Environment

Forest fires as an opportunity for ecosystem recovery

The recuperation of the environment after a forest fire can allow for the recovery of lost natural values

Feb 20, 2019 08:19 AM EST

The monkey hunters: Humans colonize South Asian rainforest by hunting primates

New study provides direct evidence for the hunting of tree-dwelling monkeys and other small mammals by Homo sapiens 45,000 years ago in the rainforest of Sri Lanka

Feb 19, 2019 09:18 AM EST

Climate change makes summer weather stormier yet more stagnant

Study finds rising temperatures feed more energy to thunderstorms, less to general circulation

Feb 19, 2019 08:10 AM EST

Quarrying of Stonehenge 'bluestones' dated to 3000 BC

Excavations at two quarries in Wales, known to be the source of the Stonehenge 'bluestones', provide new evidence of megalith quarrying 5,000 years ago, according to a new UCL-led study.

Feb 18, 2019 07:59 AM EST

Predicting climate change

Thomas Crowther identifies long-disappeared forests available for restoration across the world. He will describe how there is room for an additional 1.2 trillion new trees around the world that could absorb more carbon than human emissions each year.

Feb 16, 2019 07:58 AM EST

What rising seas mean for local economies

Impacts of climate change are not always easy to see. But for many local businesses in coastal communities across the United States, the evidence is right outside their doors - or in their parking lots.

The Sources of Black Carbon in the Arctic in Winter and Summer (IMAGE)

Feb 16, 2019 07:40 AM EST

Scientists discovered where black carbon comes from in the Arctic in winter and summer

Scientists present an analysis of source apportion of BC into the atmosphere throughout the Arctic in different seasons

Feb 15, 2019 07:47 AM EST

Tiny satellites reveal water dynamics in thousands of northern lakes

Using an army of small satellites, researchers have shown that water levels in small lakes across northern Canada and Alaska are far more variable during the summer than previously thought. The findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, could have implications for how scientists calculate the natural greenhouse gas emissions from these northern lakes.

Feb 15, 2019 07:22 AM EST

Surprise findings turn up the temperature on the study of vernalization

Researchers have uncovered new evidence about the agriculturally important process of vernalization in a development that could help farmers deal with financially damaging weather fluctuations.

Feb 14, 2019 08:20 AM EST

Satellite images reveal interconnected plumbing system that caused Bali volcano to erupt

A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has used satellite technology provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) to uncover why the Agung volcano in Bali erupted in November 2017 after 50 years of dormancy.

Feb 13, 2019 08:56 AM EST

Ice shelves buckle under weight of meltwater lakes

For the first time, a research team co-led by CIRES-based scientists, has directly observed an Antarctic ice shelf bending under the weight of ponding meltwater on top, a phenomenon that may have triggered the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf. And ice shelf flexure could potentially impact other vulnerable ice shelves, causing them to break up, quickening the discharge of ice into the ocean and contributing to global sea level rise.

Feb 13, 2019 08:49 AM EST

Surface lakes cause Antarctic ice shelves to 'flex'

The filling and draining of meltwater lakes have been found to cause a floating Antarctic ice shelf to flex, potentially threatening its stability.

Feb 08, 2019 09:02 PM EST

Rating riverside corridors -- the 'escape routes' for animals under climate change

Under climate change, plants and animals will shift their habitats to track the conditions they are adapted for. As they do, the lands surrounding rivers and streams offer natural migration routes that will take on a new importance as temperatures rise.

Feb 08, 2019 09:32 AM EST

DNA traces on wild flowers reveal insect visitors

Researchers have discovered that insects leave tiny DNA traces on the flowers they visit; the newly developed eDNA method holds a vast potential for various parts of nature management

The German Eesearch Vessel Sonne (IMAGE)

Feb 07, 2019 10:38 AM EST

Deep sea reveals linkage between earthquake and carbon cycle

An international team led by the Innsbruck geologists Arata Kioka, Tobias Schwestermann, Jasper Moernaut, and Michael Strasser could quantify for the first time the entire trench-wide volume of marine sediments that were remobilized by the magnitude 9 Tohoku-oki earthquake in 2011 and transported into the up to 8 km deep Japan Trench.