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Earth and climate scientists from Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam united forces to disentangle the combined effects of diminishing snow cover and a changing jet stream on recent Siberian fire extremes. The study was published today in the scientific journal Science. With a total of about 200,000 km2 of forest and tundra burned - equaling nearly five times the size of the Netherlands - the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 were the largest fire years in northern Siberian larch forests since 2001.

Nutrient enrichment via fertilization leads to the loss of plant diversity via increased competition for light between plants, while herbivores protect plant diversity by alleviating competition for light. Utrecht University-researcher Yann Hautier and international colleagues provide the first direct evidence for these mechanisms in natural systems.

UT researcher Kingsley Kumah optimised a machine learning algorithm to improve the resolution of rainfall predictions using satellite data. To train his algorithm, Kumah used rainfall information gathered with phone signals. This technology enables measurements in places that are difficult to access.

Longread Can minerals help extract the greenhouse gas CO2 from the air? PhD candidate Emily te Pas is investigating the potential of spreading crushed silicate minerals on agricultural land. 'This is still pioneering at this stage. It is important to collect data: does it work and is it safe?'' Photo above: Marcel van den Bergh At a testing site in Renkum, PhD candidate Emily te Pas is investigating whether the greenhouse gas CO2 can be extracted from the air by adding silicate minerals to agricultural soil.

Shallow lakes and ditches emit less greenhouse gases if rooted submerged plants are predominant instead of free-floating plants or algae. There are several reasons why Dutch water managers should encourage more submerged plants in Dutch waterways, researchers argue. But these plants will have a better chance of survival if fewer fertilisers are leached into Dutch waters.

An international group of 28 sea-level scientists and practitioners of the World Climate Research Programme's Grand Challenge on Regional Sea Level Change and Coastal Impacts has released a new estimate for high-end sea-level rise. High-end sea-level rise projections represent what might happen rather than representing the most likely outcome.

It has long been known that humanity is exceeding planetary boundaries for nitrogen use. Scientists have now mapped those exceedances regionally for the first time. Whereas countries in north-western Europe and parts of India and China are emitting far too much nitrogen, there is actually room for intensification of nitrogen use across much of Africa and South America.

The Living Planet Report published by WWF on 13 October shows well-documented evidence that humanity has far exceeded our planet's safe limits. The second part of the report offers the prospect of solutions. "We need to change the root causes of environmental degradation," state Francisco Alpizar and Jeanne Nel of Wageningen University & Research in their contribution to the report.

The Living Planet Report published by WWF on 13 October shows well-documented evidence that humanity has far exceeded our planet's safe limits. The second part of the report offers the prospect of solutions. "We need to change the root causes of environmental degradation," state Francisco Alpizar and Jeanne Nel of Wageningen University & Research in their contribution to the report.

Birdwatchers beware! The next few weeks are all about crane migration. When the wind is just right, sometimes thousands of "cranes" fly over the Netherlands. But even with those numbers, it is not easy to spot them. That is why Dr Koen de Koning, in collaboration with Sensing Clues, developed an app that works as a 'rainfall radar for cranes'.

The new Living Planet Report 2022 of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) reveals that populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have declined by an average of 69% since 1970. The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and warns governments, businesses and the public to take action to reverse the decline in biodiversity.

Wageningen University & Research has been part of a global cross-disciplinary process to develop the first comprehensive classification of the world's ecosystems across land, rivers and wetlands, and seas. This ecosystem typology will enable more coordinated and effective biodiversity conservation, critical for human wellbeing.

Many plant species, probably including a third of all trees, are threatened by extinction. One of the growing threats is rapid climate change and the inability of plants to move rapidly enough, or cross barriers, to places where they can persist. This threat is particularly acute for species that live on or near cool mountain tops and have no opportunity to go ever higher as temperatures increase.

A design approach is needed to keep the Dutch delta safe and liveable in the future. Researchers, urban planners, landscape architects and engineers created innovative designs for 5 regions in the Netherlands as part of the Redesigning Deltas movement. Their approach and the designs should spur bold long-term planning for our delta.

Bonaire will be hit hard by climate change if we fail to curb global warming, a study by VU Amsterdam's Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) has revealed. If global warming exceeds 1.4 degrees Celsius, part of the island could end up underwater by the end of the century due to rising sea levels.

An international team of biologists, including W. Daniel Kissling of the University of Amsterdam, has used artificial intelligence techniques to estimate the conservation status of nearly 1900 palm species across the world. They found that more than 1000 of the species may be at risk of extinction.

Researchers from Wageningen University & Research have shown that the production costs of green hydrogen via electrolysis at sea can be reduced by making Ultra-Pure Water (UPW) on site by means of membrane distillation.

Recently, researchers associated with Wageningen Marine Research published an article in the scientific journal Polar Biology, where they discuss anthropogenic debris in Arctic fox faeces from Iceland. Samples from different decennia show that plastic has been ingested since the 1990's but that frequencies of such uptake are low.

Halting deforestation will require a step-change in approach, and to be effective measures must address underlying and indirect roles of agriculture, says a recently published study in Science. This research finds that between 90 and 99 percent of all deforestation in the tropics is driven directly or indirectly by agriculture.

An international team of scientists used molecular fossils and machine learning to build the first charts of Antarctic Ocean temperatures over the past 45 million years, offering important insights into the mechanisms driving temperature changes and into the future of the Antarctic ice sheet and sea level changes.