November 21, 2022 – The next time you crack your backdoor to let your cat outside for its daily adventure, you may want to think again. For a cat, the outdoors is filled with undesirable potential. Like the risks of catching and transmitting diseases, and the uncontrollable drive to hunt and kill wildlife, which has […]
University of Maryland
Posted inEnviro
Researchers release first-of-its-kind quantitative assessment for sustainable agriculture
For the first time, scientists have assembled a quantitative assessment for agriculture sustainability for countries around the world based not only on environmental impacts, but economic and social impacts, as well. The Sustainable Agriculture Matrix, or SAM, provides independent and transparent measurements of agricultural sustainability at a national level that can help governments and organizations […]
Posted inEnviro
New Study Finds Globalization Is Reweaving the Web of Life
Sept. 2, 2020 – As introduced species spread around the world, the complex networks of interactions between plants and animals within ecosystems are becoming increasingly similar, a process likely to reinforce globalization’s imprint on nature and increase risks of sweeping ecological disruption. Researchers at the University of Maryland’s National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) and at the Center for […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Inoculating against the spread of viral misinformation on Facebook
Nov. 14, 2019 – In a year that has seen the largest measles outbreak in the US in more than two decades, the role of social media in giving a platform to unscientific anti-vaccine messages and organizations has become a flashpoint. In the first study of public health-related Facebook advertising, newly published in the journal […]
Posted inEnviro
US beekeepers lost over 40% of colonies last year, highest winter losses ever recorded
June 19, 2019 – Beekeepers across the United States lost 40.7% of their honey bee colonies from April 2018 to April 2019, according to preliminary results of the latest annual nationwide survey conducted by the University of Maryland-led nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership. The survey results indicate winter losses of 37.7%, which is the highest winter […]
Posted inUS
Climate of North American cities will shift hundreds of miles in one generation
FROSTBURG, MD, February 12, 2019 — In one generation, the climate experienced in many North American cities is projected to change to that of locations hundreds of miles away—or to a new climate unlike any found in North America today. A new study and interactive web application aim to help the public understand how climate […]
Posted inWorld
The Sahara Desert has expanded by about 10 percent since 1920
COLLEGE PARK, Md, April 2, 2018 – The Sahara Desert has expanded by about 10 percent since 1920, according to a new study by University of Maryland scientists. The research is the first to assess century-scale changes to the boundaries of the world’s largest desert and suggests that other deserts could be expanding as well. […]
Posted inSci/Tech
High number of pesticides within colonies linked to honey bee deaths
Oct. 7, 2016 – Honey bee colonies in the United States have been dying at high rates for over a decade, and agricultural pesticides–including fungicides, herbicides and insecticides–are often implicated as major culprits. Until now, most scientific studies have looked at pesticides one at a time, rather than investigating the effects of multiple real-world pesticide […]