By Alex Fox / EOS January 4, 2018 The grandfather of modern corn may hold the key to reducing its need for chemical fertilizers. Ears of corn (maize), showing a wide range of colors and shapes that reflect different varieties. Credit: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, CC BY NC-SA 2.0 Corn has [...]
By Damian Carrington / The Guardian January 4, 2018 Areas starved of oxygen in open ocean and by coasts have soared in recent decades, risking dire consequences for marine life and humanity Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites [...]
By UPI January 4, 2018 Regions of low-oxygen and no-oxgyen in Earth’s oceans are growing in size and number, according to a new study — the most comprehensive survey of ocean oxygen levels to date. The latest data shows expanses of no-oxygen in the open ocean have increased four-fold over the last half-century. Since 1950, [...]
By Sam Lemonick / c&en January 3, 2018 Computer simulations predict a new light-activated catalyst could make the Haber-Bosch process obsolete The world relies on the Haber-Bosch process to reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia to make fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, and other industrially important chemicals. But the process consumes a tremendous amount of energy—about 1% of the [...]
By Keith Magill / Daily Comet January 2, 2018 A local wetlands advocacy group has forged an agreement it hopes will help reduce the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone The Thibodaux-based Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program announced the deal Tuesday. The non-binding agreement with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture opens the door for [...]
By Emily Atkin / New Republic December 13, 2017 Apocalyptic weather dominated the headlines, but meat production also caused severe destruction in 2017. Off the coast of Louisiana, in an 8,000-square-mile swath of ocean, the marine life is suffocating to death. Nutrient pollution, flowing from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, is birthing huge [...]
By Steve Hardy / The Advocate November 30, 2017 Shrimpers and environmentalists gathered on the banks of the Mississippi River here Thursday to call on livestock farmers to help protect the Gulf of Mexico. Sustainability group Mighty Earth sent an open letter to the CEO of Tyson Foods, urging him to take steps to prevent [...]
Dr. Nancy Rabalais and members of the LUMCON team prepare to deploy a Sea-Bird Scientific SBE 32 carousel water sampler with a CTD into the Gulf of Mexico. (Credit: LUMCON) Mindy Cooper / Environmental Monitor November 28, 2017 During the summer of 2017, researchers with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) and Louisiana [...]
Nancy Rabalais speaks at TEDWomen 2017 Bridges, November 1-3, 2017, Orpheum Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, presented a TED talk at TEDWomen in New Orleans on November 1, 2017. The theme of the conference was “Bridges,” [...]
By Alma Gaul | Quad-City Times October 12, 2017 Based on historic weather patterns, the Midwestern United States can expect the drought of the century around 2025, according to Elwynn Taylor, a climatologist for Iowa State University Extension, Ames. The Midwest might be ripe for a major drought in 2025, according to a climatologist [...]