Predicted increases in precipitation due to warmer air temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions may actually increase sea ice volume in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean. This finding from a new study adds evidence of potential asymmetry between the two poles and may be an indication that climate change processes may have varying impacts on different areas of the globe.

“Most people have heard of climate change and how rising air temperatures are melting glaciers and sea ice

Wildfires in Alaska and Canada in 2004 emitted about as much carbon monoxide as did human-related activities in the continental United States during the same time period, according to new research by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The fires also increased atmospheric concentrations of ground-level ozone across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

The NCAR study, which indicates the extent to which wildfires contribute to atmospheric pollution, was publis

New ’cold crust’ model may help explain other Earth-shaping events

Geologists at Queen’s University have discovered that the time it takes for mountain ranges to form is millions of years shorter than previously thought. This controversial finding could have implications for our understanding of other geological processes that shaped the Earth, says Professor James Lee and postdoctoral fellow Alfredo Camacho of Queen’s Geological Sciences and Geological E

Global warming may proceed faster and be more severe than previously predicted according to research about to be published in the scientific journal “Nature”. Reductions in airborne particle pollution, or aerosols, as air quality is improved, will amplify climate change by reducing the cooling effect due to aerosols and also by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide that remains in the atmosphere. Uncertainty about the magnitude of past and present cooling, however, means that we cannot be cert

Demonstrating how to help safeguard Europe’s many thousands of kilometres of coastline is a new system that brings together the vast range of data from weather and ocean monitoring stations across Europe, predicts likely outcomes so authorities can best respond to pollution crises.

“We have an operational demonstrator right now,” says Dr Stein Sandven, DISMAR project coordinator and Research Director of the NERSC, Norway’s Environmental and Remote Sensing Center. “There are alw

Globalization is making it a small world, after all, and the costs of this newfound neighborliness are high.

Two internationally acclaimed scientists present sweeping evidence that China ’s challenges – from polluted air and water to making and consuming goods to family life – already are making a big impact on the environment and human well-being in China and other parts of the world, including America and Europe .

The developed nations must take a more active role – wi

A new advanced turbine being tested at Wanapum Dam in Washington state produces nearly 5 percent more power, but before more are installed researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are getting input from several thousand fish.

The project is part of an upgrade to a hydroelectric power plant owned by Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, and utility officials want to know how fish-friendly the new minimum gap runner turbine is compared to the 40-year-old turbine it r

Consequences of inbreeding often undetectable prior to release into wild

Comparative studies of captive breeding strategies conducted at Rice University bolster the case for costly and sometimes troublesome breeding programs that preserve maximum genetic variability in small populations of endangered species.

Worldwide, zoos spend millions of dollars each year transporting rare animals thousands of miles in order to breed them with their most distantly related relativ

A report issued by the Royal Society in the U.K. sounds the alarm about the world’s oceans. “If CO2 from human activities continues to rise, the oceans will become so acidic by 2100 it could threaten marine life in ways we can’t anticipate,” commented Dr. Ken Caldeira, co-author of the report and a newly appointed staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, California.* The report on ocean acidification was released today by the Royal S

Researchers in the Department of Agricultural Production at the Public University of Navarra have been awarded the prize for the best research in the area of viticulture. The presentation took place at the V Iberian Congress of Horticultural Science recently held in Oporto (Portugal). The awarded work, entitled “Recovery of photosynthetic activity in 4 grape varieties after a hydric stress event”, studied the response to the hydric stress event of the grape, in order to enable suitable land irrig

The thousands of oval lakes that dot Alaska’s North Slope are some of the fastest-growing lakes on the planet. Ranging in size from puddles to more than 15 miles in length, the lakes have expanded at rates up to 15 feet per year, year in and year out for thousands of years. The lakes are shaped like elongated eggs with the skinny ends pointing northwest.

How the lakes grow so fast, why they’re oriented in the same direction and what gives them their odd shape has puz

Global warming could result in northern Europe growing colder as the southern hemisphere gets hotter, according to new research led by the University of Edinburgh. A study, based on analysis of changing climate patterns at the end of the last ice age, confounds the widely-held view that global warming will be uniform across the world. It also suggests that ice age conditions could return to the northern hemisphere sooner than was previously thought.

The research, which claims that

NASA hurricane researchers are deploying to Costa Rica next month to investigate the birthplace of eastern Pacific tropical cyclones. They will be searching for clues that could lead to a greater understanding and better predictability of one of the world’s most significant weather events – the hurricane.

As scientists and coastal residents brace for another potentially challenging hurricane season, NASA is launching the Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) mission. T

El Niño and La Niña play with the populations of microscopic ocean plants called phytoplankton. That’s what scientists have found using NASA satellite data and a computer model.

Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food chain, providing food for little sea animals called zooplankton, which in turn feed fish and other creatures. Any change in phytoplankton numbers alters the ocean food chain.

The computer model showed that during El Niño periods, warm waters fr

Researchers have discovered a new universal biological law whilst looking in holes in trees near Oxford according to a paper published in the journal Science on 24 June 2005.

The scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and University of Oxford found that patterns of abundance and genetic diversity of microorganisms living in water-filled holes in trees were similar to patterns found in higher animal and plant communities.

The study looked at the relationship

Billions of tonnes of sediment are clogging up the world’s coastal zones, rivers and estuaries with devastating results to the environment, say scientists attending an international meeting organised by the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) project, a global network of coastal and marine scientists.

Nutrient-laden mud, gravel and sand, pushed downstream by large rivers and estuaries, are changing the shape of coastlines, destroying aquatic life and even filling u