news 2023

Deforestation is resulting in reduced rainfall across large parts of the tropics, according to new research. People living in tropical forest communities have often complained that the climate gets hotter and drier once trees are cleared but until now scientists have not been able to identify a clear link between the loss of tree cover and a decline in rainfall.

Three years into a five-year pledge to completely phase out lead shot in UK game hunting, a Cambridge study finds that 94% of pheasants on sale for human consumption were killed using lead. If UK game hunters are going to phase out lead shot voluntarily, they are not doing very well so far Rhys Green The pledge, made in 2020 by nine major UK game shooting and rural organisations, aims to protect the natural environment and ensure a safer supply of game meat for consumers.

Glaciers along the Antarctic peninsula are flowing faster in the summer because of a combination of melting snow and warmer ocean waters, say researchers. On average, the glaciers - giant blocks of moving ice - travel at around 1km a year. But a new study has found a seasonal variation to the speed of the ice flow, which increases by up to 22% in summer when temperatures are warmer.

Researchers have shown how sounds recorded by low-cost microphones could be used to help track infectious disease risks in the rainforest and in other rapidly changing landscapes. The study - published in Trends in Parasitology and led by the University of Glasgow - discusses how listening to the sounds of an ecosystem can inform our understanding of factors that drive the spread of disease between animals and people.

The curious landscapes formed by dried out salt lakes are caused by the movement of fluids in the soil beneath the surface, according to new research published today. The characteristic honeycomb patterns are found worldwide, including in Death Valley in California where they attract tens of thousands of tourists.

People living in urban areas report significantly worse hay fever symptoms according to the first study to compare pollution levels with the severity and duration of real-time symptoms. The University of Manchester led team studied 36,145 symptom reports submitted over 5 years - from 2016 to 2020 - by over 700 Britons using a citizen science application called Britain Breathing.

Governments are not using the latest mapping technology to report key environmental data about tropical forests to the UN, say researchers. Under what is known as the UN's Global Stocktake , set up as part of the Paris Agreement, governments report on the level of carbon emitted or removed in forested areas.

Researchers have used nearly half a million fossils to solve a scientific mystery - why the number of different species is greatest near the equator and decreases towards polar regions. The results, published in the journal Nature , give valuable insight into how biodiversity is generated over long timescales, and how climate change can affect the richness of global species.

Communities of microbes that work together release more carbon dioxide than competitive communities, contributing more to climate change. Despite being small, microbes, and especially bacteria, contribute a lot to the global carbon cycle - the movement of carbon in various forms through nature. Its level in the atmosphere, and so its influence on climate change, is controlled by a series of sources and sinks, such as respiration and photosynthesis respectively.

New analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite has revealed just how quickly space rocks which fall to Earth can be contaminated by our atmosphere. The meteorite, which landed in Gloucestershire in February last year, was the first to be recovered on UK soil in nearly 30 years. Fragments were recovered from a domestic driveway hours after it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial. From AI being used to identify key proteins in cell degradation, to a shellfish component being used in sustainable computer memory devices, here is some quick-read news from across the College. AI for autophagy A team led by Dr Tolga Bozkurt , Dr Doryen Bubeck and colleagues in the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial have used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover key regulators of autophagy - a form of cell degradation that is important in biological development, aging and numerous diseases.

Sussex researchers find pesticide use is linked to garden bird decline Pesticide use by British gardeners is playing a significant role in the declining populations of our songbirds, as shown by the first study of its kind, published in -Science Of The Total Environment. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Sussex , shows that gardeners who use pesticides can expect to see fewer birds.

The UK-s laundry releases microfibres weighing the equivalent of up to 1,500 double-decker buses every year, according to new research. The discovery was made by academics in Leeds' School of Design , who co-created a test to measure how different materials and washing conditions affect the amount of microfibres released into water.

New study from the University of Sheffield, IoZ, and UCL found more than one in six bird eggs fail to hatch Hatching failure increases as species decline, so the new research could be used to predict what species are most at risk of extinction Findings reveal that hatching failure is a much bigger problem for captive threatened species, with almost half (43 per cent) of their eggs failing to hatch The work provides evidence that conservation man

The recent uptick in sewage overspill events is due to infrastructure not keeping up with demand, according to Imperial College London research. The conclusion suggests other proposals for dealing with the problem - such as preventing blockages and separating rain and foul water - will not be enough to solve the issue of polluting sewage overspills.

A new study published today in Nature Sustainability has found that using hydropower dams to generate low emission energy can cause problems for other economic sectors such as food production unless smart designs are employed. Access to sustainable electricity is required to deliver the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, but over 700 million people around the world still lack reliable electricity access.

Undernourished coastal communities in the tropics - where children's growth can be stunted by a lack of micronutrients - can get the vitamins and minerals they need from sustainable small-scale octopus fisheries, say researchers. Just a small serving of something very, very micronutrient rich, like octopus, can fill critical nutritional gaps.

The best way to prevent the extinction of carnivores, such as lynx, bears and lions, is by encouraging a sustainable model of social and economic development, rather than focusing only on issues such as climate change, researchers say After studying 50 species of large carnivores over 50 years, it was discovered that social and economic factors, such as people's quality of life, were more closely associated with declines of these species, than p

Reducing the number of stomata that rice have makes them more tolerant to salt water, according to researchers at the University of Sheffield As sea levels rise, seawater is reaching places it previously wouldn-t, causing increasing damage to crops Sheffield scientists had already discovered that rice with fewer stomata are more drought resistant, needing up to 60 per cent less water - now, they have shown that the same plants are also able to g

Scientists have analysed data from nearly three million rivers across the globe to identify where hydropower stations could be sited with limited environmental impacts. The analysis identified 124,761 potential locations that met the strict environmental criteria. Of those, 4,644 of the schemes could be run profitably and would be capable of generating an additional 5.