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Categories: Environmental: Ecosystems, Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published Use it or lose it: How seagrasses conquered the sea



Seagrasses provide the foundation of one of the most highly biodiverse, yet vulnerable, coastal marine ecosystems globally. They arose in three independent lineages from their freshwater ancestors some 100 million years ago and are the only fully submerged, marine flowering plants. Moving to such a radically different environment is a rare evolutionary event and definitely not easy. How did they do it? New reference quality genomes provide important clues with relevance to their conservation and biotechnological application.
Published Coal-based product could replace sand in concrete



A new study found that graphene derived from metallurgical coke, a coal-based product, through flash Joule heating could serve not only as a reinforcing additive in cement but also as a replacement for sand in concrete.
Published Permeable pavements could reduce coho-killing tire pollutants



The pore-like structure of permeable pavements may help protect coho salmon by preventing tire wear particles and related contaminants from entering stormwater runoff, according to a recent study. Researchers demonstrated that four types of permeable pavements can act as giant filters, retaining more than 96% of applied tire particle mass. They also captured several tire-associated chemicals, resulting in a 68% average reduction of 6PPD-quinone, a contaminant shown to kill coho salmon in urban streams.
Published Teaching nature to break human-made chemical bonds



A newly evolved enzyme could one day make silicone compounds biodegradable.
Published The underground network: Decoding the dynamics of plant-fungal symbiosis



The intricate dance of nature often unfolds in mysterious ways, hidden from the naked eye. At the heart of this enigmatic tango lies a vital partnership: the symbiosis between plants and a type of fungi known as arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. New groundbreaking research delves into this partnership, revealing key insights that deepen our understanding of plant-AM fungi interactions and could lead to advances in sustainable agriculture.
Published Diverse forests are best at standing up to storms



European forests with a greater diversity of tree species are more resilient to storms, according to new research.
Published New research challenges hunter-gatherer narrative



Analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik'aya Patjxa burial sites in Peru shows that early human diets in the Andes Mountains were composed of 80 percent plant matter and 20 percent meat.
Published Microplastics may be accumulating rapidly in endangered Galápagos penguins' food web



Model predictions showed a rapid increase in microplastic accumulation and contamination across the penguins' prey organisms resulting in Galapagos penguin showing the highest level of microplastics per biomass, followed by barracuda, anchovy, sardine, herring, and predatory zooplankton.
Published Researchers advocate for sustainable logging to safeguard against global flood risks



It's time to recognize the power of healthy forests in managing global growing flood risk, and to shift towards more sustainable forestry practices and policy.
Published A new design improves water decontamination via plasma jet



Two research groups design a plasma (an ionized gas) reactor maintained by microwaves that makes it possible to decontaminate waters with high concentrations of dye.
Published War in Ukraine severely limits ability to track Arctic climate change



Scientists no longer have direct access to data from Russian Arctic research stations. Without this data, our view of climate changes in the region is increasingly biased, new research shows.
Published New tool predicts flood risk from hurricanes in a warming climate



A new method predicts how much flooding a coastal community is likely to experience as hurricanes evolve due to climate change. Using New York as a test case, the model predicts Hurricane Sandy-level flooding will occur roughly every 30 years by 2099.
Published Fast-charging lithium battery seeks to eliminate 'range anxiety'



Engineers have created a new lithium battery that can charge in under five minutes -- faster than any such battery on the market -- while maintaining stable performance over extended cycles of charging and discharging.
Published Chemists use the blockchain to simulate over 4 billion chemical reactions essential to the origins of life



Cryptocurrency is usually 'mined' through the blockchain by asking a computer to perform a complicated mathematical problem in exchange for tokens of cryptocurrency. But now a team of chemists have repurposed this process, asking computers to instead generate the largest network ever created of chemical reactions which may have given rise to prebiotic molecules on early Earth.
Published New study unveils how plants control the production of reactive oxygen species



Reactive oxygen species (ROS), though generally regarded as toxic byproducts of biological processes, serve many important functions in plants. However, the precise mechanism that plants use to regulate the production of ROS remains elusive. In a recent study, researchers clarified how an important ROS-generating enzyme is activated, revealing mechanisms likely conserved across all land plants. Their findings could pave the way for breakthroughs in agricultural and environmental remediation tools.
Published Study offers rare long-term analysis of techniques for creating standing dead trees for wildlife habitat



Ecologists have long known that standing dead trees, commonly referred to as snags, are an important habitat element for forest dwellers and act as a driver of biodiversity. They're so important that in some managed forests, snag creation is part of the conservation tool kit -- i.e., crews sometimes convert a percentage of live trees into dead ones through techniques ranging from sawing off their tops to wounding their trunks to injecting them with disease-causing fungi.
Published Marine heat waves trigger shift in hatch dates and early growth of Pacific cod



Marine heat waves appear to trigger earlier reproduction, high mortality in early life stages and fewer surviving juvenile Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska, a new study shows. These changes in the hatch cycle and early growth patterns persisted in years following the marine heat waves, which could have implications for the future of Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod, an economically and culturally significant species.
Published Water, water everywhere and now we may have drops to drink



Researchers have achieved a major breakthrough in Redox Flow Desalination (RFD), an emerging electrochemical technique that can turn seawater into potable drinking water and also store affordable renewable energy.
Published Blue tit population booms with moths on the menu



Researchers found that years when moth numbers were up resulted in increased population growth for the blue tit.
Published Records of cometary dust hitting the asteroid Ryugu



The Hayabusa2 mission that collected samples from the asteroid Ryugu has provided a treasure trove of insights into our solar system. After analyzing samples further, a team of researchers have unearthed evidence that cometary organic matter was transported from space to the near-Earth region.