The mysterious ocean plastic sink. Plastics are a growing problem for natural ecosystems around the globe, and in particular for our marine and freshwater environments. Rivers are the leading source of plastic pollution, as it has been estimated that they deliver several million metric tons of plastic annually to our oceans from poor land-based waste management. The problem is that the estimates made for plastics flowing from the rivers are tens to hundreds of times higher than the quantity of…

First global assessment of the extent of snow and ice cover on Earth’s surface–a critical factor cooling the planet through reflected sunlight–and its response to warming temperatures. The global cryosphere–all of the areas with frozen water on Earth–shrank by about 87,000 square kilometers (about 33,000 square miles), a area about the size of Lake Superior, per year on average, between 1979 and 2016 as a result of climate change, according to a new study. This research is the first to…

TROPOS lidar on Cabo Verde in operation for the ESA wind satellite Aeolus. To support the ESA wind satellite Aeolus, the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) has now installed a lidar in Mindelo, the second largest city in Cabo Verde. The light radar uses laser light to study the atmosphere in the tropical Atlantic and is part of a large international measurement campaign: The “Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign” will take place in summer and autumn 2021 and, in addition…

Subsurface carbon sequestration–storing carbon in rocks deep underground–offers a partial solution for removing carbon from the atmosphere. Used alongside emissions reductions, geologic carbon sequestration could help mitigate anthropogenic climate change. But like other underground operations, it comes with risks–including earthquakes. New study published in Geology Geophysicists are still working to understand what can trigger human-induced earthquakes, which have been documented since the 1960s. A new study, published in Geology on Thursday, explores why part of a heavily produced oilfield in…

Areas like this do not exist on Earth: Cracks, ridges, valleys, large and small angular blocks characterize them. Hence the name, chaotic terrains. How these peculiar regions on Mars were formed has long been a subject of debate among experts. Water, either liquid or as ice, played a central role in this process, according to the common theory. A study led by Erica Luzzi, a doctoral student at Jacobs University Bremen, is now published in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters”….

The influence of solar events on satellite-based applications such as orbit determination, telecommunications or navigation is being investigated by two research projects with the participation of TU Graz. Solar storms and similar events can cause sustainable damages to electronic systems on Earth, as well as on satellites. The sun ejects huge clouds of charged plasma particles that massively disturb the Earth’s magnetic field. “The ejected plasma consists mainly of electrons and protons and increases the neutral density in the Earth’s…

In future the intensity of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current could increase, accelerating climate change. Our planet’s strongest ocean current, which circulates around Antarctica, plays a major role in determining the transport of heat, salt and nutrients in the ocean. An international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute has now evaluated sediment samples from the Drake Passage. Their findings: during the last interglacial period, the water flowed more rapidly than it does today. This could be a blueprint for…

Geologists led by the UNIGE have reviewed the internal and external mechanisms that trigger volcanic eruptions to better anticipate the potential signs of a future eruption. What causes an eruption? Why do some volcanoes erupt regularly, while others remain dormant for thousands of years? A team of geologists and geophysicists, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has reviewed the literature on the internal and external mechanisms that lead to a volcanic eruption. Analyzing the thermo-mechanics of deep volcanic…

Heidelberg University geographers combine historical images and maps with current data. The glaciers of Nanga Parbat – one of the highest mountains in the world – have been shrinking slightly but continually since the 1930s. This loss in surface area is evidenced by a long-term study conducted by researchers from the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University. The geographers combined historical photographs, surveys, and topographical maps with current data, which allowed them to show glacial changes for this massif in…

An innovative underwater robot known as Mesobot is providing researchers with deeper insight into the vast mid-ocean region known as the “twilight zone.” Capable of tracking and recording high-resolution images of slow-moving and fragile zooplankton, gelatinous animals, and particles, Mesobot greatly expands scientists’ ability to observe creatures in their mesopelagic habitat with minimal disturbance. This advance in engineering will enable greater understanding of the role these creatures play in transporting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the deep sea, as…

Oldenburg study finds new explanation for why organic compounds accumulate in oxygen-depleted marine environments. The Black Sea is an unusual body of water: below a depth of 150 metres the dissolved oxygen concentration sinks to around zero, meaning that higher life forms such as plants and animals cannot exist in these areas. At the same time, this semi-enclosed sea stores comparatively large amounts of organic carbon. A team of researchers led by Dr Gonzalo Gomez-Saez and Dr Jutta Niggemann from…

The University of Bayreuth is a partner in the new European “PAPILLONS” consortium for micro- and nanoplastics research in agriculture. 20 universities and research institutions from 12 countries will jointly investigate the sustainability of plastic use in European agriculture. The focus is on the input of plastic particles and chemical additives into arable land, and their possible ecological and socio-economic effects. The European Union is funding the project until 2025 to the tune of € 7.2 million in total, of…

The traits of coral species that have become extinct during the last few million years do not match those of coral species deemed at risk of extinction today. In a recently published article in the journal ‘Global Ecology and Biogeography’, a research team at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) is therefore proposing that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revises its Red List of Threatened Species for coral. The list categorises around a third of all 845 coral species…

The influx of warmer water masses from the North Atlantic into the European marginal seas plays a significant role in the marked decrease in sea-ice growth, especially in winter. Sea-ice physicists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), together with researchers from the US and Russia, now present evidence for this in two new studies, which show that heat from the Atlantic has hindered ice growth in the Barents and Kara Seas for years….

Maritime litter is among the most urgent global pollution issues. Marine scientist Nikoleta Bellou and her team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon have published an overview study of solutions for prevention, monitoring, and removal in the renowned scientifically journal Nature Sustainability. They found that reducing ocean pollution requires more support, integration, and creative political decisiveness. Plastic bottles drifting in the sea; bags in the stomachs of turtles; Covid-19 masks dancing in the surf: few images are as unpleasant to look at as…

Digitization in agriculture … Crop diseases threaten yields in the field. Pests and parasitic weeds cause high crop losses of up to 30 percent every year. In the FarmerSpace project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Ilmenau is working together with partners to investigate the use of digital technologies for crop protection. The aim is to detect leaf diseases and the spread of weeds at an early stage and to initiate targeted protective measures…