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Large Bacterial Population Colonized Land 2.75 Billion Years Ago

By Guest PostSeptember 26, 2012Scienceatmosphere, atmospheric oxygenation, cambrian period, continental rock, data, database, david catling, earth, Environment, eva stueken, event, geologist, great, methane, microbial life, molybdenum, ocean, oxidation, oxygen, ozone layer, research record, roger buick, sulfur, ultraviolet radiation, university, Washington, weathering pyrite

There is evidence that some microbial life had migrated from the Earth’s oceans to land by 2.75 billion years ago, though many scientists believe such land-based life was limited because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation did not form until hundreds of millions years later.

But new research from the University of Washington suggests that early microbes might have been widespread on land, producing oxygen and weathering pyrite, an iron sulfide mineral, which released sulfur and molybdenum into the oceans. (more…)

Scientists Define New Limits of Microbial Life in Undersea Volcanoes

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2012Environment, Scienceaxial volcano, biogeochemical cycle, biological, biosphere, bruce strickrott, carbon dioxide, chemical, chemical factor, computer model, david butterfield, david garrison, deep ocean, earth, endeavour segment, fluid, formation, geochemical fluid, giraffe, growth rate, helene ver eecke, hydrogen, hydrogen threshold, hydrothermal fluid, hydrothermal vent, hyperthermophiles, hyperthermophilic, hyperthermophilic methanogens, james holden, julie huber, marine sediments, marvin lilley, metabolic process, methane, methane exhaling microbes, methanogen ecosystem, methanogenic, microbial composition, microbial life, microbiologist, natural gas, ocean surface, penguin, species, submarine alvin, subsurface microorganism, undersea volcanoes

A third of Earth’s organisms live in rocks and sediments, but their lives have been a mystery

By some estimates, a third of Earth’s organisms live in our planet’s rocks and sediments, yet their lives are almost a complete mystery.

This week, the work of microbiologist James Holden of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and colleagues shines a light into this dark world.

In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they report the first detailed data on methane-exhaling microbes that live deep in the cracks of hot undersea volcanoes. (more…)

Humans Have Love-Hate Relationship With the Environment

By Guest PostJune 26, 2012Environmentanthropologist, canal irrigation, climate changes, Environment, environmental change, environmental trend, geomorphological characteristics, global warming, hominid ancestors, human pollution, humans, industrial revolution, interaction, irrigation agriculture, james watson, la playa site, local landscape, love hate, methane, mother nature, natural disaster, North America, northern mexico, northern sonora, relationship, soil deposition, sonoran desert, southern arizona, steep slope, toxic gases, village settlement

James Watson, a UA anthropologist, has published chapters describing how long-term environmental trends encourage stable adaptations within local environments.

Human/environment interactions have a history as long as the existence of our species on the planet.

Hominid ancestors began polluting their environment nearly 700,000 years ago with the control of fire, and humans have not looked back since.

The modern phenomenon of global warming is very likely the direct result of human pollution and destruction of the environment, said James Watson, a University of Arizona assistant professor in the School of Anthropology. (more…)

Measuring the “Other” Greenhouse Gases: Higher Than Expected Levels of Methane in California

By Guest PostJune 16, 2012Environmentanthropogenic, atmospheric lifetime, berkeley lab, black carbon, california, carb, carbon dioxide, central valley, ch4 emissions, climate pollutant, CO2, coal mines, decomposition, environment policy, fossil fuel, fraction, global warming, greenhouse gas, halocarbon gases, landfills, livestock ranches, man made source, map, marc l fischer, methane, methane emissions, methane signals, natural sources, nitrous oxide, noaa, organic matter, refrigerants, sacramento, seongeun jeong, soot, sound energy, spatial, temporal resolution, united states, walnut grove

Berkeley Lab scientists develop new method for evaluating short-lived pollutants.

New research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that levels of methane—a potent greenhouse gas emitted from many man-made sources, such as coal mines, landfills and livestock ranches—are at least one-and-a-half times higher in California than previously estimated.

Working with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Berkeley Lab scientists Marc L. Fischer and Seongeun Jeong combined highly accurate methane measurements from a tower with model predictions of expected methane signals to revise estimated methane emissions from central California. They found that annually averaged methane emissions in California were 1.5 to 1.8 times greater than previous estimates, depending on the spatial distribution of the methane emissions. (more…)

Study Finds Surprising Arctic Methane Emission Source

By Guest PostApril 22, 2012Environmentarctic methane, arctic ocean, arctic region, Arctic sea ice, arctic tundra soil, beaufort seas, carbon monoxide, chukchi, climate, concentration, earth system, eric kort, geologic reservoir, global warming, greenhouse gas, harvard university, hippo, jet propulsion laboratory, marine sediment, methane, NASA, ozone, reservoir, water vapor

The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth’s climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming. Now a multi-institutional study by Eric Kort of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has uncovered a surprising and potentially important new source of Arctic methane: the ocean itself. (more…)

Cassini Finds Titan Lake is Like a Namibia Mudflat

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Scienceatmosphere, bonnie buratti, cassini spacecraft, earth, ethane, etosha salt pan, geological feature, groundwater level, hydrocarbon cycle, lake, liquid hydrocarbon, methane, moon, mudflats, NASA, ontario lacus, propane, rainy season, saturated sand, saturn, south polar, thomas cornet, titan

A new study analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests that the lake, known as Ontario Lacus, behaves most similarly to what we call a salt pan on Earth.

A group led by Thomas Cornet of the Université de Nantes, France, a Cassini associate, found evidence for long-standing channels etched into the lake bed within the southern boundary of the depression. This suggests that Ontario Lacus, previously thought to be completely filled with liquid hydrocarbons, could actually be a depression that drains and refills from below, exposing liquid areas ringed by materials like saturated sand or mudflats. (more…)

Four WHOI Scientists Contribute to Comprehensive Picture of the Fate of Oil from Deepwater Horizon Spill

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2012Environment, Scienceairborne plume, autonomous underwater vehicle, benzene, christopher reddy, ctds, dan torres, deep-water, deepwater horizon, elizabeth kujawinski, environmental distribution, fluid, gas components, gulf of mexico, hydrocarbon flow rate, jeffrey seewald, macondo well, mass balance, methane, natural gas, noaa p 3 planes, oceanographic instrument, oil and gas, remotely operated vehicle, richard camilli, rov, sampling techniques, sentry, spill, spill rate, subsurface chemical data, tethys, thomas ryerson, well, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

A new study provides a composite picture of the environmental distribution of oil and gas from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It amasses a vast collection of available atmospheric, surface and subsurface chemical data to assemble a “mass balance” of how much oil and gas was released, where it went and the chemical makeup of the compounds that remained in the air, on the surface, and in the deep water.

The study, “Chemical data quantify Deepwater Horizon hydrocarbon flow rate and environmental distribution,” is published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. (more…)

Scientists Identify Microbes Responsible for Consuming Natural Gas in Deepwater Horizon Spill

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2011Environmentapril spill, bacteria, cold loving bacteria, colwellia, cycloclasticus, david valentine, deepwater horizon oil spill, DNA, ecological history, ethane, geological past, gulf of mexico, methane, microbe, molly redmond, national science foundation, natural gas, oceanography, oceanospirillales, petroleum hydrocarbons, propane, psychrophilic, sequencing dna, spill, submerged plume, surface oil slicks, ucsb, university of california at santa barbara, water temperature

*Water temperature played key role*

In the results of a new study, scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill–and the particular microbes responsible for consuming natural gas immediately after the spill.

Water temperature played a key role in the way bacteria reacted to the spill, the researchers found. (more…)

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