Contrary to predictions, spring rains caused a decrease in nitrogen at watershed outflows in Alabama.
Health & Ecosystems
Tea Leaves Remove Lead from Water
Surface and chemical properties of tea leaves may help explain the correlation between tea consumption and lower incidences of heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke.
Trump Administration Moves to Weaken PFAS Rules
President Donald Trump’s EPA is considering a rule that would weaken regulations limiting chemicals harmful to human health in consumer goods, The Guardian reports.
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of chemicals added to consumer products, oftentimes for their water- and stain-resistant properties. Exposure to PFAS is known to raise the risk of certain cancers, kidney and liver disease, and complications surrounding reproductive health. The chemicals are omnipresent in everyday life and contaminate drinking water across the United States.
Beyond Majesty and Myths: Facing the Realities of Mountainside Development
Expansive construction in fragile mountain environments is often pursued without adequate consideration of heightened hazards and local concerns, putting people and infrastructure at greater risk.
WWII Ordnance Is Polluting the Baltic Sea
Discarded explosives were dumped into the Baltic and North seas after World War II. Their deadly legacy is still with us.
Thriving Antarctic Ecosystem Revealed by a Departing Iceberg
A quick-calving iceberg gave scientists a rare glimpse into what hides beneath Antarctic ice.
Brazil’s Rivers Are Leaking
Wells overpumping groundwater could be forcing rivers to seep underground, a new study shows. Regions with intensive irrigation activities are at the most risk.
Researchers Put a Number on Animals’ Earth-Shaping Effects
Wild animals expend 76,000 gigajoules of energy—the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of monsoons or floods—shaping our planet’s terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.
NIH Cancels Climate and Health Research Grants
The Trump administration’s intentions toward addressing climate change are clear: Federal agencies purged mentions of the climate crisis from their websites and slashed funding for mitigation tools such as the Future Risk Index. Now, those intentions are extending to health research: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun to cancel funding for investigations into the health effects of climate change, and will not financially support new research on the subject, according to ProPublica and Nature.
Wildfires Pose a Threat to Volcanic Soils in the Peruvian Andes
Fragile highland ecosystems showed low resilience to fire, which renders them more vulnerable to long-term degradation.