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Author: TMR Desk

12 Oct

Why the Salton Sea is turning into toxic dust

by TMR Desk
Oceans
Study identifies cause of lake's water loss The Salton Sea, California's most polluted inland lake, has lost a third of its water in the last 25 years. New research has determined a decline in Colorado River flow is the reason for that shrinking. As the lake dries up, the concentration of salt and chemicals in the remaining water has increased dramatically, causing a mass die-off of fish and birds, including endangered species. The dry lakebed, coated in the salty, toxic water, becomes dust that causes respiratory problems for nearby residents. "It is an environmental catastrophe," said Juan S. Acero Triana, UCR hydrologist and lead author of a new study focused on understanding water movement on and below Earth's surface near the Salton Sea,...
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11 Oct

Professors call for more research into climate-change related threats to civilization

by TMR Desk
Climate Change
An opinion piece published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences, urgently calls for more research into the specific pathways by which civilization could potentially collapse due to climate change. "Scientists have warned that climate change threatens the habitability of large regions of the Earth and even civilization itself, but surprisingly little research exists about how collapse could happen and what can be done to prevent it," says Dr. Daniel Steel of the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. "A better understanding of the risks of collapse is essential for climate ethics and policy." In the article, Dr. Steel and his colleagues, Dr. C. Tyler DesRoches...
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11 Oct

What drives ecosystems to instability?

by TMR Desk
Environment
With only a little information, researchers can predict the circumstances under which an ecosystem will be stable or unstable Trying to decipher all of the factors that influence the behavior of complex ecological communities can be a daunting task. However, MIT researchers have now shown that the behavior of these ecosystems can be predicted based on just two pieces of information: the number of species in the community and how strongly they interact with each other. In studies of bacteria grown in the lab, the researchers were able to define three states of ecological communities, and calculated the conditions necessary for them to move from one state to another. These findings allowed the researchers to create a "phase diagram" for ecosystems, similar...
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1 Oct

Trees get overheated in a warmer rainforest

by TMR Desk
Education, Environment
The ability of rainforests to store carbon can decrease in pace with climate change. This is due to photosynthesis rates in the leaves of rainforest species falling at higher temperatures and the trees' natural cooling systems failing during droughts. Increased heat threatens especially the species that store most carbon. This has been shown in a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg. Some species of trees are able to handle rising heat in the tropics by sucking up large quantities of water to their leaves and transpiring through wide-opened pores in their leaves. These are mainly fast-growing trees that establish themselves early as a rainforest grows up. The same cannot be said for the trees that make up the canopy of...
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1 Oct

Changes in marine ecosystems going undetected

by TMR Desk
Education
Existing ways of calculating biodiversity dynamics are not very effective in detecting wholesale species community change due to the effects of ocean acidification. University of Adelaide research shows that in cases where biodiversity metrics show no change or little change, there may still be reorganisation of ecological communities in our oceans. "The belief that climate change will alter global marine biodiversity is one of the most widely accepted," said Professor Ivan Nagelkerken from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute and Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories. "Commonly used biodiversity measures don't pick up reorganisation of marine communities due to ocean acidification because new species replace species that are lost. "Little or no biodiversity change is detected when one community of marine species is replaced by another...
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1 Oct

No environmental justice, no positive peace — and vice versa

by TMR Desk
Education
Peace and environmental sustainability -- two lofty but vital goals for all countries -- are known to be intrinsically related, according to Dahlia Simangan, associate professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University. However, researchers still tend to investigate them separately, and, when they are viewed together, it is often with broad strokes, with little examination into the nuances of either peace or environmental sustainability. Parsing out the specifics of these categories could provide insights into what specific elements of peace influence what specific elements of environmental sustainability, and vice versa, which could then better inform policy and decision making. A team of researchers from Hiroshima University that includes Simangan has explored the nuances and found...
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1 Oct

Study links cold water shock to catastrophic coral collapse in the Eastern Pacific

by TMR Desk
Education
Marine heatwaves brought about by climate change are known to be responsible for mass mortality on some of the planet's most iconic coral reef systems. However, scientists have discovered that an extreme weather event that resulted in rapid sea temperature drops of up to 10 degrees was the primary cause of a catastrophic coral die-off event. Combined with widespread rise in harmful algal blooms, the extent of collapse of the reefs in Costa Rica's Eastern Tropical Pacific in 2009 was abnormally high. The two factors resulted in coral cover at some sites decreasing by between 20% and 100%, with the levels of recovery also varying significantly in the years since. In a new study, published in the journal PeerJ, researchers say their findings demonstrate the...
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1 Oct

System to create bioplastics

by TMR Desk
Education
Method could reduce nondegradable plastics and greenhouse gas emissions A team of Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists has developed a system that uses carbon dioxide, CO2, to produce biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics, that could replace the nondegradable plastics used today. The research addresses two challenges: the accumulation of nondegradable plastics and the remediation of greenhouse gas emissions. Published Sept. 28 in Chem, the research was a collaboration of Susie Dai, Ph.D., associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, and Joshua Yuan, Ph.D., formerly with the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology as chair for synthetic biology and renewable products and now Lopata professor and chair in the Washington University in St. Louis Department of Energy, Environmental...
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30 Sep

New research can help electric utilities account for climate change

by TMR Desk
Climate Change
Researchers have devised a method to determine the impact of climate change on the supply and variability of local renewable energy. An increase in unusual weather patterns related to climate change means the demand for power and the availability of solar, hydro and wind energy can all become more variable. The method by researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and in Spain will help local energy planners determine the optimal mix of renewable energy sources and energy storage needs. The research was published in August in the journal Land. Geophysical Institute atmospheric sciences professor Uma Bhatt is the lead author. "It is important for society to understand the impact of climate change and variability on renewable energy resources in order to design...
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28 Sep

Layering, not liquid: Astronomers explain Mars’ watery reflections

by TMR Desk
Education
Astronomers explain mars' watery reflections Cornell astronomers believe bright reflections beneath the surface of Mars' South Pole are not necessarily evidence of liquid water, but instead geological layers. Researchers detail their alternative explanation in Nature Astronomy. "On Earth, reflections that bright are often an indication of liquid water, even buried lakes like Lake Vostok," said Dan Lalich, research associate. "But on Mars, the prevailing opinion was that it should be too cold for similar lakes to form." But the fact remains, Lalich said, that the bright reflection exists and requires an explanation. Lalich created simulations with layers composed of four materials -- atmosphere, water ice, carbon dioxide (CO2) ice and basalt -- and assigned each layer a corresponding permittivity, an intrinsic property of the material describing...
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