ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Insects beware! This west coast plant wants to eat you

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:27 PM PDT

The delicate stalk and pretty white flowers of Triantha occidentalis may seem like the perfect place to perch if you're an insect, but get trapped in its sticky hairs and it will suck the nutrients from your dead corpse.

Drug-resistant bacteria found in the guts of lemurs who live around humans

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:27 PM PDT

Researchers have found evidence for antibiotic resistance in the gut microbiomes of lemurs living close to humans. The more human contact they have, the more antibiotic resistance there is. Even captive animals who have never been administered an antibiotic carried the resistant microbes.

Global ocean warming started later in the 20th century than previously estimated

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 01:27 PM PDT

In estimations of ocean heat content -- important when assessing and predicting the effects of climate change -- calculations have often presented the rate of warming as a gradual rise from the mid-20th century to today. However, new research could overturn that assumption, suggesting the ocean maintained a relatively steady temperature throughout most of the 20th century, before embarking on a steep rise. The newly discovered dynamics may have significant implications for what we might expect in the future.

Why middle-class residents want to stay put after floodwaters recede

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:41 AM PDT

Flood disasters like Hurricane Harvey lead some people to move far from the places they had called home. But a new study finds that middle-class people who made long-term plans to stay in their neighborhoods before they flooded are less likely to relocate even if they suffered significant damage.

Microplastics: A trojan horse for metals

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:41 AM PDT

The fact that microplastics can accumulate organic pollutants from the environment and transport them has been known for some time. What is new, however, is that metals can also be transported in this manner. In addition, the smaller the particles, the greater the metal accumulation on the plastic.

Shift away from earthen homes ‘environmentally damaging’

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:40 AM PDT

Attitudes to earthen homes need to change to prevent millions of them being replaced by buildings made from more environmentally damaging materials, warn scientists. The researchers found that the usual rule-of-thumb estimate for the number of people worldwide living in earthen homes is way out of date, dropping from about one in three people to one in every ten or 12 people.

Climate change ‘double whammy’ could kill off fish species

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:40 AM PDT

New study of 150 million years of fish evolution provides first evidence to support scientific theory that commonly-eaten fish species will become smaller as waters warm under climate change. However, it reveals unexpected finding that they will also produce fewer new species, meaning they will be less able to move to more suitable environments and to adapt through evolution, as the planet warms faster than ever.

Salt marsh resilience compromised by crabs along tidal creek edges

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:40 AM PDT

Coastal marshes are vulnerable to erosion caused by rising seas, pounding waves, and tidal flows. In California's Elkhorn Slough, these vulnerabilities are made worse by superabundant crabs found at their highest densities along the estuary's tidal creeks, according to a new study.

Green hydrogen: Why do certain catalysts improve in operation?

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 11:40 AM PDT

As a rule, most catalyst materials deteriorate during repeated catalytic cycles – they age. But there are also compounds that increase their performance over the course of catalysis. One example is the mineral erythrite, a mineral compound comprising cobalt and arsenic oxides. Erythrite lends itself to accelerating oxygen generation at the anode during electrolytic splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Microbes turn back the clock as research discovers their potential to reverse aging in the brain

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:22 AM PDT

Research introduces a novel approach to reverse aspects of aging-related deterioration in the brain and cognitive function via the microbes in the gut.

How wildfire restored a Yosemite watershed

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 09:21 AM PDT

Despite the risk, allowing lightning fires to burn in Yosemite's Illilouette Creek Basin has brought undeniable ecological benefits, including boosting plant and pollinator biodiversity, limiting the severity of wildfires and increasing water availability during times of drought. These benefits are likely to make the forest more resilient to the warmer, drier conditions brought by climate change. Paired with prescribed burning and forest thinning, the practice could help make the Sierra Nevada more resilient to wildfire.

Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying: IPCC

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 08:11 AM PDT

Scientists are observing changes in the Earth's climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest IPCC Report. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion -- such as continued sea level rise -- are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.

Birds’ eye size reflects habitat and diet, may predict sensitivity to environmental change

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:58 AM PDT

A new study shows the eye size of birds can reveal broad patterns of their biology and behavior, including where they live, what they eat and how they hunt, providing a potential roadmap for future conservation efforts.

Researchers find a ‘fearsome dragon’ that soared over outback Queensland

Posted: 09 Aug 2021 07:04 AM PDT

Australia's largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with an estimated seven-meter wingspan that soared like a dragon above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland.

Starving pneumonia-causing bacteria of its favorite 'food' holds promise for new antibiotics

Posted: 06 Aug 2021 12:58 PM PDT

Researchers have revealed how the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) obtains the essential nutrient, manganese, from our bodies, which could lead to better therapies to target what is a life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant pathogen.

Uncovering fragmentation differences in chiral biomolecules

Posted: 06 Aug 2021 10:14 AM PDT

New research published in EPJ D combines mass spectroscopy with a range of other simulation and analytical techniques, allowing researchers to distinguish between two chiral forms of a dipeptide biomolecule.