Earth & Climate News

September 9, 2016

Disruption of a Most Regular Atmospheric Cycle

Not One, but Four Giraffe Species

A Tenth of World's Wilderness Lost Since 1990s

Air Pollution a Risk Factor for Diabetes: Study

Latest Headlines

updated 1:10am EDT

Yellow or Black, Large or Small? Ant Color and Body Size Respond Strongly to Environment

Sep. 8, 2016 — A study of ants across three continents has revealed that their color and size is strongly influenced by their environment, ... read more

Saskatchewan Uranium Mining Emits Few Greenhouse Gases, Study Shows

Sep. 8, 2016 — The mining and milling of Canadian uranium contributes very few greenhouse gases to nuclear power’s already low emissions, a research group ... read more

Smart Buoy for Measuring Water Pollutants

Sep. 8, 2016 — All over the world, lakes, rivers, and coastal waters are threatened by high nutrient inputs. Nitrate or phosphates from waste-waters or fertilizers causes eutrophication. ... read more

Fish 'Biowaste' Converted to Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters

Sep. 6, 2016 — Large quantities of fish are consumed in India on a daily basis, which generates a huge amount of fish 'biowaste' materials. In an attempt to do something positive with this ... read more

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: World's Largest Reforestation Program Overlooks Wildlife

Sep. 7, 2016 — New research found that China's reforestation program, the world's largest, overwhelmingly leads to the planting of ... read more

Tapping the Unused Potential of Photosynthesis

Sep. 7, 2016 — Scientists have reengineered the fundamental process of photosynthesis to power useful chemical reactions that could be used to produce biofuels, pharmaceuticals and ... read more

Pushing a Parasite from Land to Sea

Sep. 6, 2016 — Higher levels of rainfall and coastal development increase the risk of disease-causing organisms flowing to the ocean, according to a study. The work advances earlier work by tracking the parasite T. ... read more

Crab from the Chinese Pet Market Turns out to Be a New Species of a New Genus

Sep. 7, 2016 — Shimmering carapaces make crabs attractive to pet owners. To answer the growing demand, fishermen collect and trade ... read more

Historical Coexistence With Dingoes May Explain Bandicoot Avoidance of Domestic Dogs

Sep. 7, 2016 — Domestic dogs and cats were introduced to Tasmania two centuries ago, but bandicoots still fail to recognize these ... read more

Fuel Cell Membrane Outperforms Market: 'Goldilocks' Membrane Is Just About Right

Sep. 7, 2016 — Industrial interest is expected in a vehicular fuel cell membrane able to excrete protons at the most effective temperature ... read more

Italy Quake Kills 159 as Rescuers Race to Find Survivors

Italy Quake Death Toll Nears 250, Rescue Work Intensifies

Cleanup Begins After Devastating Indiana Tornadoes

Quake Reduces Italian Village to Ruins

Earthquakes Can Trigger Near-Instantaneous Aftershocks on Different Faults

Sep. 8, 2016 — A large earthquake on one fault can trigger large aftershocks on separate faults within just a few minutes. These findings have important implications for earthquake hazard prone regions like ... read more

Antimicrobial Chemicals Found With Antibiotic-Resistance Genes in Indoor Dust

Sep. 7, 2016 — University of Oregon researchers have found links between the levels of antimicrobial chemicals and antibiotic-resistance genes in the dust of an aging building used for athletics and academics. One ... read more

Life History of the 360-Million-Year-Old Tetrapod Acanthostega Rewrites the Tetrapod Move to Land

Sep. 7, 2016 — Researchers have shown that fossils of the 360 million-year-old tetrapod Acanthostega, one of the iconic transitional forms between fishes and land animals, are not adults but all juveniles. This ... read more

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Sep. 7, 2016 — Want to help mitigate global climate change? Grow some veggies. According to a new study, turning lawn into a vegetable garden can reduce greenhouse gas ... read more

Increased Ocean Acidification Is Due to Human Activities, Say Scientists

Sep. 7, 2016 — Oceanographers report that the northeast Pacific Ocean has absorbed an increasing amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide over the last decade, at a rate that mirrors the increase of carbon dioxide ... read more

New Perovskite Research Discoveries May Lead to Solar Cell, LED Advances

Sep. 7, 2016 — 'Promising' and 'remarkable' are two words a scientist has used to describe recent research results on organolead mixed-halide perovskites. Perovskites are optically active, ... read more

New Method Detects Low-Dose Impacts of Human-Made Chemicals in Water

Sep. 7, 2016 — PPCPs are widely released into the world’s freshwaters and oceans, where they mix at low concentrations over long time periods and seep into diverse environmental pathways such as surface water, ... read more

Future Fisheries Can Expect $10 Billion Revenue Loss Due to Climate Change

Sep. 7, 2016 — Global fisheries stand to lose approximately $10 billion of their annual revenue by 2050 if climate change continues unchecked, and countries that are most dependent on fisheries for food will be the ... read more

In Eastern Tibetan Forest, Signs of Tree Growth Amid Climate Change

Sep. 7, 2016 — Word of mouth from nomadic herders led Lucas Silva into Tibetan forests and grasslands. What his team found was startling: rapid forest growth in tune with what scientists had been expecting from ... read more

Incubating Climate Change Research

Sep. 7, 2016 — A group of scientists have designed and built an inexpensive incubator that could boost research into how animals and plants will be affected by climate ... read more

Aerosol Emissions in East Asia Driven by Consumption in Developed Countries

Sep. 6, 2016 — Much of the influence on climate from air pollution in East Asia is driven by consumption in the developed countries of Western Europe and North America, according to research by atmospheric ... read more

Tuning the Instrument: Spider Webs as Vibration Transmission Structures

Sep. 6, 2016 — Two years ago, scientists revealed that, when plucked like a guitar string, spider silk transmits vibrations across a wide range of frequencies, carrying information about prey, mates and even the ... read more

Effect of Summer Melt on Greenland Ice Sheet

Sep. 6, 2016 — Operation IceBridge, NASA's airborne survey of polar ice, is flying in Greenland for the second time this year, to observe the impact of the summer melt season on the ice ... read more

Study Demonstrates Seasonality of Bird Migration in Response to Environmental Cues

Sep. 6, 2016 — For the first time, a study shows that remote sensing data from weather surveillance radar and on-the-ground data from the eBird citizen science database both yield robust indices of migration ... read more

Farming Adaptations Needed to Combat Climate Change to Impact Crop Yields in 2050

Sep. 6, 2016 — As the globe continues to spin toward a future with higher temperatures, crop yields will likely decrease if farmers do not adapt to new management or technology practices. Establishing new ... read more

Nutrient Pollution Is Changing Sounds in the Sea

Sep. 6, 2016 — Nutrient pollution emptying into seas from cities, towns and agricultural land is changing the sounds made by marine life -- and potentially upsetting navigational cues for fish and other sea ... read more

Tourism Is Threatening Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World

Sep. 6, 2016 — The Guiana mountain tops – an wide area of tabular highlands and high cliffs with tepuis - are threatened by the impact of human activity, specially tourism, according to the warnings of ... read more

New Tool Can Calculate Renewable Energy Output Anywhere in the World

Sep. 6, 2016 — An interactive web tool to estimate the amount of energy that could be generated by wind or solar farms at any location has now been created by ... read more

European Earthworms Decrease Species Diversity in North America

Sep. 6, 2016 — European earthworms invading the forests of North America are responsible for a decline in species diversity in the forest understory. Scientists have now been able to demonstrate this general ... read more

Browsing Antelope Turned Ancient African Forests Into Grassy Savanna Ecosystems

Sep. 6, 2016 — By comparing the timing of the evolution of thorns on about 2,000 woody tree species in southern Africa and the time that antelopes arrived in Africa, a group of scientists found that trees like ... read more

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Earthquakes can trigger near-instantaneous aftershocks on different faults

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