Sustainability
13 Apr 2022
Frontiers article collections are at the center of our mission to find solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet. With collective views of over 4.3 million, researchers explored wellbeing and sustainability topics spanning from yoga for mental health and food security through Smart Foods to protecting our oceans and negative emission technology.
Climate action
05 Apr 2022
By Colm Gorey, Frontiers Science Communications Manager Image: Shutterstock.com At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global 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. The Unseen Effects of Deforestation: Biophysical Effects on Climate Research published to Frontiers in Forests and Global Change offers the most comprehensive and detailed evidence to date that forests are more important to the climate – both globally and locally – than we think due to the way in which they physically transform the atmosphere. The first-ever research conducted by a team from the US pinpointed the local, regional and global non-CO2 benefits of specific forest zones worldwide to find that the entire world gains the most benefits from the band of tropical rainforests spanning Latin America, central Africa and Southeast Asia. It finds that, together, forests keep the planet at least half of a degree Celsius cooler when we account for the understudied biophysical effects – from chemical compounds to turbulence and the reflection of light. These effects in […]
Environment
28 Mar 2022
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
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
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 […]
Climate action
23 Mar 2022
Extreme heat harms forest-dwelling bird chicks more than city ones, finds a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Space sciences and astronomy
22 Mar 2022
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
15 Mar 2022
New high-resolution map shows fires caused one third of global forest loss between 2001 and 2019, published in Frontiers in Remote Sensing
Sustainability
08 Mar 2022
This sustainable solar oven allows rural communities to cook without coal or firewood, published in Frontiers in Energy Research
Climate action
23 Feb 2022
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
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 […]
Space sciences and astronomy
18 Feb 2022
Brains of cosmonauts get ‘rewired’ to adapt to long-term space missions, finds study in Frontiers in Neural Circuits
Environment
17 Feb 2022
Meet the new Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Plant Science
Climate action
08 Feb 2022
Greenhouse gas emission impact from peatland fires underestimated by 200%-300%, shows new study in Frontiers in Climate
Earth science
08 Feb 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 […]
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