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Categories: Environmental: General, Space: Cosmology
Published Wetlands, parks and even botanical gardens among the best ways to cool cities during heatwaves



Botanical gardens are not just beautiful -- they can cool the city air by 5 C during heatwaves, according to the most comprehensive review of its kind. Parks and wetlands have a similar effect.
Published Streams connected to groundwater show improved detoxification and microbial diversity



Streams with ample connections to shallow groundwater flow-paths have greater microbial diversity and are more effective at preventing toxic forms of metals -- often products of upstream mining -- from entering and being transported downstream.
Published Side effects of wide scale forestation could reduce carbon removal benefits by up to a third



The side effects of large-scale forestation initiatives could reduce the CO2 removal benefits by up to a third, a pioneering study has found.
Published Cooler, wetter parts of Pacific Northwest likely to see more fires, new simulations predict



Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get warmer and drier.
Published Carbon emissions from the destruction of mangrove forests predicted to increase by 50,000% by the end of the century



The annual rate of carbon emissions due to the degradation of carbon stocks in mangrove forests is predicted to rise by nearly 50,000% by the end of the century, according to a new study. Mangroves in regions such as southern India, southeastern China, Singapore and eastern Australia are particularly affected.
Published Air pollution hides increases in rainfall



In a new study, researchers broke down how human-induced greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions influence rainfall in the United States. Greenhouse gas emissions increase rainfall, while aerosols have a long-term drying effect as well as short-term impacts that vary with the seasons. As aerosols decrease, their long-term drying effect will likely diminish, causing rainfall averages and extremes to rapidly increase.
Published Brightest and fastest-growing: Astronomers identify record-breaking quasar



Astronomers have characterized a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind, but also the most luminous object ever observed. Quasars are the bright cores of distant galaxies and they are powered by supermassive black holes. The black hole in this record-breaking quasar is growing in mass by the equivalent of one Sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole to date.
Published Climate change could push bowhead whales to cross paths with shipping traffic



The population of bowhead whales that migrates between the Bering and Beaufort Seas each year is a conservation success story, with today's population nearing -- if not exceeding -- pre-commercial whaling numbers. But climate change is shifting the whales' feeding grounds and migration patterns, potentially pushing them to spend more time in the paths of oncoming ships, according to a new study.
Published Air pollution linked to more signs of Alzheimer's in brain



People with higher exposure to traffic-related air pollution were more likely to have high amounts of amyloid plaques in their brains associated with Alzheimer's disease after death, according to a new study. Researchers looked at fine particulate matter, PM2.5, which consists of pollutant particles of less than 2.5 microns in diameter suspended in air.
Published Does Russia stand to benefit from climate change?



There exists a narrative about climate change that says there are winners and losers -- with Russia being one of the countries that stand to benefit from its effects. In a new study, researchers found that Russia is suffering from a variety of climate change impacts and is ill-prepared to mitigate or adapt to those climate impacts. And, as the rest of the world transitions to renewable energy sources, Russia's fossil-fuel-dependent government is not willing or ready to make alternative plans for the country, changes that could potentially benefit the whole of their society.
Published New cloud model could help with climate research



When clouds meet clear skies, cloud droplets evaporate as they mix with dry air. A new study has succeeded in capturing what happens in a model. Ultimately, this could lead to more accurate climate modeling in the future.
Published Why are fish getting smaller as waters warm? It's not their gills



A collaborative team of scientists recently found that there is no physiological evidence supporting a leading theory -- which involves the surface area of fish gills -- as to why many fish species are 'shrinking' as waters grow warmer due to climate change. Known as the Gill Oxygen Limitation (GOL) theory, it has been proposed as the universal mechanism explaining fish size and has been used in some predictions of future global fisheries yields. However, the researchers conducted a series of long-term experiments on brook trout and found that, though increased temperatures do lead to significantly decreased body size, gill surface area did not explain the change.
Published New evidence shows UK solar parks can provide for bees and butterflies



A new study shows that UK solar parks, if managed correctly, can provide vital resources to help stem the decline in the nation's bees and butterflies. The new research provides peer-reviewed field data of insect pollinators at solar parks in the UK, covering 15 sites.
Published Converting rainforest to plantation impacts food webs and biodiversity



Every day, new areas of rainforests are converted into plantations, drastically changing tropical biodiversity and the way the ecosystem functions. Yet, the current understanding of the consequences is fragmentary: previous studies tended to examine either biodiversity or the ecosystem. An international research team brings these threads together in this study. They analyzed organisms ranging from microscopic mites and earthworms in the soil, to beetles and birds in tree canopies, comparing tropical rainforest with rubber and oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Published Highways through historically redlined areas likely cause air pollution disparities today



As part of the New Deal, several governmental programs were created to expand homeownership through mortgages and loans. However, neighborhoods with primarily Black or immigrant communities often were rated 'hazardous' for repayment under the discriminatory, 'redlining' practice that restricted lending. Today, those same areas are exposed to more air pollution than other urban neighborhoods, and the cause could relate to nearby highways or industrial parks.
Published Mercury levels in tuna remain nearly unchanged since 1971



Tuna is one of the most popular seafoods worldwide. But this protein-rich fish can build up high levels of methylmercury from feeding on contaminated prey, like smaller fish or crustaceans. Despite efforts to reduce mercury emissions into the environment, researchers report that levels in tuna appear to be unchanged since 1971. They warn that more aggressive emission reduction targets are needed to start nudging down tuna mercury levels.
Published An environmentally friendly way to turn seafood waste into value-added products



Reduce, reuse, recycle, and repurpose: These are all ways we can live more sustainably. One tricky aspect of recycling, though, is that sometimes the recycling process is chemically intensive, and this is the case for recycling one of the world's most abundant materials -- chitin. Researchers have tackled this problem and found a way to sustainably recover chitin from seafood waste.
Published Toxic elements found in stranded whales, dolphins over 15 years



Researchers evaluated the prevalence, concentration and tissue distribution of essential and non-essential trace elements, including heavy metal toxicants in tissue (blubber, kidney, liver, skeletal muscle, skin) and fecal samples collected from 90 whales and dolphins stranded in Georgia and Florida from 2007 to 2021.
Published Revolutionary breakthrough in solar energy: Most efficient QD solar cells



A research team has unveiled a novel ligand exchange technique that enables the synthesis of organic cation-based perovskite quantum dots (PQDs), ensuring exceptional stability while suppressing internal defects in the photoactive layer of solar cells.
Published 'The future is fungal': New research finds that fungi that live in healthy plants are sensitive to climate change



Findings more than a decade in the making reveal a rich diversity of beneficial fungi living in boreal forest trees, with implications for the health of forests.