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Environment
Results 121 - 140 of 178.
Innovation - Environment - 10.05.2018
Distinguished University of Birmingham chemist elected as Fellow of the Royal Society
Taking a fresh look at how research and innovation can shape re-industrialisation across the European Union could boost economies, slash the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases, and cut waste, a new study reveals. University of Birmingham researchers predict that putting into practice the study's policies could lead to a European GDP increase as high as 11% by 2030 and reduce by almost 50% the carbon dioxide emissions across mobility, food systems and the built environment.
Environment - 10.05.2018
Tracking the clouded leopard
Satellite collars have provided researchers in Borneo with a new insight into the mysterious movements of the Sunda clouded leopard, helping to ensure the future of this vulnerable species. The international team, including researchers from Cardiff University and the Danau Girang Field Centre, tagged four leopards with satellite collars and investigated what factors influence their movements through the landscape, and explored how future landscape change scenarios might affect them.
Environment - Chemistry - 04.05.2018
Greenhouse gas ’feedback loop’ discovered in freshwater lakes
Latest research finds plant debris in lake sediment affects methane emissions. The flourishing reed beds created by changing climates could threaten to double the already significant methane production of the world's northern lakes.
Environment - Life Sciences - 30.04.2018
Overlooked extinction crisis
Global change is causing freshwater species to be lost twice as fast as in any other ecosystem, and new research, which studied Welsh rivers and streams for over 30 years, has found that the number of specialist invertebrates are dwindling. Cardiff University researchers monitored fourteen streams at the Llyn Brianne Observatory, collecting data from the headwaters of the River Tywi in Wales since 1981.
Life Sciences - Environment - 30.04.2018
Early spring is causing a mismatch of food
With warmer spring weather expected, due to climate change, collaborative research finds that hatching of forest birds will be "increasingly mismatched" with peaks in caterpillar numbers. The researchers used data collected across the UK to study spring emergence of oak tree leaves and caterpillars, and timing of nesting by three bird species: blue tits, great tits and pied flycatchers.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 27.04.2018
How landscapes and landforms ’remember’ or ’forget’ their initial formations
The answer to the question 'What's in a shape?' hinges on this memory property. Megan Davies Wykes Crescent dunes and meandering rivers can 'forget' their initial shapes as they are carved and reshaped by wind and water while other landforms keep a memory of their past shape, suggests new research. "Asking how these natural sculptures come to be is more than mere curiosity because locked in their shapes are clues to the history of an environment," said Leif Ristroph from New York University and the senior author of the paper , which is published in the journal Physical Review Fluids .
Environment - 27.04.2018
Birmingham talks Biomedical Engineering and Big Data with guests from Chinese university
Drained fertile peatlands around the globe are hotspots for the atmospheric emission of laughing-gas - a powerful greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide, which is partly responsible for global warming and destruction of the ozone layer, a new study shows. Research into natural peatlands such as fens, swamps and bogs, as well as drained peatlands, found that either draining wet soils or irrigating well drained soils boosts the emission of nitrous oxide significantly.
Environment - Physics - 27.04.2018
Research paper in top 100
Physicist Professor Manus Hayne has been congratulated for his "extraordinary achievement" after his research paper was ranked in the top 100 most highly read articles in Nature Scientific Reports. His paper 'Photoelectrolysis Using Type-II Semiconductor Heterojunctions' was selected as one of the top 100 read physics papers for the journal in 2017.
Life Sciences - Environment - 24.04.2018
We still don’t know how strange celibate animals evolve
A new study has cast doubt on leading theory for how tiny creatures have evolved for tens of millions of years - without ever having sex. Most animals reproduce sexually, a process which shuffles genes from parent to offspring. This makes natural selection more efficient and allows animals to evolve defences against changing environmental conditions more rapidly, especially new diseases.
Environment - 23.04.2018
Ocean warming can predict land warming with simple model
The temperature trend of continents can be estimated by measuring warming of nearby oceans, revealing a simple behaviour of the climate system. Researchers from Imperial College London and MIT have discovered a link between land and ocean temperatures that allows them to estimate land warming on the scale of continents.
Environment - Life Sciences - 23.04.2018
Hungry birds as climate change drives food mismatch
Warmer springs create a mismatch where hungry chicks hatch too late to feast on abundant caterpillars, new research shows. With continued spring warming expected due to climate change, scientists, including experts at Durham University, say hatching of forest birds will be "increasingly mismatched" with peaks in caterpillar numbers.
Environment - 20.04.2018
High number of barriers in Europe’s rivers could hinder fish migration
The density of barriers in European rivers is much higher than indicated by available databases - up to one barrier in every kilometre of river, according to a new study. Information For the first time, scientists are now inviting citizens to help in updating information about these barriers with a newly-developed smartphone app.
Environment - Life Sciences - 19.04.2018
Small changes in rainforests cause big damage to fish ecosystems
Freshwater fish diversity is harmed as much by selective logging in rainforests as they are by complete deforestation, according to a new study. Researchers had expected the level of damage would rise depending on the amount of logging and were surprised to discover the impact of removing relatively few trees.
Life Sciences - Environment - 17.04.2018
Healthy soil lifts animal weight
Managing soil by well-designed grazing is key to an animal's growth and wellbeing shows new research linking soil health, pasture value and sustainable production. Individual pastures on livestock farms yield surprisingly dissimilar benefits to a farm's overall agricultural income, and those differences are most likely attributable to the varying levels of "soil health" provided by its grazing livestock, reveals a study published in the journal Animal .
Life Sciences - Environment - 16.04.2018
Honeybees are struggling to get enough good bacteria
Modern monoculture farming, commercial forestry and even well-intentioned gardeners could be making it harder for honeybees to store food and fight off diseases, a new study suggests. Human changes to the landscape, such as large areas of monoculture grassland for livestock grazing, and coniferous forests for timber production, is affecting the diversity of the 'microbiome' associated with honeybees' long-term food supply.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 16.04.2018
Dinosaurs ended - and originated - with a bang!
It is commonly understood that the dinosaurs disappeared with a bang - wiped out by a great meteorite impact on the Earth 66 million years ago. But their origins have been less understood. In a new study, scientists from MUSE - Museum of Science, Trento, Italy, Universities of Ferrara and Padova, Italy and the University of Bristol show that the key expansion of dinosaurs was also triggered by a crisis - a mass extinction that happened 232 million years ago.
Environment - Life Sciences - 13.04.2018
Plant root hair discovery could restyle crop production
Scientists have discovered a way plants improve foraging for nutrients in the soil - a discovery that will help create new varieties of crops that can meet the challenges of the changing climate. Plants need to take up sufficient levels of the essential nutrient phosphate (P) from the soil to grow. To increase their surface area to take up more P from the soil, plants elongate root hairs.
Environment - 12.04.2018
Atlantic circulation weakest for over 1500 years
Leading simulation models that predict the future climate on Earth could be overestimating the stability of one of the most important ocean circulation patterns, a new study has shown. An international team, including researchers from Cardiff University, have taken the first comprehensive measurements of the strength of North Atlantic Ocean circulation, showing that it is at its weakest for over 1500 years.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 12.04.2018
Atlantic circulation that helps warm UK is at its weakest for over 1500 years
North Atlantic circulation is weaker today than it has been for over a thousand years, and leading climate change models could be overestimating its stability, according to a team of scientists led by UCL and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, US. In the first comprehensive study of ocean-based records scientists have observed a marked weakening of Atlantic circulation over the past 150 years.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 10.04.2018
Actual fossil fuel emissions checked with new technique
Researchers have measured CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use in California and compared them to reported emissions. This is the first time fossil fuel emissions have been independently checked for such a large area. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel combustion is the primary driver of climate change, and many governments, companies and citizens are making efforts to curb their emissions.
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