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As the world undergoes the great energy transition — from fossil fuels to alternative energy and batteries — rare earth metals are becoming more precious.

A new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû study finds that municipal waste incinerators' legacy of contamination could live on in urban soils.

Mixing toxic coal ash into acid mine drainage may sound like an odd recipe for an environmental solution, but a new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû-led study finds that it can neutralize the drainage’s dangerously low pH and help reduce harmful impacts on downstream ecosystems—if you use the right type of ash. Using the wrong type of ash can create new contamination and not tame the drainage’s extreme acidity.

The sustainability of North American forests depends on trees’ ability to produce seeds and seedlings that can survive and grow in a changing climate. A new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû-led research initiative with more than $2 million in funding from the National Science Foundation aims to help boost their odds of success.

A forest’s ability to regenerate after devastating wildfires, droughts or other disturbances depends largely on seed production. Findings from two new studies led by 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû researchers could boost recovery and replanting after these disasters by providing foresters with new guidance on which tree species produce more seeds and how their productivity can vary from location to location.

Scientists, led by alumna Jacqueline Gerson PhD'21 and faculty member Emily Bernhardt, recorded the highest levels of atmospheric mercury pollution in the world in a pristine patch of the Peruvian Amazon

Many North American tree species have begun to slowly migrate northward in response to global warming, but western and eastern forests are responding differently. A new Duke-led study reveals why.

By distinguishing between lead from modern sources and lead from pre-1970s vehicle exhaust fumes and leaded paint, the new test may be especially useful for assessing the hidden risks of legacy contamination.

Clouds of smoke and ash from wildfires that ravaged Australia in 2019 and 2020 triggered widespread algal blooms in the Southern Ocean thousands of miles downwind to the east, a new 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû-led study by an international team of scientists finds.

Warming waters along the Western Antarctic Peninsula have led to declines in the diversity and distribution of the region’s plankton population and its ability to absorb climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

As trees age and grow, it seems logical to assume their seed production will continue to grow, too, but a Duke-led study of 597 species worldwide nips that assumption in the bud.

A new GPS-enabled study led by 91ÉçÇø¸£Àû scientists provides the first landscape-scale documentation of elephant movements across and between seven national parks in Gabon and helps answer not only the questions of where and when the animals move, but also why.

Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, satellites and field observations, Duke researchers have produced new estimates of how much photosynthesis and primary production – key components in the global carbon cycle – are occurring in Earth’s oceans, and how these processes may be changing in response to a changing climate.

New research reveals western North American forests may be less able than eastern forests to regenerate following large-scale diebacks linked to climate change. Over time, this could dramatically alter the continent’s landscape.

The proliferation of pits and ponds created in recent years by miners digging for small deposits of alluvial gold in Peru’s Amazon has dramatically altered the landscape and increased the risk of mercury exposure for indigenous communities and wildlife, a new study shows.