Articles on or after 4/19/2024: PHYS.ORG - Earth
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'Green muscle memory' and climate education promote behavior change: Report - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · A new report, released in time for global attention for Earth Day on April 22, highlights the impact of climate education on promoting behavior change in the next generation. Despite people's deep connection to their local environment—whether it's blackouts in Toronto caused by raccoons, communities gearing up for a total solar eclipse lasting only minutes, chasing northern lights or hundreds of Manitoba kids excited about ice fishing—there remains inertia in climate action. Sparking global momentum and energy in young people can go a long way to addressing climate change now and in the near future, says Bryce Coon, author of the report and Earth Day's ... Read more ... |
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'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Extreme heat scorched the Philippines on Wednesday, forcing schools in some areas to suspend in-person classes and prompting warnings for people to limit the amount of time spent outdoors. The months of March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest in the archipelago nation, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon. "It's so hot you can't breathe," said Erlin Tumaron, 60, who works at a seaside resort in Cavite province, south of Manila, where the heat index reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday. "It's surprising our pools are still empty. You would expect people to come and take a swim, ... Read more ... |
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'Sunny day flooding' increases fecal contamination of coastal waters - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · "Historically we see the highest levels of fecal bacteria contamination in coastal waterways after it rains, because the rain washes contaminants into the waterways," says Natalie Nelson, corresponding author of a paper on the study and an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University. "Due to sea level rise, we're seeing an increase in flooding in coastal areas at high tide—even when there isn't any rainfall. We wanted to see whether sunny day floods were associated with increases in fecal bacteria contamination in waterways." For the study, researchers collected water samples every day for two summer months at ... Read more ... |
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A better way to predict Arctic riverbank erosion - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · But there's a caveat to this concern: Existing models have predicted a more dramatic rate of Arctic riverbank erosion than has actually been observed. In a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Madison Douglas and Michael Lamb set out to determine why. To do this, the team created a model that couples the movement of sediment, such as sand and mud, with permafrost thaw to determine riverbank erosion. The model better reproduces erosion observations on parts of the Yukon River in Alaska. This is because in real-world scenarios, the rate of erosion is slowed by an insulating layer of thawed sediment. Rather than the warmer river water ... Read more ... |
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A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of disaster risk due to linkage of residual coal pillars and rock strata - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · In extreme cases, such instability can trigger disasters like mine earthquakes and widespread collapse of goaf areas, potentially leading to casualties. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out monitoring and evaluation research on the risk of instability and disaster caused by the linkage of residual coal pillars and rock strata. The challenge of instability linkage between residual coal pillars and rock strata is complex, as it not only involves the interaction between these pillars and strata but also engenders a cascade of linkage disasters. Present research efforts mostly lack a holistic assessment of the instability and disaster risks arising from the interaction between ... Read more ... |
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A hydrocarbon molecule as supplier and energy storage solution for solar energy - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · This could pave the way for entirely new organic solar modules. The fundamentals for conversion and storage using the molecule have now been published in the journal Nature Chemistry. Hopes remain high that solar energy will be a major driver of the energy transformation. However, as sunlight is a highly volatile source of energy, a solution must be found for storing energy efficiently. "Until now, we have transferred electricity from solar modules that is not consumed immediately into a battery, where it can be used as and when required," explains Prof. Dr. Julien Bachmann, Chair of Chemistry of Thin Film Materials (CTFM) at FAU. "By repeatedly changing between chemical ... Read more ... |
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A new electrochemical approach could reduce ocean acidity and remove carbon in the process - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Only 45 percent of carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere; the remainder is absorbed through two cycles: 1) the biological carbon cycle stores CO2 in plant matter and soils, and 2) the aqueous carbon cycle absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere into the oceans. Each of these cycles accounts for 25 percent and 30 percent of emitted CO2, respectively. CO2 that dissolves in the oceans reacts to form chemicals that increase the acidity of the oceans. The dissolution of minerals from rocks along coastlines act to counterbalance this acidity, in a process called geological weathering, but the extreme increase in the rate and volume of CO2 emissions, especially over the last 60 ... Read more ... |
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A shade closer to more efficient organic photovoltaics - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Semitransparent photovoltaics are able to convert sunlight into electricity without blocking visible light. This makes them attractive for building integrated applications, such as windows, facades and greenhouses. Unlike traditional silicon-based cells, organic photovoltaics can be flexible and can also be tailored to be transparent. Yet the more transparent the solar cell, the less light it captures for producing electricity. Organic solar cells typically rely on an active layer called a bulk heterojunction—comprised of electron donor and acceptor materials—to capture and convert sunlight. Upon contact, sunlight can excite electrons to higher energy states ... Read more ... |
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Accelerated marine carbon cycling forced by tectonic degassing over the Miocene Climate Optimum - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · In a recent publication in Science Bulletin, a multidisciplinary team of authors from Tongji University, the Second Institute of Oceanography (Ministry of Natural Resources), the Institute of Earth Environment (Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Utrecht University reports for the first time that massive carbon inputs from volcanism and seafloor spreading have impacted the orbital phase relationships between carbon cycle and climate change. Past changes in climate and carbon cycle have been documented by the stable isotope composition of benthic foraminiferal oxygen and carbon, as they are proxies for climate-cryosphere and carbon transfers between the ocean and other ... Read more ... |
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Africa's megacities threatened by heat, floods, disease - action needed to start greening, adapt to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · African megacities like Lagos, Nigeria (with 21 million residents) and Cairo, Egypt (with 10 million residents) are experiencing significant temperature increases due to the urban heat island effect and climate change. Meelan Thondoo is a medical anthropologist and environmental epidemiologist who researches the health impacts of climate change in cities of fast-developing countries. She explains what cities in Africa are doing to mitigate climate change, and what further steps they need to take to protect their populations. What health effects of climate change do African cities experience? Currently, 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people globally live in cities that ... Read more ... |
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AI for Earth: How NASA's artificial intelligence and open science efforts combat climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · In 2023, NASA teamed up with IBM Research to create an AI geospatial foundation model. Trained on vast amounts of NASA's widely used Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) data, the model provides a base for a variety of AI-powered studies to tackle environmental challenges. In keeping with open science principles, the model is freely available for anyone to access. Foundation models serve as a baseline from which scientists can develop a diverse set of applications, enabling powerful and efficient solutions. "Foundation models only know what things are represented in the data," explained Manil Maskey, the data science lead at NASA's Office of the Chief Science Data Officer ... Read more ... |
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AI weather forecasts can capture destructive path of major storms, new study shows - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez, who led the study, said, "AI is transforming weather forecasting before our eyes. Two years ago, modern machine learning techniques were rarely being applied to make weather forecasts. Now we have multiple models that can produce 10-day global forecasts in minutes. "There is a great deal we can learn about AI weather forecasts by stress-testing them on extreme events like Storm Ciarán. We can identify their strengths and weaknesses and guide the development of even better AI forecasting technology to help protect people and property. This is an exciting and important time for weather forecasting." Promise and pitfalls To ... Read more ... |
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Airborne interferometric radar altimeter shows potential for submesoscale sea surface height anomaly measurements - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Their study was published in Remote Sensing on April 12. To date, humanity has not been able to observe two-dimensional (2D) oceanic processes at the 0.1–10 km submesoscale in the spatial domain using remote sensing. The SSHA signal at this scale is small and exceeds the resolution limits of the satellite altimeters used to date. However, oceanic processes at this scale play a critical role in the study of ocean energy transfer, cascading, and dissipation, and are crucial for research on ocean energy balance, nutrient transport, and global climate change studies. In this study, the researchers provided a detailed analysis of the SSHA and its wavenumber ... Read more ... |
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Airborne observations of Asian monsoon sees ozone-depleting substances lofting into the stratosphere - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The study, led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and NASA, found that the East Asian Monsoon delivers more than twice the concentration of very short-lived ozone-depleting substances into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere than previously reported. "It was a real surprise to fly through a plume with all those very short-lived ozone-depleting substances," said NSF NCAR scientist Laura Pan, the lead author of the study. "These chemicals may have a significant impact on what will happen with the ozone layer, and it's critical to quantify them." The study was published in the Proceedings of the National ... Read more ... |
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Airborne single-photon lidar system achieves high-resolution 3D imaging - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Single-photon lidar uses single-photon detection techniques to measure the time it takes laser pulses to travel to objects and back. It is particularly useful for airborne applications because it enables highly accurate 3D mapping of terrain and objects even in challenging environments such as dense vegetation or urban areas. "Using single-photon lidar technology on resource-limited drones or satellites requires shrinking the entire system and reducing its energy consumption," said research team member Feihu Xu from University of Science and Technology of China. "We were able to incorporate recent technology developments into a system that, in comparison to other ... Read more ... |
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Artificial intelligence helps scientists engineer plants to fight climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · To design these climate-saving plants, scientists in Salk's Harnessing Plants Initiative are using a sophisticated new research tool called SLEAP—an easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) software that tracks multiple features of root growth. Created by Salk Fellow Talmo Pereira, SLEAP was initially designed to track animal movement in the lab. Now, Pereira has teamed up with plant scientist and Salk colleague Professor Wolfgang Busch to apply SLEAP to plants. In a study published in Plant Phenomics, Busch and Pereira debut a new protocol for using SLEAP to analyze plant root phenotypes—how deep and wide they grow, how massive their root systems become, and other ... Read more ... |
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Australia's Great Barrier Reef struggles to survive - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens. For 33 years marine biologist Anne Hoggett has lived and worked on Lizard Island, a small slice of tropical paradise off Australia's northeast tip. She affectionately dubs it "Blizzard Island". The only relief from the wind and teeming showers is in the powder blue waters, where sea turtles and tiger sharks rove along the Great Barrier Reef. As Hoggett snorkels, schools of fish swim gracefully, feeding on the coral or darting between it. Some are as small as her little finger, ... Read more ... |
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Balancing AI and physics: Toward a learnable climate model - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Previous studies have demonstrated that Pangu-Weather can accurately replicate certain climate patterns like tropical Gill responses and extra-tropical teleconnections through qualitative analysis. However, quantitative investigations have revealed significant differences in wind components, such as divergent winds and ageostrophic winds, within current AI weather models. Despite these findings, there are still concerns that the importance of physics in climate science is sometimes overlooked. "The qualitative assessment finds AI models could understand and learn spatial patterns in weather and climate data. On the other hand, the quantitative approach highlights a limitation: ... Read more ... |
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Beyond higher temperatures: Preparing for national security risks posed by climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · But also at stake is the security of the United States and other nations. What if people become desperate for food? What if long-dormant microbes come to life due to thawing permafrost? What if water and electricity become scarce? These are the sorts of questions that researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are asking as they take part in a series of national forums. Scientists have raised these questions and more at recent gatherings of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Meteorological Society, and the U.S. military. This week, as the world celebrates Earth Day, more than a dozen PNNL scientists and others ... Read more ... |
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Biden targets fossil fuel power sector with tough new carbon rules - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · The United States on Thursday announced sweeping new rules requiring coal-fired plants to eliminate nearly all their carbon emissions or commit to shutting down altogether, a keystone of President Joe Biden's agenda to confront the climate crisis. Hailed by environmental groups as a "gamechanger," the regulations take effect from 2032 and will also mandate that new, high capacity gas-fired plants slash their carbon dioxide output by the same amount - 90 percent - a target that would require the use of carbon capture technology. It comes as Democratic incumbent Biden faces a tough election rematch against Republican Donald Trump in November, with climate action seen as ... Read more ... |
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Can climate change accelerate transmission of malaria? New research sheds light on impacts of temperature - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · In tropical and subtropical regions where malaria is prevalent, scientists are concerned that climate warming might increase the risk of malaria transmission in certain areas and contribute to further spread. However, there is still much to learn about the relationship between temperature and the mosquito and parasite traits that influence malaria transmission. In "Estimating the effects of temperature on transmission of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum," a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at the University of Florida, Pennsylvania State University and Imperial College, combined novel experimental data within an innovative ... Read more ... |
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Climate change could become the main driver of biodiversity decline by mid-century, analysis suggests - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Global biodiversity has declined between 2% and 11% during the 20th century due to land-use change alone, according to a large multi-model study published in Science. Projections show climate change could become the main driver of biodiversity decline by the mid-21st century. The analysis was led by the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and is the largest modeling study of its kind to date. The researchers compared thirteen models for assessing the impact of land-use change and climate change on four distinct biodiversity metrics, as well as on nine ecosystem services. Land-use change is ... Read more ... |
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Climate change expected to increase wildfire danger - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · There is likely to be a significant increase in the danger of wildfires through the 21st century. Indeed, the expectation is that by 2100 the danger will be high even in regions where it is very low today. Those are the findings of a study by Julia Miller, a Ph.D. student in the SLF's Hydrology & Climate Impacts in Mountain Regions research group, published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. Forecasts show that the potential danger will continue to increase, but from 2040 onwards it will exceed the natural range of climate fluctuations and so will be attributed to climate change from then on. Taking the example of the Bavarian Alpine Foreland, this means that the ... Read more ... |
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Climate change supercharged a heat dome, intensifying 2021 fire season, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A new study has revealed the extent to which human-caused climate change intensified the extraordinary event, with researchers theorizing the heat dome was 34% larger and lasted nearly 60% longer than it would have in the absence of global warming. The heat dome, in turn, was associated with up to a third of the area burned in North America that year, according to the study, published in Communications Earth & Environment. "What happens is you get a stagnated weather pattern—it's very hot and very dry," said study author Piyush Jain, research scientist with Natural Resources Canada. "And it dries out all the vegetation and makes whatever is on the ground extremely ... Read more ... |
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Climate change caused by CO2 emissions already in the atmosphere will shrink global GDP in 2050 by about $38 trillion, or almost a fifth, no matter how aggressively humanity cuts carbon pollution, researchers said Wednesday. But slashing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible remains crucial to avoid even more devastating economic impacts after mid-century, they reported in the journal Nature. Economic fallout from climate change, the study shows, could increase tens of trillions of dollars per year by 2100 if the planet were to warm significantly beyond two degrees Celsius above mid-19th century levels. Earth's average surface temperature has already ... Read more ... |
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Cosmic rays streamed through Earth's atmosphere 41,000 years ago: New findings on the Laschamps excursion - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Earth's magnetic field protects us from the dangerous radiation of space, but it is not as permanent as we might believe. Scientists at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly present new information about an 'excursion' 41,000 years ago where our planet's magnetic field waned, and harmful space rays bombarded the planet. Earth's magnetic field cocoons our planet from the onslaught of cosmic radiation streaming through space while also shielding us from charged particles hurled outward by the sun. But the geomagnetic field is not stationary. Not only does magnetic north wobble, straying from true north (a geographically defined location), but occasionally, it flips. ... Read more ... |
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Czechs 3D-print Eiffel Tower from ocean waste for Olympics - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · A Czech company is 3D-printing a giant Eiffel Tower model for a local Olympics event, using recycled ocean waste as the primary material. The 14-meter-high (46-foot) model will be installed at an Olympic festival in the north of the Czech Republic, where the public can try different Olympic sports during the Paris Games in July and August. Jan Hrebabecky, the owner of the 3DDen printing farm, uses printing filament made from ocean waste. "The material for the Eiffel Tower comes from the shores of Thailand," he told AFP. "It has excellent mechanic and chemical qualities, great UV resistance, and it is practically immortal." Collected by Thai fishermen, ... Read more ... |
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Deer are expanding north, and that's not good for caribou: Scientists evaluate the reasons why - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Over the past century, white-tailed deer have greatly expanded their range in North America, explains Melanie Dickie, a doctoral student with UBC Okanagan's Wildlife Restoration Ecology Lab. In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther north. Climate change can create milder winters, while habitat alteration from forestry and energy exploration creates new food sources for deer. As they conclude their study, researchers caution that what is good for the deer isn't necessarily suitable for other species, such as the threatened woodland ... Read more ... |
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Did climate chaos cultivate or constrain 2023's greenery? - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · In a recent publication in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, a research team led by Academician Piao Shilong from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University delved into the topic. The paper, titled "Vegetation Greenness in 2023," offers a detailed analysis of the interplay between vegetation greening and climate change. The greening of vegetation is one of the most significant features of changes in the Earth's biosphere during the modern period of climate warming. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, warming climate, and land use changes are the main drivers affecting global vegetation greening. Under the long-term warming ... Read more ... |
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Diversity and productivity go branch-in-branch: Scientists share which forests can adapt to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Now, a study by an international group, including Kyoto University, found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. The work is published in the journal Science Advances. The study, conducted by researchers from Lakehead University, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, unveiled how tree functional trait diversity—a key aspect of biodiversity—plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate warming. "In the face of environmental stress, these diverse trees have been shown to maintain higher productivity levels, in contrast to monoculture ... Read more ... |
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Earth Day 2024: Four effective strategies to reduce household food waste - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · 1.3 billion tons of food is enough to feed more than 3 billion people. Food waste contributes to nearly 8% to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That level of emissions is on the scale of what a large country would produce—just under total emission estimates of the United States and China—posing serious contributions to climate change. The greatest contributors to food waste are high-income countries, where the average consumer wastes between 95–115 kilograms of food per year. In Canada, approximately 60% of food produced is lost or wasted per year, costing an estimated $49.5 billion. This figure constitutes about half the annual food purchase costs ... Read more ... |
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Ecosystems are deeply interconnected - environmental research, policy and management should be too - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · We have a lot to learn still, but as we show in our research, using current ecological knowledge more effectively could deliver substantial environmental gains. Our work focuses on improving links between research and ecosystem management to identify key trigger points for action in a framework that joins land, freshwater and sea ecosystems. Specifically, we investigate solutions to environmental and societal problems that stem from the disparities between scientific research, policy and management responses to environmental issues. We need managers and policy makers to consider ecological tipping points and how they can cascade though ecosystems from land into ... Read more ... |
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Emperor penguins perish as ice melts to new lows: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Colonies of emperor penguin chicks were wiped out last year as global warming eroded their icy homes, a study published Thursday found, despite the birds' attempts to adapt to the shrinking landscape. The study by the British Antarctic Survey found that record-low sea ice levels in 2023 contributed to the second-worst year for emperor penguin chick mortality since observations began in 2018. It follows a "catastrophic breeding failure" in 2022, signaling long-term implications for the population, the study's author Peter Fretwell told AFP. Emperor penguins breed on sea-ice platforms, with chicks hatching in the winter between late July and mid-August. The ... Read more ... |
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Estimating emissions potential of decommissioned gas wells from shale samples - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The findings, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, revealed that methane begins diffusing from the shale formation after a well is decommissioned and that this represents a notable source of methane emissions—comparable to the most significant emissions during drilling and operation of the well. "Natural gas is an important energy resource that has helped the U.S. lower its carbon dioxide emissions, but we also understand methane can be a potential hazard," said Shimin Liu, professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State and a co-author of the study. "What this work does is give us a proactive way to understand what's going on in the ... Read more ... |
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EU lawmakers agree to exit energy treaty over climate fears - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The European Parliament on Wednesday backed the EU's withdrawal from an international energy treaty over concerns it offers too much protection to fossil fuel companies. The Energy Charter Treaty was signed in 1994, after the end of the Cold War, to offer guarantees to investors in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said in July it was necessary to withdraw from the treaty in a coordinated manner since it is "no longer compatible" with the bloc's "enhanced climate ambition". During a parliament vote in Strasbourg, 560 lawmakers gave the green light for a withdrawal, while 43 voted against and 27 ... Read more ... |
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Europe suffered record number of 'extreme heat stress' days in 2023: Monitors - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Europe endured a record number of "extreme heat stress" days in 2023, two leading climate monitors said Monday, underscoring the threat of increasingly deadly summers across the continent. In a year of contrasting extremes, Europe witnessed scorching heat waves but also catastrophic flooding, withering droughts, violent storms and its largest wildfire. These disasters inflicted billions of dollars in damages and impacted more than two million people, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new joint report. The consequences for health were particularly acute, with heat singled out by these agencies ... Read more ... |
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Extreme heat scorches Southeast Asia, bringing school closures and warnings - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Extreme heat scorched parts of South and Southeast Asia Wednesday, prompting schools across the Philippines to suspend classes, heat warnings in the Thai capital and worshippers in Bangladesh to pray for rain. The high temperatures were recorded just a day after the United Nations said Asia was the region that suffered the most disasters from climate and weather hazards in 2023, with floods and storms the chief causes of casualties and economic losses. Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense. "It's so hot you can't breathe," said Erlin Tumaron, 60, who works at a Philippine ... Read more ... |
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Feedback loop that is melting ice shelves in West Antarctica revealed - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · The study, titled "Antarctic Slope Undercurrent and onshore heat transport driven by ice shelf melting" and published in Science Advances, sheds new light on the mechanisms driving the melting of ice shelves beneath the surface of the ocean, which have been unclear until now. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been losing mass in recent decades, contributing to global sea level rise. If it were to melt entirely, global sea levels would rise by around five meters. It's known that Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), a water mass that is up to 4°C above local freezing temperatures, is flowing beneath the ice shelves in West Antarctica and melting them from below. Since so much ... Read more ... |
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From the coast to the deep sea, changing oxygen levels affect marine life in different ways - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Marine species respond to ocean deoxygenation (the decrease of oxygen levels in seawater) differently depending on where they live. With seas under threat from climate change and pollution, both of which contribute to deoxygenation, some marine species are at greater risk than others. As a marine ecologist, I research how changes in oxygen availability affect marine animals' resistance to climate change. My studies show that coastal marine species exposed to the daily variability of oxygen are more resistant to spikes in deoxygenation than creatures living in the deep that are adapted to consistent oxygen levels. By the coast For coastal creatures like cuttlefish, ... Read more ... |
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Future hurricanes could compromise New England forests' ability to store and sequester carbon - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Nature-based climate solutions can help mitigate climate change, especially in forested regions capable of storing and sequestering vast amounts of carbon. New research published in Global Change Biology indicates that a single hurricane in New England, one of the most heavily forested regions in the United States, can down 4.6–9.4% of the total above-ground forest carbon, an amount much greater than the carbon sequestered annually by New England's forests. The work revealed that emissions from hurricanes are not instantaneous - it takes approximately 19 years for downed carbon to become a net emission, and 100 years for 90% of the downed carbon to be emitted. Models ... Read more ... |
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Ghost particle on the scales: Research offers more precise determination of neutrino mass - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · What is the mass of a neutrino at rest? This is one of the big unanswered questions in physics. Neutrinos play a central role in nature. A team led by Klaus Blaum, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, has now made an important contribution in "weighing" neutrinos as part of the international ECHo collaboration. Their findings are published in Nature Physics. Using a Penning trap, it has measured the change in mass of a holmium-163 isotope with extreme precision when its nucleus captures an electron and turns into dysprosium-163. From this, it was able to determine the Q value 50 times more accurately than before. Using a more precise Q-value, ... Read more ... |
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Heatstroke kills 30 in Thailand this year as kingdom bakes - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Thailand issued fresh warnings about scorching hot weather on Thursday as the government said heatstroke has already killed at least 30 people this year. City authorities in Bangkok gave an extreme heat warning as the heat index was expected to rise above 52 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit). Temperatures in the concrete sprawl of the Thai capital hit 40.1 C on Wednesday and similar levels were forecast for Thursday. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted parts of South and Southeast Asia this week, prompting schools across the Philippines to suspend classes and worshippers in Bangladesh to pray for rain. The heat index - a measure of what the ... Read more ... |
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High air pollution in Denmark may impact children's academic performance - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Pollution from traffic, farming and wood stoves may have a negative effect on children's cognitive development, according to a new study published in Environment International on Danish students' performance in the lower secondary school leaving examination. You probably don't think about it, but in most parts of the country the air we breathe is anything but clean. In most parts of Denmark air pollution is double the recommended WHO level, with the highest levels found in heavily trafficked cities and southern Denmark, which is affected by polluted air blowing in from the south. And polluted air can affect our health, previous research has shown. In fact, air ... Read more ... |
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Highest-level rainstorm warning issued in south China's Guangdong - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · More than 100,000 people have been evacuated due to heavy rain and fatal floods in southern China, with the government issuing its highest-level rainstorm warning for the affected area on Tuesday. Torrential rains have lashed Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that state media said could be of the sort only "seen around once a century". On Tuesday, the megacity of Shenzhen was among the areas listed as experiencing "heavy to very heavy downpours", the city's meteorological observatory said, adding the risk of flash floods was "very high". Images from Qingyuan - a city in northern Guangdong that is part of the low-lying ... Read more ... |
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How creating less-gassy cows could help fight climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The food system, including grazing animals such as cows, generates major sources of methane mainly due to cattle digestion, manure decomposition and land use for grazing. To look for solutions, researchers from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute analyzed 27 academic publications and identified dozens of potential strategies to reduce methane emissions from Australia's beef and dairy sectors. "Meta-Analysis and Ranking of the Most Effective Methane Reduction Strategies for Australia's Beef and Dairy Sector" was published in Climate. Study lead Merideth Kelliher said the fastest way to lower methane emissions would be to convert farmland into wetlands ... Read more ... |
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How light can vaporize water without the need for heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · And yet, it turns out, we've been missing a major part of the picture all along. In a series of painstakingly precise experiments, a team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated that heat isn't alone in causing water to evaporate. Light, striking the water's surface where air and water meet, can break water molecules away and float them into the air, causing evaporation in the absence of any source of heat. The astonishing new discovery could have a wide range of significant implications. It could help explain mysterious measurements over the years of how sunlight affects clouds, and therefore affect calculations of the effects of climate change on cloud cover and ... Read more ... |
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How marketing classes can rescue 'ugly produce' from becoming food waste - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Indeed, some estimates suggest that approximately 40 percent of fruits and vegetables never even leave farms. Much of it gets rejected by wholesalers and retailers based on irregularities in weight, size or shape. This desire for cosmetically appealing food also extends to consumers, as we often prefer picture-perfect produce. Unsurprisingly, this wanton waste takes a significant environmental toll, with an estimated eight to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions tied to unconsumed food. Showing ugly produce some love Some companies have taken strides to counter food waste. A prominent example in the United States is Misfits Market, which launched in ... Read more ... |
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How spicy does mustard get depending on the soil? - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Can microbes in the soil also contribute to taste? In a recent study published in New Phytologist, former Ph.D. student Corrine Walsh at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder and CIRES Fellow Noah Fierer have run one of the first experiments to determine whether soil microorganisms like bacteria and fungi influence the flavor of a crop. Their target: the spiciness of mustard seeds. "I thought that was an interesting question," Walsh said. "We know microbes and plants communicate via chemicals—could those chemicals impact plant flavor?" Previous research has confirmed that soil properties ... Read more ... |
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In Ecuadoran Amazon, butterflies provide a gauge of climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Biologists on a trail in the Ecuadoran Amazon hold their breath as they distribute a foul-smelling delicacy to lure butterflies, critical pollinators increasingly threatened by climate change. A team has hung 32 traps made of green nets, each baited with rotting fish and fermented bananas. They are meant to blend in with the forest canopy. Their pungent odor clearly does not. Since last August, a team of biologists and park rangers has been monitoring butterfly numbers in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a park famed for its abundant flora and fauna. They catch and document the colorful insects, releasing most with an identifying mark on their wings. Some of them, ... Read more ... |
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In south China, silkworm farmers reel from deadly floods - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Hose in hand, 40-year-old Zhu Huangyi cleans a small concrete room once home to his silkworms, two thirds of which were lost in deadly floods hitting southern China this week. Just two hours from the economic powerhouse and megacity of Guangzhou, surrounded by lush subtropical vegetation, lies the village of Sancun, one of the worst hit by the recent bad weather. Around a quarter of households in the village make their living from raising silkworms, insects that secrete precious fibers essential to the textile industry. Although the water levels had dropped by the time AFP arrived, it reached two meters in some areas - with devastating consequences for residents ... Read more ... |
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Indian nuclear facilities found to have radioactive influence on Southern Tibetan Plateau - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · A study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters has shed light on the long-range transboundary transport of radioactive iodine-129 (129I) from the Indian nuclear fuel reprocessing plants (NFRPs) to the Southern Tibetan Plateau (STP). This study, conducted by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), provides a new understanding of the transport of airborne radioactive pollutants from low to high altitudes, and may have implications for environmental protection on the Tibetan Plateau. The Tibetan Plateau, known as the "Third Pole of the Earth" and the "Roof of the World," is a remote, isolated, and ... Read more ... |
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Investigating the porosity of sedimentary rock with neutrons - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · At the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the networks of micropores were characterized using small and very small angle neutron scattering. Dense, dark, compact—at first glance, the sedimentary rock samples that Dr. Amirsaman Rezaeyan has on his lab desk are only slightly different. Pores are not visible to the naked eye. Nevertheless, it is precisely the pores that give the mudrocks their special properties: The pores, ranging from a few micrometers to sub-nanometers in size, are formed during sedimentation and compacted over time, determining the permeability. These pores are the decisive factor for ... Read more ... |
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It never rains but it pours: Intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · But that's changing. Now we get flash floods much further inland, such as Broken Hill in 2012 and 2022 and Cobar, Bourke and Nyngan in 2022. Flash floods are those beginning between one and six hours after rainfall, while riverine floods take longer to build. Why? Global warming is amplifying the climate drivers affecting where flash floods occur and how often. All around the world, we're seeing intense dumps of rain in a short period, triggering flooding—just as we saw in Dubai this week. This means these systems, which usually bring most of the east coast's rain during cooler months, are now dumping more rain out at sea. Instead, we're seeing warm, moist air ... Read more ... |
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Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3 - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Japan's first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night, Japan's space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after it landed on the moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a signal from the earth Tuesday night, confirming it has survived another weekslong lunar night. Temperatures can fall to minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit) during a lunar night, and rise to around 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) during a lunar day. The probe, Smart Lander for Investing Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar surface on Jan. 20, making Japan the fifth country to successfully place ... Read more ... |
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Lakes worldwide are facing a slew of health issues that may become chronic - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · In a new study, published in Earth's Future, researchers suggest using human health terminology and approaches to assess and treat the world's lake system issues. For example, lakes with multiple health problems could be characterized as having "multimorbidity," and regular screenings similar to human checkups could help detect issues in lakes early. These anthropomorphic analogies, the researchers report, may help people better connect with and protect nature. Some high-income countries have methods to assess lake health, but the team introduced a global classification system modeled after the World Health Organization's human health classification system. They used ... Read more ... |
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Laser-treated cork absorbs oil for carbon-neutral ocean cleanup - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Oil spills are deadly disasters for ocean ecosystems. They can have lasting impacts on fish and marine mammals for decades and wreak havoc on coastal forests, coral reefs, and the surrounding land. Chemical dispersants are often used to break down oil, but they often increase toxicity in the process. In Applied Physics Letters, researchers from Central South University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev used laser treatments to transform ordinary cork into a powerful tool for treating oil spills. They wanted to create a nontoxic, effective oil cleanup solution using materials with a low carbon footprint, but their ... Read more ... |
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Long-term research shows herring arrive earlier in the Wadden Sea due to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 26) |
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Apr 26 · Due to the changing climate, young herring arrive in the Wadden Sea earlier and earlier in spring. That is shown in a new publication by NIOZ ecologists Mark Rademaker, Myron Peck, and Anieke van Leeuwen in Global Change Biology. "The fact that we were able to demonstrate this was only due to very consistently - for more than 60 years - and continuously sampling the fish every spring and every fall with exactly the same fyke [net] every time," Rademaker says. "Recognizing this kind of change requires extreme precision and endurance." Since 1960, NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, has been measuring the number and species of fish that swim in the ... Read more ... |
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Look to deadly Venus to find life in the universe, new paper argues - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · "We often assume that Earth is the model of habitability, but if you consider this planet in isolation, we don't know where the boundaries and limitations are," said UC Riverside astrophysicist and paper first author Stephen Kane. "Venus gives us that." Though it also features a pressure cooker-like atmosphere that would instantly flatten a human, Earth, and Venus share some similarities. They have roughly the same mass and radius. Given the proximity to that planet, it's natural to wonder why Earth turned out so differently. Many scientists assume that insolation flux, the amount of energy Venus receives from the sun, caused a runaway greenhouse situation that ruined ... Read more ... |
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Malians struggle to cope after deadly heat wave - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · In Mali's capital Bamako, Aboubacar Pamateck runs a scarf under a trickle of water and wraps it around his head to cope with the West African nation's soaring heat. Africa's Sahel region experienced a deadly heat wave in early April, exceptional both in terms of duration and intensity. "I drink a lot of water and wear my turban, which I often get wet," Pamateck said. "I even avoid wearing nylon boubous. I prefer to wear small cotton boubous to avoid the heat." From April 1 to April 5, temperatures in Mali exceeded 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and peaked at a record 48.5C in the western city of Kayes. A few days later, the thermometer fell back ... Read more ... |
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Mangrove blue carbon at higher risk of microplastic pollution - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Microplastic pollution (particles <5 mm diameter) is one such issue affecting mangroves in particular. These tiny fragments can be of primary origin, such as microbeads used in personal care products like face washes and even toothpaste, or secondary from the decomposition of larger plastic pieces, such as water bottles and plastic bags. Previous research has estimated that up to 12.7 million tons of plastic pollution entered the oceans in 2010, which is expected to have doubled by 2025 without appropriate intervention, and is carried globally via wind and currents. Associate Professor Peng Zhang, of Guangdong Ocean University, China, and colleagues investigated the ... Read more ... |
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Merging nuclear physics experiments and astronomical observations to advance equation-of-state research - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · "In nuclear physics, we are often confined to studying small systems, but we know exactly what particles are in our nuclear systems. Stars provide us an unbelievable opportunity, because they are large systems where nuclear physics plays a vital role, but we do not know for sure what particles are in their interiors," said Lynch, professor of nuclear physics at FRIB and in the Michigan State University (MSU) Department of Physics and Astronomy. "They are interesting because the density varies greatly within such large systems. Nuclear forces play a dominant role within them, yet we know comparatively little about that role." When a star with a mass that is 20–30 ... Read more ... |
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Modeling broader effects of wildfires in Siberia - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The global effects of increasing wildfires in Siberia have been modeled by researchers at Hokkaido University and colleagues at the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University. The results, published in the journal Earth's Future, suggest significant and widespread effects on air quality, climate, health, and economics under the most extreme wildfire scenarios. The authors performed global numerical simulation experiments to evaluate how the increased intensity of wildfires in Siberia would affect air quality, premature mortality, and economy through increased atmospheric aerosols (air pollution particles) under the present climate and near-future global warming ... Read more ... |
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NASA's CloudSat ends mission peering into the heart of clouds - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · CloudSat, a NASA mission that peered into hurricanes, tallied global snowfall rates, and achieved other weather and climate firsts, has ended its operations. Originally proposed as a 22-month mission, the spacecraft was recently decommissioned after almost 18 years observing the vertical structure and ice/water content of clouds. As planned, the spacecraft - having reached the end of its lifespan and no longer able to make regular observations - was lowered into an orbit last month that will result in its eventual disintegration in the atmosphere. When launched in 2006, the mission's Cloud Profiling Radar was the first-ever 94 GHz wavelength (W-band) radar to fly in ... Read more ... |
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NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · For the first time since November, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars). Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed ... Read more ... |
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New dataset sheds light on relationship of far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence to canopy-level photosynthesis - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · One promising method for assessing photosynthetic activity is through the measurement of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, a byproduct of photosynthesis that can be detected from ground-based sensors as well as from satellites in space. A study led by Genghong Wu, a Ph.D. student advised by Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC) director Kaiyu Guan, and colleagues has utilized ground-based instruments to measure far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and various vegetation indices (VIs) that reflect plant health and activity. It compiled 15 site-years of SIF and VIs data from various crops (corn, soybean, and miscanthus) over a span of six years (2016-2021) ... Read more ... |
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New research predicts peak groundwater extraction for key basins around the globe - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Scientists at Pacific Northwest and Oak Ridge national laboratories examined water, energy and food systems for 235 basins under 900 scenarios to analyze patterns in nonrenewable groundwater usage over the 21st century, as detailed in an article published in Nature Sustainability. "The world's not running out of water, but how and where we source it looks likely to shift in the coming decades as major groundwater sources become unviable," said Sean Turner, a water resources analyst at ORNL. Regions with the greatest current rates of depletion, including some in the United States, are more likely to face higher groundwater and food production costs by mid-century. The ... Read more ... |
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Philippine settlement submerged by dam reappears due to drought - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 26) |
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Apr 26 · A centuries-old settlement submerged by the construction of a dam in the northern Philippines in the 1970s has reappeared as water levels drop due to a drought affecting swathes of the country. The ruins in the middle of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija province are a tourist draw, even as the region swelters in extreme heat. Parts of a church, municipal hall marker and tombstones began to resurface in March after several months of "almost no rain", said Marlon Paladin, a supervising engineer for the National Irrigation Administration. It is the sixth time the nearly 300-year-old settlement has resurfaced since the reservoir was created to provide irrigation water ... Read more ... |
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Planet sees 10 straight months of record-breaking heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · Californians have had weekend after weekend of cool, stormy weather and the Sierra Nevada has been blessed with a healthy snowpack. But the reality is that even the last few months have been more than 2 degrees hotter than average. The planet is experiencing a horrifying streak of record-breaking heat, with March marking the 10th month in a row that the average global temperature has been the highest ever recorded. It would be shocking if it wasn't so predictable. Despite everything we know about the effects of burning fossil fuels, humanity is still going in the wrong direction with self-destructive abandon. Last year greenhouse gas pollution climbed to a new high, a ... Read more ... |
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Planting trees in grasslands won't save the planet - instead, protect and restore forests - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · They include agroforestry initiatives such as the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, or commercial timber plantations that double as carbon offset projects. These target millions of hectares in countries like Mozambique, Madagascar and Rwanda. I am part of a team of ecologists and social scientists who are working to highlight the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026. Our goal is to protect and promote rangelands that combat desertification and support economic growth, resilient livelihoods and the sustainable development of pastoralism. In pursuit of this goal, we reviewed all the scientific studies we could find on the effects of planting trees in ... Read more ... |
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Q&A: B.C.'s 2024 wildfire season has started - here's what to know - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · Dr. Daniels is the Koerner Chair in the Center for Wildfire Coexistence at UBC, focusing on proactive management to increase ecosystem and community resilience to climate change and wildfires. Dr. Bourbonnais is a former wildland firefighter and now assistant professor at UBC Okanagan who employs advanced technologies to study wildfire risk and behavior. Drs. Daniels and Bourbonnais answer questions on the outlook for wildfire season, and how communities can prepare for a challenging year. What should we expect in terms of wildfire magnitude and severity this year? LD: Predicting the fire season is challenging, but we are hoping for spring rains after the dry ... Read more ... |
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Record electron temperatures for a small-scale, sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion device achieved - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Due to the electrons' ability to rapidly cool a plasma, this feat is a key hurdle for fusion systems and FuZE is the simplest, smallest and lowest cost device to have achieved it. Zap's technology offers the potential for a much shorter and more practical path to a commercial product capable of producing abundant, on-demand, carbon-free energy to the globe. "These are meticulous, unequivocal measurements, yet made on a device of incredibly modest scale by traditional fusion standards," describes Ben Levitt, VP of R&D at Zap. "We've still got a lot of work ahead of us, but our performance to date has advanced to a point that we can now stand shoulder to shoulder with some of ... Read more ... |
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Research showcases Indigenous stewardship's role in forest ecosystem resilience - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Western scientists and land managers have become increasingly cognizant of cultural burning, but its extent and purpose are generally absent from fire modeling research, said Skye Greenler, who led the partnership when she was a graduate research fellow in the OSU College of Forestry. "We developed this project in collaboration with the Karuk Tribe to explore the impact of cultural burning at a landscape scale in a completely new way," she said. "The information that went into this model is not new at all—it's been held by Karuk Tribal members for millennia—but we developed new methods to bring the knowledge together and display it in a way that showcases the ... Read more ... |
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Researchers develop forest extent map for Mexico - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · One of the challenges facing researchers when it comes to evaluating the accuracy of forest extent, however, is that models use different remote sensing products that may have different definitions for what determines forest extent. In addition, on the ground surveys may sometimes come into conflict with what remote, satellite-based products are describing as forests. To help quantify this problem, a group of researchers from the University of Delaware teamed up with an international group of collaborators. Together, they looked at forest extent estimates from seven regional and global land or tree cover remote sensing products across Mexico, using two independent forest ... Read more ... |
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Researchers find oldest undisputed evidence of Earth's magnetic field - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · A new study, led by the University of Oxford and MIT, has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today. The findings have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible since this shields us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by the sun (the 'solar wind'). But up to now, there has been no reliable date for when the modern magnetic field was first established. In the study, the researchers examined an ancient sequence of iron-containing rocks from Isua, Greenland. Iron ... Read more ... |
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Researchers reveal sources of black carbon in southeastern Qinghai-Tibet plateau - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is China's most developed cryosphere region, where glaciers are shrinking rapidly due to light-absorbing impurities such as BC. Both modeling and geochemical evidence indicate that BC emitted from this region can be transported across the Himalayas and reach the interior of the QTP, contributing over 60% of its BC. This mainly affects the southern and central regions of the QTP. However, there is a lack of sufficient online monitoring of BC in the glacier area of the QTP, which requires stronger integration with model simulations. Prof. Kang Shichang's research team from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the ... Read more ... |
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Researchers uncover kinky metal alloy that won't crack at extreme temperatures at the atomic level - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · In this context, strength is defined as how much force a material can withstand before it is permanently deformed from its original shape, and toughness is its resistance to fracturing (cracking). The alloy's resilience to bending and fracture across an enormous range of conditions could open the door for a novel class of materials for next-generation engines that can operate at higher efficiencies. The team, led by Robert Ritchie at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, in collaboration with the groups led by professors Diran Apelian at UC Irvine and Enrique Lavernia at Texas A&M University, discovered the alloy's surprising properties and then ... Read more ... |
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Scientists combine a spatially distributed sediment delivery model and biogeochemical model to estimate fluxes by water - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · However, due to an insufficient transfer of knowledge regarding soil erosion and carbon dynamics from smaller to larger scales, existing models at a large temporal and spatial scale present conflicting views on whether the net impact of erosion on carbon cycling acts as a carbon source or sink. In a study published in Science China Earth Sciences, researchers led by Prof. Li Zhongwu from the School of Geographic Science, Hunan Normal University, together with collaborators, have introduced an approach that combined a spatially distributed sediment delivery model and biogeochemical model to simulate erosion-induced soil organic carbon dynamic, confirming water erosion acts as a ... Read more ... |
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Scientists demonstrate high-resolution lidar sees birth zone of cloud droplets, a first-ever remote observation - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · "We are interested in this 'droplet activation zone,' where most cloud droplets are initially formed at the cloud base, because the number of droplets formed there will affect the later stages and properties of the cloud—including how much sunlight a cloud reflects and the likelihood of precipitation," said Brookhaven atmospheric scientist Fan Yang, the first author on the paper. "If there are more aerosols in the atmosphere, clouds tend to have more droplets, but the droplets will each be smaller, which means they can reflect more sunlight," Yang said. "This might help to cool our warming Earth," he noted. But to accurately predict the impacts of these ... Read more ... |
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Scientists discover method to prevent coalescence in immiscible liquids - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how experiments they conducted led to the discovery of a way to get some fluids such as water and oil, to remain as an emulsion for long periods of time without the use of surfactants. It is widely known that when two immiscible liquids, such as water and oil are mixed, they do not remain so for very long—they slowly separate into two layers. This is because they never really mix to begin with; instead, they coexist as droplets that coalesce when they come into contact with one another. Because of this, chemists have developed various surfactants that force such liquids to remain "mixed" for some ... Read more ... |
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Scientists map soil RNA to fungal genomes to understand forest ecosystems - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · This way, the fungi of forest soils hold keys to tree health and carbon storage—skills that matter increasingly as the climate warms. However, these are complicated interactions to untangle. Fungi work in cooperation to support a forest, and species vary across Earth's ecosystems. Recently, in work published in New Phytologist, researchers have pioneered new understanding of which fungi take on certain functions at the forest floor. For the first time, they compared three different fungal guilds in a range of different locations. They sampled soils in four forest ecosystems, extracted RNA to understand gene expression, and developed new tools to map that soil RNA to ... Read more ... |
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Scientists say voluntary corporate emissions targets not enough to create real climate action - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Relying on emissions can favor more established companies and hinder innovation, say the authors, who suggest updating regulations to improve corporate climate action. The paper, published today in Science, is by an international team led by Utrecht University, which includes Imperial College London researchers. Lead author of the study Dr. Yann Robiou Du Pont, from the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, said, "Assessing the climate ambition of companies based only on their emissions reductions may not be meaningful for emerging companies working on green innovation." Companies can set individual climate goals, typically ... Read more ... |
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Scotland is ditching its flagship 2030 climate goal - why legally binding targets really matter - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Scotland is still subject to the 2030 carbon target for the UK as a whole. This was set in law by the UK parliament in 2016. Still, Scotland's move raises questions about the credibility of national (or in this case subnational) carbon targets and the usefulness of putting them into law. Having credible carbon targets, and sticking to them, matters enormously. Globally, 88% of all greenhouse gas emissions are now subject to a net zero emissions target. If these were implemented to the letter, global mean temperatures would remain below 2°C, the upper target of the 2015 Paris agreement. They won't be, of course. If we judge climate commitments based on the carbon ... Read more ... |
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Shoreline model predicts long-term future of storm protection and sea-level rise - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · "Coastal management strategies intended to protect people, property and infrastructure from storm impacts can, over decades, increase vulnerability, even leading to the loss of barrier islands, especially as sea-level rise rates increase," said A. Brad Murray, professor of geomorphology and coastal processes at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. He and other researchers in North Carolina created a computer model that simulates dynamics of barrier island systems over the next two centuries, showing how natural processes that create and maintain these systems affect communities and infrastructure, and how human efforts to protect communities and ... Read more ... |
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Solar geoengineering to cool the planet: Is it worth the risks? - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Most of the current attention is focused on solar geoengineering, a strategy that involves reflecting sunlight away from Earth to cool the Earth. How much do we know about it and its risks? And where should we take it from here? Why the growing support for solar geoengineering research? For many years, all geoengineering research was discouraged by many scientists and experts for fear it would provide an excuse not to cut emissions. Some right-wing politicians such as Newt Gingrich promoted it as a way to reduce global warming without having to cut emissions. Geoengineering research is also controversial because there were and still are many uncertainties about its ... Read more ... |
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Spintronics research shows material's magnetic properties can predict how a spin current changes with temperature - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Spintronics exploits the intrinsic spin of electrons, and fundamental to the field is controlling the flows of the spin degree of freedom, i.e., spin currents. Scientists are focused on ways to create, remove, and control them for future applications. Detecting spin currents is no easy feat. It requires the use of macroscopic voltage measurement, which looks at the overall voltage changes across a material. However, a common stumbling block has been a lack of understanding as to how this spin current actually moves or propagates within the material itself. A team of researchers now report a method to predict how spin current changes with temperature. The study is ... Read more ... |
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Spring snow, sparkling in the sun, can reveal more than just good skiing conditions - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · A lot, according to Mathieu Nguyen. He has just defended his doctoral thesis on the optical properties of snow at NTNU in Gjøvik. "Snow reflects all wavelengths of light and can have very different colors depending on the conditions and the angle at which light hits it. The age and density of the snow and air pollution also affect what it looks like. Snow's appearance is a very complicated matter," Nguyen says. He has analyzed over a thousand images of snow. The findings are published in the journal Geosciences. "This type of method can be used in a number of sensor technologies that include everything from giving us a better decision-making basis for when ... Read more ... |
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Squids' birthday influences mating: Male spear squids shown to become 'sneakers' or 'consorts' depending on birth date - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Understanding how mating tactics are influenced by birth date, and the environmental conditions at that time, can help researchers consider how squid might be affected by climate change and the implications for marine resource management. What does your date of birth say about you? Maybe you feel it reveals something about your personality, or perhaps even your destiny. For male spear squid, it can tell us a lot about their love life. A team of researchers in Japan have found that the mating tactics of spear squid are heavily influenced by the day they were born. These squid can be classified into two types according to their mating techniques: consorts, which fight off ... Read more ... |
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State's new law involving Puget Sound Energy aspires to set a course for the future - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Over the past couple of years, Washington lawmakers have wrestled with a daunting task. The problem: The state's largest utility, Puget Sound Energy, sells natural gas to nearly 1 million customers and burns gas and coal to electrify cities. That contributes millions of metric tons of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere. It makes PSE one of the largest producers of greenhouse gas pollution in the state, ranked among fuel suppliers like Marathon, BP and Philips 66. And it represents a huge threat to the state's ambitious climate goals. Lawmakers' original proposed fix would have been unprecedented in the country and required PSE to stop offering new commercial ... Read more ... |
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Study says it's likely a warmer world made deadly Dubai downpours heavier - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Between 10% and 40% more rain fell in just one day last week—killing at least two dozen people in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and parts of Saudi Arabia—than it would have in a world without the 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warming that has come from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas since the mid-19th century, scientists at World Weather Attribution said Thursday in a flash study that is too new to be peer-reviewed. In at least one spot, a record 11 inches (28.6 centimeters) of rain fell in just 24 hours, more than twice the yearly average, paralyzing the usually bustling city of skyscrapers in a desert. One of the key tools in WWA's ... Read more ... |
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Study shows it's not too late to save the West Antarctic Ice Sheet - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · More than 5 meters of potential global sea-level rise is locked within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, so understanding whether the regions of the ice sheet that appear "stable" today might melt in the future is critical for forecasting how much and how fast our seas will rise around the world. One such region that is currently stable is West Antarctica's Siple Coast, where rivers of ice flow over the continent and drain into the Ross Sea. This ice flow is slowed down by the Ross Ice Shelf, a floating mass of ice nearly the size of Spain, which serves as a buttress to the ice sheet glaciers. Compared to other ice shelves in West Antarctica, the Ross Ice Shelf has very little ... Read more ... |
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Study shows the longer spilled oil lingers in freshwater, the more persistent compounds it produces - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · And, according to research published in Energy & Fuels, the longer that oil remains in freshwater, the more chemical changes it undergoes, creating products that can persist in the environment. Approximately 600,000 gallons of oil were accidentally spilled into the environment in 2023, according to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, a group that monitors oil spills. This figure represents ocean spills as well as freshwater spills in rivers and lakes. Over time, this oil weathers and undergoes a variety of chemical transformations, which could make compounds that are more soluble in water and stick around longer. Weathering in salt water is reasonably ... Read more ... |
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Synthesis of two new carbides provides perspective on how complex carbon structures could exist on other planets - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Carbides are compounds of carbon and another chemical element. The newly synthesized carbides resemble metal-organic-like compounds and can offer new insight into the behavior of complex carbon structures under extremely high pressures and high temperatures. The possible existence or formation of such compounds at conditions of planets' interiors may have important implications for geosciences and astrobiology, as they could be the origin of hydrocarbons and could play a role in the origin of life. Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky from the Bavarian Geoinstitute and Prof. Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia from the Laboratory of Crystallography at the ... Read more ... |
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Talks on global plastic treaty begin in Canada - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Negotiators from 175 nations began talks Tuesday on a proposed global treaty to reduce plastic pollution, which is found everywhere from mountain tops to ocean depths, and in human blood and breast milk. "The world is counting on us to deliver a new treaty that will catalyze and guide the actions and international cooperation needed to deliver a future free of plastic pollution," said Luis Valdivieso, chair of the negotiations at the UN-led talks in Ottawa, Canada. "Let's not fail," Valdivieso added as he opened the session that will run to April 29. Nations agreed in 2022 to finalize a world-first treaty by the end of 2024, with concrete measures to battle plastic ... Read more ... |
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Targeted culling of starfish found to help Great Barrier Reef maintain or increase cover - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · In their paper published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the group describes how they conducted culling operations on several parts of the Great Barrier Reef and then studied the results to learn about how such activity can benefit coral reefs in general. Another factor in their reduction is the growing population of starfish, such as the crown-of-thorns. Just one of them, a meter in diameter, can eat 10 square meters of coral every year. In this new effort, the research team focused on helping coral survive in the Great Barrier Reef by reducing the number of starfish in the area. To reduce the number of starfish, the research team engaged in a culling effort, which ... Read more ... |
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The big quantum chill: Scientists modify common lab refrigerator to cool faster with less energy - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The scientists say that their prototype device, which they are now working to commercialize with an industrial partner, could annually save an estimated 27 million watts of power, $30 million in global electricity consumption, and enough cooling water to fill 5,000 Olympic swimming pools. From stabilizing qubits (the basic unit of information in a quantum computer) to maintaining the superconducting properties of materials and keeping NASA's James Webb Space Telescope cool enough to observe the heavens, ultracold refrigeration is essential to the operation of many devices and sensors. For decades, the pulse tube refrigerator (PTR) has been the workhorse device for achieving ... Read more ... |
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The Indian villagers who lost their homes to the sea - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 26) |
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Apr 26 · The gentle roar of the ocean lulled Indian mother-of-two Banita Behra to sleep each night, until one day the encroaching tide reached her doorstep. Behra is among hundreds of people from the disappearing and largely abandoned coastal village of Satabhaya, whose displaced former residents have been officially recognized by the government as climate migrants. She grew up watching helplessly with her neighbors as rising seas, driven by climate change and upriver dams, slowly claimed the land around them. "We were doing well there. We used to catch fish," the 34-year-old told AFP. "But the sea came nearer and took away our homes." Satabhaya is the hardest-hit of ... Read more ... |
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The Italian central Apennines are a source of CO₂, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · In the central Italian Apennine Mountains, researchers led by Erica Erlanger and Niels Hovius from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Aaron Bufe from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München have now investigated and balanced all of these processes in one region for the first time—using, among others, analyses of the CO2 content in mountain rivers and springs. They found that weathering in this region leads to an overall CO2 uptake. However, these near-surface processes only determine the CO2 balance in areas with a thick and cold crust. On the western side of the Central Apennines, the crust is thinner and the heat flow is higher. There, CO2 ... Read more ... |
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The rise of microbial cheaters in iron-limited environments: Study reveals their evolutionary history - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Among microbial communities, chemicals that are secreted into the environment provide opportunities for both cooperation and exploitation, giving rise in some cases to microbial "cheaters." These cheaters exploit the cooperative behaviors of their counterparts, benefitting from the secreted compounds without paying the metabolic costs of production. In a new article published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Vanderbilt University reveal the evolutionary history of secreted iron uptake molecules in yeasts, shedding new light on the cooperative and competitive dynamics that shape iron-limited microbial ... Read more ... |
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The UK's Climate Change Act, once the envy of the world, faces a stress test - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Does that mean that targets for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gas driving climate change are worthless? Not necessarily. There are two types of climate target: the empty promise and the calculated ambition. Only one of these works. Empty promises abound in climate policy. Such targets deflect criticism—look, they say, we take climate change seriously, we have a strong target. But a closer look reveals, at best, loopholes and at worst, no plan at all. For example, despite numerous oil and gas companies pledging to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, an extensive analysis revealed that emissions from the sector aren't falling and most companies with targets ... Read more ... |
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This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Fossils found near a coal mine revealed a snake that stretched an estimated 36 feet (11 meters) to 50 feet (15 meters). It's comparable to the largest known snake at about 42 feet (13 meters) that once lived in what is now Colombia. The largest living snake today is Asia's reticulated python at 33 feet (10 meters). The newly discovered behemoth lived 47 million years ago in western India's swampy evergreen forests. It could have weighed up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms), researchers said in the journal Scientific Reports. They gave it the name Vasuki indicus after "the mythical snake king Vasuki, who wraps around the neck of the Hindu deity Shiva," said Debajit ... Read more ... |
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Thousands in heatwave-hit Bangladesh pray for rain - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Thousands of Bangladeshis gathered to pray for rain on Wednesday in the middle of an extreme heat wave that prompted authorities to shut down schools around the country. Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense. Bangladesh's weather bureau says that average maximum temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2-9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period. Muslim worshippers gathered in city mosques and rural fields to pray for relief from the scorching heat, which forecasters expect to continue for at least ... Read more ... |
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Three dead, tens of thousands evacuated as storms strike south China - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Three people are dead and 11 others missing following storms that battered southern China, state media said Monday, with tens of thousands evacuated away from the torrential downpours. Heavy rain has descended upon the vast southern province of Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that state media said could be of the sort only "seen around once a century". "The three deaths were reported in Zhaoqing City. They were trapped due to the rainfall and were found to have died at the site," state broadcaster Xinhua reported, citing local authorities. Eleven others remain missing as search and rescue efforts in the area continue ... Read more ... |
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Turning to nature to improve vital water treatment - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Escalating industrialization, urbanization and climate change in Asia present a significant challenge to maintaining water quality. In an effort to improve water treatment, RMIT has collaborated in an international team supporting pilot projects in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the Philippines through an Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research project. Led by RMIT's Professor Jega Jegatheesan, the pilots included the construction of floating wetlands in Can Tho, Vietnam and Kandy, Sri Lanka, green roofs in Ho Chi Minh City and constructed wetland in the Philippines. This saw 40 students at Can Tho University trained to build and install the structures in two ... Read more ... |
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UN launches fund to shield displaced people from climate shocks - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · The United Nations said Wednesday it was launching a new Climate Resilience Fund aimed at boosting protections for "refugees and displaced communities" threatened by climate change. The UN refugee agency said it aimed to raise $100 million for the new fund by the end of next year to support refugees, their host communities and countries of origin hardest hit by climate emergencies. The agency highlighted in a statement that climate risks were "strongly correlated with conflict and poverty", experienced by many refugees. In 2022, more than 70 percent of refugees and asylum seekers fled from highly climate-vulnerable countries, it pointed out. "The impacts of ... Read more ... |
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Victims of China floods race to salvage property - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Victims of severe floods in southern China raced on Wednesday to salvage property from the muddy waters as authorities warned of more heavy rains to come. Massive downpours have struck Guangdong province in recent days, triggering deluges that have claimed the lives of four people and forced the evacuation of more than 100,000. The severe floods are virtually unheard of so early in the year even in lush, subtropical Guangdong, with one senior official linking them to worsening climate change. AFP reporters in Shatang village on Wednesday saw staff and officials at a tourist resort taking advantage of a break in the rain to clear mud from the streets. "The ... Read more ... |
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Warming Arctic reduces dust levels in parts of the planet, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Previous studies have found that dust levels are actually decreasing across India, particularly northern India, the Persian Gulf Coast and much of the Middle East, but the reason has remained unclear. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are working to understand how global climate change is impacting dust levels in the region. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers led by Michael B. McElroy, the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at SEAS, found that the decrease in dust can be attributed to the Arctic warming much faster than the rest of the ... Read more ... |
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Warming climate is putting more metals into Colorado's mountain streams - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Natural chemical weathering of bedrock is the source of the rising acidity and metals, but the ultimate driver of the trend is climate change, the report found. "Heavy metals are a real challenge for ecosystems," said lead author Andrew Manning, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "Some are quite toxic. We are seeing regional, statistically significant trends in copper and zinc, two key metals that are commonly a problem in Colorado. It's not ambiguous, and it's not small." The study was published in Water Resources Research. Although the mechanism coupling warming temperatures to increased sulfide weathering is still an open research question, ... Read more ... |
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Warming of Antarctic deep-sea waters contribute to sea level rise in North Atlantic, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Analysis of mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation deep water limb in the North Atlantic has weakened. Two decades of continual observations provide a greater understanding of the Earth's climate regulating system. A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience led by scientists at University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, found that human-induced environmental changes around Antarctica are contributing to sea level rise in the North Atlantic. "Although ... Read more ... |
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Weather prediction models can also forecast satellite displacements - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · By leveraging these models, the researchers gained insights into how LEO satellites respond to weather events below, such as tropical cyclones with tall and reflective clouds. The results were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research in April. In the study, the researchers utilized numerical weather models. They are sophisticated computer simulators that predict future atmospheric conditions based on current observations and laws of physics. "Numerical weather models not only simulate weather patterns but also calculate various parameters, including the Earth's energy emissions and reflections under various weather conditions. "By analyzing these ... Read more ... |
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When red-hot isn't enough: New government heat risk tool sets magenta as most dangerous level - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday—Earth Day—presented a new online heat risk system that combines meteorological and medical risk factors with a seven-day forecast that's simplified and color-coded for a warming world of worsening heat waves. "For the first time we'll be able to know how hot is too hot for health and not just for today but for coming weeks," Dr. Ari Bernstein, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, said at a joint news conference by government health and weather agencies. Magenta is the worst and deadliest of five heat threat categories, hitting everybody with what the ... Read more ... |
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Why is methane seeping on Mars? NASA scientists have new ideas - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven't found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn't expect to find methane there. Yet, the portable chemistry lab aboard Curiosity, known as SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, has continually sniffed out traces of the gas near the surface of Gale Crater, the only place on the surface of Mars where methane has been detected thus far. Its likely source, scientists assume, are geological mechanisms that involve water and rocks deep underground. If that were the whole story, things would be easy. However, SAM has found that methane behaves in unexpected ways in Gale Crater. It ... Read more ... |
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World's oases threatened by desertification, even as humans expand them - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · "Although the scientific community has always emphasized the importance of oases, there has not been a clear map of the global distribution of oases," said Dongwei Gui, a geoscientist at the Chinese Academy of Science, who led the study. "Oasis research has both theoretical and practical significance for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and promoting sustainable development in arid regions." The study found that oases around the world grew by more than 220,149 square kilometers (85,000 square miles) from 1995 to 2020, mostly due to intentional oasis expansion projects in Asia. But desertification drove the loss of 134,300 square kilometers (51,854 square ... Read more ... |
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Yeast study offers possible answer to why some species are generalists and others specialists - PHYS.ORG - Earth  (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Under the guidance of UW–Madison professor of genetics Chris Todd Hittinger and Antonis Rokas, a professor of biology at Vanderbilt, researchers mapped the genetic blueprints, appetites, and environments of more than 1,000 species of yeasts, building a family tree that illuminates how these single-celled fungi evolved over the past 400 million years. The results, published in the journal Science, suggest that internal—not external—factors are the primary drivers of variation in the types of carbon yeasts can eat, and the researchers found no evidence that metabolic versatility, or the ability to eat different foods, comes with any trade-offs. In other words, ... Read more ... |
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