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Categories: Environmental: Biodiversity, Environmental: Water

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There are many effects of climate change. Perhaps the most broadly known is global warming, which is caused by heat building up in various parts of the Earth system, such as the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere and the land. 89 percent of this excess heat is stored in the oceans, with the rest in ice and glaciers, the atmosphere and land masses (including inland water bodies). An international research team has now studied the quantity of heat stored on land, showing the distribution of land heat among the continental ground, permafrost soils, and inland water bodies. The calculations show that more than 20 times as much heat has been stored there since the 1960s, with the largest increase being in the ground.

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In the first-ever 'before and after' assessment of the impact of establishing Mexico's Revillagigedo National Park on the fishing industry, a team of US and Mexican researchers found that Mexico's industrial fishing sector did not incur economic losses five years after the park's creation despite a full ban in fishing activity within the MPA.

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Chemical and environmental engineering scientists have identified two species of bacteria found in soil that break down a class of stubborn 'forever chemicals'-- per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that have contaminated groundwater below industrial and military sites throughout the nation. The discovery gives hope for low-cost biological cleanup of these pollutants.

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Starting in the 1990s, Island Fox populations began to dwindle due to an outbreak of canine distemper and an increase in attacks by golden eagles. Some islands saw their population drop to as low as 15 individuals, but conservation efforts by the Federal government restored numbers by 2017. A new study reveals a worrying decrease in genetic diversity within the species, signaling a new threat to the Channel Islands foxes' survival. The decrease in genetic diversity reduces the foxes' ability to adapt to future challenges, such as climate change and introduced pathogens, putting their survival at risk once again. Although the foxes have low genetic diversity, they possess diverse gut microbiomes that could help them cope with environmental changes.

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Researchers are proposing a novel pathway through which coastal ecosystem restoration can permanently capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Seagrass and mangroves -- known as blue carbon ecosystems -- naturally capture carbon through photosynthesis, which converts carbon dioxide into living tissue.

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A team has developed a new catalyst composed of elements abundant in the Earth. It could make possible the low-cost and energy-efficient production of hydrogen for use in transportation and industrial applications.

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With a warmer climate creating more humid conditions in the Northeast, extreme precipitation events -- defined as about 1.5 or more inches of heavy rainfall or melted snowfall in a day -- are projected to increase in the Northeast by 52% by the end of the century, according to a new study.

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The next generation of sustainable energy technology might be built from some low-tech materials: rocks and the sun. Using a new approach known as concentrated solar power, heat from the sun is stored then used to dry foods or create electricity. A team has found that certain soapstone and granite samples from Tanzania are well suited for storing this solar heat, featuring high energy densities and stability even at high temperatures.

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One of Australia's first long-distance walkers has been described after palaeontologists used advanced 3D scans and other technology to take a new look at the partial remains of a 3.5 million year old marsupial from central Australia.   They have named a new genus of diprotodontid Ambulator, meaning walker or wanderer, because the locomotory adaptations of the legs and feet of this quarter-tonne animal would have made it well suited to roam long distances in search of food and water when compared to earlier relatives.

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Researchers have published new findings on how our warming climate will affect the frequency of flash droughts and the risk to croplands globally.

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A new study of the freshwater greenfin darter fish suggests river erosion can be a driver of biodiversity in tectonically inactive regions.

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The Midwestern United States has lost 57.6 billion tons of topsoil due to farming practices over the past 160 years, and the rate of erosion, even following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's guidelines, is still 25 times higher than the rate at which topsoil forms. Yet, we need not despair: researchers recently reported that no-till farming, which is currently practiced on 40 percent of cropland acres in the Midwest, can extend our current level of soil fertility for the next several centuries. This has implications for everything from food security to climate-change mitigation.

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There is a massive, mineral-rich region in the Pacific Ocean -- about twice the size of India -- called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), which has already been divided up and assigned to companies for future deep-sea mining. To better understand what may be at risk once companies start mining, a team of biologists has built the first 'CCZ checklist' by compiling all the species records from previous research expeditions to the region. Their estimates of the species diversity of the CCZ included a total of 5,578 different species, an estimated 88% - 92% of which are entirely new to science.

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Species known as marine habitat-forming species -- gorgonians, corals, algae, seaweeds, marine phanerogams, etc.-- are organisms that help generate and structure the underwater landscapes. These are natural refuges for other species, and provide biomass and complexity to the seabeds. But these key species in marine ecosystems are currently threatened by climate change and other perturbations derived from human activity. Now, a study warns that even in the marine protected areas (MPAs) the genetic diversity of structural species is not protected, although it is essential for the response and adaptation of populations to changes that alter the natural environment.

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A team of engineers has recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air. Researchers describe the 'generic Air-gen effect'-- nearly any material can be engineered with nanopores to harvest, cost effective, scalable, interruption-free electricity. The secret lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter.

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A new study has used global storm-resolving simulations and machine learning to create an algorithm that can deal separately with two different scales of cloud organization: those resolved by a climate model, and those that cannot be resolved as they are too small. This new approach addresses the missing piece of information in traditional climate model parameterizations and provides a way to predict precipitation intensity and variability more precisely.

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A new study has revealed that drying laundry using a condenser tumble dryer leads to hundreds of tons of potentially harmful microfibers being released into waterways and oceans across the UK and Europe.

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Scientists have successfully conducted a simultaneous marine and atmospheric measurements at multiple locations directly beneath a violent, Category 5, which is the strongest class, typhoon in the North-West Pacific, before it reached land.

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Nontraditional water sources can be deployed to help cope with climate-induced water risks and tackle the increasing water demand for decarbonization of fossil fuel-fired power plants, but that could increase the cost of electricity generation by 8 percent to 10 percent.

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A team of researchers has found a mechanism in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) which enables plants to provide protection against salt stress for their sensitive stem cells in the meristem at the root tip.