New research reveals mountain glaciers across the globe will not recover for centuries – even if human intervention cools the planet back to the 1.5°C limit, having exceeded it. The research, led by the University of Bristol in the UK and the University of Innsbruck in Austria, presents the first global simulations of glacier change up to 2500 under so-called ‘overshoot’ scenarios, when the planet temporarily exceeds the 1.5°C limit up to 3°C before cooling back down. The results, published…
The Amazon rainforest may be able to survive long-term drought caused by climate change, but adjusting to a drier, warmer world would exact a heavy toll, a study suggests. The findings show that adjusting to cope with the effects of climate change could see some parts of the Amazon rainforest lose many of its largest trees. This would release the large amount of carbon stored in these trees to the air, and reduce the rainforest’s immediate capacity to act as…
VENICE – A team of researchers led by Niccolò Maffezzoli, “Marie Curie” fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the University of California, Irvine, and an associate member of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy, has developed the first global model based on artificial intelligence to calculate the ice thickness distribution of all the glaciers on Earth. The model has been published in the journal Geoscientific Model Development and is expected to become…
Discovery of 20,000-year-old cave sediments on Prince of Wales Island offers rare land-based evidence of ancient meltwater events Paul Wilcox, a geologist at the University of Innsbruck, has discovered the first land-based evidence of meltwater pulses from the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the last ice age about 20,000 years ago. The age of the cave sediments was constrained via optical dating techniques, which is crucial to help piece together the sequence of climate events leading to a warming planet. The…
Palaeontologists at the Manitoba Museum and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have discovered a remarkable new 506-million-year-old predator from the Burgess Shale of Canada. The results are announced in a paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Mosura fentoni was about the size of your index finger and had three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth and a body with swimming flaps along its sides. These traits show it to be part of an extinct group…
In the modern world, a reliable supply of hydrogen gas is vital for the function of society. Fertiliser produced from hydrogen contributes to the food supply of half the global population, and hydrogen is also a key energy component in many roadmaps to a carbon neutral future, essential if we are to prevent the worst predictions of climate change. Today, hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbons, with waste gases contributing to 2.4% of global CO2 emissions. Demand for hydrogen is set…
Originally from South America, the charismatic tegu made its way to the United States via the pet trade of the 1990s. After wreaking havoc in Florida’s ecosystems, the exotic lizard was classified as an invasive species. But a recent discovery from the Florida Museum of Natural History reveals the reptiles are no strangers to the region — tegus were here millions of years before their modern relatives arrived in pet carriers. Described in a new study in the Journal of…
Central Asia, located in the heart of the Eurasian continent, has experienced significant climatic shifts in recent decades, characterized by warming and increased humidity. This trend contrasts sharply with the global pattern of drought-induced tree growth decline, making Central Asia a unique region for studying the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems. Alpine forests in this region are critical for regional water reserves and ecological stability and are the origins of many inland rivers such as Amu Darya and…
New research reveals that shifts in plant life played a key role in speeding up major climate changes during the late Miocene, a period spanning 11.6 to 5.3 million years ago. During this time, Earth’s climate shifted from the warm conditions of the middle Miocene to conditions closer to what we experience today, turning forests into grasslands and forcing animals like horses and elephants to evolve tougher teeth for eating gritty plants. At the same time, predators like big cats…
Individually, Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) do not make much of an impression. With a maximum body length of six centimetres, a weight of just two grams and its transparent skin, it does not look very spectacular. Yet krill play a central role for life in the Southern Ocean. Billions of these small crustaceans form huge swarms that can extend over several square kilometers and are the most important food source for many predators. A research team from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU),…
Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, also found that the rapid growth in size of tyrannosaurids (the group that included the T. rex) as well as a closely related group called megaraptors coincided with a cooling of the global climate following a peak…
Study models spatial patterns of “grazing halos” around reefs. In coral reefs throughout the world, visually striking bands of bare sand surrounding reefs are often visible in satellite imagery but their cause remains a mystery. One theory is fear. Parrotfish and other herbivores will leave a reef’s shelter to eat algae or the surrounding seagrass, but their fear of being gobbled up by predators may keep them from roving too far or eating too much, creating, what’s known as “grazing…
Many of the fish we eat play a key role in maintaining the seabed – and therefore our climate, new research shows. Convex Seascape Survey scientists assessed the role of fish in bioturbation (churning and reworking sediments) in shallow UK seas. The Atlantic cod – a staple in chip shops – jointly topped the list of these important “ecosystem engineers” (along with Atlantic hagfish and European eel). In total, 185 fish species were found to play a role in bioturbation…
Some red algae exhibit structural color that gives their growth tips a blue hue and the rest of their bodies including their fruiting structures a white hue. Moreover, since the color-producing structures are located together with anti-herbivory chemicals, the Kobe University discovery is the first to suggest that red algae use colors for inter-species communication. Red algae are red due to the pigments they use to collect light. Kobe University phycologist KAWAI Hiroshi says: “Being a diver, I have long…
Analysing lava flows that solidified and then broke apart over a massive crack in the Earth’s crust in Turkey has brought new insights into how continents move over time, improving our understanding of earthquake risks. New research by Curtin University has revealed the Tuz Gölü Fault Zone – a more than 200-kilometre-long geological structure visible from space – is slowly pulling apart, providing a rare glimpse into the forces that shape Earth’s crust when tectonic plates collide. Lead Australian author…
New Curtin University research has revealed that a massive meteorite struck northwestern Scotland about 200 million years later than previously thought, in a discovery that not only rewrites Scotland’s geological history but alters our understanding of the evolution of non-marine life on Earth. Previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, the impact created the Stac Fada Member, a layer of rock that holds vital clues to Earth’s ancient past, including how meteorite strikes may have influenced the planet’s…
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