Frontiers | Science News

Science News post list

334 news posts in Earth and beyond

Environment

28 Mar 2022

Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry 2021 Editor Awards

Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry is pleased to announce the inaugural edition of our Editor Awards. In 2021, Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry posted 28 themed article collections across our 7 specialty sections, highlighting cutting-edge themes and contemporary issues within their respective fields. We also launched various Community-Driven initiatives that were spearheaded by members of our Editorial Board. We could not have achieved these milestones without the dedication and collaboration of our Associate and Review Editors. With these awards, we aim to highlight those Associate Editors and Review Editors who we believe have gone above and beyond in the past year to make excellent contributions to our journal. All of our editorial board members have been pivotal in the continued growth and visibility of important research in the field of Frontiers in Environmental Chemistry. This success was achieved by safeguarding the quality of articles published in 2021 during the peer-review process, as well as by suggesting and leading highly relevant and contemporary article collections. We are very proud of our journal, and its community, and are grateful for each member’s support. Every member of our board helps Frontiers achieve its goal of making science open, allowing us to live healthy lives on a healthy […]

Environment

25 Mar 2022

Frontiers in Environmental Science 2021 Editor Awards

We are pleased to announce the first edition of the Frontiers in Environmental Science Editor Awards. In 2021, our journal published over two thousand articles and posted 134 Research Topics across our portfolio of 14 specialty sections. We launched the Drylands section last year, and so far we have already added two new sections in 2022 – Environmental Citizen Science and Environmental Systems Engineering. These accomplishments would not be possible without our fantastic Editors, who contributed to the growth of the journal by safeguarding the quality of the articles we have published during peer-review, as well as by suggesting and leading article collections on the themes of great significance in their respective fields. With these awards, we would like to recognise Associate Editors and Review Editors from our Editorial Board, who went above and beyond in the past year. Thanks to you, our journal can truly flourish and further realize Frontiers’ goal to make science open, so we may all live healthy lives on a healthy planet. Many congratulations to our finalists and a big thank you to all our Editors. Frontiers in Environmental Science Outstanding Associate Editors Awards Yang GaoOcean University of ChinaAtmosphere and ClimateMonika MortimerChina Jiliang UniversityBiogeochemical DynamicsAlex Oriel […]

Earth science

25 Mar 2022

Last of the giant camels and archaic humans lived together in Mongolia until 27,000 years ago

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Camelus knoblochi would have dwarfed the modern domestic Bactrian camel, Camelus bactrianus, which also has two humps. Image credit: Bandurka/Shutterstock.com This is the first report of fossils of a species of giant camel, Camelus knoblochi, from today’s Mongolia. The author show that the species’ last refuge in the world was in Mongolia until 27,000 years ago. There, they coexisted with archaic humans and the much smaller wild Bactrian camel C. ferus. Climate changing leading to desertification and possibly hunting by humans and competition with C. ferus drove C. knoblochi into extinction. A species of giant two-humped camel, Camelus knoblochi, is known to have lived for approximately a quarter of a million years in Central Asia. A new study in Frontiers in Earth Science shows that C. knoblochi’s last refuge was in Mongolia, until approximately 27,000 years ago. In Mongolia, the last of the species coexisted with anatomically modern humans and maybe the extinct Neanderthals or Denisovans. While the main cause of C. knoblochi’s extinction seems to have been climate change, hunting by archaic humans may also have played a role. “Here we show that the extinct camel Camelus knoblochi persisted in Mongolia until climatic […]

Space sciences and astronomy

22 Mar 2022

‘Science is a measure of our ignorance: the more we know, the more we realize how little we know’

By Dr Gianluca Calcagni, IEM-CSIC Image: Shutterstock.com Writing as part of our Frontier Scientists series, Dr Gianluca Calcagni of IEM-CSIC in Madrid gives us an insight into his research that aims to find answers to some of the most puzzling and complex mysteries that makes up almost everything in the universe. Dr Gianluca Calcagni obtained his degree in physics in Italy at Padua University and, in 2005, his PhD at Parma University. He has worked at a number of research institutes in Japan, the UK, the US, Germany and Spain and is now a faculty member of the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IEM-CSIC) in Madrid. As a member of the LISA and Einstein Telescope consortia, his research areas are gravitational waves, nonlocal quantum gravity, multifractal spacetimes, cosmologies beyond the standard model, and string theory. He has published three books and more than 100 papers in physics since 2003. Since 2016, he has also been doing research in behaviural and clinical psychology, in which he has a degree, an MSc and three published papers. Last year, he was awarded with a Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences Diversity Award for his community engagement as […]

Climate action

23 Feb 2022

Sharp drop in flower abundance caused by climate crisis will leave pollinators searching further for food

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image credit: Ellen D Moss Researchers simulated the warmer, wetter conditions predicted for northern Europe under climate change, by locally heating agricultural fields by 1.5 ºC and increasing irrigation by 40%. These conditions immediately lead to changes in the community of wildflowers and their associated insects. Most plant species were ‘losers’: they grew fewer flowers, secreted less nectar, and set fewer or lighter seeds. This reduced the food resources for pollinators, stimulating them to visit a wider range of plants. It is predicted that global average temperatures will have risen by between 0.9 and 2.0 ºC around the middle of this century, according to the IPCC’s intermediate emission scenario RCP4.5. As a result, many species, especially specialists with highly specific requirements for food, habitat, and reproduction, won’t be able to adapt. Because approximately 35% of our crops depend on insects for pollination, it is necessary to study impact of global warming on the fitness of insects and the wildflowers on which they depend for food. Once we understand the likely changes, we may be able to mitigate the negative effects for wild and crop plants. Here, a study by scientists from Newcastle University in […]

Environment

21 Feb 2022

Peace has led to more deforestation in Colombia

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer Difference between reserve and cattle ranches in Colombia. Image credit: Sebastian Di Domenico / Shutterstock In the tropics, when conflict affected countries transition to peace, deforestation often increases. But the reasons behind this trend are neither simple nor generalizable, reports a new study from Colombia. By looking at a range of agricultural and societal drivers at multiple scales, this research shows that different factors promote forest loss. Accounting for these variations will be important for developing more effective conservation strategies in the future. The consequences of peace and armed conflict for deforestation depend on the location, reports a new publication in Frontiers in Environmental Science. Using Colombia as a case study, this work presents one of the most comprehensive studies to date comparing forest loss to drivers such as coca cultivation and cattle farming during periods of peace and conflict. These insights will help make conservation efforts more effective by taking into account the land use, politics and socioeconomics on a local level. “There are other studies that show increased pressure on forests after peace agreements, but our results show that it’s very hard to generalize deforestation in the context of conflict,” said co-author Raphael […]

Earth science

08 Feb 2022

5 fascinating Frontiers articles you may have missed in January 2022

By Colm Gorey, Science Communications Manager A newly born desert tortoise. Image: K. Kristina Drake/ USGS. At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a worldwide audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, many often fly under the radar. Now, as part of new series each month, Frontiers will highlight just some of those amazing papers you may have missed.    1: Too hot to nest? In a hot summer, one tortoise can switch from nesting to developing eggs internally Researchers from Australia and South Africa published an article in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution identifying what may be a novel reproductive strategy in Chersina angulate tortoises that has the potential to enhance the resilience of species to global warming. After observing a captive colony of in Cape Town, South Africa and checking back through historical data, Gerald Kuchling of The University of Western Australia and Margaretha Hofmeyr of the University of Western Cape found that local ambient temperature altered how females deposited their last clutch of eggs. Periods of unusual heat may result in females switching from depositing their eggs in a nest to develop(oviposition), to growing the egg in their body […]

Space sciences and astronomy

28 Jan 2022

Extremely harsh volcanic lake shows how life might have existed on Mars

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer Fieldwork at Laguna Caliente, Poás volcano, Costa Rica. Credit: Justin Wang Only a few microbes inhabit Earth’s most extreme environments, but they have varied adaptations to do so, reports a new study. Hydrothermal hot springs such as at the Poás volcano in Costa Rica provide an opportunity not only to explore life on Earth, but also to understand how life might have evolved on Mars. A few specialist microbes survive conditions analogous to those of Mars’ early history, reports a new publication in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences — and this may be thanks to a broad range of adaptations. One of the most hostile habitats on Earth The hydrothermal crater lake Laguna Caliente of the Poás volcano in Costa Rica is one of the most hostile habitats on the planet. The water is ultra-acidic, full of toxic metals and the temperatures range from comfortable to boiling. In addition, recurrent ‘phreatic eruptions’ cause sudden explosions of steam, ash and rock. Despite such deadly eruptions, hydrothermal environments may be where the earliest forms of life began on Earth — and potentially also on Mars, if there ever was life. Beyond discovering how life can survive […]

Environment

26 Jan 2022

Scientists decode 450 years of boom and crisis in Europe from ages of building timber

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Roof truss of the Chapelle Saint-Denis in Marmoutier in Alsace, France, from the 16th century. Credit: Willy Tegel Scientists have reconstructed European socio-economic cycles between 1250 and 1699 in unprecedented detail, by using the power of tree rings to reveal the exact age of more than 54,000 pieces of timber from historical buildings. Tracking building activity across the years, estimated from felling year of timber from historical buildings, can yield an unrivaled economic record for premodern Europe. That is the conclusion from a vast study by a consortium of scientists across Europe, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. By dating timber from tree rings – to the exact year of felling – from historical buildings, and statistically analyzing the distribution of building years, the authors deduce multiple periods of socio-economic prosperity and downturn between 1250 and 1699, independent from other historical data. Crucially, they show how different European regions were differentially affected, and at different times. When historical records are too scant to reconstruct large-scale demographic and societal changes, environmental measures can be used. For example, numbers of shipwrecks have been used in past research to chart trade intensity, pollen to reconstruct agricultural […]