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Categories: Computer Science: Encryption, Environmental: Ecosystems

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From the Murray-Darling system to Great Artesian Basin, 'invisible' underground groundwater is often the only water supply available across the vast majority Australia where its annual contribution to GDP is estimated at more than $6.8 billion a year. However, overuse of groundwater during droughts and aquifer depletion has already seen water crises, including in Australia's 'food bowl' the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), California and Cape Town in South Africa, with more likely to follow with groundwater management largely reactive and unlikely to avert more crises as climate change accelerates and populations grow.

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Dry, hot regions are difficult places to grow plants because the soil dries out quickly. As a result, farmers in arid and semi-arid regions irrigate their fields with buried networks of irrigation tubing and cover the ground with plastic sheets. But plastic sheets are expensive and create waste. Now, researchers have developed a simple, biodegradable ground cover -- wax-coated sand -- which keeps soil wet and increases crop yields.

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Dust that accumulates on solar panels is a major problem, but washing the panels uses huge amounts of water. Engineers have now developed a waterless cleaning method to remove dust on solar installations in water-limited regions, improving overall efficiency.

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The soils and vegetation of Patagonia's fjord regions form a unique and highly sensitive ecosystem that is closely linked to marine ecosystems, sediment deposition and carbon storage in the ocean. A research team has been working on reconstructing the climate history of this region in this extremely wet, rainy and inaccessible fjord and island zone of the Patagonian Andes in southern Chile. Due to its location, the area is a key region for understanding the history of the southern westerly wind belt within the global climate system.

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A new study investigates whether protecting and restoring large animal wildlife can help to support climate change goals.

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New research shows how, after it rains, microbes in desert soil convert one form of pollution into another -- laughing gas.

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Using a unique hydrogel, scientists have created a solar-driven system that successfully grows spinach by using water drawn from the air while producing electricity. The proof-of-concept design offers a sustainable, low-cost strategy to improve food and water security for people living in dry-climate regions.

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The development of highly secure but simple and inexpensive encryption technology for the prevention of data leaks and forgeries is decidedly challenging. A research team has now introduced a 'double lock' based on thermoresponsive polymer hydrogels that encrypts information so that it can only be read at a specific window in temperature and time.

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Researchers developed a technique that effectively protects computer programs' secret information from memory-timing side channel attacks, while enabling faster computation than other security schemes.

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Researchers have found that soybean crops planted near pollinator habitat produce larger soybeans than soybean crops that are not planted near pollinator habitat.

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Due to human-caused pressures and global warming, some soils in Europe's Mediterranean region are reaching what the researchers refer to as 'critical limits for their ability to provide ecosystem services,' which include farming and absorbing carbon, among others. Perhaps even more troubling, the problem could be even more extensive than we realize, says an author of a new study.

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Research findings suggest that alternative stable states can be maintained through biotic mechanisms, such as root traits, in addition to the commonly understood abiotic factors like climate. This insight is critical to conserving threatened ecosystems around the world.

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Scientists develop a chaos-based stream cipher that can withstand attacks from large-scale quantum computers.

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Researchers decided to explore two very different quantum problems: breaking the encryption of Bitcoin and simulating the molecule responsible for biological nitrogen fixation. They describe a tool they created to determine how big a quantum computer needs to be to solve problems like these and how long it will take.

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Researchers have unearthed the earliest definitive evidence of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in ancient Iraq, challenging our understanding of humanity's earliest agricultural practices.

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The sun rises on the savannas of central Kenya. Grasses sway in the wind as hoof-steps fall on the dusty ground. A menagerie of Africa's iconic wildlife congregates around a watering hole to quench their thirst during the region's dry season.

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Researchers have analyzed an extensive collection of sand samples from so-called megaripple fields around the world and gained new insights into the composition of these sand waves. These could help settle debates about the mechanistic origin of some recently discovered enigmatic extraterrestrial sand structures and improve our ability to infer information about past weather and climate events from sediment records.

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When winds loft fine desert dust high into the atmosphere, iodine in that dust can trigger chemical reactions that destroy some air pollution, but also let greenhouse gases stick around longer. The finding may force researchers to re-evaluate how particles from land can impact the chemistry of the atmosphere.

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Computer systems that are physically isolated from the outside world (air-gapped) can still be attacked. This is demonstrated by IT security experts. They show that data can be transmitted to light-emitting diodes of regular office devices using a directed laser. With this, attackers can secretly communicate with air-gapped computer systems over distances of several meters. In addition to conventional information and communication technology security, critical IT systems need to be protected optically as well.

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Shrubs in the desert Southwest have increased their water use efficiency at some of the highest rates ever observed to cope with a decades-long megadrought. Researchers found that although the shrubs' efficiency increases are unprecedented and heroic, they may not be enough to adapt to the long-term drying trend in the West.