Siberia – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Enormous scale of Nile ‘mega lake’ revealed

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2014Environment, Sciencedavid haberlah, east africa, eastern sahara desert, egypt, exposure, isotope beryllium 10, lake baikal, lake michigan, lake tanganyika, nile mega lake, shoreline deposits, Siberia, sudan, surface area, tim barrows, university of exeter, US, valley, white nile river

The eastern Sahara Desert was once home to a 45,000 km²freshwater lake similar in surface area to the largest in the world today.

A study led by the University of Exeter has revealed that the mega lake was probably formed more than one hundred thousand years ago in the White Nile River Valley in Sudan.

Dr Tim Barrows of the University of Exeter and colleagues used a dating approach based on exposure to cosmic rays to measure the amount of the isotope beryllium-10 in shoreline deposits. Its abundance can be used to calculate how long rocks or sediments have been exposed at the surface of the earth. (more…)

Acid raid, ozone depletion contributed to ancient extinction

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2013Science3d modeling technique, acid raid, ancient extinction, arctic siberia, atmospheric effects, base, benjamin black, carbon dioxide, christine shields, CO2, earth history, ecological diversity, fluctuations in ph, global ozone collapse, jean francois lamarque, jeffrey kiehl, kotuy river, linda elkins tanton, mass extinction, massachusetts institute, ozone depletion, permian mass extinction, permian period, rise of dinosaurs, russia, Siberia, siberian traps, so2, sulfur dioxide, Technology, terrestrial species, ultraviolet radiation, volcanic eruptions, volcanic rock, volcanic sequence

Washington, D.C.— Around 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth’s history. Some researchers have suggested that this extinction was triggered by contemporaneous volcanic eruptions in Siberia. New results from a team including Director of Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Linda Elkins-Tanton show that the atmospheric effects of these eruptions could have been devastating. Their work is published in Geology.

The mass extinction included the sudden loss of more than 90 percent of marine species and more than 70 percent of terrestrial species and set the stage for the rise of the dinosaurs. The fossil record suggests that ecological diversity did not fully recover until several million years after the main pulse of the extinction. (more…)

Woolly Mammoth Extinction Has Lessons for Modern Climate Change

By Guest PostJune 13, 2012Environment, Naturealaska, ancient dna, bering strait, beringia, blaire van valkenburgh, climate change, climate change data, climate warming, database, dave beilman, demise of mammoths, elephantidae family, extinction, flintstonian behemoths, fossils, glen macdonald, human settlements, konstantine kremenetski, last ice age, mammoth populations, mammoth remains, marshy peatlands, paleoclimate data, paleolithic archaeological sites, radiocarbon dating, robert wayne, Siberia, siberian forest, ucla, woolly mammoth, younger dryas, yukon

Although humans and woolly mammoths co-existed for millennia, the shaggy giants disappeared from the globe between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago, and scientists couldn’t explain until recently exactly how the Flintstonian behemoths went extinct.

In a paper published June 12 in the journal Nature Communications, UCLA researchers and colleagues reveal that not long after the last ice age, the last woolly mammoths succumbed to a lethal combination of climate warming, encroaching humans and habitat change — the same threats facing many species today. (more…)

New Study by WHOI Scientists Provides Baseline Measurements of Carbon in Arctic Ocean

By Guest PostMay 21, 2012Environmentalaska, arctic ocean, biogeosciences, canada basin, canadian coast guard, carbon, carbon 13, carbon atoms, carbon cycle, carbon dioxide, CO2, david griffith, fiona mclaughlin, global climate, icebreaker, li xu, marine ecosystem, organic carbon, pacific, pathway, robie macdonald, sea ice melt, Siberia, temperatures, whoi

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have conducted a new study to measure levels of carbon at various depths in the Arctic Ocean. The study, recently published in the journal Biogeosciences, provides data that will help researchers better understand the Arctic Ocean’s carbon cycle—the pathway through which carbon enters and is used by the marine ecosystem. It will also offer an important point of reference for determining how those levels of carbon change over time, and how the ecosystem responds to rising global temperatures.

“Carbon is the currency of life. Where carbon is coming from, which organisms are using it, how they’re giving off carbon themselves—these things say a lot about how an ocean ecosystem works,” says David Griffith, the lead author on the study. “If warming temperatures perturb the Arctic Ocean, the way that carbon cycles through that system may change.” (more…)

Scientist: Temperate Freshwater Wetlands Are ‘Forgotten’ Carbon Sinks

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2012Environmentblanca bernal, boreal peatland, buffer zone, canada, carbon dioxide, carbon holding power, carbon measurement, carbon sequestering system, carbon sequestration, carbon sink, carbon storage, cesium 137, climate change, depressional wetland, ecosystem, freshwater wetland, gahanna wetland, global carbon budget, greenhouse gas emission, lake erie, lead, marker, northern ohio, ohio wetland, old woman creek, organic matter, pb 210, plant, productive system, radioactive form, rate, sediment, Siberia, subarctic region, swamp, temperate region, william mitsch

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study comparing the carbon-holding power of freshwater wetlands has produced measurements suggesting that wetlands in temperate regions are more valuable as carbon sinks than current policies imply, according to researchers.

The study compared several wetlands at two Ohio wetland sites: one composed of mostly stagnant water and one characterized by water regularly flowing through it. The study showed that the stagnant wetland had an average carbon storage rate per year that is almost twice as high as the carbon storage rate of the flow-through wetland. (more…)

Ancient Domesticated Dog Skull Found in Siberian Cave

By Guest PostJanuary 22, 2012Scienceaccelerator mass spectrometer, altai mountains, atmospheric circulation, beam of carbon, belgium, best friend, carbon 12, carbon 13, carbon 14, carbon beam, carbon isotopes, cave, chihuahua, climate change, crowded, dog domestication, dog skull, domestication, earth, euro asia, glacial maximum, greg hodgins, half life, last glacial maximum, last ice age, lgm, man, mass spectrum, modern dogs, organic molecules, photosynthesis, plants, radioactive carbon, radiocarbon, radiocarbon age, razboinichya cave, rottweiler, Siberia, siberian mountain, teeth

*A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with an equally ancient find in a cave in Belgium, indicates that modern dogs may be descended from multiple ancestors.*

If you think a Chihuahua doesn’t have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something.

An ancient dog skull, preserved in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia for 33,000 years, presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with equally ancient dog remains from a cave in Belgium, indicates that domestication of dogs may have occurred repeatedly in different geographic locations rather than with a single domestication event. (more…)

‘Thawing Permafrost Likely Will Accelerate Global Warming in Coming Decades’

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2011Environmentalaska, Arctic, atmosphere, carbon, carbon dioxide concentration, climate change, CO2, earth, environmental sciences, fossil fuel emissions, frozen in soil, greenhouse gases, industrial age, kevin schaefer, last glacial period, lori bruhwiler, noaa, permafrost, Siberia, tingjun zhang, warming temperatures

Up to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost likely will disappear by 2200 as a result of warming temperatures, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

The carbon resides in permanently frozen ground that is beginning to thaw in high latitudes from warming temperatures, which will impact not only the climate but also international strategies to reduce fossil fuel emissions, said CU-Boulder’s Kevin Schaefer, lead study author. “If we want to hit a target carbon dioxide concentration, then we have to reduce fossil fuel emissions that much lower than previously thought to account for this additional carbon from the permafrost,” he said. “Otherwise we will end up with a warmer Earth than we want.” (more…)

Man-made Global Warming Started With Ancient Hunters

By Guest PostJuly 2, 2010Environment, Scienceadam wolf, agriculture, agu, alaska, american geophysical union, Anthropocene, asia, beringia, betula, birch trees, california, carnegie institution, carnegie institution for science, chris doughty, chris field, climate, ecology, elephants, emissions, geological age, geophysical research letters, global warming, grassland, greenhouse gas, impact on climate, mammoths, NASA, North America, prehistoric farmers, russia, science in Stanford, Siberia, yukon territory

WASHINGTON — Even before the dawn of agriculture, people may have caused the planet to warm up, a new study suggests.

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