Left to their own devices and given enough time, rivers wander, eroding their banks and leaving their old channels behind. It’s a behavior that engineers have to keep in mind when managing rivers or planning projects near them. But new research from The University of Texas at Austin has revealed that old methods for estimating migration rates may be overthinking it.

A new study provides a base of understanding of carbon footprint terminology and illustrates carbon footprint analyses using data from previous research that modeled nursery and greenhouse crop production systems and their life-cycle impact. The science underlying the determination of carbon footprint and the degree to which it is important in minimizing the negative impacts of new product development and assessing the positive or negative cradle-to-grave life-cycle impacts is presented.

A new U of T study finds that globally we’re growing more of the same kinds of crops, and this presents major challenges for agricultural sustainability on a global scale.

The Amazon rain forest isn’t necessarily a place that many would associate with a drought, yet prolonged dry spells are projected to become more prevalent and severe because of climate change. The question at hand is how these droughts are going to affect the rain forest, as it has a large influence on global climate and future warming.

Climate change poses an exponentially greater risk for mental health problems in children born to mothers with prenatal depression who also experience natural disaster-related stress. That is the message of a new study of infants born to New York City mothers shortly after Superstorm Sandy.

A new chemical conversion process could transform the world’s polyolefin waste, a form of plastic, into useful products, such as clean fuels and other items. The conversion process developed at Purdue University incorporates selective extraction and hydrothermal liquefaction. Once the plastic is converted into naphtha, it can be used as a feedstock for other chemicals or further separated into specialty solvents or other products.

The study is part of an effort to understand how changes in the genome lead to changes in phenotypes.

What can a billion years of coexistence tell us about the evolution of plants and fungi?

Earth’s global surface temperatures in 2018 were the fourth warmest since 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Variations in a single gene in a tiny fish alter how they interact with their environment, according to research led by the University of Pennsylvania’s Seth Rudman, a postdoctoral researcher. The study represents a strategy for uncovering, and perhaps even predicting, the ecological implications of evolutionary change.