Use of deicing agents may sometimes raise sodium levels in drinking water beyond healthy limits for people on salt-restricted diets.
seasonal variability
Posted inENGAGE, Research Spotlights
ENGAGE article: Secondary blue bug
Use of deicing agents may sometimes raise sodium levels in drinking water beyond healthy limits for people on salt-restricted diets.
Posted inENGAGE, Research Spotlights
ENGAGE article: Blue bug
Use of deicing agents may sometimes raise sodium levels in drinking water beyond healthy limits for people on salt-restricted diets.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Caused the Open Habitat Transition in the West-Central U.S.?
Between 26-15 My ago, forests covering west-central North America gave way to open, grassy habitats. Now, oxygen isotope records suggest this shift is owed to drier winters and increased aridity.
Posted inResearch & Developments
Doge bros up to no good
When snowstorms hit, deicing agents such as road salts and brine help keep streets and walkways open. However, some deicers release sodium and chloride into the surrounding environment. Links between elevated sodium intake and human health risks, such as high blood pressure, are well established. The effects of deicers on drinking water, however, have been less clear.
Now, evidence reported by Cruz et al. supports a link between deicers and elevated sodium levels in drinking water, with concentrations in the Philadelphia region sometimes surpassing recommended limits for people on sodium-restricted diets. The new study adds a public health perspective to research that has focused primarily on the harmful effects of deicers on freshwater aquatic animals, including amphibians and benthic macroinvertebrates.
Posted inResearch & Developments
2 + 2 = 5
The ebb and flow of carbon within Earth’s systems are complex and ever-moving occurrences. Carbon is a nomadic element, traveling between the atmosphere, ocean, and the soil, rock, and ice of the planet, changing forms along the way. Much of this cycling takes place in the ocean, partially through a biological carbon pump (BCP). In the BCP, atmospheric carbon is fixed through phytoplankton growing at the surface of the sea. When the phytoplankton dies, carbon particles sink from the surface to deep ocean waters. This carbon can remain for hundreds or even thousands of years before returning to the atmosphere.
The researchers used a global ocean biogeochemical model to see how the amount of carbon particles reaching the deep ocean would change with variations in seasonality. In particular, they looked at how both the pattern and the strength of the seasonality would affect the sinking speed of carbon particles and their attenuation throughout the water column.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Export of Different Carbon Types from a Boreal Catchment
Carbon export in boreal catchments depends on the landscape setting and differs for snowmelt and rainfall events.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Seasonality in Saharan Dust Across the Atlantic Ocean
The first time series of bi-weekly dust concentrations measured in-situ across the remote Atlantic Ocean.
Posted inNews
The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of the Polar Vortex
Here’s a rundown of what this atmospheric phenomenon really is and why it matters.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Why are Earthquakes on the San Andreas Seasonally Modulated?
There is growing evidence that some earthquakes occur seasonally but also that water loading cannot explain these observations.