news 2020

Erosion of the frozen soil of Arctic regions, known as permafrost, is creating large areas of subsidence, which has catastrophic impact in these regions sensitive to climate change. As the mechanisms behind these geological events are poorly understood, researchers from the Géosciences Paris Sud (GEOPS) laboratory (CNRS / Université Paris-Saclay), in cooperation with the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, Russia, conducted a cold room 1 simulation of landslides, or slumps, caused by accelerated breakdown of the permafrost.

Over the past 50 years, declining biodiversity has put many of nature's contributions to people at risk. This is the conclusion reached by fifteen leading international experts, including a French ethnoecologist 1 at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research).

Cyanobacteria, which are often called blue algae, can actually adopt colours ranging from green to orange via pink, depending on the dominant photosynthetic pigment in the cells of particular species. Not all cyanobacteria, however, capture light in the same way: Prochlorococcus , for example, the most abundant cyanobacterium in the ocean, preferentially absorbs violet and blue wavelengths, while its cousin Synechococcus captures blue, green or both, depending on its pigment type.

The number of trees inhabiting the Western Sahara, the Sahel and the Sudanian zone has exceeded the expectations of scientists, with more than 1.8 billion having been located thanks to an international collaboration including researchers from the CNRS 1 . High-resolution remote sensing made it possible to gather a multitude of satellite images of these areas, which were then analysed by applying an artificial intelligence pattern recognition method.

Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier 1 have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will also be more impacted by future climate change.

New Juno results suggest that the violent thunderstorms taking place in Jupiter's atmosphere may form ammonia-rich hail, or 'mushballs', that play a key role in the planet's atmospheric dynamics. This theory, developed using data from Juno's microwave radiometer by the Juno team, is described in two publications led by a researcher at the Laboratoire Lagrange (CNRS/Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur/Université Côte d'Azur) with support from the CNES.

The growth of global livestock farming is a threat to our biodiversity and also increases the health risks to both humans and domesticated animals. The patterns that link them are at the heart of a study published in Biological Conservation by a scientist from the Institute of Evolution Sciences of Montpellier (ISEM - CNRS/Université de Montpellier/IRD/EPHE) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development's (CIRAD) ASTRE laboratory.

What makes ships mysteriously slow down or even stop as they travel, even though their engines are working properly? This was first observed in 1893 and was described experimentally in 1904 without all the secrets of this "dead water" being understood. An interdisciplinary team from the CNRS and the University of Poitiers has explained this phenomenon for the first time: the speed changes in ships trapped in dead water are due to waves that act like an undulating conveyor belt on which the boats move back and forth.

In the past few weeks, oil prices have fallen to record lows. This development was not predicted by the Hotelling rule, an equation proposed in 1931 that remains central to the economics of natural resources today. In an article published on 11 May 2020 in the Canadian Journal of Economics , economists Roberto Ferreira da Cunha, of the Berkeley Research Group, and Antoine Missemer, of the CNRS, present the results of a groundbreaking historical survey of documents from Harold Hotelling's archives.

The Arctic Ocean increasingly resembles the Atlantic, not only regarding its temperature but also the species that live there. However, scientists from the CNRS and Université Laval, Quebec 1 showed that an unprecedented strengthening of Atlantic currents is playing a major role in this phenomenon called 'Atlantification'.