Climate Change Drives Collapse in Marine Food Webs

University of Adelaide scientists have demonstrated how climate change can drive the collapse of marine “food webs”.

Tropical Cyclone Irving Appears Elongated in NASA Imagery

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Irving and found wind shear was stretching the storm out.

NASA Sees Tropical Cyclone Ava Fizzling South of Madagascar

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Southern Indian Ocean and captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Ava as it continued to move away from southeastern Madagascar and weaken.

In urban streams, pharmaceutical pollution is driving microbial resistance

Resilient bacteria might help streams but could threaten human health

(Millbrook, NY) In urban streams, persistent pharmaceutical pollution can cause aquatic microbial communities to become resistant to drugs. So reports a new study published today in the journal Ecosphere. 

Emma Rosi, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and lead author on the study explains, "Wastewater treatment facilities are not equipped to remove many pharmaceutical compounds. We were interested in how stream microorganisms - which perform key ecosystem services like removing nutrients and breaking down leaf litter - respond to pharmaceutical pollution." 

Sun, Wind, and Power Trading

Our power grid works at a frequency of 50 hertz – usually generated by turbines, for example in hydro- or coal power plants, which rotate at a speed of 50 revolutions per second. "When a consumer uses more electrical energy from the power grid, the grid frequency drops slightly before an increased energy feed-in re-establishes the original frequency," explains Benjamin Schäfer from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) in Göttingen and lead author of the study. "Deviations from the nominal value of 50 hertz must be kept to a minimum, as otherwise sensitive electrical devices could be damaged."

One-Step Production of Aromatic Polyesters by E. coli Strains

KAIST systems metabolic engineers defined a novel strategy for microbial aromatic polyesters production fused with synthetic biology from renewable biomass. The team of Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering produced aromatic polyesters from Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains by applying microbial fermentation, employing direct microbial fermentation from renewable feedstock carbohydrates. 

 

Major food retailer's sustainability program drives farmers' environmental practices

In one of the first analyses of a company-led sustainability program in the food and agriculture space, Stanford researchers found a major grocery chain fostered increased adoption of environmental practices at the farm level.

2017 was 3rd warmest year on record for U.S.

2017 will be remembered as a year of extremes for the U.S. as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, fires and freezes claimed hundreds of lives and visited economic hardship upon the nation. Recovery from the ravages of three major Atlantic hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. and an extreme and ongoing wildfire season in the West is expected to continue well into the new year.

Frog genome mapping sheds new light on environmental contaminants

A University of Victoria molecular biologist has gained new insights into how environmental contaminants may disrupt thyroid systems. The discovery was made while assembling the genome of the North American bullfrog.

Caren Helbing’s findings could help explain the mechanisms of early development, as well as how environmental contaminants cause thyroidrelated diseases and malfunctions.

Powerful Tropical Cyclone Irving Examined With GPM

On Jan. 8, Tropical Cyclone Irving was hurricane-force in the Southern Indian Ocean. The Global Precipitation Measurement Mission or GPM core satellite passed overhead and measured cloud heights and rainfall rates in the powerful storm.