In a Forest's Breath, Deciphering Climate Clues
December 31 — The world's forests currently soak up 25 percent of the carbon dioxide created by burning fossil fuels. But as forests age, they may start releasing more CO2 than they absorb. (National Public Radio)

Photos Document Coral Forest Annihilation
December 26 — In the 1970s and '80s, scientists took 70,000 photos of an ancient coral forest off the coast of Florida � some of the deep-sea coral, thousands of years old, reached 100 feet high � but fishing trawlers have smashed most of that forest to pieces. (National Public Radio)

How the Oceans Once Ended Global Warming
December 26 — Ocean-bottom accumulations of the mineral barite show that the last severe global warming episode was accompanied by thousands of years of ocean plant life kicking into high gear, an act that captured the excessive carbon from the atmosphere and bury it at the ocean floor. (Discovery News)

Loss of Sea Ice Could Harm Walrus
December 24 — Between 3,000 and 4,000 mostly young walrus died this year in stampedes on coastlines on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait, where they were stranded on land due to the loss of sea ice. (Associated Press)

A Clearer Muddy Story: Fast-Flowing Water Can Form Deposits
December 18 — Where there are mudstones, the thinking goes, there must have been quiet water � a deep lake, perhaps, or the middle of an inland sea far from coastal turbulence, but a new study shows that fine clays may be deposited by relatively fast-flowing water. (The New York Times)

Rising Seas to 'Beat Predictions'
December 17 — The world's sea levels could rise twice as high this century as UN climate scientists have previously predicted, according to a study. (BBC News)

Barrier Reef Could Be Gone Within 30 Years
December 14 — A new study predicts the world's coral reef systems, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, could collapse within 30 years if the effects of global warming are not reversed. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Ice Boat Details Ozone Collapse
December 14 — The dramatic springtime collapse of surface ozone in the Arctic has been documented by scientists making observations from a boat, showing the gas can disappear in just days, although the precise chemical reactions involved were not fully understood. (BBC News)

Mysterious Mud Waves Found on Arctic Seafloor
December 14 — Along parts of the Arctic Ocean floor, currents have driven mud into huge piles, with some "mud waves" nearly 100 feet across, surprising researchers who had thought the Arctic was too calm to produce the mud waves. (Live Science)

2007 Data Confirms Warming Trend
December 13 — This year has been one of the warmest since 1850, despite the cooling influence of La Nina conditions, according to scientists at the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, England and the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. (BBC News)

Magma May be Melting Greenland Ice
December 13 — Clues to a new natural contribution to the melt in Greenland arose when scientists discovered a thin spot in Earth's crust under the northeast corner of the Greenland Ice Sheet where heat from Earth's insides could seep through. (Live Science)

Arctic Summers Ice-Free 'By 2013'
December 12 — Scientists have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, with modeling studies indicating that northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just five to six years. (BBC News)

Scientists Shed Light on Monster Sea Waves
December 12 — Ocean waves as tall as an eight-story building, once dismissed as maritime folklore, can be studied using waves of light, offering hope of predicting where these monsters may appear, researchers said. (Live Science)

Scientists Gain Better View on How Weather Forms
December 11 — Scientists said that they may be able to use data from the tropical weather pattern known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation to improve their understanding of looming weather developments. (Reuters)

Stormy Weather Ahead for U.S.
December 10 — Researchers used climate models to show that the risk of severe thunderstorms in the eastern and southern U.S. could double by 2100, as higher temperatures fuel storms by increasing the water vapor in the atmosphere and boosting convection. (New Scientist)

Seaweed Could Stem Warming
December 9 — A group of scientists at a climate conference in Bali said seaweed and algae could be a potent weapon against global warming, capable of sucking damaging carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at rates comparable to the mightiest rain forests. (Associated Press)

Forecast Calls for Seven Hurricanes in '08
December 7 — Hurricane forecaster William Gray, of Colorado State University, Fort Collins, called for seven Atlantic hurricanes, three of them major, during the 2008 season. (Associated Press)

Epic Flood Triggered Ancient "Big Chill"
December 6 — An epic gush of fresh water into the North Atlantic slowed a deep ocean current and triggered a century-long chill in Europe and North America some 8,200 years ago, according to a new study. (National Geographic News)

'Snowball Earth' was More of a Slushball
December 5 — An episode of global cooling hundreds of millions of years ago that some experts say caused Earth to completely freeze over has been miscalculated, and instead of "snowball Earth," the planet was a "slushball Earth," a new study suggests. (Discovery News)

An 'Island' With a Warming-Induced Identity Crisis
December 4 — The Oxford Atlas of the World has named Warming Island, Greenland its first "Place of the Year," as the island was thought to be part of a peninsula, but glacial melt shows it's not connected to Greenland at all. (National Public Radio)

Tropics Expand as World Warms
December 4 — Climate change has caused the tropics to widen by between 2 and 4.8 degrees latitude since 1979, with possible impacts on the global food supply, research suggests. (BBC News)

New Approach to Climate Change Research
December 4 — The Center for Australian Weather and Climate Research, being launched in Canberra, Australia will provide a coordinated approach to weather and climate research. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Undersea Volcano Caught on Camera
December 4 — Researchers have pieced together an unprecedented map showing 777 million cubic feet of new lava coming out of the East Pacific Rise � a seafloor spreading center off the Pacific coast of Mexico. (Discovery News)

Scientists to Study Drop in Turtle Population
December 2 — Scientists are heading to Raine Island off Australia to see if climate change has caused a drop in the number of turtles that lay their eggs there � the nesting site for the world's largest remaining population of green turtles. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

50 Years On: The Keeling Curve Legacy
December 1 — Its name - the Keeling Curve - may be scarcely known outside scientific circles, but the jagged upward slope showing rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere has become one of the most famous graphs in science. (BBC News)

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