Tag Archives: climate change

Where Does Charcoal, or Black Carbon, in Soils Go?

By Guest PostMay 2, 2013Environmentbiochar technology, black carbon, bonanza creek, carbon cycle, carbon sequestration, charcoal, climate change, ecology, environmental factors, environmental fate, everglades, fate of charcoal, florida international university, georgia coastal ecosystems, german, Germany, global carbon budget, global scale, hubbard brook, konza prairie, marine geochemistry, max planck society, national science foundation, organic carbon, rudolf jaffe, saran twombly, soils, thorsten dittmar, university oldenburg, yan ding

Scientists find surprising new answers in wetlands such as the Everglades

Scientists have uncovered one of nature’s long-kept secrets–the true fate of charcoal in the world’s soils.

The ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change.

However, until now, researchers only had scientific guesses about what happens to charcoal once it’s incorporated into soil. They believed it stayed there.

Surprisingly, most of these researchers were wrong. (more…)

‘A better path’ toward projecting, planning for rising seas on a warmer Earth

By Guest PostApril 30, 2013Environment21st century, Antarctica, basins, behavior, christopher little, climate change, climate change policy, coastal planning, computer algorithms, continental ice sheets, geosciences, greenland, ice sheet dynamics, ipcc, massive ice sheets, methodology, michael oppenheimer, monte carlo simulations, nathan urban, Nature, polar ice sheets, princeton university, projection, risk tolerance, sea level, sea level change, sparse data, upper bounds

More useful projections of sea level are possible despite substantial uncertainty about the future behavior of massive ice sheets, according to Princeton University researchers.

In two recent papers in the journals Nature Climate Change and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers present a probabilistic assessment of the Antarctic contribution to 21st-century sea-level change. Their methodology folds observed changes and models of different complexity into unified projections that can be updated with new information. This approach provides a consistent means to integrate the potential contribution of both continental ice sheets — Greenland and Antarctica — into sea-level rise projections. (more…)

Cutting Specific Atmospheric Pollutants Would Slow Sea Level Rise

By Guest PostApril 25, 2013Environmentaixue hu, amsterdam, anjuli bamzai, atmospheric pollutants, black carbon, boulder, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide emissions, claudia tebaldi, climate central, climate change, computer model, effect, geochemistry, greenhouse gases, heat trapping pollutants, hydrofluorocarbons, important factor, melting ice, methane, miami, mumbai, NASA, national science foundation, ncar, new york, noaa, rising oceans, san diego, scientist, sea-level rise, sio, soot in exhaust, this century, tokyo, tropospheric ozone, us epa, veerabhadran ramanathan, yangyang x

Decreasing emissions of black carbon, methane and other pollutants makes a difference

With coastal areas bracing for rising sea levels, new research indicates that cutting emissions of certain pollutants can greatly slow sea level rise this century.

Scientists found that reductions in four pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could temporarily forestall the rate of sea level rise by roughly 25 to 50 percent.

The researchers focused on emissions of four heat-trapping pollutants: methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon. (more…)

Dead Forests Release Less Carbon Into Atmosphere Than Expected

By Guest PostMarch 25, 2013Environmentalaska, atmosphere, boulder, carbon, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, CO2, david moore, dead forests release, dendroctonus ponderosae, double whammy, earth, greenhouse gas, Mexico, mountain pine beetles, NASA, nicole trahan, niwot ridge, North America, organic compounds, outbreaks, photosynthesis, pine beetle outbreaks, russell monson, soil microbes, surface, university of arizona, university of colorado, warmer conditions

Billions of trees killed in the wake of mountain pine beetle infestations, ranging from Mexico to Alaska, have not resulted in a large spike in carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, contrary to predictions, a UA-led study has found.

Massive tree die-offs release less carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought, new research led by the University of Arizona suggests.

Across the world, trees are dying in increasing numbers, most likely in the wake of a climate changing toward drier and warmer conditions, scientists suspect. In western North America, outbreaks of mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) have killed billions of trees from Mexico to Alaska over the last decade. (more…)

Mending the Minnesota

By Guest PostMarch 16, 2013Environmentbasin, behavior, catastrophic flood, clean water, climate change, data, earth surface dynamics, ecology, efi foufoula georgiou, evolution, glacial deposits, jacques finlay, mending the minnesota, minnesota river, riverine systems, surface water runoff, thresholds, university of minnesota, utah state university, watershed, wsc

A study of its basin paves the way for cleaner water everywhere

The Minnesota River’s usually placid surface belies its status as a river —and a watershed—in need of help.

The river is naturally prone to heavy sediment loads. It runs through rich glacial deposits, in a channel carved by a catastrophic flood at the end of the last ice age, when a large lake formed by glacial meltwater gave way. (more…)

Changes in Cloud Distribution Explain Some Weather Patterns

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2013Environmentability to reflect, atmospheric sciences, black carbon, change in clouds, changes in cloud, climate change, cloud cover, cloud features, cloud properties, cumuliform clouds, distribution, global warming, heavy pollution, homogeneous, horizontal clouds, impact on temperature, jet stream, light, mid latitude, monsoons in india, northern india, rainfall, regional cloud changes, russia, ryan eastman, scientist, stephen warren, storm track, study clouds, thickness, tropics, university of washington, volume of data, weather patterns, weather stations

Regional cloud changes, such as those that result in less rain during monsoons in India and those that indicate a widening of the tropics, may be as important to watch as the overall amount of cloud cover, new University of Washington research indicates.

Authors of the paper, led by Ryan Eastman, a UW research scientist in atmospheric sciences, set out to examine observations collected from weather stations around the world as a way to study the distribution of clouds. The research was recently published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate. (more…)

March of the Pathogens: Parasite Metabolism Can Foretell Disease Ranges under Climate Change

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2013Environment, Scienceandrew dobson, Arctic, arctic climate, attitude, bacteria, body temperature, bryanne hoar, california santa barbara, climate change, cold blooded intermediate, disease causing parasite, disease ranges, earth grows warmer, ecology, emerging disease, environmental factors, environmental temperatures, equator, fundamental thermal niche, global warming, humans, infectious diseases, infectivity, life cycle, life cycle components, livestock, malaria, metabolic patterns, metabolic theory, microorganism, migrate, model, mortality, nematode, ostertagia gruehneri, parasite life cycle, parasite metabolism, pathogens, peter molnar, plasmodium, princeton university, range, reproduction, roundworm, ryan hechinger, sky is falling, susan kutz, temperatures, territory, university, university of calgary, viruses, wildlife, wooly bovine, worms

Knowing the temperatures that viruses, bacteria, worms and all other parasites need to grow and survive could help determine the future range of infectious diseases under climate change, according to new research.

Princeton University researchers developed a model that can identify the prospects for nearly any disease-causing parasite as the Earth grows warmer, even if little is known about the organism. Their method calculates how the projected temperature change for an area would alter the creature’s metabolism and life cycle, the researchers report in the journal Ecology Letters. (more…)

Mutant Champions Save Imperiled Species from Almost-Certain Extinction

By Guest PostFebruary 25, 2013Scienceantibiotics, bacterium, benjamin kerr, changing environments, climate change, disease causing bacteria, e coli, environmental changes, environmental deterioration, escherichia coli, eth zurich, evolutionary adaptations, evolutionary rescue, extinction, extinction bullet, genes, genetic engineering, haley lindsey, heavy metals, high concentration environment, human caused changes, imperiled species, insects, jenna gallie, lower concentration, mutant champions, number of factors, overfishing, pesticides, population, populations of microorganisms, rapid rates, relay team, seattle, susan taylor, university of washington

Species facing widespread and rapid environmental changes can sometimes evolve quickly enough to dodge the extinction bullet. Populations of disease-causing bacteria evolve, for example, as doctors flood their “environment,” the human body, with antibiotics. Insects, animals and plants can make evolutionary adaptations in response to pesticides, heavy metals and overfishing.

Previous studies have shown that the more gradual the change, the better the chances for “evolutionary rescue” – the process of mutations occurring fast enough to allow a population to avoid extinction in changing environments. One obvious reason is that more individuals remain alive when change is gradual or moderate, meaning there are more opportunities for a winning mutation to emerge. (more…)