Ecology, The Environment and Conservation

UC Irvine researchers are leading the effort to understand the causes and effects of one of the world’s leading environmental problems — air pollution. They are studying both regional and worldwide air pollution issues, ranging from the effects of freeway exhaust to the role dust storms and forest fires may play. UCI is also involved in a large-scale commuter transportation project designed to cut back on auto emissions and is home to the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory, which continues

A new study of marine ecosystems suggests that the preservation of biodiversity is more than just a lofty goal – it’s an absolute necessity to keep the system healthy and prevent both local or regional extinction of multiple species.

The population balance between various fish species, their competitors and their predators are all essential to the proper functioning of the ecosystem, the study showed, and overfishing of any one species can have ripple effects that destabilize the whole

Though it has long been known by scientists that an ecosystem needs different kinds of plants and animals for optimal functioning, University of Georgia scientists have recently found that the genetic diversity of species within a habitat also affects ecosystem processes.

“It is not just the quantity of species diversity that matters, it is also the quality of genetic diversity,” said lead author Mike Madritch, an ecology doctoral student at UGA. Madritch studied carbon and nitrogen fluxes

Russian scientists have found one more cause of depletion of the ozone layer. They think that abyssal gases can go to the surface and reach stratosphere, deteriorating the ozone shield. Underground nuclear explosions enforce this process. A geologist Boris Golubov of the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS and a climatologist Grigoriy Kruchenitsky of Central Aerology Observatory are authors of this hypothesis.

Winter and spring are the most common seasons for ozone holes above Yakuti

Tamarix invading the southwest

Like modern day Sherlock Holmeses, plant biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have donned their deerstalkers to get to the bottom of some botanical mysteries.
Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology and her graduate students use DNA sequences to reveal information on historical events. Schaal has traced the origins of cassava using molecular techniques, and now is using systematics and phylogeography to docum

On the eve of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, scientists at UCL have detected a flaw in the Kyoto protocol`s global plans to reduce the impact of global warming, all because of something as simple as atmospheric dust.

Dr Mark Maslin of UCL`s Environmental Change Research Centre explains: “Dust is vital to the health of the planet. This is not household dust, but tiny fragments of rock and soil, almost too small to see with the naked eye”.

Billions of tons of this dust are blown a