Earth | Page 572 | Science Codex

With droughts and downpours, climate change feeds Chesapeake Bay algal blooms

Nitrogen-rich agricultural runoff into the Chesapeake Bay presents an ongoing environmental and economic concern for the bay's massive watershed. Pollution from fertilizer application feeds algal blooms that poison humans and marine life, and devastate fisheries.

While efforts to restore the bay have been successful during the past several years, a study led by Princeton University researchers shows that weather patterns tied to climate change may nonetheless increase the severity of algal blooms by changing how soil nutrients leach into the watershed.

User-friendly language for programming efficient simulations

Computer simulations of physical systems are common in science, engineering, and entertainment, but they use several different types of tools.

If, say, you want to explore how a crack forms in an airplane wing, you need a very precise physical model of the crack's immediate vicinity. But if you want to simulate the flexion of an airplane wing under different flight conditions, it's more practical to use a simpler, higher-level description of the wing.

Study: Seawalls, coastal forests in Japan help reduce tsunami damage

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers who analyzed a history of tsunamis along the Pacific coast of Japan's Tohoku region have learned that seawalls higher than 5 meters reduce damage and death, while coastal forests also play an important role in protecting the public.

The analysis was performed by researchers at Tohoku University, Maryland Institute College of Art, the University of Michigan and Purdue University. The researchers studied data from tsunamis in 1896, 1933, 1960, and 2011.

Warmer climate could lower dengue risk

Health researchers predict that the transmission of dengue could decrease in a future warmer climate, countering previous projections that climate change would cause the potentially lethal virus to spread more easily.

Hundreds of millions of people are infected with dengue each year, with some children dying in severe cases, and this research helps to address this significant global health problem.

Tracing the evolution of bird reproduction

What really did come first--the chicken or the egg? Birds' reproductive biology is dramatically different from that of any other living vertebrates, and ornithologists and paleontologists have long wondered how and when the unique features of bird reproduction originated. A new Review in The Auk: Ornithological Advances examines answers from three sources--modern birds, fossils of primitive birds, and fossils of the dinosaurs from which birds are descended--to shed new light on the subject.

Climate change already accelerating sea level rise, study finds

BOULDER, Colo. -- Greenhouse gases are already having an accelerating effect on sea level rise, but the impact has so far been masked by the cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Researchers immobilize underwater bubbles

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 9, 2016 -- Controlling bubbles is a difficult process and one that many of us experienced in a simplistic form as young children wielding a bubble wand, trying to create bigger bubbles without popping them. A research team in CINaM-CNRS Aix-Marseille Université in France has turned child's play into serious business.

Double whammy for important Baltic seaweed

Wherever ecosystems rich in species develop on the rocky shores of the Baltic Sea, the bladder wrack Fucus vesiculosus has provided perfect groundwork. By colonizing pebbles and rocks, it creates habitats for many other species. Other algae grow on the seaweed to be grazed by snails, isopods and amphipods. Crustaceans, mussels and predatory fish as well as many smaller organisms that are important for the Baltic Sea ecosystem thrive in submarine Fucus forests.

6 steps to extinction

Invasive plants are a problem around the world, but are they just a nuisance or are they killers? So far there are no documented cases of native plants becoming extinct purely because of an alien plant invasion. However, researchers Paul Downey and David Richardson argue in a paper published this month in AoB PLANTS, 'Alien plant invasions and native plant extinctions: a six-threshold framework', that traditional methods of modelling extinction do not work well for plants. Focusing purely on extinction can distract plant conservationists from growing problems.

Cement design should take into account the water confined in the smallest pores

As it is a basic building material used across the world, cement is subjected to a vast range of conditions, both physiological and meteorological, no matter whether they are caused by extreme temperatures and humidity, pressure, etc. It is possible to find conditions ranging from -80 ºC, in places such as the scientific bases in the Antarctic, to several hundreds of degrees in infrastructures close to heat sources or in the case of fires, for example.

How to make fish less fishy (video)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2016 -- Freshly caught fish is delicious. But with every passing day, the nice filet in your fridge smells a little fishier, thanks to a stinky molecule known as trimethylamine. Is there any hope? This week, Reactions helps make fish taste and smell less fishy with chemistry. Learn about the amino acids that give fresh fish its sweet and savory flavor, and get three chemistry-backed tricks to cut down the fishy taste and smell.

Neutrinos, ever bizarre, enjoy the spotlight

Buzzing through space, through our bodies, virtually everywhere, are billions upon billions of neutrinos. Behind only photons as the most abundant fundamental particle in the universe, neutrinos are enjoying a popular heyday. The subject of a recent Nobel Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, neutrinos have hundreds of scientists all over the world, including several at Colorado State University, working to unlock all their mysteries.

Bleed like hell

Platelets are small anucleated blood cells responsible for stopping bleeding. They detect blood vessel damage and agglutinate, creating aggregates and stopping the blood loss. This process is called hemostasis (from the Greek "haimatos" -- blood, "stasis" -- stop). Platelets become able to aggregate and plug the wound upon activation. Scientists consider that the platelet is one of the simplest cells in the human body, because the goal of its life is to decide whether activate or not. But despite this relative simplicity, numerous questions remain about the mechanisms of its functioning.

1400 km of optical fiber connect optical clocks in France and Germany

In the past few years, optical atomic clocks have made spectacular progress, becoming 100 times more precise than the best caesium clocks. So far, their precision has been available only locally, since frequency transfer via satellite cannot provide sufficient resolution. This has recently changed thanks to a new direct optical connection between France and Germany, established by joint work of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig, Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace (LNE-SYRTE) in Paris, and Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (LPL) in Villetaneuse.

Drought conditions slow the growth of Douglas fir trees across the West

Whether growing along the rim of the Grand Canyon or living in the mist with California's coastal redwoods, Douglas fir trees are consistently sensitive to drought conditions that occur throughout the species' range in the United States, according to a study led by a researcher at the University of California, Davis.

The study, published Aug. 8 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides direct evidence of the negative impact of water stress on forest ecosystems. It also pinpointed which conditions are causing low growth among Douglas fir trees.