University of Texas Arlington

Biologist discovers Amazon deforestation challenge

Research from an international team of microbiologists, including UT Arlington assistant professor of biology Jorge Rodrigues, has revealed a new concern about deforestation in the Amazon rainforest – a troubling net loss in the diversity among the microbial organisms responsible for a functioning ecosystem, EarthSky reported. EarthSky airs on National Public Radio. The microbiologists' findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicted prior thinking by showing that the loss of restricted ranges for different kinds of bacteria communities resulted in a biotic homogenization and net loss of diversity overall. Babur Mirza, another UT Arlington researcher, is a co-author on the paper.

Researchers using computer code to bridge space information gap

Two University of Texas at Arlington researchers want to bridge the gap between what is known about exploding stars and the remnants left behind thousands of years later. So they're trying something new -- using SNSPH, a complex computer code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory,HPCWire and Red Orbit reported. Carola Ellinger, a post-doctoral researcher at UT Arlington, and Sangwook Park, an assistant professor in the College of Science's physics department, were scheduled to present their research on "3D Simulations of Supernovae into the Young Remnant Phase" at the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif., recently.