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For the second time in just 12 months, scientists have recorded severe coral bleaching across huge tracts of the Great Barrier Reef after completing aerial surveys along its entire length. In 2016, bleaching was most severe in the northern third of the Reef, while one year on, the middle third has experienced the most intense coral bleaching.

When it comes to large, high-intensity forest fires, we can expect to see a lot more in the coming years, according to South Dakota State University professor Mark Cochrane, a senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence.

One way to understand how ocean acidity can change, for example, in response to rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, is to look to the history of seawater acidity. Dr. Itay Halevy of the Weizmann Institute of Science has looked to the distant past – all the way back to Earth’s earliest oceans. The model he developed, together with Dr. Aviv Bachan of Stanford University, suggests that the early oceans, right around the time that life originated, were somewhat acidic, and that they gradually became alkaline. The study, published in Science, sheds light on how past ocean acid levels were controlled by CO2in the atmosphere, an important process for understanding the effects of climate change.

North America's freshwater lakes are getting saltier due to development and exposure to road salt. A study of 371 lakes published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that many Midwestern and Northeastern lakes are experiencing increasing chloride trends, with some 44% of lakes sampled in these regions undergoing long-term salinization.

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have invented a new catalyst that can efficiently convert carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO). This soon-to-be patented invention enables the sustainable utilisation of CO2, a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change. If successful on a larger scale, this invention could provide a practical way to convert CO2 to useful chemicals.

The researchers behind the catalyst, UvA chemists Edwin Gnanakumar and Shiju Raveendran, are in the process of commercialising the catalyst with the help of Amsterdam Innovation Exchange (IXA), the university’s technology transfer office.