Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

1.5°C pathways can still be achieved, combining fairness and global climate protection      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Global warming can still be limited to 1.5°C by 2100 while ensuring that the poor are not hit hardest by climate policies and climate impacts. This is achieved by immediately introducing broad carbon pricing together with re-distributive policies using carbon pricing revenues and further measures to reduce energy consumption, accelerate technological transitions, and transform the land sector.

Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
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How mountains affect El Niño-induced winter precipitation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A consideration of how mountains influence El Niño and La Niña-induced precipitation change in western North America may be the ticket to more informed water conservation planning along the Colorado River, new research suggests.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Engineering: Robotics Research Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Snail-inspired robot could scoop ocean microplastics      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Inspired by a small and slow snail, scientists have developed a robot protype that may one day scoop up microplastics from the surfaces of oceans, seas and lakes.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Zoology Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Severe Weather
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Artificial light is luring birds to cities and sometimes to their deaths      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists used weather radar data to map bird stopover density in the United States and found that artificial light is a top indicator of where birds will land. City lights lure birds into what can be an ecological trap -- with buildings that lead to collisions, less habitat, scarcer food, and more people and cats. The study provides the first continent-wide maps of migration stopover hotspots in the contiguous United States, and knowing these broadscale layover patterns can help in the development of conservation plans. 

Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Nature Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: General
Published

More than a meteorite: New clues about the demise of dinosaurs      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

What wiped out the dinosaurs? A meteorite plummeting to Earth is only part of the story, a new study suggests. Climate change triggered by massive volcanic eruptions may have ultimately set the stage for the dinosaur extinction, challenging the traditional narrative that a meteorite alone delivered the final blow to the ancient giants.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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Researchers decode aqueous amino acid's potential for direct air capture of CO2      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have made a significant stride toward understanding a viable process for direct air capture, or DAC, of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This DAC process is in early development with the aim of achieving negative emissions, where the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the envelope of gases surrounding Earth exceeds the amount emitted.

Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues
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Himalayan glaciers react, blow cold winds down their slopes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Himalayan Glaciers fight back to preserve themselves, but for how long? An international team of researchers explains a stunning phenomenon: rising global temperatures have led Himalayan glaciers to increasingly cool the air in contact with the ice surface. The ensuing cold winds might help cool the glaciers and preserve the surrounding ecosystems. The results were found across the Himalayan range.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography
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Consensus needed on when global warming reaches 1.5°C      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of scientists has emphasized that -- surprisingly -- there is currently no formally agreed way of defining the current level of global warming relevant to the Paris Agreement.

Biology: Marine Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Environmental: Wildfires Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Oceanography
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Ash can fertilize the oceans      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Flames roared through Santa Barbara County in late 2017. UC Santa Barbara canceled classes, and the administration recommended donning an N95, long before the COVID pandemic made the mask a household item. Smoke and ash choked the air, but the Thomas Fire's effects weren't restricted to the land and sky. Huge amounts of ash settled into the oceans, leaving researchers to wonder what effect it might have on marine life.  

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: General Biology: Marine Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Oceanography
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Study identifies key algae species helping soft corals survive warming oceans      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

During a two-year survey of soft corals in the Florida Keys,  scientists identified three species of octocorals that have survived heat waves. While the coral animal itself may be heat tolerant, scientists concluded that the symbiotic algae inside the coral serve as a protector of sorts.

Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography Paleontology: Climate
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Antarctica's ancient ice sheets foreshadow dynamic changes in Earth's future      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Identifying how and why Antarctica's major ice sheets behaved the way they did in the early Miocene could help inform understanding of the sheets' behavior under a warming climate. Together, the ice sheets lock a volume of water equivalent to more than 50 meters of sea level rise and influence ocean currents that affect marine food webs and regional climates. Their fate has profound consequences for life nearly everywhere on Earth.  

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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Phasing out fossil fuels could save millions of lives      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists provide new evidence to motivate rapid fossil fuel phaseout. The science team determined exposure to ambient air pollution and its health impacts using an updated atmospheric composition model, a newly developed relative risk model and recent satellite-based fine particle data. They estimated all-cause and disease-specific mortality and attributed them to emission categories. They show that phasing out fossil fuels is a remarkably effective health-improving and life-saving intervention. About 5 million excess deaths per year globally could potentially be avoided.  

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
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What makes sustainable consumption so difficult      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

When it comes to self-discipline, psychological research traditionally focuses on individual responsibility. Some researchers believe this is too short-sighted. Self-discipline doesn't work without effective regulation.

Ecology: Endangered Species Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Vertically farmed greens taste as good as organic ones      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Consumer skepticism about the taste of vertically farmed greens is widespread. But a scientific taste test shows that respondents rate greens grown vertically and without soil as just as good as organic ones.

Anthropology: General Archaeology: General Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography Paleontology: Climate
Published

Decoding past climates through dripstones      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A recent study demonstrates how dripstones can be crucial for reconstructing past climates. The new approach can provide a detailed picture of the climate around early human occupations in South Africa.

Biology: Botany Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues
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Money to burn: Wealthy, white neighborhoods losing their heat shields      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

White, wealthy neighborhoods in the LA area -- and likely around the world -- are about to start feeling the same heat that has plagued poorer, Hispanic neighborhoods for generations. A new study shows the protective effect of income has largely eroded over the past 40 years, as landscape plants can't keep up with the pace of climate warming. 

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Botany Biology: Zoology Ecology: Endangered Species Ecology: General Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
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how far can the wind can carry a plant's seeds? New model      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Playing an essential foundational role in an ecosystem, plants contribute to the well-being of human health by helping create resources like food and medicine. Therefore, to better understand how plants can maintain resiliency in the face of challenges like climate change, researchers recently developed an innovative mathematical model that can provide fast and reliable predictions of how far wind can carry a plant's seeds.

Biology: Microbiology Environmental: Biodiversity Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Inoculation against diseased fields      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Farmland often harbors a multitude of pathogens which attack plants and reduce yields. A research team has now shown that inoculating the soil with mycorrhizal fungi can help maintain or even improve yields without the use of additional fertilizers or pesticides. In a large-scale field trial, plant yield increased by up to 40 percent.