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Categories: Environmental: Ecosystems, Space: The Solar System
Published James Webb Space Telescope captures the end of planet formation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source How much time do planets have to form from a swirling disk of gas and dust around a star? A new study gives scientists a better idea of how our own solar system came to be.
Published Signs of life would be detectable in single ice grain emitted from extraterrestrial moons
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Could life be found in frozen sea spray from moons orbiting Saturn or Jupiter? New research finds that life can be detected in a single ice grain containing one bacterial cell or portions of a cell. The results suggest that if life similar to that on Earth exists on these planetary bodies, that this life should be detectable by instruments launching in the fall.
Published Secrets of the Van Allen belt revealed in new study
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new study.
Published Species diversity promotes ecosystem stability
(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.
Published Forest, stream habitats keep energy exchanges in balance, global team finds
(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.
Published Icy impacts: Planetary scientists use physics and images of impact craters to gauge the thickness of ice on Europa
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New study reveals that Europa's ice shell is at least 20 kilometers thick.
Published Sea surface temperature research provides clear evidence of human-caused climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Claims that climate change is natural are inconsistent with new oceanic temperature trends.
Published Monitoring and measuring biodiversity require more than just numbers; scientists advocate for change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists advocate for change to promote standardized practices in the field -- a practice that has been missing from the science.
Published Researchers investigate how freshwater diatoms stay in the light
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers sought to understand how diatoms -- microscopic, photosynthetic algae that make up an estimated 20 percent of global carbon sequestration and oxygen production -- are able to bloom in an ice-covered Lake Erie and how ice decline across the Great Lakes is impacting the algae.
Published There are large accumulations of plastics in the ocean, even outside so-called garbage patch
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source When plastic ends up in the ocean, it gradually weathers and disintegrates into small particles. If marine animals ingest these particles, their health can be severely affected. Large accumulations of plastic can therefore disrupt the biological balance of marine ecosystems. But which areas are particularly affected?
Published Fairy circles: Plant water stress causes Namibia's gaps in grass
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Namibia's legendary fairy circles are mysterious, circular, bald patches in the dry grasslands on the edge of the Namib Desert. Their formation has been researched for decades and has recently been the subject of much debate. With extensive fieldwork, researchers investigated how freshly germinated grass dies inside the fairy circle. Their results show that the grass withers due to a lack of water inside the fairy circle. The topsoil, comprised of the top 10 to 12 centimeters of the soil, acts as a kind of 'death zone' in which fresh grass cannot survive for long.
Published Artificial streams reveal how drought shapes California's alpine ecosystems
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have used a series of artificial stream channels to mimic the behavior of headwater creeks under future climate change scenarios. They found that drier conditions shifted the life cycles of the algae and insects that form the base of the alpine food web. However, because species adjusted to the shifts in a variety of ways, the stream ecosystems were generally resilient to the changing conditions.
Published A wetter world recorded in Australian coral colony
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source When climate scientists look to the future to determine what the effects of climate change may be, they use computer models to simulate potential outcomes such as how precipitation will change in a warming world. Some scientists are also looking at something a little more tangible: coral.
Published Virtual reality better than video for evoking fear, spurring climate action
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Depicting worst-case climate scenarios like expanding deserts and dying coral reefs may better motivate people to support environmental policies when delivered via virtual reality, according to a research team that studied how VR and message framing affect the impact of environmental advocacy communications. The study findings may help advocacy groups decide how best to frame and deliver their messages.
Published Even inactive smokers are densely colonized by microbial communities
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Everything is everywhere -- under certain conditions microbial communities can grow and thrive, even in places that are seemingly uninhabitable. This is the case at inactive hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. An international team is presently working to accurately quantify how much inorganic carbon can be bound in these environments.
Published Arctic nightlife: Seabird colony bursts with sound at night
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the Arctic.
Published Protein fragments ID two new 'extremophile' microbes--and may help find alien life
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Perfectly adapted microorganisms live in extreme environments from deep-sea trenches to mountaintops. Learning more about how these extremophiles survive in hostile conditions could inform scientists about life on Earth and potential life on other planets.
Published Researchers can reveal illegal timber exports
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new method of timber analysis can confidently identify the location in which the tree was harvested. The method has been developed with the aim of combating illegal timber imports from Russia and Belarus.
Published Surprising insights about debris flows on Mars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The period that liquid water was present on the surface of Mars may have been shorter than previously thought. Channel landforms called gullies, previously thought to be formed exclusively by liquid water, can also be formed by the action of evaporating CO2 ice, according to a new study.
Published Ancient ice may still exist in distant space objects, researchers find
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new paper presents findings about the Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth, shedding new light on the preservation of volatile substances like carbon monoxide in such distant celestial bodies. The research uses Arrokoth as a case study to propose that many Kuiper Belt Objects -- remnants from the dawn of our solar system -- could still retain their original volatile ices, challenging previous notions about the evolutionary path of these ancient entities.