Field tests by University of California – Davis scientists have shown conclusively that rising levels of carbon dioxide inhibit plants’ ability to assimilate nitrates into proteins. The findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, indicate that the nutritional quality of food crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and potatoes is at risk as climate […]
Using the largest dated evolutionary tree of flowering plants ever assembled, new research suggests how plants developed traits to withstand low temperatures, with implications that human-induced climate change may pose a bigger threat than initially thought to global agriculture. The new study appearing in the journalNature, shows many angiosperms (flowering plants) evolved mechanisms to cope […]
How air pollution creates larger and longer lasting storm clouds has been a topic of intense debate in climatology circles. Now, a new investigation that finally reveals the atmospheric mechanism at work also shows how pollution plays into climate warming. Previously, scientists had thought that pollution causes larger and longer-lasting storm clouds by making thunderheads […]
Ongoing international research led by scientists from the University of Alaska indicates that the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is releasing 17 millions tons of methane into the atmosphere each year, more than twice the amount previously estimated. Because it is so efficient at trapping heat, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon […]
Mammal body size decreased significantly during two ancient global warming events, say paleontologists from the University of Michigan who believe that similar changes are possible in response to human-caused climate change. Researchers have long known that mammals became much smaller during a period of warming called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), about 55 million years […]
Most of the rain on Earth falls in the Northern Hemisphere and scientists have long believed that this was a quirk of the planet’s geometry, but a new University of Washington study shows that this rainfall pattern arises from a much simpler system. “It rains more in the Northern Hemisphere because it’s warmer,” said atmosphere […]
A new study has revealed that our warming climate is pushing crop pests such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, insects, and nematodes, towards the North and South Poles at a rate of nearly 3 km a year. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows a strong correlation between increased global temperatures over the […]
Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) report that when three atmospheric patterns came together over the Indian and Pacific oceans, they drove so much precipitation over Australia in 2010 and 2011 that the world’s ocean levels dropped measurably. The new research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, notes that the continent of Australia […]
Increasing levels of carbon dioxide appear to be changing the biodiversity of the oceanic ecosystem, most notably the keystone bacterial organisms that form the foundation of the ocean’s food-chain. Reporting their findings in Nature Geoscience, the researchers say they are uncertain as to what the long term effects of these climate-driven selection pressures will be. […]
Spawning droughts, floods, and other weather disturbances, the El Niño – Southern Oscillation affects the daily lives of millions of people. El Niño is a band of warm ocean water that develops approximately every 5 years off the western coast of South America. During El Niño, Atlantic hurricane activity wanes and rainfall in Hawaii decreases […]
