news

Environment - 06.08.2021

Major Atlantic Ocean Current System May Be Approaching Critical Threshold
New Study by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Freie Universität Berlin, and Exeter University No 152/2021 from Aug 06, 2021 A major Atlantic Ocean current, which includes the Gulf Stream, may have lost stability over the course of the last century. The research appeared in a new study published , authored by Niklas Boers (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PIK, Freie Universität Berlin, and Exeter University).

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 04.08.2021

Promoting biodiversity-friendly landscapes - beyond organic farming
Research team led by the University of Göttingen calls for paradigm shift Is organic farming the only alternative to conventional agriculture to promote biodiversity in agricultural landscapes? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen questions this.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 04.08.2021

51,000-year-old Engraved Giant Deer Bone Discovered in the Harz Mountains
Artifacts found in the Einhornhöhle cave in northern Germany are the subject of a research project involving experts from Freie Universität Berlin and shine a light on the cognitive abilities of our Neanderthal ancestors No 150/2021 from Aug 04, 2021 A discovery made by a research team in a cave in Lower Saxony, northern Germany, suggests that Neanderthals were not merely a primitive subspecies of archaic humans - a commonplace belief ever since their first fossil remains were found in the nineteenth century.

Environment - Life Sciences - 30.07.2021

Solar-powered microbes to feed the world?
International research team shows that protein from microbes uses a fraction of the resources of conventional farming Microbes have played a key role in our food and drinks - from cheese to beer - for millennia but their impact on our nutrition may soon become even more important. The world is facing growing food challenges as the human population continues to increase alongside its demand for resource intensive animal products.

Environment - Chemistry - 22.07.2021

Eco-friendly plastic from cellulose and water
Göttingen researchers create new kind of environmentally friendly bioplastic with hydroplastic polymers Plastics offer many benefits to society and are widely used in our daily life: they are lightweight, cheap and adaptable. However, the production, processing and disposal of plastics are simply not sustainable, and pose a major global threat to the environment and human health.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 13.07.2021

How climate change and fires are shaping the forests of the future
Tracking future forest fires with AI As temperatures rise, the risk of devastating forest fires is increasing. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are using artificial intelligence to estimate the long-term impact that an increased number of forest fires will have on forest ecosystems.

Environment - 08.07.2021

CO2 storage through dead plant material
Allowing plant residues to rot on the field is good for the climate Plants rotting in the soil are valuable for more than just compost. In fact, plant residues play a crucial role in keeping carbon in the soil, which is important for reducing the planet's CO2 emissions. This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and other institutions.

Environment - Life Sciences - 08.07.2021

Peatland fires reduce future methane production in peat soils
Climatic changes are increasingly giving rise to major fires on peatlands in the northern hemisphere, which release massive quantities of carbon dioxide. However, the biomass of the peatland is not entirely consumed by fire, some turns to charcoal in the absence of air. Now, Dr. Tianran Sun and Professor Lars Angenent from Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tübingen in cooperation with colleagues at Cornell University in the USA have discovered that the carbonized biomass reduces production of the methane gases naturally occurring in the peat soil.

Environment - 29.06.2021

Good food in a nice setting: wild bees need diverse agricultural landscapes
Research team investigates influence of different mass-flowering crops on pollinators Mass-flowering crops such as oilseed rape or faba bean (also known as broad bean) provide valuable sources of food for bees, which, in turn, contribute to the pollination of both the crops and nearby wild plants when they visit.

Environment - Life Sciences - 24.06.2021

Plasticity in plants supports the evolution of ecologically specialized species
Role of plasticity as a support for future adaptation depends on specific challenges species have to face as they evolve their specialized ecology / Cologne-based research team gather data for first comparative atlas of the gene expression response to stress in ecologically different plant species An international group of researchers have found out that the ability of certain plants to adapt to future environmental challenges by altering their

Environment - History / Archeology - 21.06.2021

Environmental pollution as far back as antiquity: Finds in the ancient city of Jerash provide evidence of heavy metal contamination
Current research shows that environmental pollution is a phenomenon found not only in modern times. Even in ancient times people suffered from lead poisoning. The Romans widely used this heavy metal as a material for their water pipes and sometimes even for sweetening wine. There is a fair amount of evidence for the extent and the influence of this contamination, and its impact on the global atmosphere can be tracked on the basis of Arctic ice core analyses.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 14.06.2021

Climate conditions during the migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa reconstructed
Climate reconstruction of the last 200,000 years from East Africa illustrates the living conditions of Homo sapiens when they migrated out of Africa / Homo sapiens was mobile across regions during wet phases and retreated to high altitudes during dry phases An international research team led by Professor Dr Frank Schäbitz has published a climate reconstruction of the last 200,000 years for Ethiopia.

Environment - 14.06.2021

Dragonflies: Species Losses and Gains in Germany
Some dragonfly and damselfly species suffer from habitat loss and degradation, while many species benefit from improved water quality and warmer climate Life Over the past 35 years, there have been large shifts in the distributions of many dragonfly and damselfly species in Germany. Many species of standing water habitats have declined, probably due to loss of habitat.

Environment - 09.06.2021

Origin of fairy circles: Euphorbia hypothesis disproved
Researchers led by G öttingen University examine the long-term results of an experiment from more than 40 years ago   The fairy circles of the Namib are one of nature's greatest mysteries. Millions of these circular barren patches extend over vast areas along the margins of the desert in Namibia. In 1979, G.K. Theron published the first research about their origin.

Environment - Life Sciences - 07.06.2021

Forest use changes life cycles of wildflowers
One of the most striking features of global warming is that the life rhythms of plants are changing all over the world. A study at the University of Tübingen has found that human land use can also significantly influence the pace of plant life cycles. In a comparative study, a research team from the Plant Evolutionary Ecology group surveyed one hundred forest sites of different management intensities.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 31.05.2021

Extreme CO2 greenhouse effect heated up the young Earth
Although sun radiation was relatively low, the temperature on the young Earth was warm. An international team of geoscientists has found important clues that high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were responsible for these high temperatures. It only got cooler with the beginning of plate tectonics, as the CO2 was gradually captured and stored on the emerging continents.

Life Sciences - Environment - 18.05.2021

Expanding deserts drove mammals out of Eurasia into Africa
The formation of deserts on the Arabian Peninsula had a decisive impact on the migration and evolution of large mammals and our human ancestors over millions of years. That is the conclusion of a new study by an international research team led by Professor Madelaine Böhme of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen.

Environment - Life Sciences - 17.05.2021

Reduced plant species richness means insects at risk
Joint project including Göttingen University observes reduced plant species richness and declining diversity of associated insects Where plant species diversity decreases, insect diversity decreases too and with it biodiversity as a whole. From the intensively managed meadows and pastures to dense and dark beech forests, insects that specialise in just a few plant species are disappearing: the plants that provide their food no longer grow there.

Environment - 14.05.2021

How Do Bees Communicate?
A research team with members from Freie Universität Berlin, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Oslo have been measuring the electrostatic signals of bees No 090/2021 from May 14, 2021 A research team composed of members from Freie Universität Berlin, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Kunming, and the University of Oslo have developed a method of monitoring the electrostatic signals of bees.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 12.05.2021

Is Climate Sensitivity Higher Than Believed?
Meta-study on noble gas concentrations in ground water reconstructs climate in the last Ice Age The last Ice Age about 20,000 years ago may have been colder than previous reconstructions of the period's global temperature have led us to believe. An international meta-study to which Werner Aeschbach of the Institute of Environmental Physics at Heidelberg University contributed suggests this may have been the case.