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Predators or gardeners: how penguins fertilise Antarctica’s biodiversity

April 19, 2024
Predators or gardeners: how penguins fertilise Antarctica’s biodiversity
Sea birds contribute importantly to biogeochemical cycles in coastal ecosystems and on islands. Feeding on the marine food chain and nesting on land, they carry large amounts of marine nutrients into terrestrial ecosystems. This might be of particular importance for the nitrogen (N) cycle of terrestrial ecosystems in the antarctic. Credit: Daniel Wasner (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

On the desolate Antarctic peninsula, a colony of penguins creates a hub of biodiversity. One may ask, how exactly do those aquatic birds help maintain and enrich the variety of different kinds of organisms from plants and animals, to a wide range of insects and micro-organisms that live on our planet? The answer is quite intriguing. Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China ...[Read More]

Looking for answers towards the stars: stone tools and nuclides unveil the earliest solid evidence of humans in Europe.

April 18, 2024
Looking for answers towards the stars: stone tools and nuclides unveil the earliest solid evidence of humans in Europe.
This false-color image from three of NASA's Great Observatories provides one example of a star that died in a fiery supernova blast. Called Cassiopeia A, this supernova remnant is located 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SA

When stars explode, supernova-style, the explosion sets off streams of high energy particles across the universe, mainly protons and alpha particles, that after millions of years reach us here on Earth. Secondary cosmic rays pass through our bodies and almost everything around us, and they penetrate a few meters into the ground where they interact with atoms in soil and rock. This produces new iso ...[Read More]

Past ice and future predictions – scanning and drilling the changing Antarctic ice

April 17, 2024
In front of the blue EGU press conference background, Olaf Eisen (left), Robert Larter (middle) and Emma Pearce (right) are engaged in discussion.
Fig. 1: Olaf Eisen (AWI, Germany), Robert Larter (British Antarctic Survey) and Emma Pearce (British Antarctic Survey) during the #EGU24 press conference “Unveiling Antarctica’s secrets: new research brings us one step closer to predicting the future of the icy continent” (Photo credit: Jakub Stepanovic).

Did you know that some of the scientists of each General Assembly get invited to a press conference to face a group of curious journalists? I did not – but as press assistant for the #EGU24, I had the unique chance to attend the press conference “Unveiling Antarctica’s secrets: new research brings us one step closer to predicting the future of the icy continent”. Prominent scientists (Fig.1) ...[Read More]

What’s beneath Tenerife? Innovative Monitoring Techniques Reveal the Island’s Volcanic Activity

April 16, 2024
What’s beneath Tenerife? Innovative Monitoring Techniques Reveal the Island’s Volcanic Activity
The Pico del Teide / Mount Teide volcano on the canary island Tenerife. (Credit: Martin Wegmann, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Tenerife, the largest active volcanic island in the Canarian archipelago, encompasses a diverse landscape shaped by volcanic activity. This picturesque island of the Mediterranean not only boasts stunning vistas but also harbours a dynamic volcanic system that requires diligent monitoring. In recent years, an international team of researchers from Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN), In ...[Read More]