Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
A study in Communications Earth & Environment found that beavers can turn a stream corridor into a persistent carbon sink, after researchers measured how carbon moved through a beaver-shaped wetland in northern Switzerland. Over one year, the site retained about 98 metric tons of carbon, roughly 108 U.S. tons. That was equal to about 26%…
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A study in Polar Biology found that historical weapon fragments recovered from bowhead whales can help scientists estimate the animals’ remarkable lifespans. One fragment, found in a bowhead harvested near Barrow, Alaska, in 2007, pointed back to the late 1800s and suggested the whale had survived for more than a century after an earlier strike.…
A study in Communications Earth & Environment has revealed a hidden part of marine heatwaves along U.S. coastlines. The extreme days that appear on official charts are often surrounded by weeks of unusual warmth, meaning coastal ecosystems may be absorbing far more heat than standard measurements suggest. Researchers led by Ricardo U. Nardi at the…
A study in Nature has revealed a vast whale graveyard deep in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Researchers led by Xiaotong Peng of the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences documented hundreds of fossil whale remains and several modern carcasses across the Diamantina Zone, a remote region of ridges and…
