that. It requires fossil fuel extractors and importers to dispose safely and permanently of a rising fraction of the CO2 they generate, with that fraction rising to 100% by the year of net-zero. Critically, this would include carbon dioxide generated by the products they sell. |
| Gardening for wildlife enhances bird diversity beyond your own backyard Posted: 26 Oct 2021 06:43 AM PDT Across the United States, bird populations are declining due to decreases in availability of habitat. Recently, a team of scientists explored the value of the biggest chunk of green space found in cities -- residential yards --as wildlife habitat. |
| Coffee and the effects of climate change Posted: 26 Oct 2021 06:43 AM PDT A systematic review highlights the vulnerability of coffee quality to environmental shifts associated with climate change and practices to mitigate the effects. Findings have implications for farmer livelihoods, consumer experiences and choices, and future strategies to support farms and product. |
| Managing water resources in a low-to-no-snow future Posted: 26 Oct 2021 05:54 AM PDT A new analysis finds that if greenhouse gas emissions continue along the high-emissions scenario, low-to-no-snow winters will become a regular occurrence in the western U.S. in 35 to 60 years. |
| Urban areas across the US are undercounting greenhouse gas emissions Posted: 25 Oct 2021 02:21 PM PDT Methane emissions from the distribution and use of natural gas across U.S. cities are 2 to 10 times higher than recent estimates from the Environmental Protect Agency, according to a new study. In Boston, methane emissions from the natural gas system are six times higher than recent estimates by the Massachusetts DEP and have not significantly changed in eight years, despite legislation aimed at repairing leaks in natural gas pipelines. |
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