A worried Iraqi father points at a blister on the face of his one-year-old daughter, the result of a parasitic infection carried by sandflies in her remote village. “It’s a skin disease, the ‘Baghdad boil’,” Najeh Farhan said of the pustule on Tiba’s mouth as the toddler played with a pacifier at their home in...
Climate Change Is Hurting River Water Quality, New Study Shows. Climate change and extreme weather are taking a significant toll on rivers around the world, according to a new scientific review that includes a University of Maryland geologist as a co-author. Based on nearly 1,000 case studies, the paper published today in Nature Reviews Earth &...
A recent study published in the journal Nature found that gold and mineral mining in and near rivers across the tropics is degrading waterways in 49 countries. The paper explains that river mining often involves intensive excavation, which results in deforestation and increased erosion. Much of the excavated material is released to rivers, disrupting aquatic life in ecosystems nearby and...