Category: Nature

Food wrapping, fishing gear and plastic waste continue to reach the Antarctic. Two new studies into how plastic debris is reaching sub-Antarctic islands are published in the journal Environment International. Fig 1. Plastic debris has been collected at Bird Island and Signy Island for the last three decades  New findings include analyses of some of…

Fig 1. Glowing Flowers The movie Avatar evoked an imaginary world of lush bioluminescent jungles. Now the popular fascination for sustainably glowing foliage is being realized through advances in designer genetics. This week in Nature Biotechnology, scientists have announced the feasibility of creating plants that produce their own visible luminescence. The scientists revealed that bioluminescence…

Fig 1. A male Podarcis erhardii, the Aegean wall lizard Relocated in small groups to experimental islands, lizards rapidly and repeatedly developed new chemical signals for communicating with each other. Free from the risk of predators and intent to attract potential mates, male lizards produce a novel chemical calling card, according to new research from…

Flamingos form friendships that last for years, new research shows. The five-year study reveals that, despite being highly social as part of large flocks, flamingos consistently spend time with specific close “friends”. They also avoid certain individuals, suggesting some flamingos just don’t get on. The University of Exeter study examined four flamingo species at WWT…

Cities that declared a state of emergency in February due to outbreaks of COVID-19 saw air pollution decrease by up to 40% as businesses close their doors and residents stayed home, a University of Toronto researcher has found. Marc Cadotte, a professor in the department of biological sciences at U of T Scarborough, looked at…

Fig 1. Carbon loss traditional measurement at 150 meters compared to carbon loss measurement considering depth of sunlight penetration.           Every spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the ocean surface erupts in a massive bloom of phytoplankton. Like plants, these single-celled floating organisms use photosynthesis to turn light into energy, consuming carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen…

Temperatures last month were among the hottest on record for March, the European Union’s satellite monitoring service said Monday, with particularly extreme warm weather over Russia, home to much of Earth’s permafrost. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said March 2020 was 0.68 degrees Celsius warmer than the average March from 1981 to 2010, and…

Nitrogen is essential for all living things. Synthetic fertilizer, which contains rich reactive nitrogen, has sustained food production, but the nitrogen it emits is also a burden to the environment, such as air pollution, soil acidification, and water eutrophication. Although numerous field studies have been conducted to understand the implications of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in…

Stratospheric aerosol geoengineering is the idea that adding a layer of aerosol particles to the upper atmosphere can reduce climate changes caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Previous research shows that solar geoengineering could be achieved using commercially available aircraft technologies to deliver the particles at a cost of a few billion dollars…

The natural coastal defenses provided by mangrove forests reduce annual flooding significantly in critical hotspots around the world. Without mangroves, flood damages would increase by more than $65 billion annually, and 15 million more people would be flooded, according to a new study published March 10 in Scientific Reports. “Mangroves provide incredibly effective natural defenses,…