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Categories: Ecology: Trees, Paleontology: Climate
Published In the Neanderthal site of Combe-Grenal, France, hunting strategies were unaffected by changing climate
(via sciencedaily.com) Neanderthals in Combe-Grenal (France) preferred to hunt in open environments, and their hunting strategies did not alter during periods of climatic change, according to a new study.
Published Special drone collects environmental DNA from trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a flying device that can land on tree branches to take samples. This opens up a new dimension for scientists previously reserved for for biodiversity researchers.
Published Global warming reaches central Greenland
(via sciencedaily.com) A temperature reconstruction from ice cores of the past 1,000 years reveals that today's warming in central-north Greenland is surprisingly pronounced. The most recent decade surveyed in a study, the years 2001 to 2011, was the warmest in the past 1,000 years, and the region is now 1.5 °C warmer than during the 20th century, as researchers report. Using a set of ice cores unprecedented in length and quality, they reconstructed past temperatures in central-north Greenland and melting rates of the ice sheet.
Published Our future climate depends partly on soil microbes -- but how are they affected by climate change?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The largest terrestrial carbon sink on Earth is the planet's soil. One of the big fears is that a warming planet will liberate significant portions of the soil's carbon, turning it into carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, and so further accelerate the pace of planetary warming. A key player in this story is the microbe, the predominant form of life on Earth, and which can either turn organic carbon -- the fallen leaves, rotting tree stumps, dead roots and other organic matter -- into soil, or release it into the atmosphere as CO2. Now, an international team of researchers has helped to untangle one of the knottiest questions involving soil microbes and climate change: what effect does a warming planet have on the microbes' carbon cycling?
Published Climate change presents a mismatch for songbirds' breeding season
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Climate change presents a mismatch for some breeding songbirds, finds a new study using a decade of nestbox data.
Published Study offers most detailed glimpse yet of planet's last 11,000 summers and winters
(via sciencedaily.com) An international team of collaborators have revealed the most detailed look yet at the planet's recent climactic history, including summer and winter temperatures dating back 11,000 years to the beginning of what is known as the Holocene.
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 Rodent extinctions in Hispaniola may have been caused by humans
(via sciencedaily.com) Hispaniola once had among the highest diversity of rodents in the Caribbean. Today, only one rodent species remains, and its prospects for survival are uncertain. New carbon dates place the blame squarely on humans.
Published Forests recovering from logging act as a source of carbon
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Tropical forests recovering from logging are sources of carbon for years afterwards, contrary to previous assumptions, finds a new study.
Published New York City's greenery absorbs a surprising amount of its carbon emissions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study of vegetation across New York City and some densely populated adjoining areas has found that on many summer days, photosynthesis by trees and grasses absorbs all the carbon emissions produced by cars, trucks and buses, and then some. The surprising result, based on new hyper-local vegetation maps, points to the underappreciated importance of urban greenery in the carbon cycle.
Published Climate change could cause 'disaster' in the world's oceans
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Climate change will slow down deep overturning ocean circulation in the coming centuries. Using three dozen Earth system models, researchers have concluded that the Southern Meridional Overturning Circulation could completely shut down by 2300, causing disaster to the marine ecosystem on a large portion of the planet.
Published Bering Land Bridge formed surprisingly late during last ice age
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study that reconstructs the history of sea level at the Bering Strait shows that the Bering Land Bridge connecting Asia to North America did not emerge until around 35,700 years ago, less than 10,000 years before the height of the last ice age (known as the Last Glacial Maximum). The findings indicate that the growth of the ice sheets -- and the resulting drop in sea level -- occurred surprisingly quickly and much later in the glacial cycle than previous studies had suggested.
Published Rwandan tree carbon stock mapped from above
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed accurate nation-wide mapping of the carbon content of trees based on aerial images.
Published UK woodlands could store almost twice as much carbon as previously estimated
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source UK forests could store almost double the amount of carbon than previous calculations suggest, with consequences for our understanding of carbon stocks and humanity's response to climate change, according to a new study.
Published Orangutan communication sheds light on human speech origins
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research finds orangutans communicate using a complex repertoire of consonant-like calls, more so than African apes. Previous research has only linked the evolution of human language with the voiced-vowel sounds produced by non-human primates, despite human language being composed of vowel and consonant sounds. Orangutans' tree-dwelling nature means they use their mouth, lips and jaw as a 'fifth hand', unlike ground-dwelling African apes. Their sophisticated use of their mouths, mean orangutans communicate using a rich variety of consonant sounds.
Published Early forests did not significantly change the atmospheric CO2
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered that the atmosphere contained far less CO2 than previously thought when forests emerged on our planet, the new study has important implications for understanding how land plants affect the climate.
Published New theory on timing for human settlement of some parts of tropical Pacific
(via sciencedaily.com) Spread across vast distances, the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean are thought to have been populated by humans in two distinct migrations beginning approximately 3,330 years ago. The first followed a northern route out of what is today the Philippines and the second followed a southern route from Taiwan and New Guinea. People arrived on the islands between these routes -- now making up the Federated States of Micronesia -- about 1,000 years later. But a new finding by sea-level researchers suggests that the islands in Micronesia were possibly settled much earlier than supposed and that voyagers on the two routes may have interacted with one another.
Published Linking fossil climate proxies to living bacteria helps climate predictions
(via sciencedaily.com) Fossilized microbial skins can give us a glimpse of how the climate was in the deep geological past. By discovering the 'missing link' between such fossil skins and the skins of living bacteria, researchers have greatly improved the accuracy of climate reconstructions and predictions.
Published Climate change played key role in dinosaur success story
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate change, rather than competition, played a key role in the ascendancy of dinosaurs through the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods.
Published Wood-eating clams use their feces to dominate their habitat
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers didn't know what to make of sunken pieces of wood that were so thoroughly chewed-up by clams that the wood crumbled in their hands. It turns out, the super-chewer wood-eating clams had a secret weapon for forcing out other species. The clams, who have special adaptations that let them survive in dirty, low-oxygen water, built chimneys out of their own feces, making the wood a 'crappy' home for any animal except them.