58 news posts related to Environmental Chemistry

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Friday Harbor Laboratories’ observation system collects and shares real-time data about Salish Sea

The docks at FHL

Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) recently established the Friday Harbor Laboratories Ocean Observatory (FHLOO), vastly expanding their capabilities to collect and share real-time data about the surrounding marine environment. Connected to the larger Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS), FHLOO takes continuous seawater measurements such as salinity, temperature, CO2, oxygen and chlorophyll, in addition to monitoring microplankton. While the system has been taking measurements since the summer of 2020, the ability to live-stream its data is new, providing a window into the Salish Sea accessible to researchers, students and the public. 

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Volcanic eruptions may have spurred first ‘whiffs’ of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere

Roger Buick in 2004 at the Mount McRae Shale in Western Australia

A new analysis of 2.5-billion-year-old rocks from Australia finds that volcanic eruptions may have stimulated population surges of marine microorganisms, creating the first puffs of oxygen into the atmosphere. This would change existing stories of Earth’s early atmosphere, which assumed that most changes in the early atmosphere were controlled by geologic or chemical processes. Though focused on Earth’s early history, the research also has implications for extraterrestrial life and even climate change. 

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Ice core data show why, despite lower sulfur emissions in U.S. and Western Europe, air pollution is dropping more slowly

The researchers in the drilling operation (left) and the drilled samples (right)

The air in the United States and Western Europe is much cleaner than even a decade ago. Low-sulfur oil standards and regulations on power plants have successfully cut sulfate concentrations in the air, reducing the fine particulate matter that harms human health and cleaning up the environmental hazard of acid rain. Despite these successes, sulfate levels in the atmosphere have declined more slowly than sulfur dioxide emissions, especially in wintertime. 

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Simons Foundation funds fundamental questions in biology

A graphic view of tens of millions of bases of DNA extracted from a marine microbial community found in Puget Sound (photo: Vaughn Iverson)

How do environmental scientists unearth new discoveries about our planet? Many of us might imagine scientists observing the world around them, wading through tide pools or digging up soil. But what about questions surrounding the origins of life on Earth, or questions about microbes deep, deep within the ocean? Big questions like these require big investments, and the Simons Foundation is supporting University of Washington (UW) researchers to find some of the answers. 

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Thicker-leaved tropical plants may flourish under climate change, which could be good news for climate

A rainforest on Panama's Barro Colorado Island

How plants will fare as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise is a tricky problem and, researchers say, especially vexing in the tropics. Some aspects of plants’ survival may get easier, some parts will get harder, and there will be species winners and losers. The resulting shifts in vegetation will help determine the future direction of climate change. To explore the question, a study led by the University of Washington looked at how tropical forests, which absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, might adjust as CO2 continues to climb. 

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