DAVID TURNBULL continues his series of profiles of Canberrans with a story. This week the focus is on two scientists striving to do amazing things with digital data. Science has changed. Ten years ago, you could study botany at university and emerge with a degree that’d set you up for a career. But those days…
Farmers apply nitrogen fertilizers to crops to boost yields, feeding more people and livestock. But when there’s more fertilizer than the crop can take up, some of the excess can be converted into gaseous forms, including nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that traps nearly 300 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide….
The ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ of 367 CE was one of the most severe threats to Rome’s hold on Britain since the Boudiccan revolt three centuries earlier. Contemporary sources indicate that components of the garrison on Hadrian’s wall rebelled and allowed the Picts to attack the Roman province by land and sea. Simultaneously, the Scotti from modern-day…
The success of green roofs in Mediterranean areas requires the selection of fast development plant species, able to grow in a shallow soilless substrate also under dry climatic conditions. In this context, the exploitation of native species from marginal sites characterized by limited availability of nutrients and water could be a strategy to select plants….
Mediterranean coastal wetlands account for important biodiversity and ecosystem services. But climate-change induced sea-level rise poses a critical risk to their survival. Here, we assess these risks for Mediterranean coastal marshes, one key type of Mediterranean coastal wetlands, and identify main drivers for future coastal marsh change for the Mediterranean and comparable coastlines. We apply…
A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation, has shown that Europe has adapted better to low temperatures than to high temperatures over the last two decades. The research, carried out in collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) and published in The Lancet…
Efforts to protect birds from the growing impacts of climate change may be missing a key piece of the puzzle. According to new research, understanding the specific climate conditions that birds need to survive – known as their climatic niche breadth – could be crucial for identifying which species are at greatest risk. Scientists from…
Obi Nwaegbe’s stirring exhibition at the University of Cambridge, UK, brings into thrilling focus a decade’s worth of revolutionary work by the JR Botek Foundation, highlighting the resilience of African farmers in the face of climate change. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports A stirring exhibition, titled The Roots of Resilience, that “sows” – pun intended – the seeds of…
In the current climate change scenario, Mediterranean cities face heatwaves and reduced availability of freshwater alternated with intense precipitation events in short periods. The demand for water, especially for urban and tourism purposes, is rising, particularly in coastal cities. The importance of integrating nature into cities, particularly trees, has been studied for its benefits in…
The Mediterranean Basin is a critical biodiversity hotspot hosting numerous bird species that are likely to be sensitive to climatic changes. This study integrates ecological niche modeling and Bayesian skyline plot analyses to assess the historical, current, and future geographic distributions, and population dynamics of 45 endemic bird species in the region. Using occurrence data…