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A team of researchers, led by Young-Shin Jun, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, analyzed how light breaks down polystyrene, a nonbiodegradable plastic from which packing peanuts, DVD cases and disposable utensils are made. In addition, they found that nanoplastic particles can …

Nanoplastics unexpectedly produce reactive oxidizing species when exposed to light Read More »

Researchers have spent decades trying to figure out the secret of this ultradurable ancient construction material, particularly in structures that endured especially harsh conditions, such as docks, sewers, and seawalls, or those constructed in seismically active locations. Now, a team of investigators from MIT, Harvard University, and laboratories in Italy and Switzerland, has made progress …

Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable? Read More »

Specifically, Rounce and his team found that in a future scenario with continued investment in fossil fuels, over 40 percent of the glacial mass will be gone within the century, and over 80 percent of glaciers by number could well disappear. Even in a best-case, low-emissions scenario, where the increase in global mean temperature is …

Two out of three glaciers could be lost by 2100 Read More »

The new study, led by scientists from Lancaster University in the UK and involving researchers from Lakehead University, Canada, shows that the presence of invasive black rats on tropical islands is causing changes in the territorial behaviour of the jewel damselfish — a herbivorous species of tropical reef fish that ‘farm’ algae in the branches …

Invasive rats transform reef fish behavior Read More »

In a study published Jan. 5th in Environmental Research Letters, DRI researchers examine the role of spring heatwaves on the melting rates of mountain snowpacks across the West. They found that in April 2021, record-breaking snowmelt rates occurred at 24% of all mountain snowpack monitoring sites in the region, further compounding the impacts of extended …

Spring sunny heat waves caused record snow melt in 2021, adding to severe water supply impacts across the Western US Read More »

Now, 230 years later, a plant biology team led by Northwestern University, the Chicago Botanic Garden and the St. Vincent Botanical Gardens has, for the first time, traced five major lineages of Caribbean breadfruit back to that single introduction from Bligh’s voyage. Not only have the original breadfruit tree cultivars (or varieties produced by selective …

Caribbean breadfruit traced back to Capt. Bligh’s 1791-93 journey Read More »

The analysis, described in a new study in Science Advances by an international team of scientists led by researchers from Brown University, compares 10,000 years of past climate conditions reconstructed from different sets of geological records to simulations from an advanced climate model. The findings show that about 18,000 to 15,000 years ago, as a …

How climate change impacts the Indian Ocean dipole, leading to severe droughts and floods Read More »

“The strong association this study demonstrates between specific air pollutants among children in impoverished urban communities and non-viral asthma attacks further augments the evidence that reducing air pollution would improve human health,” said Hugh Auchincloss, M.D., acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH. The study was conducted …

Specific outdoor air pollutants linked to asthma attacks in urban children Read More »

In a recent study published in Nature Climate Change, these researchers analyzed projections from three dozen climate models and found that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation will slow by as much as 42 percent by 2100. The simulations suggest that under worst-case warming, the SMOC could cease entirely by …

Climate change could cause ‘disaster’ in the world’s oceans Read More »

“Unfortunately, it’s not great news for people living in coastal regions,” said Christina Patricola, an Iowa State University assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, an affiliate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and a study leader. “Atlantic hurricane seasons will become even more active in the future, and …

Cyclone researchers: Warming climate means more and stronger Atlantic tropical storms Read More »