In Nature, Eva Stukenbrock from Kiel University and Sarah Gurr from University of Exeter warn of the devastating consequences of fungal diseases. Worldwide, growers lose between 10 and 23 per cent of their crops to fungal infection each year, despite widespread use of antifungals. An additional 10-20 per cent post harvest. In a commentary in Nature, academics predict those figures are projected to worsen as global warming means fungal infections are steadily moving polewards, meaning more countries are likely to…

Surprising results from historic study suggest the shrinking West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a major threat to global sea level rise, was smaller and more dynamic in recent geologic past than previously thought. Subglacial lakes that never see the light of day are among the least accessible frontiers of science, brimming with more tales yet untold than even the planets of our solar system. One thing seems certain: where there is water, there is life — even if said water is…

Roboticists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a jellyfish-inspired underwater robot with which they hope one day to collect waste from the bottom of the ocean. The almost noise-free prototype can trap objects underneath its body without physical contact, thereby enabling safe interactions in delicate environments such as coral reefs. Jellyfish-Bot could become an important tool for environmental remediation. Most of the world is covered in oceans, which are unfortunately highly polluted. One of…

Previously unknown group of bacteria in the deep sea regulates energy balance. A team of international researchers led by Federico Baltar of the University of Vienna and José M González of the University of La Laguna has identified a previously unknown group of bacteria, called UBA868, as key players in the energy cycle of the deep ocean. They are significantly involved in the biogeochemical cycle in the marine layer between 200 and 1000 meters. The results have now been published…

With the help of neural networks, the complexity of the layer around the Earth can be reconstructed much better than before. This is important for satellite navigation, among other things. The ionosphere – the region of geospace spanning from 60 to 1000 kilometres above the Earth – impairs the propagation of radio signals from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) with its electrically charged particles. This is a problem for the ever higher precision required by these systems – both in…

New NASA InSight research reveals that Mars has a liquid core rich in sulfur and oxygen, leading to new clues about how terrestrial planets form, evolve and potentially sustain life. Scientists observed seismic waves traveling through Mars’ core for the first time and confirmed model predictions of the core’s composition. An international research team—which included University of Maryland seismologists—used seismic data acquired by the NASA InSight lander to directly measure properties of Mars’s core, finding a completely liquid iron-alloy core…

The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea – and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener…

UC Venture Lab-backed startup signs distribution deal. Partnering with companies in the United States and Australia, a University of Cincinnati Venture Lab-backed startup has improved its autonomous rovers that clear debris from waterways and is preparing to ship its largest order to date. Clean Earth Rovers (CER) has signed a distribution deal with B&B Services, a company based in Naples, Florida. The deal guarantees a minimum order of 20 rovers to be delivered within the next year. B&B Services will…

The mass die-off of the long-spined sea urchin – a loss that threatens the health of coral reefs from the Caribbean to Florida’s east coast — was caused by a one-celled organism called a ciliate. The search for the 2022 killer that decimated the long-spined sea urchin population in the Caribbean and along Florida’s east coast is over. A team of researchers organized by Mya Breitbart, Distinguished University Professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, identified…

The seven worst years for polar ice sheets melting and losing ice have occurred during the past decade, according to new research, with 2019 being the worst year on record. The melting ice sheets now account for a quarter of all sea level rise – a fivefold increase since the 1990’s – according to IMBIE, an international team of researchers who have combined 50 satellite surveys of Antarctica and Greenland taken between 1992 and 2020. Their findings are published today…

The polar regions are exposed to an increasing load of pollutants. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and the Umweltbundesamt (UBA), experts from the European Commission, the Stockholm Convention, the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Conference, environmental sample banks, data centers and leading research institutions have now formulated the “Berlin Statement”. The resulting recommendations for action were recently published in the journal Chemosphere. Ecological crises have an impact even in the remotest corners of the earth. For example,…

$1 million enables deep dive into LA County waterways. UC Riverside scientists are taking a modern approach to studying a murky subject — the quantity, quality, and sources of microplastics in Los Angeles County’s urban streams. Microplastics are particles with a maximum diameter of 5 millimeters, roughly the size of a pencil eraser. The category can include nanoplastics, which are far smaller than the width of an average human hair. Scientists have been aware that these particles have been filtering…

For several years, a team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute used underwater microphones to listen for seals at the edge of the Antarctic. Their initial findings, just released in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, indicate that sea-ice retreat has had significant effects on the animals’ behaviour: when the ice disappears, areas normally full of vocalisations become very quiet. When the sea ice vanishes, Antarctic seals become silent. This is the main conclusion of a new…

Experiments at the University of Freiburg provide evidence for the first time of the ability of ambrosia beetles to distinguish between food and harmful fungi. Certain ambrosia beetles species engage in active agriculture. As social communities, they breed and care for food fungi in the wood of trees and ensure that so-called weed fungi spread less. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Peter Biedermann, professor of Forest Entomology and Forest Protection at the University of Freiburg, now demonstrate for the first…

Ice sheets can retreat up to 600 metres a day during periods of climate warming, 20 times faster than the highest rate of retreat previously measured. An international team of researchers, led by Dr Christine Batchelor of Newcastle University, UK, used high-resolution imagery of the seafloor to reveal just how quickly a former ice sheet that extended from Norway retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago. The team, which also included researchers from the…

Research in Moorea shows the presence of coral skeletons influences reef recovery after bleaching. Natural disasters can devastate a region, abruptly killing the species that form an ecosystem’s structure. But how this transpires can influence recovery. While fires scorch the landscape to the ground, a heatwave leaves an army of wooden staves in its wake. Storm surges and coral bleaching do something similar underwater. UC Santa Barbara scientists investigated how these two kinds of disturbances might affect coral reefs. They…