Environment – Page 178 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs Knotted Together

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2011Environment, Naturearctic breeding grounds, atlantic loggerhead sea turtles, chesapeake bay, conor mcgowan, crabs, delaware bay, ecological links, ecosphere, horseshoe crab, james hines, james lyons, james nichols, mid atlantic region, migrating shorebirds, new jersey, nutrient rich eggs, red knot, scorpions, sea turtle, shorebird species, spiders, ticks, U.S. Geological Survey, usgs, virginia

*Research Bolsters Importance of Horseshoe Crab Spawning for Migrating Shorebirds*

LAUREL, Md. – Speculation that the welfare of a small, at-risk shorebird is directly tied to horseshoe crab populations is in part supported by new scientific research, according to a U.S. Geological Survey- led study published in Ecosphere, a journal of the Ecological Society of America.

Population health of the red knot, a shorebird species whose population has plummeted over the last 15 years, has been directly tied to the number of egg-laying horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay — between Delaware and New Jersey — during the red knot’s northward migration each spring. (more…)

Evaluation of Climate Policy Rocketing But in an Undeveloped and Unsystematic Way

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2011Environmentandrew jordan, climate change, climate governance, complexity of climate change issues, dave huitema, Europe, European Union, poland, policy evaluation, portugal, practices of climate policy evaluation in europe, tyndall centre for climate change research, uk, united nations, university of east anglia, vu university amsterdam

*New research led by the University of East Anglia and the VU University Amsterdam shines new light on the little studied but politically vital practices of climate policy evaluation in Europe.*

Published in the international journal Policy Sciences, a meta-analysis by a team of researchers from across Europe offers the very first systematic cataloging of the emerging patterns of policy evaluation undertaken in different parts of the European Union.

In the last decade or so the politics surrounding the development of new policies has attracted unprecedented attention. Many new targets and policies have been adopted. But a lot less is known about what is being done to check that the resulting policies are actually delivering on their promises. (more…)

Warming Ocean Layers Will Undermine Polar Ice Sheets

By Guest PostJuly 6, 2011Environmentantarctic ice sheets, atmospheric warming, climate models, future ocean warming, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenland, jianjun yin, joellen l. Russell, nature geosciences, overpeck, polar ice sheets, the university of arizona, undermine polar, underwater, warming air, warming ocean layers, warming of the ocean's subsurface layers, warming seawater

*The UA-led research, based on climate models, shows that melting of the ice sheets will occur in this century and next.

Warming of the ocean’s subsurface layers will melt underwater portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets faster than previously thought, according to new University of Arizona-led research. Such melting would increase the sea level more than already projected.

The research, based on 19 state-of-the-art climate models, proposes a new mechanism by which global warming will accelerate the melting of the great ice sheets during this century and the next. (more…)

Civil War Troops Fought the Weather 150 Years Ago During Battle

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2011Environment, Politicsatmospheric conditions, battle of carthage, boonville, british admiralty, captain nathaniel lyon, carthage, civil war, civil war battle, confederate victory, coon creek, european observations, franz siegel, french navy, heavy rain, lupo and madden, mike madden, missouri, thunderstorms, tony lupo, torrential rains, union force, union troops, university of missouri, weather, wet gunpowder

*MU meteorologists say weather played a key role in union defeat*

COLUMBIA, Mo. — One hundred fifty years ago, two armies battled each other and the weather in Missouri’s first significant Civil War battle. While the battle’s course is familiar to historians, virtually no scientific data exists about the atmospheric conditions that influenced the fighting. In a project that blends history, sleuthing and modern weather analysis, Tony Lupo, professor and chair of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Missouri, and Mike Madden, a meteorology student, have scientifically examined the heavy rains that hampered the union forces, eventually leading to a costly defeat. (more…)

Berkeley Scientists Pioneer Nanoscale Nuclear Materials Testing Capability

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2011Environment, Scienceandrew minor, berkeley lab, clean energy future, compression tests of copper specimens, crystal structure, daniel kiener, dislocations, electricity, emission free sources, fukushima disaster, irradiated materials, Japan, lifetime of a nuclear reactor, macroscale materials strength properties, medical industry, nanoscale testing technique, national center for electron microscopy, ncem, nuclear materials, nuclear plants, nuclear power, operation and safety, peter hosemann, power generation, production of radioisotopes, renewable, safer nuclear technologies, stress tests, stuart maloy, sub nanoscale resolution, Technology, united states

Nuclear power is a major component of our nation’s long-term clean-energy future, but the technology has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of Japan’s recent Fukushima disaster. Indeed, many nations have called for checks and “stress tests” to ensure nuclear plants are operating safely.

In the United States, about 20 percent of our electricity and almost 70 percent of the electricity from emission-free sources, including renewable technologies and hydroelectric power plants, is supplied by nuclear power. Along with power generation, many of the world’s nuclear facilities are used for research, materials testing, or the production of radioisotopes for the medical industry. The service life of structural and functional material components in these facilities is therefore crucial for ensuring reliable operation and safety. (more…)

Scientists Study Earthquake Triggers in Pacific Ocean

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2011Environmentaccretionary margins, alaska to patagonia, basalt rock, costa rica, costa rica seismogenesis project, crisp, earthquake generating region, earthquakes, eastern pacific ocean, expedition, fault, global earthquakes, integrated ocean drilling program, iodp, italy, Japan, joides resolution, kohtaro ujiie, kristin hillis, large earthquakes, marianas, masaoki uno, mass transfer, michael stipp, nankai trough seismogenic zone experiment, nantroseize, national science foundation, nsf, pacific northwest, paola vannucchi, plate boundary, rodey batiza, samples of rock and sediment, scientific drilling vessel, seafloor, seismic plate boundary, seismogenic region, subduction processes, subduction zones, subseafloor, sumatra quakes, tectonic activity, the aleutians, tohoku earthquake, understanding of the earth, university of florence, university of tsukuba

*Samples of rock, sediment from beneath the sea-floor help explain quakes like Japan’s*

New samples of rock and sediment from the depths of the eastern Pacific Ocean may help explain the cause of large, destructive earthquakes similar to the Tohoku Earthquake that struck Japan in mid-March.

Nearly 1,500 meters (almost one mile) of sediment cores collected from the ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica reveal detailed records of some two million years of tectonic activity along a seismic plate boundary. (more…)

Are You Alarmed or Dismissive? Americans’ Latest Views on Climate Change Fall Into One of ‘Six Americas’

By Guest PostJuly 1, 2011Environmentamerican views, climate change, climate policies, climate scientists

In a new report, researchers have found that Americans have a wide range of attitudes and beliefs when it comes to climate change, yet also show some surprising similarities. (more…)

Significant Natural Gas Resources Remain to Be Discovered in Cook Inlet, Alaska

By Guest PostJuly 1, 2011Economy, Environmentalaska, alaska division of oil and gas, brenda pierce, coalbed gas, cook inlet, cook inlet region, natural gas, oil and gas resources, petroleum potential, U.S. Geological Survey, usgs, usgs assessment

The Cook Inlet Region of Alaska contains an estimated mean of 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about 600 million barrels of oil, and 46 million barrels of natural gas liquids, according to a new assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This estimate is of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources, and includes both unconventional and conventional resources.

These gas estimates are significantly more than the last USGS assessment of southern Alaska in 1995, in which a mean of 2.14 trillion cubic feet of gas was estimated. This increase in the undiscovered resource is attributed to new geologic information and data. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment

*The UA-led research, based on climate models, shows that melting of the ice sheets will occur in this century and next.