China’s croplands have experienced drastic changes in management practices related to fertilization, tillage and residue treatment since the 1980s. The impact of these changes on soil organic carbon (SOC) has drawn major attention from the scientific community and decision-makers because changes in SOC may not only affect future food production but also water and soil quality, as well as greenhouse gas emissions.  

A two-year study into used electrical and electronic equipment (UEEE) sent to Nigeria, mostly from European ports, has revealed a continuing “severe problem” of non-compliance with international and national rules governing such shipments.

When European researchers recently announced a new technique that could potentially replace chemical pesticides with a natural “vaccine” for crops, it sounded too good to be true. Too good partly because agriculture is complicated, and novel technologies that sound brilliant in the laboratory often fail to deliver in the field. And too good because agriculture’s “Green Revolution” faith in fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, and other agribusiness inputs has proved largely unshakable up to now, regardless of the effects on public health or the environment.

A Dutch-Texan team found that most Houston-area drowning deaths from Hurricane Harvey occurred outside the zones designated by government as being at higher risk of flooding: the 100- and 500-year floodplains. Harvey, one of the costliest storms in US history, hit southeast Texas on 25 August 2017 causing unprecedented flooding and killing dozens. Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and Rice University in Texas published their results today in the European Geosciences Union journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.

“We are at the tipping point, so it is a critical time,” said University of Saskatchewan climate change researcher Yanping Li. “What we are going to do now will have great significance.”

The Collaborative Laboratories for Environmental Analysis and Remediation at The University of Texas at Arlington has expanded its partnership with oil field equipment supplier Challenger Water Solutions to develop water recycling technologies that will transform waste from unconventional oil and gas development into reusable water.

Surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies have pronounced impacts on agriculture, socioeconomic development, and people’s daily lives. For example, the record-breaking hot summer over many parts of the Eurasia resulted in broad wildfires and large economic loss. Many studies have demonstrated that atmospheric circulation anomalies play an important role in modulating the SAT variations. Hence, the persistent characteristics of the Eurasian atmospheric circulation anomalies are crucial for the seasonal prediction of the Eurasian SAT. A question is whether the Eurasian atmospheric circulation anomalies can persist from winter to the following spring.

Step aside, charismatic polar bear stranded on a melting iceberg. The springtail may be the new flag bearer of an uncertain Arctic future.

The scientific models that ecologists and conservation biologists rely on to determine which species and habitats to protect lack critical information to help them make effective decisions, according to a new study.

Climate change is a one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, became the second legally binding climate agreement after the Kyoto Protocol, and coordinates global efforts to combat climate change.