Pioneering research by scientists at the University of Surrey (UniS) is proving to be a big hit in Asia when it comes to monitoring land contamination. The Rapid On-Site Toxicity Audit System (ROTAS), a patented technology developed and owned by UniS and licensed to Cybersense Biosystems Ltd, has proved such a success with Hitachi Chemicals in Japan, that the company is now working closely with Cybersense to distribute the product exclusively throughout South East Asia and is also helping to d
DFO’s maps aid flood analysis, providing insight into river and coastal flooding due to storm surge
Researchers with the Dartmouth Flood Observatory at Dartmouth College have been working with state and federal officials, along with representatives from NGOs, to help map and analyze the flooding that has occurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The maps not only provide an overview of the impact and enormity of the flooding, they also preserve a day-to-day record of this
The Amazon, a vast tropical forest stretching across South America, is so large that is virtually impossible to study the evolving landscapes within the basin without the use of satellites. Scientists have used satellite imagery of the Amazon for more than 30 years to seek answers about this diverse ecosystem and the patterns and processes of land cover change. This technology continues to advance and a new study shows that NASA satellite images can allow scientists to more quickly and accurate
Scientists at the University of Abertay Dundee are part of a £1-million project investigating the basis for all life on earth – soil.
Professor Iain Young, Director of the University’s SIMBIOS centre, is heading a team of Abertay specialists collaborating with the Institute of Arable Crop Research and ADAS a private research company based in England.
The research, funded by a grant of more than £988,000 from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Competence Center for Energy and Mobility (CCE)
The ETH Board is building up a Competence Center for Energy and Mobility (CCE), under the lead management of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland. The CCE will contribute significantly to sustainable energy solutions and strengthen the Swiss technical employment market. The new center combines research competence of Swiss technical universities and research institutes, namely the PSI, the two Swiss Federa
For his PhD thesis, Unai Iriarte Velasco analysed strategies for reducing levels of subproducts from the disinfection of drinkable water and their application in optimising the functioning of water treatment plants.
The thesis, recently presented at the University of the Basque Country, centres on the treatment of drinkable water. Currently it is known that the chlorine employed as disinfectant reacts with the natural organic material present in surface water. This interaction i
An oxygen-free ocean from bottom to surface is probably the worst scenario that marine higher life can experience. Are processes and feedbacks linking the atmosphere to the deep ocean capable to cause a rapid change from an oxygen-rich to an oxygen-free deep ocean? And what are the consequences for the global carbon cycle that ultimately drive marine and terrestrial ecosystems and climate variation?
These are fundamental and burning questions on the society’s agenda. Hurricane
Cave crickets travel farther from their homes to forage — by about double — than their previously reported range, researchers have discovered. In Texas, that means protective buffer areas around caves may need to be extended to protect endangered invertebrate species that live inside and depend on the crickets.
Reporting in the journal American Midland Naturalist, a team of researchers led by Steven J. Taylor, an entomologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey and Un
A new study shows that while we’re winning isolated battles, we could well lose the war to prevent the devastating spread of the emerald ash borer in eastern Canada and the United States. It’s a failure that would cost billions of dollars in lost timber and ornamental trees, and dramatically change the forest and neighbourhood landscape in eastern North America – with even more impact than Dutch elm disease.
The soon-to-be published study is the first to document the invasive
Researchers from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sandia National Laboratories, together with fellow members of the Joint Water Reuse & Desalination Task Force, in coming months will be studying the best ways to desalinize – and make potable – ocean water, subsurface brines, and wastewater.
The California Department of Water Resources recently granted Sandia and its Task Force partners $1 million for the study. The Task Force – which comprises Sandia, the
Researchers propose plan for resolution
A group of Israeli, Palestinian and French scientists have proposed a possible management solution to ameliorate the water quality crisis depriving residents of drinkable water in the Gaza Strip. The study is published in the September-October 2005 issue of the journal Ground Water. This special theme issue contains 14 papers on transboundary ground water.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority share the Southern Mediterranean Coas
Recent research results from scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center suggest that ’greening’ has begun to decline in the high latitude forested areas of North America. The work, which represents an important advance by incorporating the full extent of the latest satellite observational record to document unique vegetation responses to climatic warming, and then projecting those trends forward in time, is now being extended to circumpolar forests. The research will be highlighted in u
There are 2.6 million miles of paved roads in the United States, and new roads are being constructed daily. When parking lots and driveways are factored in, there is already enough blacktopped surface in the U.S. to cover the entire state of Ohio. Paved roads and parking spaces come in handy for our nation’s drivers, but they also come with a serious unforeseen cost— the degradation of our nation’s freshwater ecosystems.
In a recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc
Spectacular coral reefs are usually associated with warm tropical climates but can be found in the cold, inky depths off Ireland and the UK. The expansion of deep-water trawling is causing widespread damage to these long-lived corals which can take over 4,500 years to build up.
Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist from the University of Plymouth, has been studying these cold water coral habitats and will be revealing previously-unseen footage from recent international expe
The biodiversity of the seas and the ocean floors is a mystery for science yet to unravel. With this curiosity, a research team – including a biologist from the University of the Basque Country, is to set sail for the second time on an oceanographic campaign to study this biodiversity of the seas and the ocean floors of the Antarctic.
Bellingshausen Sea
The expedition, aboard the oceanographic vessel, Hesperides, will shortly be working in the Bellingshausen Se
Scientists have recently recognized an imbalance in the flow of salty groundwater into the coastal ocean: considerable saltwater discharge into the ocean has been observed, but little or no return flow has been seen. Now it appears that the timing of the discharge may be key to the health of our coastal waters.
New measurements and models suggest that seasonal changes in the water table may provide clues to how water is exchanged and why the largest discharge occurs during th
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