news 2018

Conversations are more responsive in natural environments such as parks and gardens than indoors, finds new research by the University of Manchester and Cardiff University. The researchers recorded conversations between threeand four-year-old children and their parents while they explored a city park and the park's indoor education centre and found that the conversations in the park were more responsive and connected compared to those recorded indoors.

A cutting-edge material, inspired by nature, that can regulate its own temperature and could equally be used to treat burns and help space capsules withstand atmospheric forces is under development at the University of Nottingham. The research paper, Temperature - dependent polymer absorber as a switchable state NIR reactor , is published in the journal Scientific Reports today (Friday 26 October).

25 October 2018 A team of scientists has shown that rapid CO2 release from the ocean around Antarctica helped end the last ice age. The findings published in the journal Nature , found that CO2 was stored in the deep Southern Ocean during the last ice age and then released into the atmosphere as the ice age ended, linked to pulses of rapid climate change and melting sea ice.

The relationship between climate change, environmental degradation and modern slavery needs to be better understood in order for the interconnected crisis to be tackled, according to a new report. The report , which is released today by experts from the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab, Royal Holloway University of London and the UK's Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC), critically reviews what is currently known about the relationship and assesses the academic research that has already been done.

UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Mediterranean such as Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Medieval City of Rhodes are under severe threat of coastal erosion and flooding due to rising sea levels within the next 100 years, a study published in Nature magazine reports this week. The study presents a risk index that ranks the sites according to the threat they face from today until the end of the century.

PA 204/18 Adopting a more local and flexible approach to sustainable development could be key to boosting the productivity of small-scale farms in Africa, a study involving researchers at the University of Nottingham has found. The research, led by the University of Liverpool and in collaboration with UK and African partners, reveal village chicken populations in Ethiopia to be genetically diverse and highly adapted to their local physical, cultural and social environments.

Century-scale climate variability was enhanced when the Earth was warmer during the Last Interglacial period (129-116 thousand years ago) compared to the current interglacial (the last 11,700 years), according to a new UCL-led study. The findings, published today and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Australian Research Council (ARC), reveal that the Last Interglacial period was punctuated by a series of century-scale arid events in southern Europe and cold water-mass expansions in the North Atlantic.

Well-balanced and predominantly plant-based diets can lead to improved nutrient levels, reduce premature deaths from chronic diseases by more than 20%, and lower greenhouse gas emissions, fertilizer application, and cropland and freshwater use, globally and in most regions, a new study reports. The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health , is the first to comprehensively assess the relationship between the health and nutritional impacts of different dietary-change strategies and their environmental impacts across all major world regions.

A global shift towards healthy and more plant-based diets, halving food loss and waste, and improving farming practices and technologies are required to feed 10 billion people sustainably by 2050, a new study finds. Adopting these options reduces the risk of crossing global environmental limits related to climate change, the use of agricultural land, the extraction of freshwater resources, and the pollution of ecosystems through overapplication of fertilizers, according to the researchers.

The public is supportive of emissions reduction strategies that are likely to bring significant changes to the way we own and use everyday items such as clothing, cars and furniture, finds a new study led by Cardiff University.

A healthy home environment could help offset children's genetic susceptibilities to obesity, according to new research led by UCL. The study, published this week in JAMA Pediatrics , found that the impact of genetic factors on weight is roughly halved if a child is bought up in a less 'obesogenic' home environment where healthy eating and exercise is more prevalent.

A new report shows that the six trillion cigarettes produced yearly impact the environment through climate change, water and land use, and toxicity. The devastating impact of the tobacco industry on human health is well known. However, a new report systematically outlines for the first time the substantial impact of the tobacco industry on the environment.

Humans did not accelerate the decline of the 'Green Sahara' and may have managed to hold back the onset of the Sahara desert by around 500 years, according to new research led by UCL. The study by a team of geographers and archaeologists from UCL and King's College London, published , suggests that early pastoralists in North Africa combined detailed knowledge of the environment with newly domesticated species to deal with the long-term drying trend.

Research led by Cardiff University's School of Biosciences has revealed that microplastics are widespread in insects from South Wales rivers. Microplastic fragments - pieces of plastic debris under five millimetres - were found to have been ingested by one in every two insects, and at all the sites sampled.

Land-based bird populations are becoming confined to nature reserves in some parts of the world - raising the risk of global extinction - due to the loss of suitable habitat, according to a report led by UCL. Researchers analysed biodiversity in the area known as Sundaland, which covers the peninsula of Thailand, Borneo, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and Bali, one of the world's most biologically degraded regions.

Imperial experts have predicted that sustained Antarctic warming of just 2°C could melt the largest ice sheet on earth. New research on Antarctic sediment layers has shown that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), also known as Antarctica's 'sleeping giant', retreated during extended warm periods in the past - when temperatures were like those predicted for this century.

A lack of understanding of the important role of wasps in the ecosystem and economy is a fundamental reason why they are universally despised whereas bees are much loved, according to UCL-led research. Both bees and wasps are two of humanity's most ecologically and economically important organisms. They both pollinate our flowers and crops, but wasps also regulate populations of crop pests and insects that carry human diseases.

New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the "least bad" option for feeding the world while saving its species - provided use of such "land-efficient" systems prevents further conversion of wilderness to farmland. Agriculture that appears to be more eco-friendly but uses more land may actually have greater environmental costs per unit of food than "high-yield" farming that uses less land, a new study has found.

New research involving dairy experts at the University of Nottingham suggests that more intensive agriculture might be the 'least bad' option for feeding the world, while saving its species - provided use of such "land-efficient" systems prevents further conversion of wilderness to farmland. The study found that agriculture that appears to be more eco-friendly but uses more land may actually have greater environmental costs per unit of food than "high-yield" farming that uses less land.

New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the "least bad" option for feeding the world while saving its species - provided use of such "land-efficient" systems prevents further conversion of wilderness to farmland. Our results suggest that high-yield farming could be harnessed to meet the growing demand for food without destroying more of the natural world Andrew Balmford Agriculture that appears to be more eco-friendly but uses more land may actually have greater environmental costs per unit of food than "high-yield" farming that uses less land, a new study has found.