This week, Montreal (Canada) has witnessed the opening of the biggest meeting on climate change since the Kyoto Conference in 1997. The United Nations (UN) Climate Change conference in Montreal follows the entry into force of the Kyoto protocol earlier this year. Over 8000 participants from industrialised countries and developing nations will try to define the technical means to achieve the emission targets for 2012 and beyond.

The science behind climate change: a summary by GreenFacts

“June too soon, July stand by, August come it must, September remember, October all over” says a Caribbean rhyme where hurricanes are so common that generations of islanders have passed-along the poem.

Drawing upon the practical experience of these islanders and the latest academic thinking, Emma Tompkins and colleagues from the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia have written a guidebook to help the islands of the UK Overseas Territo

Unspoken rules of existence in tropical rain forests mean no one species will take up too much space and squeeze others out, says new research conducted in part at the University of Alberta that shows how ecological communities regulate themselves.

Dr. Fangliang He is part of a research team that studied fundamental questions plaguing scientists since Darwin’s time: why are some species so common while others are rare? How do common and rare species interact? And how do

An invasive fish species, which poses major threats to UK fish, has been found in rivers and lakes across England and Wales according to new research published today in Fisheries Management and Ecology.

Past studies have shown that the Asian topmouth gudgeon can spread an infectious parasite that is closely related to ‘Rosette Agent’ – known to be deadly to salmon and trout. The link between topmouth gudgeon and the rosette-like agent, known to kill some carp species (sunbleak and

Anatomical identification of soil charcoal fragments was used to reconstruct the pre-fire vegetation composition of a tree line site that burned ca 930 cal. AD in northern Québec, Canada. Soil charcoal was also used as a proxy to estimate black spruce Picea mariana palaeo-cover. The site (a low-elevated hilltop) is presently devoid of spruce trees and dominated by dwarf birch Betula glandulosa, lichens, ericaceous shrubs (Ledum decumbens, Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and sedges. In contrast, black

In the latest issue of Restoration Ecology, researchers describe a new model for coastal development. Using survey data conducted in Lake Pontchartrain, LA, they created a Potential SAV (Submersed Aquatic Vegetation) model. It predicts potential habitat changes in SAV caused by the changes in water clarity or shoreface slopes as a result of natural disturbances or restoration efforts. Often, only the existing SAV beds are considered for conservation efforts. This model helped set a restoration

A trendy holiday gift within a decade may be a hand-held device that instantly identifies any species from a snippet of animal tissue, says a University of Florida researcher.

That may be possible thanks to scientific advances that include the first test quantifying the effectiveness of a DNA identification tool among brightly colored shells. With an error rate as low as 4 percent, two UF scientists have been able to identify cowries collected from around the world by analyzi

A team of scientists has determined that the growing worldwide problem of increased nutrient pollution, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous, on coastal waterways has altered the ecology of Chesapeake Bay as reported in the most recent issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series.

During the last 50 years, nutrient enrichment has reduced the size of sea grass beds and lowered dissolved oxygen concentrations, both contributing to the degradation of bottom habitats. Excess nutrients can

The application of conservation agriculture techniques to cereal crops in the semiarid zones of Navarre – 57% of the surface area given over to crop cultivation in Navarre, is most profitable for conventional agriculture and improves the quality of the soil, apart from contributing to the sustainability of the environment. This was the conclusion of the agricultural engineer, Mª José Imaz Gurruchaga in her PhD thesis recently defended at the Public University of Navarra.

The study w

Rutgers-led team shows rising ocean levels tied to human-induced climate change

Global ocean levels are rising twice as fast today as they were 150 years ago, and human-induced warming appears to be the culprit, say scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and collaborating institutions.

While the speed at which the ocean is rising – almost two millimeters per year today compared to one millimeter annually for the past several thousand years – may

Media is invited to a press concerence on board on December 6, 2005.

This second multi-disciplinary research cruise (CIESM SUB-2) will be launched from Messina, Italy on December 6th with scientists from 14 marine Institutes and five different countries (France, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Italy) onboard. They will embark on the Italian R/V Urania to monitor changes taking place in the Tyrrhenian Sea through December 22nd. The SUB-2 cruise will also include an area of the Sicily Ch

New article in Geophysical Research Letters:

During periods of sustained northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) movement and high solar wind pressure, the IMF can reconnect with the Earth’s magnetosphere, merging field lines and forming a bright, long-lived, ultraviolet auroral spot, called a cusp aurora. On 18 September 2000, such cusp aurorae were simultaneously viewed for 15 minutes by the Polar and IMAGE satellites in northern and southern hemispheres, respectively.

T

Today’s atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are highest in 650,000 years, Science studies say

With the first in-depth analysis of the air bubbles trapped in the “EPICA Dome C” ice core from East Antarctica, European researchers have extended the greenhouse gas record back to 650,000 years before the present.

This 210,000-year extension of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane records — encompassing two full glacial cycles — should help scientists better underst

Two new studies of gases trapped in Antarctic ice cores have extended the record of Earth’s past climate almost 50 percent further, adding another 210,000 years of definitive data about the makeup of the Earth’s atmosphere and providing more evidence of current atmospheric change.

The research is being published in the journal Science by participants in the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica. It’s “an amazing accomplishment we would not have thought pos

The Valencian Urban Transport Company (EMT) presented in Brussels its latest innovative initiative for a sustainable public transport: the URBANBAT project. This project is financed by the European Commission through the LIFE-Environment programme.

Designed as a pilot project in this first phase, Urbanbat defines an integral management model for the liquid waste generated during the operation and maintenance of the public transport fleet of EMT Vehicles in Valencia such as wat

Stakeholders of the Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) today unveiled their Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and three future scenarios demonstrating the value of innovations in chemistry. Based on a common vision, the SRA aims at responding to the challenges faced by the chemical sector in the next 20 years, while shaping solutions to critical societal demands.

The SRA outlines chemistry and industrial biotechnology’s contribution to sustainable European growth