news 2023

The return of bluefin tuna to Northern European waters is a conservation success story, but rising sea temperatures in their Mediterranean nursery grounds mean this recovery may be short-lived, according to new research led by the University of Southampton. Temperatures expected in the Mediterranean within the next 50 years are expected to drive juvenile tuna out of the Mediterranean, where they may be accidentally caught in existing sardine and anchovy fisheries - requiring fishery managers to adapt their methods to allow tuna nurseries to establish.

In a study published in the journal "Scientific Reports," researchers from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen show that early humans of the Middle Paleolithic had a more varied diet than previously assumed. The analysis of a site in the Zagros Mountains in Iran reveals that around 81,000 to 45,000 years ago, the local hominins hunted ungulates as well as tortoises and carnivores.

In a study recently published in "Nature Water", the Analysis of Hydrological Systems group at the University of Potsdam, together with an international team, investigates the extent to which global water models agree with each other and with measured data. Using a new evaluation approach, the researchers can show in which climate regions the models agree and where they differ.

Nearly a third of the world's mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, University of Queensland research has found. A study led by UQ's Bora Aska , from the Sustainable Minerals Institute and School of the Environment, said these waste facilities pose an enormous risk to some of earth's most precious species and landscapes.

Alien haze, cooked in a lab, clears view to distant water worlds The research by Johns Hopkins scientists will help model how water exoplanets form and evolve-findings that could help in the search for life beyond our solar system Roberto Molar Candanosa / Published Nov 27, 2023 Scientists have simulated conditions that allow hazy skies to form in water-rich exoplanets, a crucial step in determining how haziness muddles observations by ground and space telescopes.

News from The Collaborative Research Centre "Arctic Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and Surface Processes and Feedback Mechanism (AC)³", which is headed by meteorologist Professor Manfred Wendisch from Leipzig University, is to enter its third funding phase. This was announced today (24 November 2023) by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

McGill researchers challenge current understanding of dinosaur extinction by unearthing link between volcanic eruptions and climate change What wiped out the dinosaurs? A meteorite plummeting to Earth is only part of the story, a new study suggests. Climate change triggered by massive volcanic eruptions may have ultimately set the stage for the dinosaur extinction, challenging the traditional narrative that a meteorite alone delivered the final blow to the ancient giants.

Geophysicists at ETH Zurich have shown that every single wave of a magnitude 3.9 earthquake registers in the noise suppression system of fibre-optic networks.

A new Weizmann Institute study shows that building solar farms in arid regions is a far more effective way to tackle the climate crisis than planting forests A verdant forest is one of the most iconic symbols of the power of nature, from the abundance of plant and animal life that shelters among its thick vegetation to the positive impact it has on Earth's climate, thanks in part to photosynthesis, which removes carbon dioxide from the air, thereby mitigating the effects of global warming.

UdeM biologists produce a first-ever social and ecological profile - in multicoloured map form - of over 600 of the country's lakes, identifying which need to be better preserved. Canada has more lakes than any country in the world - more than 900,000 - and its population depends on them for drinking water, water to irrigate crops, and water in which to fish, swim, and boat on.

A fresh approach to urban agriculture could help Glasgow's 'food deserts' flourish into sources of healthy, affordable produce to help reduce inequality, new research suggests. A fresh approach to urban agriculture could help Glasgow's 'food deserts' flourish into sources of healthy, affordable produce to help reduce inequality, new research suggests.

Heat transferring from the surface to the deep ocean in the North Atlantic helped reduce climate swings during the last 1,000 years, according to a newly published paper led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and UCL. The paper, published in Science , presents records from North Atlantic sediments that allowed the researchers to investigate temperature changes in the surface and deep ocean throughout the last 1,200 years.

Researchers from INRAE, Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile), University of Geneva and University of Grenoble developed a new method to assess the risk associated with rockfalls in the mountains, taking into account various triggering factors and all the issues exposed. They successfully tested it in the Chilean Andes.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of declining phytoplankton in the North Atlantic may have been greatly exaggerated. A prominent 2019 study used ice cores in Antarctica to suggest that marine productivity in the North Atlantic had declined by 10% during the industrial era, with worrying implications that the trend might continue.

Stratospheric clouds over the Arctic may explain the differences seen between the polar warming calculated by climate models and actual recordings, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge and UNSW Sydney. Our study shows the value of increasing the detail of climate models where we can Deepashree Dutta The Earth's average surface temperature has increased drastically since the start of the Industrial Revolution, but the warming effect seen at the poles is even more exaggerated.

Researchers improve measurement of the earth's rotation Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in measuring the earth's rotation more exactly than ever before. The ring laser at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell can now be used to capture data at a quality level unsurpassed anywhere in the world.

Research by Cardiff University has shown that the warmer, wetter winters in the UK caused by climate change are likely to impact the stability of insect populations in streams. The research, spanning four decades, has demonstrated that stream insects are affected by warmer, wetter winters caused by fluctuating climate over the Atlantic Ocean.

Up to now, the results of climate simulations have sometimes contradicted the analysis of climate traces from the past. A team led by the physicist Thomas Laepple from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam and the climatologist Kira Rehfeld from the University of Tübingen has therefore brought together experts in climate models and climate tracks to clarify how the discrepancies come about.

The largest floating ice shelves in the polar ice sheet have lost more than a third of their volume since 1978.

It is rare to find glaciers bounded on land by vertical ice cliffs. These ice cliffs respond with particular sensitivity to environmental changes. Research teams from Tyrol and Styria are investigating ice formations at a site in the far north of Greenland. The researchers intend to draw conclusions about the development of the Arctic climate based on the changes in the glacier walls.