ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

As climate conditions change, tree species are shifting their ranges. Wildfire is accelerating this process, likely by reducing competition from established species -- a finding that raises questions about how to manage land in an era of shifting ecosystems.

Fifteen years ago, the African Union decided on an ambitious program: degraded ecosystems in parts of the Sahel are to be successively restored in order to secure food for the people living there and to protect the soil against further degradation. At the same time, the African Great Green Wall is an important contribution to combating climate change. A study now shows that it also makes economic sense - although not everywhere in the Sahel.

More than 70% of microplastics found in samples from oceans and rivers could come from the scientists collecting them. A new article investigates procedural contamination when sampling for microparticles in aquatic environments. The study shows that a significant amount of microplastics and microfibres from scientists' clothing and gear mixes with environmental pollution in the water samples.

A new electrocatalyst called a-CuTi@Cu converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid fuels. Active copper centered on an amorphous copper/titanium alloy produces ethanol, acetone, and n-butanol with high efficiency.

Efforts to protect threatened and endangered species in central Africa might be more successful if they focused on a smaller geographic area, new research suggests.

Archaeologists have discovered remains of a Roman arched aqueduct during excavation work on the Hellenistic royal city of Artashat-Artaxata in ancient Armenia. It is the easternmost arched aqueduct in the Roman Empire.

A new study measured respiratory particles produced from people singing or playing instruments. Is singing worse than talking when it comes to how many particles are being emitted? Yes, according to the study. And the louder one talks or sings, the worse the emissions. A person's age and whether they are male or female also affects their respiratory emissions, with males and adults emitting more airborne particles, on average, than females and minors.

A peptide sensor to detect water-soluble polymers in wastewater, a major contributor to pollution on par with microplastics, has been developed. The new technique takes advantage of the bonding that occurs between peptides and different polymers to train a machine learning algorithm that can both identify and quantify a large number of pollutants in a single solution.

Hydrocarbons, which are an essential component of crude oil and natural gas, form under pressure and high temperatures in the deep ocean floor. In the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California, researchers have detected hydrocarbon gas patterns that could not have been generated by known formation pathways. In their study they describe a new pathway for the formation of two of the main components of natural gas, ethane and propane, via reduction of acetic acid. The team has investigated the isotopic signatures and simulated hydrocarbon formation in laboratory experiments.