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Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier Vulnerable to La Niña Events, Researchers Find
Posted by Nature World: None Given on January 3rd, 2014
Nature World: Pine Island Glacier melting is more vulnerable to climatic variations caused by La Niña events than previously assumed, a new study reported.
The present study was conducted by researchers at British Antarctic Survey along with their colleagues at University of Washington and other institutions. The team found that the melting of the ice-shelf decreased by 50 percent between the years 2010 and 2012.
La Nina might have led to this decrease in melting, according to the researchers. La Niña is...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier Vulnerable to La Niña Events, Researchers FindFreshwater Loss Could Double Agricultural Losses Tied to Climate Change
Posted by Nature World: None Given on December 17th, 2013
Nature World: Freshwater shortages could double the effects of climate change on agriculture yields, a new study combining climate, agricultural and hydrological models found.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study estimates that climate change alone could result in a loss of between 400-2,600 petacalories of food supply, or 8 to 43 percent of present day levels. Add projected declines of freshwater into the mix and this could jump an additional 600-2,900 petacalories, the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Freshwater Loss Could Double Agricultural Losses Tied to Climate ChangeIn South American Highlands, Disease is Killing Frogs While Climate Change Threats Loom
Posted by Nature World: None Given on December 13th, 2013
Nature World: A study of declining frog populations in the Andes Mountains reveals that disease is accelerating their death.
A deadly fungus is striking the mountain frogs, which San Francisco State University professor Vance Vredenburg said is notable because it's not the cause of death many had suspected. Increasing temperatures, even at the high altitudes of the Andes, were initially believed to play a role in the frogs' death.
Vredenburg and his colleagues found that frogs living at higher elevations...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In South American Highlands, Disease is Killing Frogs While Climate Change Threats LoomScientists Seek Origin of Deadly Disease Plaguing Great Lakes Waterfowl
Posted by Nature World: None Given on November 27th, 2013
Nature World: Researchers have developed a new way to track a deadly disease wreaking havoc on the water bird population of the Great Lakes region.
Type E botulism is a neuromuscular disease caused when birds ingest infected fish. With 10,000 more waterfowl dying in 2007 from the sickness compared to when it was first reported 50 years ago, ocean engineers from the Florida Atlantic University Institute for Ocean Systems Engineering have teamed up with the US Geological Survey in order to track waterfowl carcasses...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists Seek Origin of Deadly Disease Plaguing Great Lakes WaterfowlBefore and After Satellite Images of Leyte Highlight Damage Caused by Haiyan
Posted by Nature World: None Given on November 24th, 2013
Nature World: Before and after NASA satellite images of the island of Leyte, Philippines reveals just how much havoc Super Typhoon Haiyan wreaked after making landfall Nov. 8.
One of -- if not the -- largest storms to ever make landfall, Haiyan pounded Leyte with winds of rougly 195 miles per hour. As of Nov. 23, the death toll for the entire country had reached more than 5,200.
The images were taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Before and After Satellite Images of Leyte Highlight Damage Caused by HaiyanArctic Ice Melt May Shift Jet Stream South, Cause Rainy UK Summer
Posted by Nature World: None Given on October 30th, 2013
Nature World: A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters suggests that a loss of Arctic sea ice caused the jet stream to shift further south, thus contributing to an extraordinary run of wet summers experienced by Britain and northwest Europe between 2007 and 2012.
University of Exeter scientist James Screen uses a computer model to investigate the wet weather and whether it was linked to the melting of sea ice in the Arctic.
Screen's study "compared weather patterns during low sea...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic Ice Melt May Shift Jet Stream South, Cause Rainy UK SummerMercury Contamination: The Lesser-known Legacy of the California Gold Rush
Posted by Nature World: None Given on October 29th, 2013
Nature World: New research shows that sediment-adsorbed mercury -- a lesser known legacy of California's historic gold rush -- is being transported by major floods from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Central Valley lowlands where it is threatening to infiltrate a series of food webs.
These are the findings of Michael Singer, an associate researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Earth Resource Institute, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
His report reveals the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mercury Contamination: The Lesser-known Legacy of the California Gold RushAnother Fukushima Leak Likely Sends More Contaminated Water into Ocean
Posted by Nature World: None Given on October 3rd, 2013
Nature World: Another leak of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear campus was reported Thursday, and some of the water may have have reached the plant's harbor on the Pacific Ocean.
The water, which leaked out of a holding tank, contained 200,000 becquerels per liter of beta-emitting radioactive isotopes, including strontium 90. Levels of strontium 90 were found to be 6,667 times the legal limit, which is 30 becquerels per liter.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, said...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Another Fukushima Leak Likely Sends More Contaminated Water into OceanDiscovery Could Decrease Reliance on Nitrogen Fertilizers
Posted by Nature World: None Given on September 28th, 2013
Nature World: A new discovery could represent the first step in decreasing the amount of nitrogen used by crops and, ultimately, the use of nitrogen fertilizer, which is known to disrupt the water systems where it is found.
Gary Stacey, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Missouri, discovered that many crops become "confused" when faced with the invasive but beneficial rhizobia bacteria. When the bacteria interact correctly with the plant, a symbiotic relationship is created in which the bacteria...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Discovery Could Decrease Reliance on Nitrogen FertilizersForest Fragmentation can lead to ‘Ecological Armageddon’, Researchers Say
Posted by Nature World: None Given on September 28th, 2013
Nature World: Tropical forests are hotspots of biological diversity and currently occupy about 6 percent of earth's land surface, which is less than half of the area that they covered a few decades back. Conservationists claim disappearing forests would lead to extinction of many species of birds and animals.
The new study shows that we might have underestimated the effects of fragmented forest cover on animal survival. Large developmental projects such as dams, roads, mines and industries are the main reasons...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Forest Fragmentation can lead to ‘Ecological Armageddon’, Researchers Say