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Taking Measure of the Greenhouse Effect

By Guest PostOctober 15, 20101 commentEnvironmentclouds, greenhouse effect, heat trapping

WASHINGTON — Scientists have long known that heat-absorbing components of Earth’s atmosphere, such as clouds and certain gases, prevent our planet from being an ice-covered ball. Now a study, for the first time, comprehensively calculates the relative contributions of the components responsible for that heating, known as the greenhouse effect.

Besides clarifying an important aspect of climate science, the study also demonstrates that rising concentrations of one heat-trapping gas — carbon dioxide — leads to much more greenhouse warming than just the heat the gas absorbs directly itself.

Various studies have looked at the contributions of water vapor, CO₂, and other greenhouse gases. But none had systematically estimated the contributions of each of the main players, says climate scientist Gavin Schmidt of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and lead author of the new research. (more…)

Smithsonian Researchers Report that Regional Sea Temperature Rise and Coral Bleaching Event Has Reached Western Caribbean

By Guest PostOctober 15, 20101 commentEnvironmentanomalous sea temperature rise, anoxic conditions, arcadio castillo, bocas del toro research station, caribbean coast, coral bleaching, coral polyps, costa rica, dissolved oxygen, héctor m guzmán, hotosynthetic algae, isla colon, kuna-yala to bocas del toro, nancy knowlton, noaa, panama, sea surface temperatures, turbid waters, warm pocket, western caribbean, zoxanthellae

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Bocas del Toro Research Station and Galeta Point Marine Laboratory are reporting an anomalous sea temperature rise and a major coral bleaching event in the western Caribbean. Although the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, issued an advisory in July announcing above-average sea surface temperatures in the wider Caribbean region, there had been no clear indication of increased sea temperatures in Panama and the western Caribbean until late August-early September. (more…)

Corals Show Ocean Temperature Boundary Rising with Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 14, 20101 commentEnvironment, Natureandrea grottoli, branwen williams, climate modelers, computer models, coral reef, corals, el niño, global climate, global warming, gorgonian, isotopes, nitrogen 14, nitrogen 15, ocean circulation, oceanography, offshore, ohio state university, pacific decadal oscillation, palau, pdo, satellite data, thermocline, western tropical pacific

WASHINGTON — Researchers looking at corals in the western tropical Pacific Ocean have found signs of a profound shift in the depth where warm surface water and colder deeper water meet—a shift predicted by computer models of global warming.

The finding is the first physical evidence supporting what climate modelers have been predicting as the effects of global climate change on the subsurface ocean circulation. (more…)

Cloud-Based Computing System Helps Scientists Study the Breathing of the Biosphere

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2010Environment, Technologybiometeorology, biosphere breathing, california, carbon dioxide, carbon-climate science, chloroplast, climate change, climate science, cloud-based dataset, cycles, dennis baldocchi, ecosystem, evapotranspiration, factors, fluctuations, global scale, ground-based sensor data, humans, microsoft research escience workshop, modisazure, planet, plant life, sacramento river delta, satellite imagery, state-of-the-art biophysical modeling, water systems

*Researchers at University of California, Berkeley, work with Microsoft Research to analyze vast amounts of data without supercomputers.*

BERKELEY, Calif. — Studying the environment would be simple if it weren’t for one thing: Even an isolated ecosystem is unbelievably complicated. Factors to study include water systems, plant life cycles, carbon dioxide fluctuations, resource use by humans, and far more — and each can be studied at the scale of a plant or of the planet, and measured in an instant or over decades. (more…)

Listen Up: Ocean Acidification Poses Little Threat to Whales’ Hearing

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2010Environmentabsorption, acidic, animals, atmospheric carbon dioxide, boric acid, CO2, decibel, hearing, ilya udovydchenkov, ivan lima, mathematical models, noise levels, ocean, ocean acidification, scott doney, seawater, sound propagation, sound waves, tim duda, whales, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

Contrary to some previous, highly publicized, reports, ocean acidification is not likely to worsen the hearing of whales and other animals, according to a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist who studies sound propagation in the ocean. (more…)

Population Change: Another Influence on Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 12, 2010Environment, Sciencebrian o'neill, carbon dioxide, China, climate change, emission, European Union, fertility, global, greenhouse gas emissions, hewlett foundation, human population, India, industrialized countries, national science foundation, nsf, PET, population environment technology model, sarah ruth, shonali pachauri, united nations, urbanization

*Changes in population, including aging and urbanization, could affect global carbon dioxide emissions*

Changes in the human population, including aging and urbanization, could significantly affect global emissions of carbon dioxide over the next 40 years, according to research results published this week. (more…)

Unraveling Complexity of Haiti Quake Reveals Hidden Faults and Future Hazards

By Guest PostOctober 11, 20101 commentEnvironmentgeologic field data, haiti quake, hidden faults, surface deformation, tectonic settings

The January 2010 M7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s economy and caused over 200,000 casualties also resulted in significant uplift of the ground surface along Haiti’s coastline, and involved slip on multiple faults, according to a study published online in Nature Geoscience. (more…)

U of T Researchers Explore Charcoal’s Potential to Reverse Climate Change

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2010Environmentbiochar, biochar bioenergy, carbon-negative biofuel, charcoal, pyrolysis, reverse climate change, wood smoulders, wood waste

It’s black, it’s gritty, it’s essential for barbecues—and it just might save the world from global warming.

Biochar, a kind of charcoal that is rich in carbon, traps CO2 from the atmosphere and can store it in soils for hundreds to thousands of years, says Professor Nathan Basiliko, a soil scientist at U of T Mississauga’s Department of Geography. Now, Basiliko and colleagues in the Faculty of Forestry are poised to demonstrate that wood waste from Ontario’s forest industry could be used to produce energy and biochar, making the wood a truly carbon-negative biofuel. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment