Changes in diet have been proposed as a way to reduce carbon emissions from the food system. A new study provides the latest and most comprehensive estimate of greenhouse gas emissions generated by U.S. consumer food purchases, and assesses how those choices could affect diet and climate change.
A new Columbia Engineering study shows that photosynthesis in tall Amazonian forests--forests above 30m--is 3x less sensitive to precipitation variability than in shorter forests of less than 20m. Taller Amazonian forests were also found to be older, have more biomass and deeper rooting systems that enable them to access deeper soil moisture, making them more resilient to drought. The findings suggest that forest height + age are an important regulator of photosynthesis in response to droughts.
The oldest ice core so far provides 800,000 years of our planet’s climate history. A field survey in Antarctica has pinpointed a location where an entire million years of undisturbed ice might be preserved intact.
The 2018 report is out: two wolves, almost 1,500 moose and an ecosystem in transition. In its 60th year, the research conducted at Isle Royale National Park is the longest running predator-prey study of its kind.
New University of Colorado Boulder-led research has established a causal link between climate warming and the localized extinction of a common Rocky Mountain flowering plant, a result that could serve as a herald of future population declines.
Marine shipping fuels will get a whole lot cleaner in 2020 when a regulation by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires fuels to contain 80-86 percent less sulphur.This is the most significant improvement in global fuel standards for the shipping industry in 100 years, intended to achieve significant health benefits on a global scale.
Did you know that New Jersey can expect higher temperatures, heavier rains, rising sea levels and more frequent and severe coastal flooding this century? The New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance – facilitated by Rutgers University–New Brunswick – has launched a social media campaign to enhance public education and to guide people to a wealth of information on climate change resilience on its website.
A new study from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and partners reveals for the first time the ways in which wild weather swings and extreme icing events are negatively impacting the largest land mammal of the Earth’s polar realms—the muskoxen. The paper demonstrates that while this denizen of the Arctic and other cold-adapted species have spectacular adaptations, the previously unknown effects of rain-on-snow events, winter precipitation, and ice tidal surges are costly for the animals, if not deadly.
Healthy wetlands are hard-working water filters! The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) December 15 Soils Matter blog post explains the role of wetlands—and how we can keep them functioning.
A new study demonstrates that outbreaks of mosquito-borne viruses Zika and Chikungunya generally occur about three weeks after heavy rainfall. Researchers also found that Chikungunya will predominate over Zika when both circulate at the same time.
WCS, WWF, and BirdLife International today launched the Trillion Trees programme, a 25-year initiative to help implement and scale global forest commitments and spur greater ambitions towards protecting and restoring one trillion trees by 2050—the number needed to reverse the global decline in tree cover.
Many factors influence the ability of soil to buffer against temperature changes. Recent research shows both perennial biofuel and cover crops help soils shield against extreme temperatures.
One of the largely unanticipated impacts of a changing climate may be a decline in sunlight's ability to disinfect lakes, rivers, and coastal waters, possibly leading to an increase in waterborne pathogens and the diseases they can cause in humans and wildlife.
A web-based tool recently developed by UC San Diego researchers under an NSF grant to perform data-driven predictive modeling and real-time tracking of fires has already been viewed about one million times and generated more than 115,000 unique visitors since the outbreak of numerous wildfires across Northern California late last weekend.
Holographic images of free-flowing air particles may help climate change and biological weapons watchdogs better monitor the atmosphere, according to a recent Kansas State University study. Principle investigator Matthew Berg, associate professor of physics, said the study, published in Nature's Scientific Reports, is key to understanding the aerosol composition of Earth's atmosphere.
A decrease in Great Plains streams, fed by decreasing ground water, is changing fish assembles according to research published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Deeper soil layers are more sensitive to warming than previously thought.
New study indicates that mud, the most plentiful sediment type carried by the Mississippi River, may be the most powerful tool in building land to keep up sea level rise.
One day in December of 2015, bound for a remote ice camp in the interior of Antarctica, Scripps Institution of Oceanography doctoral student Ryan Scott boarded a ski-equipped LC-130 turboprop transport plane at McMurdo Station at the south tip of Ross Island. It was austral summer and the temperature outside hovered around -4 degrees Celsius.
In some of the coldest places in the world, scientists supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science are studying how permafrost thaws. Using both field and laboratory data, these researchers are collaborating with modelers to improve our understanding of future climate change.
A controlled lab study led by Mote Marine Laboratory and published June 1 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE revealed that black band disease was less deadly to mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata) as water acidified, or decreased in pH.
Will reductions in Arctic snow cover make tundra-dwelling wolverines more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought? That’s a question scientists hope an innovative method described in a new study co-authored by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) will help answer.
WCS scientists have discovered a refuge for corals where the environment protects otherwise sensitive species to the increasing severity of climate change.
A warming climate could affect the stability of alpine grasslands in Asia’s Tibetan Plateau, threatening the ability of farmers and herders to maintain the animals that are key to their existence, and potentially upsetting the ecology of an area in which important regional river systems originate.
Scientists believe that biochar, the partially burned remains of plants, has been used as fertilizer for at least 2,000 years in the Amazon Basin. Since initial studies published several years ago promoted biochar, farmers around the world have been using it as a soil additive to increase fertility and crop yields. But a new study casts doubt on biochar’s efficacy, finding that using it only improves crop growth in the tropics, with no yield benefit at all in the temperate zone.
Decreases in river flows and frequency of flooding with future climate warming will likely shift vegetation along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon to species with more drought-tolerant traits.
Upper atmosphere pattern may open window to long-term prediction
Researchers at the University of Kansas have published findings showing weather whiplash in the American Midwest’s agricultural regions will drive the deterioration of water quality, forcing municipalities to seek costly remedies to provide safe drinking water to residents.
A letter in Science magazine from a Mississippi State faculty member is examining lessons gleaned from the recent Oroville dam incident in California.
More than 50 million years ago, when the Earth experienced a series of extreme global warming events, early mammals responded by shrinking in size. While this mammalian dwarfism has previously been linked to the largest of these events, research led by the University of New Hampshire has found that this evolutionary process can happen in smaller, so-called hyperthermals, indicating an important pattern that could help shape an understanding of underlying effects of current human-caused climate change.
Feedbacks of clouds on climate change strongly influence the magnitude of global warming.
A new Berkeley Lab study shows that high-resolution models captured hurricanes and big waves that low-resolution ones missed. Better extreme wave forecasts are important for coastal cities, the military, the shipping industry, and surfers.
Tiny air bubbles compressed within a polar ice core make some sections brittle to the touch, but one ice core lab knows how to handle this delicate part of the chemical analysis, thus making the dating of the entire ice core possible.
Global Temperature Report: January 2017
New analysis supports mangrove forests, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows as effective climate buffers.
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