Subject
195 articles
Ancient comets are great history-tellers of the Solar system. Our discovery of nitrogenous salts within comets provides hints for how comets might have brought...
Earth’s atmosphere has changed throughout our planet’s history, helping to regulate climate—but finding evidence for changes from billions of years ago remains...
Coral reef islands are widely perceived as being vulnerable to erosion and flooding from sea-level rise and storms. This perception has led to a global debate...
By leveraging spatial coherence in storm surge extremes, we have been able to quantify the likelihood of extreme events occurring along European coastlines...
X-ray and radio observations of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster revealed a “fossil” of a giant explosion that happened in its center several hundred million years...
Ongoing climate change is expected to increase aridity conditions in worldwide, particularly in drylands, the vastest biome on Earth. However, whether...
Historically, violent conflicts tend to predominantly erupt in bad years, when droughts, floods, or heatwaves put the functioning of societies to the test....
The Ganges delta, covering two-thirds of Bangladesh, is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world. It presents a challenge for climate change adaptation...
Ocean circulation redistributes heat and shapes the marine environment. As the world’s oceans have been warming for decades, it is essential to determine how...
Stressful conditions do not always render reef corals white. We found that mild or brief exposure of corals to heat stress or to unfavourable nutrient...
Ice-age cycles define the major climate features of Earth's geologically recent past. Combining information from caves, deep-ocean sediments, and astronomical...
Humans have been largely unsuccessful at protecting assets and economic activity against tropical cyclones. Mangrove forest conservation efforts could yield...
Modern technology makes use of numerous mineral commodities whose production is concentrated in a few countries. New research identifies the commodities whose...
Extreme melt years are occurring more often than ever for glaciers around the world. We make it possible to measure the impact of climate change on this melt....
To visualize the slow slip events on the plate boundary and the geological process that leads to future catastrophic earthquakes, we installed a "seafloor GNSS...
We summarize a recently published study describing and discussing a now-submerged seawall constructed some 7000 years ago by Neolithic villagers on the...
Something has poked a hole in the interstellar gas in a distant galaxy. This allows us the first ever direct view of what young, massive stars look like in...
Antarctica is losing ice. The shape of the bed under the ice sheet may explain why some sectors are more vulnerable to climate change than others. It is,...
It is very difficult to study many factors of global change at the same time. We did this using a trick: we asked what happens if you steadily increase the...
The NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft encountered many surprises while exploring asteroid Bennu. This asteroid is ejecting particles into space, leading to unexpected...
Which parts of the USA and Europe are the highest polluters of artificial light? A new analysis of this measure reveals great differences between the two sides...
Black holes lie at the center of some of the deepest questions in fundamental physics. Yet, according to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes should also...
Oxygen is a life-sustaining element that makes up about twenty percent of the air we breathe. Our research suggests that the stepwise rise of O2 in our...
In December 2018, a tsunami took 437 lives and injured 33,000 on the beaches of Sumatra and Java without warning. What can be done to provide a warning for...
Corals are impacted by climate change worldwide. Monitoring the Mediterranean coral Cladocora caespitosa during 16 yrs allowed us to discover that some...
Climate cycles are influenced by the changes in a planet's axial tilt or obliquity. Stellar binary companions can alter a planet's obliquity quite...
We pump too much water out of the ground, impacting our rivers worldwide. Our study estimates that almost 20% of the catchments where groundwater is pumped for...
Conversion of tropical forests into agriculture reduces wildlife habitats and leads to biodiversity losses and human-wildlife conflicts. Here, we present an...
Geological evidence from a Mallorcan coastal cave in the western Mediterranean Sea shed new light on past sea level. The results indicate that sea level was up...
Our study demonstrates the benefits of biodiversification for agriculture. In essence, agricultural fields with greater biodiversity are better protected from...
A new record of past sea-level change for 3 million years ago when the global climate was 2 degrees warmer and the implications for ice sheet response in the...
Neonicotinoids kill beneficial insects when they feed on honeydew. Honeydew is the excretion product of phloem-feeding hemipteran insects such as aphids,...
We have discovered not only what happened to the people of an abandoned ancient Maya city, but the exact day that much of the population disappeared. The study...
A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could be triggered by the ongoing conflict over Kashmir. The direct effects of this nuclear exchange would be...
Using data based on observations, we find the vertical wind shear (the change in wind speed with height) over the North Atlantic Ocean has increased by 15%...
Ancient inhabitants worldwide have coped with seasonal rains, and flashy river flows by ‘sowing water’ during rainy seasons and ‘harvesting’ it during dry...
Ocean currents carry fish in the early stages of their life cycle across international boundaries. As a result, international cooperation is crucial to...
Magma erupted from a volcano in Iceland was stored at the boundary between the crust and the mantle for thousands of years before travelling to the surface in...
The environment is under significant pressure from multiple issues that stem from human activity. One important issue that many individuals are unaware of is...
Due to climate change, the Earth is now in a state fundamentally different from before the pre-industrial era. Marine plankton, the basis of the food chain,...
Climate change is affecting the distribution and abundance of marine life. Yet the full extent of future changes is difficult to predict due to limitations in...
Bermuda’s explosive past has changed how geologists think about the processes that make volcanoes. The chemical composition of the lavas analyzed in this study...
A newly completed 40-year satellite record of Antarctic sea ice coverage reveals that after slowly increasing, overall, from the late 1970s to 2014, Antarctic...
Since the 50s, the number of fishing boats in the oceans has vastly increased. The quantity of fish we catch? Not so much. This discrepancy indicates that...
Pollinating insects such as bees and hoverflies provide a vital service for many wild flowers and crops. However, there are growing concerns about their...
New review of plant extinction in modern times shows clearly elevated rates globally. Highest rates are for shrubs and trees and in biodiverse areas with many...
Observations by NASA of Greenland’s biggest glacier and largest contributor to sea-level rise reveal how vulnerable the ice sheets can be to changes in ocean...
The cause of the largest mass extinction in Earth history – termed “the Great Dying” – has long remained elusive. Our research demonstrates a causal link...
