Tag Archive for 'Climate'

Finney et al find a 15% decrease in total lightning flash rate in 2100 under a strong global warming scenario.

Lightning May Strike Less Often in Future as Earth Warms, New Study Suggests

Feb 14, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Lancaster University and the Universities of Edinburgh and Leeds, UK, forecasts a 15% drop in the average number of lightning...

Research conducted in laboratories has previously shown that bacteria can stay alive at extremely cold temperatures, but the new study by Redeker et al is the first time that bacteria have been observed altering the polar snow environment in situ. Image credit: Robyn M.

Researchers Directly Observe Microbial Activity in Polar Snow for First Time

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

An international team led by University of York researchers has directly observed microbial activity in Antarctic and Arctic snow — an environment...

Mars may have been enveloped in a steamy atmosphere as the planet’s crust cooled and solidified. That ‘steam bath’ could have created many of the clay mineral deposits that have long been attributed to water flow on or just beneath the Martian surface. Image credit: Kevin Cannon.

Research Suggests Martian Clays Formed in Ancient ‘Steam Bath’

Dec 7, 2017 by News Staff

On Mars, phyllosilicate (clay) minerals are widespread in terrains that date back to the Noachian period, 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. Phyllosilicates...

This piece of papyrus from the mid-third century BC describes a period of famine in Egypt that occurred when the Nile River failed to flood for several years in a row. It was collected from the Egyptian city of Edfu. Image credit: Department of Papyrology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw.

Massive Volcanic Eruptions Linked to Revolts in Ptolemaic Egypt

Oct 18, 2017 by News Staff

A Yale University-led study suggests that abrupt shifts in climate caused by massive volcanic eruptions helped to trigger poorly understood revolts —...

Prehistoric rock paintings in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Image credit: David Stanley / CC BY 2.0.

Humans Migrated Out of Africa to Escape Drying Climate, New Study Says

Oct 17, 2017 by News Staff

Ancient humans left Africa to escape a drying climate, about 60,000 years ago — a finding that contradicts previous suggestions that humens were...

Pluto’s bladed terrain as seen from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its July 2015 flyby. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Planetary Researchers Solve Mystery of Pluto’s ‘Bladed Terrain’

Sep 27, 2017 by News Staff

Strange formations are found at the highest altitudes on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. They resemble giant knife blades of ice and can soar many...

Light and color would look different on a planet orbiting a tiny red star, like this artist’s impression of Proxima b. The Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone is the nearest exoplanet to our Sun. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Proxima b: Researchers Take First Steps to Explore Climate of Nearby Exoplanet

May 17, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists and meteorology experts from the University of Exeter and the UK’s Met Office have embarked on the first, tentative steps to...

Map of the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico), showing the mean annual temperature and the magnitude of the β coefficients from the obesity-adjusted meta-regression analysis, per state or territory over the period 1996–2009. The β coefficient from meta-regression analysis, representing the difference in diabetes incidence rate per 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature; red circles indicate a positive β coefficient, while blue circles indicate a negative β coefficient. Adjusted for the effect of time passage. Diabetes incidence rate is the age-adjusted diabetes incidence rate per 1,000. Image credit: Lisanne L. Blauw et al, doi: 10.1136/bmjdrc-2016-000317.

Rising Global Temperatures Could Be Contributing to Worldwide Diabetes Epidemic

Mar 21, 2017 by News Staff

Growing global temperatures may be playing a part in the rising numbers of people developing type 2 diabetes, suggests new research from the Leiden University...

Temperature and humidity of ancestral environment are linked to differences in nostril width across human populations. Image credit: Paul Topinard.

Study: Climate Shaped Human Nose

Mar 17, 2017 by News Staff

Humans inherit their nose shape from their parents, but ultimately, the shape of someone’s nose and that of their parents was formed by a long process...

Neolithic rock art in Tassili n’Ajjer National Park, Sahara, Algeria. Image credit: Patrick Gruban, Munich, Germany / CC BY-SA 2.0.

African Neolithic Populations Helped Create Sahara Desert, Research Suggests

Mar 15, 2017 by News Staff

The desertification of the Sahara — the largest hot desert and the third largest desert in the world — has long been a target for researchers...

Culex pipiens f. molestus, the mosquito species unique to the London Underground. Image credit: Walkabout12 / CC BY-SA.

Humans Now Drive Evolution on Earth, both Creating and Destroying Species

Jul 5, 2016 by Mark Maslin, University College London

Culex pipiens f. molestus, the mosquito species unique to the London Underground. Image credit: Walkabout12 / CC BY-SA. When scientists examine the impact...

This artist’s concept depicts a super-Earth. Image credit: NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech.

Salt Levels of Oceans on Earth-Like Exoplanets Could Have Major Effect on Their Climates

Apr 4, 2016 by News Staff

A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the circulation in fresh water or salty oceans on terrestrial...

The forest bumblebee (Bombus sylvicola) is one of two bumblebee species in the central Rocky Mountains that has responded to a decline in flowering in alpine habitats by evolving a shorter tongue. Image credit: Nicole Miller-Struttman.

Study: Global Warming Shrinking Tongues of Alpine Bumblebees

Sep 25, 2015 by News Staff

A new study in the journal Science shows that two alpine bumblebee species have responded to a decline in flowering due to warming temperatures by evolving...

Tasiilaq, Greenland. Image credit: Christine Zenino / CC BY 2.0.

New Study Finds Mosquitoes Thriving in Greenland

Sep 16, 2015 by News Staff

Warming temperatures are causing mosquitoes in Greenland to grow faster and emerge earlier, boosting their population and threatening the caribou they...

Early canids Hesperocyon (left) and Sunkahetanka were both ambush-style predators. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Canids Evolved with Climate Change, Says New Study

Aug 19, 2015 by News Staff

A new study of North American canid fossils published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that the evolutionary path of the family Canidae (dogs...

This image depicts a Pleistocene landscape in northern Spain with woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), equids, a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), and European cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea). Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Abrupt Warming Led to Demise of Woolly Mammoths, Scientists Say

Jul 23, 2015 by News Staff

Short, rapid warming events, known as interstadials, coincided with major extinction events, according to a team of scientists from Australia and the United...

The Southern Ocean’s clouds can cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight that would otherwise be absorbed by the darker ocean below, and phytoplankton help with that. Image credit: NASA.

Phytoplankton Play Significant Role in Generating Brighter Clouds over Southern Ocean

Jul 20, 2015 by News Staff

A study of clouds over the Southern Ocean reveals how tiny natural particles given off by marine phytoplankton nearly double cloud droplet numbers in the...

Around 212 million years ago in what is now northern New Mexico, early dinosaurs such as the meat-eating dinosaur in background were small and rare, whereas other reptiles such as the long-snouted phytosaurs and armored aetosaurs were quite common. Image credit: Victor Leshyk.

Why Early Dinosaurs Were Small and Rare in Tropics

Jun 16, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on why early dinosaurs were small, rare and species-poor in tropical...

Everest and Khumbu glacier in the Dudh Koshi basin. Image credit: Patrick Wagnon.

Everest Glaciers Very Sensitive to Global Warming, Researchers Say

May 28, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of scientists led by Dr Joseph Shea of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal, if greenhouse-gas...

Bora Bora, the Society Islands of French Polynesia. Image credit: Maria Michelle.

Global Sea Level Rise is Accelerating, Says New Study

May 12, 2015 by News Staff

An analysis of satellite data collected during 1993-2014 has revealed a more accurate picture of global sea level rise, showing that it is happening much...

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