New research by an international team of scientists explains what’s behind a stalled trend in Arctic Ocean sea ice loss since 2007. The findings indicate that stronger declines in sea ice will occur when an atmospheric feature known as the Arctic dipole reverses itself in its recurring cycle. The many environmental responses to the Arctic dipole are described in a paper published online today in the journal Science. This analysis helps explain how North Atlantic water influences Arctic Ocean climate. Scientists call…

For more than 30 years, the models that researchers and government agencies use to forecast earthquake aftershocks have remained largely unchanged. While these older models work well with limited data, they struggle with the huge seismology datasets that are now available. To address this limitation, a team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Technical University of Munich created a new model that uses deep learning to forecast aftershocks: the Recurrent Earthquake foreCAST (RECAST). In a paper published today in…

In the European research project ReSoURCE, experts from nine different companies and institutes are working together to develop sustainable solutions for the recycling of refractory materials. The German project partners are primarily providing laser know-how. Refractory materials withstand high temperatures beyond 1,500 °C. They are indispensable for industrial furnaces that produce glass or ceramics, non-ferrous metals and steels, for example. The service life for refractory products ranges from a few days to many years – depending on the materials, the…

Regulation of Negative Emissions Technologies Presents Many Challenges. The ocean will play a key role in efforts to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists and IPCC. The use of “negative emissions technologies” to enhance carbon sequestration and storage in the ocean is increasingly being discussed. In a study published in the scientific journal “Frontiers”, RIFS researchers Lina Röschel and Barbara Neumann describe the challenges that these technologies present. The existing regulatory and institutional frameworks are inadequate for the governance…

New study shows: Climate change is affecting the seasonal vertical migration of zooplankton in the Arctic. Due to intensifying sea-ice melting in the Arctic, sunlight is now penetrating deeper and deeper into the ocean. Since marine zooplankton respond to the available light, this is also changing their behaviour – especially how the tiny organisms rise and fall within the water column. As an international team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now shown, in the future this…

Deciphering patterns in “microphysical” features of precipitation. Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University and other institutes have studied new satellite data showing the diameter of rain droplets and the distribution of heavy ice in the atmosphere worldwide. They focused on the Asian monsoon region, finding larger droplets and more heavy ice precipitation on land before the actual monsoon season. Their findings shed new light on the features of the pre-monsoon season, such as more intense precipitation and lightning, potentially informing better…

How tomato plants defend themselves against a devastating ‘young’ Southern African virus has now been investigated at a molecular genetics level for the first time by researchers at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The Ty-1 gene is known to confer resistance to the well-known tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). UJ researchers investigated what happens when tomato plants that harbour the Ty-1 gene are infected with the relatively unknown tomato curly stunt virus (ToCSV). They found a link between tolerance…

MARUM team retrieves deep-sea observatory developed in Bremen. How much methane escapes from the ocean floor? This question is the focus of an international project in which MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen is also involved. An expedition to the underwater observatory off the west coast of the USA is now starting, at the end of the M³ project (Sonar Monitoring of Marine Methane emissions), with the research vessel THOMAS G. THOMPSON and the…

Startup launches the next-generation environmental sensor platform. Agrela Ecosystems, a startup launched by Nadia Shakoor, PhD, principal investigator, at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced the pilot launch of its flagship product, PheNodeTM. This milestone marks the first step towards a full-scale commercial release set for 2025. PheNode is an advanced, scalable environmental sensor platform designed to empower users with customizable data collection and the rapid integration of new technologies. Already creating a buzz, the platform is now collecting data and generating…

Coral reefs in one part of the Pacific Ocean have likely adjusted to higher ocean temperatures which could reduce future bleaching impacts of climate change, new research reveals. A Newcastle University-led study focused on the Pacific Island nation of Palau and has shown that historic increases in the thermal tolerance of coral reefs are possible. The results demonstrate how this capacity could reduce future bleaching impacts if global carbon emissions are cut down. Drawing on decades of field observations, the…

A new theory shows how water underneath glaciers may surge — creating a dangerous feedback cycle. Two Georgia Tech researchers, Alex Robel and Shi Joyce Sim, have collaborated on a new model for how water moves under glaciers. The new theory shows that up to twice the amount of subglacial water that was originally predicted might be draining into the ocean – potentially increasing glacial melt, sea level rise, and biological disturbances.   Shi Joyce Sim is a research scientist…

New method for pollutants such as crude oil, glyphosate, microplastics and hormones. Pouring flecks of rust into water usually makes it dirtier. But researchers of FAU have developed special iron oxide nanoparticles they call “smart rust” that actually makes it cleaner. Smart rust can attract many substances, including oil, nano- and microplastics, as well as the herbicide glyphosate, depending on the particles’ coating. And because the nanoparticles are magnetic, they can easily be removed from water with a magnet along…

SLF researchers have been mapping snow depths in detail over a large area. The new technique yields important basic data. You don’t always need a laser – sometimes a camera will do. Researchers at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) have now disproved the paradigm that the height of snowpack can only be accurately determined from the air using laser scanners, says Yves Bühler, Head of the SLF’s Alpine Remote Sensing research group. “We were surprised ourselves…

Giant dust storms in the Gulf of Alaska can last for many days and send tonnes of fine sediment or silt into the atmosphere, and it is having an impact on the global climate system, say scientists. The storms are so extensive they can be seen by satellites orbiting the Earth. An image captured by the Landsat satellite in 2020 shows dust blowing out of the valley and over Alaska’s south coast. Exactly how the dust may be influencing the global…

Using drone imagery and artificial intelligence (AI), scientists from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen have developed a method that delineates each tree in a forest, along with an estimate of its height and diameter. This capability can help to create biological inventories of forests such as mangroves and also to determine their stocks of stored carbon. Their study recently appeared as a featured article in the journal “Remote Sensing”. Mangrove forests can store large amounts…

Tiny plastic particles can be found in the air over the oceans even far away from the coast. According to a new study, microplastics are not only carried by the wind, but also escape into the atmosphere from seawater. For the first time, German and Norwegian researchers led by the University of Oldenburg present data on the composition and sources of different types of plastic in the air over the North Atlantic and the origin of the particles. The results…