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Imperiled Mussels May be Further Harmed by Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 5, 2013Environment, Natureaquatic food web, climate change, danger of extinction, freshwater mussels, freshwater science, global climate change, good water, habitat alteration, indicator, native mussel populations, North America, potential effect, rising water temperatures, river studies center, sediment quality, species, teresa newton, U.S. Geological Survey, us river, usgs scientists, washboard mussels

Rising water temperatures as a result of climate change may harm already endangered or threatened native freshwater mussels in North America, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report.

During laboratory tests, USGS scientists and partners found that the heart and growth rates of some species of young freshwater mussels declined as a result of elevated water temperatures, and many died. Freshwater mussels have been compared to the “canary in the coal mine” in that they are indicators of good water and sediment quality in U.S. rivers. They are also important in the aquatic food web, filter large amounts of water and suspended particles, and serve as food for other organisms. The study is published in the December issue of the journal Freshwater Science. (more…)

‘Tiger stripes’ underneath Antarctic glaciers slow the flow

By Guest PostNovember 30, 2013Environmentantarctic glaciers, antarctic ice, bed of rock, british antarctic survey, climate change, douglas macayeal, Europe, flow of glaciers, friction zones, massive antarctic glaciers, mathematical modeling, North America, olga sergienko, pattern, pine island glacier, princeton university, richard hindmarsh, satellite measurements, sea-level rise, sediment, thwaites glacier, tiger stripes, university of chicago, warming climate, west antarctica

Narrow stripes of dirt and rock beneath massive Antarctic glaciers create friction zones that slow the flow of ice toward the sea, researchers at Princeton University and the British Antarctic Survey have found. Understanding how these high-friction regions form and subside could help researchers understand how the flow of these glaciers responds to a warming climate.

Just as no-slip strips on flooring prevent people from slipping on a wet floor, these ribs or “tiger stripes” — named in reference to Princeton’s tiger mascot — provide friction that hinders the glaciers from slipping along the underlying bed of rock and sediment, the researchers report online in the journal Science. (more…)

Flagge zeigen beim Klimaschutz

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2013Environmentadp, afrikanische gruppe, brasilien, can, china gruppe, climate action network, climate change, cop21 in paris, der klimawandel, energieexperte beim nabu, indien, klimagasemissionen, klimaschutz, kyoto protokoll, ngo, ulf sieberg, un klimakonferenz, unfccc, warschau

NABU fordert Vorreiterrolle Deutschlands bei UN-Klimakonferenz in Warschau

Auf der UN-Klimakonferenz debattiereren derzeit Vertreter von 195 Staaten und NGO’s über notwendige Maßnahmen beim Klimaschutz. Mit dabei ist auch Ulf Sieberg, Energieexperte beim NABU. Im Interview liefert er seine Eindrücke vor Beginn der entscheidenden Verhandlungsphase in Warschau.

Die UN-Klimakonferenz tagt zurzeit in Warschau. Was genau passiert dort?

Der Klimawandel macht vor Ländergrenzen nicht halt. Um ihm entgegenzuwirken sind internationale Abkommen wie die 1992 in New York beschlossene Klimarahmenkonvention notwendig, welche das Ziel formulierte, die negativen Auswirkungen menschlichen Handelns auf das Klima zu reduzieren. Auf einer seither jährlich stattfindenden Klimakonferenz, der United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), treffen die politischen Vertreter aus nahezu 200 Ländern der Welt als auch zahlreiche Nichtregierungs-Organisationen, um in unterschiedlichen Gremien einen Weltklimavertrag auszuhandeln. (more…)

Mutual benefits: Stressed-out trees boost sugary rewards to ant defenders

By Guest PostNovember 14, 2013Natureant, ant protection, azteca ants, azteca pittieri, carnegie institution, central america, climate change, cordia alliodora, deborah gordon, dry tropical forest, ecologist, ecologists, ecuador laurel trees, elizabeth pringle, erol akcay, evolution, evolutionary model, honeydew, insurance model, key environmental factor, life sustaining foliage, mutual benefits, pacific coast, plant animal interaction, rodolfo dirzo, santa fe institute, scale insects, Science, southern mexico, stanford university, stressed out trees, sugary reward, ted raab, theory, university of michigan, university of pennsylvania

ANN ARBOR — When water is scarce, Ecuador laurel trees ramp up their investment in a syrupy treat that sends resident ant defenders into overdrive, protecting the trees from defoliation by leaf-munching pests.

The water-stressed tropical forest trees support the production of more honeydew, a sugary excretion imbibed by the Azteca ants that nest in the laurels’ stem cavities. In return, ant colonies boost their numbers and more vigorously defend the life-sustaining foliage. (more…)

Global warming led to dwarfism in mammals — twice

By Guest PostNovember 6, 2013Environment, Scienceabigail dambrosia, carbon dioxide, climate change, diacodexis, dwarfism in mammals, early horse hyracotherium, early horses, eocene thermal maximum, etm2, future global warming, geological past, global warming, greenhouse gases, heat trapping, human caused, hyperthermals, hyracotherium, jaw fossils, modern day horse, paleocene eocene, paleontologist, petm, philip gingerich, primate cantius, thermal maximum, university of michigan, will clyde

ANN ARBOR — Mammal body size decreased significantly during at least two ancient global warming events. A new finding that suggests a similar outcome is possible in response to human-caused climate change, according to a University of Michigan paleontologist and his colleagues.

Researchers have known for years that mammals such as primates and the groups that include horses and deer became much smaller during a period of warming, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), about 55 million years ago. (more…)

Redwood trees reveal history of West Coast rain, fog, ocean conditions

By Guest PostNovember 3, 2013Environmentatmosphere, climate change, coastal redwoods, coastline, dendrochronology, earth, fog, foggy surrounding, historic fires, human caused, jim johnstone, john roden, molecules, natural variability cycles, northern california, ocean condition, oxygen, reconstructing historic climate, redwood trees, redwoods lifetime, southern oregon university, todd dawson, university of california, university of washington, west coast rain

Many people use tree ring records to see into the past. But redwoods – the iconic trees that are the world’s tallest living things – have so far proven too erratic in their growth patterns to help with reconstructing historic climate.

A University of Washington researcher has developed a way to use the trees as a window into coastal conditions, using oxygen and carbon atoms in the wood to detect fog and rainfall in previous seasons. (more…)

The Failing Freezer: How Soil Microbes Affect Global Climate

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2013Environmentabisko national park, arctic circle, big biology problem, carbon dioxide, changsheng li, climate change, climate driven changes, ecologist, Environment, failing freezer, gene tyson, global climate, global scale, jeffrey chanton, matthew sullivan, metagenome, methane, microbial feast, microbial process, organic material, patrick crill, permafrost soil, plexiglas chamber, scott saleska, sentinel ecosystem, soil chemistry, soil microbes, steven frolking, Sweden, types of carbon, university of arizona, virginia, virginia rich

With a $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, a UA-led international collaboration studies how microbes release greenhouse gases as they gain access to nutrients in the soil thawing under the influence of warmer global temperatures.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $3.9 million to an international collaboration led by University of Arizona ecologists Scott Saleska and Virginia Rich to study how microbes release greenhouse gases as they access nutrients in thawing permafrost soils under the influence of a warmer climate. (more…)

Climate change: fast out of the gate, slow to the finish

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2013Environmentatmospheric co2 concentration, climate change, climate model, climate scientist, global warming, greenhouse gas concentration, intellectual ventures llc, ken caldeira, least sensitive model, marina shemesh, maximum warming, nathan myhrvold, technology corporation

Washington, D.C.— A great deal of research has focused on the amount of global warming resulting from increased greenhouse gas concentrations. But there has been relatively little study of the pace of the change following these increases. A new study by Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures concludes that about half of the warming occurs within the first 10 years after an instantaneous step increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, but about one-quarter of the warming occurs more than a century after the step increase. Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters.

The study was the result of an unusual collaboration of a climate scientist, Ken Caldeira, who contributed to the recently published Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, and Nathan Myhrvold, the founder and CEO of a technology corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC. It is the third paper on which they have collaborated. (more…)

Tag Archives: climate change