A new study led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) and the University of Barcelona (UB) shows how a great diversity of marine organisms attach themselves to plastics and, with these, are dragged along by marine currents. A new study led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) and the University of Barcelona (UB) has revealed that marine plastic pollution could contribute to the introduction and transport of non-native species that attach to these particles of anthropogenic…

This has been confirmed by researchers from the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) after producing sea salinity data obtained from measurements by the SMOS satellite, which were later incorporated into the TOPAZ Arctic prediction model. Researchers at the Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) of the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) have proved that satellite-derived salinity improves marine circulation prediction in the Arctic, which, as in the rest of the planet, is directly influenced by this and other parameters such…

With steep walls and deep valleys, the Grand Canyon in the western United States or the massive gorges that saw through the margins of the Tibetan Plateau are some of the most awesome and spectacular landforms on the planet. But have you ever wondered how they are formed? Some studies have proposed that canyons form when a mountain range grows in height and a river running through it cuts into the rock formation like a knife, ultimately forming gorges. Other…

NASA is launching a prototype instrument that could make it easier to monitor volcanic activity and air quality. Perched aboard a CubeSat about 300 miles (480 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, the “Nanosat Atmospheric Chemistry Hyperspectral Observation System,” or NACHOS, will use a compact hyperspectral imager to locate sources of trace gases in areas as small as 0.15 square miles (0.4 square kilometers) – about the size of the Mall of America in Minnesota. NACHOS is part of Northrop Grumman’s 17th resupply mission to the…

An international team of experts under the lead of Margrete Emblemsvåg from Møreforsking AS and the Arctic University of Norway and Dr. Karl-Michael Werner from the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries in Germany discovered an unexpected connection between bottom fish and the impacts of climate change in East Greenland. While the researchers analysed large time-series of data they observed that ecosystems across the entire depth range from 150-1500 m responded synchronously to changes in the atmosphere, sea ice concentration and…

University of Tübingen team finds parallels with Martian environment in investigation of Spain’s heavy-metal polluted Rio Tinto estuary. At the mouth of the Rio Tinto in southwestern Spain, acidic river water – polluted with heavy metals from ore mining and mineral weathering – mixes with the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean. Here, microorganisms that love such extreme conditions form a unique community. They live in water as acidic as vinegar, are resistant to high salinity, and some also cope…

Rock properties are hard to measure under extreme pressure. Scientists present a simple solution for a very challenging problem. Researchers led by Sergey Lobanov from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have developed a new method to measure the density of silicon dioxide (SiO2) glass, one of the most important materials in industry and geology, at pressures of up to 110 gigapascals, 1.1 million times higher than normal atmospheric pressure. Instead of employing highly focused X-rays at a synchrotron…

This is a common press release of Stockholm University and the Alfred Wegener Institute. Single individuals of Atlantic cod and squid occur much further north than previously expected. Scientists participating in the international MOSAiC expedition with research icebreaker Polarstern  have found fish and squid in deep water in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. The results from Stockholm University, the Alfred Wegener Institute and colleagues in the European Fisheries Inventory in the Central Arctic Ocean (EFICA) Consortium are published today…

ageAWI experts confirm the delayed spread of the ice sheet 35 million years ago. Roughly 35 million years ago, Earth cooled rapidly. At roughly the same time, the Drake Passage formed between South America and the Antarctic, paving the way for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Thanks to these two factors, Antarctica was soon completely covered in ice. As a study from the Alfred Wegener Institute now shows, this massive glaciation was delayed in at least one region. This new piece…

Official kick-off meeting will take place on February 17th and 18th: The second research mission of the German Marine Research Alliance (DAM), “sustainMare” (“Protection and Sustainable Utilization of Marine Environments”) analyzes our utilization of seas and coasts. Rising sea levels, ocean warming and acidification, together with pollution and over-utilization of ecosystems are causing profound problems. Two pilot projects and five collaborative projects investigate the ecological, economic and social impacts of utilization and stressors on the North and Baltic Seas. The…

In northern Spain, wild honeybees use hollow electricity poles as nesting cavities. Natural areas in the surroundings promote the colonies’ chances to survive the winter. Until recently, experts considered it unlikely that the honeybee had survived as a wild animal in Europe. In a current study, biologists Benjamin Rutschmann and Patrick Kohl from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, show that wild honeybees still exist in the region of Galicia in the northwest of Spain. The researchers describe where to…

Degrading pyrogenic (fire-affected) organic matter is an important ecosystem function of fungi in post-fire environments. The Science Wildfires can cause significant changes in the carbon found in soils. These fires can completely burn carbon away, or they can alter its chemical composition. This fire-affected carbon, called pyrolyzed organic matter (PyOM), is difficult for many organisms to use as food. Although many soil organisms are killed by wildfires, the fungus Pyronema domesticum can grow rapidly after fires. Using RNA sequencing, researchers demonstrated that…

Chilly seawater may slow ice loss on the island until 2050, then warming and melting may accelerate. A region of cooling water in the North Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, nicknamed the “Blue Blob,” has likely slowed the melting of the island’s glaciers since 2011 and may continue to stymie ice loss until about 2050, according to new research. The origin and cause of the Blue Blob, which is located south of Iceland and Greenland, is still being investigated. The cold…

A new study looking at the presence of pharmaceuticals in the world’s rivers found concentrations at potentially toxic levels in more than a quarter of the locations studied. The new study looked at 258 rivers across the globe, including the Thames in London and the Amazon in Brazil, to measure the presence of 61 pharmaceuticals, such as carbamazepine, metformin and caffeine. The researchers studied rivers in over half of the world’s countries – with rivers in 36 of these countries…

Scientists of TU Freiberg trace the Amazon rainforest’s respiration with measuring robot. On March 3, a team of geoscientists at TU Bergakademie Freiberg will travel to Manaus carrying with them a 120 centimetres long measuring device. With the newly developed robot they aim to analyse the gas exchange of carbon dioxide of 13 lakes and ponds in the Amazon Basin. Back in their laboratory, they will also identify the gas flow of methane and nitrous oxide. Having travelled to Manaus…

Using latest advances in computer modelling, an international team of researchers has shed new light on the properties and behavior of magma found several hundreds of kilometers deep within the Earth. Unlike the classic Jules Verne science fiction novel Journey to the Center of the Earth or movie The Core, humans cannot venture into the Earth’s interior beyond a few kilometres of its surface. But thanks to latest advances in computer modelling, an international team of researchers led by the…