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Categories: Environmental: Water, Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published Was the earthquake induced or natural? New study tests frameworks to answer the question
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using questionnaires created to determine whether a particular earthquake is natural or induced by human activity, a panel of experts concluded that the November 2022 magnitude 5.2 Peace River earthquake sequence in Alberta, Canada was likely to be induced.
Published Wildfires also impact aquatic ecosystems
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have shown that the effects of wildfires are not limited to terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems are also undergoing rapid changes. The study found that fire debris transforms lakes and other aquatic ecosystems, with implications for fisheries and water quality.
Published Pacific Northwest snowpack endangered by increasing spring heatwaves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Even in the precipitation-heavy Pacific Northwest, more frequent heatwaves are threatening a key source of water supply. A Washington State University study that intended to look at snow melting under a single, extreme event, the 2021 'heat dome,' instead revealed an alarming, longer-term rising trend of successive heatwaves melting snowpack earlier in the year. From temperature records spanning from 1940 to 2021, springtime heatwaves in the region have doubled in frequency, intensity or both since the mid-1990s. The findings have implications for many areas worldwide that are dependent on snow-capped mountains to provide summer water since heatwaves have been on the rise globally.
Published Highly resolved precipitation maps based on AI
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Strong precipitation may cause natural disasters, such as floodings or landslides. Global climate models are required to forecast the frequency of these extreme events, which is expected to change as a result of climate change. Researchers have now developed a first method based on artificial intelligence (AI), by means of which the precision of coarse precipitation fields generated by global climate models can be increased. The researchers succeeded in improving spatial resolution of precipitation fields from 32 to two kilometers and temporal resolution from one hour to ten minutes. This higher resolution is required to better forecast the more frequent occurrence of heavy local precipitation and the resulting natural disasters in future.
Published Extracting uranium from seawater as another source of nuclear fuel
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Oceans cover most of Earth's surface and support a staggering number of lifeforms, but they're also home to a dilute population of uranium ions. And -- if we can get these particular ions out of the water -- they could be a sustainable fuel source to generate nuclear power. Researchers have now developed a material to use with electrochemical extraction that attracts hard-to-get uranium ions from seawater more efficiently than existing methods.
Published Saving endangered species: New AI method counts manatee clusters in real time
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Accurately counting manatee aggregations within a region is crucial yet challenging. Harnessing the power of AI, researchers are using a deep learning-based crowd counting approach to automatically count the number of manatees in a designated region, using images captured from CCTV cameras, which are readily available, as input. The pioneering study not only addresses the technical challenges of counting in complex outdoor environments but also offers potential ways to aid endangered species.
Published Study overturns conventional wisdom about wild turkey nesting survival
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study finds that precipitation levels during nesting season are not related to reproductive success for wild turkeys, which runs counter to the conventional wisdom regarding the role that rainfall plays in wild turkey nesting success. The findings shed new light on how climate change may affect wild turkey populations.
Published Aquatic insects in restored streams need more rocks to lay their eggs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Likening it to providing more runways at busy airports, researchers at North Carolina State University found in a new study that adding protruding rocks to restored streams can help attract female aquatic insects that lay their eggs on the rock bottoms or sides.
Published National policy aimed at reducing U.S. greenhouse gases also would improve water quality
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A climate policy that raises the price of carbon-intensive products across the entire U.S. economy would yield a side benefit of reducing nitrate groundwater contamination throughout the Mississippi River Basin. The Gulf of Mexico, an important U.S. fishery, also would see modest benefits from the nitrate reductions.
Published Twenty-year study confirms California forests are healthier when burned -- or thinned
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A 20-year experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques -- prescribed burning, restoration thinning or a combination of both -- are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California. These treatments also improve forest health, making trees more resilient to stressors like drought and bark beetles, and they do not negatively impact plant or wildlife biodiversity within individual tree stands, the research found.
Published Zapping manure with special electrode promises an efficient method to produce fertilizers, other chemicals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An interdisciplinary team has developed a new technique that could help farmers extract useful nutrients such as ammonia and potassium from livestock manure to efficiently make fertilizer and other useful chemical products. While the strategy still needs to be scaled up beyond a proof-of-concept stage, the group's preliminary analyses show it could offer considerable benefits by cutting water and air pollution while simultaneously creating products that farmers could use or sell.
Published How a drought led to the rise of skateboarding in 1970s California
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Why did professional skateboarding arise in southern California in the 1970s? Was it a coincidence, or was it a perfect storm of multiple factors? It's fairly well-known that a drought in southern California in the mid-1970s led to a ban on filling backyard swimming pools, and these empty pools became playgrounds for freestyle skateboarders in the greater Los Angeles area. But a new cross-disciplinary study shows that beyond the drought, it was the entanglement of environmental, economic and technological factors that led to the explosive rise of professional skateboarding culture in the 1970s.
Published New study sheds light on how much methane is produced from Arctic lakes and wetlands
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New study looked at lakes in the Arctic, including those at Alaska's Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, to shed light on how much methane is produced from Arctic lakes and wetlands. Small unmapped lakes in the Arctic are far less abundant than previously thought, greatly reducing the cumulative methane emissions they were thought to contribute to Earth's atmosphere.
Published Underwater architects: The 'burrowing effect' of foraminifera on marine environments
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Impact of single-cell organisms on sediment oxygen levels and bacterial diversity measured for the first time.
Published Extreme rainfall increases ag nutrient runoff, conservation strategies can help
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nutrient runoff from agricultural production is a significant source of water pollution in the U.S., and climate change that produces extreme weather events is likely to exacerbate the problem. A new study looks at how extreme rainfall impacts runoff and suggests possible mitigation strategies.
Published 'Energy droughts' in wind and solar can last nearly a week
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Understanding the risk of compound energy droughts -- times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow -- will help grid planners understand where energy storage is needed most.
Published Rail industry urged to consider safety risks of space weather
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Train accidents could be caused by solar storms switching signalling from red to green according to new research examining the impact of space weather. Solar storms can trigger powerful magnetic disturbances on Earth, creating geomagnetically induced currents which could potentially interfere with electricity transmission and distribution grids. A study of two rail lines showed that more serious 'wrong side' failures (red to green) could occur with a weaker solar storm than for 'right side' failures, posing a serious risk which the industry needs to take on board.
Published New geophysical technique enhances imaging of fluid-filled rocks finding connections with microearthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have recently introduced a new method called ambient noise differential adjoint tomography, which allows researchers to visualise rocks with fluids better, leading to potential advancements in the discovery of water and oil resources, as well as applications in urban geologic hazard and early warning systems for tsunamis and the understanding of the water cycle.
Published Predictive models augur that at the end of the century fields will need more water than today
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has published evapotranspiration projections for Andalusia through 2100, using a machine learning model that allows this data to be obtained based on the air temperature.
Published Have researchers found the missing link that explains the mysterious phenomenon known as fairy circles?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fairy circles, a nearly hexagonal pattern of bare-soil circular gaps in grasslands, initially observed in Namibia and later in other parts of the world, have fascinated and baffled scientists for years. New research suggests that all theories to date have overlooked the coupling between two robust mechanisms essential for understanding ecosystem response: phenotypic plasticity at the level of a single plant, and spatial self-organization in vegetation patterns at the level of a plant population.