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Categories: Ecology: General, Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published Rare opportunity to study short-lived volcanic island reveals sulfur-metabolizing microbes
(via sciencedaily.com) On the short-lived island of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai, researchers discovered a unique microbial community that metabolizes sulfur and atmospheric gases, similar to organisms found in deep sea vents or hot springs.
Published A changing flood recipe for Las Vegas
(via sciencedaily.com) Las Vegas, with its rapid urbanization and desert landscape, is highly vulnerable to flooding. For this reason, flood managers have built an extensive system of drainage ditches and detention basins to protect the public. Now, a new study shows how intentional engineering and urban development are interacting with climate change to alter the timing and intensity of flood risk.
Published Biodiversity safeguards bird communities under a changing climate
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study shows that North American bird communities containing functionally diverse species have changed less under climate change during the past 50 years than functionally simple communities.
Published Science of sediment transport key to river conservation and protection
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have devised a better way to measure how fast sediment flows in rivers -- information that can help scientists and planners better prepare for flooding and weather-related events, understand salmon activity and even restore rivers.
Published Climate change likely to uproot more Amazon trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Tropical forests are crucial for sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But they're also subject to intense storms that can cause 'windthrow' -- the uprooting or breaking of trees. A new study finds that more extreme thunderstorms from climate change will likely cause a greater number of large windthrow events in the Amazon, which could impact the rainforest's ability to serve as a carbon sink.
Published Climate conundrum: Study finds ants aren't altering behavior in rising temperatures
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study finds that ants are not adjusting their behavior in response to warming temperatures, persisting in sub-optimal microhabitats even when optimal ones were present. The finding suggests ants may not be able to adjust their behavior in response to warming ecosystems.
Published When migrating birds go astray, disturbances in magnetic field may be partly to blame
(via sciencedaily.com) Disturbances to Earth's magnetic field can lead birds astray -- a phenomenon scientists call 'vagrancy' -- even in perfect weather, and especially during fall migration. While other factors such as weather likely play bigger roles in causing vagrancy, researchers found a strong correlation between birds that were captured far outside of their expected range and the geomagnetic disturbances that occurred during both fall and spring migrations.
Published NASA says 2022 fifth warmest year on record, warming trend continues
(via sciencedaily.com) Earth's average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Continuing the planet's long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.89 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA's baseline period (1951-1980), scientists report.
Published Using machine learning to help monitor climate-induced hazards
(via sciencedaily.com) Combining satellite technology with machine learning may allow scientists to better track and prepare for climate-induced natural hazards, according to new research.
Published That sinking feeling: Are ice roads holding up under January's unseasonable warmth?
(via sciencedaily.com) Vital winter ice road infrastructure may be cracking and sinking under the load of an unseasonably warm start to the new year across Europe and North America. New research warns that ice roads, essential for moving people, food, medicine and fuel in remote northern communities, as well as heavy machinery used by industry, may become unsustainable as the climate warms. This poses significant issues this century.
Published Better access to sunlight could be lifeline for corals worldwide
(via sciencedaily.com) When it comes to preserving the world's coral reefs, what's going on above the surface is as important as what's going on below it, according to new research.
Published Landscaping for drought: We're doing it wrong
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Despite recent, torrential rains, most of Southern California remains in a drought. Accordingly, many residents plant trees prized for drought tolerance, but a new study shows that these trees lose this tolerance once they're watered.
Published Exotic wheat DNA helps breed 'climate-proof' crops
(via sciencedaily.com) Wheat containing exotic DNA from wild relatives benefits from up to 50 per cent higher yields in hot weather compared with elite lines lacking these genes.
Published Is 'fear' driving bias in environmental scholarship?
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists understand that fear of predation affects animal behavior within landscapes. Now researchers are using a similar hypothesis -- which they are calling 'social-ecological landscapes of fear' -- to outline the detrimental effects of conservationists' failure to address negative human histories in their research.
Published Climate 'presses' and 'pulses' impact Magellanic penguins -- a marine predator -- with guidance for conservationists
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate change will reshape ecosystems through two types of events: short-term, extreme events -- or 'pulses' -- and long-term changes, or 'presses.' Understanding the effects of presses and pulses is essential as conservationists and policymakers try to preserve ecosystems and safeguard biodiversity. Researchers have discovered how different presses and pulses impacted Magellanic penguins -- a migratory marine predator -- over nearly four decades and found that, though individual presses and pulses impacted penguins in a variety of ways, both were equally important for the future survival of the penguin population. They also found that these types of climate changes, taken together, are leading to an overall population decline at their historically largest breeding site.
Published Warming oceans have decimated marine parasites -- but that's not a good thing
(via sciencedaily.com) Save the ... parasites? Analyzing 140 years of parasite abundance in fish shows dramatic declines, especially in parasites that rely on three or more host species. The decline is linked to warming ocean temperatures. Parasitic species might be in real danger, researchers warn -- and that means not just fewer worms, but losses for the entire ecosystem.
Published Marine plankton tell the long story of ocean health, and maybe human too
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers suggest that rising levels of humanmade chemicals, accumulating in marine plankton, might be used to monitor the impact of human activity on ecosystem health and perhaps study links between ocean pollution and land-based rates of childhood and adult chronic illnesses.
Published Study details impact of prairie dog plague die-off on other species
(via sciencedaily.com) This study, conducted from 2015-19 in the Thunder Basin National Grassland, may be the first to specifically examine the multispecies impacts of a wide-scale plague outbreak, which reduced the area covered by prairie dog colonies from nearly 25,000 acres to only about 125 acres in the study area. The 2017 outbreak was followed by abnormally high precipitation in 2018, which caused vegetation to grow quickly and taller without the presence of prairie dogs. The researchers found that the mountain plover, birds that thrive when vegetation is kept shorter by prairie dogs, almost disappeared from the study area, while migrant songbirds such as the lark bunting, which prefer taller vegetation, increased in number. Meanwhile, species including ferruginous hawks, badgers and swift foxes declined dramatically as their prey base crashed.
Published Fathoming the hidden heatwaves that threaten coral reefs
(via sciencedaily.com) The severity of marine heatwaves (MHWs) that are increasingly impacting ocean ecosystems, including vulnerable coral reefs, has primarily been assessed using remotely sensed sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), without information relevant to heating across ecosystem depths. Here, using a rare combination of SST, high-resolution in-situ temperatures, and sea level anomalies observed over 15 years near Moorea, French Polynesia, we document subsurface MHWs that have been paradoxical in comparison to SST metrics and associated with unexpected coral bleaching across depths. Variations in the depth range and severity of MHWs was driven by mesoscale (10s to 100s of km) eddies that altered sea levels and thermocline depths and decreased (2007, 2017 and 2019) or increased (2012, 2015, 2016) internal-wave cooling.
Published Invasive rats transform reef fish behavior
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have discovered for the first time that invasive rats on tropical islands are affecting the territorial behavior of fish on surrounding coral reefs. The new study shows that the presence of invasive black rats on tropical islands is causing changes in the territorial behavior of the jewel damselfish -- a herbivorous species of tropical reef fish that 'farm' algae in the branches of corals.