ENVIRO AONE

Sediment cores taken from the Southern Ocean dating back 23 million years are providing insight into how ancient methane escaping from the seafloor could have led to regional or global climate and environmental changes, according to a new study. Yige Zhang, assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M, and doctoral student Bumsoo…

Separation anxiety in dogs should be seen as a symptom of underlying frustrations rather than a diagnosis, and understanding these root causes could be key to effective treatment, new research by animal behavior specialists suggests. Many pet owners experience problem behaviour in their dogs when leaving them at home. These behaviours can include destruction of…

Bacteria that thrive on methane released from the ocean floor are an important barrier preventing the greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere. A new study finds that these microbial communities flourish in seabed depressions and are more effective during the summer. The study, which was conducted on the shallow shelf west of Svalbard, took a…

Researchers hope to use an agricultural pest’s genetic code against it to prevent billions of dollars in annual farm losses in the United States. Stable flies, or Stomoxys calcitrans, are spotted, tan-colored flies found around the world. They are easily mistaken for the common housefly but for one notable distinction: They bite. «If you get…

Alternative-energy research is charting a path toward the mass adoption of clean cars powered by direct-ethanol fuel cells. Zhenxing Feng of the OSU College of Engineering helped lead the development of a catalyst that solves three key problems long associated with DEFC, as the cells are known: low efficiency, the cost of catalytic materials and…

A new study demonstrates that under realistic environmental conditions oil drifting in the ocean after the DWH oil spill photooxidized into persistent compounds within hours to days, instead over long periods of time as was thought during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This is the first model results to support the new paradigm of…

A powerful computational study of southern California seismic records has revealed detailed information about a plethora of previously undetected small earthquakes, giving a more precise picture about stress in the earth’s crust. «It’s very difficult to unpack what triggers larger earthquakes because they are infrequent, but with this new information about a huge number of…