nieuws 2024

Several experimental measures taken at Frisian farms to restore biodiversity in former peatlands, are unsuccessful. Three different ways in which the water levels were raised, did not have the desired effect. This is according to research by ecologist Tom Heuts of Radboud University. 77% of Dutch wetlands (bogs, marshes) have been drained, mainly for agriculture and cattle breeding.

Researchers from the University of Twente (Netherlands) and Bayreuth Develop Microplastic-Free Encapsulation for Crop Protection Agents. They recently published their findings in the scientific journal Advanced Materials The sustainable application of crop protection agents such as pesticides is one of the greatest challenges in modern agriculture.

For over a year and a half, researchers from TU Delft and the Cambridge University Centre for Climate Repair have worked together on groundbreaking techniques to increase the reflectivity of clouds in the fight against global warming. During a two-day meeting, the teams are discussing their progress.

Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering, led by Georgios Katsoukis, have discovered how the chemical environment around copper electrodes can dramatically influence the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into formate. This discovery can help improve the selectivity in CO2 reduction reactions, offering new insights into how to control these processes more effectively.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded fourteen young TU Delft researchers from the Science (ENW) and Applied and Engineering Sciences (TTW) domains, a Veni grant of up to 320,000 euro. This will allow the laureates to further develop their own research ideas over the next three years. A total of 174 Veni grants were awarded.

Heat stress and air pollution ravages cities more and more. In a new Horizon Europe project, researchers will develop a digital twin that supports decision makers to design resilient urban areas that can cope with the changing climate. Researchers from TU Delft and 18 other partners receive the Horizon Europe grant for their project called UrbanAIR.

Research by James Cook University in Australia involving Radboud scientists shows that rising sea levels will drastically reduce the number of shorebirds in Europe. The number of oystercatchers on three Waddeneilanden will decline an additional 56 to 79 percent over the next 100 years due to sea level rise.

On July 5, 2024, five researchers from Radboud University will travel to the far north to research climate change on Svalbard. For a week, the scientists, led by earth scientist Wytze Lenstra, will take samples of the sea floor and water column in one of the fjords. The archipelago is seen as a "natural laboratory" for studying the impact of climate change in the future: these Arctic regions are warming up to about four times faster than the global average.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that pharmaceutical residues in wastewater are damaging to the environment, making it imperative that wastewater is tested for such residues. However, wastewater measurements are expensive and time-consuming. A new model developed by Radboud University-affiliated environmental scientist Caterina Zillien can be used to determine the amount of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater - and their exact origin - every bit as precisely as actual measurements.

The ocean can store carbon and act as a carbon sink, and it can be a carbon source. The difference in 'age' of the organic carbon already present in the ocean and the carbon that is supplied determines whether the ocean acts as a carbon sink or source. Researchers from Nanjing universities and Utrecht University created the first sink or source world map that can be used when deciding where to invest in organic carbon storage in the ocean.

Small changes in our everyday actions can trigger significant, rapid societal shifts especially when it comes to climate action. A new IIASA-led study highlights the importance of analyzing these dynamics with a comprehensive framework to harness their full potential for reducing carbon emissions. Making small changes in how we live day-to-day can quickly create significant changes in society, especially in ways that benefit the environment.

A 3D model of imitation blood vessels will make it possible to see exactly how snake venom attacks blood vessels, without having to use laboratory animals. This new research model, called an organ-on-a-chip, was developed by a research team from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, MIMETAS and Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

With hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic produced and used on a yearly basis, it's no surprise that people are looking for alternatives. Yet so-called 'sustainable plastics' are not a silver bullet, warn researchers Sara Gonella and Vincent de Gooyert from Radboud University. When looking at the full impact of these plastics, they are often not nearly as sustainable as they pretend to be, they argue.

The thaw of permafrost is not a global climate 'tipping point'. That is the conclusion of an international group of scientists, including earth scientist Moritz Langer. Rather, permafrost soils are thawing along with global warming. "There is no safe margin within which the Earth can warm up, as a tipping point suggests." Permafrost soils store large amounts of organic carbon in the form of dead plant material.

Climate change can accelerate due to feedback mechanisms: complex phenomena caused by climate change that in turn can further drive climate change. An example is the extra CO2 emissions from thawing permafrost. Research into the influence of feedback mechanisms in the long term has been ongoing, and modern climate change research is obviously happening as well, but the connection between the two has so far been underemphasized.

New findings from a spaceborne monitoring team of University of Houston, TU Delft and DLR indicates the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine may have been already ongoing before the war with Russia, with deformations in the dam pre-dating the actual collapse. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment this month.

A groundbreaking study by an international team of researchers has revealed seaweed forests to be significant contributors to oceanic carbon storage. Their research estimates that the world's seaweed forests transport 56 million tonnes of carbon (between 10 to 170 million tonnes) to deep ocean sinks each year.

Core changemakers wants to give used solar panels a second life. As the world steadily progresses towards a more sustainable future, recycling solar panels becomes increasingly relevant. However, in some cases, simply reusing old solar panels is better. CORE CHANGEMAKERS, once a student team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and now evolving into a startup, is exploring the possibility of using old solar panels.

Water can be purified using mushroom substrate: the mixture of fungal filaments and horse manure that remains after harvesting mushrooms. The substrate effectively decreases concentrations of pesticides and drugs in contaminated water. Utrecht researchers Brigit van Brenk , Han Wösten , and colleagues demonstrate this in a paper in the scientific journal Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Renewed efforts are needed to reach international biodiversity goals, according to an international study involving scientists from Radboud University, published in Science. The study shows that climate change could be the main driver of biodiversity decline by the mid-21st century. The analysis was led by the German Center for Integrated Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and is the largest modeling study of its kind to date.