Environment

More Stories in Environment

  1. iguana motionless after Florida cold snap
    Animals

    How frigid lizards falling from trees revealed the reptiles’ growing cold tolerance

    Some Florida lizards’ ability to handle temperatures down to 5.5° C may provide clues to how they might deal with the extremes of climate change.

    By Charles Choi
  2. Seagrass beds off Virginia’s Eastern Shore
    Environment

    How planting 70 million eelgrass seeds led to an ecosystem’s rapid recovery

    The study is a blueprint for restoration efforts that capitalize on seagrass habitats’ capacity to store carbon and that can be replicated elsewhere.

    By Joseph Polidoro
  3. a handful of invasive Asian jumping worms
    Environment

    Invasive jumping worms damage U.S. soil and threaten forests

    Also known as snake worms, these writhing wrigglers turn forest leaf litter into bare ground, changing soil composition and ecosystems as they go.

    By Megan Sever
  4. San Francisco Bay bridge smoky skyline
    Environment

    What we know and don’t know about wildfire smoke’s health risks

    As wildfires become more frequent and severe in California, Oregon and throughout the West Coast, concerns rise about harmful air pollution.

    By Aimee Cunningham
  5. tobacco hawkmoth drinking from a plant
    Environment

    This moth may outsmart smog by learning to like pollution-altered aromas

    In the lab, scientists taught tobacco hawkmoths that a scent changed by ozone is from a favorite flower.

    By Carmen Drahl
  6. Typhoon Kammuri
    Earth

    Improved three-week weather forecasts could save lives from disaster

    Meteorologists are pushing to make forecasts good enough to fill the gap between short-term and seasonal.

    By Alexandra Witze
  7. Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
    Climate

    Emissions dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic. The climate impact won’t last

    New estimates suggest coronavirus shutdowns cut global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels by nearly 30 percent, on average.

    By Jonathan Lambert
  8. Mussels in a yellow bag
    Ecosystems

    To save Appalachia’s endangered mussels, scientists hatched a bold plan

    Biologists have just begun to learn whether their bold plan worked to save the golden riffleshell, a freshwater mussel teetering on the brink of extinction.

    By Stephen Ornes
  9. Detroit residents protesting air pollution
    Health & Medicine

    Many U.S. neighborhoods with the worst air 40 years ago remain the most polluted

    Air pollution has declined in the United States, but marginalized communities are still disproportionately affected despite the improvement.

    By Jonathan Lambert