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Climate Change From Black Carbon Depends on Altitude

By Guest PostApril 14, 2011Environmentairborne particles, atmospheric stability, ban weiss, black carbon, carbon, climate dynamics, climate effect of black carbon, Environment, global warming, human health, ken caldeira, long cao, upper atmosphere

Palo Alto, CA — Scientists have known for decades that black carbon aerosols add to global warming. These airborne particles made of sooty carbon are believed to be among the largest man-made contributors to global warming because they absorb solar radiation and heat the atmosphere. New research from Carnegie’s Long Cao and Ken Caldeira, along with colleagues George Ban-Weiss and Govindasamy Bala, quantifies how black carbon’s impact on climate depends on its altitude in the atmosphere. Their work, published online by the journal Climate Dynamics, could have important implications for combating global climate change. (more…)

Japanese Officials Unveil Important Information They Concealed For a Month

By PravdaApril 13, 2011Environmentchernobyl accident in 1986, fukushima daiichi nuclear power station, japanese officials, minamisoma city, nuclear power plant, radiation levels, radioactive material

Japanese officials struggled through the day on Tuesday to explain why it had taken them a month to disclose large-scale releases of radioactive material in mid-March at a crippled nuclear power plant, as the government and an electric utility disagreed on the extent of continuing problems there.

The government announced Tuesday morning that it had raised its rating of the severity of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station to 7, the worst on an international scale, from 5. Officials said that the reactor had released one-tenth as much radioactive material as the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but still qualified as a 7 according to a complex formula devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to New York Times. (more…)

Yellowstone’s Electrical Conductivity Hints Volcano Plume is Bigger Than Thought

By Guest PostApril 11, 2011Environmentcataclysmic caldera, central processing unit, cpu, ct scan, earthquake waves, electrical conductivity, geoelectric image, geophysicists, giant crater, hotspot, michael zhdanov, molten rock, plume, robert smith, salt lake city, seismic waves, volcanic ash, volcanically active area, yellowstone, yellowstone plume, yellowstone supervolcano, yellowstone volcano, yellowstone volcano observatory

WASHINGTON — Geophysicists have made the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. The image suggests that the plume beneath the volcanically active area—renowned today for geysers and hot springs—is even bigger than it appears in earlier images made with earthquake waves.

“It’s like comparing ultrasound and MRI in the human body; they are different imaging technologies,” says geophysics Professor Michael Zhdanov of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Zhdanov is principal author of the new study and an expert on measuring magnetic and electrical fields on Earth’s surface to find oil, gas, minerals and geologic structures underground. (more…)

Researchers Report Potential for a Moderate New England ‘Red Tide’ in 2011

By Guest PostApril 10, 2011Environmentalexandrium fundyense, alexandrium germination, cyst, darcie couture, dennis mcgillicuddy, don anderson, ecomon, ecosystem monitoring program, gomtox, gulf of maine, gulf of maine toxicity, jane lubchenco, new england shellfish industry, new hampshire coasts, noaa, paralytic shellfish poisoning, psp, psp toxicity, red tides, ruoying he, shellfish beds, stacy knapp, toxic alga, toxicity

*Bloom could be suppressed by changes in ocean conditions in the Gulf of Maine*

Scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a moderate regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause ‘red tides’ in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New England shellfish industry. However, there are signs this year’s bloom could be suppressed by recent changes in ocean conditions in the Gulf of Maine.

An abundant seed population in bottom sediments has set the stage for a moderate bloom of the toxic alga Alexandrium fundyense. This organism swims in the water, and divides again and again to form a “bloom” or red tide, but it also produces dormant cells or cysts that fall to the ocean bottom at the end of these blooms where they remain until they germinate the next year to restart the process. (more…)

Glaciers Contributing To Faster Sea-Level Rise

By Guest PostApril 9, 2011Environmentglaciers, industrial revolution, little ice age, mountain glaciers, neil glasser, outlet glaciers, patagonian icefields, sea-level rise, south america, stephan harrison

Melting mountain glaciers are contributing to sea-level rise faster than at any time in the last 350 years, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience.

A research team from the University of Exeter, Aberystwyth University, and Stockholm University undertook a survey of the 270 largest outlet glaciers of the South and North Patagonian Icefields of South America. (more…)

Some People’s Climate Beliefs Shift with Weather

By Guest PostApril 8, 2011Culture, Environmentatmospheric mechanisms, australia, clean air, climate, conservatives, cool planet, day, democrats, earth science, global warming, human influenced climate change, manmade global warming, political belief, political liberals, public opinion, republicans, social scientists, temperature, united states, weather, ye li

*Study shows daily malleability on a long-term question*

Social scientists are struggling with a perplexing earth-science question: as the power of evidence showing manmade global warming is rising, why do opinion polls suggest public belief in the findings is wavering? Part of the answer may be that some people are too easily swayed by the easiest, most irrational piece of evidence at hand: their own estimation of the day’s temperature.

In three separate studies, researchers affiliated with Columbia University’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) surveyed about 1,200 people in the United States and Australia, and found that those who thought the current day was warmer than usual were more likely to believe in and feel concern about global warming than those who thought the day was unusually cold. A new paper describing the studies appears in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science. (more…)

Biodiversity improves water quality in streams through a division of labor

By Guest PostApril 7, 2011Environmentbiodiversity, biologically diverse streams, bradley cardinal, chesapeake bay, darwin, Environment, flow conditions, great lakes, model streams, molded plastic, natural streams, nitrate, nutrient pollutant, pollutant filters, pollutants

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Biologically diverse streams are better at cleaning up pollutants than less rich waterways, and a University of Michigan ecologist says he has uncovered the long-sought mechanism that explains why this is so.

Bradley Cardinale used 150 miniature model streams, which use recirculating water in flumes to mimic the variety of flow conditions found in natural streams. He grew between one and eight species of algae in each of the mini-streams, then measured each algae community’s ability to soak up nitrate, a nitrogen compound that is a nutrient pollutant of global concern. (more…)

‘Wicked Weed of The West’ Waning With Effect of Weevils, Other Nontoxic Remedies, Cu Finds

By Guest PostApril 4, 2011Environmentalfalfa, biocontrols, david knochel, eurasia, floral wmd, knapweed, parcel of land, plants, species, spotted knapweed, spruce gulch, tim seastedt, united states, weed of mass destruction, weevils, wicked weed of the west

It’s not often that plants are described as diabolical, but spotted knapweed has that rare distinction. A 2004 issue of Smithsonian magazine, for instance, dubbed it the “wicked weed of the West,” a “national menace” and a “weed of mass destruction.”

Such reports were overstated and incorrect, but the press wasn’t making this stuff up. It was summarizing research results published in leading academic journals. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment