Microscopic ocean phytoplankton feed a “biological pump” that carries carbon from the surface to deep waters. Scientists have found that this process stores much more carbon than previously thought.
Collecting data on invasive plants, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California.
Connar L'Ecuyer/NPS
The COVID-19 pandemic is interrupting scientific field work across North America, leaving blank spots in important data sets and making it harder to track ecological change.
Looking south from New York City’s Central Park.
Ajay Suresh/Wikipedia
Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of many great North American city parks, understood that ready access to nature made cities healthier places to live.
Infrastructure as art: Jacob van Ruisdael, ‘Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede,’ c. 1670.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some critics say livestock farms promote diseases that spread from animals to humans. An animal scientist explains how well-run farms work to keep that from happening.
Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia japonica) drinking sap from tree bark in Japan.
Alpsdake/Wikipedia
Are ‘murder hornets’ from Asia invading North America? A Japanese entomologist who’s been stung by one and lived to tell the tale explains what’s true about these predatory insects.
Clear skies over Los Angeles, April 17, 2020.
Araya Diaz/Getty Images
From Nairobi to Los Angeles, pandemic lockdowns have cleared pollution from the skies. But those blue vistas may be temporary, and shutdowns aren’t slowing climate change.
Workers in a pork processing plant, 2016.
USGAO/Wikipedia
COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred at more than 100 US meatpacking plants. Geography, workforce demographics and economic concentration make it hard for workers to fight for better conditions.
It’s hard to avoid close contact during a hurricane evacuation and recovery.
Mehdi Taamallah/AFP/Getty Images
The US faces a high risk of hurricanes and other disasters this year that could leave thousands of people in need of shelter. COVID-19 will make those disasters more dangerous to manage.
Wind turbines in the first rays of sunlight at the Saddleback Ridge Wind Project in Carthage, Maine, March 20, 2019.
AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
After a 5-year review, the EPA is leaving US standards for fine particle air pollution unchanged, even though recent studies suggest that tightening them could save thousands of lives yearly.
When deadly tornadoes struck the Southeast in April, residents in Prentiss, Mississippi, struggled to keep up coronavirus precautions while salvaging what they could from their damaged properties.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
If the forecasts are right, the US could be facing more natural disasters this year – on top of the coronavirus pandemic. Local governments aren’t prepared.
Female tiger crossing track, Bandavgarh National Park, India.
David Tipling/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
A new study forecasts that thousands of miles of new road construction will cut through tiger habitat across Asia by 2050. Planning can make these projects more tiger-friendly.
Harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie, Sept. 4, 2009.
NOAA/Flickr
Warmer waters, heavier storms and nutrient pollution are a triple threat to Great Lakes cities’ drinking water. The solution: Cutting nutrient releases and installing systems to filter runoff.
Using new technology to answer questions about shark reproduction.
Tanya Houppermans
Researchers are using a newly developed satellite tag to study previously unknown aspects of tiger shark reproduction. This approach could be used on other difficult-to-study shark species.
Applying insecticide to a cotton field in Colfax, La.
Education Images/Getty Images
Tomanowos, aka the Willamette Meteorite, may be the world’s most interesting rock. Its story includes catastrophic ice age floods, theft of Native American cultural heritage and plenty of human folly.
Pools of floating crude oil at the site of the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, April 27, 2010.
Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images
The Deepwater Horizon disaster set new records for holding polluters to account. But it had much less impact on laws regulating offshore drilling or US oil dependence.
Air conditioning cools city residents during heat waves, but also strains the power grid and fuels climate change.
Joanna Poe/Flickr
Climate change is making extreme weather events, both hot and cold, more frequent across the Great Lakes region. Weatherizing low-income residents’ homes is an important way to prepare.
Discolored water can be caused by heavy metals, such as iron or copper. Iron can also act as a nutrient for organisms to grow in the pipes.
Kyungyeon Ra/Purdue University
Office buildings have been left mostly empty for weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, leaving standing water in pipes where harmful organisms can grow. What happens when those buildings reopen?
Sunlight, ventilation and relative humidity all affect the microbiome of indoor spaces.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
We spend 90% of our lives indoors, and every building has its own indoor microbiome. Can we learn to manage them in ways that support helpful microbes and suppress harmful ones?
The first Earth Day in 1972 spurred other countries to support global environmental action.
Callista Images/Getty
Wildfire smoke makes it harder for firefighters’ bodies to fight off viral invaders. But firefighting conditions make the usual protective measures nearly impossible.
Researchers use Atlantic mackerel for bait on long-lining fishing sampling expeditions in the Gulf of Mexico..
C-IMAGE Consortium
The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster catalyzed a decade of research on oil contamination in the Gulf of Mexico, from surface waters to the seabed, with surprising findings.