Archives
Research news
Yellow-cedar are dying in Alaska: Scientists now know why
EurekAlert, February 1, 2012: Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why – until now.
Less summer Arctic sea ice cover means colder, snowier winters in Central Europe
Science Daily, February 1, 2012: Even if the current weather situation may seem to speak against it, the probability of cold winters with much snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer.
The Arctic is already suffering the effects of a dangerous climate change
EurekAlert, January 30, 2012: Two decades after the United Nations established the Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system," the Arctic shows the first signs of a dangerous climate change. A team of researchers led by CSIC assures so in an article published on the latest number of the Nature Climate Change magazine.
Genetics of Arctic plants under serious threat from climate change, study says
PhysOrg, January 30, 2012: A new EU study by a team of Austrian, French and Norwegian researchers has found that rising temperatures as a result of climate change will have differing genetic consequences within single Arctic plant species.
Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity, study finds
Science Daily, January 30, 2012: A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity – not changes in solar activity – are the primary force driving global warming.
What do killer whales eat in the Arctic?
Science Daily, January 29, 2012: Killer whales are the top marine predator, wherever they are found, and seem to eat everything from schools of small fish to large baleen whales, over twice their own size. The increase in hunting territories available to killer whales in the Arctic due to climate change and melting sea ice could seriously affect the marine ecosystem balance.
Injecting sulfate particles into stratosphere won't fully offset climate change
EurekAlert, January 25, 2012: As the reality and the impact of climate warming have become clearer in the last decade, researchers have looked for possible engineering solutions – such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or directing the sun's heat away from Earth – to help offset rising temperatures.
Unprecedented, man-made trends in ocean's acidity
EurekAlert, January 22, 2012: Nearly one-third of CO2 emissions due to human activities enters the world's oceans. By reacting with seawater, CO2 increases the water's acidity, which may significantly reduce the calcification rate of such marine organisms as corals and mollusks.
Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'
Science Daily, January 20, 2012: Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.
NASA finds 2011 ninth-warmest year on record
Science Daily, January 19, 2012: The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.
Climate change invites alien invaders – is Canada ready?
EurekAlert, January 19, 2012: A comprehensive multi-disciplinary synthesis just published in Environmental Reviews reveals the urgent need for further investigation and policy development to address significant environmental, social and economic impacts of invasive alien species and climate change.
The great gas hydrate escape
EurekAlert, January 19, 2012: For some time, researchers have explored flammable ice for low-carbon or alternative fuel or as a place to store carbon dioxide. Now, a computer analysis of the ice and gas compound, known as a gas hydrate, reveals key details of its structure.
Climate balancing: sea-level rise vs. surface temperature change rates
Science Daily, January 18, 2012: Engineering our way out of global climate warming may not be as easy as simply reducing the incoming solar energy, according to a team of University of Bristol and Penn State climate scientists. Designing the approach to control both sea level rise and rates of surface air temperature changes requires a balancing act to accommodate the diverging needs of different locations.
Data from end of last Ice Age confirm effects of climate change on oceans
Science Daily, January 17, 2012: The first comprehensive study of changes in the oxygenation of oceans at the end of the last Ice Age (between about 10 to 20,000 years ago) has implications for the future of our oceans under global warming.
New model finds climate change could expose North America, East Asia and the Caribbean to costly hurricane damage
PhysOrg, January 17, 2012: If you're planning to build that dream beach house along the East Coast of the United States, or would like to relocate to the Caribbean, a new study by economists and climate scientists suggests you may want to reconsider.
Rising carbon dioxide confuses brain signaling in fish
Science News, January 15, 2012: A new study may explain how rising carbon dioxide concentrations – and the ocean acidification they induce – can cause topsy-turvy changes in the behavior of fish. Like a flipped switch, the normal response of nerve cells can reverse as acidifying seawater perturbs how a fish regulates acids and bases in its body, including the brain.
What can be done to slow climate change?
Science Daily, January 12, 2012: A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production.
Offsetting global warming: molecule in Earth's atmosphere could 'cool the planet'
Science Daily, January 12, 2012: Scientists have shown that a newly discovered molecule in Earth's atmosphere has the potential to play a significant role in offsetting global warming by cooling the planet.
Dramatic links found between climate change, elk, plants, and birds
Science Daily, January 10, 2012: Climate change in the form of reduced snowfall in mountains is causing powerful and cascading shifts in mountainous plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants, according to a groundbreaking study in Nature Climate Change.
New cores from glacier in eastern European Alps may yield new climate clues
Science Daily, January 9, 2012: Researchers are beginning their analysis of what are probably the first successful ice cores drilled to bedrock from a glacier in the eastern European Alps. With luck, that analysis will yield a record of past climate and environmental changes in the region for several centuries, and perhaps even covering the last 1,000 years.
Climate change is altering mountain vegetation at large scale
EurekAlert, January 8, 2012: Climate change is having a more profound effect on alpine vegetation than at first anticipated, according to a study carried out by an international group of researchers and published in Nature Climate Change. The first ever pan-European study of changing mountain vegetation has found that some alpine meadows could disappear within the next few decades.
Harp seals on thin ice after 32 years of warming
EurekAlert, January 4, 2012: Warming in the North Atlantic over the last 32 years has significantly reduced winter sea ice cover in harp seal breeding grounds, resulting in sharply higher death rates among seal pups in recent years, according to a new Duke University-led study.
Russian runoff freshening Canadian Arctic, NASA finds
Science Daily, January 4, 2012: A new NASA and University of Washington study allays concerns that melting Arctic sea ice could be increasing the amount of freshwater in the Arctic enough to have an impact on the global "ocean conveyor belt" that redistributes heat around our planet.
Fuel reduction could increase carbon emissions
redOrbit, December 21, 2011: Forest thinning to help prevent or reduce severe wildfire will release more carbon to the atmosphere than any amount saved by successful fire prevention, a new study concludes. There may be valid reasons to thin forests – such as restoration of forest structure or health, wildlife enhancement or public safety – but increased carbon sequestration is not one of them, scientists say.
Climate sensitivity greater than previously believed
EurekAlert, December 20, 2011: Many of the particles in the atmosphere are produced by the natural world, and it is possible that plants have in recent decades reduced the effects of the greenhouse gases to which human activity has given rise. One consequence of this is that the climate may be more sensitive to emissions caused by human activity than we have previously believed.
Will Antarctic worms warm to changing climate?
Science Daily, December 20, 2011: Researchers at the University of Delaware are examining tiny worms that inhabit the frigid sea off Antarctica to learn not only how these organisms adapt to the severe cold, but how they will survive as ocean temperatures increase.
Climate change may bring big ecosystem shifts, NASA says
Science Daily, December 18, 2011: By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth's land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.
Rapid rise in wildfires in large parts of Canada? Ecologists find threshold values for natural wildfires
Science Daily, December 16, 2011: Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently approaching this threshold value and may in future exceed it due to climate change.
Melting glaciers reveal future Alpine world
Science Daily, December 14, 2011: In a hundred years trees may be growing where there are now glaciers. The warm climate of the last few years has caused dramatic melting of glaciers in the Swedish mountains.
Removing sulfur from jet fuel cools climate
EurekAlert, December 14, 2011: A Yale study examining the impact of aviation on climate change found that removing sulfur from jet fuel cools the atmosphere. The study was published in the October 22 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
The case of the dying aspens
EurekAlert, December 12, 2011: Over the past 10 years, the death of forest trees due to drought and increased temperatures has been documented on all continents except Antarctica. This can in turn drive global warming by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by trees and by releasing carbon locked up in their wood. New research led by Carnegie researcher and Stanford University PhD student William Anderegg offers evidence for the physiological mechanism governing tree death in a drought.
2010 spike in Greenland ice loss lifted bedrock, GPS reveals
Science Daily, December 9, 2011: An unusually hot melting season in 2010 accelerated ice loss in southern Greenland by 100 billion tons – and large portions of the island's bedrock rose an additional quarter of an inch in response.