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Over the past decades’ forests in different parts of the world have suffered sudden massive tree mortality. Now an international team of scientists led by researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands has found a way to spot from satellite images which forests may be most likely to fall prey to such die-off events.

New research suggests that Africa has gradually become wetter over the past 1.3 million years -- instead of drier as was thought previously.

The research from Berke, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame and Environmental Change Initiative affiliate, suggests that Africa has gradually become wetter over the past 1.3 million years -- instead of drier as was thought previously. The findings shine new light on the "savanna hypothesis," which held that humans in Africa as a whole migrated to grasslands due to a changing climate.

The sediment samples that Berke studied came from Lake Malawi in southeast Africa, whereas data used for the savanna hypothesis came from the north. Her research suggests that climate conditions across Africa may have been more variable than once thought.

Un nuevo estudio de la Universidad de California en Irvine y la Universidad de Washington muestra que el agua conservada por las plantas en condiciones de alta concentración de CO2 compensa la mayor parte del efecto de las temperaturas más cálidas, reteniendo más agua en la tierra de lo previsto en las evaluaciones de las tierras secas de uso común.

The specific cultural values of a country may determine whether concern about environmental issues actually leads individuals to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors, according to the new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The findings suggest that individual concern is more strongly associated with motivation to act in countries that espouse individualistic values, while social norms may be a stronger motivator in collectivistic societies.

The sun may be setting on a popular morning brew. According to a new report issued by the Climate Institute, global warming will underpin an estimated 50 percent drop in coffee production by 2050. Bad news for coffee lovers, but catastrophic for the 120 million people in dozens of mostly developing nations who depend on the coffee trade to make ends meet.