To predict when earthquakes are likely to occur, seismologists often use statistics to monitor how clusters of seismic activity evolve over time. However, this approach often fails to anticipate the time and magnitude of large-scale earthquakes, leading to dangerous oversights in current early-warning systems. For decades, studies outside the seismology field have proposed that these…

The unique partnership between root-dwelling microbes and the plants they inhabit can reduce drought stress. Plants and animals have a close connection to the microbes like bacteria living on them. The microbes, the creatures they inhabit, and the environment they create all play a critical role for life on Earth. «We know that microbiomes, which…

Landsat satellite data proved to be useful in the detection of the recent increase of Sphagnum mosses over wet aapa mires, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland studied changes in the Mahlaneva aapa mire located in the Kurikka municipality in western Finland, using repeated field sampling, aerial image time series,…

Nutrient cycling of stream ecosystems dependent on portion of salmons’ lifecycle. David D’Amore and a team of scientists studied how different soils respond to the delivery of «salmon-derived nutrients.» These nutrients come from adult salmon returning to their home streams, known as spawning. The study sites were forested ecosystems in Alaska’s coastal temperate rainforest. Aquatic…

An extensive field study into air quality along a road lined with buildings has confirmed that hedges can help mitigate traffic-related pollution up to 1.7m, reducing the pollutants breathed by pedestrians, young children and cyclists. The study, led by researchers at the University of Surrey’s Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), put an extensive…

New research has found marine seismic surveys used in oil and gas exploration are not impacting the abundance or behaviour of commercially valuable fishes in the tropical shelf environment in north-western Australia. The research is the first of its kind to use dedicated seismic vessels to measure the impacts of the survey’s noise in an…

A professor has found a way to boost the production of triacylglycerol — the main component of vegetable oil — in plant leaves, a technique that could allow producers to harvest oil from large, leafy plants that also have other uses. Sorghum, for example — a global source of grain prized for its drought-resistant qualities…

Ecologists have studied Latin American coffee farms for a quarter century, and they tracked the recovery of tropical forests in Nicaragua following 1988’s Hurricane Joan for nearly 20 years. So, when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm in September 2017, Perfecto and Vandermeer had certain expectations about the types and extent…

The devastating Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 displaced some 500,000 people to evacuation shelters. A research team that conducted regular visits to shelters to assess their status and inhabitants well-being have analyzed their data and found that about half of shelters had inadequate clean tap water and toilets, leading to worsening health…

If current climate and crop-improvement trends continue into the future, Midwestern US corn growers who today rely on rainfall to water their crops will need to irrigate their fields, a new study finds. This could draw down aquifers, disrupt streams and rivers, and set up conflicts between agricultural and other human and ecological needs for…