Water

Computer models reveal how human-driven climate change will dramatically overhaul critical nutrient cycles in the ocean. Researchers report evidence that marine nutrient cycles -- essential for sustaining ocean ecosystems -- are changing in unexpected ways as the planet continues to warm.

Synthetic biologists have developed a prototype for an innovative biosensor that can detect rare earth elements and be modified for a range of other applications.

A groundbreaking study on the freezing of water droplets suspended in air sheds light on a key process in Earth's water cycle: the transformation of supercooled water into ice.

A new international study highlights the severity of climate change impacts across African mountains, how farmers are adapting, and the barriers they face -- findings relevant to people living in mountain regions around the world.

Scientist have concluded water did not arrive as early during Earth's formation as previously thought, an insight that bears directly on the question of when life originated on the planet. The finding is significant because the data reported by the study support the idea that water arrived towards the final stages of Earth's development into a planet from dust and gas, what geologists refer to as late accretion.

Detailed study of a Greenland glacier's flow rate reveals the impact of environmental conditions.

A recent study has revealed a startling public health threat: About 17 million people are at risk of gastrointestinal problems due to excessive sulfate levels in groundwater. This alarming finding emerged from the first high-resolution global groundwater sulfate distribution map.

Tiny copper 'nano-flowers' have been attached to an artificial leaf to produce clean fuels and chemicals that are the backbone of modern energy and manufacturing.

Researchers compared the environmental impacts of lithium-ion battery recycling to mining for new materials and found that recycling significantly outperforms mining in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and energy use.

A new study of satellite imagery and high-resolution climate model data upends previous assumptions and provides insight about how the atmosphere and ocean weather patterns interact. The new research reveals the surprising ways atmospheric winds influence ocean eddies, shaping the ocean's weather patterns in more complex ways than previously believed.

Constructed wetlands do a good job in their early years of capturing carbon in the environment that contributes to climate change -- but that ability does diminish with time as the wetlands mature, a new study suggests.

A relatively small amount of groundwater trickling through Alaska's tundra is releasing huge quantities of carbon into the ocean, where it can contribute to climate change.

Experts from the global Earth science community have pieced together what happened during the massive Sikkim flood to try to help others prepare for similar disasters.

Sharks and rays have populated the world's oceans for around 450 million years, but more than a third of the species living today are severely threatened by overfishing and the loss of their habitat. Palaeobiologists have now investigated whether and how global warming influences the diversity of sharks based on climate fluctuations between 200 and 66 million years ago. According to the study, higher temperatures and more shallow water areas have a positive effect, while higher CO2 levels have a clearly negative effect.

A solution to injuries from slips and falls may be found underfoot -- literally. The footpads of geckos have hydrophilic (water-loving) mechanisms that allow the little animals to easily move over moist, slick surfaces. Researchers report using silicone rubber enhanced with zirconia nanoparticles to create a gecko-inspired slip-resistant polymer. They say the material, which sticks to ice, could be incorporated into shoe soles to reduce injuries in humans.

Researchers have shown that plumes of wildfire smoke can carry contaminants hundreds of kilometers, leaving a toxic and lingering footprint which has the potential to be re-released into the environment.

Scientists have discovered the anti-icing secret of polar bear fur -- something that allows one of the planet's most iconic animals to survive and thrive in one of its most punishing climates. That secret? Greasy hair. After some polar sleuthing, which involved scrutiny of hair collected from six polar bears in the wild, the scientists homed in on the hair 'sebum' (or grease) as the all-important protectant. This sebum, which is made up of cholesterol, diacylglycerols, and fatty acids, makes it very hard for ice to attach to their fur. While this finding sheds fascinating new light on our understanding of polar bear -- and even Inuit -- ecology, it may also have a suite of unrelated applications, with a similar concoction of artificially made sebum promising to be useful as an anti-ice surface coating, or in next-gen ski skins used by skiers and snowboarders.

New research from a team of tropical biologists forecasts some of the changes that may occur in the Amazon rainforest as temperatures rise due to climate change.

Researchers have developed a new optical sensor that provides a simple way to achieve real-time detection of extremely low levels of arsenic in water.

Researchers have discovered crucial new information about how microbes consume huge amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) and help reduce levels of this deadly gas.

A pre-Columbian society in the Amazon developed a sophisticated agricultural engineering system that allowed them to produce maize throughout the year, according to a recent discovery. This finding contradicts previous theories that dismissed the possibility of intensive monoculture agriculture in the region.

Grasslands in Asia and North America differ in their responses to drought, according to a new article. The findings show that differences in the dominant grasses and lower species diversity in the Eurasian Steppe grasslands may make it more vulnerable to drought than the North American Great Plains.

The study helps explain why 2023 and early 2024 saw unprecedented ocean temperatures.

Smaller calving events, not large icebergs, drive Antarctic ice sheet loss.

While floating solar -- the emerging practice of putting solar panels on bodies of water -- is promising in its efficiency and its potential to spare agricultural and conservation lands, a new experiment finds environmental trade-offs.

Relatives of the llama are dropping dung as they venture into higher elevations in the Andes Mountains, providing a nutrient-rich environment for life to thrive despite glacier loss.

Ice nucleating particles as a kind of aerosols have a significant impact on the Arctic climate by promoting the formation of ice clouds at a temperature above -- 38 degrees Celsius. Wildfires in mid-latitudinal areas are a major source of these aerosols. However, a direct observation of wildfire-emitted aerosols facilitating ice cloud formation has never been documented. Now, using field and climate data, scientists have linked aerosols emitted by Canadian wildfires in 2023 to the formation of ice clouds over the Arctic Ocean.

Effective management of phosphorus is needed to curb the rise of harmful algal blooms. Few studies have explored how algal biomass, especially blue-green algae, can be used to create materials that remove phosphate from water. Researchers have filled that gap by transforming cyanobacterial biomass into materials that can pull harmful phosphorus out of water. Materials treated in the study removed more than 99% of phosphorus. With further refinement and scalability, this method could become a key tool for managing nutrient pollution.

Using syrup and baking soda, research has demonstrated the formation mechanism of rootless cones, small volcanic landforms commonly found on Earth and Mars. The study clarified, through an experimental approach, that a self-organization process determines the spatial distribution and size of these landforms. This research will enhance our understanding of explosive eruption phenomena caused by the interaction of lava and water and provide new insights into geological phenomena on the red planet.

A research team has made significant discoveries regarding the complex reaction mechanisms of carbon dioxide (CO2) in supercritical water. These findings are crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms of CO2 mineralization and sequestration in nature and engineering, as well as the deep carbon cycle within the Earth's interior. This understanding will help pave the way for new directions in future carbon sequestration technologies.

Shallow coastal waters are hotspots for methane emissions, releasing significant amounts of this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming. This new research highlights how tides, seasons, and ocean currents strongly influence methane emissions and how tiny microorganisms, called methanotrophs, help reduce their impact.

Scientists can now identify the most harmful pollutants present in UK waters that are having the biggest impact on biodiversity thanks to pioneering AI technology.

The Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, reached historic low levels in 2022, raising economic, ecological and public health concerns for Utah. New research is believed to be the first peer-reviewed study that quantifies the contributing factors to the record low water volume levels, which the researchers say is important for anticipating and managing future lake changes.

Following two months of record heat and precipitation in fall 2022, an estimated 7,500 lakes in West Greenland turned brown, began emitting carbon and decreased in water quality in less than a year. The spike in temperatures caused the precipitation to fall as rain instead of snow. The heat also caused permafrost to thaw, releasing an abundance of carbon, iron, magnesium and other elements that the rain washed into the lakes. Researchers found a decrease in phytoplankton that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis within the lakes, and an increase in plankton that break down and release carbon. Instead of sequestering carbon dioxide in the summer, the lakes have become a source of it, with a 350% increase in the flux of this greenhouse gas from them.

Water desalination plants could replace expensive chemicals with new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an important step of turning seawater into safe drinking water.

A new study provides compelling new evidence that a colossal 'megaflood' refilled the Mediterranean Sea, ending a period during which the Med was a vast expanse of salt flats. The study suggests the Zanclean Megaflood ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis, which lasted between 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago.

Instead of relying on energy-hungry reactors to generate high temperatures and pressure, researchers are looking underground at Earth's natural heat and forces to cook up ammonia for fertilizer. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers generated ammonia by mixing nitrogen-laced water with iron-rich rocks -- without any energy input or CO2 emission. This new recipe may lead to a more sustainable alternative to current methods, theoretically churning out enough ammonia for 2.42 million years.

Researchers present paper-based temperature and humidity sensors that are accurate, reliable, and eco-friendly. The team created the sensors by printing silver lines on commercially available paper through dry additive nanomanufacturing. As the paper absorbs water vapor, its capacitance change is measured to reflect the relative humidity of the environment, and as the temperature increases, the metallic conductor experiences an increase in resistivity. They successfully detected changes in relative humidity levels from 20% to 90% and temperature variations from 25 C to 50 C.

New research emphasizes that studying the impacts of past tropical storms can help communities better prepare for future storms. A key part of the study is analyzing the types and quantities of storm-related precipitation in affected regions to understand its role on local water resources. By mitigating excessive damage, such preparation could enable more people to remain in their home countries. This is increasingly urgent as climate change is expected to make tropical storms 10-15% more frequent and intense.

Salt pollution from road deicing salts threatens freshwater ecosystems and urban green infrastructure. New research on salt-tolerant plants like cattails highlights their potential role in mitigating this pollution, though broader strategies are essential for long-term solutions.

Increasingly common since 1980, persistent multi-year droughts will continue to advance with the warming climate, warns a new study. This publicly available forty-year global quantitative inventory seeks to inform policy regarding the environmental impact of human-induced climate change. It also detected previously 'overlooked' events.

New research reveals that drought and increased temperatures in a CO2-rich climate can dramatically alter how grasslands use and move water. The study provides the first experimental demonstration of the potential impacts of climate change on water movement through grassland ecosystems, which make up nearly 40% of Earth's land area and play a critical role in Earth's water cycle.

Engineering researchers have developed carbon capture systems that use molecules called quinones, dissolved in water, as their capturing compounds. A new study provides critical insights into the mechanisms of carbon capture in these safer, gentler, water-based electrochemical systems, paving the way for their further refinement.

In an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study, an international team examined the social risks for Arctic regions associated with thawing permafrost. They identified five key risks related to infrastructure, transport and supply, water quality, food security and health. The scientists found that the thawing permafrost posed an increased risk of exposure to infectious diseases and release of contaminants, and interruptions of supply routes.

A new study analyzing a lake formed by a glacier surge in the Karakoram Mountains has revealed how satellite images can be used to monitor the potential for lake drainage hazards.

DDT soil pollution is still a major problem in many parts of the world. Researchers have developed a new method to manage ecological risks from the toxin by binding it with biochar. When they mixed biochar into contaminated soil at a former tree nursery, DDT uptake by earthworms in the soil was halved. This method may enable the growing of certain crops on land that is currently considered unusable due to the environmental risks.

Engineers have found a way to eliminate the fluid flow 'dead zones' that plague the types of electrodes used for battery-based seawater desalination. The new technique uses a physics-based tapered flow channel design within electrodes that moves fluids quickly and efficiently, potentially requiring less energy than reverse osmosis techniques currently require.

Methane from the destroyed Nord Stream pipelines spread over a large part of the southern Baltic Sea and remained for several months.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has not slowed down since the mid-20th century based on the North Atlantic air-sea heat fluxes over that time. This finding contrasts with studies that have estimated a decline in the AMOC, likely because previous studies rely on sea surface temperature measurements to understand how the AMOC has changed. However, sea surface temperature is not a reliable way to reconstruct the AMOC, according to the authors. Although the AMOC has not declined yet, scientists agree that the Atlantic overturning will slow in the future -- but whether the system can collapse entirely and when this collapse would happen is still up for debate. Such a scenario would have catastrophic consequences globally.

Experts are warning of the risks of spreading invasive and non-native species when moving large volumes of untreated lake, reservoir and river water.

Beneath sandy beaches, microbes filter chemicals from groundwater and safeguard ocean health. A new study reveals that sneaker waves provide a lens to explore the impending impacts of sea level rise on beach hydrology, chemistry, and microbiology.

Federal reservoirs could help meet the country's solar energy needs, according to a new study. Geospatial scientists and senior legal and regulatory analyst quantified exactly how much energy could be generated from floating solar panel projects installed on federally owned or regulated reservoirs.

A researcher conducted a survey on the use of private wells during the 2018 Western Japan floods in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, which was affected by water supply disruptions.

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are used in the aerospace, automotive, and sports equipment industries. However, their recycling remains a major problem. In a recent study, researchers demonstrated a novel direct discharge electrical pulse method for the efficient, effective, and environmentally friendly separation of CFRPs to recover high-quality carbon fibers. This work is expected to pave the way for a more sustainable world.

Bats depend on open bodies of water such as small ponds and lakes for foraging and drinking. Access to water is particularly important for survival in the increasingly hot and dry summers caused by climate change, the time when female bats are pregnant and rear their young. A scientific team has now shown that access to drinking sites is hampered by wind turbines in agricultural landscapes: Many bat species avoid the turbines and water bodies located close to the turbines for several kilometers.

Wildfires increasingly threaten public drinking water systems, but guidance on how to address damage to these systems from a wildfire has been insufficient, conflicting or inaccurate. A new publication offers the first comprehensive guidance for public drinking water system staff, outlining the decision-making process for testing and recovering water distribution systems after a wildfire.

Scientists have mapped the amount of water stored beneath volcanic rocks at the crest of the central Oregon Cascades and found an aquifer many times larger than previously estimated -- at least 81 cubic kilometers. The finding has implications for the way scientists and policymakers think about water in the region -- an increasingly urgent issue across the Western United States as climate change reduces snowpack, intensifies drought and strains limited resources.

The way cricket frogs move across the surface of water has long been thought to resemble walking on water, but researchers have now discovered a different reality.

A new study provides the first comprehensive global estimates of the amount of water stored in Earth's plants and the amount of time it takes for that water to flow through them. The information is a missing piece of the puzzle in understanding the global water cycle and how that cycle is being altered by changes in land use and climate.

Laboratory experiments designed to deform ice at its pressure-melting temperature were like grabbing a bagel at the top and the bottom, then twisting the two halves to smear the cream cheese in the middle, according to new research. The resulting data could lead to more accurate models of temperate glacier ice and better predictions of glacier flow and sea-level rise.