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Arctic sea ice extent breaks record low for winter
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 28th, 2016
Guardian: A record expanse of Arctic sea never froze over this winter and remained open water as a season of freakishly high temperatures produced deep – and likely irreversible – changes on the far north.
Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre said on Monday that the sea ice cover attained an average maximum extent of 14.52m sq km (5.607m sq miles) on 24 March, the lowest winter maximum since records began in 1979.
The low beats a record set only last year of 14.54m sq km (5.612m sq miles),...
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Water bears do not have extensive foreign DNA, new study finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 28th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Tardigrades, also known as moss piglets or water bears, are eight-legged microscopic animals that have long fascinated scientists for their ability to survive extremes of temperature, pressure, lack of oxygen, and even radiation exposure.
Now, a study has found that, contrary to a previous controversial proposal, tardigrades have not acquired a significant proportion of their DNA from other organisms.
Instead, new analysis from the University of Edinburgh shows that nearly all of what was proposed...
Climate change: Greenland melting tied shrinking Arctic sea ice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2016
Science Codex: Vanishing Arctic sea ice. Dogged weather systems over Greenland. Far-flung surface ice melting on the massive island.
These dramatic trends and global sea-level rise are linked, according to a study coauthored by Jennifer Francis, a research professor in Rutgers University's Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences.
During Greenland summers, melting Arctic sea ice favors stronger and more frequent "blocking-high" pressure systems, which spin clockwise, stay largely in place and can block cold,...
Scientists fly glacial ice to south pole to unlock secrets of global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 27th, 2016
Guardian: In a few weeks, researchers will begin work on a remarkable scientific project. They will drill deep into the Col du Dôme glacier on Mont Blanc and remove a 130 metre core of ice. Then they will fly it, in sections, by helicopter to a laboratory in Grenoble before shipping it to Antarctica. There the ice core will be placed in a specially constructed vault at the French-Italian Concordia research base, 1,000 miles from the south pole.
The Col du Dôme ice will become the first of several dozen...
Plants won’t boost warming as much as feared
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2016
Agence France-Presse: Vegetation will release far less extra carbon dioxide in a warming world than previously assumed, giving humans a bit more room in the fight against climate change, scientists reported recently. Despite this good news, efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions must still be stepped up to avoid dire climate impacts, the researchers cautioned. Earth`s plants and soil microbes absorb and exude huge quantities of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, the main driver of global warming. Over the course of a...
Botulism in waterbirds: Mortality rates and new insights into how it spreads
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Outbreaks of botulism killed large percentages of waterbirds inhabiting a wetland in Spain. During one season, more than 80 percent of gadwalls and black-winged stilts died. The botulinum toxin's spread may have been abetted by an invasive species of water snail which frequently carries the toxin-producing bacterium, Clostridium botulinum, and which is well adapted to wetlands polluted by sewage. Global warming will likely increase outbreaks, said corresponding author Rafael Mateo, PhD. The research...
Ancient bones point to shifting grassland species as climate changes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 26th, 2016
ScienceDaily: More rainfall during the growing season may have led to one of the most significant changes in Earth's vegetation in the distant past, and similar climate changes could affect the distribution of plants in the future as well, a new study suggests. In a report in Science Advances, an analysis was done of mammoth and bison hair, teeth and bones, along with other data. It concludes that a changing climate -- particularly increasing rainfall and not just atmospheric carbon dioxide -- explains the expansion...
Italy has just passed a law making supermarkets give their unsold food to charity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 25th, 2016
Independent: Italy has passed a law which will make supermarkets donate more of their waste food to charities.
The country is now the second in Europe to pass such a law, after a bill was introduced in France in February which fines retailers who throw away unsold food.
The bill received strong support from all parties, and was passed by the Italian parliament's lower house on Thursday. It is expected to get approval from the Senate this week.
Rather than penalising retailers who throw away food, the...
Tropical species are especially vulnerable to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 25th, 2016
PhysOrg: Changes in temperature and weather patterns pose a serious threat to the millions of animal, plant and fungi species found in the tropics. In an article published in Science, lead authors and biology Ph.D. students Timothy Perez and James Stroud explain how species found in environments such as the tropics have lower tolerances to climate change. With greater amounts of thermally sensitive species than environments found at higher latitudes, the threat of global climate change puts tropical species...
Ecological collapse circumscribes traditional women’s work in Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 24th, 2016
PhysOrg: For thousands of years, the marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq were an oasis of green in a dry landscape, hosting a wealth of wildlife. The culture of the Marsh Arab, or Ma'dan, people who live there is tightly interwoven with the ecosystem of the marshes. The once dense and ubiquitous common reed (Phragmites australis) served as raw material for homes, handicrafts, tools, and animal fodder for thousands of years. Distinctive mudhif communal houses, built...