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Archive for January 4th, 2016
Floods Pose Challenge to South American Integration
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
Inter Press Service: The flooding that has affected four South American countries has underscored the need for an integrated approach to addressing the causes and effects of climate change.
Above and beyond joint emergency response plans, global warming poses common problems like deforestation and the management of shared rivers.
Some 180,000 people have been evacuated since the worst flooding in years hit the region over the year-end holidays.
The floods caused when the Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers overflowed...
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Asian Carp Could Have Major Impact On Lake Erie
Posted by Nature World News: Samantha Mathewson on January 4th, 2016
Nature World News: Asian carp pose a major risk to Lake Erie's ecosystem. New computer models suggest these invasive fish could soon account for nearly a third of the lake's total fish population, ultimately causing declines in most other fish species, including prized sport and commercial fish such as walleye. Bighead and silver carp were imported to the southern U.S. from Asia decades ago and have migrated north through the Mississippi River system. These invasive fish are established in watersheds close to the...
Worldwide electricity production vulnerable to climate and water resource change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Climate change impacts and associated changes in water resources could lead to reductions in electricity production capacity for more than 60% of the power plants worldwide from 2040-2069, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change. Yet adaptation measures focused on making power plants more efficient and flexible could mitigate much of the decline. "Hydropower plants and thermoelectric power plants--which are nuclear, fossil-, and biomass-fueled plants converting...
Large, increasing methane emissions from northern lakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Methane is increasing in the atmosphere, but many sources are poorly understood. Lakes at high northern latitudes are such a source. However, this may change with a new study published in Nature Geoscience. By compiling previously reported measurements made at a total of 733 northern water bodies -- from small ponds formed by beavers to large lakes formed by permafrost thaw or ice-sheets -- researchers are able to more accurately estimate emissions over large scales.
"The release of methane from...
Climate change is altering Greenland ice sheet, accelerating sea level rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
ScienceDaily: The Greenland ice sheet has traditionally been pictured as a bit of a sponge for glacier meltwater, but new research has found it is rapidly losing the ability to buffer its contribution to rising sea levels, says a York University researcher.
York U Professor William Colgan, a co-author on the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, helped analyse data from three expeditions to the Greenland ice sheet in 2012, 2013 and 2015. The research was done in conjunction with lead researcher...
Asian carp could cause some Lake Erie fish to decline, others to increase
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
ScienceDaily: If they successfully invade Lake Erie, Asian carp could eventually account for about a third of the total weight of fish in the lake and could cause declines in most fish species -- including prized sport and commercial fish such as walleye, according to a new computer modeling study. However, most of the expected declines in Lake Erie will not be as extreme as some experts have predicted, according to the food-web study by the University of Michigan's Hongyan Zhang and colleagues from other American...
Southern US prepares flooding surge as waters move down Mississippi river
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 4th, 2016
Guardian: Southern US states are bracing themselves for major flooding as surging waters that have inundated parts of Missouri and Illinois head south down the Mississippi river.
Heavy rainfall at the end of December, the largest deluge since May 2011, has caused the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers to burst their banks. In some areas, the Mississippi is 40ft above its flood mark, causing at least 24 deaths in several states.
Most of the deaths have been caused by people attempting to drive through...
Residents along Mississippi River prepare for flood crest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
Reuters: Officials along the lower Mississippi River prepared on Monday for the swollen river to reach its peak in their area, expecting levees to provide protection after flooding killed dozens of people as it pushed downriver toward the Gulf of Mexico.
The crest is currently at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers in Cairo, Illinois, and it will take a couple weeks for the water to move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, National Weather Service hydrologist Jeff Graschel said.
The Mississippi River...
A far from perfect host
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Biologists at the universities of York and Exeter have published new research which shows that an ancient symbiosis is founded entirely on exploitation, not mutual benefit. The researchers concluded that a single-celled protozoa called Paramecium bursaria benefits from exploiting a green algae which lives inside it, providing its host with sugar and oxygen from photosynthesis. Scientists have been debating for decades whether symbioses, like the Paramecium-Chlorella association, are based on mutual...
Zimbabwe turns to fossil energy, as drought bites
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 4th, 2016
Herald: With back-to-back droughts since 2013, Zimbabwe’s main hydroelectric power plant at Kariba is failing, forcing the southern African nation to turn to dirtier fossil fuel-based energies to make up for the deficit. The Kariba Hydropower Station is capacitated to generate 750 megawatts of electricity, but the plant has operated at just 63 percent of capacity since early October when the Kariba dam began to dry up. In good times, hydropower accounts for over 50 percent of...