news 2015

An entire ecosystem is at risk from the effects of climate change on the UK's blanket bogs, scientists at the University of Leeds have warned. These wetland habitats provide important feeding and nesting grounds for bird species including the dunlin, red grouse and golden plover. Blanket bogs are also the source of most of our drinking water and vital carbon stores.

Fossil fuel emissions could soon make it impossible for radiocarbon dating to distinguish new materials from artefacts that are hundreds of years old. Carbon released by burning fossil fuels is diluting radioactive carbon-14 and artificially raising the radiocarbon 'age' of the atmosphere, according to a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) .

PA 108/15 From the frozen forests of Russia to the scorching sands of the Kalahari Desert, leopards are the most widely distributed large cat on earth. Their iconic spotted coat has been admired and coveted by humans for millennia. But in one part in their vast range - the Malay Peninsula - leopards are almost entirely black in colour.

Related links Dr Davide Dominoni - research profile Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine Trends in Ecology and Evolution Humans take for granted the noise and lights associated with cities and other developments across the landscape. For other creatures, these noisy and bright conditions lead to changes in behavior and activity such as the timing or pitch of a bird song in the morning.

A University of Nottingham historian has helped resolve a global debate about scientific evidence for ancient extreme climate events by examining medieval manuscripts and other historical sources. In a paper published in the world-leading scientific journal, Nature , Dr Conor Kostick 's research into medieval evidence for climate events has allowed scientists to pinpoint the exact relationship between historical volcanic activity and severe winters.

Cat owners fail to realise the impact of their cat on wildlife according to new research, published today, from QMUL and the University of Exeter. Cats are increasingly earning themselves a reputation as wildlife killers with estimates of animals killed every year by domestic cats in the UK numbering into the millions.

Scientists have been awarded £1.6m to investigate how we can ensure that our soil is resilient to environmental change. The earth's soil is being put under increasing pressure and there is an urgent need to ensure that soils found across different landscapes continue to deliver vital resources for humans.

More than 1.6 billion people are living in multidimensional poverty around the world, according to new analysis from the OPHI (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative), a research centre at the University of Oxford. A new report on the latest figures for the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows multidimensional poverty in 101 developing countries, covering 5.2 billion people, or 75% of the world's population.

How light of different colours is absorbed by carbon dioxide (CO2) can now be accurately predicted using new calculations developed by a UCL-led team of scientists. This will help climate scientists studying Earth's greenhouse gas emissions to better interpret data collected from satellites and ground stations measuring CO2.

Researchers at Lancaster University have discovered that bats living in a city are less likely to move from tree to tree in brightly lit areas. Their To maintain high biodiversity in cities, wildlife must be able to move between patches of habitat, which are often separated by paved surfaces, buildings and roads.

A manmade pollutant is having a significant impact on our global environment according to a new study published in 'Ecology' this month (June 2015). Human activity, such as burning forests and fossil fuels, increasing dependence on farm fertilizers and more livestock waste, has led to high levels of atmospheric nitrogen.

We are already reaping the rewards of the Montreal Protocol, with the ozone layer in much better shape than it would have been without the UN treaty, according to a new study in Nature. Study lead author Professor Martyn Chipperfield, from the School of Earth & Environment at the University of Leeds, said: “Our research confirms the importance of the Montreal Protocol and shows that we have already had real benefits.

Research shows links between global warming and extreme winter weather in the UK Scientists call for further studies to advance weather forecasting abilities and climate change prediction New evidence has linked Arctic warming with severe weather in countries including the UK and US. Professor Edward Hanna and PhD student Richard Hall, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography, are part of a select group of international climate scientists investigating links between Arctic climate change and extreme weather in the northern mid-latitudes.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have revealed a graphene antenna capable of delivering cheaper, more powerful and more sustainable RFID tags and wireless sensors. Made from compressed graphene ink, the antenna is flexible, environmentally friendly and could be cheaply mass-produced, paving the way for wearable wireless devices and sensors.

Climate change denial in public discourse may encourage climate scientists to over-emphasise scientific uncertainty and is also affecting how they themselves speak - and perhaps even think - about their own research, a new study from the University of Bristol, UK argues.

Reported emissions of a group of potent greenhouse gases from developed countries are shown to be largely accurate, but for the wrong reasons, according to new findings from an international team, led by researchers at the University of Bristol. Until now, there has been little verification of the reported emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), gases that are used in refrigerators and air conditioners, resulting in an unexplained gap between the amount reported, and the rise in concentrations seen in the atmosphere.

To mark World Penguin Day (25 April 2015) citizen science project Penguin Watch  will release 500,000 new images of penguins and reveal secrets from a year of spying on penguins. Launched in 2014, Penguin Watch, led by Oxford University scientists with input from the Australian Antarctic Division, asks the public to go online and count penguins in images taken by remote cameras monitoring nearly 100 colonies in Antarctica.

The changing British landscape could be contributing to the decline in our bee populations, according to Lancaster University research. Analysis of 35 hives in 20 sites in North West England found that honeybees living near areas of extensive farmland were surviving on a lower protein diet than those in hives near natural grasslands and woodlands.

Losing plant species is directly linked to long-term declines in the stable productivity of grasslands, a new study has shown. The study demonstrates for the first time that for every decrease in plant biodiversity there is a proportional decrease in the stable production of plant biomass through time of grassland ecosystems.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have discovered a way to make trees grow bigger and faster, which could increase supplies of renewable resources and help trees cope with the effects of climate change. In the study, published in Current Biology, the team successfully manipulated two genes in poplar trees in order to make them grow larger and more quickly than usual.