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How climate change could make mercury pollution worse
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on September 26th, 2013
LiveScience: Mercury pollution and climate change are both unintended consequences of burning fossil fuels for centuries. A new study finds another link between the two problems: Climate change has the potential to make mercury pollution worse.
Mercury is a particularly persistent pollutant, and sticks around in surface waters and the air for centuries, said Dave Krabbenhoft, a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey in Middleton, Wis. As a volatile metal, it vaporizes at relatively low temperatures, and...
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What’s causing oil sheens near Deepwater Horizon spill site?
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on July 16th, 2013
LiveScience: Recurrent sheens of oil in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of 2010's Deepwater Horizon oil spill have baffled researchers and led to fears that oil may once again be spewing from the seafloor well. But a study published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology shows that there is no new leak: The oil is coming from isolated tanks and pockets within the wreckage of the sunken rig, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funded the research....
Antarctic Ice Shelves Melt Mostly From Below
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on June 13th, 2013
LiveScience: When iceberg chunks break off of floating ice shelves, it can serve as dramatic proof of melting -- and this traditionally has been considered the main way that these expanses of Antarctic ice become smaller. But new research reveals a disconcerting finding that is invisible to the naked eye: These ice shelves primarily melt from below.
Knowing what is driving ice-shelf melt is important because when ice shelves lose mass, they speed up the flow of land-bound glaciers that feed them, moving ice...
On the Brink: Climate Change Endangers Common Species
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on May 12th, 2013
LiveScience: A wide variety of plants and animals are likely to become much less common if something isn't done to avert the worst effects of a warming climate, new research suggests.
Under a "business as usual" scenario, where greenhouse gas emissions aren't significantly reduced, about 50 percent of plants and one-third of animals are likely to vanish from half of the places they are now found by 2080, said Rachel Warren, a researcher at the University of East Anglia in England. These losses could lead to...
Sweden: Drugs Leaked Into Rivers Make Fish Antisocial
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on February 14th, 2013
LiveScience: Drugs taken by humans can have unintended side effects -- on fish, in the natural environment. Turns out, fish fed extremely low concentrations of an antianxiety drug eat more quickly, and act bolder and more antisocial than their un-medicated peers, a new study finds.
"We can see profound effects at the low levels that we find in surface water. Exposed fish are more bold," Jerker Fick, a co-author and researcher at Umea University in Sweden, said at a news conference here at the annual meeting...
Sunlit Permafrost Unleashes Carbon at Faster Pace
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on February 11th, 2013
LiveScience: As ice melts in the Arctic it can expose the ancient carbon lurking in the once-hidden permafrost to the sun's rays. The result? Carbon dioxide is spewing into the atmosphere more quickly than previously thought, according to new research.
Studies have shown temperatures are rising in the Arctic. The warming has caused more ice-rich, permanently frozen soil (called permafrost) to thaw and melt, collapsing to create a gully or a landslide and exposing new layers of soil to the sun, according to...
Dispersant makes oil 52 times more toxic
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on November 30th, 2012
LiveScience: For microscopic animals living in the Gulf of Mexico, even worse than the toxic oil released during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster may be the very oil dispersants used to clean it up, a new study finds.
More than 2 million gallons (7.5 million liters) of oil dispersants called Corexit 9527A and 9500A were dumped into the gulf in an effort to prevent oil from reaching shore and to help it degrade more quickly.
However, when oil and Corexit are combined, the mixture becomes up to 52 times...
How Small Volcanic Eruptions Can Affect Global Climate
Posted by LiveScience: Douglas Main on July 5th, 2012
LiveScience: Even small volcanic eruptions could have a big impact on global climate, new research suggests.
A relatively small eruption in the summer of 2011 produced gases such as sulfur dioxide that reached high in the atmosphere and spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, combining with water vapor and forming particles that reflect light and prevent it from reaching Earth, thus potentially resulting in a cooling effect, according to a study detailed in the July 6 issue of the journal Science.
Previously,...