A study scheduled for publication in the Dec. 15 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science and Technology, shows that for the first time, toxic metals emitted from automotive catalytic converters have been detected in urban air in the United States. The research was done by Swedish scientists working in collaboration with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The researchers found high c
As the future of Earth’s forests moved up the agenda at the United Nations Climate Change Conference – negotiating a post-Kyoto strategy to combat global warming – ESA and its national collaborators presented delegates with promising results from projects using satellites to identify wide-area forest retreat and expansion.
The planet’s climate is moving into uncharted territory, as our burning of fossil-fuels and clearances of forests release massive amounts of heat-trapping
As global populations swell, farmers are cultivating more and more land in a desperate bid to keep pace with the ever-intensifying needs of humans.
As a result, agricultural activity now dominates more than a third of the Earth’s landscape and has emerged as one of the central forces of global environmental change, say scientists at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Navin Ramankutty, an assistant
By the early 20th century, loggers had harvested more than 90 percent of the forests covering the upper Great Lakes region. The legacy of that destruction continues to have a substantial impact on the environment, researchers say.
Nearly 70 years after this major disturbance, experimental forested plots in the current study have not returned to a point where they store as much carbon as the original stands. And researchers aren’t sure just how long it might take to return to
Ebola virus (of the Filoviridae family) was first identified in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ex- Zaire). It has been the source of several lethal epidemics in central Africa. Four subtypes exist, three of which rage on the African continent. The zaire subtype, the most dangerous for humans, was responsible for eight epidemics which have hit Gabon and the Republic of Congo since 1995. Infection by this subtype in humans is expressed by a violent haemorrhagic fever which in 80 % of cas
As a further demonstration of the depth of its commitment to tackling climate change, the European Commission has been behind today’s launch of the Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants. This body will bring together energy companies, equipment suppliers, users, consumers, financial institutions, regulators, public authorities, researchers and civil society to develop common research goals, with the aim of a future where the use of power plants that emit no climate-damagi
Threats to freshwater fisheries and associated biodiversity largely unrecognized, authors state
Systematic overfishing of fresh waters occurs worldwide but is largely unrecognized because of weak reporting and because other pressures can obscure fishery declines, according to an article in the December 2005 issue of BioScience. Although the status of inland waters and their fish species should be of broad concern, threats to freshwater fisheries and associated biodiversity have rece
This week, Montreal (Canada) has witnessed the opening of the biggest meeting on climate change since the Kyoto Conference in 1997. The United Nations (UN) Climate Change conference in Montreal follows the entry into force of the Kyoto protocol earlier this year. Over 8000 participants from industrialised countries and developing nations will try to define the technical means to achieve the emission targets for 2012 and beyond.
The science behind climate change: a summary by GreenFacts
“June too soon, July stand by, August come it must, September remember, October all over” says a Caribbean rhyme where hurricanes are so common that generations of islanders have passed-along the poem.
Drawing upon the practical experience of these islanders and the latest academic thinking, Emma Tompkins and colleagues from the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia have written a guidebook to help the islands of the UK Overseas Territo
Unspoken rules of existence in tropical rain forests mean no one species will take up too much space and squeeze others out, says new research conducted in part at the University of Alberta that shows how ecological communities regulate themselves.
Dr. Fangliang He is part of a research team that studied fundamental questions plaguing scientists since Darwin’s time: why are some species so common while others are rare? How do common and rare species interact? And how do
An invasive fish species, which poses major threats to UK fish, has been found in rivers and lakes across England and Wales according to new research published today in Fisheries Management and Ecology.
Past studies have shown that the Asian topmouth gudgeon can spread an infectious parasite that is closely related to ‘Rosette Agent’ – known to be deadly to salmon and trout. The link between topmouth gudgeon and the rosette-like agent, known to kill some carp species (sunbleak and
Anatomical identification of soil charcoal fragments was used to reconstruct the pre-fire vegetation composition of a tree line site that burned ca 930 cal. AD in northern Québec, Canada. Soil charcoal was also used as a proxy to estimate black spruce Picea mariana palaeo-cover. The site (a low-elevated hilltop) is presently devoid of spruce trees and dominated by dwarf birch Betula glandulosa, lichens, ericaceous shrubs (Ledum decumbens, Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and sedges. In contrast, black
In the latest issue of Restoration Ecology, researchers describe a new model for coastal development. Using survey data conducted in Lake Pontchartrain, LA, they created a Potential SAV (Submersed Aquatic Vegetation) model. It predicts potential habitat changes in SAV caused by the changes in water clarity or shoreface slopes as a result of natural disturbances or restoration efforts. Often, only the existing SAV beds are considered for conservation efforts. This model helped set a restoration
A trendy holiday gift within a decade may be a hand-held device that instantly identifies any species from a snippet of animal tissue, says a University of Florida researcher.
That may be possible thanks to scientific advances that include the first test quantifying the effectiveness of a DNA identification tool among brightly colored shells. With an error rate as low as 4 percent, two UF scientists have been able to identify cowries collected from around the world by analyzi
A team of scientists has determined that the growing worldwide problem of increased nutrient pollution, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous, on coastal waterways has altered the ecology of Chesapeake Bay as reported in the most recent issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series.
During the last 50 years, nutrient enrichment has reduced the size of sea grass beds and lowered dissolved oxygen concentrations, both contributing to the degradation of bottom habitats. Excess nutrients can
The Valencian Urban Transport Company (EMT) presented in Brussels its latest innovative initiative for a sustainable public transport: the URBANBAT project. This project is financed by the European Commission through the LIFE-Environment programme.
Designed as a pilot project in this first phase, Urbanbat defines an integral management model for the liquid waste generated during the operation and maintenance of the public transport fleet of EMT Vehicles in Valencia such as wat
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