A prototype service utilising satellites for mapping forests to aid compliance with the Kyoto Protocol has been endorsed by end users from European countries – one environmental ministry representative called the baseline carbon stock information provided a “goldmine”.

ESA’s Kyoto-Inventory service has been designed to produce information products on changing land use associated with carbon ’sinks’ or ’sources’ that can support national governments’ reporting requirements to the Kyo

The Dutch dune area has dried out at a number of locations as a result of water extraction and drainage of adjacent polder areas. Wildlife managers are searching for favourable locations to restore the natural environment to the original wet dune valleys. Chris Bakker has compiled a number of characteristics that a dune valley must satisfy for a successful restoration project to be carried out.

Chris Bakker investigated dune valleys in Zuid Kenemerland National Park. He discov

This week ESA has joined around a thousand participants from 146 countries at the main policy making forum of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Kampala, Uganda. Today sees the presentation of results from an Agency-led initiative to develop a global wetland information service using satellites.

National delegates along with representatives from international organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have met in Uganda’s capital for the eight-day Ninth Meeting

A total of 882 Baltic Sea research projects were carried out in 2004 in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. A majority (71 %) of the projects were national, 25 % were multinational EU projects and 3 % Nordic cooperation projects. This was reported in the BONUS Publication Nr. 3 Baltic Sea Research and R&D Funding in 2004, published at the beginning of November.

Baltic Sea research is carried out in all countries surrounding the Sea in several research programmes, in dozens of

Fossil leaves buried 55 million years ago show, for the first time, that rapid warming not only changed animal communities, but plant communities as well; and that the ancient warm spell may be representative of global warming’s effects in Earth’s future, according to an international team of researchers.

“There has been an absence of fossil leaf sites dating to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM),” says Dr. Francesca A. Smith, postdoctoral researcher in geosci

Palmettos in Pennsylvania? Magnolias in Minnesota? The migration of subtropical plants to northern climates may not be too far-fetched if future global warming patterns mirror a monumental shift that took place in the past, new research by an international team of scientists suggests.

The findings, which appear in this week’s issue of the journal Science, provide the first evidence that land plants changed drastically during a period of sudden global warming 55 million years

Students at The University of Nottingham will be able to stargaze at distant galaxies to learn more about the origins of life, thanks to a giant, state-of-the-art telescope being unveiled more than 6,000 miles away.

The Nottingham chemistry and physics students will be able to use the internet to access images captured by the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) — dubbed Africa’s Giant Eye — without having to visit its site at Sutherland, 400 km north of Cape Town, in South

Arizona State University geochemist Lynda Williams and her colleagues have discovered that certain clay minerals under conditions at the bottom of the ocean may have acted as incubators for the first organic molecules on Earth.

Williams’ research suggests how some of the fundamental materials necessary for life might have come into existence deep in the sea. The results of Williams’ experiments were published in the article, “Organic Molecules Formed in a Primordial

Plant pathologists from The American Phytopathological Society (APS) report that citrus greening is spreading faster than expected and encourage growers and homeowners to aid in the detection process by alerting the appropriate agricultural officials if they suspect they have infected trees. Citrus greening, also known as huanglongbing, was recently discovered in samples collected from trees in South Florida.

Although citrus greening is not expected to have a major impact on the supply of

In a refreshing twist, humans have been shown to be part of the solution to the issue of decreasing genetic diversity in our world rather than part of the problem. Global genetic diversity is being eradicated through any number of human-driven activities, the removal of large scale forests key among them.

Now researchers at Washington University in St. Louis report that farmers and families in Central America actually have saved genetic variation in the jocote (ho-CO-tay), (S

Today sees the publication of an authoritative, multidisciplinary report which aims to provide the UK Government with a coherent, feasible solution to the acknowledged problem of the UK’s looming Energy Gap. The report, written by John Loughhead, (Executive Director, UK Energy Research Centre) is the result of a multidisciplinary consensus meeting between 150 scientific, technical, economic and sociological experts at Burlington House on October 12 and 13, under the auspices of The Geologic

A new report indicates that the vast majority of the rapid temperature increase recently observed in Europe is likely due to an unexpected greenhouse gas: water vapor. Elevated surface temperatures due to other greenhouse gases have enhanced water evaporation and contributed to a cycle that stimulates further surface temperature increases, according to a report in Geophysical Research Letters. The research could help to answer a long-debated Earth science question about whether the water cycle c

System can provide tens of seconds of warning about impending ground motion

A University of California, Berkeley, seismologist has discovered a way to provide seconds to tens of seconds of advance warning about impending ground shaking from an earthquake.

While a few seconds may not sound like much, it is enough time for school children to dive under their desks, gas and electric companies to shut down or isolate their systems, phone companies to reroute traffic, airport

Abalone divers, who typically despise the California sea otter because of its voracious appetite for the largest and tastiest of the shellfish, may actually have otters to thank for the dinner-plate size of the prized delicacy.

Worldwide, abalones tend to be small, in the range of 2 to 4 inches across, according to evolutionary biologist David Lindberg, professor and chair of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former abalone diver himself. Along

A new report on initiatives taken to further sustainable forest management in Canada is now available.

The National Forest Strategy Coalition has just released a report on its accomplishments from 2003 to 2005. These include the establishment of a national council to coordinate and enhance research and development efforts among government and industry; new strategies for dealing with forest threats, such as insects, fire and climate change; and collaborative efforts to advance

The European spacecraft Venus Express has been successfully placed into a trajectory that will take it on its journey from the Earth towards its destination of the planet Venus, which it will reach next April. A virtual twin sister of the Mars Express spacecraft which has been orbiting the Red Planet since December 2003, Venus Express is the second planet-bound probe to be launched by the European Space Agency.

Venus Express will eventually manoeuvre itself into orbit around Ven