Ecology, The Environment and Conservation

Forget blue skies research, it is clouds that have focused minds at the University of Leicester where scientists are tackling the causes of ozone depletion.

Atmospheric scientists in the Department of Physics and Astronomy are spearheading the MAPSCORE project, a European Commission Environment project which investigates a major cause of ozone depletion – high altitude polar clouds which activate the chlorine originally from CFCs and lead eventually to severe ozone destruction.

Coral reefs across the Caribbean have suffered a phenomenal 80% decline in their coral cover during the past three decades, reveals new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, published this week in the international online journal Science Express.

The amount of reef covered by hard corals, the main builders of reef framework, has decreased on average from 50% to just 10% in the last 25 years. Although the majority of the l

A study published today reveals that a common industrial chemical causes sexual deformities in oysters, producing large numbers of hermaphrodite animals. The chemical, nonylphenol, is a breakdown product from a surfactant widely used in detergents, dispersing agents, herbicides, spermicides and cosmetics.

Dr Helen Nice who undertook this study at Royal Holloway, University of London, says, ‘Our results may cast doubt on the widespread use of this chemical in many human products including co

In a 17-year experiment on Vermont’s Camel’s Hump, three Dartmouth researchers find that lead moves very slowly though the soil. Using the highly accurate technique of isotopic analysis for the first time at this field site, the researchers traced several varieties of lead with different atomic weights.

Their study was published online on July 12 on the Environmental Science & Technology Web site, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

“This definitively supports a few

Thirty three marine species are poised to invade Australian waters, and could seriously alter the balance of marine life or even pose a risk to human health if they reach our coasts.

In an international response to the threat, researchers from CSIRO and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland, have joined forces to develop a rapid response strategy to combat invasion.

CSIRO risk assessment scientists have identified the most damaging marine species from around the

Warmer ocean temperatures may be harming reproduction of the tufted puffin in western Canada and if global temperatures continue to increase, the species could be at risk, says a new study co-authored by a University of Alberta researcher.

Throughout the last two decades, uncharacteristically warm sea-surfaces have persisted near Triangle Island–off the coast of British Columbia–a haven for these birds. Researchers have been studying the reproductive performance of tufted puffins there si