News & Features

The air around us is filled with tiny, invisible particles called aerosols. These particles affect the radiative balance of our planet in a number of ways, both directly, by scattering and absorbing light, and indirectly, by influencing cloud properties. Traditional methods to study cloud formation involve artificially activating aerosol particles or short-term direct sampling of clouds. Now a new observation …

Persistent mobile (PM) substances are being recognized as serious threats to the safety of water resources. In many cases, drinking water supplies have to be purified using expensive technologies because of contamination by PM substances. As part of this effort, a five-year wide-reaching European Research project, Zero Pollution of Persistent, Mobile substances, ZeroPM, has been launched. Fifteen partners are involved …

Current rates of plastic emissions globally may trigger effects that we will not be able to reverse, argues a new study by researchers from Sweden, Norway and Germany published on July 2nd in Science. According to the authors, plastic pollution is a global threat, and actions to drastically reduce emissions of plastic to the environment are ”the rational policy response”. …

Researchers at the Department of Environmental Science and Department of Meteorology (MISU) at Stockholm University together with international colleagues have recently launched the new Horizon 2020 project CRiceS (Climate relevant interactions and feedbacks: the key role of sea ice and snow in the polar and global climate system). The CRiceS project aims to contribute knowledge for better understanding of the …

Professor Christina Rudén from the Department of Environmental Science has been elected member of the European Commission’s high-level expert group whose mission is to help implement the new EU’s chemicals strategy for Sustainability published on 14 October 2020. She is one of eight representatives from the international scientific community. The expert group, officially known as High Level Roundtable on the …

A new scientific study by researchers at the Department of Environmental Science and colleagues from Stockholm University shows that environmental contaminants have a greater impact on the Baltic Sea’s bottom community than previously thought. The researchers call for more attention to be paid to hazardous substances when using small crustaceans and other sediment-dwelling animals to assess the effects of eutrophication and oxygen deficiency across different …

 The 2021 edition of the QS World University Rankings by subject  ranks Stockholm University 23rd in the world in environmental science. Across all subjects included in the analysis, Stockholm University is among the top 50 in five subjects, and the best in Sweden in 14 subjects. The five subjects that place Stockholm University in the top 50 are: environmental science (23) …

High levels of methane is escaping from the thawing subsea permafrost but the source(s) of that methane has long remained elusive. Now, a new study shows, for the first time, that the methane originates largely from a thermogenic (natural gas) deposit that breaks through the subsea permafrost and release into the shallow water column and the overlying atmosphere. The study …

  Based on current pandemic situation and responsible authorities’ recommendations, the teaching at the Department of Environmental Science will take place online during the spring semester 2021. The only exception is the course Environmental Field Studies that also includes field excursions. This means that e-meeting service Zoom is used for lectures, workshops and seminars and learning platform Athena for other …

The effects of the endocrine disruptor linuron on frogs are not limited to those exposed, but are passed on to their offspring and grand-offspring as well, shows a new study by researchers at the Department of Environmental Science and their colleagues from Uppsala University. First generation offspring had reduced body weight and decreased fertility, while second generation offspring had increased …

Stockholm University’s carbon emissions decreased by 30 percent in 2020 according to the findings of a report produced by Swedish environmental consultancy company Svalna. “Without a doubt, this reduction was caused by the COVID pandemic.It is interesting to see how a pandemic that has drastically changed our behaviour can affect the climate,” says Magnus Breitholtz, Head of the Department of …

How are employees feeling after a year characterised by the coronavirus pandemic and working from home? What kind of reactions have reached the Human Resources Office and the trade union? And how do employees feel about the fact that working from home will continue for many people for several months to come? “How employees are feeling is probably best described …