Published 25 April 2024 The team during field work in northern Sweden. Photo: Geerte Fälthammar-de Jong. During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team led from Lund University in Sweden has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. The boreal forests form a single biome that sp

https://www.science.lu.se/article/unique-field-study-shows-how-climate-change-affects-fire-impacted-forests - 2025-04-23

Published 14 May 2024 The Hulk-like lizard. Photo: Javier Abalos. Body shape, colour and behaviour often evolve together as species adapt to their environment. Researchers from Lund University have studied this phenomenon in a specific type of large, bright green and aggressive common wall lizard found near the Mediterranean. They discovered that a unique cell type might have played a key role in

https://www.science.lu.se/article/incredible-hulk-lizard-provides-clues-understanding-evolution - 2025-04-23

Published 14 May 2024 Photo: Emma Kritzberg. Climate researchers often emphasise the fact that reducing carbon emissions is in everyone’s best interest, and should involve all of us. But how good are they at minimising their own carbon footprint? A new study carried out jointly by Lund University and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland shows that some of them use up half their annual carbon

https://www.science.lu.se/article/conferences-make-scientists-climate-transgressors - 2025-04-23

Published 16 August 2024 In the study, each bumblebee had a small tag attached to its back so that the researchers could distinguish the various individuals when testing their navigation ability. Photo: Rickesh Patel. Bumblebees have a great capacity to navigate despite their small brain size. This is borne out of new research conducted at Lund University in Sweden, among others. The research resu

https://www.science.lu.se/article/bumblebees-sense-direction-rivals-humans - 2025-04-23

Published 26 August 2024 Photo: Diego Cambiaso, CC BY-SA 2.0. The income and education levels of a child’s environment determine their relationship to nature, not whether they live in a city or the countryside. This is the finding of a new study conducted by researchers at Lund University, Sweden. The results run counter to the assumption that growing up in the countryside automatically increases

https://www.science.lu.se/article/socioeconomics-shape-childrens-connection-nature-more-where-they-live - 2025-04-23

Published 5 September 2024 Øystein Opedal, associate senior lecturer at the Department of Biology, has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant. Congratulations, Øystein! Can you tell us a little about your project?“The project aims to better understand how plants adapt to new pollination environments, such as declining pollinator populations or local changes in the diversity of pollinator species. We k

https://www.science.lu.se/article/biologist-receives-erc-starting-grant - 2025-04-23

Published 5 September 2024 Photo: Melanie Karlsson. It takes a long time, up to several decades, before the benefits of organic farming take full effect on land that was previously cultivated conventionally, a new study from Lund University suggests. After thirty years, the plant species richness around the cultivated crop had doubled on organic farms compared to conventional farms. It is well kno

https://www.science.lu.se/article/organic-farms-had-doubled-plant-diversity-only-over-time - 2025-04-23

Published 13 September 2024 Illustration of an exoplanet. Image: ESO/M. Kornmesser. A research team led by Lund University in Sweden has discovered a small planet that displays peculiar orbital motion. The shimmying planet, located 455 light-years from Earth, shows that planetary systems can be considerably more complex than researchers have previously thought. The newly discovered planet TOI-1408

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researchers-discover-space-oddity-exoplanet-moving-mysterious-ways - 2025-04-23

Published 24 September 2024 Film: Johan Nyman. Dung beetles are among the strongest animals in the world. They also possess an exceptional ability to cooperate. Research shows that female and male spider dung beetles together are able to move large dung balls across difficult obstacles. However, same-sex attempts to do the same always ended in aggressive fights. Dung beetles live in and on animal

https://www.science.lu.se/article/beetles-cooperate-tricky-dung-moves - 2025-04-23

Published 11 October 2024 Grazing zooplankton, daphnia, which are an important source of food for fish, were found to be particularly vulnerable. Photo: Erik Selander/Lund University. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have studied how nanoplastic affects aquatic organisms in lakes and rivers. The results are surprising and the researchers are the first to show that some species are being wi

https://www.science.lu.se/article/grazing-zooplankton-severely-impacted-nanoplastic-particles - 2025-04-23

Published 15 October 2024 Brittle stars clinging to mussels. These specimen are about the same size as the Silurian echinoderms named after metal bands. Photo: Lea D. Numberger-Thuy. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered thirteen new species of extinct brittle stars on the island of Gotland, Sweden. The fossils were dug out of rocks from the Silurian Period (around 444 to 419 mi

https://www.science.lu.se/article/extinct-brittle-stars-named-after-death-metal-bands - 2025-04-23

Published 24 October 2024 SHREC the detector is inspected by Pavel Golubev. Photo: Dirk Rudolph. Scientists have found an alternative way to produce atoms of the superheavy element livermorium. The new method opens up the possibility of creating another element that could be the heaviest in the world so far: number 120. The search for new elements comes from the dream of finding a variant that is

https://www.science.lu.se/article/successful-experiment-paves-way-new-element - 2025-04-23

Published 8 November 2024 Illustration: Inger Ekström/Pixabay. A research team led by Lund University has developed an AI tool that traces back the most recent places you have been to. The tool acts like a satellite navigation system, but instead of guiding you to your hotel, it identifies the geographical source of microorganisms. This means you can use bacteria to determine whether someone has j

https://www.science.lu.se/article/new-gps-system-microorganisms-could-revolutionise-police-work - 2025-04-23

Published 26 November 2024 The concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to rise. Photo: Marcin Jozwiak, Unsplash. Physical geographer Alex Vermeulen, who leads the work on the ICOS Carbon Portal, was the editor of a new publication on greenhouse gas flows that has received significant international recognition. It was recently presented at the UN Climate Summit in Baku. Alex,

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researcher-draws-attention-dark-report-greenhouse-gases - 2025-04-23

Published 22 November 2024 Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Lund University and the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) are establishing a joint hub, focusing on water. The initiative will strengthen Lund University’s connection with the UN, and also offer a unique UN track for students. The new hub will be called Water in a Changing Environment (WICE). The i

https://www.science.lu.se/article/lund-university-start-new-un-collaboration-focusing-water - 2025-04-23

Published 6 December 2024 Andreas Nord. Andreas Nord, a researcher at the Department of Biology, will receive EUR 2 million to study how warm-blooded animals are affected as the climate becomes warmer and more unpredictable. As part of the project, he will study different species of birds to determine how quickly heat tolerance could evolve and what will happen to our bird populations if tolerance

https://www.science.lu.se/article/researcher-receive-erc-consolidator-grant - 2025-04-23

Published 10 January 2025 Now that Christmas is just around the corner, thoughts inevitably turn to an expectant Mary in the stable. However, she is not alone in the sphere of life-giving without the involvement of both sexes. In the animal kingdom, there are many species that engage in immaculate conception. What we refer to as virgin birth means that an unfertilized egg can develop into a new in

https://www.science.lu.se/article/virgin-birth-beyond-biblical-legend - 2025-04-23

Published 24 February 2025 Reconstruction of the new plesiosaur with scales on the flipper and smooth scale-less skin along the body as informed by this new plesiosaur fossil. This is a significant update to how we reconstruct plesiosaurs (Image: Joschua Knüppe) Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have analysed the soft tissue from a fossilized plesiosaur for the first time. The results show

https://www.science.lu.se/article/soft-tissue-183-million-year-old-jurassic-plesiosaur-analysed - 2025-04-23

Published 7 March 2025 The ultra-hot exoplanet's atmosphere is so hot that it can melt iron (Illustration: Bibiana Prinoth) Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, astronomers have made detailed observations of the mysterious exoplanet WASP-121 b. The discoveries of the element titanium and jet streams challenge our understanding of the winds and chemistry found on

https://www.science.lu.se/article/titanium-and-mysterious-jet-streams-discovered-extreme-exoplanet - 2025-04-23

Published 13 March 2025 Kristina Holmin Verdozzi wants to strengthen the faculty's position along the so-called knowledge corridor on Sölvegatan. A study center, a unified library, a student café, and an office for faculty management—plus a towering venue for events. Project manager and library director Kristina Holmin Verdozzi has grand visions for the Astronomy Building, which is set to undergo

https://www.science.lu.se/article/she-wants-create-space-scientific-curiosity - 2025-04-23