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Human evolution driven by sudden climate change
Posted by TG Daily: Kate Taylor on December 27th, 2012
TG Daily: Erratic changes in the East African climate around two million years ago may have been the driving force behind human evolution, say researchers at Penn State and Rutgers University.
Scientists have long been aware that, around this time, the environment gradually dried out, in a process that took up to three million years. But, says the team, this wasn't a steady process: instead, the environment was highly variable.
"The landscape early humans were inhabiting transitioned rapidly back and...
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Extreme weather forecast for Eastern US
Posted by TG Daily: Kate Taylor on December 18th, 2012
TG Daily: The US East Coast is set for a big rise in heat waves and storms, a study using the world's fastest supercomputer has shown.
Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, say that heat waves will become more severe in most of the eastern US, and that both the Northeast and Southeast will see a drastic increase in precipitation.
Using the Jaguar supercomputer - now Titan, the fastest in the world - the researchers combined high-resolution topography, land use information and climate...
Thawing permafrost could lead to massive carbon release
Posted by TG Daily: Kate Taylor on October 29th, 2012
TG Daily: As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost could be released into the environment over the next century by the effects of global warming.
This is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today, and its release could have a serious impact onecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes.
"This study quantifies the impact on Earth's two most important chemical cycles, carbon and nitrogen, from thawing...
Climate models may underestimate extinction rates
Posted by TG Daily: Kate Taylor on January 6th, 2012
TG Daily: We may be being grossly complacent about the scale of species extinctions caused by climate change, according to US scientists.
Predictions of the loss of animal and plant diversity around the world fail to account for species competition and movement, they say.
"We have really sophisticated meteorological models for predicting climate change," says ecologist Mark Urban of the University of Connecticut.
"But in real life, animals move around, they compete, they parasitize each other and...
Climate change could hit Western US water supply
Posted by TG Daily: Kate Taylor on April 26th, 2011
TG Daily: Climate change is likely to cut water flow in many of the American West's rivers by as much as a fifth, a report from the Interior Department warns. The affected rivers supply water to eight US states.
The report to Congress by the Department's Bureau of Reclamation examines future water supplies across eight major river basins, including the Colorado, Rio Grande and Missouri.
"Water is the lifeblood of our communities, rural and urban economies, and our environment, and small changes in water...