The first digital map of the multiple changes that have occurred in Europe’s landscapes since 1990 was unveiled today, enabling policy-makers to draw lessons from how their decisions in areas such as agriculture and transport are impacting on the region’s finite land resources and the wider environment.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) presented the results of its Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2000 project at a high-level event in Brussels for representatives from several Europe

The Earth Institute at Columbia University, NYC–Researchers suggest that reductions of trace gases may allow stabilization of climate so that additional global warming would be less than 1° C, a level needed to maintain global coastlines. Although carbon dioxide emissions, an inherent product of fossil fuel use, must also be slowed, the required carbon dioxide reduction is much more feasible if trace gases decrease.

In the current edition of Proceedings of the National Academy

Understanding how the air and sea interact and affect each other during hurricane conditions is crucial in predicting the storm track, its intensity, storm surges, and ocean wave fields. When scientists create computer models to help them assess the parameters of a hurricane, they must take into account not only the atmospheric conditions of the storm, but also the conditions in the ocean, including the age and the frequency of waves.

In the current issue of the Journal of the

Research refutes long-held belief that diversity was declining

When dinosaurs became extinct from the effects of a massive asteroid hitting Earth 65 million years ago, there were more varieties of the reptiles living than ever before, according to a new analysis of global fossil records by a team of researchers led by a University of Rhode Island paleontologist. “Our analysis finally lays to rest the old, utterly unsupported idea that dinosaurs were declining in diversity during t

In one of the world’s fastest growing industrial regions, a study finding that a class of pollutants exist at levels four times that of U.S. air quality standards has prompted a Hong Kong public policy group to call for government standards on fine particulate matter. The finding was released by Civic Exchange, a non-profit public policy think tank comprised of scientists as well as representatives from the power and oil industries, government and civic organizations.

The study

Scientists with the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have recently been counting their zoo animals from a lofty perch: namely, outer space. Using high-tech cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 280 miles overhead, a WCS scientific team tallied some of the zoo’s own animal collection to see if satellites can help count wildlife populations in remote locations throughout the world.

The WCS team is currently analyzing high-tech maps produced by the satelli

A novel type of engine which aims to use less fuel and reduce noxious emissions without detracting from the car’s performance is being developed thanks to an investment of £93,500 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the organisation that champions UK innovation.

Keith Hall, from Maidenhead in Berkshire, is a chartered mechanical engineer who has worked with names such as Audi, Jaguar and Ford. His Bruntel Environmental Engine aims to match the p

The spectacular rift valleys of the Tibetan plateau don’t all run north-south as previously thought, according to new research.

The rift valleys actually curve away — some to the east, some to the west — from the point where India is punching into the gut of Tibet. “Everyone looked at the rifts and said they went north-south,” said Paul Kapp, assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “I looked and said — they’re not.” His work contrad

In 1875 the remains of a prehistoric crocodile were found in the brown coal mine at Messel near Darmstadt; since then a large number of well preserved fossils have also been discovered. Palaeontologists have long puzzled over what could have been the reason for this annihilation of so many creatures. In the latest issue of the Paläontologische Zeitschrift (‘Journal of Palaeontology’) researchers from the University of Bonn have put forward a new theory: the cause of the deaths of these animals m

An international team of scientists is currently evaluating sediment cores collected during the Arctic Coring Expedition, ACEX, conducted under the auspices of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). ACEX, conducted in August and September this year, is an exploration success story. At a press conference in the University of Bremen, Germany, today (16 November 2004) the co-chief scientists of the expedition described the first results from this expedition.

Scientists from

At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years

The world’s biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, according to the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and a companion study of the data, the Global Species Assessment (GSA). The GSA is the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world’s biodiversity. Its findings include the following: At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years, and an addit

Dutch research has shown that marine plankton have the greatest effect on the climate in the southern hemisphere, even though the majority of plankton are found in oceans in the northern hemisphere.

Mtinkheni Gondwe used satellite observations to follow the distribution of phytoplankton in the oceans. Although the majority of plankton are found between the middle and high latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the effect of these on the climate is greatest in the southern hemispher

International efforts to protect forests have been given a boost by a unique information initiative headed by a University of Ulster scientist. Leading a four-year project compiling research by 100 European scientists, Coleraine-based researcher Dr Keith Day has co-edited a landmark publication providing essential information aimed at saving trees from bark-devouring insects, some of which transmit virulent fungi such as Dutch elm disease.

“The result is that forest research organis

Scientists immersed in the life-blood of the Northwest

What is considered perhaps the northwest’s most valuable natural resource will be the primary focus for hundreds of environmental science professionals as they convene for the Fourth Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry World Congress conference in Portland this November.

Among the events designed to exchange ideas and present research will be an Interactive Poster Session entitled, Investigations of the

Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center are concerned that avian cholera, which recently killed about 30,000 eared grebes–small, diving water birds–at Great Salt Lake, Utah, could spread as birds migrate south for the winter, the agency announced today. Last week, USGS scientists isolated Pasteurella multocida, the bacterium that causes avian cholera, from dead grebes that were sent to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. USGS

WWF Calls on Governments to Restrain Rapidly Growing Tuna Farming Industry

In advance of a critical meeting of government and industry leaders on the fate of vulnerable Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today called on participants to make urgent, far-reaching moves to end mismanagement and stop illegal fishing and farming methods used to produce tuna to meet growing consumer demands from the United States, China, Japan and Korea.

The 14th Special