The question of the causes of species extinction confronts science with complex tasks. Dr Sarah Redlich from the Biocentre on the challenge of creating a study design.
Oceans, lakes and rivers often contain a large number of microplastic particles on their surface. Impacting raindrops cause many droplets with an almost equally high concentration of microplastics to be thrown up into the air. When they evaporate in the air, the particles enter the atmosphere. Researchers from the University of Bayreuth describe these processes in a new study published in "Microplastics and Nanoplastics". In an initial estimate, which is still fraught with uncertainty in several respects, they come to the conclusion that, worldwide, up to 100 trillion microplastic particles could enter the atmosphere every year as a result of rainfall.
Floods do not stop at borders. That is why, funded by the EU, an international research consortium including the Floodplain Institute Neuburg of the Catholic Univerity Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) has investigated the potential of the renaturization of Danube floodplains in reducing the impact of extreme floods. Having examined five pilote regions, the researchers concluded that floodplains have a verifiable effect in capping flood peaks and shifting water runoff.
Professor Christine Schmitt, geographer at the University of Passau, is part of an international research team that proves – in a “Nature” article – that tropical African mountain forests store more carbon than previously thought.
Temperatures on Earth have had a significant influence on the course of evolution. A particularly high number of new species of marine animals emerged after geologically short cooling periods that had already been preceded by a much longer cooling period. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Universities of Bayreuth and Erlangen-Nuremberg in a new study that has now been published in the journal PNAS. By combining empirical data and computer simulations, they have found that the influence of rapid climate change on biodiversity is significantly influenced by longer-lasting climate trends in previous periods of the Earth’s history.
The tropical mountain forests of Africa store more carbon per hectare in their above-ground biomass than all other tropical forests on earth. With this great storage capacity, which was previously estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be considerably lower, they have made a major contribution to climate protection. This is the conclusion of a study published in Nature by an international network of researchers who are urging for the preservation of these carbon-rich ecosystems. Dr. Andreas Hemp from the University of Bayreuth and his team investigated carbon stocks in the mountain forests of Kilimanjaro.
Geologists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) joined forces with researchers from France, Berlin, and Portugal to investigate the extent to which the growth of belemnites and changes to their appearance depend on ecological reactions and whether these changes are evidence of environmental crises that could have a serious impact on the climate in future.
Around the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, rhodoliths made up of coralline red algae provide ecological niches for a wide variety of organisms. A team of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the University of Bayreuth and Senckenberg Research Institute in Wilhelmshaven has recently discovered a large quantity of microplastics in this ecosystem.
As temperatures rise, the risk of devastating forest fires is increasing. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are using artificial intelligence to estimate the long-term impact that an increased number of forest fires will have on forest ecosystems. Their simulations show how Yellowstone National Park in the USA could change by the end of the century.
Researchers working under the leadership of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have conducted the first precise and comprehensive measurements of sea level rises in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. A new method now makes it possible to determine sea level changes with millimeter accuracy even in coastal areas and in case of sea ice coverage. This is of vital importance for planning protective measures.
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