A new method for detecting tsunamis using existing GPS satellites orbiting Earth could serve as an effective warning system for countries worldwide, according to a new study by an international team led by UCL (University College London) researchers. A new method for detecting tsunamis using existing GPS satellites orbiting Earth could serve as an effective warning system for countries worldwide, according to a new study by an international team led by UCL researchers. Initial tsunami waves are typically a few…

During the 20th century, earthquakes in Europe accounted for more than 200,000 deaths and over 250 billion Euros in losses. Comprehensive earthquake hazard and risk assessments are crucial to reducing the effects of catastrophic earthquakes because earthquakes cannot be prevented nor precisely predicted. An international team of European seismologists, geologists, and engineers, with leading support of members from the Swiss Seismological Service and the Group of Seismology and Geodynamics at ETH Zurich has; therefore, revised the earthquake hazard model that…

How climate can benefit from the conservation of biodiversity. When the global community is expected to meet for the second part of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, in autumn, it must also adopt the next generation of UN biodiversity targets. These will then replace the Aichi Targets that were aimed for until 2020 – and have hardly been achieved. 21 “Post-2020 Action Targets for 2030” have already been pre-formulated. While they still have to be finally agreed, they…

Microplastics can carry land-based parasites to ocean, affecting wildlife and human health. Microplastics are a pathway for pathogens on land to reach the ocean, with likely consequences for human and wildlife health, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. The study, published April 26 in the journal Scientific Reports, is the first to connect microplastics in the ocean with land-based pathogens. It found that microplastics can make it easier for disease-causing pathogens to concentrate in plastic-contaminated areas…

Through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 500 wheat varieties, researchers of the Julius Kühn-Institut have identified 14 gene loci that are consistently associated with low yield losses due to infection by Wheat dwarf virus. These QTL (quantitative trait loci) could be used for breeding new virus resistant wheat cultivars. If the leafhopper Psammotettix alienus pierces a wheat plant to suck plant sap, the consequences may be fatal: The leafhopper can transmit the Wheat dwarf virus (WDV) through its saliva….

KyotoU drills into unexpected rupture pattern of active fault in southwestern Japan. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes shocked inhabitants of the western island of Kyushu, causing hundreds of casualties and serious damage to vital infrastructure. The epicenter of the quake was traced to the Futagawa fault in a region neighboring Mount Aso, an active volcano in Kumamoto Prefecture that last erupted in October 2021. An investigation of earth displaced by the series of quakes has offered potentially new clues into seismic activity in…

A protein that allows the fungus which causes white mold stem rot in more than 600 plant species to overcome plant defenses has been identified by a team of U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University scientists. Knowledge of this protein, called SsPINE1, could help researchers develop a new, more precise system of control measures for the Sclerotinia sclerotiorum fungus, which attacks potatoes, soybeans, sunflowers, peas, lentils, canola, and many other broad leaf crops. The damage…

Burns allow fungi, bacteria to transform redwood forests. New UC Riverside research shows fungi and bacteria able to survive redwood tanoak forest megafires are microbial “cousins” that often increase in abundance after feeling the flames. Fires of unprecedented size and intensity, called megafires, are becoming increasingly common. In the West, climate change is causing rising temperatures and earlier snow melt, extending the dry season when forests are most vulnerable to burning. Though some ecosystems are adapted for less intense fires,…

A team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has made a major breakthrough in detecting changes in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions more quickly and frequently. In a study published today they quantified regional fossil fuel CO2 emissions reductions during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020-2021, using atmospheric measurements of CO2 and oxygen (O2) from the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, on the north Norfolk coast in the UK. The estimate uses a new method for separating CO2 signals…

Air pollution heating up the Southern Ocean. New research has identified a lesser-known form of ozone playing a big role in heating the Southern Ocean — one of Earth’s main cooling systems. Ozone is a gas composed of three oxygen atoms. Many studies have described ozone in the stratosphere, and its role in shielding people from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. Closer to ground level, in the troposphere, ozone is harmful to humans. New research led by UC Riverside scientists…

Team on the research vessel Neil Armstrong extracts core from the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench. A team of scientists, engineers, and ship’s crew on the research vessel Neil Armstrong operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) recently collected a 38-foot-long cylindrical sediment sample from the deepest part of the Puerto Rico Trench, nearly 5 miles below the surface. The sample core is breaking records as the deepest ever collected in the Atlantic Ocean, and possibly the deepest…

International study led by the University of Bonn records 1.5 million years of climate in the drill core. Changes in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are considered to be the main cause of past and future climate change. A long-standing debate centers on whether the roughly 30 percent lower CO2 content of the ice-age atmosphere was caused by iron fertilization. It is argued that iron-rich dust is carried into the ocean by wind and water, where it stimulates…

On the micrometer scale deformation properties of metals change profoundly: the smooth and continuous behaviour of bulk materials often becomes jerky due to random strain bursts of various sizes. On the micrometer scale deformation properties of metals change profoundly: the smooth and continuous behaviour of bulk materials often becomes jerky due to random strain bursts of various sizes. The reason for this phenomenon is the complex intermittent redistribution of lattice dislocations (which are line-like ctystal defects responsible for the irreversible…

In a remote area, a mix of geophysical methods identifies magma transfer below the seafloor as the cause. Volcanoes can be found even off the coast of Antarctica. At the deep-sea volcano Orca, which has been inactive for a long time, a sequence of more than 85,000 earthquakes was registered in 2020, a swarm quake that reached proportions not previously observed for this region. The fact that such events can be studied and described in great detail even in such…

Between 19 and 21 million tons of plastic waste end up in the world’s waters every year. The trend has been rising strongly over the last decade. To meet the challenge and to solve these environmental problems, creating a broad societal awareness of the plastic litter and microplastics issue is crucial. Therefore, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon has now developed a digital platform about plastic pollution and related topics. Researchers from various disciplines at the Helmholtz- Zentrum Hereon, led by the Institute…

Alternative production systems to provide the growing global population with healthy, nutritious and sustainably produced foodstuffs are currently gaining considerable attention. In this interview, Senthold Asseng, Professor of Digital Agriculture at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), discusses the concept of vertical farming, which will allow agriculture of the future to take place under fully controlled and automated conditions. Professor Asseng, vertical farming allows food production to be fully uncoupled from soil and external climate influences. What possibilities and opportunities…