environmental science research for everyone
We can thank the Clean Air Act for doing a lot to improve our environment, including helping to make rivers and lakes less acidic. But in some places, climate change has the potential to reverse some of that progress. In this study, scientists set out to investigate a potentially hidden impact of climate change: making rivers and streams more acidic.
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The rhizosphere refers to the narrow region of soil or sediment surrounding the plant roots that directly interact with the roots, both chemically and biologically. Although this region is a hotspot for carbon and nutrient cycling, we know very little about this zone. This post describes a new study that collects information from within the rhizosphere using novel optode imagery.
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They say that you only live once, but for wild rice plants in the Great Lakes Region, whether or not they live depends on what tiny microbes living deep within the mud are doing. Although small, these microbes can poison the rice plants and have some big impacts, especially for everyone that depends on the food these plants provide.
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Permafrost stores a lot of carbon, which is important in terms of climate change. However, as sea levels rise, permafrost can get covered up with water, which is a big change for the microbes that live in the permafrost. Depending on what the microbes in the permafrost are doing, the permafrost has the potential to start releasing that carbon that was previously stored. Scientists recently set out to find out what happens inside the permafrost when it ends up under the ocean, which can tell us more about the past and future of our planet.
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