Land use change has warmed Earth's surface
Natural ecosystems play a crucial role in helping combat climate change, air pollution and soil erosion. A new study by a team of researchers from the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission&#…
Showing posts with the label environment
A theory of physics explains the fragmentation of tropical forests
Tropical forests around the world play a key role in the global carbon cycle and harbour more than half of the species worldwide. However, increases in land use during the past decades caused unprece…
Projecting the impacts of climate change
How might climate change affect the acidification of the world's oceans or air quality in China and India in the coming decades, and what climate policies could be effective in minimizing such im…
Twenty-five years of satellite data confirm rising sea levels
Global sea level rise is not cruising along at a steady 3 mm per year, it's accelerating a little every year, like a driver merging onto a highway, according to a powerful new assessment led by C…
First scientific expedition to newly exposed Antarctic ecosystem
A team of scientists, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), heads to Antarctica this week (14 February) to investigate a mysterious marine ecosystem that's been hidden beneath an Antarctic ice s…
No glaciers, no water?
The world's largest rivers begin in glaciated mountain regions. However, climate change may cause many glaciers to disappear. Will water become scarce? The world's largest rivers have their s…
Rapid land changes forecast for East African savannahs
A study, presenting a 5000-year environmental history of the popular tourist destination, Amboseli National Park in Kenya, has shown that the impact of climate change on land is more rapid than previ…
Ozone at lower latitudes is not recovering, despite Antarctic ozone hole healing
The ozone layer - which protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation - is recovering at the poles, but unexpected decreases in part of the atmosphere may be preventing recovery at lower latitudes. …
Viruses - lots of them - are falling from the sky
An astonishing number of viruses are circulating around the Earth's atmosphere -- and falling from it -- according to new research from scientists in Canada, Spain and the U.S. Viruses and bacter…
Mapping the first family tree for tropical forests
More than 100 researchers have collaborated to classify the world's tropical forests according to their evolutionary history, a process that will help researchers predict the resilience or suscep…
Powerful new dataset reveals patterns of global ozone pollution
Although ozone pollution is dropping across many parts of the United States, western Europe and Japan, many people living in those countries still experience more than a dozen days every year in whic…
Changing weather patterns throwing ecosystems out of whack
Day and night will soon align, marking the start of spring. But the timing of nature's calendar is starting to fall out of sync. Animal species, such as the swallowtail butterfly, are shifting th…
Scientists find massive reserves of mercury hidden in permafrost
Researchers have discovered permafrost in the northern hemisphere stores massive amounts of natural mercury, a finding with significant implications for human health and ecosystems worldwide. Permafr…
An underestimated threat: Land-based pollution with microplastics
Tiny plastic particles also present a threat to creatures on land and may have damaging effects similar or even more problematic than in our oceans. Researchers from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwat…
Ecuador: Deforestation destroys more dry forest than climate change
Tropical forests all over the world are at risk. Two of the main threats are the deforestation for arable land and climate change. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Thü…
Even small changes within an ecosystem can have detrimental effects
A mutualistic relationship between species in an ecosystem allows for the ecosystem to thrive, but the lack of this relationship could lead to the collapse of the entire system. New research from Bin…
The disappearance of common species
Together with their colleagues from the Senckenberg Nature Research Society, scientists of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) were able to show that currently widespread insects are threatened …