Environmental Research
Robotic instruments provide real-time data on Maine red tide
May 8, 2013 12:36 pm | News | Comments
A robotic sensor that won an R&D 100 Award in 2009 has been put to use by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Gulf of Maine coastal waters to monitor the way red tides behave. These harmful algal blooms, which generate a potentially fatal toxin, can be a challenge to track or predict. The Environmental Sample Processors have been remotely deployed and should simplify and enhance this effort.
Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep
May 16, 2013 12:31 pm | News | Comments
The planets Uranus and Neptune are home to extreme winds blowing at speeds of over 1,...
Sulfate aerosols cool climate less than assumed
May 15, 2013 10:47 am | News | Comments
Sulfur dioxide has been pegged as a significant cooling element in atmospheric climate...
Budget cuts pare real-time monitoring of volcanoes
May 14, 2013 8:09 am | by Rachel D’Oro, Associated Press | News | Comments
Worldwide, hundreds of flights are diverted each year because of volcanic activity....
Topography of Eastern Seaboard muddles ancient sea level changes
May 17, 2013 12:31 pm | by Ann Stark, LLNL | News | CommentsAccording to research taking place at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the distortion of the ancient shoreline and flooding surface of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain are the direct result of fluctuations in topography in the region and could have implications on understanding long-term climate change, according to a new study.
Groundwater unaffected by shale gas production in Arkansas
May 15, 2013 11:46 am | News | CommentsScientists sampling 127 shallow drinking water wells in areas overlying Fayetteville Shale gas production in north-central Arkansas found no evidence of groundwater contamination. The team of scientists at Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) analyzed the samples for major and trace elements and hydrocarbons, and used isotopic tracers to identify the sources of possible contaminants.
Analysis of 2,000 years of climate records reveals end of global cooling trend
April 24, 2013 8:58 am | News | CommentsThe most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth’s continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend—caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity—ended late in the 19th century.
Superstorm Sandy literally shook the United States
April 19, 2013 12:57 pm | News | CommentsWhen superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States—shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers have recently found. These “microseisms” generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope, a network of 500 portable seismometers.
Report: Cutting specific atmospheric pollutants would slow sea level rise
April 15, 2013 12:56 pm | News | CommentsNew research indicates that cutting emissions of certain pollutants can greatly slow sea level rise this century. Scientists focussing on emissions of four heat-trapping pollutants—methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon—found that reductions these pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could temporarily forestall the rate of sea level rise by roughly 25 to 50%.
Researchers call for marine observation network
April 11, 2013 3:31 am | News | CommentsA comprehensive marine biodiversity observation network could be established with modest funding within five years, according to a recently published assessment from a team led by J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Such a network, they say, would fill major gaps in scientists' understanding of the global distribution of marine organisms.
Ocean nutrients a key component of future change. say scientists
April 11, 2013 2:18 am | News | CommentsVariations in nutrient availability in the world's oceans could be a vital component of future environmental change, according a research team. Their research reviews what we know about ocean nutrient patterns and interactions, and how they might be influenced by future climate change and other man-made factors. The authors also highlight how nutrient cycles influence climate by fuelling biological production.
Widely used index may have overestimated drought
April 8, 2013 6:26 pm | News | CommentsFor decades, scientists have used sophisticated instruments and computer models to predict the nature of droughts. The majority of these models have steadily predicted an increasingly frequent and severe global drought cycle. But a recent study from a team of researchers in the United State and Australia suggests that one of these widely used tools—the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)—may be incorrect.
A ‘green’ Sahara was far less dusty than today
April 6, 2013 3:07 pm | News | CommentsAs recently as 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was a verdant landscape, with sprawling vegetation and numerous lakes. The Sahara’s “green” era likely lasted from 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, and is thought to have ended abruptly. Now researchers have found that this abrupt climate change occurred nearly simultaneously across North Africa.
Thin, low Arctic clouds an important key to Greenland Ice Sheet melt
April 5, 2013 6:06 pm | News | CommentsAccording to a new study by scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were "just right" for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point. The 2012 melt illustrates the often-overlooked role that clouds play in climate change. Current models don’t do enough, says researchers, to account for their effects.
Extreme algae blooms the new normal?
April 4, 2013 7:36 am | News | CommentsIn 2011, Lake Erie experienced a record-breaking algae bloom that began in the lake's Western region in mid-July and eventually covered an area of 230 square miles. At its peak in October, the bloom had expanded to more than 1,930 square miles, three times greater than any other bloom on record. According to recent research, the bloom was triggered by long-term agricultural practices coupled with extreme precipitation, followed by weak lake circulation and warm temperatures.
New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades
March 31, 2013 6:48 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from several universities, AT&T Labs, and the American Museum of Natural History have built new models that show a widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation. They say their findings predict a massive “greening” in the Arctic, as much as 50% in over the next few decades. This transition will help accelerate climate warming, they add.
Computer models show how deep carbon could return to Earth's surface
March 21, 2013 9:17 am | News | CommentsComputer simulations of water under extreme pressure are helping geochemists understand how carbon might be recycled from hundreds of miles below the Earth's surface. Carbon compounds are the basis of life, provide most of our fuels and contribute to climate change. The cycling of carbon through the oceans, atmosphere, and shallow crust of the Earth has been intensively studied, but little is known about what happens to carbon deep in the Earth.
Common test may overestimate mercury exposure from dental fillings
March 21, 2013 8:16 am | News | CommentsA common test used to determine mercury exposure from dental amalgam fillings may significantly overestimate the amount of the toxic metal released from fillings, according to University of Michigan researchers. Scientists agree that dental amalgam fillings slowly release mercury vapor into the mouth. But both the amount of mercury released and the question of whether this exposure presents a significant health risk remain controversial.
Under California: An ancient tectonic plate
March 18, 2013 4:39 pm | News | CommentsLarge chunks of an ancient tectonic plate that slid under North America millions of years ago are still present under parts of central California and Mexico, according to new research led by Brown University geophysicists. Called the Isabella anomaly—a large mass of cool, dehydrated material about 100 km beneath central California—is in fact a surviving slab of the ancient Farallon oceanic plate driven deep into the Earth’s mantle about 100 million years ago.
Ocean plankton sponge up nearly twice the carbon currently assumed
March 18, 2013 10:38 am | News | CommentsAccording to new research, models of carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans need to be revised. Trillions of plankton near the surface of warm waters are far more carbon-rich than has long been thought global marine temperature fluctuations could mean that tiny microbes digest double the carbon previously calculated.
Could global warming change tornado season, too?
March 18, 2013 9:12 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsWith the planet heating up, many scientists seem fairly certain some weather elements like hurricanes and droughts will worsen. But tornadoes have them stumped. As the traditional tornado season nears, scientists have been pondering a simple question: Will there be more or fewer twisters as global warming increases?
The science of clouds
March 13, 2013 1:14 pm | News | CommentsClouds can both cool the planet, by acting as a shield against the sun, and warm the planet, by trapping heat. But why do clouds behave the way they do? And how will a warming planet affect the cloud cover? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist David Romps has made it his mission to answer these questions.
Mysterious bacterium found in Antarctic lake
March 13, 2013 9:57 am | by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press | News | CommentsA new form of microbial life has been found in water samples taken from a giant freshwater lake hidden under kilometers of Antarctic ice, Russian scientists said Monday. In a prepared statement, the researchers said that the "unidentified and unclassified" bacterium has no relation to any of the existing bacterial types. They touched the lake water Sunday at a depth of 12,366 feet (3,769 m), about 800 miles (1,300 km) east of the South Pole in the central part of the continent.
Polar insects help scientists make gene expression discovery
March 13, 2013 9:44 am | News | CommentsAlthough they live in similarly extreme ecosystems at opposite ends of the world, Antarctic insects appear to employ entirely different methods at the genetic level to cope with extremely dry conditions than their counterparts that live north of the Arctic Circle. Aside from the significance of the specific discovery, the new finding shows how relatively new and developing scientific techniques, including genomics, are opening science in what was thought to be a relatively uniform, sterile environment.
Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock
March 12, 2013 10:46 am | News | CommentsA new analysis of data from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter shows that molten rock may have been present on the Moon more recently and for longer periods than previously thought. Differentiation—a settling out of rock layers as liquid rock cools—would require thousands of years and a fluid rock sea at least six miles deep.
Study: Glaciers contribute significant iron in Atlantic Ocean
March 11, 2013 4:24 pm | News | CommentsAll living organisms rely on iron as an essential nutrient. In the ocean, iron’s abundance or scarcity means all the difference as it fuels the growth of plankton. A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution identifies an unexpectedly large source of iron to the North Atlantic—meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets, which may stimulate plankton growth. This source is likely to increase as melting of the Greenland ice sheet escalates under a warming climate.
Amplified greenhouse effect shaping North into South
March 11, 2013 9:00 am | News | CommentsAn international research team has just published a study showing that, as the cover of snow and ice in the northern latitudes has diminished in recent years, the temperature over the northern land mass has increased at different rates during the four seasons. This has caused temperatures and vegetation at northern latitudes to more and more resemble those found several degrees of latitude farther south.
Scientists improve transgenic “Enviropigs”
March 8, 2013 3:48 pm | News | CommentsA research team in Europe has developed a new line of transgenic "Enviropigs." Enviropigs have genetically modified salivary glands, which help them digest phosphorus in feedstuffs and reduce phosphorus pollution in the environment. After developing the initial line of Enviropigs, researchers found that the line had certain genes that could be unstable. The new line of pigs is called the Cassie line, and it is known for passing genes on more reliably.
Researchers track sediments’ fate in largest-ever dam removal
March 8, 2013 12:35 pm | News | CommentsSalmon are beginning to swim up the Elwha River for the first time in more than a century. But University of Washington marine geologists are watching what’s beginning to flow downstream—sediments from the largest dam-removal project ever undertaken. It turns out there is even more sediment than originally thought—about 34 million cubic yards.
