For social animals such as schooling fish, the loss of their numbers to human activity could eventually threaten entire populations, according to research led by a CHANS-Net scientist that shows such animals rely heavily on grouping to effectively navigate their environment.

Hydraulically fractured natural gas wells are producing less wastewater per unit of gas recovered than conventional wells would. But the scale of fracking operations in the Marcellus shale region is so vast that the wastewater it produces threatens to overwhelm the region's wastewater disposal capacity, according to new analysis by a CHANS-Net researcher at Duke and a colleague at Kent State.

With support from the National Science Foundation, the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS-Net.org) offers CHANS Fellowships each year.

Over past decades, many areas of the forested Amazon basin have become a patchwork of farms, pastures and second-growth forest as people have moved in and cleared land -- but now many are moving out, in search of economic opportunities in newly booming Amazonian cities. The resulting depopulation of rural areas, along with spreading road networks and increased drought are causing more and bigger fires to ravage vast stretches, say researchers in a new study.