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Ice Cores Yield Rich History of Climate Change

By Guest PostFebruary 4, 2011EnvironmentAntarctica, atmosphere, borehole, carbon dioxide, climate history, climate record, concentration of greenhouse gases, core, coring, earth, gases, human activity, ice, ice core, isotopic composition, julie palais, kendrick taylor, krypton, logging, russia, sample, temperature of the ocean, vostok station, wais, west antarctic ice sheet divide, xenon

*Research project completes drilling for the year, reaching two miles below West Antarctic Ice Sheet*

On Friday, Jan. 28 in Antarctica, a research team investigating the last 100,000 years of Earth’s climate history reached an important milestone completing the main ice core to a depth of 3,331 meters (10,928 feet) at West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS). The project will be completed over the next two years with some additional coring and borehole logging to obtain additional information and samples of the ice for the study of the climate record contained in the core.

As part of the project, begun six years ago, the team, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been drilling deep into the ice at the WAIS Divide site and recovering and analyzing ice cores for clues about how changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have influenced the Earth’s climate over time. (more…)

War, Plague No Match for Deforestation in Driving CO2 Buildup

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2011Environmentagriculture, Antarctica, atmosphere, black death, black death in europe, burning of coal and oil, carbon dioxide, China, conquest of the americas, deforestation, demand for gasoline, earth, Environment, fall of the ming dynasty, forests, genghis khan, global carbon budget, global carbon cycle, greenland, human impact on climate, industrial era, julia pongratz, ken caldeira, mongol hordes, mongol invasions in asia, vegetation cover

Stanford, CA — Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes had an impact on the global carbon cycle as big as today’s annual demand for gasoline. The Black Death, on the other hand, came and went too quickly for it to cause much of a blip in the global carbon budget. Dwarfing both of these events, however, has been the historical trend towards increasing deforestation, which over centuries has released vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as crop and pasture lands expanded to feed growing human populations. Even Genghis Kahn couldn’t stop it for long. (more…)

Broken Glass Yields Clues to Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2010Environmentatmosphere, brittle objects, carbon dioxide, clay particles, climate, climate models, clouds, drinking glass, dust, dust particles, future climate, human hair, jasper kok, marine ecosystems, microscopic particles, northern africa, precipitation, sarah ruth, solar energy, Space, temperature, to model, united states, weather forecasting

*Ordinary drinking glasses and atmospheric dust particles break apart in similar patterns*

Clues to future climate may be found in the way an ordinary drinking glass shatters.

Results of a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences find that microscopic particles of dust can break apart in patterns that are similar to the fragment patterns of broken glass and other brittle objects. (more…)

Ocean Acidification Changes Nitrogen Cycling in World Seas

By Guest PostDecember 22, 20101 commentEnvironmentacidity, ammonia oxidizers, blue whales, carbon dioxide, cheryl emiliane chow, cycle, david garrison, marine ecosystems, michael beman, microbes, nitrification, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, nutrients, ocean acidification, oceanic nitrification, oceans, organisms, proteins, sea water

*New results indicate potential to reduce certain greenhouse gas emissions from oceans to atmosphere*

Increasing acidity in the sea’s waters may fundamentally change how nitrogen is cycled in them, say marine scientists who published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients in the oceans. All organisms, from tiny microbes to blue whales, use nitrogen to make proteins and other important compounds. (more…)

Study Shows Wind Turbines on Farmlands May Benefit Crops

By Guest PostDecember 19, 20101 commentEnvironmentatmosphere, carbon dioxide, corn, crop, crops, domestic source of energy, earth surface, electricity, fungal infestations, gene takle, generate, laser, lidar, midwestern farm, moisture levels, photosynthesis, renewable energy, research, soybean, takle, turbine blades, wind turbines

Wind turbines in Midwestern farm fields may be doing more than churning out electricity. The giant turbine blades that generate renewable energy might also help corn and soybean crops stay cooler and drier, help them fend off fungal infestations and improve their ability to extract growth-enhancing carbon dioxide from the air and soil.

The preliminary findings of a months-long study that examines how wind turbines on farmlands interact with surrounding crops were presented on December 16 at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The presentation was made by researcher Gene Takle of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Julie Lundquist, assistant professor in the University of Colorado at Boulder’s atmospheric and oceanic studies department. (more…)

‘Undersea Methane Could be Contributor to Increased Ocean Acidity’

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2010Environmentacidity, algae, bacteria, bottom of the ocean, carbon dioxide, chris osburn, CO2, cold seeps, degradation, dissolved organic carbon, doc, fluids, marine science, methane, methane-derived doc, microbial processing, ocean, ocean acidification, oceanic microorganisms, pacific ocean, phytoplankton, seawater, sediments, undersea, undersea ecosystems

A North Carolina State University researcher is part of a team which has found that methane from “cold seeps” – undersea areas where fluids bubble up through sediments at the bottom of the ocean – could be contributing to the oceans’ increasing acidity and stressing already delicate undersea ecosystems.

Oceanic microorganisms and bacteria survive by consuming dissolved organic carbon, or DOC. A byproduct of this consumption is CO2 – carbon dioxide – which, in large enough concentrations, makes seawater more acidic. (more…)

Rewarding Eco-Friendly Farmers Can Help Combat Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2010Environmentatmosphere, carbon dioxide, chesapeake bay, cier, climate change, combat, eco-friendly, ecosystem markets, farmers, fertilizer, fertilizer run-off, greenhouse gas, management practices, maryland, maryland farmers, matthias ruth, nitrogen, nutrient trading market, phosphorous, techniques, total maximum daily load, trading market

*UMD Study Advises State on Creation of ‘Nutrient Trading Market’*

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Financially rewarding farmers for using the best fertilizer management practices can simultaneously benefit water quality and help combat climate change, finds a new study by the University of Maryland’s Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). (more…)

Study Portends Greater Anticipated Global Warming

By Guest PostNovember 25, 2010Environmentaxel lauer, carbon dioxide, clouds, el niño, global climate models, global mean cloud, global warming, greenhouse gases, kevin hamilton, reflection, solar radiation, warmer climate, warming

Current state-of-the-art global climate models predict substantial warming in response to increases in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The models, though, disagree widely in the magnitude of the warming we can expect. The disagreement among models is mainly due to the different representation of clouds. Some models predict that global mean cloud cover will increase in a warmer climate and the increased reflection of solar radiation will limit the predicted global warming. Other models predict reduced cloudiness and magnified warming. (more…)

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