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Categories: Energy: Fossil Fuels, Environmental: Ecosystems
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 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 Increased atmospheric dust is masking greenhouse gases' warming effect
(via sciencedaily.com) A study shows that global atmospheric dust -- microscopic airborne particles from desert dust storms -- has a slight overall cooling effect on the planet that has hidden the full amount of warming caused by greenhouse gases. Climate change could accelerate slightly if dust levels stop climbing.
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 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 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 Forests can help manage water amid development, climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Riparian buffers helped maintain stream flow in localized areas of a developing watershed of North Carolina, a recent study found. The study projected the effect of riparian buffers amid development and climate change.
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 Indigenous territories and protected areas are key to forest conservation in the Brazilian Amazon, study shows
(via sciencedaily.com) A U.S.-Brazilian study using time series satellite images from 2000 to 2021 reveals the vital role of Indigenous territories and protected areas for forest conservation in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as calls attention to the negative impacts of weakened governmental conservation policies in recent years.
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.
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 Cheap, sustainable hydrogen through solar power
(via sciencedaily.com) A new kind of solar panel has achieved 9% efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen--mimicking a crucial step in natural photosynthesis. Outdoors, it represents a major leap in the technology, nearly 10 times more efficient than solar water-splitting experiments of its kind.
Published A step towards solar fuels out of thin air
(via sciencedaily.com) Chemical engineers have invented a solar-powered artificial leaf, built on a novel electrode which is transparent and porous, capable of harvesting water from the air for conversion into hydrogen fuel. The semiconductor-based technology is scalable and easy to prepare.
Published Reef fish must relearn the 'rules of engagement' after coral bleaching
(via sciencedaily.com) Mass coral bleaching events are making it harder for some species of reef fish to identify competitors, new research reveals. Scientists studying reefs across five Indo-Pacific regions found that the ability of butterflyfish individuals to identify competitor species and respond appropriately was compromised after widespread loss of coral caused by bleaching. This change means they make poorer decisions that leave them less able to avoid unnecessary fights, using up precious limited energy.
Published Slime for the climate, delivered by brown algae
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers now show. They reveal that the algal mucus called fucoidan is particularly responsible for this carbon removal and estimate that brown algae could thus remove up to 550 million tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year -- almost the amount of Germany's entire annual greenhouse gas emissions.
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 Bird diversity increased in severely burned forests of Southern Appalachian mountains
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study found bird diversity increased in North Carolina mountain forest areas severely burned by wildfire in 2016, reinforcing that while wildfire can pose risks to safety and property, it can be beneficial to wildlife. The study results could help forest managers better predict bird responses to wildfire, and manage forests to benefit birds.