https://phys.org/earth-news/environment/ en-us The latest news on the environment, environmental issues, earth science and space exploration. Microfiber pollution from large-scale laundry operations is emerging as a significant and largely unseen environmental issue. New research led by the University of Portsmouth is using Cleaner Seas Group's industrial filtration technology—already deployed in commercial settings to better understand the scale of the problem and how it can be prevented before it reaches our waterways. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-aims-microfiber-pollution-cruise-hotel.html Environment Sat, 18 Apr 2026 09:30:01 EDT news695463929 Nitrogen (N) fertilizer supports global agriculture, but its use and overuse drive emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent and long-lived trace gas. Incomplete understanding of N2O flux drivers makes it difficult to make spatiotemporal emissions predictions and evaluate management strategies for emissions reductions. N2O experts evaluated current sources of uncertainty and propose an initiative for accelerating advances in N2O measurement, analysis, and mitigation. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-global-n2onet-aims-farm-nitrous.html Environment Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:00:02 EDT news695712396 Thawing permafrost buried underneath rivers may be accelerating permafrost degradation faster than previously estimated in these inundated regions, according to new research shared at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-rivers-hidden-permafrost-meltdown-faster.html Environment Sat, 18 Apr 2026 06:39:02 EDT news695713087 Burning time for North American wildfires is going into overtime. Flames are lasting later into the night and starting earlier in the morning because human-caused climate change is extending the hotter and drier conditions that feed fires, a new study found. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-wildfires-night-climate-prime-hours.html Environment Sat, 18 Apr 2026 06:16:17 EDT news695711720 Urban parks are often seen as natural refuges from summer heat, but new Concordia research shows that, depending on the time of day, the way trees are arranged within parks can influence whether those spaces cool people down or trap heat. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-affects-cooling-differently-day-night.html Environment Fri, 17 Apr 2026 20:40:02 EDT news695625355 The latest official stocktake of the state of New Zealand's freshwater carries many of the headline messages we have come to expect. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-sight-groundwater-contamination-nz-reveals.html Environment Fri, 17 Apr 2026 16:20:04 EDT news695630582 Indonesia experiences massive forest fires as the dry season approaches. They are a major environmental challenge because they damage forests and other land, endanger lives, and disrupt local economies. Using sharp, high-resolution imagery from Sentinel-2 satellites, capable of spotting details as small as 20 meters, a recent study built the first fully automated system to map burned areas across Indonesia every month in fine detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-indonesia-crisis-focus-high-resolution.html Earth Sciences Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:30:01 EDT news695563633 On the evening of July 6, 2025, a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) surged through the village of Hassanabad in Pakistan's Hunza Valley, destroying houses and irrigation systems. Triggered by the rapid melting of the Shisper Glacier, the flash flood forced villagers to evacuate and also damaged the local water supply system. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-office-recovery-advances-relief-efforts.html Environment Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:40:05 EDT news695640421 In what is possibly another sign of climate change, mosquitoes have landed in Iceland for the first time. For many years, the island was the only Arctic country that could claim to be mosquito-free. But that all changed in 2025, when three Culiseta annulata specimens were discovered in a garden in Kjós, just north of the capital Reykjavík. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mosquitoes-iceland-arctic.html Environment Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:20:01 EDT news695638195 Blistering temperatures rising to 40°C and above will now be branded "cruelly hot" or "kokusho-bi" in Japan, the weather agency said Friday, as heat wave days become increasingly frequent in the region. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-cruelly-hot-japan-term-days.html Environment Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:40:02 EDT news695636367 Originally deployed to record re-entry signals of the OSIRIS-REx return capsule, a T-shaped fiber optic cable draped across the ground at a Nevada airfield also captured unique aspects of a Cessna 172's speed and maneuvering. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-surface-draped-fiber-captured-plane.html Earth Sciences Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:20:02 EDT news695619661 The East Asian Subtropical Westerly Jet (EASWJ) and the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) are two pivotal components of the East Asian monsoon system, shaping the precipitation distribution and climate over East Asia. Whether the co-evolutionary EASWJ–EASM relationship remains consistent under different climatic backgrounds has been a key question in both modern and paleoclimate research. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-interannual-evolutionary-reveal-east-asia.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:20:01 EDT news695577841 Bottom fishing can release CO₂ from the seabed, but the consequences for the climate are not straightforward. New research, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, shows that disturbing the seabed sets in motion multiple processes with contrasting effects. The overall climate impact of bottom fishing is the result of these processes and depends strongly on where fishing takes place and on whether carbon is released that would otherwise have remained stored in the seabed for long periods. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-climate-impact-bottom-fishing-seabed.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:00:01 EDT news695575621 A new study shows that a specific type of silicone, the so-called methylsiloxanes, is widely present in the atmosphere across diverse environments. Also, concentrations appear to be much higher than expected. According to the researchers, this raises concerns about their potential—yet poorly understood—effects on human health and the climate. Methylsiloxanes are commonly used in industry, transportation, cosmetics, and household products. The study was supervised by Utrecht University and the University of Groningen, and the results are published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-newly-pollutant-widely-atmosphere.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:30:01 EDT news695576521 Relocating the city of Venice is among four potential options—including movable barriers, ring dikes and closing the Venetian Lagoon—that could help it adapt to future sea-level rise over the next 200 years, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-relocating-venice-options-explored-city.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:00:01 EDT news695570401 Glaciers can reveal vast archives of information about Earth's environmental past, but deciphering the origins of the matter within them can be a challenge. Now, using a novel technique that enables researchers to directly analyze millions of individual particles at once, a new study has revealed that specks of dust trapped in Antarctic ice likely originated from a common source during the last Ice Age, between about 120,000 and 11,500 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-technique-drills-ice-core.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:30:03 EDT news695567693 The underground laboratory in Nevada where the U.S. conducts nuclear subcritical experiments is riddled with faults. Researchers have not confirmed whether any of these faults are active and could rupture during an earthquake, according to a presentation by members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board delivered at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-extensive-faults-beneath-nevada-nuclear.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:20:02 EDT news695569082 The recovery of the ozone layer in Earth's stratosphere could be delayed by several years, according to an international study led by Swiss research institution Empa which included contributions from University of Bristol researchers. The cause is persistent emissions of so-called feedstock chemicals, which are still permitted as raw materials in industry. These ozone-depleting substances have so far been excluded from international agreements because, according to the current study, their emissions and use have been significantly underestimated. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-industrial-chemical-leaks-ozone-layer.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:20:14 EDT news695567701 When 240 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., starting in mid-January 2026 and running through mid-March, it was estimated to be the largest sewage spill in U.S. history. But it wasn't the first, nor will it be the last. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-washington-dc-milliongallon-sewage-symptom.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:20:10 EDT news695560742 Where once there was ice, only rock remains. One of the glaciers in a chain of snow-capped mountains in the Colombian Andes has vanished due to high temperatures driven by climate change. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-global-colombian-glacier.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:50:27 EDT news695573386 Massive blooms of Sargassum seaweed that have inundated coastlines across the Atlantic since 2011 likely originate off the coast of West Africa—forming years before they are visible and overturning long-standing assumptions about where these events begin. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-massive-atlantic-sargassum-blooms-west.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:00:04 EDT news695562483 Scientists from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación in Mexico have developed a tool that identifies mangrove patches facing the greatest risk of degradation. The tool, called the Mangrove Threat Index and described in a study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, aims to provide an empirical argument for conservation before vulnerable ecosystems are lost rather than after, said the researchers. The index yields a single number that local planners and communities can use to prioritize specific mangrove patches for protection. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-metric-mangroves.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:20:03 EDT news695558942 A microscopic green pigment can provide major insights into how severe tropical cyclones called typhoons impact water flow and ecosystems. Called chlorophyll a, the pigment is responsible for absorbing light and initiating the photosynthesis process for algae, other plants and some bacteria. The amount of chlorophyll a in a body of water acts as a proxy measurement for the organisms that feed on it, with sharp increases or decreases indicating a disrupted ecosystem. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-microscopic-green-pigment-insights-successive.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:00:05 EDT news695557023 Powerful cyclones can push seawater miles inland, threatening densely populated communities and critical infrastructure built along coastal areas. A combination of exposure and complexity makes the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia a powerful test case for scientists seeking to better understand how tides, storm surge, river flows and sea level rise interact to drive extreme coastal flooding. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-simulations-generate-thousands-cyclone-scenarios.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:00:04 EDT news695557540 As future shifts in climate lead to more rain and less snow in the western United States, new research finds that water will move faster through a landscape, likely leading to negative impacts on summer water levels and water quality. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-warmer-winters-drought-threaten-western.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:40:04 EDT news695557473 The Atlantic current system, or more formally the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is more likely to weaken than previously thought. That's the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Science Advances, which used more refined modeling techniques to get a clearer picture of the future. If these new projections are correct, the consequences could be severe, particularly for Europe and Africa. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-atlantic-current-weakening-faster.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:40:05 EDT news695552250 A new study by University of Hawai'i at Mānoa researchers revealed that Waikīkī is facing a fundamental shift in flood hazards as sea levels rise—transitioning from a flooding that is driven primarily by rainfall to events increasingly dominated by tidal processes. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-waikk-escalating-threat-sewage-contaminated.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:40:01 EDT news695549821 Often hailed as the most successful international environmental agreement of all time, the 1987 Montreal Protocol continues to successfully phase out the global production of chemicals that were creating a growing hole in the ozone layer, causing skin cancer and other adverse health effects. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-regulatory-loophole-delay-ozone-recovery.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:00:09 EDT news695464621 Energy, transport, heating and industrial transition: A major modeling study now provides EU-wide guidance with high sector detail on the required pace of transition to fossil-free technologies. The conclusion is encouraging: the EU Green Deal is realistic, and it will ultimately make the continent stronger and more independent from oil and gas crises. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-milestones-europe-climate-neutrality.html Environment Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:00:01 EDT news695472903 Using self-developed drones and advanced sensors, researchers can now see both under the snow and into the ground. The scientists' goal is to reduce societal risk and environmental encroachment. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-drone-reveals-beneath-soil.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:20:02 EDT news695478417