Arctic Ice: Going, Going ...
June 30, 2008There's a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will be ice-free this summer, which would be a first in recorded history, a leading ice scientist says. (Associated Press)
Squid, Lobster Numbers Rise as Fish Fall Due to Warming
June 30, 2008Lobsters, crabs, squid, and other invertebrates are becoming more common while populations of bottom-feeding fish are plummeting, according to a long-term trawling study of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. (National Geographic News)
Earth's Core, Magnetic Field Changing Fast
June 30, 2008Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says. (National Geographic News)
A Holistic Approach to Saving the Sea
June 27, 2008Eager to correct for errors that might arise when viewing pieces of a greater whole in isolation, scientists in recent years have been calling for a more holistic approach to resource management. They've dubbed this approach "ecosystem-based management." (Christian Science Monitor)
Why Flooding Worsens
June 26, 2008Along river valleys of the upper Midwest, high water has inflicted billions of dollars of damage to homes, businesses, and crops and has displaced tens of thousands of families, and researchers say such episodes are likely to worsen as efforts to protect communities are outpaced by factors that increase the risk of flooding. (Christian Science Monitor)
How Overfishing can Alter an Ocean's Entire Ecosystem
June 26, 2008Overfishing has shifted entire ecosystems with often surprising, and occasionally unpleasant, results: with big predators often gone or greatly depleted, organisms lower on the food web grow more abundant, reducing their own prey in turn, and some scientists are saying this is worrisome evidence of a greatly changed and simplified marine ecosystem – and like investment portfolios with few holdings, simple ecosystems are prone to collapse. (Christian Science Monitor)
Tropical Ocean Sucks Up Vast Amounts of Ozone
June 26, 2008An important mechanism for sucking ozone and methane out of the atmosphere has been discovered over the tropical Atlantic, a finding that reveals how the two greenhouse gasses are kept in check by natural chemical reactions. (New Scientist)
Plants "Climbing" Mountains Due to Global Warming
June 26, 2008Like people vacationing in the mountains to escape summer heat, plants are "climbing" to higher elevations to cope with global warming, a new study shows, piggy-backing to some degree previous research that suggested that many plant and animal species have been shifting their ranges toward the Poles as the planet warms. (National Geographic News)
Climate Race Separates the Weeds from the Trees
June 26, 2008In a large review of plant surveys, researchers have found that quick-breeding grasses are adapting quickly to climate change and moving up the sides of mountains, leaving the slower-growing trees behind, highlighting that temperate regions are already feeling the profound effects of a warming climate and raising concerns that plant communities will disintegrate and possibly affect the animals that rely on them for food and shelter. (New Scientist)
Climate Change Threatens Two-Thirds of California's Unique Plants
June 25, 2008Two-thirds of California's unique plants, some 2,300 species that grow nowhere else in the world, could be wiped out across much of their current geographic ranges by the end of the century due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, according to a new study. (Los Angeles Times)
New Pieces in the Climate-Change Puzzle
June 25, 2008When scientists at the University of California at Davis asked why nitrogen-poor temperate forests are short on nitrogen-fixing trees, while nitrogen-rich tropical forests have them in abundance, they found that nitrogen fixation acts like a "gas guzzler" and forest trees behave like "commuters" at the "gas pump," weighing the high energy cost of nitrogen fixation against its benefits. (Christian Science Monitor)
Major Lion Die-Offs Linked to Climate Change
June 25, 2008Droughts and downpours exacerbated by climate change allowed two diseases to converge and wipe out large numbers of African lions in 1994 and 2001, according to a new study. (National Geographic News)
Arctic Volcanoes Exploded at 'Impossible' Depth
June 25, 2008It appears that volcanoes on the Arctic seabed have blown up at depths where such events were thought impossible, according to scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who explored why in a new study. (New Scientist)
Antarctic Sticks Out Huge Annual Ice 'Tongue'
June 24, 2008Changes to the Antarctic can normally be measured in months or years, but an enormous sea-ice "tongue" has been found to grow at an astonishing rate. (New Scientist)
Resonating With the Ocean
June 24, 2008Huge, underwater waves surge and ebb far outside the rims of continents, and, flowing much faster than the visible tides these "internal tides" can move around sediment collected below and play big roles in shaping the edges of continental shelves. (Science News)
First Antarctic Map Sent to National Archives
June 23, 2008The first Australian map of the entire Antarctic continent has become part of the National Archives collection. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
More Extreme Weather Expected for U.S.
June 23, 2008A new report on extreme weather warns that human-induced climate change is making heavy downpours more intense, with storms that used to occur every 20 years projected to occur every six by the end of the century. (ABC News)
Early Earth Marred by Acid Rain
June 23, 2008According to a new study, the climate of early Earth was no day at the beach, with stinging acid rains and an intensely warm surface, possibly explaining why geologists today have found no rocks more than 4 billion years old: They were all weathered away. (Live Science)
Global Warming to Spark Increase in U.S. Wildfires
June 21, 2008Today, much of the north-western U.S. wilderness is already a tinderbox, but thanks to global warming, wildfires will be scorching even more land every year by the end of the century, according to research that incorporated fire and temperature data into climate models. (New Scientist)
Ocean-Monitoring Satellite Blasts Off From California
June 20, 2008A rocket carrying a U.S.-French ocean-monitoring satellite called Jason 2 lifted off from the central California coast, and will study climate change and is expected to improve hurricane forecasting. (Associated Press)
Greenland Ice Offers Clues to Last Big Melt
June 20, 2008The most detailed Greenland ice-core analysis yet offers important clues about what caused the climate to change so rapidly at the end of the last ice age. (New Scientist)
Earth May Have Supported Life Earlier in History
June 19, 2008Analysis of elements in ancient mineral crystals suggests liquid water existed on Earth as long as 4.3 billion years ago, 100 million years earlier than previously thought, which may mean that Earth's conditions then could have supported life. (Discovery News)
Greenland Ice Shows Rapid Climate Flips
June 19, 2008Violent swings in weather patterns occurred after Earth's climate crossed "tipping points" thousands of years ago, a new study argues. (National Geographic News)
Arctic Sea Ice Melting Even Faster
June 18, 2008Though data from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center shows that the year began with ice covering a larger area than at the beginning of 2007, now it is down to levels seen last June, at the beginning of a summer that broke records for sea ice loss. (BBC News)
New Lookouts for Climate Change
June 18, 2008Scottish Natural Heritage is leading the Snowbed Project which will attempt to investigate the effects of less snow and warmer conditions on fauna and flora high in the Scottish mountains. (BBC News)
Oceans Warming Faster Than Realized
June 18, 2008The world's oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australian and U.S. climate researchers reported. (Agence France-Presse)
Space Cameras to Monitor Forests
June 17, 2008Plans to use a state-of-the-art camera onboard a satellite to monitor deforestation levels in Africa's Congo Basin have been unveiled. (BBC News)
Did Sea Level Flux Drive Mass Extinctions?
June 17, 2008Mass extinctions that wiped out up to 90 percent of Earth's flora and fauna were driven in large part by shifting ocean levels, according to a study. (Agence France-Presse)
Harsh Climate Scoured Early Earth
June 17, 2008Earth's early atmosphere may have been highly corrosive to rocks, gradually dissolving away all but the toughest of minerals, a new study suggests. (National Geographic News)
Roadside Crater Should Have Made More of an Impact
June 14, 2008The telltale signs of a huge impact site alongside a busy road 5 miles north-east of Santa Fe, New Mexico had gone unnoticed, until researchers identified unusual cracks radiating from the tips of cone-shaped structures in the roadside rocks. (New Scientist)
U.S. On Pace for Record Tornado Season
June 13, 2008This year is shaping up to be one of the most active tornado seasons on record, and scientists say the season got off to a strong start especially early this year, perhaps because of unusually cool ocean temperatures in the western Pacific. (National Public Radio)
How Long Does it Take a Rainforest to Regenerate?
June 11, 2008According to a study on the regeneration of the Brazilian Atlantic forest, certain aspects can return surprisingly quickly – within 65 years – but for the landscape to truly regain its native identity takes a lot longer – up to 4,000 years. (New Scientist)
Most Experts Foresee a Repeat, at Least, of 2007 Arctic Ice Loss
June 11, 2008Fourteen research teams studying the impacts of warming on the Arctic Ocean have issued independent projections of how the sea ice will behave this summer, and 11 of them foresee an ice retreat at least as extraordinary as last year's or even more dramatic. (The New York Times)
Atlas Shows How Climate Changed Africa
June 10, 2008The United Nations environment agency unveiled a new atlas, featuring over 300 satellite images taken in every African country, that shows what the agency says are the dramatic effects of climate change on Africa. (ABC News)
Seabed Scratches Show Icebergs Reached the Tropics
June 9, 2008A newly discovered set of scratches suggests that icebergs from the icy north drifted further south after the last ice age than researchers previously thought. (New Scientist)
Florida's Hurricane Simulator
June 7, 2008A team of scientists has developed the world's most powerful portable hurricane simulator, a giant machine capable of reproducing winds in excess of 120mph and recreating rain. (BBC News)
Climate Change Effect on Oceans Underestimated
June 6, 2008Scientists say the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and scientists worldwide are neglecting Earth's oceans in researching the effects of climate change and there are too few marine scientists working on the panel. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Before & After: Third Largest Rain Forest Vanishing Fast
June 6, 2008Satellite images released as part of a new study show Papua New Guinea's Gulf Province rain forest intact in 1988 and laid bare by logging in 2002. (National Geographic News)
Tidal Ice Quakes are Shaking Antarctica
June 4, 2008Slow and cold, but very powerful quakes shake the West Antarctic ice shelf twice a day, which according to some measurements are the equivalent of magnitude-7 earthquakes, and are caused by the movement of ice over rough patches of rock. (New Scientist)
Drought Slowing Old Faithful Geyser
June 4, 2008New research suggests that several years of drought may have added a minute or two to the eruption cycle of Old Faithful geyser. (Associated Press)
Andes Mountains Jumped Like a Cork
June 4, 2008A controversial new study suggests that the mountains rapidly gained height after dense, anchoring rock shifted locations. (National Geographic News)
Images Reveal 'Rapid Forest Loss'
June 2, 2008High-resolution satellite images have revealed the "rapid deforestation" of Papua New Guinea's biodiversity-rich rainforests over the past 30 years, according to scientists. (BBC News)
Ships Rewrite Temperature Record
June 2, 2008Global temperatures did not dip sharply in the 1940s as the conventional graph shows, scientists believe, saying that an abrupt dip of in 1945 actually reflects a change in how temperatures were measured at sea. (BBC News)
Building a Baby Earth to Test its Magnetic Field
June 2, 2008It's still mysterious how Earth's liquid center produces its magnetic field. But one scientist hopes to find clues by building a 26-ton spinning model of the planet. (National Public Radio)