General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - October 2019

Oct 2019

Jul 09, 2021

India Discovers New Plant Species in Antarctica

Indian scientists have discovered a new plant species in Antarctica.
Polar biologists stumbled upon a species of moss during an expedition to the ice-covered continent in 2017.
Identification is laborious, and it took the scientists five years to confirm that the species had been discovered for the first time.
The peer-reviewed paper describing this discovery has been accepted in the leading international journal, Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity.
The biologists, based in the Central University of Punjab, have named the specie Bryum Bharatiensis. Bharati is the Hindu goddess of learning and the name of one of India's Antarctic research stations.
Prof Felix Bast, a biologist who was part of the six-month-long expedition to the continent - the 36th by Indian scientists - discovered the dark green specie at Larsemann Hills, overlooking the Southern Ocean, in January 2017. This is located near Bharati, one of the remotest research stations in the world.

Delhi's NO2 Pollution Rose by 125 % in 1 Year

According to a study by non-government organisation (NGO), Greenpeace, Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) has been increased by 125 per cent in Delhi during the period of last one year.
Study analysed NO2 concentrations in India's eight most populous cities namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Lucknow.
As per report, NO2 pollution has increased between April 2020 and April 2021 in all the eight capitals cities.
Delhi reported the 'most dramatic increase' during this period.
In Hyderabad, NO2 pollution increased by 69%.
It increased by 94 per cent in Chennai, 90 per cent in Bengaluru, 69 52 per cent in Mumbai, 47 per cent in Jaipur, 32 per cent in Lucknow and 11 per cent in Kolkata during the same period.

Jul 08, 2021

Gravelyia Boro: New Underground Spider from Assam

Two species of spiders have been found in Jharbari range of western Assam's Chirang Reserve Forest. Both the species have been sharing same space.
Gravelyia boro is a newly discovered burrow spider.
Dexippus kleini is an oriental jumping spider. It has been recorded for the first time after it was originally described 129 years ago by Swedish arachnologist, Tord Tamerlan Teodor Thorell. The spider was discovered by him about 2,600 km away in Sumatra. Both the spiders were discovered from Bodoland Territorial Region. They have been described in latest issue of Acta Arachnologica published by Arachnological Society of Japan.
Gravelyia boro belongs to Nemesiidae family that comprises of 184 species worldwide.
Dexippus kleini belongs to Salticidae family which is the largest family of all spiders on earth.

Jul 06, 2021

Microbes that Feast on Crushed Rocks Thrive in Antarctica's Ice-covered Lakes

Microbes living in an ice-covered lake in Antarctica are feasting on crushed rocks, researchers have discovered. And the little critters are thriving.
Subglacial lakes are bodies of freshwater, a majority of which are found in Antarctica, trapped between Earth's crust, or bedrock, and thick sheets of ice — sometimes several miles thick. These lakes are teeming with diverse microbes that feed off nutrients in the water. However, until now researchers were unsure exactly where these nutrients came from.
Subglacial lakes naturally erode over time as their water levels rise and fall. In a new study, researchers replicated this erosion in the lab by crushing up sediment samples taken from Lake Whillans — a 23-square-mile (60 square kilometers) subglacial lake buried beneath 2,600 feet (800 meters) of ice in Antarctica — and revealed how vital chemicals needed to sustain microbial communities are created.

Jul 02, 2021

Antarctica Logged Record Temperature of 18.3 Degrees Celsius

Antarctica logged a record high temperature of up to 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) in the month of February last year, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (UN WMO) report said. The UN agency attributed the high temperature to large high-pressure system which created "fohn conditions", downslope winds producing significant surface warming, which led to local warming both at the Esperanza station and at Seymour Island.
The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planet, almost 3°C over the last 50 years. This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing. WMO is working in partnership with the Antarctic Treaty System to help conserve this pristine continent.

'Last Ice Area' in the Arctic May Not Survive Climate Change

According to a new study, the "Last Ice Area," an Arctic region known for its thick ice cover, may be more vulnerable to climate change than scientists suspected.
This frozen zone, which lies to the north of Greenland, earned its dramatic name because even though its ice grows and shrinks seasonally, much of the sea ice here was thought to be thick enough to persist through summer's warmth.
But during the summer of 2020, the Wandel Sea in the eastern part of the Last Ice Area lost 50% of its overlying ice, bringing coverage there to its lowest since record-keeping began. In the new study, researchers found that weather conditions were driving the decline, but climate change made that possible by gradually thinning the area's long-standing ice year after year. This hints that global warming may threaten the region more than prior climate models suggested.

Jul 01, 2021

Enormous Antarctic Lake Vanishes in 3 Days

An enormous, ice-covered lake in Antarctica vanished suddenly, and scientists are worried it could happen again.
In this disappearing act, which researchers say occurred during on the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, an estimated 21 billion to 26 billion cubic feet (600 million to 750 million cubic meters) of water, roughly twice the volume of San Diego Bay, drained into the ocean.
The scientists who used satellite observations to capture the shocking vanishing act say the lake drained in roughly three days after the ice shelf beneath it gave way.

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