To help clean up an oil spill or any other kind of environmental disaster, sometimes humans can learn a thing or two from nature.
A team of researchers from the Michigan State University College of Engineering is creating a kind of robotic sensor that could eventually be used to collect environmental pollution data from rivers, streams and lakes. (more…)
*Scientists discover how “Didymo” algae bloom in pristine waters with few nutrients*
The pristine state of unpolluted waterways may be their downfall, according to research results published in a paper this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
A species of freshwater algae that lives in streams and rivers, called Didymo for Didymosphenia geminata, is able to colonize and dominate the bottoms of some of the world’s cleanest waterways–precisely because they are so clear. (more…)
About the image: A now dry Colorado River delta branches into the Baja/Sonoran Desert near the Sea of Cortez. Image credit: Pete McBride
Rivers and streams supply the lifeblood to ecosystems across the globe, providing water for drinking and irrigation for humans as well as a wide array of life forms from single-celled organisms up to the fish humans eat.
But humans and nature itself are making it tough on rivers to continue in their central role to support fish species, according to new research by a team of scientists including John Sabo, a biologist at Arizona State University.
Globally, rivers and streams are being drained due to human use and climate change. These and other human impacts alter the natural variability of river flows.
Some affected rivers have dried and no longer run, while others have seen increases in the variability of flows due to storm floods. (more…)
