Iron-based fertilizer, engineered into nanoparticles, could help store excess carbon dioxide in the ocean. The urgent need to remove excess carbon dioxide from Earth’s environment could include enlisting some of our planet’s smallest inhabitants, according to an international research team led by Michael Hochella of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Hochella and his colleagues examined the scientific evidence for seeding the oceans with iron-rich engineered fertilizer particles near ocean plankton. The goal would be to feed phytoplankton,…

The University of Hohenheim taps into a new source of protein: an on-farm biorefinery produces protein-based feed for pigs and poultry, other high-quality raw materials, and energy. A tasty dish for chickens: Researchers from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart were able to feed the animals the first 50 kilos of protein extract that were obtained from pasture. Yet the plants found in fields and meadows offer much more than a new source of protein for pigs and poultry: They…

They are the salt-tolerant shrubs that thrive in the toughest of conditions, but according to new UniSA research, mangroves are also avid coastal protectors, capable of surviving in heavy metal contaminated environments. The researchers found that grey mangroves (Avicennia marina) can tolerate high lead, zinc, arsenic, cadmium and copper in contaminated sediment – without sustaining adverse health impacts themselves. The study tested the health of grey mangroves living around the Port Pirie smelter. Using leaf chlorophyll content as a proxy…

— which type of packaging is more sustainable? The packaging world is experiencing a shift away from plastic toward paper, cardboard or paperboard. But how sustainable is this new trend? In its latest report “Reusable plastic crates vs. single-use cardboard boxes — two packag-ing systems in competition”1, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT and the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP were commissioned by the Stiftung Initiative Mehrweg (SIM) to explain the background to and correlations…

– what does this have to do with volcanoes? Despite their differences, cold powder avalanches and hot pyroclastic flows during volcanic eruptions do have a number of things in common, not least their immense destructive power. Completely independently of one another, researchers from both fields have discovered that pulsating flows are responsible for the destructive power of these two natural hazards. A research project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation is aiming to uncover the origin of this still…

A new model explains that water evaporating from the Arctic Ocean due to a warming climate is transported south and can lead to increased snowfall in northern Eurasia in late autumn and early winter. This information will allow for more accurate predictions of severe weather events. Rising air temperatures due to global warming melt glaciers and polar ice caps. Seemingly paradoxically, snow cover in some areas in northern Eurasia has increased over the past decades. However, snow is a form…

Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a method that allows the water level of rivers to be monitored around the clock. The cost-effective sensor is for instance suitable for area-wide flood warning systems. The study has been published in the journal Water Resources Research. There is a wide range of methods to determine the level of a watercourse – from very simple ones (by yardstick or staff gauge) to advanced radar solutions. But they all have a catch:…

Researchers find new transport route for carbonaceous material from productive Arctic marginal seas to the deep sea. Every year, the cross-shelf transport of carbon-rich particles from the Barents and Kara Seas could bind up to 3.6 million metric tons of CO2 in the Arctic deep sea for millennia. In this region alone, a previously unknown transport route uses the biological carbon pump and ocean currents to absorb atmospheric CO2 on the scale of Iceland’s total annual emissions, as researchers from…

Gadgets that emit small electrical pulses can drastically cut the number of sharks and stingrays caught accidentally on fishing lines, new research shows. A new device called SharkGuard attaches to longline fishing rigs to scare off sharks and rays. In the study, carried out on French boats fishing for tuna, lines fitted with SharkGuard reduced bycatch (accidental catching) of blue sharks by 91% and stingrays by 71%. Catch of the target species, bluefin tuna, also appeared to decline, but further…

New study shows that particles from central South America were the main source of iron in the South Pacific during the last two glacial periods. Dust from the dry Puna Plateau in northwestern Argentina was an important source of iron for the nutrient-deficient South Pacific in the last two glacial cycles – especially at the beginning of these cycles. This was the key finding of a study presented in science journal PNAS by a team of researchers led by geochemist…

550-million-year-old creatures’ message to the present. Earth is currently in the midst of a mass extinction, losing thousands of species each year. New research suggests environmental changes caused the first such event in history, which occurred millions of years earlier than scientists previously realized. Most dinosaurs famously disappeared 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. Prior to that, a majority of Earth’s creatures were snuffed out between the Permian and Triassic periods, roughly 252 million years…

Measuring the position and topography of the earth’s crust is critical for understanding earthquake risk. Now, researchers led by the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have developed a novel method for monitoring the position of the seafloor with a drone-based observation device that could revolutionize oceanographic observation. Changes in the earth’s surface occur as a result of tectonic forces accumulating in the crust, a process called crustal deformation. When forces that are exerted on the crust (stress)…

At Te Waewae Bay near Waihōpai (Invercargill), unusual activities are taking place in November. Extensive measurements are being carried out in the far south of New Zealand to study the atmosphere. The location was chosen to minimise human environmental influences and to be able to observe air masses originating from the Southern Ocean region. The research is jointly led by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)…

A new study has revealed the potential for sensory deterrents to reduce marine megafauna bycatch in fisheries. The Newcastle University research suggests that sensory deterrents can work in some circumstances and may be part of the solution to reduce bycatch. Sensory deterrents are designed to provide sensory cues for marine megafauna (marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, sharks and rays) to avert their contact with fishing gear, whilst maintaining target catch quantity and quality. There are several types of sensory technologies…

Findings could open up a whole new chapter in climate science and help identify subsurface locations to safely store hydrogen for carbon-free energy. Trapped for millennia, the tiniest liquid remnants of an ancient inland sea have now been revealed. The surprising discovery of seawater sealed in what is now North America for 390 million years opens up a new avenue for understanding how oceans change and adapt with the changing climate. The method may also be useful in understanding how…

CO2 in the deep Earth may be more active than previously thought and may have played a bigger role in climate change than scientists knew before, according to a study by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The research, led by Prof. PAN Ding, looked into the dissolution of CO2 in water, which has significant implications on ways to reduce the return of carbon from underground to the atmosphere. The vast majority of the Earth’s carbon is…