NOTICIAS ACTUALES SOBRE EL AMBIENTE
Air pollution in New York City linked to wildfires hundreds of miles away
A new study shows that air pollutants from the smoke of fires from as far as Canada and the southeastern US traveled hundreds of miles and several days to reach Connecticut and New York City, where it caused significant increases in pollution concentrations.
22.Ene.2020
Missing piece to urban air quality puzzle
Air quality models have long failed to accurately predict atmospheric levels of secondary organic aerosol, which comprises a substantial fraction of the fine particulate matter in cities. But researchers have found a missing source of emissions that may explain roughly half of that SOA, closing much of the model-measurement gap.
22.Ene.2020
Emissions of potent greenhouse gas have grown, contradicting reports of huge reductions
Despite reports that global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas were almost eliminated in 2017, an international team of scientists has found atmospheric levels growing at record values.
21.Ene.2020
Life aquatic for many spider species
Researchers have found that nearly one fifth of all spider families are associated with saltwater or freshwater aquatic habitats. Their findings address the common misconception that all spiders dwell on land, and reveal surprising evolutionary pathways of this group from a land-based existence back to a water-based existence.
21.Ene.2020
Addressing global warming with new nanoparticles and sunshine
Harvesting sunlight, IBS scientists reported a new strategy to transform carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen (O2) and pure carbon monoxide (CO) without side-products in water. This artificial photosynthesis method could bring new solutions to environmental pollution and global warming.
21.Ene.2020
Setting controlled fires to avoid wildfires
Despite having proven effective at reducing wildfire risks, prescribed burns have been stymied by perceived and real risks, regulations and resource shortages. A new analysis highlights ways of overcoming those barriers, offering solutions for wildfire-ravaged landscapes.
20.Ene.2020
Mix of stress and air pollution may lead to cognitive difficulties in children
Children with elevated exposure to early life stress in the home and elevated prenatal exposure to air pollution exhibited heightened symptoms of attention and thought problems, according to researchers. Early life stress is common in youth from disadvantaged backgrounds who also often live in areas with greater exposure to air pollution.
16.Ene.2020
How anti-sprawl policies may be harming water quality
Urban growth boundaries are created by governments in an effort to concentrate urban development -- buildings, roads and the utilities that support them -- within a defined area. These boundaries are intended to decrease negative impacts on people and the environment. However, according to a researcher, policies that aim to reduce urban sprawl may be increasing water pollution.
16.Ene.2020
The carbon footprint of dinner: How 'green' are fish sticks?
Fish sticks may be a tasty option for dinner, but are they good for the planet? A new study of the climate impacts of seafood products reveals that the processing of Alaskan pollock into fish sticks, imitation crab, and fish fillets generates significant greenhouse gas emissions.
16.Ene.2020
A wearable gas sensor for health and environmental monitoring
A highly sensitive, wearable gas sensor for environmental and human health monitoring may soon become commercially available.
16.Ene.2020
Air pollution from oil and gas production sites visible from space
US and European satellites help scientists measure nitrogen dioxide from drilling, production and flaring.
15.Ene.2020
Building materials come alive with help from bacteria
New living building materials can grow and multiply -- and may help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from infrastructure in the future.
15.Ene.2020
Nitrogen-fixing genes could help grow more food using fewer resources
Scientists have transferred a collection of genes into plant-colonizing bacteria that let them draw nitrogen from the air and turn it into ammonia, a natural fertilizer. The work could help farmers around the world use less human-made fertilizers to grow important food crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans.
15.Ene.2020
Are sinking soils in the Everglades related to climate change?
Characterized by alligators, airboats and catfish, the Everglades is a region of swampy wetlands in southern Florida. In addition to the area's role in Florida's tourism industry, the Everglades play a significant part in protecting our environment - through carbon sequestration.
15.Ene.2020
Robotic gripping mechanism mimics how sea anemones catch prey
Researchers demonstrated a robotic gripping mechanism that mimics how a sea anemone catches its prey. The bionic torus captures and releases objects by crimping its skin. The grasper not only is relatively cheap and easy to produce but also can grab a variety of objects of different sizes, shapes, weights and materials.
14.Ene.2020
School indoor air quality cannot be reliably assessed based on pupils' symptoms
The association between indoor air quality of the school building and the pupils' symptoms was so weak that it is not possible to reliably assess the quality of the indoor air based on the amount of reported symptoms.
14.Ene.2020
Iodine may slow ozone layer recovery
Air pollution and iodine from the ocean contribute to damage of Earth's ozone layer.
13.Ene.2020
Future subtropical warming accelerates tropical climate change
In response to future fossil fuel burning, climate computer models simulate a pronounced warming in the tropical oceans. This warming can influence the El Niño phenomenon and shift weather and rainfall patterns across the globe. Despite being robustly simulated in computer models of the climate system, the origin of this accelerated tropical warming has remained a mystery. A new study concludes that climate change outside the tropics is the main culprit.
13.Ene.2020
Low-temp photocatalyst could slash the carbon footprint for syngas
Engineers have created a light-powered nanoparticle that could shrink the carbon footprint of syngas producers.
10.Ene.2020
SuperTIGER on its second prowl -- 130,000 feet above Antarctica
A balloon-borne scientific instrument designed to study the origin of cosmic rays is taking its second turn high above the continent of Antarctica three and a half weeks after its launch.
10.Ene.2020
Global warming is the kindling that caused extensive wildfire
Researchers identified Arctic Oscillation as the cause for the recent wildfires in Siberia. Their study forecasts wildfire activity in spring, helping to prevent carbon release and global warming.
10.Ene.2020
Cracks in Arctic sea ice turn low clouds on and off
The prevailing view has been that more leads are associated with more low-level clouds during winter. But an atmospheric scientists noticed something strange in their study of these leads: when lead occurrence was greater, there were fewer, not more clouds.
10.Ene.2020
How do corals make the most of their symbiotic algae?
Corals depend on their symbiotic relationships with the algae that they host. But how do they keep algal population growth in check? The answer to this fundamental question could help reefs survive in a changing climate. New work indicates how sea anemones, which are closely related to coral, control the size of the algal populations that reside within their tissue.
08.Ene.2020
Evolving landscape added fuel to Gobi Desert's high-speed winds
A new study finds that the dark, rocky landscape of the Hami basin in the Gobi Desert helped to make it one of the windiest places in China.
08.Ene.2020
Sea-ice-free Arctic makes permafrost vulnerable to thawing
New research provides evidence from Siberian caves suggesting that summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean plays an essential role in stabilizing permafrost and its large store of carbon.
08.Ene.2020
Debunking previous studies that say tropical fish are behaving oddly
Biologists help debunk previous studies that say tropical fish are behaving oddly as oceans gets more acidic due to climate change.
08.Ene.2020
Air pollution in childhood linked to schizophrenia
Children who grow up in areas with heavy air pollution have a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.
07.Ene.2020
Poplar genetically modified not to harm air quality grow as well as non-modified trees
Field trials in Oregon and Arizona show that poplar trees, which emit trace amounts of the gas isoprene, can be genetically modified not to harm air quality while leaving their growth potential unchanged.
06.Ene.2020
Shutdown of coal-fired plants in US saves lives and improves crop yields
The decommissioning of coal-fired power plants in the continental United States has reduced nearby pollution and its negative impacts on human health and crop yields, according to a new study.
06.Ene.2020
Air pollution can worsen bone health
A new study with over 3,700 people in India associates air pollution with a higher risk to develop osteoporosis.
03.Ene.2020
Life could have emerged from lakes with high phosphorus
Life as we know it requires phosphorus, and lots of it. But phosphorus is scarce. A new study reports that certain types of carbonate-rich lakes, which could have formed on early Earth, have the right chemistry to keep phosphorous levels high and available to organisms.
30.Dic.2019
Untangling links between nitrogen oxides and airborne sulfates helps tackle hazy air pollution
A research team has unveiled a first-in-kind study of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and its role in the rise and fall of airborne sulfates in hazy air pollution, offering policymakers new insights into ways to tackle smoggy weather.
24.Dic.2019
300 million year old atmospheric dust
Dust plays a crucial role in the life and health of our planet. In our modern world, dust-borne nutrients traveling in great dust storms from the Saharan Desert fertilize the soil in the Amazon Rainforest and feed photosynthetic organisms like algae in the Atlantic Ocean. In turn, it is those organisms that breathe in carbon dioxide and expel oxygen.
23.Dic.2019
Berlin's bright sky isn't a bat's thing
People can hardly imagine a city without night-time street lighting. But how do nocturnal animals such as bats respond to the illuminated urban landscape? In a recent study, scientists equipped common noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) with mini GPS transmitters and recorded their trajectories in the sky above Berlin. They show that common noctules avoid brightly lit, built-up areas.
20.Dic.2019
Could every country have a Green New Deal? Report charts paths for 143 countries
Researchers offer an updated vision of the steps that 143 countries around the world can take to attain 100% clean, renewable energy by the year 2050. The new roadmaps project that transitioning to clean, renewable energy could reduce worldwide energy needs by 57%, create 28.6 million more jobs than are lost, and reduce energy, health, and climate costs by 91% compared with a business-as-usual analysis.
20.Dic.2019
How microbes reflect the health of coral reefs
Microorganisms play important roles in the health and protection of coral reefs, yet exploring these connections can be difficult due to the lack of unspoiled reef systems throughout the global ocean.
19.Dic.2019
Pregnancy hypertension risk increased by traffic-related air pollution
A new report suggests that traffic-related air pollution increases a pregnant woman's risk for dangerous increases in blood pressure, known as hypertension.
18.Dic.2019
Star fruit could be the new 'star' of Florida agriculture
Cover crops may increase sustainability of carambola groves.
18.Dic.2019
Effects of natural gas assessed in study of shale gas boom in Appalachian basin
A new study estimated the cumulative effects of the shale gas boom in the Appalachian basin in the early 2000s on air quality, climate change, and employment. The study found that effects on air quality and employment followed the boom-and-bust cycle, but effects on climate change will likely persist for generations to come. The study, which also considered how to compensate for these effects, provides insights for long-term decision making in this field.
17.Dic.2019
Big step in producing carbon-neutral fuel: Silver diphosphide
A new chemical process does in the lab what trees do in nature -- it converts carbon dioxide into usable chemicals or fuels.
16.Dic.2019
Tiny shells reveal waters off California are acidifying twice as fast as the global ocean
In first-of-its-kind research, scientists used 100 years of microscopic shells to show that the coastal waters off California are acidifying twice as fast as the global ocean average -- with the seafood supply in the crosshairs.
16.Dic.2019
Warming climate will impact dead zones in Chesapeake Bay
In recent years, scientists have projected increasingly large summer dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay, areas where there is little or no oxygen for living things like crabs and fish to thrive, even as long-term efforts to reduce nutrient pollution continue. Researchers factored in local impacts of climate change to make projections of what the oxygen content of the Chesapeake Bay will look like in the future.
16.Dic.2019
Following the lizard lung labyrinth
Birds and mammals are on extreme ends of the airflow spectrum. Mammals inhale oxygen-rich air and they exhale depleted air, exhibiting a so-called tidal flow pattern. In contrast, bird breath travels tidally through part of the respiratory system, but in a one-way loop throughout most of the lung. Biologists have discovered that Savannah monitor lizards have lung structures that are hybrid system of bird and mammal lungs.
14.Dic.2019
Barrels of ancient Antarctic air aim to track history of rare gas
An Antarctic field campaign last winter led by the US and Australia has successfully extracted some of the largest samples of air dating from the 1870s until today. Researchers will use the samples to look for changes in the molecules that scrub the atmosphere of methane and other gases.
13.Dic.2019
Study highlights high cost of fossil fuel pollution on children's health
A new study has compiled the estimated per-case costs of 6 childhood health conditions linked to air pollution -- estimates that can be incorporated into benefits assessments of air pollution regulations and climate change mitigation policies.
12.Dic.2019
Transformative change can save humans and nature
Human impacts on life on Earth are unprecedented, requiring transformative action to address root economic, social and technological causes.
12.Dic.2019
Deforestation, erosion exacerbate mercury spikes near Peruvian gold mining
Scientists have developed a model that can predict the amount of mercury being released into a local ecosystem from deforestation. The research could point toward ways to mitigate the worst effects of mercury poisoning in regions already experiencing elevated mercury levels caused by small-scale gold mining practices, such as those in the Peruvian Amazon.
12.Dic.2019
Supporting structures of wind turbines contribute to wind farm blockage effect
Much about the aerodynamic effects of larger wind farms remains poorly understood. New work looks to provide more insight in how the structures necessary for wind farms affect air flow. Using a two-scale coupled momentum balance method, researchers theoretically and computationally reconstructed conditions that large wind farms might face in the future, including the dampening effect that comes with spacing turbines close to one another.
12.Dic.2019
Risk analysis powers air pollution solutions
Exposure to certain particulate matter can cause respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous system issues, especially in vulnerable populations.
11.Dic.2019
Mountain goats' air conditioning is failing, study says
A new study says Glacier National Park's iconic mountain goats are in dire need of 'air conditioning.'
11.Dic.2019