Climate change is causing major challenges especially for plant breeders. An intelligent field robot and X-ray technology are helping them selecting heat-tolerant plant varieties. The sensors in the high-tech machine were developed by the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-ray Technology, a division of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Our summers keep becoming hotter. Just this summer, Germany experienced a heatwave with temperatures of up to 40 C. The resulting drought also affected plants. Given an ample supply of…

The rapid rise in temperature in the Arctic is profoundly altering the region – with unknown consequences for the future. At the same time, dwindling sea ice is increasing economic interest in the Arctic Ocean. How can the Arctic be protected and used sustainably against this backdrop? To provide an overview of issues relevant to marine conservation in the Arctic, Ecologic Institute and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) have published a series of reports. The reports focus on…

If groundwater sinks, streams and rivers seep away and pollute drinking water. Increasing drought, less precipitation, rising water demand in agriculture – climate change is causing problems for our groundwater. In Germany and around the world, it is leading to falling groundwater levels in some regions. When the underground water table is low, polluted surface water from streams and rivers finds its way more and more into the groundwater. The result: Our drinking water and groundwater ecosystems are endangered –…

Expected to improve results for meniscal reconstruction surgery. The knee meniscus is an important tissue that protects the joint; if the meniscus is damaged—by sports injury or aging–it often does not heal on its own. There are two surgical methods for treating a torn meniscus: repair with a suture and graft or removal. Because removing the meniscus leads to further damage, the graft surgery is preferred for meniscus reconstruction. In countries where donated meniscal allograft is unavailable the patient’s own…

“Deep biosphere” shaped by dissolved organic material from Earth’s surface. A research team with lead author Helena Osterholz of the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW) reports in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications on possible pathways by which microbial communities in the nutrient-poor “deep biosphere” can ensure survival. Among others, dissolved organic matter (DOM) was investigated in different deep groundwaters. Result: Already in the uppermost layers of the bedrock most of the labile matter is converted….

First-ever measurements of total mercury levels in the polar night uncovered a 33 per cent drop compared to summer levels. Over the last decade, researchers have learned a lot about the polar night — discovering everything from how tiny marine critters migrate up and down in the sea in response to the weak light of the moon, to seabirds that dive into the pitch-black ocean to feast on bioluminescent plankton and krill. But what is less well known is how…

Hot springs occur worldwide at spreading ridges of the Earth’s plates. On the 500 kilometer long Knipovich Ridge, located between Greenland and Spitsbergen, hydrothermal vents were previously unknown. During the 109th expedition with the research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN, researchers from Bremen and Norway have now discovered for the first time a field with numerous hydrothermal vents on the Knipovich Ridge. “Following indications in the water column of hydrothermal activity, we searched the ocean floor with the remotely operated vehicle…

Using sophisticated electronic tags, scientists have assembled a large biologging dataset to garner comparative insights on how sharks, rays, and skates – also known as “elasmobranchs” – use the ocean depths. While some species spend their entire lives in shallow waters close to our shores on the continental shelf, others plunge hundreds of meters or more off the slope waters into the twilight zone, beyond where sunlight penetrates. This new understanding of how elasmobranchs use the ocean will enable policymakers…

Study finds shifting climate will have little effect on breadfruit cultivation. In the face of climate change, breadfruit soon might come to a dinner plate near you. While researchers predict that climate change will have an adverse effect on most staple crops, including rice, corn and soybeans, a new Northwestern University study finds that breadfruit — a starchy tree fruit native to the Pacific islands — will be relatively unaffected. Because breadfruit is resilient to predicted climate change and particularly…

Modeling the way that snow distribution depends on terrain, elevation and vegetation will improve Earth-system models. Comprehensive data from several seasons of field research in the Alaskan Arctic will address uncertainties in Earth-system and climate-change models about snow cover across the region and its impacts on water and the environment. “Snow cover and its distribution affects not only the Arctic but global energy balances, and thus how it is changing is critically important for understanding how future global climate will…

The world is “woefully underprepared” for a massive volcanic eruption and the likely repercussions on global supply chains, climate and food, according to experts from the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), and the University of Birmingham. In an article published in the journal Nature, they say there is a “broad misconception” that risks of major eruptions are low, and describe current lack of governmental investment in monitoring and responding to potential volcano disasters as…

It’s not just the land that is groaning under the heat – the ocean is also suffering from heatwaves. In the Mediterranean Sea along the Italian and Spanish coasts, for example, water temperatures are currently up to 5 °C higher than the long-term average at this time of year. Scientists have investigated marine heatwaves for a few years now – for example at the University of Bern. However, relatively little is known about how marine heatwaves co-occur with other extreme…

Effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in national parks is associated with socioeconomic conditions. Despite commendable conservation efforts and investments by governments, NGOs and international as well as national conservation agencies, biodiversity continues to decline across the globe. One of the key strategies to halt biodiversity decline is the establishment of protected areas like national parks, which are supposed to provide favourable conditions for biodiversity to remain stable. Species declines are strongly associated with Human Development Index An international research team led…

In a comment recently published in “Nature”, Dr. Ugur Öztürk and his colleagues at the University of Potsdam, the University of Bristol and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research claim that more settlements will suffer from landslides in the future as climate change and urban sprawl are destabilizing slopes in the tropics. Over the last fifty years, disasters caused by landslides and floods have become ten times more frequent, despite landslides being significantly underreported in global databases. Worldwide, 4500…

International team of geoscientists led by University of Jena drills the oldest well-preserved sedimentary rocks on our planet in South Africa. An international team of scientists led by Prof. Christoph Heubeck of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany has drilled boreholes in South Africa that will help answer questions about the early history of our planet. The cores come from the “Barberton greenstone belt” near South Africa’s border with Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and can be dated to about 3.2 billion years…

The fate of the world’s biggest ice sheet still rests in our hands if global temperature increases are kept below the upper limit set by the Paris Agreement on climate change. A new study led by Durham University, UK, shows that the worst effects of global warming on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) could be avoided if temperatures do not rise by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Staying below this limit would see the EAIS – which holds…