Tag Archives: national science foundation

Changing Climate, Not Tourism, Seems to Be Driving Decline in Chinstrap-Penguin Populations

By Guest PostNovember 7, 2012Environmentadelie, antarctic peninsula, antarctic science, antarctic site inventory, antarctic treaty nations, asi, baily head, breeding population, changing, chevy chase, chinstrap colony, chinstrap penguins, chinstrap population, climatic condition, data, deception island, gentoo penguins, heather lynch, high resolution, michael polito, national science foundation, nsf, oceanites, penguin dynamics, penguin population, polar programs, ron naveen, satellite imagery, Southern Ocean, steven forrest, stony brook university, temperature, thomas mueller, tinker foundation, tourist location, united states, warm

High-resolution satellite imagery aids in study

The breeding population of chinstrap penguins has declined significantly as temperatures have rapidly warmed on the Antarctic Peninsula, according to researchers funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The study indicates that changing climatic conditions, rather than the impact of tourism, have had the greatest effect on the chinstrap population.

Ron Naveen, founder of a nonprofit science and conservation organization, Oceanites, Inc., of Chevy Chase, Md., documented the decline in a paper published in the journal Polar Biology. Naveen and coauthor Heather Lynch, of Stony Brook University, are researchers with the Antarctic Site Inventory (ASI). (more…)

NSF’s South Pole Telescope Discovers a Galaxy Cluster Creating Stars at a Record Pace

By Guest PostAugust 16, 2012Scienceantarctic program, Antarctica, big bang, black hole, blanco 4 meter, bradford benson, chandra, Chile, cmb, cosmic microwave background, earth, energy, galaxy cluster, hubble fellow, john carlstrom, light year, magellan telescope, michael mcdonald, NASA, national science foundation, nsf, phoenix cluster, radiation, radio telescope, south pole telescope, spt, spt clj2344-4243, sunyaev zeldovich, sz effect, university of chicago, xray observatory

Researchers say Phoenix Cluster activity may cause scientists to rethink how galaxies evolve

A National Science Foundation-funded radio telescope in Antarctica has found an extraordinary galaxy cluster that may force astronomers to rethink how galaxy clusters and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve.

The galaxy cluster was discovered some 5.7 billion light years from Earth by the 10-meter wide South Pole Telescope (SPT) located at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, which is funded by NSF’s Office of Polar Programs. (more…)

Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Change

By Guest PostJuly 22, 2012Environmentadina paytan, alteration, antarctic ice sheet, candace major, cenozoic era, climate and evolution, climate change, collision, dissolution, eocene epoch, eurasia, greenhouse periods, gypsum, gypsum belt, gypsum deposit, hydrated calcium sulfate, icehouse climate, India, iodp, iran, joides resolution, marine, million years, mineral, national science foundation, ocean drillship, oman, Pakistan, phosphorus cycling, plate tectonics, santa cruz, seawater chemistry, sulfate aerosols, sulfate concentration, sulfur composition, ulrich wortmann, university of california, university of toronto, zagros mountains

Dissolution or creation of huge gypsum deposits changed sulfate content of the oceans

Scientists have discovered a potential cause of Earth’s “icehouse climate” cooling trend of the past 45 million years. It has everything to do with the chemistry of the world’s oceans.

“Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change,” says geoscientist Ulrich Wortmann of the University of Toronto, lead author of a paper reporting the results and published this week in the journal Science.

“We’ve established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years.” (more…)

Scientists Reconstruct Pre-Columbian Human Effects on the Amazon Basin

By Guest PostJune 19, 2012Environment, Sciencealan tessier, Amazon, amazon basin, amazon river, archaeological evidence, biodiversity, climate change, crystal mcmichael, cultural parkland, d r piperno, ecological processes, environmental change, european, fit, historical evidence, human disturbance, human populations, luiz lobato, m r silman, madre de dios river, mark bush, national science foundation, peru, peruvian amazon, porto velho manaus, pre columbian amazon, pre columbian times, tropical rainforests

Findings overturn idea that the Amazon had large populations of humans that transformed the landscape

Small, shifting human populations existed in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans, with little long-term effect on the forest.

That’s the result of research led by Crystal McMichael and Mark Bush of the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). The finding overturns the idea the Amazon was a cultural parkland in pre-Columbian times with large human populations that transformed vast tracts of the landscape.

The Amazon Basin is one of the highest biodiversity areas on Earth. Understanding how it was modified by humans in the past is important for conservation and for understanding the ecological processes in tropical rainforests. (more…)

Where Have All the Hummingbirds Gone?

By Guest PostJune 8, 2012Environment, Natureamy mckinney, arizona, billy barr, broad tailed hummingbirds, bumblebees, central america, crested butte, david bertelsen, david inouye, food resources, glacier lily, global warming, higher latitudes, hummingbirds, hummingbirds fly, male hummingbirds, mountain meadows, mountain summer, national science foundation, nectar, nickolas waser, North America, paul caradonna, saran twombly, united states, university of maryland

Glacier lilies and broad-tailed hummingbirds out of sync

The glacier lily as it’s called, is a tall, willowy plant that graces mountain meadows throughout western North America. It flowers early in spring, when the first bumblebees and hummingbirds appear.

Or did.

The lily, a plant that grows best on subalpine slopes, is fast becoming a hothouse flower. In Earth’s warming temperatures, its first blooms appear some 17 days earlier than they did in the 1970s, scientists David Inouye and Amy McKinney of the University of Maryland and colleagues have found. (more…)

Ancient Giant Turtle Fossil Revealed

By Guest PostMay 18, 2012Nature, Scienceamazon river delta, ancient, behemoth, carbonemys cofrinii, carlos jaramillo, cerrejon formation, coal mine, coal turtle, Colombia, crocodiles, dan ksepka, edwin cadena, fossil, giant turtle, jonathan bloch, national science foundation, orinoco, paleontologist, pelomedusoides, reptiles, skull, south american giant, Titanoboa cerrejonensis

Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia.

The turtle in question is Carbonemys cofrinii, which means “coal turtle,” and is part of a group of side-necked turtles known as pelomedusoides. The fossil was named Carbonemys because it was discovered in 2005 in a coal mine that was part of northern Colombia’s Cerrejon formation. The specimen’s skull measures 24 centimeters, roughly the size of a regulation NFL football. The shell which was recovered nearby – and is believed to belong to the same species – measures 172 centimeters, or about 5 feet 7 inches, long. That’s the same height as Edwin Cadena, the NC State doctoral student who discovered the fossil. (more…)

First-of-its-Kind Study Reveals Surprising Ecological Effects of 2010 Chile Earthquake

By Guest PostMay 7, 2012Environment2010 chile earthquake, arroyo quemado, california, cataclysmic occurrence, central chile, Chile, coastal ecosystem, coastal zone, earthquake, ecological effects, eduardo jaramillo, fondecyt, jenny dugan, lter, magnitude, national science foundation, natural disaster, sand crabs, sandy beach, tectonically active, tsunami, ucsb

Long-forgotten coastal habitats reappeared, species unseen for years returned

The reappearance of long-forgotten habitats and the resurgence of species unseen for years may not be among the expected effects of a natural disaster.

Yet that’s exactly what researchers found in a study of the sandy beaches of south central Chile, after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami in 2010.

Their study also revealed a preview of the problems wrought by sea level rise–a major symptom of climate change. (more…)

Cosmic Ray Mystery

By Guest PostApril 19, 2012Scienceactive galaxies, Antarctica, array of detector, australia, bakhtiyar ruzybayev, barbados, belgium, black hole, canada, charged particle, chris elliott, cosmic ray, cosmic ray protons, data, density of radiation, detector, earth, energy, fermi satellites, fireballs, francis halzen, gamma ray bursts, Germany, ghostly nature, glacial ice, grbs, greg sullivan, icecube, icetop, james roth, Japan, katie shirey, NASA, national science foundation, neutrinos, new zealand, nsf, production, proton, pyramid of giza, south pole, Sweden, swift, switzerland, telescope, thomas gaisser, universe, university of delaware, university of wisconsin, US

Massive detector homes in on cosmic ray production

IceCube, an international collaboration involving University of Delaware scientists, is shedding new light on cosmic ray production.

Although cosmic rays were discovered 100 years ago, their origin remains one of the most enduring mysteries in physics. Now, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector in Antarctica, is homing in on how the highest energy cosmic rays are produced. (more…)