The European Union, with the aim of conserving resources, protecting the environment and overseeing the health and welfare of their citizens, has been opting for some years now for sustainable development as one of its top priorities. The reduction of energy consumption has been identified as one of the aspects that can contribute most in this respect. This is why the EU has financed the Vacuum Insulating Panels (VIP) project, one in which GAIKER has participated in and the object of which is
Exposure to air pollutants increases the risk of fatal myocardial infarction (MI), particularly pollutants caused by motor traffic. This is the conclusion of a new thesis published by Karolinska Institutet.
Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death in Sweden and other Western European countries. Known risk factors include age, gender, hereditariness, smoking, hypertension and high blood lipid levels. However, the part played by the external environment still remain
Tensions between fishing communities and marine scientists over research into fisheries conservation have been overcome in a unique project sponsored by the ESRC in the islands of the Orkney archipelago.
The study was led by Professor Jonathan Side of the Heriot Watt University’s Orkney- based International Centre for Island Technology, and focussed on an inshore creel fishery for lobsters and crabs. It brought unprecedented participation from all sides of the debate while in
Evolutionary biologists at the University of East Anglia have discovered a new link between biodiversity and the evolution of new species.
Studying plants and invertebrates on the Canary and Hawaiian Islands, Dr Brent Emerson and Dr Niclas Kolm found that the greater the diversity of species on an island, the higher the proportion of endemic species on that island.
The new research, published in Nature this week, underlines the importance of generating and maintaining spe
Forests provide humans with economically important and often irreplaceable products and services, and affect global climate by acting as sources and sinks of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Yet the possible responses of forests to ongoing environmental changes are poorly understood. In the most recent issue of Ecology Letters, Stephenson and van Mantgem show that birth and death rates of trees vary in parallel with global patterns of forest productivity.
In less productive forests, such a
Climate change is widely attributed to the build-up of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the Earth’s atmosphere. However, scientists from the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Southampton have shown that the impact of carbon dioxide is being felt in space too.
Dr Hugh Lewis from the School will present a paper to the Fourth European Conference on Space Debris at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany this week indicating that inc
Rare plant species are six times more likely than abundant species to be lost due to nitrogen fertilization of soil, UC Irvine biologist Katharine Suding and colleagues have found through experiments conducted across nine ecosystems in North America. While nitrogen increases the production of plants, an excess amount of it, the researchers conclude, creates a competition among plants for space that drives rare plants – plants that are uncommon and not abundant – out of existence, causing a loss
Reporters looking for fresh environmental research angles for Earth Day (April 22) – or for environmental coverage throughout the year – can find scores of newsworthy projects at UW-Madison related to water resources, from groundwater to the Great Lakes. The following tipsheet describes ten current water research projects that may be of interest to media, including:
– The Wisconsin Buffer Initiative
– ’Rain gardens’ as a way to restore urban ground water
Major changes need to be made to the way ski pistes are managed if delicate alpine plants are to be protected, ecologists have warned. According to new research published today in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, machine grading and artificial snow production is causing significant changes in the number and type of plant species in the European Alps.
Sonja Wipf of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and colleagues
An ambitious plan is under way in the ecological community to agree a set of standards for ecologically successful river restoration. The plan is being led by the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, which this month is publishing a special profile on river restoration. Opening the debate is a paper by 22 leading US river ecologists proposing five criteria for ecologically successful river restoration. Their aim is to arrive at an agreed set of standards which would e
Ocean warming has a negative impact on the condition of elephant seals, reveals a study published in the Open Access journal BMC Biology. High ocean temperatures observed from 1975 to the late 1990s are correlated with a 28% decrease in the weight of elephant seal pups. Elephant seals are shown to be sensitive to ocean temperature changes associated with both long-term 25-year cycles and short-term 3-4 year cycles such as those caused by El Niño. Sea lions and fur seals that feed
The EU is now entering an agreement with Lund University regarding research into the desertification. The background is that 40 research organizations from 16 countries recently gathered in Madrid to launch an EU project (DeSurvey) about land degradation and desertification in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. The EU funding is about SEK 75 million. Lund University will be taking part as the only Scandinavian unit, in the person of Professor Ulf Helldén at the Department of Physical Geo
European experts meet today in Brussels to consider a potential method to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on a large scale. Greenhouse gases have increased dramatically since the time of the industrial revolution. One of the main contributors is fossil fuel combustion for power generation and industry. The European strategy “Towards Zero Emission Power Plants” will reduce drastically these emissions by capturing the CO2 and storing it underground in geological formations. This will in effect
More than half of the world’s large rivers are fragmented and regulated by dams. The largest and the most biologically and geographically diverse rivers are all affected. This is shown by a global study that is published in this week’s issue of the journal Science.
Behind the study are Christer Nilsson, Cathy Reidy and Mats Dynesius at Umeå University and Carmen Revenga at The Nature Conservancy in the U.S.
Humans have drastically changed many rivers by impoundments and d
The universe of microbes that lives in your stomach may be nearly as unique as your fingerprint, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine who have embarked on the early stages of exploring the intestinal ecosystem.
Using molecular techniques that detect all known types of microbes and borrowing statistical techniques from field ecology and population genetics, Paul Eckburg, MD, a postdoctoral scholar in infectious diseases and geographic medicine, c
A new guide – the first of its kind in the world – which offers architects and other designers guidance on how they can reduce the vast amount of waste material created through standard design details is launched today (Friday April 15th).
The guide, on Detailing For The Deconstruction Of Buildings, has been compiled by Fionn Stevenson, Reader in Architecture at University of Dundee, and Chris Morgan, of Locate Architects, for the Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA), fol
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