Compost filter socks improve runoff from croplands

Water runoff from cropped farm fields can contain large amounts of eroded soil as well as some of the fertilizer and herbicide. Expanding on existing conservation practices, a team of scientists has tested whether compost ...

Forest fires help power the nitrogen cycle

When fire burns down a forest, nitrate levels go up, and the effects are persistent, according to recent research from University of Montana scientists. They found that charcoal deposited during fire events has the potential ...

The science behind the life and times of the Earth's salt flats

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Alaska Anchorage are the first to characterize two different types of surface water in the hyperarid salars—or salt flats—that contain much ...

Landfill cover soil methane oxidation underestimated

Landfilled waste decomposes in the absence of oxygen and results in the production of methane. Landfills are classified as the second-largest human-made source of CH4 in the U.S. Additionally, landfill gas contains numerous ...

Bowing to pressure, Beijing begins hourly smog data

Beijing on Thursday began publishing real-time air quality data on the Internet, bowing to a vocal online campaign for greater government transparency over pollution in China's capital.

World's lakes losing oxygen rapidly as planet warms

Oxygen levels in the world's temperate freshwater lakes are declining rapidly—faster than in the oceans—a trend driven largely by climate change that threatens freshwater biodiversity and drinking water quality.

page 4 from 33