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.

Plymouth Leads ‘healthy Oceans’ Research

Plymouth researchers will be presenting new research findings at an international conference they are hosting in the city next month.

Professor Paul Worsfold, Co-director of Plymouth Environmental Research Centre (PERC), heads the Plymouth team working on a three-year research project which investigates the role of iron in ocean productivity and climate change. Plymouth is one of 12 European universities taking part in this ‘IRONAGES’ project.

Professor Worsfold commented: “We are

Do bugs in clouds control the weather? `Grey skies` research project launched to explore aerial ecosystems

Researchers from the University of East London (UEL) have embarked on a project to investigate the ecology of the atmosphere, one of the last great frontiers of biological exploration on Earth. In an eighteen-month pilot project launched today, a team of microbiologists led by Dr Bruce Moffett aims to discover whether airborne microbes play an active role in forming clouds and causing rain to fall.

The researchers are using a revolutionary `cyclonic cloud catcher`, based on vacuum cleaner te

Flower power

A plastic “energy flower” that collects solar and wind energy that can then be used to power appliances in the home for free has won a Northumbria University student a top award.

Paul Richardson, a third year design student, won a £1,750 Design International Attachment Award from the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Paul’s award will give him the chance to work with DCA International to research and develop his interest in design.

Free trade can benefit environment

With the help of biologists and in a radical reversal of roles, the environment could exploit free trade. But with the World Trade Organisation`s legitimacy being challenged as never before, this opportunity is at risk.

“In the prevailing climate, trade protectionism gets equated with environmental protection, free trade with freedom to plunder”, says Dr Douglas Yu at the University of East Anglia`s School of Biological Sciences. “But the WTO could actually drive fundamental environmental re

Marine Reserves Have Rapid and Lasting Effects

Marine reserves have rapid and lasting impacts on organisms inside reserves, according to scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In a paper published in the current issue of ECOLOGY LETTERS, the researchers reviewed 80 studies from `no-take` reserves, where it is illegal to extract organisms in any way. These showed that density, biomass, average size and diversity of organisms inside these reserves reach much higher levels within a short period of time, usually one to th

Space technology disposes of sludge

Research funded by the European Space Agency into ways of feeding future astronauts on missions to Mars is about to find a very down-to-earth application – how to dispose of the sewage sludge left over after wastewater treatment.

The MELISSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative) project, which ESA is funding in companies and research institutes throughout Europe, is developing a system of recycling as much of the waste as possible produced by astronauts on long-duration space missions

Page
1 1,048 1,049 1,050 1,051 1,052 1,059