Forest soils are playing a surprisingly powerful role in removing methane from the atmosphere, and new findings suggest that certain effects of climate change could make them even better at it. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, but microorganisms living in the soil can break it down before it builds […]
Scientists surveying underwater mountains off Costa Rica have identified a remarkable new coral that is unlike any known coral family. Its genetic makeup and physical features were so distinctive that researchers created an entirely new family to classify it. The bright yellow coral, which has a branching, tree-like appearance, was discovered between 360 and 529 […]
More than 2 billion years ago, Earth underwent a dramatic transformation as oxygen began building up in its atmosphere. But that change left scientists with a major mystery: How did the planet maintain enough oxygen to remain habitable over millions of years? Researchers have now uncovered evidence that the answer may lie in an ancient […]
Around the world, billions of people still lack reliable access to safe drinking water. The United Nations estimates that 2.2 billion people do not have safely managed drinking water, while regions from California to the Middle East increasingly rely on desalination plants to turn ocean water into fresh water. Desalination can provide a critical water […]
Geologists studying some of Earth’s oldest volcanic rocks have found evidence that water was already influencing the planet’s interior and helping drive volcanic activity more than three billion years ago. The international team, led by Adelaide University geochemist Dr. Eric Vandenburg, examined ancient rocks from Western Australia’s Pilbara Craton. Their analysis suggests that water had […]
Earth’s center of mass does not stay perfectly still. As water, ice, and air move around the planet with the seasons, they redistribute enough weight to push the center of mass back and forth by fractions of an inch relative to Earth’s geometric center. NASA scientists carefully track this subtle motion because Earth’s center of […]
What’s the best way to manage a forest? Australians have argued about this for decades. The debate is often framed as binary: do we protect forests entirely, or harvest trees to support local economies and communities? The reality is more interesting, as our new research on a long-forgotten experiment in Victoria’s mountain ash forests reveals. […]
Researchers have created a simpler and less expensive way to measure a biologically active form of phosphorus in soil, a development that could help scientists better understand how this essential nutrient moves through ecosystems and supports agriculture. Phosphorus is critical for plant growth and food production, but the world’s natural phosphorus reserves are limited. Learning […]
The Arabian Sea humpback whale’s unique song has long led scientists to believe that the animal was a subspecies of its own. Now, genetic research shows that the endangered mammal is distinct from other whale populations. The study led by the US’s Wildlife Conservation Society and the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) compared genetic samples […]
Plants have evolved several ways to use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich sugars and oxygen (photosynthesis). But when water becomes scarce, that process can become much more difficult. Researchers led by Wolfram Weckwerth at the University of Vienna have now uncovered how one especially water efficient form of photosynthesis (CAM) evolved […]
