atmosphere – Page 2 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Large Old Trees Grow Fastest, Storing More Carbon

By Guest PostJanuary 18, 2014Environmentadrian das, amount of co2, atmosphere, australia, carbon, generate, kings canyon, large old trees, nate stephenson, national park, panama, pinus monticola, sequester, store, subtropical, temperate region, tree species, tropical, U.S. Geological Survey, united kingdom, united states, western white pine

THREE RIVERS, Calif, — Trees do not slow in their growth rate as they get older and larger — instead, their growth keeps accelerating, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

“This finding contradicts the usual assumption that tree growth eventually declines as trees get older and bigger,” says Nate Stephenson, the study’s lead author and a forest ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “It also means that big, old trees are better at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere than has been commonly assumed.” (more…)

UCLA life scientists, colleagues differentiate microbial good and evil

By Guest PostJanuary 11, 2014Scienceacidic soils, agents of infection, ammonia, ann hirsch, annette angus, atmosphere, australia, b pseudomallei, bacteria, bacterial genus burkholderia, bioterrorist agent, burkholderia cepacia, burkholderia tuberum, caenorhabditis elegans, christina agapakis, climate change, evolutionary lineage, fertilize crops, microbial, nitrogen fixation, pathogenic strains, pathogens, paul yang, protein rich crops, southern hemisphere, stephanie fong, symbiotic burkholderia species, Thailand, ucla life scientists

To safely use bacteria in agriculture to help fertilize crops, it is vital to understand the difference between harmful and healthy strains. The bacterial genus Burkholderia, for example, includes dangerous disease-causing pathogens — one species has even been listed as a potential bioterrorist agent — but also many species that are safe and important for plant development.

Can the microbial good and evil be told apart? Yes, UCLA life scientists and an international team of researchers report Jan. 8 in the online journal PLOS ONE. (more…)

Stormy Stars? NASA’s Spitzer Probes Weather on Brown Dwarfs

By Guest PostJanuary 8, 2014Scienceatmosphere, brown dwarfs, daniel apai, davin flateau, earth, gravity, great red spot, jupiter, mark marley, NASA, other worlds, solar system, spitzer, stanimir metchev, stormy stars, thermal glow, undiscovered planet, university of arizona, weather

Swirling, stormy clouds may be ever-present on cool celestial orbs called brown dwarfs. New observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that most brown dwarfs are roiling with one or more planet-size storms akin to Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot.”

“As the brown dwarfs spin on their axis, the alternation of what we think are cloud-free and cloudy regions produces a periodic brightness variation that we can observe,” said Stanimir Metchev of the University of Western Ontario, Canada. “These are signs of patchiness in the cloud cover.” (more…)

UChicago researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world

By Guest PostJanuary 2, 2014Sciencealien world, astronomers, atmosphere, bjorn benneke, clouds, constellation ophiuchus, drake deming, earth, exoplanets, gj 1214b, heavy molecule, high altitude clouds, hubble telescope, jacob bean, jacob l bean, jean michel desert, laura kreidberg, milky way galaxy, NASA, neptune, university of chicago, water vapor

Weather forecasters on exoplanet GJ 1214b would have an easy job. Today’s forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds.

That’s the implication of a study led by researchers in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago who have definitively characterized the atmosphere of a super-Earth class planet orbiting another star for the first time. (more…)

An Inside Look at a MOF in Action

By Guest PostDecember 28, 2013Scienceals, atmosphere, berend smit, berkeley lab, carbon dioxide gas, david prendergast, gas adsorption, gas molecules, global climate change, inside look, jacs, jeff kortright, jeffrey long, jeffrey neaton, metal organic framework, mg mof 74, mof in action, molecules, nano, nexafs, open metal site, roberta poloni, thomas mcdonald, united states, vulcan, walter drisdell

Berkeley Lab Researchers Probe Into Electronic Structure of MOF May Lead to Improved Capturing of Greenhouse Gases

A unique inside look at the electronic structure of a highly touted metal-organic framework (MOF) as it is adsorbing carbon dioxide gas should help in the design of new and improved MOFs for carbon capture and storage. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have recorded the first in situ electronic structure observations of the adsorption of carbon dioxide inside Mg-MOF-74, an open metal site MOF that has emerged as one of the most promising strategies for capturing and storing greenhouse gases. (more…)

Blue carbon

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2013Environmentatmosphere, blue carbon, blue carbon ecosystems, carbon dioxide, caroline rogers, davis, deforesting the mangroves, Environment, global mangrove, greenhouse gases, james sanchirico, juha siikamaki, mangroves, natural solution, rff, subtropical coastlines, sunny jardine, tropical, u.s economy, united states, university of california, university of delaware, virgin islands

World’s mangroves, salt marshes hold potential for reducing carbon emissions

Mangroves, the dense forests found along tropical and subtropical coastlines, have some specialized trees that can take in air through their roots at low tide and excrete salt right out of their leaves. The unusual ecosystems can also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, making them a natural solution for controlling greenhouse gases.

Disrupt them, however, and they’ll put that carbon right back into the atmosphere. (more…)

Coastal sea change

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Environmentanthropogenic factors, atmosphere, balance, carbon cycling, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sink, ceoe, climate change, coastal ocean functions, coastal sea change, global models, global warming, greenhouse gas, industrial age, industrial revolution, james bauer, ocean acidification, peter a raymond, sink, source, thomas s bianchi, variables, wei jun cai, yale university

UD oceanographer reports on human-caused changes to carbon cycling

Carbon dioxide pumped into the air since the Industrial Revolution appears to have changed the way the coastal ocean functions, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature.

A comprehensive review of research on carbon cycling in rivers, estuaries and continental shelves suggests that collectively this coastal zone now takes in more carbon dioxide than it releases. The shift could impact global models of carbon’s flow through the environment and future predictions related to climate change. (more…)

Arctic study shows key marine food web species at risk from increasing CO2

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Environmentarctic marine life, arctic ocean, arctic regions, arctic study, atmosphere, carbon dioxide, catlin arctic survey, ceri lewis, changing climatic, copepods, crustaceans, helen findlay, increasing co2, marine food web, novel data, ocean acidity, oceanic conditions, pnas, range of ph, risk, university of exeter

A research expedition to the Arctic, as part of the Catlin Arctic Survey, has revealed that tiny crustaceans, known as copepods, that live just beneath the ocean surface are likely to battle for survival if ocean acidity continues to rise.

The study found that copepods that move large distances, migrating vertically across a wide range of pH conditions, have a better chance of surviving.

The increasing level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is changing ocean chemistry leading to seawater moving down the pH scale towards acidity. Some areas of the Arctic Ocean are already experiencing the fastest rates of acidification on the planet and, combined with sea-ice loss and warming temperatures, the impacts of climate change are likely to hit Arctic marine life first. (more…)

Tag Archives: atmosphere