Breeding Better Brazilian Rice

Outside Asia, no country produces as much rice as does Brazil. It is the ninth largest rice producer in the world. Average annual yields are close to 15 million tons.

Stanford researchers find groundwater pumping can increase arsenic levels in irrigation and drinking water

For decades, intensive groundwater pumping has caused ground beneath California’s San Joaquin Valley to sink, damaging infrastructure. Now research published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that as pumping makes the ground sink, it also unleashes an invisible threat to human health and food production: It allows arsenic to move into groundwater aquifers that supply drinking water for 1 million people and irrigation for crops in some of the nation’s richest farmland.

Prime growing areas for B.C. oysters contain alarmingly high concentrations of plastic microbeads

British Columbia’s premier shellfish farming region is heavily contaminated with microplastics, according to a new Simon Fraser University study.

Food security, nutritional health and traditional food go hand in hand for First Nations in Saskatchewan

Newly published results from a study on nutrition, food security and the environment in Saskatchewan First Nations show that food insecurity is a major concern and that many households would like more access to traditional foods.

NOAA teams up with India to strengthen ocean observations

In a remote region of the Indian Ocean lies the source of a mysterious weather pattern with tentacles that stretch across the tropics, influencing everything from monsoons in India to heat waves and flooding in the United States.

Surprising Recovery of Red Spruce Shows Value of Clean Air Act

Since the 1960s, scientists at the University of Vermont have been documenting the decline of red spruce trees, casualties of the damage caused by acid rain on northeastern forests.

But now, surprising new research shows that red spruce are making a comeback—and that a combination of reduced pollution mandated by the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act and changing climate are behind the resurgence.

UCI scientists analyze first direct images of dissolved organic carbon from the ocean

In a first, researchers from the University of California, Irvine – as well as Switzerland’s University of Zurich, IBM Research-Zurich and UC Santa Cruz – have obtained direct images of dissolved organic carbon molecules from the ocean, allowing better analysis and characterization of compounds that play an important role in the Earth’s changing climate.

Artificial Intelligence Can Identify Wildlife as Accurately as Humans

Motion-sensor cameras are increasingly being used to track wildlife across the globe, from tigers in India to aardvarks in Africa. But combing through the millions of images captured by these systems is a time-consuming task. Now, scientists have discovered that artificial intelligence is as effective as human volunteers — and much faster — at identifying species in these largely untapped photo repositories.

20 Years of Earth Data Now at Your Fingertips

Powerful Earth-observing instruments aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively, have observed nearly two decades of planetary change. Now, for the first time, all that imagery — from the first operational image to imagery acquired today — is available for exploration in Worldview.

NASA Finds Some Fragmented Strength in Tropical Depression 05W

NASA obtained an infrared look at Tropical Depression 05W as it continued moving through the South China Sea. NASA's Aqua satellite found very cold cloud top temperatures and strong storms in fragmented thunderstorms mostly east of 05W's center.  

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical 05W on June 5 at 2:05 a.m. EDT (0605 UTC) and analyzed the storm in infrared light to reveal cloud top temperatures. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite revealed some cloud top temperatures in a fragmented band of thunderstorms were as cold or colder than minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius). NASA research indicates very cold cloud tops with the potential to generate very heavy rainfall. The strongest storms all appeared to be over open waters in the Gulf of Tonkin and northern South China Sea.