Red tide impacts increasing for endangered manatees and humans
According to statistics released in January 2006, the year 2005 was the second deadliest on record for Florida’s endangered manatee population. One of the leading causes of fatalities was the toxins produced by “red tide” blooms of the alga Karenia brevis, which appear to be growing increasingly common in Florida. A recently completed collaborative study now suggests a surprisingly tight connection between the ef
Fuel cells must be made more efficient if they are to provide a viable alternative to traditional energy sources, and the choice of materials is crucial to how efficient they are. New findings from scientists at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Uppsala University, and Linköping University are opening new ways of finding optimal materials for better fuel cells much more quickly.
Using methods of calculation from quantum mechanics, the researchers managed to find
The Chemical Industries Association (CIA) welcomes today’s preliminary findings of the EU Commission’s energy sector inquiry. The CIA represents one of the most energy intensive sectors in the UK. This is a most vital issue for our members.
This winter has seen UK prices for both gas and electricity reach unprecedented levels as markets worried over possible gas shortages. Prices have been wholly uncompetitive with those available to Continental competitors. Despite UK prices u
When people think of NASA, they usually think of space exploration. But NASA also explores our home planet, and the results of that exploration help other agencies provide substantial benefits to our society and economy. An example of NASA’s Earth research leading to new benefits is in the area of the control of non-native plants such as the plants that may be reducing water supplies in the western United States.
NASA makes its earth observations, modeling and computational capabilit
The long journey of particles near the ocean floor and its relevance for carbon burial
German and British scientists have studied the ocean off south-western Africa and have discovered that particles are transported to the deep ocean over thousands of years before being deposited on the seabed. This discovery may increase our understanding of how the oceans act as carbon dioxide sinks and how oil deposits form.
Areas of extremely high marine productivity are confined t
Humans are performing a high-stakes climate experiment by burning fossil fuels that release heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The outcome of that experiment is uncertain and computer models can do only so much to predict the future.
So scientists have been paying increasing attention to the geologic past, searching for possible lessons from ancient episodes of warming driven by natural processes which also might include emission of greenhouse gases. The research, discussed in
The winter blanket of snow covering the Alps is stunningly beautiful– and incredibly dangerous. In 2004-2005, 26 people died in avalanches in Switzerland alone. The victims range from occasional snow-boarders catching some powder off-piste to backcountry ski guides with years of experience. In this mountainous country, avalanches also pose a serious public danger. They can bury people in their homes, cut off access roads or even flatten whole villages. Scientists have put great effort into tryin
Marine ecologists are working with fisheries across Europe to further understanding of natural and human influences on decreasing fish populations.
Work has begun in the North East Atlantic, Baltic, North East Atlantic and Iberian Sea area to increase the level of scientific information available to fisheries. This will allow the fishing industry to produce new strategies for providing fish stocks for human consumption. Professor Chris Frid from the University’s School of Biolog
A team of international researchers has revolutionised the opportunities for water industry software developers. They have developed a new toolkit that, for the first time, provides a common standard for linking essential computer programmes that help balance our water supplies against the demand from domestic, leisure and industrial users.
The Open Modelling Interface (OpenMI) will not only make life easier for thousands of water and environmental managers across Europe, it will open u
Scientists from Bournemouth University and the University of Southampton have devised a new method of examining how much of the earth’s surface is covered by vegetation and assessing the state of health of the foliage. The European Space Agency (ESA) has recognised the value of this information which is likely to be a vital tool for researchers examining models of terrestrial productivity, gas exchange and climate change.
Dr Jadunandan Dash from the School of Geography and Visiting Pro
New species of fish, seaweeds found on Caribbean’s Saba Bank
An underwater mountain that forms the world’s third-largest atoll has some of the richest diversity of marine life ever found in the Caribbean, according to scientists who recently explored the area.
The two-week expedition in January encountered new species of fish, seaweed and other ocean life at little-studied Saba Bank Atoll, a coral-crowned seamount 250 kilometers southeast of Puerto Rico in the Dutch Wind
When fishing boats return with catches of increasingly less-valuable fish, the commonly held notion is that the more valuable species have been fished out. This, however, wasn’t true in two-thirds of the world’s large marine ecosystems selected for study by University of Washington researchers.
Instead, the composition of what was landed changed because fishermen chose to target additional kinds of fish. Landings of the more valuable fish remained the same, or even increased, but that
Oil and oil products spill often and in various places. These are plots in oil production areas and pipeline breaking locations and places of tanker wracks or crashes of consists, which carry oil products. At best, oil spillage falls on hard soil: it can be collected and somehow refined or, at the worst, buried. The case is much worse if the spillage takes place on water.
The oil film spreads out quickly to large distances, and it is very uneasy to collect. A thick film is removed by s
Rainmakers and civil servants, specialists and farmers understand water policies in markedly different ways. This is why international policy instruments for managing water resources do not succeed, and the consequence is water shortage. This is shown in a dissertation in political science from Göteborg University in Sweden.
Every year five million people die because of the lack of clean water. This is not because we lack the knowledge to manage water or even because there is not
Two schools in Leipzig are taking part in a new EU project called “Play with Water – From Waste to Resource”. Scientists from the Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle (UFZ) are involved, along with partners from a wide range of research establishments in Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Slovenia. The concept was developed as part of the EU’s Science and Society Action Plan.
The target group for this project from the Training and Demonstration Centre for Decentralised Sewa
Bournemouth University’s School of Conservation Sciences has been awarded a major research grant to study the restoration of forest landscapes in Latin America.
The £1.2 million (1,720,000 Euro) grant from the European Commission’s INCO-DEV programme is one of the largest awards ever received by the University. The project will bring researchers from Bournemouth together with colleagues from organisations in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain and Italy over the next three years
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