News by Subject Atmospheric Science

Many climate models focus on scenarios decades into the future, making their outcomes seem unreliable and problematic for decision-making in the immediate future. In a proactive move, researchers are using short-term forecasts to stress the urgency of drought risk in the United States and inform policymakers' actions now.

A University of Bologna research group found plastic waste in the faeces of 45 turtles hospitalised at the Fondazione Cetacea Sea Turtles Rescue Center in Riccione. This signals a high level of pollution in the sea as well as a major threat to the health of these animals whose survival is already at risk.

In densely populated cities, the presence of nitrogen oxides, very small carbon particles, and carbon monoxide in the air seriously harms the human health and increases mortality. A collaboration between researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Russian Academy of Sciences opens the way for reducing emissions of automotive pollutants. In a recent study, the scientists present design principles and catalyst syntheses to transform toxic molecules in the air at temperatures below 0?C.

A widespread field search for a rare Australian native bee not recorded for almost a century has found it's been there all along - but is probably under increasing pressure to survive. "This is concerning because it is the only Australian species in the Pharohylaeus genus and nothing was known of its biology," Flinders University researcher James Dorey says in a new scientific paper in the journal Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

Researchers have analysed decades' worth of data on the impact of repeated fires on ecosystems across the world. Their results, published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, show that repeated fires are driving long-term changes to tree communities and reducing their population sizes.

Climate change is contributing to longer pollen seasons, but one element that's often understudied is pollen transport. The spring irritant can travel from hundreds of kilometers away; understanding how much pollen is non-local can give scientists better insight into the length, timing, and severity of allergy season. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have analyzed data in Bavaria, Germany in order to better understand how the pollen season is changing over time.