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Categories: Geoscience: Environmental Issues

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Researchers have reported that nitrate accumulated in soil bordering streams plays an important role in the increase of nitrate levels in stream water when it rains. Their findings may help reduce nitrogen pollution and improve water quality in downstream bodies of water, such as lakes and nearshore waters.

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Tiny amounts of crude oil on the water surface, less than one percent of the thickness of a hair, can damage seabird feathers, a new study finds.

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The Great Salt Lake is getting saltier, creating a serious threat to the ecosystems and the economies that depend on it. New research examines the trajectory the two halves of the lake might take on a path to hyper-salinity.

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Scientists have created a new type of nanomembrane that presents a less energy intensive way to fractionate hydrocarbons from crude oil. The global production of crude oil is currently around 80 million barrels per day. Hydrocarbons extracted from crude oil are the main ingredients for manufacturing fossil fuels, plastics, and polymers. The process by which they are extracted is extremely energy intensive. Membrane technology that can separate the molecules in crude oil by their different sizes and classes could be a far more energy efficient process, consuming 90% less energy.

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Over the past decades, rising levels of ozone pollution have been interrupting pollination, impacting the livelihood of both plants and the animals that pollinate them. Researchers now explain how an excess of ground-level ozone can damage plant foliage, change plants' flowering patterns, and act as a barrier to pollinators finding blooms.

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More frequent and longer-lasting droughts caused by rising global temperatures pose significant risks to people and ecosystems around the world -- according to new research. The paper has quantified the projected impacts of alternative levels of global warming upon the probability and length of severe drought in the six countries.

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The ability of rainforests to store carbon can decrease in pace with climate change. This is due to photosynthesis rates in the leaves of rainforest species falling at higher temperatures and the trees' natural cooling systems failing during droughts. Increased heat threatens especially the species that store most carbon.

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Twelve years after an oil spill coated nearly 35 miles of the Kalamazoo River, new research confirms that turtles rehabilitated in the aftermath of the disaster had high long-term survival rates.

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Professors have developed a self-calibrating EDI to compare and analyze precipitation records from the Joseon Dynasty to date.

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At the beginning of the year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the Middle East ranks among the regions with the worst air quality. There is a common misconception that desert dust is the most significant cause of air pollution from particulate matter in this region, but a new study has shown that more than 90 percent of the particulate matter that is detrimental to health originates from anthropogenic sources. This human-made fine particulate matter differs from the less harmful desert dust particles. Scientists determined this through ship borne measurements and verified it in elaborate modeling calculations. The anthropogenic particles are primarily caused by the production and use of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. They are generally smaller than desert dust and can penetrate deep into the lungs.

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Researchers use satellites to measure soil moisture around certain crops to solve a long-standing mystery about how water impacts agricultural production. The researchers found that models using soil moisture explain 30% to 120% more of the year-to-year variation in yield across crops than models that rely on rainfall. The research give scientists a better understanding of how crop yields will change under climate change.

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New research has confirmed that a popular sport fish exposed to sublethal levels of crude oil and released back into the wild exhibits altered behavior, decreased survival, and reduced spawning.

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Dirty windows can harbor potentially harmful pollutants under protective films of fatty acids from cooking emissions -- and these can hang around over long periods of time.

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While increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere encourage plant growth, they also reduce the nutritional value of plants, which can have a larger impact on nutrition and food safety worldwide. Researchers have discovered a new way plants are adapting to the changing climate -- information that can be used to help plants grow strong while also maintaining their nutritional value.

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Environmental scientists have developed a circular process for eliminating the risk posed by phosphoric acid plant wastewater. The process turns the environmentally toxic wastewater into clean water while recovering valuable acids. Phosphoric acid is the main ingredient in industrial fertilizers, a massive industry worldwide.

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The water stored in reservoirs ensures our supply of drinking water. Good water quality is therefore important -- but is at significant risk due to climate change. In a model study of the Rappbode reservoir in the Harz region, a research team demonstrated how the climate-related disappearance of forests in the catchment area for Germany's largest drinking water reservoir can affect water quality. The problem of such indirect consequences of climate change is seriously underestimated, the scientists warn. Water quality is of critical importance, especially for drinking water reservoirs, as subsequent treatment in the waterworks must continually meet high standards.

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Worldwide, plants emit about 100 million tons of monoterpenes into the atmosphere each year. These volatile organic molecules include many fragrances such as the molecule pinene -- known for its pine fresh scent. Since these molecules are highly reactive and can form tiny aerosol particles that can grow into nuclei for clouds droplets, natural emissions play an important role in our climate. Therefore, it is important for climate predictions to know how monoterpene emissions will change as temperatures rise.

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The 2019/20 wildfires in Australia transported more smoke into the atmosphere than observed ever before anywhere in the world. In the so-called Black Summer, three times as many particles reached high air layers as in the previous record wildfires in Canada during summer 2017. Research now reveals the climate impact of these huge fires: Smoke particles with a total mass of around one million tonnes spread across the southern hemisphere and affected the climate for about one and a half years by warming the upper atmosphere and cooling the lower atmosphere close to Earth's surface.

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High levels of hydroxyl radicals (OH) can be generated indoors, simply due to the presence of people and ozone.

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Researchers quantify the risk to forests from climate change along three dimensions: carbon storage, biodiversity and forest loss from disturbance, such as fire or drought. The results show forests in some regions experiencing clear and consistent risks. In other regions, the risk profile is less clear, because different approaches that account for disparate aspects of climate risk yield diverging answers.