news 2024

An international study led by the University of Glasgow is the first to define a safe operating space (SOS) for major rivers in the Ganges Delta, which will enhance resilience in one of the world's most vulnerable deltas to global climate change.

New research exploring the effects of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in Glasgow has found that while traffic flow has remained largely unchanged since the Zone was enforced, air quality has improved. Co-authored by researchers from the Universities of Auckland, University College Dublin, and Glasgow, the study gathered hourly data from traffic sensors and air quality monitors in the city's busy Hope Street and High Street within the LEZ to produce figures for the daily average NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide).

Scientists have discovered that ocean waves may become far more extreme and complex than previously imagined. The new study, published in Nature today, reveals that under specific conditions, where waves meet each other from different directions, waves can reach heights four times steeper than what was once thought possible.

A new study published in Climate Policy , co-authored by Dr Daniel Valdenegro of Oxford University's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science , exposes the dynamics of competing narratives on climate change between political parties in the UK and the influence that climate protests have on them. The study uses a range of data sources such as parliamentary debates and qualitative interviews with politicians and civil servants between 2017 and 2022 to investigate the existence of trends, patterns and impact in climate policy narratives.

Small marine crustaceans are as valuable as key coastal habitats for storing carbon and should be similarly protected, according to new research. The study shows that a single species, Antarctic krill, store similar amounts of carbon to key 'blue carbon' habitats such as mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrasses.

Flowers like hibiscus follow an invisible blueprint established very early in petal formation that precisely dictates the size of their central bullseye - a crucial pattern that can significantly impact their ability to attract pollinating bees. We identified a specific region where the cells were larger than their surrounding neighbours - this was the pre-pattern.

A landslide in a remote part of Greenland caused a mega-tsunami that sloshed back and forth across a fjord for nine days, generating vibrations throughout Earth, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. A landslide in a remote part of Greenland caused a mega-tsunami that sloshed back and forth across a fjord for nine days, generating vibrations throughout Earth, according to a new study involving UCL researchers.

Climate change will move and reduce the land suitable for growing food and timber, putting the production of these two vital resources into direct competition, a new study has found. The sight of vineyards in Britain is becoming more common as hotter summers create increasingly suitable conditions for growing grapes.

Imperial research has found limits to how quickly we can scale up technology to store gigatonnes of carbon dioxide under the Earth's surface. Current international scenarios for limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees by the end of the century rely on technologies that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Earth's atmosphere faster than humans release it.

A new study by the Milner Centre for Evolution in the Department of Life Sciences has shed light on the mystery as to why are there so many different types. Cacti are amongst the most diverse plants, from the giant saguaro cactus that can grow up to 18 metres in height, all the way down to the tiny button cactus which is a few centimetres tall.

Planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from global food supply chains could fall by 17% if people change their food choices towards more plant-based diets, a new study reveals. More than half of the global population (56.9%) are currently over-consuming and would save nearly a third (32.4%) of global dietary emissions by switching to the plant-forward planetary health diet proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission, according to the research.

The dry tropical forests of Africa are great at absorbing and storing carbon, explains Professor Mat Disney in The Conversation. Understanding how they do so is crucial for understanding climate change. Dry, tropical forests are often overshadowed in popular and scientific perception by wet and tall rainforests.

Pollutants preserved in Antarctic ice document historic fires in the Southern Hemisphere, offering a glimpse at how humans have impacted the landscape and providing data that could help scientists understand future climate change. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey tracked fire activity over the past 150 years by measuring carbon monoxide trapped in Antarctic ice.

Older trees have important carbon capture role - countering existing theories that mature woodland has no capacity to respond to elevated carbon dioxide levels Mature forests have a key role to play in the fight against climate change - extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and locking it into new wood, a new study reveals.

Modern commercial aircraft flying at high altitudes create longer-lived planet-warming contrails than older aircraft, a new study has found. The result means that although modern planes emit less carbon than older aircraft, they may be contributing more to climate change through contrails. Led by scientists at Imperial College London, the study highlights the immense challenges the aviation industry faces to reduce its impact on the climate.

In a new study, published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology , endocrinologists and researchers from the Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health (NDWRH) at the University of Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) at Queen Mary University of London and the National University of Singapore have emphasised the critical need for further research into the effects of heat exposure on the endocrine system.

Earth systems could be 'tipped' into unstable states if warming overshoots 1.5C target, but impacts could be minimised if warming is swiftly reversed. The Paris Agreement target to keep global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels was set to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Researchers have identified an entirely new type of wood that does not fit into either category of hardwood or softwood. Scientists from the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University and Jagiellonian University, Poland made the discovery while undertaking an evolutionary survey of the microscopic structure of wood from some of the world's most iconic trees and shrubs.

A new study has revealed that changes in the ocean floor impacts currents, giving new insight into the deep-sea pathways of nutrients and pollutants. The study, published in Nature Geoscience by scientists at The University of Manchester and led by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), has found that currents sped up, slowed down, changed direction, and sometimes reversed direction completely, depending on the varying and uneven surfaces and features found on the ocean floor.

Scientists are using new technology to help endangered animals by listening to their sounds. The research, conducted by The University of Warwick and the University of New South Wales in Australia, analyses animal sounds from endangered species including types of elephants, whales and birds. It uses a new method adapted from tech used to analyse brain waves in neuroscience.