Wildfires in California, exacerbated by human-driven climate change, are getting more severe. To better manage them, there’s a growing need to know exactly what fuels the blazes after they ignite. In a study published in Environmental Research Letters, Earth system scientists at the University of California, Irvine report that one of the chief fuels of … Read more
Tiny waterfleas could play a pivotal role in removing persistent chemical pollutants from wastewater — making it safe to use in factories, farms and homes, a new study reveals. Rapid urbanisation, population growth, unsustainable food production and climate change have put unprecedented pressure on water resources, culminating in a global water crisis. The sustainable management … Read more
An experiment using water from a large wastewater treatment plant carried out by the Stream Ecology group has shown that this water continues to affect river diversity and the trophic web (food web) despite being properly treated and highly diluted before discharge. The study shows that the limits currently in place and the procedures used … Read more
Technologies for removing carbon from the atmosphere keep improving, but solutions for what to do with the carbon once it’s captured are harder to come by. The lab of Rice University materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan and collaborators developed a way to wrest the carbon from carbon dioxide and affix it to hydrogen atoms, forming methane … Read more
Significant quantities of microplastic particles are being trapped in riverbed sediments or carried through the air along major river systems, a new study has shown. The research, conducted along the length of the Ganges River in South Asia, found on average about 41 microplastic particles per square metre per day settled from the atmosphere. . … Read more
The disruption brought by wildfires reaches everything that lives in or near a burning field or forest — including microbes. A better understanding of how microbial communities change and grow after a fire could help researchers predict how bacteria and fungi will respond to major environmental changes. A study published this week in mSystems suggests … Read more
In a warming Pacific Northwest, summers are getting hotter and winters less cold, but the atmospheric patterns that influence the weather aren’t necessarily expected to become stronger or more frequent by the end of the century, according to a new Portland State University study. That means that in an overall warmer climate, models suggest we’ll … Read more