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Forest ecosystems of the future will have to cope with very different conditions to those of today. For this reason, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) state that a strategic approach to forest management is crucial. To this end, the research team has developed iLand: a simulation model that can compute long-term developments of large forest landscapes, right down to the individual tree—including disturbances from bark beetles to wildfires.

Charred tree trunks and blackened soil are typical of the desolation that a leaves behind. Inevitably, the question arises whether it will be possible to restore a green natural landscape. According to Rupert Seidl, Professor of Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management, this is possible, but the “how” decides how much the new forest will benefit the climate, nature and people.

“Today’s forest ecosystems are not particularly well adapted to future climate conditions,” says Seidl. “Over the next decades they will presumably come under increasing pressure from water shortage and insect pests, and may even die off. This is why it makes sense to use measures such as the reforestation of disturbed areas to strategically select tree species and take future developments into consideration.”

The Philippine authorities ordered nearly 90,000 people to evacuate after a volcano on the central island of Negros erupted, spewing a two-mile-high plume of deadly ash, lava and large rocks.

The volcano, Mount Kanlaon, erupted on Monday afternoon, and the authorities warned that it could happen again in the coming days.

“This is very destructive and it can burn everything in its path, including vegetation, buildings and humans,” said Teresito Bacolcol, the head of seismology at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. “This can kill.”

A pair of new studies by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the School of Architecture, shed new light on the potential of climate-inspired architectural and urban design proposals, termed “climatopias,” to effectively address climate change challenges. These studies analyze both specific high-profile projects and a broader range of proposals, providing valuable frameworks for evaluating their effectiveness, feasibility, and social justice implications.

The first paper focuses on a detailed analysis of four prominent climatopic design projects. Utilizing a novel evaluation approach, the researchers assessed each project on its effectiveness, justice, and feasibility.

Key findings indicate that for climatopias to serve as viable climate solutions, they must prioritize their embodied , feature affordable and participatory designs, and possess the potential for actual implementation or stimulate critical discourse around decarbonization and adaptation strategies, enriching in climate resilience. The findings are published in the journal One Earth.

Avalo, a crop development company based in North Carolina, is using machine learning models to accelerate the creation of new and resilient crop varieties.

The traditional way to select for favorable traits in crops is to identify individual plants that exhibit the trait – such as drought resistance – and use those plants to pollinate others, before planting those seeds in fields to see how they perform. But that process requires growing a plant through its entire life cycle to see the result, which can take many years.

Avalo uses an algorithm to identify the genetic basis of complex traits like drought, or pest resistance in hundreds of crop varieties. Plants are cross-pollinated in the conventional way, but the algorithm can predict the performance of a seed without needing to grow it – speeding up the process by as much as 70%, according to Avalo chief technology officer Mariano Alvarez.

Earth In 2024: The International Space Station (ISS) has captured more than 825,000 images of Earth so far in 2024, documenting our planet’s changing landscapes. NASA has shared that over 5.3 million photos have been taken from the space station since it began operations, contributing significantly to studies of urban light patterns, lightning activity, and natural disasters. In 2024 alone, these images were instrumental in analysing 14 major natural disaster events, from hurricanes and floods to volcanic eruptions.

Expedition 71, one of the most prolific missions in the ISS’s history, contributed over 630,000 images, marking the highest number of photographs taken during a single mission.

According to NASA, the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) program is at the heart of this effort. Equipped with digital handheld cameras, astronauts photograph Earth from their vantage point 200 miles above the surface. The program focuses on documenting both human-induced changes — such as urban expansion and reservoir construction — and natural phenomena, including hurricanes and wildfires.

The Arctic is likely to become “ice-free” by midcentury—and could pass that grim milestone much sooner—unless much more is done to combat climate change.

By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News

CLIMATEWIRE | By the end of the decade, the Arctic Ocean could see its first ice-free day on record — even with modest levels of global warming.

An experiment more than 10 years in the making has delivered its first glimpse of the hurricane of particles whirring inside subatomic particles called neutrons, laying the groundwork to solve a mystery deep in the heart of matter.

Data from the Central Neutron Detector at the US Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF) is already playing a role in describing the quantum map of the neutron’s engine.

“It’s a quite important result for the study of nucleons,” says Silvia Niccolai, a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Iridium-based catalysts are needed to produce hydrogen using water electrolysis. Now, a team at HZB has shown that the newly developed P2X catalyst, which requires only a quarter of the iridium, is as efficient and stable over time as the best commercial catalyst. Measurements at BESSY II have now revealed how the special chemical environment in the P2X catalyst during electrolysis promotes the oxygen evolution reaction during water splitting.

In the future, hydrogen will be needed in a climate-neutral energy system to store energy, as a fuel, and a raw material for the chemical industry. Ideally, it should be produced in a climate-neutral way, using electricity generated from harnessing the sun’s or wind energy, via the electrolysis of water.

In that respect, Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEM-WE) is currently considered a key technology. Both electrodes are coated with special electrocatalysts to accelerate the desired reaction. Iridium-based catalysts are best suited for the anode, where the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction occurs. However, iridium is one of the rarest elements on earth, and one of the major challenges is to significantly reduce the demand for this precious metal.