Author: Erica Curles

Wetlands are the largest source of methane to Earth’s atmosphere. How do microbes, sulfur, and mixing of water sources influence emissions?

Could dead or living #fungi be used as a biofilter to trap and remove #methane, the potent #greenhousegas, from the atmosphere? Researchers including @shroominn from @UMNews tested both living and dead fungal biomass to determine their ability to capture methane.

You hear people panicking about climate change. But what about direct heating? Even if there was no climate change, our energy use still matters depending on how many people live on the planet.

Nature has been able to filter out CO2 from our air for millions of years. So how might a battery prove to be our own artificial tree? #sustainability #environment #carbonemissions

What should farmers do to deal with disappearing water? Add fungi to the soil! This recent study sheds light on the use of mycorrhizae to mitigate drought in the farming industry, which is facing increasingly intense water shortages every year.

Scientists at University of Washington have attempted to improve upon previous population models developed by the United Nations and the Austrian Wittgenstein Centre by using different calculation techniques for two key factors - fertility and migration.

When studying Earth’s past, researchers want to understand how nutrients like nitrogen cycled and the impact biology had on them. Scientists rely on ancient rock, soil, fossils, and marine sediment to understand the world that used to be.  Approximately 2.5 billion years ago, oxygenic photosynthesis, the form of…

Have you ever raised monarch butterflies? Finding eggs on milkweed plants and bringing them indoors to protect them from predators while at the same time watching the beauty of their transformation is a common childhood experience for people in North America. Stemming from the desire to understand and educate people on…

The oceans are warming due to climate change and this will impact all oceanic life, from the smallest plankton to the largest tuna. The web of life in the ocean is complex, and so exactly which ecosystems will be affected and how much they will change is currently being intensely researched. It is especially important…

In the Marvel Universe, Bruce Banner exposed his body to high doses of gamma radiation during an experiment in his lab. The gamma radiation deformed Bruce’s DNA, so whenever he became angry, he could turn into the Hulk. In the real world, gamma radiation is a type of high energy radiation that is extremely dangerous…

Different stages of Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling grape development are associated with quite a few changes in wine aroma.

Who microbial decomposers are and where they come from play an important role in how fast they decompose as climate changes.

You sit down at a restaurant and peruse the menu for the best wine to pair with your dinner. Do you choose a red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon, or something crisper and lighter like Riesling? Do you choose the cheapest one within the category, or first look to see the vineyards listed? The differences between wine…

Should we geoengineer larger ice caps to reflect radiation away from the Earth to cool the climate? Is this a good idea? This article briefly explores these questions, based on the work of Jacob Haqq-Misra of Blue Marble Space Institute of Science.

Over the past two decades, the resident communities of birds that attend eastern North America’s backyard bird feeders in winter have quietly been remade, most likely as a result of a warming climate. Writing this week in the journal Global Change Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife biologists…

Long-term patterns in Earth’s climate show glacial cycles that correspond to variations in Earth’s orbital geometry and affect the overall amount of sunlight that the planet receives. Known as “Milankovitch cycles”, these variations are observed in geologic reconstructions of temperature and isotopes to show…

Climate relicts may help researchers understand climate change While hiking through the Ozarks’ characteristic oak and hickory forests as a teenager, ecologist Scott Woolbright discovered something decidedly uncharacteristic for the region: prickly pear cacti growing on an exposed, rocky ledge. In a recent paper…

Long-term studies conducted by scientists at the institute “Senckenberg am Meer” and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt have revealed obvious changes in the North Sea’s biota. Studies during the past twenty years indicate that southern species increasingly expand northward. The associated…

Animals living on the abyssal plains, miles below the ocean surface, don’t usually get much to eat. Their main source of food is “marine snow” — a slow drift of mucus, fecal pellets, and body parts — that sinks down from the surface waters. However, researchers have long been puzzled by…