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1,000-Year Record Shows Unusual Snowpack Declines — Study
Posted by ClimateWire: Laura Petersen on June 9th, 2011
ClimateWire: While record-sized snowpack and attendant flooding in the Rocky Mountains have made headlines this spring, the long-term trend for snowpack levels in the Rockies tells quite a different story, according to climate scientists.
Snowpack has in fact been declining in recent decades, and a new U.S. Geological Survey-led study shows the decrease since the 1980s is more significant than at any other time in the past 1,000 years.
Numerous studies have documented snowpack decline over the past 50 to...
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Scientists probe genetic component of climate-hardy species
Posted by ClimateWire: Laura Petersen on April 30th, 2011
ClimateWire: Douglas firs have more than 38,000 genes, roughly twice the number in the human genome. So any gene that has helped those trees survive extreme drought, heat and disease has been passed down through generations of seedlings.
"I think of them as the ultimate genomic pack rat," said Richard Cronn, a research geneticist at the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. "They save everything, and they have been saving things for millions of years. You never know when you are going to have...