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September 2022

22 Sep

NASA’s Perseverance rover investigates geologically rich Mars terrain

by TMR Desk
Engineering
NASA's Perseverance rover is well into its second science campaign, collecting rock-core samples from features within an area long considered by scientists to be a top prospect for finding signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. The rover has collected four samples from an ancient river delta in the Red Planet's Jezero Crater since July 7, bringing the total count of scientifically compelling rock samples to 12. "We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples -- and now we know we sent the rover to the right location," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "These first two science campaigns have yielded an amazing...
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22 Sep

Food insecurity has lasting impacts on the brains and behavior of mice

by TMR Desk
Education
Results suggest young people may suffer long-term consequences, in particular in the area of cognitive flexibility While food insecurity is a problem for a growing segment of the U.S. population -- made even worse by the coronavirus pandemic -- few studies have looked at the effect that feast or famine has on the developing brain in isolation from other factors that contribute to adversity. A new study by neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, simulated the effects of food insecurity in juvenile mice and found lasting changes later in life. "We show that irregular access to food in the late juvenile and early adolescent period affects learning, decision-making and dopamine neurons in adulthood," said Linda Wilbrecht, UC Berkeley professor of psychology and...
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22 Sep

Researchers discover expanding and intensifying low-oxygen zone in the Arabian gulf

by TMR Desk
Climate Change
A team of researchers from the Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (ACCESS) at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) studied the evolution of dissolved oxygen in the Arabian Gulf over three decades and discovered a significant decline in oxygen concentrations and the expansion of the seasonal near-bottom hypoxic zone (lower oxygen levels near the bottom of the Gulf in certain seasons). The researchers conclude that changes in local climate are altering the Gulf's physical and biogeochemical environment with potential implications for the ecosystems and the fisheries of the region. In the paper titled, "Recent expansion and intensification of hypoxia in the Arabian Gulf and its drivers," published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, the researchers used a sophisticated ocean model to...
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22 Sep

A better understanding of crop yields under climate change

by TMR Desk
Agriculture, Climate Change
Research solves long-standing mystery of how water impacts agricultural production You don't need a PhD in agriculture to know that water is critical to crop production. But for years, people like Jonathan Proctor, who has a PhD in Agriculture and Resource Economics from the University of California Berkeley, have been trying to explain why the importance of water isn't showing up in statistical models of crop yield. "Studies analyzing how crop yields respond to temperature and rainfall tend to find that temperature matters much more than water, even though we understand from plant physiology that temperature and water supply are both really important for crops," said Proctor, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Peter Huybers' group at the Harvard John A. Paulson School...
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22 Sep

Climate change may impact marine environments more than anything else

by TMR Desk
Climate Change
Promoting the sustainable development of marine environments requires planning, just as we have long had spatial planning for land-based activities. Now researchers from the University of Gothenburg and elsewhere are showing that marine planning must take climate change into consideration -- something that it does not currently do. The researchers' models show that changes to temperature and salt content may impact ecosystems and species as much as all other effects on the environment combined. Symphony is a digital tool that has existed for the past few years. It uses GIS maps that show the distribution of important ecosystems and species along Sweden's coastlines and how by environmental disturbances, such as nutrient pollution, boat traffic and fishing, affect them in different areas....
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