Study shows how much enters air from plants, soil, surface water
More than a quarter of the rain and snow that falls on continents reaches the oceans as runoff. Now a new study helps show where the rest goes: two-thirds of the remaining water is released by plants, more than a quarter lands on leaves and evaporates and what’s left evaporates from soil and from lakes, rivers and streams. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study from an international research team.
The study is the first comprehensive effort to directly compare the impacts of biological diversity loss to the anticipated effects of a host of other human-caused environmental changes.
The results highlight the need for stronger local, national and international efforts to protect biodiversity and the benefits it provides, according to the researchers, who are based at nine institutions in the United States, Canada and Sweden. (more…)
*Significant amount of carbon in land is leaking into streams and rivers, then to the atmosphere*
Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing substantially more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than previously thought.
This according to researchers publishing their results in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. (more…)
*Global sampling of 48 sites on five continents yields unprecedented data set*
For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down principles explaining why some habitats have many more plant and animal species than others.
Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the number of species is determined by the productivity of the habitat.
Shouldn’t a patch of prairie contain a different number of species than an arid steppe or an alpine tundra? (more…)
*Waterways receiving nitrogen from human activities are significant source*
What goes in must come out, a truism that now may be applied to global river networks.
Human-caused nitrogen loading to river networks is a potentially important source of nitrous oxide emission to the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. (more…)
