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Elevated Indoor Carbon Dioxide Impairs Decision-Making Performance

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Environmentberkeley lab, brain injury, building, carbon dioxide, CO2, cognitive function, concentration, decline, dimension, dysfunctional, economic consequence, economic impact, energy consumption, energy-efficient, human, indoor, mark mendell, new york, pharmaceutical, pollutant, ppm, primary source, rate, reduction, scenarios, sms, state university, suny, upstate medical university, usha satish, ventilation, william fisk

Berkeley Lab scientists surprised to find significant adverse effects of CO2 on human decision-making performance.

Overturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance. The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density.

“In our field we have always had a dogma that CO₂ itself, at the levels we find in buildings, is just not important and doesn’t have any direct impacts on people,” said Berkeley Lab scientist William Fisk, a co-author of the study, which was published in Environmental Health Perspectives online last month. “So these results, which were quite unambiguous, were surprising.” The study was conducted with researchers from State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University. (more…)

Impulsive Micromanagers Help Plants to Adapt, Survive

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceatmospheric co2, climate, concentration, drought, environmental change, environmental factor, global change, jay lennon, jen lau, plant, precipitation pattern, soil microbe, warmer temperature

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Soil microbes are impulsive. So much so that they help plants face the challenges of a rapidly changing climate.

Jen Lau and Jay Lennon, Michigan State University biologists, studied how plants and microbes work together to help plants survive the effects of global changes, such as increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. The results, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that microbes in the ground not only interact with plants, but they also prompt them to respond to environmental changes.

“We found that these changes in the plants happen primarily because of what global changes do to the belowground microbes rather than the plant itself,” said Lau, who works at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station. “Drought stress affects microbes, and they, in turn, drive plants to flower earlier and help plants grow and reproduce when faced with drought.” (more…)

Cycling May Negatively Affect Male Reproductive Health, UCLA Study Finds

By Guest PostMay 26, 2012Health, Sportsanti microbial preservative, bacterial infection, body fat, breast tissue, cardiovascular, chamois cream, concentration, cortisol, elevated estrogen, estradiol, female athlete, gynecomastia, Health, hormonal imbalance, hormone, interleukin 6, james s kesner, kaiser foundation, leah fitzgerald, male cyclists, metabolic function, neuroendocrine system, perineum area, plasma estradiol, pubic hair, reduce, reproductive health, reproductive hormone, total testosterone, wendie a robbins

A study by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing has found that serious male cyclists may experience hormonal imbalances that could affect their reproductive health.

The study, “Reproductive Hormones and Interleukin-6 in Serious Leisure Male Athletes,” was recently published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

To date, an extensive amount of research has been done documenting the positive effects of long-term exercise on health. Yet while moderate exercise can lead to enhanced cardiovascular and metabolic function and reduced body fat, studies have shown that ultra-endurance levels of exercise can also adversely affect the neuroendocrine system and reproductive health. (more…)

Acid Rain

By Guest PostMay 4, 2012Environmentacid rain, acidic, acidity, air, basic, canopy, cape henlopen, carbonic acid, clean air act, concentration, copper, delaware rain, ecosystem, joseph scudlark, lake sediments, lead, lewes, marine studies, mercury, monitoring, nitric, organism, ph, pollutant, precipitation, rainwater, state park, sulfuric, thomas church, trace metal, zinc

UD’s long-term monitoring shows 60 percent reduction in acidity of Delaware rain

Several decades ago, precipitation in Delaware was among the most acidic in the country. Pollutants in the air reacted with rainwater to sprinkle sulfuric, nitric and carbonic acids onto the ground below, affecting crops and ecosystems statewide.

The scientific consensus is that pollution controls enacted through the Clean Air Act Amendments in the 1990s and other measures have helped decrease the acidity of rain by approximately 60 percent to less harmful levels, as reflected in data gathered nationwide and by UD researchers in Lewes, Del., as part of a longstanding study. (more…)

Compound from Wild Tomatoes is Natural, Effective Herbicide

By Guest PostApril 29, 2012Environmentchemical, compound, concentration, deet, entomologist, george kennedy, groundwater contamination, herbicidal effect, herbicide, human, insect repellent, insecticide, mike roe, nontoxic herbicide, organic farming, plant, soil, undecanone, weed, wild tomato

A naturally occurring compound derived from wild tomato plants is also a fast-acting, nontoxic herbicide, according to researchers at North Carolina State University.

NC State entomologist Dr. Mike Roe had previously worked with the compound – known as 2-undecanone – as a natural replacement for the chemical DEET in insect repellents. Both he and his NC State colleague, entomologist Dr. George Kennedy, were exploring whether 2-undecanone could be used as an insecticide on plants, when they noticed an unexpected side effect: it killed the plants. (more…)

Study Finds Surprising Arctic Methane Emission Source

By Guest PostApril 22, 2012Environmentarctic methane, arctic ocean, arctic region, Arctic sea ice, arctic tundra soil, beaufort seas, carbon monoxide, chukchi, climate, concentration, earth system, eric kort, geologic reservoir, global warming, greenhouse gas, harvard university, hippo, jet propulsion laboratory, marine sediment, methane, NASA, ozone, reservoir, water vapor

The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth’s climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming. Now a multi-institutional study by Eric Kort of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has uncovered a surprising and potentially important new source of Arctic methane: the ocean itself. (more…)

Fossil Raindrop Impressions Imply Greenhouse Gases Loaded Early Atmosphere

By Guest PostApril 2, 2012Environmentames research center, atmosphere, atmospheric pressure, concentration, david catling, earth history, fossilized, greenhouse gases, jelte harnmeijer, latex peels, liquid water, low carbon innovation, peter polivka, pressure broadening, raindrop impression, raindrop velocity, roger buick, sanjoy som, seattle, South Africa, sun, temperature, warm temperature

In ancient Earth history, the sun burned as much as 30 percent dimmer than it does now. Theoretically that should have encased the planet in ice, but there is geologic evidence for rivers and ocean sediments between 2 billion and 4 billion years ago.

Scientists have speculated that temperatures warm enough to maintain liquid water were the result of a much thicker atmosphere, high concentrations of greenhouse gases or a combination of the two. (more…)

Scientists Discover Land-Ocean Connections off Moloka’i

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2012Scienceamphipods, ashley rowden, bottom fish, canyon, canyon effect, coastal macroalgae, concentration, craig smith, depleted oxygen, earth worms, eel, eric vetter, fabio de leo, family macrouridae, halosaurs, hawaii pacific university, hawaiian archipelago, isopods, jeff drazen, macro invertebrate, mollusks, molokai, noaa, north shore, omz, organic matter, oxygen minimum zone, polychaete worms, rattail fishes, salt lake city, sediment, shark, sixgill shark, soest, submarine canyon, synaphobranchids, tanaids, tiny crustaceans, utah

*Tree trunks, leaves, and kukui nuts indirectly feed bottom fish in submarine canyons off Moloka’i*

Scientists from UH Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) recently discovered that land-based plant material and coastal macroalgae indirectly support the increased abundances of bottom fish in submarine canyons, like those off the north shore of Moloka’i. Less than a few miles from the shore, these underwater canyons connect to deep river valleys that cut across the landscape of north Moloka’i. The high elevation and forested landscapes along Moloka’i’s north shore provide plant material, including decomposing tree trunks, leaves and tons of kukui nuts, which enter the ocean via river valleys and “pile up” on submarine canyon floors. (more…)

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