As the future of the tropics unfolds, scientists must explain the dimensions and mechanisms of forest responses to rapid human-population increase and environmental changes
As human populations and their impacts on the world increase, tropical forests are changing in many different ways. Forests are being cleared, burned, logged, fragmented, and overhunted and an unprecedented pace, and they are also being altered in insidious ways by global climatic and atmospheric changes. “The evi
China’s spectacular economic growth during the last decade has brought many benefits – and some challenges. Global atmospheric mapping of nitrogen dioxide pollution performed by ERS-2’s GOME and Envisat’s SCIAMACHY reveals the world’s largest amount of NO2 hanging above Beijing and northeast China, as reported in Nature this week.
As part of ESA’s Dragon Programme, European and Chinese researchers are using results returned from the Global Ozone Mapping
The mineral cryptomelane holds promise to absorb the toxic sulfur oxides that can degrade the emission control systems on diesel vehicles. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers have identified the potential of using cryptomelane to trap sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide from diesel engine emissions on monolith supports – sturdy honeycombed structures composed of small parallel channels.
Cryptomelane has a very high capacity for absorbing sulfur dioxide – more than 10 tim
Expedition team dodges storm and returns to gulf seafloor
Despite having to evade hurricane Katrina, a team of scientists from Harbor Branch and other institutions is returning to port this Sunday with new tales from the deep after completing their second annual Deep Scope expedition. The group has discovered a mysterious visual capability in a deep-sea crab; captured new video of a large, recently discovered squid species; and took clear video of the world’s first known fluor
Seated on the University of Leicester’s Space Research Centre rooftop, the novel instrument captures the sun’s rays and uses them to build up a daily picture, in 3-D, of the city’s air pollution. Just the size of a suitcase, the instrument has nine telescopes that protrude out and point in different directions across the city, collecting the sunlight every minute of every day. The trapped sunlight is bounced by mirrors inside the instrument straight into the mouth of a device that measures i
Puffins on the island of Craigleith, in Scotland, are being forced out by giant alien plants. Puffin numbers have halved in recent years as the invasive tree mallow took over the island, growing in the manure-rich burrow entrances and preventing the puffins from breeding.
Although Atlantic puffin numbers are increasing rapidly across most of the east coast of Scotland, at Craigleith near North Berwick the reverse has been the case. The decline has been blamed on the rapid exp
Experts call for $30 million action plan to save mankind’s closest relatives
A combination of natural and man-made threats is killing gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa, and experts say $30 million is needed for special programs to save some of mankind’s closest relatives from disappearing.
An action plan drafted by more than 70 primatologists and other experts who met in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, in May designates 12 areas for emergency program
A far wider range of wildlife species could be at risk from bird flu, warns a biologist from the University of East Anglia.
Dr Diana Bell, of UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, says the discovery that avian flu was responsible for the death of three rare civet cats in Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam, raises important questions about the range of wildlife species which could now be at risk from this virus.
“Vietnam and the other Asian countries chronically infected wi
Whether rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations will cause forests to grow faster and store more carbon is an open question and one that scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), together with partners at the University of Basel, have been investigating for several years.
In a mature forest just outside Basel, researchers developed a new system to distribute CO2 to the treetops. The use of stable isotopes for studying the carbon balance under elevated CO
A study published in the latest issue of Restoration Ecology finds that in coastal Louisiana, oyster reefs help to deter erosion. Oyster reefs are self-sustaining, and are additionally attractive because they use native materials, have the potential for long-term growth, and contribute to overall ecosystem stability and quality. Oyster larvae move in groups and water-borne chemicals stimulate the oysters’ settlement; reefs are therefore able to maintain themselves as new recruits settle and grow
Largest-known group ever photographed in Asia
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists, working in conjunction with Iran’s Department of Environment (DOE) in an isolated region in the Dar-e Anjir Wildlife Refuge, recently discovered that a remote camera set out to survey wildlife had photographed an entire family of extremely rare Asiatic cheetahs. The pictures show an adult female and her four youngsters resting in the shade of a tree, marking the largest-known group of
ESA’s multi-sensor Envisat satellite has gathered a unique view of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico. While an optical image shows characteristic spiralling cloud patterns, a simultaneous radar observation pierces through the clouds to show how Katrina’s 250-kilometre-an-hour an hour winds scour the sea surface.
Envisat simultaneously acquired these images at 1550 UTC (1150 US Eastern Daylight Saving Time) on 28 August, with its Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrom
Researchers from Queen’s University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new environmentally-friendly way to make chemicals for pharmaceutical and other industries, such as plastics, pesticides, dyes and fragrances.
The team, led by Queen’s chemist Dr. Philip Jessop, has developed new solvents (liquids that dissolve other substances) that are both cleaner and cheaper when used in the production of many chemicals. Because each step in a chemical process o
Top British ecologists will gather at Kingley Vale Nature Reserve in West Sussex on Tuesday 30 August to celebrate the life and work of Sir Arthur G. Tansley, widely regarded as the father of modern ecology and one of the 20th century’s most important conservationists. The event coincides with the 50th anniversary of Tansley’s death in 1955.
Present at the event, which will include the unveiling and rededication of a memorial stone to Tansley at Kingley Vale, will be vice presid
H.E. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria, concluded a four-day NEPAD-Fish for All Summit by announcing adoption of the Abuja Declaration on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa at the Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The Declaration was agreed at an assembly of high-level government leaders that included the Vice President of The Gambia, Ministers of Fisheries from Mozambique, Ghana, The Gambia, Niger, Malawi, Egypt, C
Enhanced computing capability will make it possible to gain new insights on climate change. On Tuesday, August 23, the climate modelling computer Tornado was inaugurated by Lena Sommestad, who is Environment Minister in Sweden.
Current research reports on climatic evolution unanimously concur that global temperature and precipitation are in a state of change. The extent global warming will reach in the future depends largely on the quantity of future carbon dioxide emission, bu
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