Tag Archives: oxygen

Ecologist: Up-and-Coming Forests Will Remain Important Carbon Sinks

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The aging forests of the Upper Great Lakes could be considered the baby boomers of the region’s ecosystem.

The decline of trees in this area is a cause for concern among policymakers and ecologists who wonder whether the end of the forests’ most productive years means they will no longer offer the benefits they are known for: cleansed air, fertile soil, filtered water and, most important to climate change analysts, carbon storage that offsets greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)

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Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Worm-like Animals Tell Story of Ancient Oxygen

*Geobiologists uncover Davy Jones Locker of fossils near small village in south China*

Almost 600 million years ago, before the rapid evolution of life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche near what is now Lantian, a small village in south China.

Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free and unbreathable waters. (more…)

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Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change

For the first time in history, a change will be made to the atomic weights of some elements listed on the Table of Standard Atomic Weights of the chemical elements found in the inside covers of chemistry textbooks worldwide.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s (IUPAC) Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights is publishing a new table that will express atomic weights of ten elements as intervals, rather than as single standard values. The new table is the result of cooperative research supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, IUPAC, and other contributing Commission members and institutions. (more…)

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Deep Plumes of Oil Could Cause Dead Zones in the Gulf

WASHINGTON — A new simulation of oil and methane leaked into the Gulf of Mexico suggests that deep hypoxic zones or “dead zones” could form near the source of the pollution.  

The research investigates five scenarios of oil and methane plumes at different depths and incorporates an estimated rate of flow from the Deepwater Horizon spill, which released oil and methane gas into the Gulf from April to mid July of this year.

(more…)

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