Despite sea-level rise risks, migration to some threatened coastal areas may increase
February 17, 2021 ・ Keely SwanIn coming decades as coastal communities around the world are expected to encounter sea-level rise, the general expectation has been that people’s migration toward the coast will slow or reverse in many places. However, new research co-authored by Princeton University scholars…
Carbon-chomping soil bacteria may pose hidden climate risk
January 27, 2021 ・ Molly SharlachMuch of the Earth’s carbon is trapped in soil, and scientists have assumed that potential climate-warming compounds would safely stay there for centuries. But Princeton research supported by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) shows that carbon molecules can potentially…
Data-Driven Model Provides Projections of a 21st Century Urban Climate
January 4, 2021 ・ Lois E. Yoksoulian and B. Rose HuberCities occupy about only 3% of the Earth’s total land surface, but they bear the burden of the human-perceived effects of global climate change. Yet, current global climate models are set up mainly for big-picture analysis, leaving urban areas poorly…
Expansion, environmental impacts of irrigation by 2050 greatly underestimated
May 4, 2020 ・ Joseph AlbaneseThe amount of farmland around the world that will need to be irrigated in order to feed an estimated global population of 9 billion people by 2050 could be up to several billion acres, far higher than scientists currently project,…
Climate change could make RSV respiratory infection outbreaks less severe, more common
December 16, 2019 ・ Morgan KellyOne of the first studies to examine the effect of climate change on diseases such as influenza that are transmitted directly from person to person has found that higher temperatures and increased rainfall could make outbreaks less severe but more…
Full video of Princeton Environmental Forum now available
December 5, 2019 ・ Morgan KellyVideo is now available of the Oct. 24-25 Princeton Environmental Forum featuring Princeton faculty and alumni environmental leaders in a series of discussions addressing urgent environmental issues for the 21st century, including climate change science and policy, the protection of…
Two million-year-old ice cores provide first direct observations of an ancient climate
November 21, 2019 ・ Morgan KellyPrinceton University-led researchers have extracted 2 million-year-old ice cores from Antarctica that provide the first direct observations of Earth’s climate at a time when the furred early ancestors of modern humans still roamed. Gas bubbles trapped in the cores —…
Researchers find nature’s backup plan for converting nitrogen into plant nutrients
November 11, 2019 ・ Joseph AlbaneseAlthough nitrogen is essential for all living organisms — it makes up 3% of the human body — and comprises 78% of Earth’s atmosphere, it’s almost ironically difficult for plants and natural systems to access it. Atmospheric nitrogen is not…
Geyman’s published senior thesis research offers new thoughts on how carbonates record global carbon cycle
November 8, 2019 ・ Tom GarlinghouseWhen scientists want to study Earth’s very ancient geological past — typically greater than 100 million years ago — they often turn to rocks called carbonates. Calcium carbonates, the most ubiquitous forms of carbonate, are minerals that precipitate from seawater…
