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Categories: Environmental: Biodiversity, Environmental: Water
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 Harnessing hydrogen at life's origin
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new report uncovers how hydrogen gas, the energy of the future, provided energy in the past, at the origin of life 4 billion years ago. Hydrogen gas is clean fuel. It burns with oxygen in the air to provide energy with no CO2. Hydrogen is a key to sustainable energy for the future. Though humans are just now coming to realize the benefits of hydrogen gas (H2 in chemical shorthand), microbes have known that H2 is good fuel for as long as there has been life on Earth. Hydrogen is ancient energy.
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 Eyes open and toes out of water: How a giant water bug reached the island of Cyprus
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new visitor was reported on the coast of Cyprus, thanks to the growing power of citizen science. Researchers collected information and specimens through personal communication with amateur naturalists, but also through the internet, in order to compose the mosaic of repeated appearances of a giant water bug on the eastern shoreline of the island.
Published Study estimates nearly 70 percent of children under six in Chicago may be exposed to lead-contaminated tap water
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new analysis estimates that 68 percent of Chicago children under age six live in households with tap water containing detectable levels of lead.
Published Oregon State researchers take deep dive into how much water is stored in snow
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source There's a new metric that provides a more holistic look at how much water is stored in snowpack, and for how long.
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 The atlas of unburnable oil in the world
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In order to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 C, it is essential to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. This would mean not exploiting most of the existing coal, conventional gas and oil energy resources in regions around the world, according to new research. The study presents the atlas of unburnable oil in the world, a world map designed with environmental and social criteria that warns which oil resources should not be exploited to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015 to mitigate the effects of climate change.
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 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 Unique way to track carbon emissions in bodies of water
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Carbon dioxide emissions are not typically associated with water ways, like streams and rivers, but emerging research shows that water bodies play an important role in storing and releasing carbon dioxide. As many states look for cost-effective ways to mitigate climate change, scientists looked at a way to optimize CO2 sensors to better measure carbon dioxide emissions in lotic, or moving, bodies of water offering a new tool that can help provide valuable information for everything from land use to climate action plans.
Published Sulfur and the origin of life
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shines a spotlight on sulfur, a chemical element that, while all familiar, has proved surprisingly resistant to scientific efforts in probing its role in the origin of life.
Published Asian aerosols' impact on Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study identifies the role aerosols over Asia is having on the AMOC, a complex system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean.
Published With discovery of roundworms, Great Salt Lake's imperiled ecosystem gets more interesting
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Biologists announce the discovery of numerous species of roundworm in the highly saline waters of Great Salt Lake, the vast terminal lake in northwestern Utah that supports millions of migratory birds. Previously, brine shrimp and brine flies were the only known multicellular animals living in the water column. The scientists found nematodes, belonging to a family known for inhabiting extreme environments, in the lake's microbialites, reef-like structures covering about a fifth of the lakebed.
Published Drought, soil desiccation cracking, and carbon dioxide emissions: an overlooked feedback loop exacerbating climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Soil stores 80 percent of carbon on earth, yet with increasing cycles of drought, that crucial reservoir is cracking and breaking down, releasing even more greenhouse gases creating an amplified feedback loop that could accelerate climate change.
Published 'Find pearls in the soil' unveiling the magic of hydrogen production from municipal sewage
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have developed a catalyst for the urea oxidation reaction, enhancing hydrogen generation efficiency.
Published Grounding zone discovery explains accelerated melting under Greenland's glaciers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have conducted the first large-scale observation and modeling study of northwest Greenland's Petermann Glacier. Their findings reveal the intrusion of warm ocean water beneath the ice as the culprit in the accelerated melting it has experienced since the turn of the century, and their computer predictions indicate that potential sea level rise will be much worse than previously estimated.
Published Exploring arctic plants and lichens: An important conservation baseline for Nunavut's newest and largest territorial park
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A comprehensive study of the floristic diversity of Agguttinni Territorial Park, Nunavut's newest and largest Territorial Park, has documented 141 vascular plant, 69 bryophyte, and 93 lichen species from this unique protected area on northern Baffin Island. Through a combination of extensive fieldwork in 2021 and examination of hundreds of existing herbarium specimens, the authors have documented species newly reported for Baffin Island and have crafted a biodiversity baseline important for park management and conservation.