Author: Division on Earth and Life Studies

We live in a changing world with multiple and evolving threats to national security, including terrorism, asymmetrical warfare (conflicts between a...

The Chesapeake Bay is North America's largest and most biologically diverse estuary, as well as an important commercial and recreational resource. ...

Permafrost is a thermal condition -- its formation, persistence and disappearance are highly dependent on climate. General circulation models predi...

As the Gulf of Mexico recovers from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, natural resource managers face the challenge of understanding the impacts of t...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) manages the National Flood Insurance Progra...

Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean remains one of the world's last frontiers. Covering nearly 14 million km^2 (an area approximately 1.4...

Many coastal areas of the United States are at risk for tsunamis. After the catastrophic 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, legislation was passed t...

Historically, regulations governing chemical use have often focused on widely used chemicals and acute human health effects of exposure to them, as...

For over a century, field stations have been important entryways for scientists to study and make important discoveries about the natural world. Th...

Once ice-bound, difficult to access, and largely ignored by the rest of the world, the Arctic is now front and center in the midst of many importan...

The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management's (EM) mission is the safe cleanup of sites associated with the government-led develo...

The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is a program within the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is responsible for developing t...

In the United States, we have come to depend on plentiful and inexpensive energy to support our economy and lifestyles. In recent years, many quest...

The Science of Responding to a Nuclear Reactor Accident summarizes the presentations and discussions of the May 2014 Gilbert W. Beebe Symposium tit...

The United States has deployed commercial nuclear power since the 1950s, and as of 2021, nuclear power accounts for approximately 20 percent of U.S...

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a rapid expansion of wastewater-based infectious disease surveillance systems to monitor and anticipate disease trend...

The marmoset, a type of small monkey native to South America, is a research model of increasing importance for biomedical research in the United St...

During the past century, the Everglades, one of the world's treasured ecosystems, has been dramatically altered by drainage and water management in...

Since the 1980s, national and international planetary protection policies have sought to avoid contamination by terrestrial organisms that could co...

The Edwards Aquifer in south-central Texas is the primary source of water for one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, San Antonio, ...

The world confronts an existential challenge in responding to climate change, resulting in an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from a...

Climate change, driven by increases in human-produced greenhouse gases and particles (collectively referred to as GHGs), is the most serious enviro...

Industrial stormwater is derived from precipitation and/or runoff that comes in contact with industrial manufacturing, processing, storage, or mate...

The assessment of risk is complex and often controversial. It is derived from the existence of a hazard, and it is characterized by the uncertainty...

An estimated 8 million metric tons (MMT) of plastic waste enters the world's ocean each year - the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic...

Preserving the efficacy of herbicides and of herbicide-resistance technology depends on awareness of the increasing resistance of weeds to herbicid...

Summary of a Workshop on Mississippi River Water Quality Science and Interstate Collaboration summarizes presentations and discussions of Mississip...

As of 2021, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached historically unprecedented levels, higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years. W...

A scientific workforce with cutting-edge skills is critical for the ability of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to carry out its mission to...

Extremely hazardous substances can be released accidentally as a result of chemical spills, industrial explosions, fires, or accidents involving ra...

The Arctic has been undergoing significant changes in recent years. Average temperatures are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the worl...

Despite the increase in funding for research and the rising numbers of peer-reviewed publications over the past decade that address the environment...

Microbial forensics is a scientific discipline dedicated to analyzing evidence from a bioterrorism act, biocrime, or inadvertent microorganism or t...

Stem cells offer tremendous promise for advancing health and medicine. Whether being used to replace damaged cells and organs or else by supporting...

Recent serious and sometimes fatal accidents in chemical research laboratories at United States universities have driven government agencies, profe...

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was established in 1990 to assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and res...

Potential health effects from chemicals that disrupt endocrine function pose an environmental health concern because of their ability to interfere ...

The United States embarked on bold polices to enhance its food and agricultural system during the last half of the 19th century, investing first in...

Hurricane- and coastal-storm-related losses have increased substantially during the past century, largely due to increases in population and develo...

Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals rem...

In 1999 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a landmark report, Our Common Journey: A Transition toward Sustainab...

Climate theory dictates that core elements of the climate system, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, and reservoirs of atmospheric and so...

The United States and the world face serious threats to nuclear stability and peace, now and in the coming decades. Within the nuclear arena, U.S. ...

People spend the vast majority of their time inside their homes and other indoor environments where they are exposed to a wide range of chemicals f...

The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at...

The Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of the costs associated with implementing numeric nutrient criteria in Florida's waterways was signi...

The ocean is a fundamental component of the earth's biosphere. It covers roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and plays a pivotal role in the cycl...

Combustion has provided society with most of its energy needs for millenia, from igniting the fires of cave dwellers to propelling the rockets that...