New research reveals the importance of winter sea ice in the year-to-year variability of the amount of atmospheric CO₂ absorbed by a region of the Southern Ocean.

In years when sea ice lasts longer in winter, the ocean will overall absorb 20% more CO₂ from the atmosphere than in years when sea ice forms late or disappears early. This is because sea ice protects the ocean from strong winter winds that drive mixing between the surface of the ocean and its deeper, carbon-rich layers.

The findings, based on data collected in a coastal system along the west Antarctic Peninsula, show that what happens in winter is crucial in explaining this variability in CO₂ uptake.

A newly discovered raccoon-sized armored monstersaurian lizard from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah reveals a surprising diversity of these very big lizards at the pinnacle of the Age of Dinosaurs. Named for the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the new species Bolg amondol also illuminates the sometimes murky path that life traveled between ancient continents. Published in the open-access journal Royal Society Open Science, the collaborative research led by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute reveals hidden treasures awaiting future paleontologists in the bowels of museum fossil collections, and the vast potential of paleontological heritage preserved in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other public lands. 

A newly discovered, raccoon-sized armored monstersaurian from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah, United States, reveals a surprising diversity of large lizards at the pinnacle of the age of dinosaurs. Named for the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” the new species Bolg amondol also illuminates the sometimes-murky path that life traveled between ancient continents.

Researcher from  Fudan University selected a global climate model, FGOALS-f3-L, to reveal the bias characteristics of CDV in this model.