MERIAN Expedition MSM129 continues long-term observations in the Labrador Sea. As a crucial part of the global ocean conveyor belt, the Atlantic Ocean transports heat northwards – a process that stabilises the Earth’s current climate. If this heat transport is reduced, a tipping point in the climate system could be crossed, leading to severe changes in global climate. A key region for the global conveyor belt is the North Atlantic, in particular the oceanic processes in the Labrador and Irminger…

Researchers at European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg have taken a closer look at the formation of the first crystallisation of nuclei in supercooled liquids. They found: The formation starts much later than previously assumed. The findings could help to better understand the creation of ice in clouds in the future and to describe some processes inside the Earth more precisely. Every child knows that water freezes into ice when it gets icy cold. For water, this normally happens below…

Preparations for the launch of the new Earth observation satellite EarthCARE (Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) are in full swing. The joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will measure clouds, aerosol and radiation more accurately than ever before. This will be made possible by linking four state-of-the-art instruments. Three so-called processors, which the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) has developed together with partners, are making an important contribution to…

Sci­entific pub­lic­a­tion on the role of mi­cro­bial com­munit­ies in the mar­ine car­bon cycle. Many processes in the deep sea are not yet well understood, and the role of microbial communities in particular is often a big unknown. This includes, for example, how organic material that sinks from the water surface to the ocean floor is metabolised – an important building block for a better understanding of the global carbon cycle. The team from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences…

– circular plastics economy. For the first time, the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE will present the topic ‘Sustainable Geosynthetics for Landscaping’ at ACHEMA 2024 alongside the topic ‘Advanced Recycling’. We cordially invite you to visit us at the trade fair in Frankfurt (Hall 6.0 – Research and Innova-tion | Booth D49). Is it possible to produce plastics for landscaping from bio-based polymers? Can products be manufactured without environmental problems and with controlled degradation? Fraunhofer CCPE is…

Study headed by the University of Bonn analyses 9,000 varieties of maize around the world. Maize can grow successfully in very different local conditions. An international study headed by the University of Bonn has now demonstrated the important role of the plant root system. The researchers analyzed more than 9,000 varieties in the study and were able to show that their roots varied considerably – depending on how dry the location is where each variety was cultivated. They were also…

– volcanism as a driver of the climate in the “Carnic crisis”. New research on the so-called ‘Carnian Crisis’ by a team led by Alexander Lukeneder, palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna, reveals astonishing developments surrounding global climate change during the Triassic period. Extensive geochemical and geophysical data decipher one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in Earth’s history, the ‘Carnian Crisis’. Climate change 233 million years ago led to a global mass extinction in the seas of the Mesozoic…

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a method to produce very low emission concrete at scale – an innovation that could be transformative in the transition to net zero. The method, which the researchers say is “an absolute miracle”, uses the electrically-powered arc furnaces used for steel recycling to simultaneously recycle cement, the carbon-hungry component of concrete. Concrete is the second-most-used material on the planet, after water, and is responsible for approximately 7.5% of total anthropogenic CO₂ emissions….

Sudden onset of drying is a rising problem, particularly acute in South America and southern Africa. But in high mountain regions of Central Asia, climate change has instead brought more moisture. Sudden, severe dry spells known as flash droughts are rising in intensity around the world, with a notable exception in mountainous Central Asia, where flash drought extent is shrinking, according to new research. Heat and changes to precipitation patterns caused by a warming climate are driving these trends, the…

… double-pulse LIBS technology. The seabed contains large quantities of valuable minerals and metals that are urgently needed for modern technologies such as electric cars and wind turbines. However, discovering these deposits has so far been complicated: Diving robots use grippers to take samples, which are then analysed on board of a research vessel. An innovative method is now opening up new possibilities for more environmentally friendly exploration of our oceans. With laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIBS) using double-pulse lasers, the…

Satellite radar data show kilometer-scale seawater intrusion, causing ice to rise and fall. A team of glaciologists led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine used high-resolution satellite radar data to find evidence of the intrusion of warm, high-pressure seawater many kilometers beneath the grounded ice of West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier. In a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UC Irvine-led team said that widespread contact between ocean water and the glacier –…

The basis of the marine food web in the Arctic, the phytoplankton, responds to heatwaves much differently than to constantly elevated temperatures. This has been found by the first targeted experiments on the topic, which were recently conducted at the Alfred Wegener Institute’s AWIPEV Station. The phytoplankton’s behaviour primarily depends on the cooling phases after or between heatwaves, as shown in a study just released in the journal Science Advances. Heatwaves, which we’ve increasingly seen around the globe in recent…

Spherical pyrite from black smokers puts Tübingen and Göttingen researchers on the trail of the first microbes that lived billions of years ago. A team of researchers at the Universities of Tübingen and Göttingen has found that certain minerals with characteristic shapes could indicate the activity of bacteria in hydrothermal vents – or black smokers – in the deep ocean several billion years ago. This represents a major step in our understanding of the origin of life. The study, led…

Plants adapt genetically over time to the special conditions of organic farming. This has been demonstrated in a long-term study conducted at the University of Bonn. The researchers planted barley plants on two neighboring fields and used conventional farming methods on one and organic methods on the other. Over the course of more than 20 years, the organic barley was enriched with specific genetic material that differed from the comparative culture. Among other things, the results demonstrate how important it…

In the RhizoTraits joint project, Bayreuth researchers are looking at old crop varieties, researching root characteristics and investigating whether a mixture of varieties can increase yield stability in the climate crisis. The second phase of the project, which has now started, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of €1.9 million, around half of which is going to Bayreuth. What for? It is undisputed that droughts and heatwaves are increasing due to the…

NASA has selected a team of University of Florida aerospace engineers to pursue a groundbreaking $12 million mission aimed at improving the way we track changes in Earth’s structures, such as tectonic plates and oceans. The mission, titled “GRATTIS” (Gravitational Reference Advanced Technology Test in Space), was the sole proposal selected in a national competition. GRATTIS will demonstrate the performance of state-of-the-art sensors that measure nanometer-scale gravitational changes from space to monitor movements on the Earth’s surface and interior. “UF…