Showing 20 articles starting at article 41

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Environmental: Water, Paleontology: General

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In 2023, roughly 60,000 firework shells exploded above Manhattan's East River as part of Macy's Fourth of July show. The resulting air pollutant levels were many times higher in the hours after the display than those seen when smoke from a Canadian wildfire had blanketed the area a month before, according to the results of a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Groundwater is a vital resource, sustaining plants and ecosystems, ensuring agricultural production and serving as a core component of drinking water supplies. However, climate change and anthropogenic pressures can threaten groundwater availability, especially in southwestern Europe. This threat was evaluated by a research team using multidecadal data from more than 12,000 groundwater wells in Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy. The surprising finding: Groundwater levels are not declining everywhere as widely believed, but primarily in semi-arid regions with intensive agriculture and frequent droughts. Declines are also observed in temperate regions associated with large urban areas. The authors conclude that, with suitable management practices, groundwater can be utilized sustainably.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study reports the discovery of extremely rare early human fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores, including an astonishingly small adult limb bone. Dated to about 700,000 years old, the new findings shed light on the evolution of Homo floresiensis, the so-called 'Hobbits' of Flores whose remains were uncovered in 2003 at Liang Bua cave in the island's west.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Seeds, twigs, and insect parts found under two miles of ice confirm Greenland's ice sheet melted in the recent past, the first direct evidence that the center -- not just the edges -- of the two-mile-deep ice melted away in the recent geological past. The new research indicates that the giant ice sheet is more fragile than scientists had realized until the last few years -- and reveals increased risk of sea-level catastrophe in a warmer future.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using state of the art techniques, researchers use vibrations from traffic to measure underground soil moisture.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A tiny fossil penguin plays a huge role in the evolutionary history of the bird, an international study shows.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Shifts in the Earth's continental plates that drove long-term changes in sea level set the stage for the evolution of the earliest animals on Earth, a study suggests.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Exceptional fossils with preserved soft parts reveal that the earliest mollusks were flat, armored slugs without shells. The new species, Shishania aculeata, was covered with hollow, organic, cone-shaped spines. The fossils preserve exceptionally rare detailed features which reveal that these spines were produced using a sophisticated secretion system that is shared with annelids (earthworms and relatives).

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Much of the water in the West is transported across vast geographical areas by large infrastructure projects known as interbasin water transfers. Two of these projects in particular make up 85% of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions associated with U.S. interbasin transfers -- one in Arizona and the other in California -- according to the new research.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new 3D printing method developed by engineers is so simple that it uses a polymer ink and salt water solution to create solid structures. The work has the potential to make materials manufacturing more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Higher levels of urinary metals such as cadmium, tungsten, uranium, cobalt, copper and zinc are linked to increased cardiovascular disease and mortality in a racially and ethnically diverse U.S. population, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Hotter conditions prevent two tiny organisms working together for mutual benefit, new research shows.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Clues to future sea level rise have been revealed by the first detailed maps of the underside of a floating ice shelf in Antarctica. An international research team deployed an unmanned submersible beneath the Dotson Ice Shelf in West Antarctica.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Building protection barriers without accounting for potential inland flooding risks from groundwater can eventually worsen the very issues they aim to solve.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Hydrogen can be produced via the electrolytic splitting of water. One option here is the use of photoelectrodes that convert sunlight into voltage for electrolysis in so called photoelectrochemical cells (PEC cells). A research team has now shown that the efficiency of PEC cells can be significantly increased under pressure.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A professor gathered feedback from 26 Colorado River Basin managers and experts took on water user roles to discuss consuming, banking and trading Colorado River water.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers develop a more environmentally friendly approach to manufacturing nano-scale microchip devices using water as a solvent in place of toxic chemicals. The method not only cleans up the manufacturing waste stream, but also enables the integration of electronic and biological components.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have modified certain bacteria with UV light so that they produce more cellulose. The basis for this is a new approach with which the researchers generate thousands of bacterial variants and select those that have developed into the most productive.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

California needs urgent and bold measures to adapt its $59 billion agriculture sector to climate change as the amount of water available for crops declines, according to a new report. The report provides a roadmap for more water capture, storage, and distribution systems that are in harmony with climate projections and ecosystems. It further considers how runoff and groundwater can be used repeatedly as it flows generally from mountainsides to coastal lands.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The atmosphere, the ocean and life on Earth interacted over the past 500-plus million years in ways that improved conditions for early organisms to thrive. Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has produced a perspective article of this co-evolutionary history.