Most recent 40 articles: PHYS.ORG - Earth
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April temperatures in Bangladesh hottest on record - PHYS.ORG - Earth (May 1) |
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May 1 · Bangladesh's weather bureau said Wednesday that last month was the hottest April on record, with the South Asian nation and much of the region still enduring a suffocating heat wave.
Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Punishing heat last month prompted Bangladesh's government to close schools across the country, keeping an estimated 32 million students at home.
"This year the heat wave covered around 80 percent of the country. We've not seen such unbroken and expansive heat waves before," Bangladesh Meteorological Department senior forecaster Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told AFP. Read more ...
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Study says El Nino, not climate change, was key driver of low rainfall that snarled Panama Canal - PHYS.ORG - Earth (May 1) |
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May 1 · The climate phenomenon known as El Niño - and not climate change - was a key driver in low rainfall that disrupted shipping at the Panama Canal last year, scientists said Wednesday.
A team of international scientists found that El Niño - a natural warming of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide - doubled the likelihood of the low precipitation Panama received during last year's rainy season. That dryness reduced water levels at the reservoir that feeds freshwater to the Panama Canal and provides drinking water for more than half of the Central American country.
Human-caused climate change was not a primary driver of the Central American country's unusually ... Read more ...
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New study looks at US Drought Monitor to see how it has reflected climate change since 2000 - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Though generated by experts and informed by data, it is in some ways a subjective interpretation of drought conditions. And it carries significant political and economic ramifications—the USDM informs state declarations of emergency, as well as drought relief payments issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDM classifies localities into six drought categories, ranging from "none" to "exceptional." Each category is based on thresholds of event rarity. Some weeks, the placid white representing normal conditions blankets much of the country; other weeks, splotchy maroon pockets of exceptional drought pop off the map like blistered burns.
In a study ... Read more ...
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A virus could help save billions of gallons of wastewater produced by fracking - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · In a new study published in the journal Water, researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have identified a novel means of treating the wastewater generated by oil and gas production: bacteriophages.
Ramón Antonio Sánchez, a doctoral candidate within UTEP's chemistry program, is the first author on the publication, detailing how bacteriophages, viruses that are often highly specific and lethal to a single species of bacteria, can be used as a rapid and cost-effective method to treat produced water on an industrial scale.
Sánchez said if the work is successful, it would give the oil and gas industry a means of treating, reusing and recycling ... Read more ...
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Abrupt permafrost thaw found to intensify warming effects on soil CO₂ emission - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · According to a recent study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists have found that soil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are more sensitive to climate warming in permafrost-collapsed areas than in non-collapsed areas.
This study, based on field warming experiments combined with laboratory incubation of soils from a large-scale sampling, provides new insights about permafrost carbon–climate feedback in the context of future climate warming.
Warmer temperatures have led to rapid permafrost thawing in high-latitude and high-altitude permafrost regions. Abrupt permafrost thaw, known as thermokarst, occurs in approximately 20% of the northern permafrost region, but this ... Read more ...
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Atmospheric 'teleconnections' sustain warm blobs in the northeast Pacific Ocean - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · The first warm patch discovered in the northeast Pacific Ocean was the "Blob" event of 2013–2016, followed by another warm blob in 2019–2020.
The Blob stretched from coastal Alaska to the Baja region of California, with sea surface temperatures as much as 6°C above normal. Vital fish stocks such as sockeye salmon and Pacific cod were impacted, and the event saw geographical shifts of a number of species, including phytoplankton, as well as the closures of important fisheries and mass strandings of marine mammals and seabirds. But some species increased in numbers, such as pyrosomes, bioluminescent colonies of millimeter-sized individuals and commonly called ... Read more ...
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Believing environmental damage is done by others can cause 'race to the bottom' - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Common-pool resources, such as forests, fisheries, and groundwater, need to be managed effectively to reduce over-harvesting and environmental damage. Researchers knew that strong boundaries around a community's common-pool resource could promote effective management, but they weren't exactly sure why.
The new research—in collaboration with mangrove-dependent communities in Tanzania—reveals that boundaries don't just keep others out, but also promote good conservation practices by community members.
Without effective boundaries, communities can be subject to theft from neighbors. The study reveals that if they then believe that this theft is causing ... Read more ...
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Big data reveals true climate impact of worldwide air travel - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · When countries signed the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty, high-income countries were required to report their aviation-related emissions. But 151 middle and lower income countries, including China and India, were not required to report these emissions, although they could do so voluntarily.
This matters because the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change relies on country reports of emissions during negotiations on country-specific emissions cuts.
"Our work fills the reporting gap, so that this can inform policy and hopefully improve future negotiations," says Jan Klenner, a Ph.D. candidate at NTNU's Industrial Ecology ... Read more ...
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Clouds blanket the night side of the hot exoplanet WASP-43b - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Violent winds transport the searing hot air to the nightside, where it cools to 600°C, allowing clouds to form and blanket the entire hemisphere. These tempests impair chemical reactions so much that methane can barely form, even though it should be abundant under calmer conditions.
Hot Jupiters are extreme gas giant exoplanets that orbit their host stars in close proximity, leading to several exotic properties regarding temperature, density, composition, chemistry, and weather. With the advent of groundbreakingly sensitive telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have begun to study their atmospheres in great detail.
An international ... Read more ...
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Enceladus spills its guts through strike–slip motion - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · At Enceladus's south pole, a large number of jets spray icy particles out from a set of jagged, 150-kilometer-long faults—known as the tiger-stripe faults—and this ejected material coalesces above the moon's surface to form a plume. Samples of this plume material analyzed by NASA's Cassini mission suggests that the chemical conditions believed to be necessary for life may exist in the ocean deep beneath Enceladus's surface.
Now, new research led by graduate student Alexander Berne (MS '22), working with Mark Simons, the John W. and Herberta M. Miles Professor of Geophysics and director of the Brinson Exploration Hub at Caltech, uses a detailed geophysical model to ... Read more ...
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Exploiting disorder to harvest heat energy: The potentialities of 2D magnets for thermoelectric applications - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · However, despite more than 100 years of intense research, thermoelectric efficiencies are still lower than that of conventional heat engines, making thermoelectrics only suitable for niche applications.
That is why one of the main endeavors of scientists today is to find new strategies to improve this efficiency. Our latest article "Impact of spin-entropy on the thermoelectric properties of a 2D magnet," published in Nano Letters, demonstrates that a solution could lie in circuits based on two-dimensional (2D) magnetic layers.
Tuning the entropy in magnets
Thermoelectric properties are significantly influenced by entropy, which quantifies the disorder in a system. ... Read more ...
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G7 to phase out coal-fired power plants by mid-2030s - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · G7 ministers agreed a timeframe Tuesday for phasing out coal-fired power plants, setting as a goal the mid-2030s, in a move hailed as significant by some environmentalists but slammed as "too late" by others.
The Group of Seven two-day meeting in Turin was the first big political session since the world pledged at the UN's COP28 annual climate summit in Dubai in December to transition away from coal, oil and gas.
The G7 commits to "phase out existing unabated coal power generation in our energy systems during the first half of 2030s," the final statement from energy and climate ministers read.
However it left some wiggle room, saying nations could follow "a ... Read more ...
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How the plant world shapes the climate cycle - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, Earth has lived through a series of climatic shifts, shaping the planet as we know it today. Past changes in CO2 levels and temperature can help us understand the planet's response to global warming today.
As part of a growing field called biogeodynamics, researchers are racing to understand how such changes have impacted life on the planet in the past. "We're trying to understand processes relevant to the present using the geological past," says Julian Rogger, who focuses on biogeodynamics at the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich.
Rogger is fascinated by the interplay of plant life and climate. So far our planet is ... Read more ...
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Measuring your food waste for six weeks can change your habits, according to new study - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · The fact that there is often little or no conscious thought involved in routine daily food preparation means that ingredients that must be used before they expire are often left to go off.
Every year, 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally. This is the equivalent of one-third of all the food produced for human consumption.
In the UK alone, households wasted 6.4 million tons of food between 2021 and 2022. Accounting for the fossil energy used to grow and harvest that food, as well as the greenhouse gases released when it rots in fields or landfills, this waste equates to 18 million tons of CO₂ emissions.
Food waste harms the environment, but reducing how ... Read more ...
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Only four G20 countries set for positive ecological footprint by 2050, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · In a study led by Professor Lenny Koh from Sheffield's Energy Institute and published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers have revealed that only Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Russia are expected to have a positive impact on the environment by 2050—the milestone for net zero.
The study also presents a new method for predicting ecological impacts using AI, which could be more accurate at predicting future trends.
This analysis used key data for each G20 nation, such as consumption per capita, biocapacity per capita, area per capita, GDP per capita, electricity use per capita, emissions per capita, and fossil fuel consumption per capita. These variables ... Read more ...
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Researchers reveal water-assisted oxidative redispersion of metal nanoparticles - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · In addition, most support surfaces, such as γ-Al2O3, SiO2, and CeO2, could undergo hydroxylation in a moist atmosphere to form abundant surface OH groups that captured migrating Cu species.
The "push" (migration) and "pull" (anchoring) effects of gaseous H2O facilitated the structural transformation of Cu species from Cu nanoparticles to Cu single atoms at RT, thereby enhancing their catalytic activity in the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) and preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO-PROX) reaction.
This study highlighted the significant role of H2O in the dynamic structural evolution of supported metal nanocatalysts and developed a simple strategy for the ... Read more ...
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Scientists show that ancient village adapted to drought, rising seas - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Previously, archaeologists believed that this abrupt shift in global climate, called the 8.2ka event, may have led to the widespread abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. In a recent study published in the journal Antiquity, researchers at UC San Diego, the University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University share new evidence suggesting at least one village formerly thought abandoned not only remained occupied, but thrived throughout this period.
"This [study] helped fill a gap in our understanding of the early settlement of the Eastern Mediterranean coastline," said Thomas Levy, a co-author on the paper, co-director of the Center for Cyber-Archaeology and ... Read more ...
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Should chatbots chime in on climate change? Study explore potential of AI platforms for climate literacy - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · "I think what we found is that it's OK to use artificial intelligence, you just have to be careful and you can't take it word-for-word," said Gina Girgente, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in geography last spring. "It's definitely not a foolproof method."
Girgente was part of an interdisciplinary research team that posed questions about three climate change-related hazards—tropical storms, floods, and droughts—in 191 countries to both free and paid versions of ChatGPT. Developed by OpenAI Inc., ChatGPT is a large-language model designed to understand questions and generate text responses based on requests from users.
The group then compared the ... Read more ...
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Study shows climate change and mercury pollution stressed plants for millions of years - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Extreme climate change, from the release of carbon dioxide, degradation of the ozone layer due to the injection of damaging chemicals, and the emissions of toxic pollutants are all seen as contributing factors. One toxic element stands out: mercury. As one of the most toxic elements on Earth, Hg is a metal that is emitted from volcanoes in gaseous form and thus has the capacity to spread worldwide.
A new study in Nature Communications adds new compelling evidence for the combined effects of global warming and widespread mercury pollution that continued to stress plants long after volcanic activity had ceased.
An international team of Dutch, Chinese, Danish, British, and ... Read more ...
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Unveiling nature's custodians: Study highlights crucial role of scavengers in wetlands - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · The article, published in Biological Reviews, emphasizes that the benefits provided by scavengers far outweigh the potential drawbacks. Among their essential functions are the recycling and transportation of nutrients and the regulation of water quality, benefiting the entire ecosystem, from soil and plants to birds and mammals.
Historically, animals that feed on other dead animals have received less attention from society, and they have even been assigned a secondary role in ecosystems. However, recent studies have shown that scavengers play a crucial ecological role in eliminating organic matter and rapidly recycling nutrients into the ecosystem. But despite the increased ... Read more ...
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Bangladesh again closes schools nationwide due to heat wave - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · A Bangladeshi court ordered a nationwide shutdown of schools on Monday due to an ongoing heat wave, the day after the government sent millions of children back to class despite searing temperatures.
Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Average temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2-9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period.
The government said at least seven people had died as a result of the extreme heat since the start of April, with maximum temperatures in the capital forecast to remain above ... Read more ...
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China's bid to decarbonize may have hidden costs - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · In a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment, Stefano Galelli, associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in Cornell Engineering, and colleagues attempt to quantify how decarbonizing the China Southern Power Grid, which provides electricity to more than 300 million people, will negatively impact river basins, most of which run from China into downstream countries, and will reduce the amount of cropland in China.
"If we think of any major technological change, they always have costs and unintended consequences," Galelli said. "The sooner we realize and address them, the more sustainable and equitable the energy transition will be. We ... Read more ...
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China's cement industry: Potential contributor to carbon neutrality - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · In a recent study published in Science China Earth Sciences, researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have unveiled new advances in the carbon capture capabilities of China's cement industry and its potential contribution to carbon neutrality.
Cement production is a significant source of human-induced carbon emissions. China accounts for more than half of the world's annual cement production. The industry's carbon emissions are estimated to be about 7% of the country's total emissions.
However, the alkaline compounds in cement materials can slowly absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the surrounding environment through mineral ... Read more ...
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Climate change, Brexit threaten to wilt Dutch tulips - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Arjan Smit gazes out over his tulip fields, a riot of red and pink flowers he has cultivated all his adult life and part of a family business his grandfather started in 1940.
The 55-year-old has seen many changes over a long career but he says climate change is making an all-consuming profession even harder.
"The climate has changed. We can feel that. We have more wet periods. Last year, it was just raining, raining, raining and you can see the result," he told AFP.
From a distance, the fields of Smitflowers are a picture-perfect row of flowers, the type found on Dutch tourist brochures that attract visitors from around the world.
But he also pointed to muddy ... Read more ...
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European Bison can adapt well to the Mediterranean climate of southern Spain, analysis suggests - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · A study published in Biodiversity and Conservation which involved the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has conducted a comparative analysis, for the first time, of the feeding of three large herbivores, the European bison (Bison bonasus), the red deer (Cervus elaphus) and the fallow deer (Dama dama), all of which coexist in Mediterranean forests.
The study was carried out on the El Encinarejo farm, with an area of 1,000 ha and located in the Sierra de Andújar (Jaén), characterized by a typical Mediterranean scrubland habitat with a predominance of holm oak groves and an abundance of shrubs such as mastic, lavender ... Read more ...
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Fading lights: Comprehensive study unveils multiple threats to North America's firefly populations - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, "Illuminating Patterns of Firefly Abundance Using Citizen Science Data and Machine Learning Models," identified the factors likely responsible for troubling declines in firefly populations across North America.
To study these population changes, the research used a mix of field surveys from citizen scientists and advanced machine learning techniques to analyze over 24,000 surveys from the Firefly Watch citizen science initiative.
"Subtle changes in climate patterns, especially related to temperature, are significantly impacting firefly breeding cycles and habitat quality," said Darin McNeil, study principal ... Read more ...
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G7 reportedly agrees end date for coal-fired power plants - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · G7 energy ministers have agreed a time frame for phasing out coal-fired power plants, a British minister said Monday, as the UN warned "excuses" for failing to take bold actions on climate change were "not acceptable".
The Group of Seven meeting in Turin is the first big political session since the world pledged at the UN's COP28 climate summit in December to transition away from coal, oil and gas.
On the first of the two days of talks, energy and ecological transition ministers from the G7 agreed to committing to a common target of shutting down coal-fired power plants, according to British Nuclear and Renewables Minister Andrew Bowie.
"We do have an agreement to ... Read more ...
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G7 to commit to reducing plastic production: French ministry - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · The G7 is expected to commit to reducing plastic production in order to tackle the global scourge of pollution, France's ecological transition ministry said Monday.
Plastics are found everywhere from mountaintops to ocean depths, and in human blood and breast milk.
"The G7 recognizes for the first time that the level of plastic pollution is unsustainable and that its increase is alarming," the French delegation said in a note on the sidelines of the G7 environment ministers' meeting in Turin.
"The G7 is committed to reducing the overall production of primary polymers in order to put an end to plastic pollution in 2040," the note read.
The Group of Seven ... Read more ...
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How did the early Great Barrier Reef manage rapid environmental change? - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · It has been speculated, with little direct data, that these factors inhibited the emergence of the modern Great Barrier Reef. Now, for the first time, geoscientists have managed to determine how these factors, particularly water quality, contributed to the reef's development between about 8,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Their findings, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, confirm a long-standing idea that elevated nutrient levels impacted reef growth. In modern coral reefs, nutrient-rich waters have been observed to favor macro algae, which can outcompete corals, as well as cause increases in bio-eroders that can weaken coral skeletons.
As the modern reef emerged ... Read more ...
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Laser excitation of Th-229 nucleus: New findings suggest classical quantum physics and nuclear physics can be combined - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Now this hope has come true: The long-sought thorium transition has been found, and its energy is now known exactly. For the first time, it has been possible to use a laser to transfer an atomic nucleus into a state of higher energy and then precisely track its return to its original state.
This makes it possible to combine two areas of physics that previously had little to do with each other: Classical quantum physics and nuclear physics. A crucial prerequisite for this success was the development of special thorium-containing crystals.
Switching quantum states
Manipulating atoms or molecules with lasers is commonplace today: If the wavelength of the laser is ... Read more ...
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Lawmakers hope to use this emerging climate science to charge oil companies for disasters - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · A fast-emerging field of climate research is helping scientists pinpoint just how many dollars from a natural disaster can be tied to the historic emissions of individual oil companies - analysis that is the centerpiece of new state efforts to make fossil fuel companies pay billions for floods, wildfires and heat waves.
When a flood or wildfire hits, researchers in "attribution science" run computer models to help determine whether the disaster was caused or intensified by climate change.
As those models become more precise, other scientists are working to measure how specific companies, such as Exxon Mobil or Shell, have contributed to climate change through their ... Read more ...
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Maps developed with artificial intelligence confirm low levels of phosphorus in Amazonian soil - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · And it is exactly this combination that is described in research published in the journal Earth System Science Data by a group associated with Brazilian institutions. The work resulted in a series of maps that more accurately describe the quantity of the different chemical forms of phosphorus in the soil of the Amazon. "Built" using a new methodology based on artificial intelligence, the maps confirm that the region has a very low concentration of the mineral.
The impact of this is that a lack of phosphorus affects the growth cycle of species and can, for example, prevent trees from reacting to the increase in carbon dioxide associated with climate change.
"When we were ... Read more ...
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New insights into tree canopy light absorption and its climate implications - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · A recent publication in the Journal of Remote Sensing, published April 12, 2024, delves into how vegetation canopies influence light absorption in various ways, a crucial aspect for understanding photosynthesis and climate interactions.
For the study, by employing the advanced large-scale remote sensing data and image simulation framework (LESS) model within the radiation transfer model intercomparison (RAMI)-V framework, the team meticulously calculated the CI across various viewing angles and vegetation types, such as coniferous and broad-leaf forests. This index measures how leaves within a canopy are clustered, affecting the passage of light through the canopy.
Their ... Read more ...
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Physicists overcome two key operating hurdles in fusion reactions - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they devised a way to raise the density of the plasma in their reactor while also keeping it stable.
Scientists at various sites around the world have been working for several years to figure out how to use fusion reactions to create electricity for general use—thereby freeing the world from using coal and gas fired power plants that spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But it has been a long and difficult road.
It was just in the past couple of years that researchers were able to show that a fusion reaction could be made to sustain itself, and that more power could be produced than was ... Read more ...
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Probing the effects of interplanetary space on asteroid Ryugu - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Analyzing samples retrieved from the asteroid Ryugu by the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft has revealed new insights into the magnetic and physical bombardment environment of interplanetary space. The results of the study, carried out by Professor Yuki Kimura at Hokkaido University and co-workers at 13 other institutions in Japan, are published in the journal Nature Communications.
The investigations used electron waves penetrating the samples to reveal details of their structure and magnetic and electric properties, a technique called electron holography.
Hayabusa2 reached asteroid Ryugu on 27 June 2018, collected samples during two delicate touchdowns, and ... Read more ...
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Q&A: Study reveals importance of action plans to protect environmental refuges for escaping the summer heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Mendoza presents a case study, titled "Environmental refuges during summertime heat and elevated ozone levels: A preliminary case study of an urban 'cool zone' building," in the journal Buildings.
Mendoza and co-authors measured indoor and outdoor temperature and ozone levels at the Millcreek library, a building designated as a "cool zone" for the public to escape increasingly hostile environment extremes by climate change.
Mendoza spoke with AtTheU about environmental refuges and how cities can better protect vulnerable individuals.
How are heat and health related?
In Utah, we're very aware of air quality-related health concerns, but we're not as aware of ... Read more ...
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Red Sea diversions spew carbon emissions equal to 9 million cars - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Ships seeking to avoid ongoing attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea area are emitting millions of additional tons of carbon, making it tougher for companies using ocean freight to reduce pollution across their supply chains.
Instead of passing through Egypt's Suez Canal, hundreds of vessels since mid-December are sailing around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope - a detour that adds at least a week to the journey between South Asia and northern Europe.
The additional fuel burned has led to approximately an extra 13.6 million tons of CO2 emissions over the past four months - equivalent to the pollution of about 9 million cars over that same period, according to a report ... Read more ...
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Reforestation study finds only a few tree species can survive a century of rapid climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Their findings indicate only a few tree species are fit for the future, such as English oak in the UK. However, mixed forests are important for the survival of forests, otherwise the forest ecosystem as a whole could be weakened. The results of the study were published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Although European forests are naturally home to a mix of trees, the number of tree species is lower than in climatically comparable areas of North America or East Asia. In the future, even fewer species will be available to the forestry industry, as scientists led by Johannes Wessely and Stefan Dullinger from the University of Vienna have shown in their new study.
Depending ... Read more ...
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Researchers improve the plasticity of ceramic materials at room temperature - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Plasticity or plastic deformability is a material's ability to be deformed by compression, tension or shear into a specific shape or geometry without breaking. Typically, ceramic materials exhibit very limited plastic deformability under room temperature.
Haiyan Wang and Xinghang Zhang lead a Purdue team whose method improves ceramic room-temperature plastic deformability by first introducing high-density defects in brittle ceramics under high temperatures. Wang is the Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering and Zhang is a professor of materials engineering in Purdue's School of Materials Engineering.
"Such a strategy can prominently improve the room-temperature plastic ... Read more ...
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Schools closed, warnings issued as Asia swelters in extreme heat wave - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · South and Southeast Asia braced for more extreme heat on Sunday as authorities across the region issued health warnings and residents fled to parks and air-conditioned malls for relief.
A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted the region over the past week, sending the mercury as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and forcing thousands of schools to tell students to stay home.
The Philippines announced on Sunday the suspension of in-person classes at all public schools for two days after a record-shattering day of heat in the capital Manila.
In Thailand, where at least 30 people have died of heatstroke so far this year, the meteorological ... Read more ...
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