ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

Four thousand years before Stonehenge was constructed, land within the World Heritage Site was covered by open woodland, with meadow-like clearings, inhabited by grazing animals and hunter-gatherers, according to new research.

The health of residents living alongside a bus route in Gothenburg, Sweden, became considerably better when hybrid buses were replaced by buses fully powered by electricity. Along with the noise levels there was a reduction of fatigue, day time sleepiness and low mood, a new study shows.

Scientists have found new types of plastic loving bacteria that stick to plastic in the deep sea that may enable them to 'hitchhike' across the ocean.

An international team of researchers have developed a method to assess sustainable levels of human-caused wildlife mortality, which when applied to a trawl fishery shows that dolphin capture is not sustainable.

Researchers used supercomputers to run high-resolution climate simulations that show how historically-impactful storm events could look in a warmer world. The researchers simulated five of the most powerful storms that have hit the San Francisco Bay Area since 1984, then projected how these historical storms would look in 2050 and 2100. They determined that some of these extreme events would deliver 26-37 percent more rain by 2100.

Researchers created a portable desalination unit that can remove particles and salts simultaneously to generate drinking water. The user-friendly unit, which weighs less than 10 kilograms and does not require filters, can be powered by a small, portable solar panel.

Researchers have significantly improved the performance of numerical predictions for agricultural nitrous oxide emissions that could significantly reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture.

Human-caused climate change will make strong tropical cyclones twice as frequent by the middle of the century, putting large parts of the world at risk, according to a new study. The analysis also projects that maximum wind speeds associated with these cyclones could increase around 20%.

New evidence links residential exposure to greenspace, such as green vegetation, as a potential population-level approach to improve processing speed and attention, and overall cognitive function.

The origin of complex cells started without oxygen, new research suggests.

Coral species exhibit different temperature tolerances. This is in part due to the composition of their microalgae symbionts. With a new method, researchers were able to predict how individual microalgae might behave under future temperature stress and identify more tolerant coral symbionts. In combination with forthcoming single cell selection and growth experiments, the identification of climate resilient cells provides opportunity to help mitigate the effects of coral bleaching.