Allie Ciaramella
Senior Editor, Life Sciences and Physical Sciences
@alliegrasgreenAllie Ciaramella, based in Key Largo, Florida, is the senior editor for Life Sciences and Physical Sciences at The Academic Times. Prior to that, Allie worked at Inside Higher Ed and POLITICO as a higher education reporter, and was communications manager at the National College Attainment Network. Allie studied journalism and environmental studies at the University of Oregon.
An international team of researchers discovered a plant signal that causes roots to stop growing in hard soils but can be disabled to allow them to break through, potentially enabling new crop growth in damaged and compacted soils that can reduce agricultural output by half and cause significant losses each year.
Plants’ ability to keep absorbing close to one-third of human-caused carbon emissions could be slashed in half by 2040, as forests and other land ecosystems start releasing more carbon than they store, according to the first study to identify a photosynthesis “temperature tipping point” based on on-site data from around the world.
As the climate changes, lakes are on track to experience lengthier and more severe periods of extreme warm surface temperatures by the end of the century, novel research published Wednesday shows, with some even projected to reach a “permanent heatwave state” that could alter entire ecosystems and imperil the economic benefits they provide.
As higher education institutions continue to weigh welcoming students back to campus next term, a study published Wednesday in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering suggests colleges that take the right precautions can reopen safely amid the pandemic despite experiencing “an extreme incidence” of COVID-19 in the initial weeks of fall classes that also impacted surrounding communities.