Environment

  • Carbon-chomping soil bacteria may pose hidden climate risk

    Thursday, Jan 28, 2021
    by Molly Sharlach, Office of Engineering Communications
    red and green blotches

    Much of the earth’s carbon is trapped in soil, and scientists have assumed that potential climate-warming compounds would safely stay there for centuries. But new research from Princeton University shows that carbon molecules can potentially escape the soil much faster than previously thought. The findings suggest a key role for some types of soil bacteria, which can produce enzymes that break down large carbon-based molecules and allow carbon dioxide to escape into the air.

  • Mange in Yellowstone wolves reveals insights into human scabies and conservation biology

    Monday, Jan 25, 2021
    by Liana Wait, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
    Two Yellowstone wolves with mange

    Before wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, they were vaccinated for common diseases and treated for any parasite infections they already carried. As a result, the first few generations of wolves were relatively disease-free, but over the years, various diseases have found their way into the population. 

  • Plastic pollution is everywhere. study reveals how it travels

    Monday, Nov 30, 2020
    by Molly Seltzer, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment
    Plastics, shown as green particles

    Plastic pollution is ubiquitous today, with microplastic particles from disposable goods found in natural environments throughout the globe, including Antarctica. But how those particles move through and accumulate in the environment is poorly understood. Now a Princeton University study has revealed the mechanism by which microplastics, like Styrofoam, and particulate pollutants are carried long distances through soil and other porous media, with implications for preventing the spread and accumulation of contaminants in food and water sources.

  • People in developing countries eat less wild game as they migrate from rural to urban areas

    Monday, Nov 16, 2020
    by B. Rose Huber, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

    People around the world, especially in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, consume wild game, or bushmeat, whether out of necessity, as a matter of taste preference, or, in the case of particularly desirable wildlife species, to connote a certain social status. Bushmeat consumption, however, has devasted the populations of hundreds of wildlife species and been linked to the spread of zoological diseases such as the Ebola virus.

  • Large, delayed outbreaks of endemic diseases possible following COVID-19 controls

    Monday, Nov 9, 2020
    by Morgan Kelly, High Meadows Environmental Institute
    People social distancing and mask wearing

    Measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 through non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as mask wearing and social distancing are a key tool in combatting the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. These actions also have greatly reduced incidence of many other diseases, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

  • Addressing humanity's environmental challenges

    Thursday, Oct 15, 2020
    by The Office of Communications
    Collage of environmental images

    Environmental challenges have galvanized activity across Princeton’s campus in recent years like few other issues in our history. From physical, biological and applied sciences to art, architecture, psychology, policy and more, research groups across the University are tackling some of the toughest problems facing humanity with the fullest range of toolkits.

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