Heavy metals suppress enzyme activity in the soil by 3-3.5 times and have especially prominent effect on the enzymes that support carbon and sulfur circulation. This was discovered by a soil scientist from RUDN together with his colleagues from Chile, Germany, the UK and Venezuela. The data obtained by the team can lead to more efficient use and fertilization of agricultural lands. The results of the study were published in the Science of the Total Environment journal. Soil enzymes promote…

When a meteorite hurtles through the atmosphere and crashes to Earth, how does its violent impact alter the minerals found at the landing site? When a meteorite hurtles through the atmosphere and crashes to Earth, how does its violent impact alter the minerals found at the landing site? What can the short-lived chemical phases created by these extreme impacts teach scientists about the minerals existing at the high-temperature and pressure conditions found deep inside the planet? New work led by…

The first few weeks of a tree seedling’s life can be the most precarious. As it pushes thin new roots into the ground it’s also reaching up with tiny new leaves. Water and energy are precious. Most seedlings never make it past their first month on the ground. But while much is known about the growing process, there remains a layer of mystery around the mechanisms within these small plants. Now, a new study by a University of Georgia researcher…

Ice is melting at a surprisingly fast rate underneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica due to the continuing influx of warm seawater into the Lützow-Holm Bay. Hokkaido University scientists have identified an atypical hotspot of sub-glacier melting in East Antarctica. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, could further understandings and predictions of sea level rise caused by mass loss of ice sheets from the southernmost continent. The 58th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition had a very rare opportunity to…

The intervertebral discs connect the vertebrae and give the spine its mobility. The disc consists of a cartilaginous fibrous ring and a gelatinous core as a buffer. It has always been assumed that only humans and other mammals have discs. A misconception, as a research team under the leadership of the University of Bonn has now discovered: Even Tyrannosaurus rex could have suffered a slipped disc. The results have now been published in the journal “Scientific Reports”. Present-day snakes and…

NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite kept an eye on Hurricane Genevieve overnight and provided infrared imagery to forecasters who were monitoring the storm’s strength, structure and size. Because Genevieve is close to the coast of western Mexico, warnings and watches were still in effect. NASA’s Night-Time View of Genevieve The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard Suomi NPP provided a nighttime image of Hurricane Genevieve on Aug. 18 at 8 p.m. EDT (Aug. 19 at 0000 UTC).The hurricane’s eye…

Using high-resolution data from the joint NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat program, researchers have created the first map of the causes of change in global mangrove habitats between 2000 and 2016 – a valuable tool to aid conservation efforts for these vital coastline defenders. Mangroves are hardy trees and shrubs that grow in the salty, wet, muddy soils of Earth’s tropical and subtropical coastlines. They protect the coastlines from erosion and storm damage; store carbon within their roots, trunks, and in…

Sorghum, a common food item in regions of Africa and Asia, has one missing puzzle piece. The missing piece? Protein digestibility, which researchers in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University are trying to find. “Sorghum is an important food crop grown in Africa,” said Tesfaye Tesso. “It grows well in their climate because it requires less moisture and nutrients than other crops.” Tesso is a researcher at Kansas State University. The biggest flaw of sorghum is how difficult…

Tropical Depression 10E weakened to a remnant low-pressure area in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA’s Terra satellite observed the water vapor content in the storm. At 5 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 16, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center noted that the depression had been devoid of organized deep convection for the previous 24 hours at at that time and lacked any convection. NHC therefore classified 10E as a post-tropical as a non-convective remnant low-pressure area. Water vapor analysis of tropical cyclones tells…

Environmental policy decisions are often based on so-called tipping points. A research team led by the biodiversity expert Helmut Hillebrand from the University of Oldenburg now reports in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution that such tipping points are hardly detectable in environmental data. The team concludes this from an extensive data analysis. Many policies tackling the consequences of global environmental change rely on the concept of tipping points: If an impact, such as biodiversity loss, becomes too large, an…

Rare earth elements are the black gold of the 21st century. Without them, modern high-technologies such as wind turbines, electromobility and medical…

A new study which provides a global estimate of rock cover on the Earth's glaciers has revealed that the expanse of rock debris on glaciers, a factor that has…

Researchers compared estimates of current and future plastic waste with the ability of floating clean-up devices to collect it – and found the impact of such…

A new EU-project has the aim to develop a sensor network to monitor emissions from ships.

After exactly 300 days of drifting with the MOSAiC floe, the international team around Expedition Leader Markus Rex on Wednesday, 29 July 2020, started the…

In an article recently published in Agricultural & Environmental Letters, a publication of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America…