Tag Archives: climate

UMass Amherst Climate Model is First to Study Climate Effects of Arctic Hurricanes

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2012Environment21st century, alan condron, arctic hurricane, arctic region, arctic seas, barometric pressure, central eye, climate, climate model, climate prediction models, climate scientist, conveyer belt, cyclone, east anglia, England, Europe, forecast climate change, gas exploration, higher resolution modeling, ian renfrew, massachusetts amherst, missing storms, model, North America, north atlantic, norwegian sea, ocean water circulation, oil, oxymoron, polar lows, satellite, thermohaline circulation, thick ice, university, wave

AMHERST, Mass. – Though it seems like an oxymoron, Arctic hurricanes happen, complete with a central “eye,” extreme low barometric pressure and towering 30-foot waves that can sink small ships and coat metal platforms with thick ice, threatening oil and gas exploration. Now climate scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and in England report the first conclusive evidence that Arctic hurricanes, also known as polar lows, play a significant role in driving ocean water circulation and climate.

Results point to potentially cooler conditions in Europe and North America in the 21^st century than other models predict. (more…)

Tiny Cloud Droplets

By Guest PostOctober 12, 2012Sciencebulk buoyancy, climate, cloud droplets, cloud microphysics, cloud turbulence, computational research, delaware, dynamics, fine scale, fluid mechanic, formation, global climate, global scales, inertial effect, inertial particle, instrumentation, lian ping wang, ncar, parameterization, rain formation, regional, regional weather, sedimentation, simulation, tiny, tool, university, water cycle, water droplets, weather, wojciech grabowski

UD’s Wang contributes invited paper on cloud microphysics

Lian-Ping Wang, professor of mechanical engineering and joint professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware, recently published an invited critical review paper in the 2013 volume of the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, a high impact journal for the fluid mechanics community.

Co-authored with Wojciech Grabowski, a senior scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the paper, titled “Growth of Cloud Droplets in a Turbulent Environment,” addresses a classic cloud physics problem of how cloud turbulence affects the growth of tiny cloud droplets. (more…)

Student Success

By Guest PostOctober 9, 2012Educationacademic support, african american, american issue, campus, center, climate, commission, delaware, diversity, energy, freeman hrabowski, higher education, hispanic, middle states, newark, patrick harker, program, social journey, success, super nerd, trabant university, umbc, university, university leader, vincent tinto

UD conference highlights diversity and student retention

Freeman Hrabowski and Vincent Tinto both believe that creating a culture of trust and support is a key ingredient in retaining students from underrepresented groups while achieving genuine campuswide diversity.

Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and Tinto, Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at Syracuse University, shared their expertise on diversity and student retention during the Student Success and Retention Conference, held Wednesday, Oct. 3, in the Trabant University Center on the University of Delaware campus in Newark. (more…)

Airborne Technology Helps Manage Elephants

By Guest PostAugust 26, 2012Environment, Nature3 d mapping, africa, airborne technology, atmosphere, cao, carbon, carnegie, climate, danie pienaar, ecology letters, ecosystem, elephant, elephant conservation, elephant trap, Environment, greg asner, habitat, herbivore, kruger national park, lidar, management practice, savanna, sequester, shaun levick, South Africa, terrain condition, toppling tree, treefall, vegetation

Washington, D.C. – For years, scientists have debated how big a role elephants play in toppling trees in South African savannas. Tree loss is a natural process, but it is increasing in some regions, with cascading effects on the habitat for many other species. Using high resolution 3-D mapping, Carnegie scientists have for the first time quantitatively determined tree losses across savannas of Kruger National Park. They found that elephants are the primary agents—their browsing habits knock trees over at a rate averaging 6 times higher than in areas inaccessible to them. The research also found that elephants prefer toppling trees in the 16-to-30 foot (5-8 m) range, with annual losses of up to 20% in these height classes. The findings, published in Ecology Letters, bolster our understanding of elephant conservation needs and their impacts, and the results could help to improve savanna management practices.

“Previous field studies gave us important clues that elephants are a key driver of tree losses, but our airborne 3-D mapping approach was the only way to fully understand the impacts of elephants across a wide range of environmental conditions found in savannas,” commented lead author Greg Asner of Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology. “Our maps show that elephants clearly toppled medium-sized trees, creating an “elephant trap” for the vegetation. These elephant-driven tree losses have a ripple effect across the ecosystem, including how much carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere.” (more…)

Climate and Drought Lessons from Ancient Egypt

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Culture, Environment, Scienceachilles heel, ancient egypt, babylonian, benjamin horton, charcoal, christopher bernhardt, climate, climate change, drought, egypt, egyptian history, evolution of societies, geological record, giza, great pyramid, human history, jean daniel stanley, marcia mcnutt, microscopic charcoal, middle east, modern iraq, nile basin vegetation, nile delta, nile delta sediment, old kingdom, pollen, pyramid building time, spinx, syrian kingdom, ugarit kingdom, university of pennsylvania, uruk kingdom

Using Fossil Pollen to Augment Historical Records

Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, the era known as the pyramid-building time.

“Humans have a long history of having to deal with climate change,” said Christopher Bernhardt, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey. “Along with other research, this study geologically reveals that the evolution of societies is sometimes tied to climate variability at all scales – whether decadal or millennial.” (more…)

Impulsive Micromanagers Help Plants to Adapt, Survive

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceatmospheric co2, climate, concentration, drought, environmental change, environmental factor, global change, jay lennon, jen lau, plant, precipitation pattern, soil microbe, warmer temperature

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Soil microbes are impulsive. So much so that they help plants face the challenges of a rapidly changing climate.

Jen Lau and Jay Lennon, Michigan State University biologists, studied how plants and microbes work together to help plants survive the effects of global changes, such as increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns. The results, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that microbes in the ground not only interact with plants, but they also prompt them to respond to environmental changes.

“We found that these changes in the plants happen primarily because of what global changes do to the belowground microbes rather than the plant itself,” said Lau, who works at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station. “Drought stress affects microbes, and they, in turn, drive plants to flower earlier and help plants grow and reproduce when faced with drought.” (more…)

Scientists Discover New Trigger for Immense North Atlantic Ocean Spring Plankton Bloom

By Guest PostJuly 7, 2012Environmentadam huxtable, amala mahadevan, atlantic ocean, biological pump, bjarni saemundsson, carbon dioxide, climate, climate on earth, CO2, craig lee, diatoms, don rice, eddies, emily kallin, eric d asaro, fossil fuel, global carbon cycle, holiday fireworks, mary jane perry, michael ohmart, microscopic plants, modulate, north atlantic bloom, not sunlight, nsf, ocean physics, oceanic cycling, oxygen, photosynthesis, physical biological model, phytoplankton, research vessel, silica, sun, surface warming, university of maine, university of washington, us beachgoers, whirlpools, whoi, zooplankton

Ocean eddies help jump-start plankton blooms that spread across hundreds of square miles

On this July 4^th week, U.S. beachgoers are thronging their way to seaside resorts and parks to celebrate with holiday fireworks. But across the horizon and miles out to sea toward the north, the Atlantic Ocean’s own spring and summer ritual unfolds. It entails the blooming of countless microscopic plants, or phytoplankton.

In what’s known as the North Atlantic Bloom, an immense number of phytoplankton burst into existence, first “greening,” then “whitening” the sea as one or more species take the place of others.

What turns on this huge bloom, what starts these ocean fireworks? Is it the Sun’s warmth? (more…)

NASA Scientist: Climate Just One Factor in Wildfires

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2012Environment2002 hayman fire, ash creek fire, bill patzert, climate, climate change, colorado, factor, fiery summer, forests, grasslands, horse creek fire, jpl climatologist, la niña, los angeles county, misr, nasa scientist, new mexico, southeastern montana, southern california, united states, us wildfire season, wildfire

It’s shaping up to be a fiery summer across the United States. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, as of July 3, 45 large active wildfires are currently burning in 15 states. Combined, these fires have scorched nearly three-quarters of a million acres. Since January 1, wildfires have burned nearly 2.2 million acres across the country, including devastating blazes in Colorado and New Mexico. We asked JPL Climatologist Bill Patzert to discuss the recent wildfire outbreak and whether climate change is playing a role.

Q: The U.S. wildfire season is off to an active start. What factors have contributed to the recent rash of blazes?

Patzert: Across the West, out-of-control wildfires this summer have left a heartbreaking path of destruction. The primary condition that triggered these fires was an unusually dry and warm La Nina winter and spring. These conditions primed the Western U.S. for an incendiary summer. The arrival of a persistent, scorching high-pressure system over the Western and Central U.S. just exacerbated already dangerous conditions, which reached a tipping point when strong, gusty winds sent these fires rampaging across the landscape. From New Mexico to Colorado and many other states, out-of-control wildfires are still burning through forests, grasslands and destroying neighborhoods. (more…)