environmental | Common News Update

Dec302017 by adminNo Comments

Study shows streams are reliable indicators of a region's environmental health

Science

Dec. 29 (UPI) -- New research shows streams are stable and reliable indicators of a region's ecological and environmental health.However, scientists found methods for stream monitoring must be improved and standardized in order for researchers to tap into the water's value as an indicator.An environmental or ecological indicator is a species, population or landscape feature that offers scientists a general predictive measure of the health of plants, animals and natural systems within an ecosystem or region.The latest research -- detailed this week in the journal Ecology Letters -- shows streams can be used to measure the impact of farming practices, land-use changes and other human impacts on a region's environmental health.Stream health can also be used to predict the risk of environmenta...

Study shows star formation influenced by environmental conditions

Science

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Scientists at Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have determined that new star formation is influenced by local environmental conditions.According to the classical model, a star is formed when a prestellar core, a roundish accumulation containing 99 percent gas and 1 percent dust, collapses due to overweight, resulting in the formation of a star in the center of the collapse. This is followed by the formation of a disk of gas and dust rotating around said star."This is the star's protoplanetary disk, and planets are thought to be formed in such disks -- planet Earth being no exception," Michael Küffmeier, astrophysicist at the institute, said in a press release.Researchers from the institute carried out computer simulations of the formation of hundreds o...

Record number of environmental activists killed around the world

Science

Growing competition for land and natural resources saw a record number of environmental activists killed in 2016, says Global Witness.The green group's report details at least 200 murders across 24 countries, up significantly from 2015.Disputes over mining were the cause of the greatest number of killings, followed by logging and agribusiness. Brazil saw the most deaths overall, but there were big increases in Colombia and India.Global Witness has been publishing annual reports on the threats to activists since 2012, although it has data going back to 2002. The organisation compiles its analysis from media sources, information from other non-governmental organisations and from the UN. It also verifies the data with monitoring groups in priority countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Hondura...