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ecosystems

12/04/2018 / By Tracey Watson

Scientists: Long history of fertilizer use on land is threatening our water quality today

Imagine you’re driving down a long, straight road through rural farmland. One either side of you are beautiful green farms. The produce being grown on these farms looks healthy and appears to be thriving. Now picture the land beneath those farms as massive sponges. Like all sponges, put enough liquid in and eventually the absorption […]

12/02/2018 / By Lance D Johnson

Antidepressant use is posing a very real threat to the environment, experts warn

One of the greatest threats to the environment and wildlife is the accumulation of pharmaceutical drugs in the water and soil. Improperly discarded pharmaceuticals enter the sewage system and pollute the water. Hormone replacement drugs and contraceptives, even at trace levels, are now feminizing fish. Pharmaceutical chemicals often remain stable, even after passing through people […]

11/25/2018 / By Frances Bloomfield

New satellite data from NASA show how carbon links everything on Earth

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released satellite data gathered by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). This carbon dioxide-monitoring satellite has collected over two-and-a-half years’ worth of information that, according to NASA scientists, show how carbon links together everything on Earth. From human activities to weather hazards to biological processes, carbon is present […]

11/24/2018 / By Isabelle Z.

SHOCK: 50% of freshwater insects are contaminated with microplastics

We tend to hear quite a bit about fish suffering from plastic contamination, with images of whales washing up on beaches with stomachs full of plastic bottles becoming an all-too-common sight these days. However, even animals that aren’t big enough to ingest water bottles are still suffering from plastic pollution. Recent research highlighted the shocking […]

11/07/2018 / By Ralph Flores

Cows supplement their diet with leaves from trees such as ash, alder, willow: Scientists evaluate their nutrition

Feeding cattle isn’t just about grass: Trees also play a part in providing nourishment, according to a study published in the journal Agroforestry Systems. There is a caveat to this process, however – the amount of nutrition it gives is heavily reliant on factors such as tree species, soil type, and season. Researchers from the Louis Bolk Institute in […]

10/27/2018 / By Ralph Flores

Modern agricultural practices destroy the environment’s natural balance: Heavily farmed areas have little biodiversity, more disease

Agriculture is more than just growing and harvesting crops. It’s a modern process that has far-reaching effects, particularly in its surrounding ecosystems. This includes factors such as water quality, nutrient cycling, soil retention, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. In as much as agriculture affects its surrounding ecosystem, it also goes both ways: The ecosystems nearby […]

09/21/2018 / By Edsel Cook

Adding cattle to wetland management practices benefits migratory bird populations, environment

In a bid to protect the dwindling wetlands of southeastern Nebraska from the encroachment of aggressive reed canarygrass and preserve them from conversion into farmland, researchers suggest using the lush region of the Rainwater Basin as grazing or haying grounds for domesticated cattle, reported a Newswise article. This way, an aggressive invasive species gets reduced, the cattle receive plenty of natural […]

09/16/2018 / By Edsel Cook

Are the world’s protected lands really being protected? A study concludes “no”

A new study warned that humans are quickly encroaching upon one-third of the protected lands in the world. Road-building, grazing, and urbanization are just some of the human expansionary activities that are threatening to destroy biodiversity in an area twice as big as Alaska, an article in Scientific American states. This is a serious blow […]

09/13/2018 / By Ralph Flores

Natural fertilizers are better than chemical ones at preventing crop disease

A study led by researchers in Paraguay suggests that treating sesame seeds with natural biocontrol agents can significantly increase their resistance against infections caused by plant pathogens. Their findings, published in the Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, identified the non-pathogenic fungi Trichoderma and Azospirillum brasilense as potential agents to protect the seeds against infections from Macrophomina phaseolina, […]

09/12/2018 / By Rhonda Johansson

Can floating islands help threatened insects such as bees and butterflies?

Iowa State University (ISU)’s landmark lake floating islands research project is being re-established this year since its first run in 2015. The Lake LaVerne Floating Islands project was intended to measure the nutrient uptake from the water of the LaVerne lake and then to design, construct, and monitor the amount of carbon the plants could […]

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