Earth and Environment

Explore Earth and Environment

Dr Talicia Pillay | Machine Learning Meets Marine Conservation

Dr Talicia Pillay | Machine Learning Meets Marine Conservation

Our planet’s oceans are undergoing significant challenges. Overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and the effects of climate change are devastating some of the world’s most spectacular and diverse habitats. To inform conservation efforts for fragile marine ecosystems, we need to properly characterise the habitats and sea-life in shallow water areas. Collecting data underwater poses its own unique challenges though, so Dr Talicia Pillay and her team at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa focus on developing powerful remote sensing and computing technologies to aid ocean research.

read more
Professor Avril Horne – Dr Andrew John | Re-evaluating How We Assess and Manage Rivers in Response to Climate Change

Professor Avril Horne – Dr Andrew John | Re-evaluating How We Assess and Manage Rivers in Response to Climate Change

Understanding and successfully managing river flows is vital for sustaining human communities, the river environment, and its ecosystems. However, the methods currently used to assess river flow needs are limited in the face of increasing pressures from an uncertain and changing climate. Academics at the University of Melbourne are rethinking the approach to these assessments. This includes work by Professor Avril Horne, Dr Andrew John and their collaborators to present a more integrated and holistic method, which provides much-needed room for learning over time, and to understand the vulnerability, robustness, and adaptability of river flow regimes.

read more
Dr Kahiu Ngugi | Developing Drought and Weed Resistant Super-Sorghum

Dr Kahiu Ngugi | Developing Drought and Weed Resistant Super-Sorghum

Future food security is one of the key global challenges facing society. Climate change presents significant threats to our ability to produce staple food crops – particularly in regions already vulnerable to droughts. Dr Kahiu Ngugi and his research team from the University of Nairobi and other institutions in Kenya investigated numerous varieties of sorghum – one of the world’s most important cereal crops. Their aim was to find new genes that would allow the crop to withstand both drought and a common parasitic weed.

read more
Dr Carlos Rodriguez-Franco | Dr Deborah Page-Dumroese – Healing Abandoned Mine Ecosystems with Biochar

Dr Carlos Rodriguez-Franco | Dr Deborah Page-Dumroese – Healing Abandoned Mine Ecosystems with Biochar

The Gold Rush of the 1800s is inextricably tied to USA history. Mining towns popped up wherever precious metals could be extracted, with many of these towns and mines now lying abandoned as ghostly reminders of the old wild west. Abandoned mine land poses a threat to environmental and human health, and methods to rehabilitate this land has gathered much interest over the past few years. Dr Carlos Rodriguez-Franco and Dr Deborah Page-Dumroese from the US Department of Agriculture have been evaluating the use of biochar as a sustainable method to remediate abandoned mine lands.

read more
Dr Joji Muramoto | Healthy Soils, Healthy Planet, Healthy Humans!

Dr Joji Muramoto | Healthy Soils, Healthy Planet, Healthy Humans!

The earth beneath our feet is far more than just dirt. Soil is a living ecosystem filled with microbes, worms and insects, and vast networks of underground fungi filaments. Healthy soils are critical to healthy ecosystems and productive agricultural systems. Dr Joji Muramoto and researchers from the University of California have created a framework for Integrated Soil Health Management that could help suppress plant diseases without the use of harmful chemicals.

read more
Dr Abera Habte et al. | Climate Change in Ethiopia: Exploring Farmers’ Attitudes and Adaptation Strategies

Dr Abera Habte et al. | Climate Change in Ethiopia: Exploring Farmers’ Attitudes and Adaptation Strategies

Around the world, climate change is impacting the availability of food and water, affecting people’s health and livelihoods. Unfortunately, these damaging effects are more pronounced in developing countries. In a recent study, Dr Abera Habte of Wolaita Sodo University and his collaborators investigated the impacts of climate change in Southwestern Ethiopia. His team incorporated the perceptions and knowledge of local farmers into their analysis, in order to develop more effective climate adaptation strategies.

read more
Dr Robert Bryant – Dr Langdon Martin | Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Cattle Farming with Leftover Brewer’s Yeast

Dr Robert Bryant – Dr Langdon Martin | Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Cattle Farming with Leftover Brewer’s Yeast

Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases that contributes to the global climate crisis. As this gas is produced in the digestive systems of cattle, methane represents one of the greatest problems faced by the farming industry. Dr Robert Bryant, Dr Langdon Martin and their team at Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, propose an innovative feed supplement for cattle that helps to significantly reduce methane emissions: waste yeast from craft breweries. If used on a large scale, this new supplement could significantly decrease emissions associated with cattle farming, while also creating a new use for a waste product of the craft beer industry.

read more
Dr Anthony Swemmer – Exploring How Trees in Savannas Respond to Drought

Dr Anthony Swemmer – Exploring How Trees in Savannas Respond to Drought

Savannas are characterised by the co-existence of two very different types of plants – trees and grasses. They may be open, with large swathes of grass and an occasional tree dotting the landscape, or closed with a near complete cover of trees and a sparse grass layer beneath. In drier parts of the world, drought may play an important role in determining the balance between the trees and grasses in savannas. Extreme droughts, which are likely to become more common with climate change, could permanently shift a closed savanna to an open one. Such changes would have significant consequences for the functioning of these ecosystems and the animals they support. Dr Anthony Swemmer of the South African Environmental Observation Network explored the impact of an unusually severe drought on trees in South Africa. His team’s research shows that the response of trees to drought depends on a suite of local factors.

read more
Dr Alejandro Estrada and Dr Paul A. Garber | The Importance of Indigenous Peoples in Safeguarding Earth’s Primates

Dr Alejandro Estrada and Dr Paul A. Garber | The Importance of Indigenous Peoples in Safeguarding Earth’s Primates

Non-human primates play crucial roles in sustaining natural ecosystems worldwide. However, approximately 68% of primate species are now at risk of extinction, mainly due to agriculture and the depletion of natural resources. Dr Alejandro Estrada at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Dr Paul A. Garber at the University of Illinois-Urbana, and a group of scientists from various parts of the world recently carried out a study to better understand the role that Indigenous Peoples play in the conservation of threatened primates.

read more
Professor Olubukola Oluranti Babalola | Improving The Production of Cowpea, a Sustainable Superfood

Professor Olubukola Oluranti Babalola | Improving The Production of Cowpea, a Sustainable Superfood

Cowpea is an extremely versatile food crop. Packed with high-quality protein, it has become a staple legume in many households in Africa, where it is indigenous. Cowpea also cycles nutrients back into the soil, supporting sustainable farming and healthy ecological networks. However, the production of this sustainable crop faces many hurdles, including drought, pesticide use, and declining soil quality. In a recent review, Professor Olubukola Oluranti Babalola of North-West University in South Africa outlines the issues facing cowpea production and highlights potential solutions.

read more
Dr Sara Stančin | Dr Sašo Tomažič – Improving 3D Orientation Tracking in Gyroscope Sensors

Dr Sara Stančin | Dr Sašo Tomažič – Improving 3D Orientation Tracking in Gyroscope Sensors

Gyroscopes are widely used to measure the orientations and rotation speeds of moving objects – but according to one pair of researchers, the techniques we currently use to measure them are introducing significant and easily avoidable errors. Through their research, Dr Sara Stančin | Dr Sašo Tomažič, both at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, introduce a mathematical framework which accounts for how all three rotations measured by a gyroscope happen simultaneously, rather than in a sequence.

read more
Dr Klaudio Peqini | Professor Bejo Duka – Mapping Flows at Earth’s Core–Mantle Boundary

Dr Klaudio Peqini | Professor Bejo Duka – Mapping Flows at Earth’s Core–Mantle Boundary

The magnetic field that enshrouds Earth is generated by processes deep within the planet’s interior, which geologists still don’t fully understand. Among the effects that remain poorly studied are brief variations in the strength of the magnetic field, which occur over timescales of several decades. Through detailed mathematical analysis, Dr Klaudio Peqini and Professor Bejo Duka, both at the University of Tirana in Albania, explore how these variations could arise from changes in the flows of material at the boundary between Earth’s core, and its thick layer of mantle.

read more

Increase The Impact Of Your Research!

Explore partnership opportunities

Unwind without the hassle. Enjoy fresh audiobooks, delivered free!

 

Subscribe now

* indicates required


Follow Us On: