Researchers have generated new maps of jet contrails over the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which show a steep reduction in the area covered by contrails in 2020. MIT engineers have mapped the contrails that were generated over the United States in 2020, and compared the results to prepandemic years. They found…

A new study shows that an increase in hot, dry nights in recent decades has resulted in nighttime wildfires becoming more intense and more frequent. Researchers found there are 11 more flammable nights every year in the U.S. West compared to 1979 — a 45% increase over the past four decades. Nighttime warming is only…

Extensive satellite tracking has revealed important new knowledge about the little known pygmy blue whale population of Southern Australia. Marine biologists have extensively tracked the movements of foraging and migrating blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) along the Australian continental shelf on a journey towards breeding grounds in Indonesia as part of conservation efforts for the…

An international team of researchers explored how focusing either on the short- or long-term warming effects of methane can affect climate mitigation policies and dietary transitions in agriculture. Unlike the other main greenhouse gases (GHG) and particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) has a short atmospheric life (around 10 years). Its warming effect is significant…

As climate change poses risks to plant growth and food supply, researchers have identified how iron deficient plants optimize photosynthesis and regulate light protection. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how plants lacking iron optimize photosynthesis, and it describes the genetic processes that regulate light protection in plants that…

The use of weed killers can increase the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in soil, a new study shows. Herbicides are one of the most widely used chemicals in agriculture and while these compounds are used to target weeds, they can cause damage to soil microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, potentially changing the ecological…

What happens when a disease disrupts a protected ecosystem so forcefully that cascading consequences are felt by nearly all wildlife and plants within it? A study examines how the mange outbreak among vicunas restructured tightly linked food-chain interactions that were previously driven by pumas. Other times, the connection is devastatingly clear. Argentina’s wild vicunas are…

Storms over the waters around Antarctica drive an outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a new international study. The research group used advanced ocean robots for the study, which provides a better understanding of climate change and can lead to better global climate models. The world’s southernmost ocean, the Southern Ocean that…

QUT researchers have used experimental x-ray techniques at the Australian Synchrotron to gain fundamental insights into how gypsum dehydrates under pressure and the processes that create earthquakes. In the study published in the Nature Research journal Communications Materials, QUT researchers Dr Christoph Schrank, Dr Oliver Gaede, from the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and…

A new dingo study collates the results from over 5000 DNA samples of wild canines across Australia. It found that 99 per cent of animals tested were pure dingoes or dingo-dominant hybrids — and that there were almost no feral dogs in the country. The study, published today in Australian Mammalogy, collates the results from…