News by Subject Biology

A scientific study describes for the first time the submarine cartography of a high-latitude system in the IBIS channel, which covers tens of kilometres in the northern western area of the Barents Sea, in the Arctic Ocean. This channel is one of the few submarine valleys in polar latitudes that kept its geological architecture during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).

An array of underwater listening lines that detect passing giant Atlantic bluefin tuna previously caught and tagged by scientists has created a new system to monitor these enormous, fast, powerful and lucrative fish in the open ocean. Ten years of research using the technology sheds light on the species' natural mortality as well as migration, important information for sustainable management of their populations.

The scientists analyzed data spanning more than four decades and concluded that the impact of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake -- in particular, the decline of native cutthroat trout -- has cascaded across the lake, its tributaries and the surrounding ecosystem.

An EPFL study has showed that until now, scientists have been substantially underestimating how quickly gases are exchanged between mountain streams and the atmosphere. Based on research in the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Valais, an EPFL laboratory has shed new light on the role of mountain streams to emit greenhouse gases.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a central molecule of the global nitrogen cycle. A study by Boran Kartal from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany, and colleagues reveals that microorganisms can grow on NO. Their results, which are now published in Nature Communications, change our view of the earth's nitrogen cycle and how microorganisms regulate the release of greenhouse gases from natural and man-made environments.