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UT researchers link algae to harmful oestrogen-like compound in water
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on February 17th, 2011
Science Centric: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers have found that blue-green algae may be responsible for producing an oestrogen-like compound in the environment which could disrupt the normal activity of reproductive hormones and adversely affect fish, plants and human health. Previously, human activities were thought solely responsible for producing these impacts.
Theodore Henry, an adjunct professor for UT Knoxville's Centre for Environmental Biotechnology and faculty at the University of Plymouth,...
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Pakistan floods last summer could have been predicted
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on February 1st, 2011
Science Centric: Five days before intense monsoonal deluges unleashed vast floods across Pakistan last July, computer models at a European weather-forecasting centre were giving clear indications that the downpours were imminent. Now, a new scientific study that retrospectively examines the raw data from these computer models, has confirmed that, if the information had been processed, forecasters could have predicted extremely accurate rainfall totals 8-10 days beforehand.
The study also finds that the floods...
More frequent drought likely in eastern Africa
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 29th, 2011
Science Centric: The increased frequency of drought observed in eastern Africa over the last 20 years is likely to continue as long as global temperatures continue to rise, according to new research published in Climate Dynamics.
This poses increased risk to the estimated 17.5 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa who currently face potential food shortages.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California, Santa Barbara, determined that warming of the Indian Ocean, which causes...
Rogue storm system caused Pakistan floods that left millions homeless
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 25th, 2011
Science Centric: Last summer's disastrous Pakistan floods that killed more than 2,000 people and left more than 20 million injured or homeless were caused by a rogue weather system that wandered hundreds of miles farther west than is normal for such systems, new research shows.
Storm systems that bring widespread, long-lasting rain over eastern India and Bangladesh form over the Bay of Bengal, at the east edge of India, said Robert Houze, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor. But Pakistan,...
First-ever global map of surface permeability informs water supply, climate modelling
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 24th, 2011
Science Centric: University of British Columbia researchers have produced the first map of the world outlining the ease of fluid flow through the planet's porous surface rocks and sediments.
The maps and data, published Friday in Geophysical Research Letters, could help improve water resource management and climate modelling, and eventually lead to new insights into a range of geological processes.
'This is the first global-scale picture of near-surface permeability, and is based on rock type data at greater...
Scientists find industrial pollutants in Eastern Lake Erie carp
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 22nd, 2011
Science Centric: Researchers from Upstate New York institutions, including the University at Buffalo, have documented elevated levels of two industrial pollutants in carp in eastern Lake Erie, adding to the body of scientific work demonstrating the lasting environmental effects of human activity and waste disposal on the Great Lakes.
The two contaminants the scientists studied were polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), manmade organic compounds once used in products including motor oils, adhesives, paints, plastics,...
Eggs show arctic mercury cycling may be linked to ice cover
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 21st, 2011
Science Centric: An international research team working with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists at the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) in Charleston, S.C., has suggested for the first time that mercury cycling in the flora and fauna of the Arctic may be linked to the amount of ice cover present. Their study is the latest work reported from the Seabird Tissue Archival and Monitoring Project (STAMP), a multiyear joint effort of NIST, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the U.S....
UC Davis study shows plants moved downhill, not up, in warming world
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 21st, 2011
Science Centric: In a paper published today in the journal Science, a University of California, Davis, researcher and his co-authors challenge a widely held assumption that plants will move uphill in response to warmer temperatures.
Between 1930 and 2000, instead of colonising higher elevations to maintain a constant temperature, many California plant species instead moved downhill an average of 260 feet, said Jonathan Greenberg, an assistant project scientist at the UC Davis Centre for Spatial Technologies and...
Loss of reflectivity in the Arctic doubles estimate of climate models
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 19th, 2011
Science Centric: A new analysis of the Northern Hemisphere's 'albedo feedback' over a 30-year period concludes that the region's loss of reflectivity due to snow and sea ice decline is more than double what state-of-the-art climate models estimate.
The findings are important, researchers say, because they suggest that Arctic warming amplified by the loss of reflectivity could be even more significant than previously thought.
The study was published online this week in Nature Geoscience. It was funded primarily...
Shrinking snow and ice cover intensify global warming
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on January 19th, 2011
Science Centric: The decreases in Earth's snow and ice cover over the past 30 years have exacerbated global warming more than models predict they should have, on average, new research from the University of Michigan shows.
To conduct this study, Mark Flanner, assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, analysed satellite data showing snow and ice during the past three decades in the Northern Hemisphere, which holds the majority of the planet's frozen surface area. The research...