Earth

A recently published paper provides a history of scientific research on mountain ecosystems, looks at the issues threatening wildlife in these systems, and sets an agenda for biodiversity conservation throughout the world's mountain regions.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- A team of University of Maryland physicists has published new nanoscience advances that they and other scientists say make possible new nanostructures and nanotechnologies with huge potential applications ranging from clean energy and quantum computing advances to new sensor development.

It's not always true that digital distribution of media will have lower carbon emissions than distribution by physical means, at least when file sizes are large.

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A research project which counts with the participation of the University of Granada has revealed new data on the climate change that took place in the Iberian Peninsula around the mid Holocene (around 6.000 years ago), when the amount of atmospheric dust coming from the Sahara increased. The data came from a study of the sediments found in an Alpine lake in Sierra Nevada (Granada)

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 2, 2014 – The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area of environmental concern between Hawaii and California where the ocean surface is marred by scattered pieces of plastic, which outweigh plankton in that part of the ocean and pose risks to fish, turtles and birds that eat the trash. Scientists believe the garbage patch is but one of at least five, each located in the center of large, circular ocean currents called gyres that suck in and trap floating debris.

Magnetic substorms, the disruptions in geomagnetic activity that cause brightening of aurora, may sometimes be driven by a different process than generally thought, a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics shows.

WASHINGTON, September 2, 2014 — Best-selling author Sam Kean stops by Reactions this week to debunk the myth of the Megalodon, the 50-foot super shark that, despite what "Shark Week" may lead you to believe, is long extinct. Learn all about it at http://youtu.be/KhFygIoW_MA.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Experts defend operational earthquake forecasting (OEF) in an editorial published in the Seismological Research Letters (SRL), arguing the importance of public communication as part of a suite of activities intended to improve public safety and mitigate damage from earthquakes. In a related article, Italian scientists detail the first official OEF system in Italy.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Before the shaking from one earthquake ends, shaking from another might begin, amplifying the effect of ground motion. Such sequences of closely timed, nearly overlapping, consecutive earthquakes account for devastating seismic events in Italy's history and should be taken into account when building new structures, according to research published in the September issue of the journal Seismological Research Letters (SRL).

Irvine, Calif. — Freshwater runoff from the Sierra Nevada may decrease by as much as one-quarter by 2100 due to climate warming on the high slopes, according to scientists at UC Irvine and UC Merced.

Accelerated plant growth at higher elevations caused by increasing temperatures would trigger more water absorption and evaporation, accounting for the projected runoff declines, the researchers add.

A new study paper in Nature Climate Change, suggests that, if current trends continue, food production will reach, if not exceed, the global targets for total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2050.

The study's authors say we should all think carefully about the food we choose and its environmental impact. A shift to vegetarian diets across the world is just one of a number of actions that need to be taken to avoid dangerous climate change and ensure there is enough food for all, they claim.

Greenhouses have improved the possibilities of invasion of greenhouse whitefly into the wild in the boreal region, new study finds. Genetic analysis sheds new light on the survival of whiteflies in Finland and helps to plan efficient pest management.

In nature, sub-surface bodies of molten or ductile rock might become abruptly depleted, resulting in the collapse of the overlying rock and the sometimes catastrophic formation of a "hole in the ground" at surface.

These are termed sinkholes in karst terrains and pit-craters or calderas on volcanoes. For the first time, S. Poppe and colleagues use computed X-ray micro-tomography (μCT), similar to the imaging of patients using CT-scanners, to image laboratory-scale models of such collapse process.

The Charnian Supergroup of Central England is a globally significant fossil locality where Precambrian complex life-forms are well preserved.

The Neoproterozoic Ediacaran Period was a seminal time in the evolution of multicellular life. Important among these Precambrian complex organisms were the Rangeomorphs and their possible taphomorphs (ivesheadiamorphs).