UBCO researcher creates hundreds of scenarios, determines importance of coral diversity. A UBC Okanagan research team has created a computer modelling program to help scientists predict the effect of climate damage and eventual restoration plans on coral reefs around the globe. This is a critical objective, says Dr. Bruno Carturan, because climate change is killing many coral species and can lead to the collapse of entire coral reef ecosystems. But, because they are so complex, it’s logistically challenging to study…
… in climate history. Heinrich Events or, more accurately, Heinrich Layers, are recurrent conspicuous sediment layers, usually ten to 15 centimeters thick, with very coarse rock components that interrupt the otherwise fine-grained oceanic deposits in the North Atlantic. Discovered and first described in the 1980s by the geologist Hartmut Heinrich, U.S. geochemist Wally Broecker later officially named them Heinrich Layers, which has become a standard term in paleoceanography. The presence of Heinrich Layers has been established throughout the North Atlantic,…
July 19 was the hottest day ever recorded in the United Kingdom, with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 degrees Fahrenheit). The heatwave serves as an early preview of what climate forecasters theorized will be typical summer weather in the U.K. in 2050. The heat continues across Europe today, as well as in the United States, where more than a third of the country is under heat warnings. The temperatures harken back to just over a year ago when…
New research offers a pathway to achieving the 30 by 30 target using ecosystem diversity across four South American countries protected areas. There is an opportunity to increase the representation of ecosystems to 31% across four Andean countries through the additional protection of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). This is shown in a new study led by NatureServe, iDiv and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), together with other institutions. The study, published in the journal Remote Sensing demonstrates how Essential Biodiversity…
Researchers at the University of Stuttgart present long-term study on the degradation of plastic. It was a shipwreck for the benefit of science. In June 1993, the cargo ship SS Hamada sustained severe damage in heavy seas above a coral reef off the coast of Egypt, broke in two, and sank – fully loaded with plastic granules – in the middle of a nature reserve. But the disaster also offered an opportunity. Some of the plastic pellets washed up on…
On average, 30 per cent of all species worldwide have been threatened with extinction or already become extinct over the last 500 years. This was the result of estimates by 3,331 experts working on biodiversity in 187 countries. This large and diverse group was asked in a survey, led by the University of Minnesota and with the participation of iDiv and the University of Leipzig, to provide assessments of the change in the species they study. The results are expected…
The first direct observations of size-resolved ice nucleating particles in the central Arctic, spanning entire sea ice growth and decline cycle. While climate change is taking effect everywhere on Earth, the Arctic Circle is feeling those effects most of all, in the form of glacial melt, permafrost thaw and sea ice decline. Key players in climate change include the clouds that cover the Earth’s surface and the microscopic, airborne aerosols called ice nucleating particles that seed the formation of ice in those…
Team led by Simon Haberstroh demonstrates that cork oaks under gum rockrose invasion change their water use strategy during drought, thereby consuming less water The modified strategy causes the cork oak to take up less carbon, resulting in reduced growth Haberstroh: “Until now, we were not aware that competition for water between plants can lead to such a change in water use strategy” What strategies and adaptive measures does the cork oak (Quercus suber) use in savanna-like ecosystems in southeastern…
Never heard of the acronym OECMs? Then it’s high time you did. It stands for a new instrument for the protection of biodiversity on land and in the sea. Researchers from the U Bremen Research Alliance want to help establish alternative protected areas – for example in the Coral Triangle off Indonesia. The sharks and manta rays of Raja Ampat are a real attraction. Divers from all over the world flock to the archipelago in eastern Indonesia to see them…
Urchins emerge to forage on living kelp when they can’t catch kelp scraps, mowing down swaths of the underwater forest. Purple sea urchins are munching their way through California’s kelp forests at a speed and scale that have stunned scientists, fishermen and divers alike. But the kelp forests have long been home to red and purple urchins, so it’s clear the three species can get along. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara sought to determine what factors disrupt this harmony. “Why…
Seascape genomics insights to key Australian populations. The first widespread census of the genetic diversity of common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) populations living along 3000km of Australia’s southern coastline has raised key pointers for future conservation efforts. The comprehensive Flinders University study calls for more conservation and policy efforts to preserve adaptive DNA diversity and assist connectivity between these dolphin groups. This will support long-term gene flow and adaptation during ongoing habitat changes – including oceanic conditions affected by climate change…
First long-term record from deep water layers of the open ocean. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) for the first time analysed a long-term sample series on microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic from 2000 m water depth with respect to number, size, mass, material and possible origin of the particles. Samples were collected between 2003 – 2015 in the Madeira Basin by a sediment trap. Plastic type and particle amount varied widely, but accounted…
More sustainable e-mobility. Magnets are valuable components. Although functional magnet recycling methods have been developed in recent years, they have not yet been applied in practice and magnets continue to be melted down into steel scrap. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS provide good arguments for why this should change in the future. Their “FUNMAG” project demonstrates that recycled magnets can be used to power engines in the e-mobility sector, without any loss…
Results quantify how construction of dams and land use change alters sediment flux to oceans. The way rivers function is significantly affected by how much sediment they transport and where it gets deposited. River sediment — mostly sand, silt, and clay — plays a critical ecological role, as it provides habitat for organisms downstream and in estuaries. It is also important for human life, resupplying nutrients to floodplain agricultural soils, and buffering sea level rise caused by climate change by…
To halt biodiversity loss, the future design of EU agricultural policy could be guided by six basic principles and accompanied by multi-annual agreements and progressive payment systems. These are at the core of recommendations made by over 300 scientists from 23 EU member states who were consulted at the request of the European Commission. The process was coordinated by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Thünen Institute of Rural Studies, and…
A long-term, increasingly warming pool of water in the northeast Pacific was recently discovered by a team of researchers from Universität Hamburg’s Cluster of Excellence CLICCS. It measures three million square kilometers, resulted from increased anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions, and is conducive to extreme heatwaves in the northeast Pacific. In a study just released in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian confirms that this systematic warming pool is not the result of natural climatic variations – but…
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