EurekAlert! - Atmospheric Science

'Genetic arms race' between bacteria, viruses subject of stimulus grant

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Michigan State University) The oceans teem with microscopic bacteria that produce much of Earth's oxygen as they absorb carbon dioxide greenhouse gas. But fast-mutating viruses also populate the seas, attacking marine bacteria in an ages-old evolutionary arms race. A Michigan State University researcher will probe that ancient dynamic against the backdrop of environmental and climate change, and the pivotal role played by aquatic bacteria in maintaining the Earth's biological balance.

Plants' internal clock can improve climate-change models

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. In a study published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Ecology Letters, an international team has studied this circadian clock from a molecular viewpoint, and has found an ecological implication: It makes climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate.

A question of height

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Intelligent countryside management could improve the survival chances of animal and plant species threatened by climate change. The creation of small heat-shielded habitats and better links between habitats would counteract a moderate temperature increase, and give threatened species more time to adapt better and/or to migrate to cooler regions. This is the conclusion drawn by scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research from a British study on saving the Large Blue butterfly.

AGU journal highlights - July 2, 2009

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(American Geophysical Union) Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Ancient supervolcano's eruption caused decade of severe winters"; "Understanding fault movement during Wenchuan earthquake"; "First direct measurement of lunar backscatter from solar wind"; "Reducing uncertainty in estimates of global sea level rise"; "Boost in freshwater content of Arctic Ocean "; "Data gaps in records hinder detection of climate trends"; "Glaciers cause seismic activity in Iceland"; and more.

New book by USC professor details the economics of climate change policies

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Southern California) As the US Congress considers enacting historic "cap and trade" legislation, a newly-published book by University of Southern California professor Adam Rose provides valuable lessons and reference points in evaluating the economic impacts of climate change policy.

Pacific Northwest forests could store more carbon, help address greenhouse issues

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Oregon State University) The forests of the Pacific Northwest hold significant potential to increase carbon storage and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, a recent study concludes, if they are managed primarily for that purpose through timber harvest reductions and increased rotation ages.

Nursery programs for corals receive TLC from NOAA this Independence Day

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) As the nation celebrates its birth on the 4th of July, University of Miami Prof. Diego Lirman and fellow coral nursery scientists will be celebrating as well. NOAA announced that The Nature Conservancy and its partners' staghorn and elkhorn coral recovery projects, including Lirman's nursery in Biscayne National Park, will receive $350K in stimulus support from the ARRA to further develop large-scale, in-water coral nurseries and restore reefs along Florida's southern coast and in the US Virgin Islands.

Climate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheep

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Imperial College London) Milder winters are causing Scotland's wild breed of Soay sheep to get smaller, despite the evolutionary benefits of possessing a large body, according to new research due to be published in this week's Science Express.

Mars data published in Science this week

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Arizona) Four papers in the journal Science this week offer new details about the history of water on Mars, gleaned from the 2008 NASA Phoenix Mars Mission that was operated from the University of Arizona.

New type of El Nino could mean more hurricanes make landfall

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Georgia Institute of Technology) A new study, in the journal Science, suggests that the form of El Nino may be changing potentially causing not only a greater number of hurricanes than in average years, but also a greater chance of hurricanes making landfall.

Climate change and the mystery of the shrinking sheep

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(American Association for the Advancement of Science) Changing winter conditions are causing Scotland's wild Soay sheep to get smaller despite the evolutionary benefits of having a large body, researchers report in a study that shows how climate change can trump natural selection.

Forest Service designates new experimental forest in Tongass National Forest

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station) The USDA Forest Service established a new experimental forest in Alaska on June 25. The 25,000-acre Héen Latinee Experimental Forest is located inside the Tongass National Forest, and is easily accessible by road from Juneau, Alaska. It is part of the largest temperate rain forest in the world.

Earth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Washington) The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years. If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator may be starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner.

NIST issues human milk and blood serum SRMs for contaminant measurements

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) NIST has issued four new Standard Reference Materials to help researchers accurately measure organic contaminants in human body fluids, including milk and blood serum.

International team of students and scientists on month-long field course in Siberian Arctic

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Woods Hole Research Center) Scientists and undergraduate students from across the United States and Russia are departing July 2 for a month-long field course in the Russian Arctic. The program, known as the Polaris Project, is training future leaders in arctic research and education, and informing the public about the impacts of climate change.

Desert rhubarb -- a self-irrigating plant

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Haifa) Researchers from the department of science education-biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim have managed to make out the "self-irrigating" mechanism of the desert rhubarb, which enables it to harvest 16 times the amount of water than otherwise expected for a plant in this region based on the quantities of rain in the desert. This is the first example of a self-irrigating plant worldwide.

The least sea ice in 800 years

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Copenhagen) New research, which reconstructs the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now. The research results from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, are published in the scientific journal Climate Dynamics.

Plants save the earth from an icy doom

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Yale University) Fifty million years ago, the North and South poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. Since then, a long-term decrease in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has cooled the Earth. Researchers at Yale University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Sheffield now show that land plants saved the Earth from a deep frozen fate by buffering the removal of atmospheric CO2 over the past 24 million years.

Plants put limit on ice ages

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Carnegie Institution) When glaciers advanced over much of the Earth's surface during the last ice age, what kept the planet from freezing over entirely? This has been a puzzle to climate scientists because leading models have indicated that over the past 24 million years geological conditions should have caused carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to plummet, possibly leading to runaway "icehouse" conditions. Now researchers writing in Nature report on the missing piece of the puzzle -- plants.

Mangrove-dependent animals globally threatened

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(American Institute of Biological Sciences) An assessment in the July/August issue of BioScience finds that substantial numbers of terrestrial vertebrates are restricted to mangrove forests. Many of these specialized species are listed as threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Prospects for mangrove-restricted animals are bleak, because more than two percent of mangrove forests are lost each year.

NASA and NOAA's GOES-O satellite successfully launched

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) The latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O, soared into space June 27 after a successful launch from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Warmer climate can direct flow of tourists northwards

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Gothenburg) For over half a century, Northern Europeans have been heading south for our holidays. A warmer climate may reverse the flow of tourists, and encourage more Southern Europeans to head north. But how will future changes in climate affect tourism in Gothenburg? This is the subject of a new European research project at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

NASA debuts the entire 2008 hurricane season in new online video

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Imagine watching all of the tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes of 2008 as they formed in the Atlantic Ocean Basin and either faded at sea or made landfall. Thanks to NASA technology and satellite data coupled with data from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operated satellite, you can see the tracks of storms from Arthur to Paloma from birth to death.

Super-size deposits of frozen carbon threat to climate change

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Global Carbon Project) The vast amount of carbon stored in the Arctic and boreal regions of the world is more than double that previously estimated, according to a study published this week. The new estimate is over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere.

Your own private global warming

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

(Society for Experimental Biology) Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey subjected species found in Antarctic waters to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how well they would cope with a warmer ocean. The study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on Tuesday, June 30, shows that several of these species are already living really close to their upper temperature range, and that further increases could easily provoke serious ecological imbalances in this region.