More than one-third of the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere stem from agriculture and forestry. One of the current concerns is to find ways of managing agriculture differently in order to increase the level of carbon storage in soils and limit emission of gases that contribute to global atmospheric warming.
Photosynthesis ensures that plants assimilate carbon dioxide, in the form of plant carbon, part of which (in roots and crop residues) is returned to the soil and s
As the political temperature rises over climate change and global warming, Manchester Metropolitan University is leading the scientific way forward on our understanding of the environmental impact of pollution and emissions.
This week’s Greenpeace claim that the British Government could not longer be trusted to reduce global warming, underlines the imperative of tackling carbon emissions caused by road, rail, sea and air transport. The Government maintains that climate chang
The first digital map of the multiple changes that have occurred in Europe’s landscapes since 1990 was unveiled today, enabling policy-makers to draw lessons from how their decisions in areas such as agriculture and transport are impacting on the region’s finite land resources and the wider environment.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) presented the results of its Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2000 project at a high-level event in Brussels for representatives from several Europe
The Earth Institute at Columbia University, NYC–Researchers suggest that reductions of trace gases may allow stabilization of climate so that additional global warming would be less than 1° C, a level needed to maintain global coastlines. Although carbon dioxide emissions, an inherent product of fossil fuel use, must also be slowed, the required carbon dioxide reduction is much more feasible if trace gases decrease.
In the current edition of Proceedings of the National Academy
In one of the world’s fastest growing industrial regions, a study finding that a class of pollutants exist at levels four times that of U.S. air quality standards has prompted a Hong Kong public policy group to call for government standards on fine particulate matter. The finding was released by Civic Exchange, a non-profit public policy think tank comprised of scientists as well as representatives from the power and oil industries, government and civic organizations.
The study
Scientists with the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have recently been counting their zoo animals from a lofty perch: namely, outer space. Using high-tech cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 280 miles overhead, a WCS scientific team tallied some of the zoo’s own animal collection to see if satellites can help count wildlife populations in remote locations throughout the world.
The WCS team is currently analyzing high-tech maps produced by the satelli
A novel type of engine which aims to use less fuel and reduce noxious emissions without detracting from the car’s performance is being developed thanks to an investment of £93,500 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the organisation that champions UK innovation.
Keith Hall, from Maidenhead in Berkshire, is a chartered mechanical engineer who has worked with names such as Audi, Jaguar and Ford. His Bruntel Environmental Engine aims to match the p
At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years
The world’s biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, according to the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and a companion study of the data, the Global Species Assessment (GSA). The GSA is the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world’s biodiversity. Its findings include the following: At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years, and an addit
Dutch research has shown that marine plankton have the greatest effect on the climate in the southern hemisphere, even though the majority of plankton are found in oceans in the northern hemisphere.
Mtinkheni Gondwe used satellite observations to follow the distribution of phytoplankton in the oceans. Although the majority of plankton are found between the middle and high latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the effect of these on the climate is greatest in the southern hemispher
International efforts to protect forests have been given a boost by a unique information initiative headed by a University of Ulster scientist. Leading a four-year project compiling research by 100 European scientists, Coleraine-based researcher Dr Keith Day has co-edited a landmark publication providing essential information aimed at saving trees from bark-devouring insects, some of which transmit virulent fungi such as Dutch elm disease.
“The result is that forest research organis
Scientists immersed in the life-blood of the Northwest
What is considered perhaps the northwest’s most valuable natural resource will be the primary focus for hundreds of environmental science professionals as they convene for the Fourth Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry World Congress conference in Portland this November.
Among the events designed to exchange ideas and present research will be an Interactive Poster Session entitled, Investigations of the
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center are concerned that avian cholera, which recently killed about 30,000 eared grebes–small, diving water birds–at Great Salt Lake, Utah, could spread as birds migrate south for the winter, the agency announced today. Last week, USGS scientists isolated Pasteurella multocida, the bacterium that causes avian cholera, from dead grebes that were sent to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. USGS
WWF Calls on Governments to Restrain Rapidly Growing Tuna Farming Industry
In advance of a critical meeting of government and industry leaders on the fate of vulnerable Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today called on participants to make urgent, far-reaching moves to end mismanagement and stop illegal fishing and farming methods used to produce tuna to meet growing consumer demands from the United States, China, Japan and Korea.
The 14th Special
The authors of a 30-year study suggest that declines in fish supply in Ghana can lead to regional increases in the hunting, trade and human consumption of wildlife in this West African nation. Declining fish stocks suggest marine resources are nearing collapse due to overfishing by regional and foreign fleets, most notably fleets subsidized by the European Union. A fisheries collapse would have widely felt consequences for regional economies, human food supply and efforts to conserve nature on l
In a study that mimicked the natural order of species loss in a grassland ecosystem, researchers found that declining biodiversity greatly reduced resistance to invasive species and that the presence of even small numbers of rare species had profound functional effects.
The results have important implications for understanding the biodiversity crisis, said researcher Erika S. Zavaleta, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Pr
The loss of seemingly inconsequential animal species in the marine benthos – the top 6 inches or so of mud and sediment on the floors of the world’s oceans – is giving scientists a new look ahead at the consequences of the steady decline of the world’s biological diversity.
In new work published today (Nov. 12) in the journal Science, an international team of scientists describe work in which the ocean mud and the many animals that live there are used to forecast how the
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