ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

New economic model finds wetlands provide billions in filtration value

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 02:32 PM PST

Southern Ontario wetlands provide $4.2 billion worth of sediment filtration and phosphorus removal services each year, keeping our drinking water sources clean and helping to mitigate harmful and nuisance algal blooms in our lakes and rivers.

Scientists discover new avian immunological pathway

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 01:48 PM PST

Biomedical scientists have discovered a new immune pathway in chickens that viruses may be targeting. The discovery, which has implications also for diseases affecting other birds, sheds greater light on birds' immune responses to zoonotic viruses -- specifically, how those may differ from responses seen in humans.

Hungry yeast are tiny, living thermometers

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 12:10 PM PST

Researchers report that a yeast cells can actively regulate a process called phase separation in one of their membranes. During phase separation, the membrane remains intact but partitions into multiple, distinct zones or domains that segregate lipids and proteins. The new findings show for the first time that, in response to environmental conditions, yeast cells precisely regulate the temperature at which their membrane undergoes phase separation.

Lead lurking in your soil? New Chicago project maps distribution

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 08:26 AM PST

Lead haunts old homes in chipping paint and pipes, but it also lurks outside, in soil. It's the stuff of mud pies and garden plots, crumbling from boot treads to join household dust in forgotten corners. It's easily overlooked, but soil can be an important source of lead where children live and play.

Sediments a likely culprit in spread of deadly disease on Florida coral reefs, study finds

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 08:25 AM PST

A new study found that seafloor sediments have the potential to transmit a deadly pathogen to local corals and hypothesizes that sediments have played a role in the persistence of a devastating coral disease outbreak throughout Florida and the Caribbean.

Viral proteins join forces to lower plants' defense 'shields'

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 08:25 AM PST

New research into how viral proteins interact and can be disabled holds promise to help plants defend themselves against viruses -- and ultimately prevent crop losses. The study found that viral proteins interact with each other to help a virus hijack its host plant and complete its life cycle. When some of these viral proteins were disabled, the researchers found that the virus could not move from cell to cell.

Southern Ocean storms cause outgassing of carbon dioxide

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 08:25 AM PST

Storms over the waters around Antarctica drive an outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a new international study. The research group used advanced ocean robots for the study, which provides a better understanding of climate change and can lead to better global climate models.

Can reactor fuel debris be safely removed from Fukushima Daiichi?

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST

Decommissioning and clean-up are ongoing at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP); however, many difficult problems remain unaddressed. Chief amongst these problems is the retrieval and management of fuel debris.

Ocean microplastic pollution may be greater than estimated

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST

The great diversity of scientific techniques and methods used in the study of marine microplastics pollution limits the current knowledge of this serious environmental problem threatening our ecosystems.

Study identifies new way to attack herpesviruses

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST

A new study has opened the door to a new approach to attacking herpesviruses. The study demonstrated that targeting 2 metal ion-dependent enzymes of human herpesviruses with 2 compounds, AK-157 and AK-166, can inhibit the replication of the virus. The finding provides new opportunities to developing agents against herpesviruses.

An unexpected attraction of nucleic acids and fat

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST

All cells on Earth are enveloped in a fatty layer of lipids. Lipid membranes protect the content of the cells, including genetic information such as RNA and DNA. A new study reveals how lipids and RNA can directly interact and how this regulates RNA activity in unexpected ways. The study could help explain how RNA could be regulated in primordial or synthetic biological systems and lead to improvements in the design of RNA vaccines.

New technique boosts efficiency, sustainability of large-scale perovskite solar cells

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 06:30 AM PST

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a technique for producing perovskite photovoltaic materials on an industrial scale, which will reduce the cost and improve the performance of mass-produced perovskite solar cells.

Novel research identifies fresh 'mixers' in river pollution 'cocktail'

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 06:29 AM PST

Water quality in rivers is affected by underpinning 'natural' hydrogeological and biogeochemical processes, as well as interactions between people and their environment that are accelerating stress on water resources at unprecedented rates. Pollutants can move at different speeds and accumulate in varying quantities along rivers where the mix of the complex 'cocktail' of chemicals that is making its way towards the ocean is constantly changing, a new study reveals.

Forest emissions scheme makes 'tiny' contribution to Indonesia’s Paris targets

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 12:10 PM PST

More than 70 million tons of carbon were prevented from being released into the atmosphere under a deforestation emissions reduction scheme in Indonesia -- but researchers point out this is only 3 per cent of the total required by Indonesia's Nationally Defined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.

Calf personality, feeding, and growth: When one style doesn’t fit all

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 08:50 AM PST

In a natural setting, cows and nursing calves together set the feeding schedule for the calf, and calves wean gradually, completing weaning at varying ages. By contrast, in artificial rearing systems with minimal cow-calf contact, the weaning schedule may be strictly determined, with reductions of milk intake based solely on the calf's age. But how well do different calves thrive under different feeding and weaning systems?

Green backyards help increase urban climate resilience: Here is how

Posted: 24 Jan 2022 07:39 AM PST

Taking into account a variety of trees and green structures in four otherwise similar residential courtyards, a new study evaluates their effects on thermal comfort, biodiversity, carbon storage and social interaction. The authors show that those courtyards with more green structures yield considerably better results than those with fewer, and in their cooling capacity have a significant impact on people's thermal comfort.