RSS Feed
Author Archive
Alarming Decline in Sockeye Salmon
Posted by Discovery News: Emily Sohn on July 12th, 2012
Discovery News: Every year, millions of adult salmon return from the ocean to their home streams, where they lay eggs and produce the next generation of fish. But far fewer sockeye salmon are making it back to their freshwater mating grounds compared to a few decades ago, and that's seriously affecting population sizes of the species throughout the Northwest, from Alaska to Washington State.
The discovery suggests that changing ocean conditions may be making life harder for some groups of wild salmon -- possibly...
Posted in 
Climate Change May Have Doomed Neanderthals
Posted by Discovery News: Emily Sohn on November 18th, 2011
Discovery News: When climate took a turn toward the cold tens of thousands of years ago, both Neanderthals and early humans started traveling further distances to find food, found a new study.
As a result, the two groups encountered each other often.. And a consequent boom in inter-species liaisons eventually led to the extinction of Neanderthals.
While much of the theory remains controversial, the study adds to growing evidence that Neanderthals developed advanced cultures and that they adapted to changes...
Alaska Natives First to Feel the Heat
Posted by Discovery News: Emily Sohn on September 26th, 2011
Discovery News: Although climate studies offer plenty of projections about how the world might change as the Earth warms up, it's easy for people to imagine that those numbers don't apply to them.
A new study offers a wake-up call. Climate change doesn't just have the potential to alter people's lives -- it already has.
For the Yup'ik people of Alaska, who still depend on hunting, gathering and fishing for much of their subsistence, interviews showed that warmer temperatures and thinner ice in recent years...
Climate Change To Spawn More Wildfires
Posted by Discovery News: Emily Sohn on July 25th, 2011
Discovery News: Severe wildfires are becoming common in the northern Rockies, as a result of climate change.
By the end of the century, large fires are likely to strike 10 times more often.
At risk are many types of plants, animals and people who live in the mountainous west.
As Earth's climate warms up, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons are likely to experience large fires more frequently, according to a new study. Within just a few decades, big fires may become as much as 10 times more common...
Climate Changes Linked to Fall of Roman Empire
Posted by Discovery News: Emily Sohn on January 13th, 2011
Discovery News: A prolonged period of wet weather spurred the spread of the Bubonic plague in medieval times, according to a new study. And a 300-year spell of unpredictable weather coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire.
Climate change wasn't necessarily the cause of these and other major historical events, researchers say. But the study, which pieced together a year-by-year history of temperature and precipitation in Western Europe, dating back 2,500 years, offers the most detailed picture yet of how...