Environment

Ecosystems

Fewer worms live in mud littered with lots of microplastics

The environmental effects of microplastic pollution are still hazy, but new long-term, outdoor experiments could help clear matters up.

Earth

Wildfires could flip parts of the Amazon from a carbon sponge to a source by 2050

Climate change and deforestation could double the area burned by fire in the southern Amazon by 2050, flipping the forest from carbon sponge to source.

Ecosystems

A newly found Atacama Desert soil community survives on sips of fog

Lichens and other fungi and algae unite to form “grit-crust” on the dry soil of Chile’s Atacama Desert and survive on moisture from coastal fog.

Climate

Countries urgently need to ramp up emissions cuts to meet climate targets

A new U.N. report finds that pledged emissions cuts aren’t nearly enough to limit warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Climate

50 years ago, scientists puzzled over a slight global cooling

Five decades ago, scientists were puzzled over a slight dip in global temperatures. Today we know it was just a blip, and that Earth’s climate is warming thanks to industrial activity over the last century.

Animals

Power lines may mess with honeybees’ behavior and ability to learn

Under power lines, honeybees might suffer neurological effects from exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Ecosystems

Can forensics help keep endangered rosewood off the black market?

Timber traffickers are plundering the world’s forests, but conservationists have a new set of tools to fight deforestation.

Life

Michelle O’Malley seeks greener chemistry through elusive fungi

Michelle O’Malley studies anaerobic gut fungi, microbes that could help make chemicals and fuels from sustainable sources.

Climate

How climate change is already altering oceans and ice, and what’s to come

A new IPCC report gives the lowdown on how climate change is already wreaking havoc on Earth’s oceans and frozen regions, and how much worse things could get.

Agriculture

Birds fed a common pesticide lost weight rapidly and had migration delays

Scientists have previously implicated neonicotinoid pesticides in declining bee populations. Now a study suggests that songbirds are affected, too.

Earth

Brazil’s Amazon has burned this badly before. This year’s fires are still bad

An environmental scientist discusses possible impacts from the thousands of fires burning across the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

Earth

Decades of dumping acid suggest acid rain may make trees thirstier

Acidified soil loses calcium, which can affect trees’ ability to hang on to water.