Scientists at MIT, in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have discovered that corals are not as passive as previously thought. The team have found that corals manipulate their environment to force water into turbulent patterns which enables them to exchange nutrients and dissolved gases with their surroundings.
By Stuart Milne
2 Sep 2014
Scientists at the University of Southampton have found that the rising sea level and climate change continue to impact the coastal regions and hence appropriate measures need to be taken to better manage the effect of these climatic changes.
By Alexander Chilton
2 Sep 2014
The rising demand for food products has made a significant impact on the environment. A new study published in Nature Climate Change, suggests that if this trend continues then food production will be equal to the worldwide targets set for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2050.
By Alexander Chilton
2 Sep 2014
Nitrite-oxidising bacteria play a major role in the Earth’s natural nitrogen cycle and man-made wastewater treatment plants. For many years, it was believed that these nitrite-oxidising bacteria use only nitrite as their main source of energy. Now, researchers at the University of Vienna have demonstrated that these specialist bacteria may also use an alternative source of energy, such as hydrogen.
According to new satellite data compiled over the last 19 years, the sea-level around the Antarctic coast is rising faster than the global rate.
By Alexander Chilton
1 Sep 2014
Water scarcity is a major issue across the globe. According to scientists from Utrecht and McGill University, water scarcity can be reduced by the year 2050.
By Alexander Chilton
1 Sep 2014
Buildings account for 40 percent of Europe’s final energy consumption, and thus represent a key focus in efforts to improve overall energy efficiency. Two key pieces of European Union (EU) legislation, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), strongly influence the market for energy efficient buildings and create a solid basis for growth in the sector over the next 10 years.
Envision Solar International, Inc., ("Envision Solar," or the "Company"), the leading renewable energy Media and Branding, and EV charging product company, announced today that the City of Shasta Lake, California has initiated their electric vehicle charging program with the installation of an Envision Solar EV ARC™ standalone Solar Charging Station.
A new study reports that an expansion of marine protected areas is needed to protect fish species that perform key ecological functions. According to investigators from the Wildlife Conservation Society and other organizations, previous efforts at protecting fish have focused on saving the largest numbers of species, often at the expense of those species that provide key and difficult-to-replace ecological functions.
A number of leading international researchers, amongst others from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, recommend that fluorochemicals are only used where they are absolutely essential, until better methods exist to measure the chemicals and more is known about their potentially harmful effects. The recommendation appears in the Helsingør Statement following an international conference.
Methane is stored as a hydrate, an icy substance, under the seabed. When this substance melts it releases methane bubbles into the water. The bubbles may get dissolved in the ocean, or they may reach the surface – depending on the water depth. The seabed releases huge amouts of methane to the ocean.The amount of the green house gas that reaches the atmosphere, is however a mystery.
Recycled tires could see new life in lithium-ion batteries that provide power to plug-in electric vehicles and store energy produced by wind and solar, say researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The re-distribution of anthropogenic aerosol emissions from Europe and North America towards China and India between 1996 and 2010 has surprisingly warmed rather than cooled the global climate. This result reinforces the notion that the recent hiatus in global warming is mainly caused by internal variability of the climate.
INRA research scientists in Dijon have shown that the ability of soils to eliminate N2O can mainly be explained by the diversity and abundance of a new group of micro-organisms that are capable of transforming it into atmospheric nitrogen (N2).
A new analysis suggests the planet can produce much more land-plant biomass – the total material in leaves, stems, roots, fruits, grains and other terrestrial plant parts – than previously thought.