A new study explores the relationship between sea surface temperatures and seasonal hurricane activity, and shows how differing interpretations of the record can imply vastly different futures for Atlantic hurricane activity due to global warming. (University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science press release)

A team of researchers have demonstrated that sustained spikes in turbulence are responsible for dislodging particles, whether on land or in the water. (Virginia Tech press release)

New research has demonstrated for the first time that human activity is responsible for significant warming in both polar regions. (University of East Anglia press release)

The deadly Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which claimed more than 200,000 lives, was not the first of its size to hit the region, according to new research by an international research team. (Kent State University press release)

A "living fossil" tree species is helping a University of Michigan researcher understand how tropical forests responded to past climate change and how they may react to global warming in the future. (University of Michigan press release)

Researchers have developed a numerical model that can re-create the state of Switzerland's Rhône Glacier as it was in 1874 and predict its evolution until the year 2100. This is the longest period of time ever modeled in the life of a glacier. (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne press release)

The amount of methane in Earth's atmosphere shot up in 2007, bringing to an end a period of about a decade in which atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas were essentially stable, according to a team of researchers. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology press release)

Current models predict warmer temperatures will increase the rate that bacteria and other microbes decompose soil organic matter, pumping even more heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere, but a new study shows that while the rate of decomposition increases for a brief period in response to warmer temperatures, elevated levels of decomposition don't persist. (University of Georgia press release)

Records dating back to Thoreau show some sharp shifts in plant flowering near Walden Pond. (Harvard University press release)

Earthworms can change the chemical nature of the carbon in North American forest litter and soils, potentially affecting the amount of carbon stored in forests, researchers say. (Purdue University press release)

Trees in a hyper-diverse tropical rainforest interact with each other and their environment to create and maintain diversity, researchers reported. (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute press release)

An international team of scientists has discovered microscopic, magnetic fossils resembling spears and spindles, unlike anything previously seen, among sediment layers deposited during an ancient global-warming event along the Atlantic coastal plain of the United States. (California Institute of Technology press release)

Climate change will have different effects on lakes in warmer and colder regions of the globe, researchers concluded following studies of very deep caldera lakes in Japan, and comparisons of current measurements with measurements taken 70 years ago. (Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres press release)

Measuring a chemical tracer in samples of ancient fish scales, bones and teeth, University of Missouri and University of Florida researchers have studied circulation in the Late Cretaceous North Atlantic Ocean. (University of Missouri-Columbia press release)

Lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth, according to a new analysis of samples from a classic origin-of-life experiment. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center press release)

A team led by Livermore scientists has helped reconcile the differences between simulated and observed temperature trends in the tropics. (DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory press release)

Contrary to conventional wisdom, tropical plant and animal species living in some of the warmest places on Earth may be threatened by global warming, ecologists say. (University of Connecticut press release)

First results of a resurvey of animal populations in Yosemite National Park show that small mammals have moved to higher elevations as a result of warming, some expanding their range upward, others moving upward and abandoning lower elevations entirely. (University of California - Berkeley press release)

Wildfires can boost ozone pollution to levels that violate U.S. health standards, according to a new study that found that California wildfires in 2007 tripled the number of ozone violations across a broad area. (NCAR/UCAR press release)

New research into volcanoes has found that they function in a far more complex way than previously thought, making future eruptions even harder to predict. (University of East Anglia press release)

New research suggests that the edge of the Tibetan plateau might have been preserved for thousands of years by ice and glacial debris at the mouth of many tributaries to the Tsangpo River. (University of Washington press release)

The northern part of the Greenland ice sheet experienced extreme snowmelt during the summer of 2008, with large portions of the area subject to record melting days, new research suggests. (City College of New York press release)

Frozen arctic soil contains nearly twice the greenhouse-gas-producing organic material as was previously estimated, new research suggests. (University of Alaska Fairbanks press release)

Arctic sea ice extent during the 2008 melt season dropped to the second-lowest level Sep. 14 since satellite measurements began in 1979 and may represent the lowest volume of sea ice on record, according to researchers. (University of Colorado at Boulder press release)

A new method of forecasting clear air turbulence could help pilots chart new courses around these patches of rough but clear air that can turn an otherwise unremarkable flight into a nightmare. (University of Georgia press release)