… to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, advancing a recent Science study. Scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Dow have developed a breakthrough process to transform the most widely produced plastic — polyethylene (PE) — into the second-most widely produced plastic, polypropylene (PP), which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). “The world needs more and better options for extracting the energy and molecular value from its waste plastics,” said co-lead author Susannah Scott, Distinguished…
A joint research group led by Prof. SUN Chenglin, Porf. WEI Huangzhao and Prof. LI Rengui from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a new coupling strategy of photocatalytic water oxidation and catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (Photo-CWPO) for efficient organic wastewater treatment. This study was published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental on August 17. CWPO technology is a kind of advanced oxidation process for advanced treatment of organic wastewater using hydroxyl radical (·OH), which is generated from…
Scientists from Rostock and Prague trace ship emissions over and in the Baltic Sea. Ship exhausts generated over the heavily trafficked Baltic Sea affect the marine environment and human health. Within the “PlumeBaSe”* project, researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), the University of Rostock and the Charles University in Prague are now investigating how the emitted pollutants spread above and in the sea, how they change in the air and in the water, and what…
The disappearance of forests will have consequences for water quality in reservoirs. Heat waves, drought, floods, forest fires – the consequences of climate change are increasing and are changing our environment. A prime example is the countryside in the catchment area for the Rappbode reservoir in the eastern Harz region. This is the largest drinking water reservoir in Germany and provides drinking water for roughly one million people. Long periods of drought over the years from 2015 to 2020 have…
Life in space is hard. If you wish to colonize it, for example by setting up stations on the Moon or on Mars, you need technologies that enable extremely efficient use of the scarce resources. The aim of the ERIS research project is to make use of these space technologies in the context of climate protection and the long-term safeguarding of life on Earth. The University of Stuttgart is supporting ERIS with the development of sustainable life support and supply…
The genetic history of eelgrass may play a greater role than the local present-day environment for how tall the eelgrass can become and for how many other plants and animals will live within the eelgrass meadow. These findings were shown in a large survey that included researchers from the University of Gothenburg. Eelgrass in the Atlantic Ocean has less genetic variation compared with eelgrass meadows in the Pacific and may have a harder time to adapt and survive under climate…
The rapid rise in temperature in the Arctic is profoundly altering the region – with unknown consequences for the future. At the same time, dwindling sea ice is increasing economic interest in the Arctic Ocean. How can the Arctic be protected and used sustainably against this backdrop? To provide an overview of issues relevant to marine conservation in the Arctic, Ecologic Institute and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) have published a series of reports. The reports focus on…
If groundwater sinks, streams and rivers seep away and pollute drinking water. Increasing drought, less precipitation, rising water demand in agriculture – climate change is causing problems for our groundwater. In Germany and around the world, it is leading to falling groundwater levels in some regions. When the underground water table is low, polluted surface water from streams and rivers finds its way more and more into the groundwater. The result: Our drinking water and groundwater ecosystems are endangered –…
Using sophisticated electronic tags, scientists have assembled a large biologging dataset to garner comparative insights on how sharks, rays, and skates – also known as “elasmobranchs” – use the ocean depths. While some species spend their entire lives in shallow waters close to our shores on the continental shelf, others plunge hundreds of meters or more off the slope waters into the twilight zone, beyond where sunlight penetrates. This new understanding of how elasmobranchs use the ocean will enable policymakers…
Study finds shifting climate will have little effect on breadfruit cultivation. In the face of climate change, breadfruit soon might come to a dinner plate near you. While researchers predict that climate change will have an adverse effect on most staple crops, including rice, corn and soybeans, a new Northwestern University study finds that breadfruit — a starchy tree fruit native to the Pacific islands — will be relatively unaffected. Because breadfruit is resilient to predicted climate change and particularly…
Modeling the way that snow distribution depends on terrain, elevation and vegetation will improve Earth-system models. Comprehensive data from several seasons of field research in the Alaskan Arctic will address uncertainties in Earth-system and climate-change models about snow cover across the region and its impacts on water and the environment. “Snow cover and its distribution affects not only the Arctic but global energy balances, and thus how it is changing is critically important for understanding how future global climate will…
Effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in national parks is associated with socioeconomic conditions. Despite commendable conservation efforts and investments by governments, NGOs and international as well as national conservation agencies, biodiversity continues to decline across the globe. One of the key strategies to halt biodiversity decline is the establishment of protected areas like national parks, which are supposed to provide favourable conditions for biodiversity to remain stable. Species declines are strongly associated with Human Development Index An international research team led…
The fate of the world’s biggest ice sheet still rests in our hands if global temperature increases are kept below the upper limit set by the Paris Agreement on climate change. A new study led by Durham University, UK, shows that the worst effects of global warming on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) could be avoided if temperatures do not rise by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Staying below this limit would see the EAIS – which holds…
Phytoplankton is the foundation of all life on the planet. Understanding how these photosynthetic organisms react to their ocean environment is important to understanding the rest of the food web. In spite of that, computer models of the global ocean biogeochemistry typically don’t include the day/night (diel) light cycle, even though that cycle is critical for photosynthesis in the ocean’s primary producers. For the first time, scientists from the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have incorporated the…
An international team led by Uppsala University researchers has uncovered that eukaryotes (organisms with a cellular nucleus) have made hundreds of big leaps from sea to soil and freshwater habitats, and vice versa, during their evolution. The results, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, also provide insights into what the habitats of our ancient microbial ancestors looked like. Major habitat transitions, such as moving to land from a life in the sea, are key evolutionary events that can spark explosions…
The northern and central Great Barrier Reef have recorded their highest amount of coral cover since the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) began monitoring 36 years ago. Published today, AIMS’ Annual Summary Report on Coral Reef Condition for 2021/22 shows another year of increased coral cover across much of the Reef. In the 87 representative reefs surveyed between August 2021 and May 2022 under the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP), average hard coral cover in the region north of…
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