Ecology, The Environment and Conservation
This complex theme deals primarily with interactions between organisms and the environmental factors that impact them, but to a greater extent between individual inanimate environmental factors.
innovations-report offers informative reports and articles on topics such as climate protection, landscape conservation, ecological systems, wildlife and nature parks and ecosystem efficiency and balance.
Ecological risks of GMOs come in unexpected ways, model shows
Introducing genetically modified organisms into wild populations holds a greater theoretical risk of extinction of natural species than previously believed, according to two Purdue University scientists.
William Muir, professor of animal sciences, and Richard Howard, professor of biology, used computer modeling and statistical analyses to examine the hypothetical risks of introducing genetically modified organisms into wild populations.
“We examined these hypothetical situations bec
Membrane filters offer options for cleaner water
Technology May Help Remove Contaminants from Drinking Water Supplies
Membrane filter technology is helping to remove barriers to cleaner drinking water.
University of Houston researchers are studying how membrane filters, such as those currently used in some home water purification systems, might someday be used on a large scale to remove contaminants and organic compounds that can affect the purity and color of municipal water supplies.
Understanding how such filte
New photographs reveal secrets of rare Himalayan snow leopard
Rare images of the Himalayan snow leopard in its natural habitat are expected to help improve the survival chances of the world’s elusive and little-known fifth-largest big cat. A research expedition backed by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) used remote camera technology to record some of the first-ever photos of this endangered animal’s behaviour in the wild.
The innovative experiment, high in the Indian Trans-Himalaya, is encouraging for snow leopard conservation and demonstrates
New research to run cars on flower power
Will the oilfields of the future be full of sunflowers? They could be if Leeds fuel and energy researchers succeed in producing hydrogen from sunflower oil.
Hydrogen is seen as the fuel of the future – able to create electricity with no harmful emissions – to power everything from cars, portable generators to flashlights and even homes and factories.
But where is the hydrogen to come from, and can we mass-produce it without creating more pollution problems? Researchers Valerie Dupont (
New device removes drinking water contaminants
A Northwestern University environmental engineer has received a U.S. patent for a treatment device that renders perchlorate — a thyroid-damaging ingredient of rocket fuel and a drinking water problem — harmless. The applications extend beyond the safety of drinking water and this one pollutant.
Bruce E. Rittmann, John Evans Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, received U.S. Patent No. 6,387,262 for a hollow-fiber membra
Polymer protects grass
To help the nature to recover from harmful impacts of the mining industry, Svetlana Mesyats and her team from the Geological Institute of the Kola Research Center RAS offer the method, which implies the application of a thin invisible polymeric film onto the soil surface and provides for a fast and successful minesite recultivation.Polymer Protects Grass
It is not surprising that such a polymeric covering is invented in Apatity. People leaving on the Cola Peninsula often need to dea