Environmental Science

18 open-access papers in Environmental Science, free to watch.

4:00

Predicting peak inundation depths with a physics informed machine learning model

Cheng‐Chun Lee, Lipai Huang, Federico Antolini, Matthew Garcia, Andrew Juan, Samuel D. Brody, Ali Mostafavi

During a flood, the best physics-based forecasts can be too slow to guide same-day decisions. This study asks whether a faster learner can preserve the useful part: knowing where water will rise, and why. What if flood prediction could keep the physical model’s realism, but deliver answers fast enough for emergency decisions? This paper tests that idea with MaxFloodCast, a machine-learning surrogate for peak inundation depth.

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4:15

Eco-Friendly Semi-Interpenetrating Polymer Network Hydrogels of Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose/Gelatin for Methylene Blue Removal

Rongbin Chen, Shan‐bin Yang, Bing Liu, Youlin Liao

A soft, water-swollen material made from cellulose, gelatin, and citric acid can pull a stubborn blue dye out of polluted water, and still remove more than eighty-five percent of it after being used again and again. A hydrogel made from sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, gelatin, and citric acid removes methylene blue from water with a reported capacity near 943 milligrams per gram, and still removes more than 85 percent after reuse.

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3:56

2023 European Kidney Forum: The future of kidney care – investing in green nephrology to meet the European Green Deal targets

Olivier Philippe van Vredendaal, Alicia Bé, Ilaria de Barbieri, Daniel Gallego, Fiona Loud, Giorgina Barbara Piccoli, Fokko P. Wieringa, Raymond Vanholder

Kidney care can save lives while adding to pollution, waste, and heavy resource use. This paper argues that the treatment keeping people alive also needs a climate plan. Kidney care is not just affected by climate change, it also contributes to it. This Forum argues that dialysis, transplantation, prevention, and European policy all have to change together.

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4:09

Citizen scientists reveal small but concentrated amounts of fragmented microplastic on Arctic beaches

Franco Pasolini, Bruno Walther, Melanie Bergmann

The Arctic can look untouched, yet a single beach sample held thousands of tiny plastic fibres. The surprising part is not just that plastic arrived there, it may be breaking apart there too. Across 23 Arctic beaches, plastic appeared in only two sediment samples. But those two samples contained nearly five thousand particles, mostly polypropylene fibres that likely came from a fishing net.

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3:35

Explaining the variation in 137Cs aggregated transfer factor for wild edible plants as a case study on Koshiabura (Eleutherococcus sciadophylloides) buds

Seiji Hayashi, Mirai Watanabe, Masami K. Koshikawa, Momo Takada, Seiichi Takechi, M. Takagi, Masaru Sakai, Masanori Tamaoki

A forest can look less contaminated on paper, yet its edible shoots can still carry unexpectedly high radioactivity. The reason may be not how much is in the soil, but where in the soil it sits. A soil contamination map seems like it should predict how much radiocesium ends up in an edible plant. But for Koshiabura buds, measuring the soil more precisely did not eliminate the variation, and the key may be which soil layer contains the cesium.

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5:21

Sustainable beef labeling in Latin America and the Caribbean: Initiatives, developments, and bottlenecks

Leonardo Moreno Lerma, Manuel Francisco Díaz, Stefan Burkart

A small label on a package of beef can promise animal welfare, environmental care, and fairer production. But in Latin America and the Caribbean, the label may be easier to print than to trust. Beef labels promise more than quality: they can signal animal welfare, carbon neutrality, and environmental responsibility. But across Latin America and the Caribbean, the biggest obstacle may be getting producers, and credible institutions, into the system.

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