Showing 20 articles starting at article 421

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Ecology: General, Geoscience: Geochemistry

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Pairing cryptocurrency mining -- notable for its outsize consumption of carbon-based fuel -- with green hydrogen could provide the foundation for wider deployment of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Coastal seas form a complex transition zone between the two largest CO2 sinks in the global carbon cycle: land and ocean. Ocean researchers have now succeeded for the first time in investigating the role of the coastal ocean in a seamless model representation.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Some plant species will 'win' and others will 'lose' as global warming forces them to move uphill, new research shows.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Beautiful white wall paint does not stay beautiful and white forever. Often, various substances from the air accumulate on its surface. This can be a desired effect because it makes the air cleaner for a while -- but over time, the color changes and needs to be renewed. Now, special titanium oxide nanoparticles have been developed that can be added to ordinary, commercially available wall paint to establish self-cleaning power: The nanoparticles are photocatalytically active, they can use sunlight not only to bind substances from the air, but also to decompose them afterwards.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel accumulation.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have found a 'tipping point' in the evolution of fungi that throttles their growth and sculpts their shapes. The findings demonstrate how small changes in environmental factors can lead to huge changes in evolutionary outcomes.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed an environmentally friendly method for recycling and purifying metals. Using gold earrings from a pawnshop in Gothenburg and biodiesel from the nearest filling station, the discovery could change an industry that is currently dependent on large amounts of fossil oil.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of archaeologists discovered tiny microplastic particles in deposits located more than seven meters deep, in samples dating back to the first or early second century and excavated in the late 1980s.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Finding viable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics and microplastics has never been more important. New research shows that their plant-based polymers biodegrade -- even at the microplastic level -- in under seven months.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The oldest Scandinavian bedrock was 'born' in Greenland, according to a new geological study. The study helps us understand the origin of continents and why Earth is the only planet in our solar system with life.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

What maintains stability within an ecosystem and prevents a single best competitor from displacing other species from a community? Does ecosystem stability depend upon the presence of a wide variety of species, as early ecologists believed, or does diversity do the exact opposite, and lead to instability, as modern theory predicts? A new study suggests an answer to this question that has been a subject of debate among ecologists for half a century.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Tiny organisms such as bacteria and fungi help to promote the health and function of plant roots. It is commonly assumed that the composition of these microbes is dependent on the properties of the soil. However, researchers have now discovered when studying different local varieties of maize that the genetic makeup of the plants also helps to influence which microorganisms cluster around the roots.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A research team has begun translating the complex molecular language of petunias. Their grammar and vocabulary are well hidden, however, within the countless proteins and other compounds that fill floral cells. Being rooted to the ground, plants can't run away from insects, pathogens or other threats to their survival. But plant scientists have long known that they do send warnings to each other via scent chemicals called volatile organic compounds.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Forests and streams are separate but linked ecosystems, existing side by side, with energy and nutrients crossing their porous borders and flowing back and forth between them. For example, leaves fall from trees, enter streams, decay and feed aquatic insects. Those insects emerge from the waters and are eaten by birds and bats. An international team has now found that these ecosystems appear to keep the energy exchanges in balance -- a finding that the scientists called surprising.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Cellulose, abundantly available from plant biomass, can be converted into molecules used to make a new class of recyclable polymers, to sustainably replace some plastics.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was focused on quantum dots -- objects so tiny, they're controlled by the strange rules of quantum physics. Quantum dots used in electronics are often toxic, but their nontoxic counterparts are being explored for uses in medicine and in the environment, including water decontamination. One team of researchers has specially designed carbon- and sulfur-based dots for these environmental applications.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To 'breathe' in an environment without oxygen, bacteria in the ground beneath our feet depend upon a single family of proteins to transfer excess electrons, produced during the 'burning' of nutrients, to electric hairs called nanowires projecting from their surface.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have demonstrated the selective conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into methanol using a cascade reaction strategy. The two-part process is powered by sunlight, occurs at room temperature and at ambient pressure, and employs a recyclable organic reagent that's similar to a catalyst found in natural photosynthesis.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are showing up in ever more devices, and the increasing use of this technology means more lithium is expected to find its way into the environment as a contaminant. In new research, a team has explored how this ion accumulates in a common Southern crustacean, the crawfish, with implications for the environment and public health.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Claims that climate change is natural are inconsistent with new oceanic temperature trends.