Researchers from the Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and their Skoltech colleagues have surveyed the newest known 30-meter deep gas blowout crater on the Yamal Peninsula, which formed in the summer of 2020. The paper was published in the journal Geosciences. Giant craters in the Russian Arctic, thought to be the remnants of powerful gas blowouts, first attracted worldwide attention in 2014, when the 20 to 40-meter wide Yamal Crater was found quite close…

Geologists have developed a new theory about the state of Earth billions of years ago after examining the very old rocks formed in the Earth’s mantle below the continents. Assistant Professor Emma Tomlinson from Trinity College Dublin and Queensland University of Technology’s Professor Balz Kamber have just published their research in leading international journal, Nature Communications. The seven continents on Earth today are each built around a stable interior called a craton, and geologists believe that craton stabilisation some 2.5…

The effects of microplastics on our health and the environment are being rigorously studied all across the world. Researchers are identifying microplastic sources and their potential routes to the environment by examining rainwater, wastewater, and soil. Microplastics have been found in nearly all organisms and habitats everywhere in the world. However, factors contributing to the influx and accumulation of microplastics in water ecosystems aren’t fully understood yet. The focus of microplastics research has, for a long time, been on the…

Diurnal in vivo xylem sap glucose and sucrose monitoring using implantable organic electrochemical transistor sensors. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed biosensors that make it possible to monitor sugar levels in real time deep in the plant tissues – something that has previously been impossible. The information from the sensors may help agriculture to adapt production as the world faces climate change. The results have been published in the scientific journal iScience. The primary source of nutrition for most…

With climate change, uncertainties in food security, and pressure to preserve resources, agriculture is facing difficult tasks. To meet these challenges with cost-effective and intelligent electronic solutions, researchers at Fraunhofer IZM are working with partners to combine smart system integration with sensor technology, thus enabling the leap to Agriculture 4.0. In an earlier project they developed a laser that uses optical detection and AI evaluation to prevent infestation with harmful insects in warehouses and that is intended to replace the…

Researchers led by assistant professor Dr. Jörn Petersen of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH have for the first time investigated the relevance of antibiotic resistance in the group of marine Roseobacter bacteria. The scientists were able to demonstrate that a plasmid acquired by horizontal gene transfer confers a 50-fold increased tolerance to the broad-spectrum antibiotic chloramphenicol. The team published their findings in the renowned journal Environmental Microbiology (doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15380). Roseobacter already part of the…

Scientists succeeded in studying emissions of the greenhouse gas N2O under the influence of environmental impacts in an unprecedented level of detail. Scientists led by Eliza Harris and Michael Bahn from the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck have succeeded in studying emissions of the greenhouse gas N2O under the influence of environmental impacts in an unprecedented level of detail. The study, which has now been published in Science Advances, is thus also a starting point for the…

Research team led by the University of Göttingen analyses complexity of forest structure Primeval forests are of great importance for biodiversity and global carbon and water cycling. The three-dimensional structure of forests plays an important role here because it influences processes of gas and energy exchange with the atmosphere, whilst also providing habitats for numerous species. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the variety of different complex structures that can be found in the…

Litter that floats and pollutes the ocean Floating sea macro-litter is a threat to the conservation of marine ecosystems worldwide. The largest density of floating litter is in the great ocean gyres -systems of circular currents that spin and catch litter- but the polluting waste is abundant in coastal waters and semi closed seas such as the Mediterranean. MARLIT, an open access web app based on an algorithm designed with deep learning techniques, will enable the detection and quantification of…

Scientists from Alfred Wegener Institute: “We need to have a fresh look at the role of the Arctic Ocean.” The Arctic Ocean was covered by up to 900 m thick shelf ice and was filled entirely with freshwater at least twice in the last 150,000 years. This surprising finding, reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature, is the result of long-term research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the MARUM. With a detailed analysis of the…

The world is having to feed an increasing number of mouths. Studies indicate that global population will rise to over nine million by the year 2050. In response, Bayer AG is researching resistant cereal varieties and enhanced crop protection. A new 24-hour monitoring system from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE will help protect the fields where these test crops are grown and thereby safeguard this time-consuming and cost-intensive research. It is no easy task feeding…

An upsurge of matter from deep beneath the Earth’s crust could be pushing the continents of North and South America further apart from Europe and Africa, new research has found. The plates attached to the Americas are moving apart from those attached to Europe and Africa by four centimetres per year. In between these continents lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a site where new plates are formed and a dividing line between plates moving to the west and those moving to…

A new study in the prestigious journal Science Advances shows that stress from rising water temperatures reduces ability of corals to adapt to ocean acidification. About a quarter of the carbon emissions driving global warming are absorbed by the oceans, leading to lower pH values in the water and making it more acidic. Global warming is also causing water temperature in the oceans to rise, which leads to the bleaching of coral reefs worldwide. Now, a new study reveals that…

The broad introduction of particle filters reduced the emission of combustion generated fine and ultrafine particles significantly. As a result, brake disc and tire abrasion are moving into the focus of public health experts and engineers, given their health harming potential. There is still a major challenge, though: How can the quantity and size of brake dust particles be measured correctly? Empa researchers are currently developing a sophisticated method. The VW Jetta Hybrid on the chassis dynamometer in Empa’s Automotive…

Most native species are going locally extinct, while introduced tropical species thrive. The coastline of Israel is one of the warmest areas in the Mediterranean Sea. Here, most marine species have been at the limits of their tolerance to high temperatures for a long time – and now they are already beyond those limits. Global warming has led to an increase in sea temperatures beyond those temperatures that Mediterranean species can sustain. Consequently, many of them are going locally extinct….

‘Coral hospital’ tool could help safeguard reefs facing climate change Researchers have found a novel way to identify heat-stressed corals, which could help scientists pinpoint the coral species that need protection from warming ocean waters linked to climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study. “This is similar to a blood test to assess human health,” said senior author Debashish Bhattacharya, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers…