New research illustrates major differences between global warming today and past natural climate fluctuations as they relate to species extinctions. (University of Michigan)

Newly available, long-term climate data now say the rich soils of the Midwest, especially tall grass areas that seemingly should support diverse forests but instead appear as barren flatlands to travelers, are the products of weather extremes. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

A 106,000 year long record of nitrous oxide concentrations and a shorter record of nitrogen and oxygen isotopes show that both marine and terrestrial nitrous oxide production increased in unison and effectively by the same proportional amount during the end of the last glacial period, according to Penn State researchers. (Penn State)

Global warming and pollution are among the modern-day threats commonly blamed for decline of coral reefs, but new research shows the downfall of those resplendent and diverse signatures of tropical oceans actually may have begun centuries ago. (University of Florida)

It may take them a century to advance a few meters, but the bottoms of some glaciers churn with supercooled activity, according to an article by a Lehigh University geologist in the Aug. 14 issue of Nature magazine. (Lehigh University)

By analyzing the genomes of several microscopic ocean-dwelling organisms, scientists are gaining new insights into how the planet?s oceans affect its climate. (DOE/Joint Genome Institute)

Researchers have discovered that total bromine in the lower atmosphere has been decreasing since 1998 and is now more than five percent below the peak reached that year. (American Geophysical Union)

In a new study directly linking climatic warming with the survival of lake organisms, researchers have found multiple lines of evidence showing that increasing air and water temperatures and related factors are shrinking fish and algae populations in a major lake. (National Science Foundation)

According to a new study, global warming will not be helped much by efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere because temperature variations are due more to cosmic forces than to the actions of man. (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder will receive $1.8 million from NASA to compile an online database of the world's glaciers that combines historical records with measurements from the latest technologies in satellite remote sensing. (University of Colorado at Boulder)

Multiple sensors on European Space Agency's Envisat environmental satellite have been used to peer beneath a vast pall of smoke above tropical Borneo and detect fire hotspots — known to add millions of tons of harmful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Grassland ecosystems could become wetter as a result of global warming, according to a new study, contradicting numerous climate models predicting that higher temperatures could dry out natural landscapes, including grasslands. (Stanford University)

A mobile Doppler radar tracking the twists and turns of air billowing around a wildland fire in Montana has gathered data that will shed light on fire dynamics and could help improve forecasting of these intense blazes and their weather impacts. (National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)