RSS Feed
Arctic sea ice reaches new record low mark for wintertime
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2016
Telegraph: Arctic sea ice hit a record low level for the second straight year this month amid high winter temperatures over the Arctic Ocean, according to scientists.
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre says ice covered a maximum of 5.607 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean in 2016. That's 5,000 square miles less than the old record set in 2015 - a difference slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut.
It's also 431,000 square miles less than the 30-year average. That difference is the size...
Desert mangroves are major source of carbon storage, study shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Researchers found that short, stunted mangroves living along the coastal desert of Baja California store up to five times more carbon below ground than their lush, tropical counterparts. The new study led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego estimates that coastal desert mangroves, which only account for one percent of the land area, store nearly 30 percent of the region's belowground carbon.
"Mangroves represent a thin layer between ocean and land, and yet we...
2016 Arctic sea ice wintertime extent hits another record low
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 29th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Arctic sea ice appears to have reached a record low wintertime maximum extent for the second year in a row, according to scientists at the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA.
Every year, the cap of frozen seawater floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and its neighboring seas melts during the spring and summer and grows back in the fall and winter months, reaching its maximum yearly extent between February and April. On March 24, Arctic sea ice extent peaked at 5.607...
Half of U.S. oil is now fracked – but it might not stay that way
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 28th, 2016
Grist: The U.S. has quickly become a global fracking powerhouse, and it`s not slowing down.
According to a March report from the Energy Information Administration, hydraulic fracturing now accounts for more than half of all U.S. oil output per day, compared with 2 percent in 2000. America`s 300,000 fracking wells pumped out 4.3 million barrels per day in 2015 - a staggering figure when compared to the 102,000 barrels a day in 2000. That growth has allowed the U.S. to "increase its oil production faster...
Impacts of salinity determined for agave
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 28th, 2016
ScienceDaily: As groundwater levels decline, identifying plants that can thrive in low water conditions is increasingly important. A new study focused on Agave, a species that has the ability to be highly water-use efficient in hot, drought-prone environments. The authors said that Agave, traditionally used as a source of food, beverages, and fiber, has the potential to be cultivated more widely to produce alternative sweeteners, bioenergy, and for other end uses. They said that determining how Agave species respond...
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),...
Aboriginal Groups Trying Halt a Natural Gas Boom in Australia’s Northern Territory
Posted by Vice: Harry Pearl on March 28th, 2016
Vice: Conservationists and indigenous communities in northern Australia are gearing up for a fight, as some of the world's largest energy companies line up to frack the region for shale gas. Santos, Sasol, Inpex and, more recently, businessmen who have made billions from fracking in the United States have all been lured to the McArthur Basin in Australia's Northern Territory. American Energy Partners (AEP), the company established by US fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon — who died two weeks ago — has...
Global Warming Is Pushing Wine Harvests Earlier But Not Necessarily For The Better
Posted by Conversation: Benjamin I. Cook on March 28th, 2016
Conversation: Wine grapes are one of the most valuable horticultural crops in the world, a globally important industry with commercial vineyards on six continents and all 50 U.S. states. Like many crops, these vineyards, and their grapes, are extremely sensitive to temperature and rainfall during the growing season.
Climate and weather can affect the timing of harvest, the amount of fruit produced and even the ultimate quality of the wine. And with warming from human greenhouse gas emissions already manifesting...
Map: Here’s where the world is running out of groundwater
Posted by Vox: None Given on March 28th, 2016
Vox: Some of the world's most important farming regions rely on freshwater from large underground aquifers that have filled up slowly over thousands of years. Think of the Central Valley aquifer system in California. Or the Indus basin in Pakistan and India. This groundwater is particularly valuable when rain is scarce or during droughts.
But that groundwater may not last forever. Data from NASA's Grace satellites suggests that 13 of the world's 37 biggest aquifers are being seriously depleted by irrigation...
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...