Earth

Scientific stopovers on the coastline of the Indian Ocean

Imagine yourself travelling along the coasts of the Western Indian Ocean… From the Cape of Good Hope to Zanzibar, via the long beaches of Mozambique and the Reunion Island idyllic lagoons, to the mangroves of Madagascar, Tanzania and Kenya. These shores do not only inspire tourists forced into...

Webinar Global Volcanology Talk: The past, present and future of volcano monitoring

Volcano monitoring is one of the earliest scientific activities carried out in Indonesia, long before the country was founded. This activity is aimed at studying volcanoes in order to be able to protect the society from volcanic eruptions. Volcano monitoring has been systematically carried out in...

A breath of invigorating sea air… carrying microplastics

A new study involving researchers from the CNRS, the Nelson Mandela University and the Strathclyde University (Scotland) provided evidence of possible microplastic transportation from the ocean to the surrounding atmosphere, by the waves and the wind. This marks a significant step for research and a...

New grant for a study on transboundary haze pollution and BRI in Southeast Asia

The Henry Luce Foundation Initiative for Southeast Asia, has awarded a four-year research grant to a team led by University of Hawai’i and IRD to study transboundary air pollution and the socio-ecological Impact of China’s BeltRoad Initiative in the Mekong Sub-Region. This grant complements the...

Call for proposals: PHC SIAM Mobility programme 2020-2021

To encourage outstanding scientific exchanges between Thai and French higher education institutions and research bodies, and to develop sustainable collaborative research activities, the Joint Franco-Thai Committee launches the present Call for proposals.

[Meet a scientist] Moagabo Ragoasha: once an IRD scholarship holder, now an oceanographer in the SA-France network

Moagabo Ragoasha has just defended her PhD and is now a qualified South African physical oceanographer. Thanks to the IRD scholarship program, she had the opportunity to share her PhD time between France and South Africa. Let’s have a chat with her so she can share her experience with us!

Roundtable on Air Pollution

Air pollution by fine particles is a global issue. It is the main health risk and the main cause of non-communicable diseases, the second largest contributor to global warming (just after CO2), and with quantities of fine particles arriving in the ocean more than twice the amount of plastic waste...

Fire smoke from South America reaches the Namibian coast

A team of scientists conducted an analysis of the aerosol composition over the Namibian coast. The atmosphere contains smoke coming from biomass fires in Angola and also South America.

We found high UV doses at high-altitude hiking trails in Reunion and Cape Town

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun is important for life on earth and especially for humans.

[Meet a scientist] Pierrick Penven, the ocean at heart

Pierrick Penven and South Africa share a long history. The scientist has been studying the currents bordering the country for more than 20 years. We met him during his last visit in Cape Town, at the crossing of three oceans.

Mikoko project: mangrove conservators and local leaders gathered for a one-week training course

The National Museum of Gede (Kilifi County) hosted the first training course organized by the Mikoko project on mangrove forest conservation and restauration from February 18th to 21st.

Extreme solar UV radiation exposure in Cape Town

[Research result] Study shows the danger for Capetonians and tourists visiting Table Mountain.

Franco-Vietnamese meeting on environmental protection at MOFA

A better estimate of water-level rise in the Ganges delta

For the first time, scientists have provided reliable regional estimates of land subsidence and water-level rise in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta. Depending on the region of the delta, water-level rise could reach 85 to 140 cm by 2100. The work, published in PNAS on 6 January 2020 by...

Early modern humans cooked starchy food, 170 thousand years ago (Wits University)

PRESS RELEASE - WITS UNIVERSITY French - South African study involving CNRS researcher The discovery also points to food being shared and the use of wooden digging sticks to extract the plants from the ground. “The inhabitants of the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains on the Kwazulu-Natal/eSwatini...

Submarine cables: billions of potential seismic sensors!

Scientists have for the first time shown that it is possible to detect the propagation of seismic waves on the seafloor using submarine telecommunications cables. According to their observations, this existing infrastructure could be used to detect earthquakes, as well as swell and underwater noise...

Botswana's Okavango Delta is created by a delicate balance, but for how much longer?

This article on The Conversation Africa was co-signed by Dr Olivier Dauteuil, CNRS senior researcher at the University of Rennes and Dr Mike Murray-Hudson, Senior Research Fellow at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana.

Combating climate change: a worthwhile investment

Investing to limit global warming to 1.5 °C between now and 2050 would cost four to five times less than repairing the harm that a 2 °C temperature increase would cause to people, ecosystems and infrastructures. This statistic comes from an international study to which IRD and CNRS researchers have...

The first Global Sustainable Development Report given to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Achieving human well-being for all of the Earth’s people – expected to number eight and a half billion by 2030 - is still possible, but only if there is a fundamental - and urgent - change in the relationship between people and nature, according to a new United Nations report by an independent...

Desertification: meet the IRD's researchers at COP14

The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is being held in New Delhi (India) from 2 to 13 September with the theme "Restore Land, Sustain Future". The IRD's researchers and their partners are organising and participating in several events alongside...