Vibrant coral reefs teeming with marine life are diminishing throughout the Caribbean as global temperatures rise. Coral reefs are habitats that support the seafood industry, are barriers for coastal communities from storms, flooding and sea level rise and are attractions for tourism. Their net economic value worldwide is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars. However, if atmospheric and ocean temperatures continue to rise at the current pace, coral reefs face extinction within the next 80 years, or by the end of this century.

Researchers of the Human Brain Project (HBP) found that in Parkinson’s disease the volumes of certain brain regions decrease over time in a specific pattern that is associated with clinical symptoms and largely coincides with the pattern described in Braak’s famous staging theory. The new study published in Cortex provides a detailed description of the structural changes over a long period of time and with an unprecedented spatial detail.

Agriculture, loss of habitat or wastewater effluents – human stressors negatively impact biodiversity in streams and rivers. Very little is known yet about the extent to which their capacity for self-purification and other essential ecosystem services are also impacted. An international research team lead by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has synthesised the globally available research on this topic in a meta-analysis recently published in Global Change Biology. This study provides new initiatives for improved water management.

China's first planetary exploration mission, the Tianwen-1, was launched by the Chinese space agency on 23 July 2020 and successfully arrived at Mars on 10 February 2021. In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, scientists present observations of the solar wind during Tianwen-1's cruise phase from October 2020 to January 2021. The solar wind plasma measured by the Mars Ion and Neutral Particle Analyzer (MINPA) onboard Tianwen-1's orbiter provides 3-months' solar wind measurements at a distance from 25,765,773 to 3,559,077 kilometers upstream of the Mars, as well as the NASA's MAVEN mission and ESA's Mars Express monitoring the Martian space environment at the same time. This might be the beginning of possible joint multi-satellite exploration at Mars and international cooperation with efforts to reveal the relationship between solar activity and Martian climate evolution history.

Much of the "excess heat" stored in the subtropical North Atlantic is in the deep ocean (below 700m), new research suggests.

New research modeling smoke from two recent megafires sets the stage for better forecasting of how emissions from these global-scale events will behave and impact temperatures. As huge wildfires become more common under climate change, increased attention has focused on the intensity and duration of their emissions, which rival those of some volcano eruptions.

As fierce wildfires spread through New Mexico, burning hundreds of structures and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate, Sandia National Laboratories found a way for the workforce to help.