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Categories: Biology: Botany, Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published New design for lithium-air battery could offer much longer driving range compared with the lithium-ion battery
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have built and tested for a thousand cycles a lithium-air battery design that could one day be powering cars, domestic airplanes, long-haul trucks and more. Its energy storage capacity greatly surpasses that possible with lithium-ion batteries.
Published Prioritize tackling toxic emissions from tires, urge experts
(via sciencedaily.com) Experts are calling for more to be done to limit the potentially harmful impact of toxic tire particles on health and the environment.
Published Forecasting malaria outbreaks
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study integrates climate, land use, and socioeconomic data to explain and predict malaria dynamics at the village level. The approach could inform health care practitioners and make control strategies more efficient and cost-effective.
Published 'Electronic nose' built with sustainably sourced microbial nanowires that could revolutionize health monitoring
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists recently announced the invention of a nanowire 10,000 times thinner than a human hair that can be cheaply grown by common bacteria and tuned to 'smell' a vast array of chemical tracers -- including those given off by people afflicted with a wide range of medical conditions, such as asthma and kidney disease. Thousands of these specially tuned wires, each sniffing out a different chemical, can be layered onto tiny, wearable sensors, allowing healthcare providers an unprecedented tool for monitoring potential health complications. Since these wires are grown by bacteria, they are organic, biodegradable and far greener than any inorganic nanowire.
Published Early Cretaceous shift in the global carbon cycle affected both land and sea
(via sciencedaily.com) Geologists doing fieldwork in southeastern Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation found carbon isotope evidence that the site, though on land, experienced the same early Cretaceous carbon-cycle change recorded in marine sedimentary rocks in Europe. This ancient carbon-cycle phenomenon, known as the 'Weissert Event' was driven by large, sustained volcanic eruptions in the Southern Hemisphere that greatly increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and produced significant greenhouse climate effects over a prolonged time.
Published As sea ice declines in the Arctic, bowhead whales are adjusting their migration patterns
(via sciencedaily.com) As sea ice declines in the Arctic, bowhead whales are staying north of the Bering Strait more frequently, a shift that could affect the long-term health of the bowhead population and impact the Indigenous communities that rely on the whales, a new study shows.
Published Diets rich in food from the ocean and freshwater sources can help address nutritional and environmental challenges
(via sciencedaily.com) Blue foods -- those that come from the ocean or freshwater environments -- have tremendous potential to help address several global challenges. With careful implementation of policies that leverage these foods, nations could get a boost on efforts to reduce nutritional deficits, lower disease risk, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and ensure resilience in the face of climate change.
Published Scientists use satellite images to study the degradation of rangelands in Tanzania
(via sciencedaily.com) East Africa's iconic rangelands -- under threat from climate change and human activity -- have the potential to recover from repeated environmental shocks and degradation, a new study has concluded.
Published Clever orchard design for more nuts
(via sciencedaily.com) To reduce biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes, more sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices are needed. A research team has investigated how ecosystem services such as pollination could be improved in macadamia plantations. The scientists showed that a certain design of plantations -- for instance, how the rows of trees are arranged, the varieties, and the integration of semi-natural habitats in and around the plantations -- can increase the pollination performance of bees.
Published How Iceland could have a starring role as a sustainable alternative protein exporter to Northern Europe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Iceland could help address Northern Europe's food security issues with the scaling-up of its industrial production of Spirulina -- an alternative protein source that is nutritious, sustainable and risk resilient. Under the most ambitious of estimations, Iceland could be protein self-sufficient and capable of feeding more than six million Europeans every year, a new feasibility study suggests.
Published Researchers put plant protein mechanism into bacteria to help move forward 50 years of effort
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have added components of plant chloroplasts to bacteria. This feat, 50 years in the making, allows them to analyze the proteins in greater detail in order to improve Rubisco, and eventually photosynthesis.
Published Excess nutrients lead to dramatic ecosystem changes in Cape Cod's Waquoit Bay; the bay is a harbinger for estuaries worldwide, say researchers
(via sciencedaily.com) When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 with associated travel restrictions, a research group shifted their overseas research projects to instead study the seagrass meadow ecosystem in Waquoit Bay, USA. It's a shallow, micro-tidal estuary on the south side of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
Published Researcher discovers threshold that triggers drought response in forests
(via sciencedaily.com) Missouri is home to an array of natural resources, with forests among the state's most valuable ecosystems. As warmer temperatures fueled by climate change affect ecosystems globally, forests are under stress to adapt to these changes and ensure their survival in a warmer world. Researchers now introduce the 'ecosystem wilting point' concept, which explains how whole forests respond to drought.
Published Sinking tundra surface unlikely to trigger runaway permafrost thaw
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists set out to address one of the biggest uncertainties about how carbon-rich permafrost will respond to gradual sinking of the land surface as temperatures rise. Using a high-performance computer simulation, the research team found that soil subsidence is unlikely to cause rampant thawing in the future.
Published Symbiotic fungi transform terpenes from spruce resin into attractants for bark beetles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international research team demonstrates that the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) uses volatile fungal metabolites of plant defense substances as important chemical signals in their attack on spruce trees. The researchers also show that the insects have olfactory sensory neurons specialized for detecting these volatile compounds. The fungal metabolites likely provide important clues to the beetles about the presence of beneficial fungi, the defense status of the trees, and the population density of their conspecifics. The study highlights the importance of chemical communication in maintaining symbiosis between bark beetles and their fungal partners.
Published Researchers uncover how photosynthetic organisms regulate and synthesize ATP
(via sciencedaily.com) The redox regulation mechanism responsible for efficient production of ATP under varying light conditions in photosynthetic organisms has now been unveiled. Researchers investigated the enzyme responsible for this mechanism and uncovered how the amino acid sequences present in the enzyme regulate ATP production. Their findings provide valuable insights into the process of photosynthesis and the ability to adapt to changing metabolic conditions.
Published Using sewage to forecast COVID-19 infections
(via sciencedaily.com) Sifting through sewage for SARS-CoV-2 genetic material could help authorities tailor infection control policies.
Published New knowledge about ice sheet movement can shed light on when sea levels will rise
(via sciencedaily.com) The trawling of thousands of satellite measurements using artificial intelligence has shown researchers that meltwater in tunnels beneath Greenland's ice sheet causes it to change speed, and in some places, accelerate greatly towards the ocean. This can increase melting, especially in a warming climate, which is why the study's researchers think that it is important to keep an eye on.
Published Biochar offers new promise for climate-smart agriculture
(via sciencedaily.com) Researcher see the interconnections between the systems in nature and how each component impacts the others. In Connecticut, rich in forests and farmland, experts see the potential that could position the state at the forefront of a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approach using an emerging sustainable practice called biochar.
Published Detecting the impact of drought on plants with user-friendly and inexpensive techniques
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate change is aggravating the impact of droughts -- one of the factors that only affect plant physiology -- on all plant ecosystems worldwide. Although new tools have been developed to detect and assess drought stress in plants -- transcriptomic or metabolomic technologies, etc. -- they are still difficult to apply in natural ecosystems, especially in remote areas and developing countries.