From 2000 to 2010, about 1,900 cyclones churned across the top of the world each year, leaving warm water and air in their wakes—and melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. That’s about 40 percent more than previously thought, according to a new analysis of these Arctic storms.
It's official: East Antarctica is pushing West Antarctica around. Now that West Antarctica is losing weight--that is, billions of tons of ice per year--its softer mantle rock is being nudged westward by the harder mantle beneath East Antarctica.
Less than 20 miles from the site where melting ice exposed the 5,000-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman, scientists have discovered new and compelling evidence that the Italian Alps are warming at an unprecedented rate. Part of that evidence comes in the form of a single dried-out leaf from a larch tree that grew thousands of years ago.
Scientists from U of T’s Department of Chemistry have discovered a novel chemical lurking in the atmosphere that appears to be a long-lived greenhouse gas (LLGHG). The chemical – perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) – is the most radiatively efficient chemical found to date, breaking all other chemical records for its potential to impact climate.
For that special Christmas gift, how about saving an endangered species? That's the goal of the Real Seal, a 6-inch plush Hawaiian monk seal toy designed by monk seal researchers at UC Santa Cruz.
Scientists at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography are shedding light on the genetic makeup of Earth’s deep microbial life and the geochemistry of the lavas that form the Earth’s crust through research conducted as part of the Deep Carbon Observatory, a 10-year international collaboration unraveling the mysteries of Earth’s inner workings.
The following is a sampling of research results that will be presented by University of Rhode Island scientists at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco from Dec. 9 to 13:
PNNL scientists will present research on carbon sequestration at shale gas sites, water needs for energy production and climate-induced changes in microbes at the 2013 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Dec. 9-13.
The tsunami that struck Japan’s Tohoku region in 2011 was touched off by a submarine earthquake far more massive than anything geologists had expected in that zone. Now, a team of scientists has published a set of studies in the journal Science that shed light on what caused the dramatic displacement of the seafloor.
An extremely thin layer of clay sediment below the ocean floor is a primary cause of the huge tsunami associated with the 2011 Japan earthquake, according to research by an international team of scientists that include a Texas A&M University professor.
Although vegetation growth in the Arctic is boosted by global warming, it’s not enough to offset the carbon released by the thawing of the permafrost beneath the surface, University of Florida researchers have found in the first experiment in the Arctic environment to simulate thawing of permafrost in a warming world.
Research conducted in Bimini in The Bahamas spanning almost two decades shows that female lemon sharks that were born there returned 15 years later to give birth to their own young, confirming this behavior for the first time in sharks. The study began in 1995, and has resulted in the capture, tagging, and release of more than 2,000 baby sharks.
A new research study combining marine physiology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and behavioral psychology has revealed a surprising outcome from increases of carbon dioxide uptake in the oceans: anxious fish.
Carbon dioxide pumped into the air since the Industrial Revolution appears to have changed the way the coastal ocean functions, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature.
A comprehensive review of research on carbon cycling in rivers, estuaries and continental shelves suggests that collectively this coastal zone now takes in more carbon dioxide than it releases. The shift could impact global models of carbon’s flow through the environment and future predictions related to climate change.
Coastal portions of the world’s oceans, once believed to be a source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, are now thought to absorb as much as two-thirds more carbon than they emitted in the preindustrial age, researchers estimate.
In the first global assessment of its kind, a science team led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has produced a landmark report on the impact of fishing on a group of fish known to protect the health of coral reefs. The report, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), offers key data for setting management and conservation targets to protect and preserve fragile coral reefs.
A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Zoological Society or London warns that the world’s largest tropical desert, the Sahara, has suffered a catastrophic collapse of its wildlife populations.
An intrepid atmospheric science department team from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is tracking and measuring lake-effect snowstorms from the southern banks of Lake Ontario, all in the name of better future weather forecasting.
A chemical system developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago can efficiently perform the first step in the process of creating syngas, gasoline and other energy-rich products out of carbon dioxide.
The sounds of bubbles escaping from melting ice make underwater glacial fjords one of the loudest natural marine environments on earth, according to research to be presented at the fall meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
The most detailed range-wide assessment of the bonobo (formerly known as the pygmy chimpanzee) ever conducted has revealed that this poorly known and endangered great ape is quickly losing space in a world with growing human populations. The loss of usable habitat is attributed to both forest fragmentation and poaching, according to a new study by University of Georgia, University of Maryland, the Wildlife Conservation Society, ICCN (Congolese Wildlife Authority), African Wildlife Foundation, Zoological Society of Milwaukee, World Wildlife Fund, Max Planck Institute, Lukuru Foundation, University of Stirling, Kyoto University, and other groups.
A new study reveals how pollution causes thunderstorms to leave behind larger, deeper, longer lasting clouds. Appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 26, the results solve a long-standing debate and reveal how pollution plays into climate warming. The work can also provide a gauge for the accuracy of weather and climate models.
This Thanksgiving, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Wind Cave National Park (WCNP) are marking the 100-year anniversary of the transfer and restocking of 14 bison from the Bronx Zoo to WCNP in South Dakota.
Think Greenland’s ice sheet is small today? It was smaller — as small as it's been in recent history — from 3-5,000 years ago, according to scientists who studied the ice sheet’s history using a new technique they developed for interpreting the Arctic fossil record.
A flying, insect-like robot will give an unprecedented look at Peru’s tropical cloud forest, one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems and a key indicator of global climate change.
A new paper from members of the HEAL (Health & Ecosystems: Analysis of Linkages) consortium delineates a new branch of environmental health that focuses on the public health risks of human-caused changes to Earth’s natural systems.
A temporary seismic array in Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica recorded two bursts of activity in 2010 and 2011. Careful analysis of the events shows they originate from a subglacial volcano at the leading end of a volcanic mountain chain. The volcano is unlikely to erupt through the kilometer of ice that covers it but it will melt enough ice to change the way the ice in its vicinity flows.
Cats that live outdoors in the city do their darnedest to steer clear of urban coyotes. The cats cause less damage to wildlife in urban green spaces, such as city parks and nature preserves, because of that dodging, a new study suggests.
Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada) scientists said today that the draft South Saskatchewan Regional Plan released recently by the Alberta government falls far short of protecting vulnerable fish and wildlife populations and headwater sources of precious water that are cherished by southern Albertans.
Scientists have developed a new computer modeling technique that offers the promise, for the first time, of producing continually updated daylong predictions of wildfire growth throughout the lifetime of long-lived blazes. The technique, developed by a research team led by NCAR, combines detailed computer simulations with newly available satellite observations.
It’s not every day that fishermen catch the world’s largest fish species in their nets, but this is what recently happened in Indonesia’s Karimunjawa National Park, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and their colleagues are unraveling the mechanisms behind a little-known marine worm that produces a dazzling bioluminescent display in the form of puffs of blue light released into seawater.
A natural shift to stronger warm El Niño events in the Pacific Ocean might be responsible for a substantial portion of the global warming recorded during the past 50 years, according to new research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).
University of Washington researchers have found that tree cover actually causes snow to melt more quickly in warm, Mediterranean-type climates around the world. Alternatively, open, clear gaps in the forests tend to keep snow on the ground longer into the spring and summer. Their findings were published this fall in Water Resources Research.
WCS and GIS software innovator Esri jointly produced an online Story Map that combines spatial data, cartography, and Web mapping tools to visually tell the story of the elephant poaching crisis.
A pair of microbes on the ocean floor “eats” methane in a unique way, and a new study provides insights into their surprising nutritional requirements. Learning how these methane-munching organisms make a living in these extreme environments could provide clues about how the deep-sea environment might change in a warming world.
The Mathematical Association of America offers the themed November issue of the College Mathematics Journal as one contribution to the international Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 initiative.
University of Florida researchers find old bulbs work almost as well as newer ones in helping zap bugs. This saves millions of dollars and more mercury from entering waste stream.
Although a significant build-up in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would alter worldwide precipitation patterns, geoengineering would also interfere with rainfall and snowfall. An international study, led by NCAR scientists, finds that “geoengineering” could result in monsoonal rains in North America, East Asia, and other regions dropping by 5-7 percent compared to preindustrial conditions because of less evaporation and reduced plant emissions of water.
Scientists have found a way to use coastal redwood trees as a window into historic climate, using oxygen and carbon atoms in the wood to detect fog and rainfall in previous seasons.