The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea – and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener…
UC Venture Lab-backed startup signs distribution deal. Partnering with companies in the United States and Australia, a University of Cincinnati Venture Lab-backed startup has improved its autonomous rovers that clear debris from waterways and is preparing to ship its largest order to date. Clean Earth Rovers (CER) has signed a distribution deal with B&B Services, a company based in Naples, Florida. The deal guarantees a minimum order of 20 rovers to be delivered within the next year. B&B Services will…
The mass die-off of the long-spined sea urchin – a loss that threatens the health of coral reefs from the Caribbean to Florida’s east coast — was caused by a one-celled organism called a ciliate. The search for the 2022 killer that decimated the long-spined sea urchin population in the Caribbean and along Florida’s east coast is over. A team of researchers organized by Mya Breitbart, Distinguished University Professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, identified…
The seven worst years for polar ice sheets melting and losing ice have occurred during the past decade, according to new research, with 2019 being the worst year on record. The melting ice sheets now account for a quarter of all sea level rise – a fivefold increase since the 1990’s – according to IMBIE, an international team of researchers who have combined 50 satellite surveys of Antarctica and Greenland taken between 1992 and 2020. Their findings are published today…
The polar regions are exposed to an increasing load of pollutants. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and the Umweltbundesamt (UBA), experts from the European Commission, the Stockholm Convention, the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Conference, environmental sample banks, data centers and leading research institutions have now formulated the “Berlin Statement”. The resulting recommendations for action were recently published in the journal Chemosphere. Ecological crises have an impact even in the remotest corners of the earth. For example,…
$1 million enables deep dive into LA County waterways. UC Riverside scientists are taking a modern approach to studying a murky subject — the quantity, quality, and sources of microplastics in Los Angeles County’s urban streams. Microplastics are particles with a maximum diameter of 5 millimeters, roughly the size of a pencil eraser. The category can include nanoplastics, which are far smaller than the width of an average human hair. Scientists have been aware that these particles have been filtering…
For several years, a team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute used underwater microphones to listen for seals at the edge of the Antarctic. Their initial findings, just released in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, indicate that sea-ice retreat has had significant effects on the animals’ behaviour: when the ice disappears, areas normally full of vocalisations become very quiet. When the sea ice vanishes, Antarctic seals become silent. This is the main conclusion of a new…
Experiments at the University of Freiburg provide evidence for the first time of the ability of ambrosia beetles to distinguish between food and harmful fungi. Certain ambrosia beetles species engage in active agriculture. As social communities, they breed and care for food fungi in the wood of trees and ensure that so-called weed fungi spread less. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Peter Biedermann, professor of Forest Entomology and Forest Protection at the University of Freiburg, now demonstrate for the first…
Ice sheets can retreat up to 600 metres a day during periods of climate warming, 20 times faster than the highest rate of retreat previously measured. An international team of researchers, led by Dr Christine Batchelor of Newcastle University, UK, used high-resolution imagery of the seafloor to reveal just how quickly a former ice sheet that extended from Norway retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago. The team, which also included researchers from the…
Research in Moorea shows the presence of coral skeletons influences reef recovery after bleaching. Natural disasters can devastate a region, abruptly killing the species that form an ecosystem’s structure. But how this transpires can influence recovery. While fires scorch the landscape to the ground, a heatwave leaves an army of wooden staves in its wake. Storm surges and coral bleaching do something similar underwater. UC Santa Barbara scientists investigated how these two kinds of disturbances might affect coral reefs. They…
Study is first to document reefwide dynamics of viruses that infect coral symbionts. The breathtaking colors of reef-building corals come from photosynthetic algae that live inside the corals. A groundbreaking three-year study has found that viruses may increase their attacks on these symbiotic algae during marine heat waves. Few studies have examined how heat and other forms of stress affect coral virus outbreaks, and fewer still have looked at the reef-scale dynamics of those outbreaks. The study published online today…
– achievements after first half of the project work. For the future decrease of carbon footprints in electromobility, the production of traction batteries has to become “greener”. In improving the electronic conductivity of battery cathodes carbon plays a critical role and thus is essential to achieve fast charging and discharging rates. The HiQ-CARB project, funded by EIT RawMaterials under the Horizon Europe Program started in 2021 to make the supply with high-quality conductive additives more sustainable, with low carbon footprint…
Even supposedly adaptable mammal species face increased risk of extinction. They are small, have a high reproductive output and live in the forests of Madagascar. During the 5-month rainy season, offspring are born and a fat pad is created to survive the cool dry season when food is scarce. But what happens when the rainy season becomes drier and the dry season warmer? Can mouse lemurs adapt to climate change thanks to their high reproductive output? Researchers from the German…
Greener insulation reduces environmental impact of foam products. Rigid foam boards used to insulate buildings can prevent energy loss, making homes more efficient at keeping warm or cool. The advantages in energy efficiency, however, are undercut by environmental concerns over polystyrene products. Blowing agents used in foam production, such as hydrocarbons and hydrofluoroolefins, end up in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a competitive, eco-friendly alternative made without harmful blowing agents. The nontoxic thermoplastic…
If climate change causes more rain, this promotes the weathering of rocks and thus the erosion of the soil. The dissolved substances reach the sea via rivers. A new model from Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon shows: The process has an impact on CO2 storage there. If global emissions of greenhouse gases increase sharply, as they have in the past, this increases the ability to bind them. When emissions are low, the opposite happens. The study looked at the factors that favor sequestration…
What impact do rusting World War II munitions have on the marine environment? Researchers from the EU project North Sea Wrecks (NSW) dived to World War II wrecks in the North Sea and analyzed samples. In a public symposium on April 19 and 20 at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the EU project led by the German Maritime Museum (DSM) / Leibniz Institute of Maritime History will present results after four and a…
Feedback
