News 2019

Scientists from Inra and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Italy) have shown that not all weed communities (spontaneous vegetation) generate crop yield losses, even in unweeded conditions, and that high weed diversity is associated to a reduced risk of important crop yield losses. Published in Nature Sustainability , these results provide new grounds for sustainable weed management.

A new EPFL and MIT study into the interplay between mobility and the 2013 and 2014 dengue outbreaks in Singapore has uncovered a legal void around access to mobile phone data - information that can prove vital in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Researchers from EPFL and MIT have shown that human mobility is a major factor in the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue even over short intra-city distances.

An international research consortium with ETH participation demonstrates that marine plankton is more diverse in warm oceans than in polar seas, both in terms of species count and the biological activities of the plankton communities. Climate change could lead to a redistribution of plankton in the world's oceans.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have unravelled the genetic mechanisms behind tiny waterfleas' ability to adapt to increased levels of phosphorus pollution in lakes. By mapping networks of genes to the physiological responses of ancient and modern waterfleas (Daphnia), the researchers, based in the University's School of Biosciences , were able to show that a cluster of over 800 genes, many of them involved in metabolic processes, evolved to become "plastic", or flexible.

The tread on the tyre is worn out, new tyres are needed. Everyday life for many drivers. But where do these lost centimetres of tyre tread "disappear" to? As micro-rubbers, they mainly end up in soil and water and, to a small extent, in the air. And the amount of these particles in our environment is anything but small, as Empa researchers have now calculated.

Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin study effects of multiple global change factors / Findings published in latest issue of "Science" No 343/2019 from Nov 14, 2019 A team of ecologists at Freie Universität Berlin studied soil and how it was affected by multiple factors of global change. The team led by Matthias Rillig conducted laboratory experiments that examined the effects of up to ten factors of global change by randomly adding an increasing number of such factors.

Glaciologists at ETH Zurich and WSL assessed the global water storage and hydropower potential that could be freed up in future as glaciers melt in response to climate change. Global warming will cause substantial glacier retreat for the majority of the world's glaciers over the next few decades. This will not only spell the end for some magnificent natural monuments, but also importantly affect the water cycle.

New Berkeley Lab study finds warming climate could lead to profound changes in the subtropical climate More than a billion people in Asia depend on seasonal monsoons for their water needs. The Asian monsoon is closely linked to a planetary-scale tropical air flow which, according to a new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), will most likely shift geographically as the climate continues to warm, resulting in less rainfall in certain regions.

"The people who live around the Eqaluit River in the south-west of Greenland do know that there are char living in the river and its lakes", explains the evolutionary and fish biologist Carmela Dönz. "But they prefer to eat sea fish and take very little notice of the fish stocks in fresh water - which is one of the reasons why the fish appear to have little fear of people." Outside the region, the rivers and lakes along the coastline created by the retreating Greenland glaciers after the last ice age remain largely unknown.

Rice-led study uncovers relationship between jet stream, atmospheric blocking events Climate change will increase the size of stalled high-pressure weather systems called "blocking events” that have already produced some of the 21st century's deadliest heat waves, according to a Rice University study.

One million species are threatened with extinction, many of them already in the coming decades. This unprecedented loss of biodiversity threatens valuable ecosystems and human well-being. But what is holding us back from putting conservation research into practice? The journal Biological Conservation has published a collection of 14 articles on this topic.

As bacteria adapt to hotter temperatures, they speed up their respiration rate and release more carbon, potentially accelerating climate change. By releasing more carbon as global temperatures rise, bacteria and related organisms called archaea could increase climate warming at a faster rate than current models suggest.

Scientific data taken by the Parker Solar Probe are set to be released to the public on Nov 12. The data files being released contain measurements that were taken closer to the Sun than ever before. These unprecedented data promise to revolutionize our understanding of how the solar corona and solar wind work.

The acidification of the Pacific Ocean in northern Japan is increasing the natural production rate of N2O, an ozone-depleting greenhouse gas. That's the finding of a study carried out jointly by scientists at EPFL, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and appearing recently.

Our soils filter drinking water and produces food. Soils only carry out these services, because they harbour thousands fungal and bacteria species which work together like the wheels in a clock mechanism. These are the conclusions reached by a study published in the renowned by researchers from Agroscope and the University of Zurich.

WATER RESOURCES Gathering data to prepare California for droughts: California's extensive reservoir system needs to adapt to precipitation levels that are growing less predictable. Data can help, says a Resnick-supported fellow who has created the first empirical statewide model of the California reservoir network.

Waste carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels could be used to make valuable products such as plastics, fuels and cement, suggests new research. If done correctly, using waste carbon dioxide (CO2) to make useful products would also help offset the costs of mitigating climate change, argue scientists in a review .

Berkeley Lab's Tracking the Sun report details the latest pricing and technology trends for distributed solar systems The latest edition of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's (Berkeley Lab's) annual Tracking the Sun report finds that prices for distributed solar power systems continued to fall in 2018, that industry practices continued to evolve, and that systems are getting bigger and more efficient.

By Barbara Gigler Research team from Graz develops biological methods to improve the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. Additional at the end of the text The crops have been harvested. Now it is important to store the various crops well and to preserve them as long and as carefully as possible. Post-harvest losses due to spoilage, however, represent a significant problem along the supply chain and lead to profit losses in the millions.

Common wasp species could be valuable at sustainably managing crop pests, finds a new UCL-led experimental study in Brazil. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , found that social wasps are effective predators that can manage pests on two high-value crops, maize and sugarcane.