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Categories: Biology: Botany, Geoscience: Environmental Issues

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What we think of as the classic West Coast climate began just about 4,000 years ago, finds a study on climate trends of the Holocene era.

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The new method simultaneously monitors the size and shape of the clumps and the mixing intensity in a single step, in real time, allowing for more accurate measurements. The value of the research lies in the fact that mixing is one of the most energy-consuming processes during water and wastewater purification.

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Researchers have succeeded in producing very special catalysts, known as 'Lewis superacids', which can be used to break strong chemical bonds and speed up reactions. The production of these substances has, until now, proven extremely difficult. The chemists' discovery enables non-biodegradable fluorinated hydrocarbons, similar to Teflon, and possibly even climate-damaging greenhouse gases, such as sulphur hexafluoride, to be converted back into sustainable chemicals.

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Using a new dataset, scientists analyzed the coordinates and surface of 183 million buildings in nearly 6,000 cities across all 52 countries in Africa. With their model, they quantify the shape of cities. Thus, they show that if a city's population doubles, the energy demand associated with commuting triples. These results clearly show how important it will be to plan fast-growing cities in a sustainable way.

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Scientists reveal that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts globally. They show that climate shifts can drive conflicts by altering animal habitats, the timing of events, wildlife behaviors and resource availability. It also showed that people are changing their behaviors and locations in response to climate change in ways that increase conflicts.

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After more than 30 years, botanists have rediscovered Thismia kobensis, a type of mysterious-looking rare plant commonly referred to as 'fairy lanterns'. Thismia kobensis was presumed extinct and the surprise rediscovery of this Japanese variety has illuminated hidden aspects of fairy lanterns that have puzzled and fascinated botanists for centuries.

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Glaciers -- giant blocks of moving ice -- along Antarctica's coastline are flowing faster in the summer because of a combination of melting snow and warmer ocean waters, say researchers. On average, the glaciers travel at around one kilometre a year. But a new study has found a seasonal variation to the speed of the ice flow, which speeded up by up to 22 % in summer when temperatures are warmer. This gives an insight into the way climate change could affect the behaviour of glaciers and the role they could play in raising sea levels.

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To encourage more active lifestyles, public health agencies recommend mixed-use neighborhoods and 'complete' streets that are friendlier to walkers and bikers, but new research finds that while those strategies increase physical activity, an urban bias limits their applicability in many parts of the country.

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A team of researchers is working to understand the details of the climate for the eastern portion of the United States from the Miocene, which unfortunately is a blank spot on paleo-climate maps. New findings suggest the future climate will be very close to the warmer, wetter, and more homogeneous climate similar to conditions experienced 5 million years ago.

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A team of researchers has highlighted human-wildlife conflict as one of the globe's most pressing human development and conservation dilemmas. New research looked at 133 countries where 18 large carnivores ranged, and found that a person farming with cattle in developing countries such as Kenya, Uganda or India were up to eight times more economically vulnerable than those living in developed economies such as Sweden, Norway or the U.S.

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A series of new stable, porous materials that capture and separate benzene have been developed.

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Plants can move in ways that might surprise you. Some of them even show 'sleep movements,' folding or raising their leaves each night before opening them again the next day. Now, researchers offer convincing evidence for these nightly movements, also known as foliar nyctinasty, in fossil plants that lived more than 250 million years ago.

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Growing wheat in drought conditions may be easier in the future. Researchers found the right number of copies of a specific group of genes can stimulate longer root growth, enabling wheat plants to pull water from deeper supplies.

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A new method to convert waste plastic to fuel and raw materials promises to help close the carbon cycle at mild temperature and with high yield.

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People often associate Escherichia coli with contaminated food, but E. coli has long been a workhorse in biotechnology. Scientists have now demonstrated that the bacterium has further value as part of a system to detect heavy metal contamination in water.

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The endangered Saimaa ringed seal is an Ice Age relict living in the highly labyrinthine Lake Saimaa, Finland. The newly published work shows that although individual seals have greatly reduced genetic variation, the loss of variation has been complementary, preserving the adaptive potential of the whole population.

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New research suggests aquatic plants can be utilized as a tool to enhance the co-existence between aquatic invertebrates and their fish predators in urban ponds.

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An air filter made out of corn protein instead of petroleum products can concurrently capture small particulates as well as toxic chemicals like formaldehyde that current air filters can't. The research could lead to better air purifiers, particularly in regions of the world that suffer from very poor air quality. The more environmentally friendly air filter was able to simultaneously capture 99.5% of small particulate matter, similar to commercial HEPA filters, and 87% of formaldehyde, which is higher than specially designed air filters for those types of toxics.

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As air pollution in Stockholm has decreased, so has the lung capacity of children and adolescents has improved, a new study reports. The researchers consider the results important, since the lung health of the young greatly affects the risk of their developing chronic lung diseases later in life.

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Fungal pathogens that cause pine ghost canker are infecting conifer trees in urban forests of Southern California, scientists found.