http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- A demonstration project on the southeastern tip of Australia has helped to verify that depleted natural gas reservoirs can be repurposed for geologic carbon sequestration, which is a climate change mitigation strategy that involves pumping CO2 deep underground for permanent storage. http://phys.org/news245059639.html Space & Earth Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:07:27 EST news245059639 Scientists examined current knowledge about the potential contributions of bioenergy production from switchgrass to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Their findings, published in GCB Bioenergy, conclude that the use of switchgrass bioenergy can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but encourage further research to address the significant sources of uncertainty, such as what type of land is converted to switchgrass. http://phys.org/news242621693.html Technology Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:56:55 EST news242621693 Brazil said Monday that the pace of deforestation in its Amazon region fell to its lowest level since authorities began monitoring the world's largest tropical rainforest. http://phys.org/news242330987.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:10:01 EST news242330987 Encouraging climate-smart agriculture can lead to climate change adaptation practices in a partnership where the farmer's needs are addressed. http://phys.org/news242103229.html Space & Earth Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:30:01 EST news242103229 The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) has begun injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) for the first million-tonne demonstration of carbon sequestration in the U.S. The CO2 will be stored permanently in the Mt. Simon Sandstone more than a mile beneath the Illinois surface at Decatur. The MGSC is led by the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS), part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois. http://phys.org/news241664379.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:59:51 EST news241664379 The largest and most comprehensive study yet done on the effect of biofuel production from West Coast forests has concluded that an emphasis on bioenergy would increase carbon dioxide emissions from these forests at least 14 percent, if the efficiency of such operations is optimal. http://phys.org/news238595402.html Space & Earth Sun, 23 Oct 2011 13:30:11 EST news238595402 The lack of a settled legal framework that balances private property rights while maximizing the public good ultimately hinders the large-scale commercial deployment of geologic carbon sequestration, according to published research by a University of Illinois expert in renewable energy law. http://phys.org/news237548115.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:35:53 EST news237548115 Carbon sequestration is a potential solution for reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, but its scientific challenges are complex. Analytical tools are needed that provide information about the mineral-fluid interactions of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the molecular level. http://phys.org/news236933410.html Chemistry Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:50:18 EST news236933410 A forest may look like a forest, have many of the same trees that used to live there, but still lose the ecological, economic or cultural values that once made it what it was, researchers suggest this week in articles in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news236860885.html Space & Earth Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:00:01 EST news236860885 The ability of forests, plants and soil to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air has been under-estimated, according to a study on Wednesday that challenges a benchmark for calculating the greenhouse-gas problem. http://phys.org/news236440189.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:50:11 EST news236440189 An article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy examines the carbon sequestration potential of Miscanthus plantations on commercial farms. http://phys.org/news234001758.html Space & Earth Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:29:28 EST news234001758 Writing in the journal Annals of Botany, Professor Douglas Kell argues that developing crops that produce roots more deeply in the ground could harvest more carbon from the air, and make crops more drought resistant, while dramatically reducing carbon levels. http://phys.org/news231581647.html Biology Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:14:31 EST news231581647 For coal-rich countries like the United States, the concept of "clean coal" is too intriguing to ignore. With the implementation of carbon capture and sequestration, America's most abundant energy resource could continue supplying half of the nation's electricity while emitting less carbon dioxide. http://phys.org/news231417034.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:00:09 EST news231417034 The Northwest Forest Plan enacted in 1993 was designed to conserve old-growth forests and protect species such as the northern spotted owl, but researchers conclude in a new study that it had another powerful and unintended consequence – increased carbon sequestration on public lands. http://phys.org/news230612073.html Space & Earth Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:54:50 EST news230612073 The enormous decline of large, apex predators and "consumers" ranging from wolves to lions, sharks and sea otters may represent the most powerful impacts humans have ever had on Earth's ecosystems, a group of 24 researchers concluded today in a new report in the journal Science. http://phys.org/news229872585.html Biology Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:31:41 EST news229872585 When it comes to seeing how carbon dioxide behaves in a geologic storehouse, most instruments can't take the pressure. But, a new apparatus created by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Wright State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory can handle the pressures that the stored greenhouse gas would encounter. Using their newly developed atomic force microscope, scientists can now get sharp pictures and movies of reactions as they happen, under conditions you'd find at a carbon sequestration site. http://phys.org/news226309894.html Technology Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:20:04 EST news226309894 The global spread of native trees and shrubs into open grazing land and abandoned farms can bring unexpected environmental and economic benefits, a major new international study has found. http://phys.org/news226142235.html Biology Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:18:19 EST news226142235 (PhysOrg.com) -- The presence of even a simple chemical reaction can delay or prevent the spreading of stored carbon dioxide in underground aquifers, new research from the University of Cambridge has revealed. http://phys.org/news223894649.html Chemistry Fri, 06 May 2011 09:58:05 EST news223894649 Some people collect stamps and coins, but when it comes to sheer utility, few collections rival the usefulness of Rice University researcher Michael Deem's collection of 2.6 million zeolite structures. http://phys.org/news221221985.html Chemistry Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:33:48 EST news221221985 The ocean traps carbon through two principal mechanisms: a biological pump and a physical pump linked to oceanic currents. A team of French researchers have managed to quantify the role of these two pumps in an area of the North Atlantic. Contrary to expectations, the physical pump in this region could be nearly 100 times more powerful on average than the biological pump. By pulling down masses of water cooled and enriched with carbon, ocean circulation thus plays a crucial role in deep carbon sequestration in the North Atlantic. These results are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. http://phys.org/news218972239.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:37:34 EST news218972239 (PhysOrg.com) -- Peat-swamp forests in Southeast Asia are being cleared to make way for food production and for oil-palm plantations for biofuel, but now a new study has quantified the resultant carbon emissions for the first time. http://phys.org/news218780892.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:50:02 EST news218780892 An international team of scientists has released data indicating that greenhouse gas uptake by continents is less than previously thought because of methane emissions from freshwater areas. http://phys.org/news213549407.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:17:04 EST news213549407 Nonindigenous insects and pathogens continue to become established in US forests with regularity despite regulations intended to prevent this, according to a study published in the December 2010 issue of BioScience. The study, by a team led by Juliann E. Aukema of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California, found that nonindigenous insects are being newly detected in US forests at a rate of about 2.5 per year, and high-impact insects and pathogens that cause significant effects in forests, including tree death, are being newly detected every 2 to 2.5 years. The rate of detection of harmful forest invaders seems to have increased in the past two decades. http://phys.org/news210828121.html Biology Mon, 06 Dec 2010 03:23:07 EST news210828121 Montana State University researchers have discovered that baking soda can dramatically increase algae's production of the key oil precursors for biodiesel. http://phys.org/news209032424.html Chemistry Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:34:02 EST news209032424 The red, metal-laden sludge that escaped a containment pond in Hungary last week could be made less toxic with the help of carbon sequestration, says an Indiana University Bloomington geologist who has a patent pending on the technique. http://phys.org/news206188714.html Space & Earth Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:50:04 EST news206188714 Forests of genetically altered trees and other plants could sequester several billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and so help ameliorate global warming, according to estimates published in the October issue of BioScience. http://phys.org/news205130872.html Biology Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:48:32 EST news205130872 Every year, about 30 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide are pumped into the Earth’s atmosphere from power plants, cars and other industrial sources that rely on fossil fuels. Scientists who want to mitigate carbon dioxide’s effects on global climate have started experimenting with storing the gas underground, a process known as carbon sequestration. However, there are still many unknowns surrounding the safety and effectiveness of that strategy. http://phys.org/news204365658.html Biology Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:14:52 EST news204365658 A new, computer-based knowledge management system will help scientists collaborate more effectively while using their preferred modeling tools to conduct more comprehensive planning for safe, long-term underground storage of greenhouse gases. http://phys.org/news203931633.html Space & Earth Fri, 17 Sep 2010 08:40:43 EST news203931633 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new University of Florida study finds. http://phys.org/news202651455.html Biology Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:04:25 EST news202651455 The idea to sequester carbon is gaining support as a way to avoid global warming. For example, the European Union plans to invest billions of Euros within the next ten years to develop carbon capture and storage whereby CO2 will be extracted at power plants and other combustion sites and stored underground. But how effective is this procedure and what are the long-term consequences of leakage for the oceans and climate? A Niels Bohr Institute researcher has now cast light upon these issues. This research has just been published in the scientific journal, Nature Geoscience. http://phys.org/news196856250.html Space & Earth Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:00:49 EST news196856250