Geography Report

Research into carbon storage in Arctic tundra reveals unexpected insight into ecosystem resiliency

Saturday, May 25, 2013 00:00 MST

When UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Seeta Sistla and her advisor, environmental studies professor Josh Schimel, went north not long ago to study how long-term warming in the Arctic affects carbon storage, they had made certain assumptions.

World's melting glaciers making large contribution to sea rise

Friday, May 24, 2013 00:00 MST

While 99 percent of Earth's land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world's glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009, says a new study led by Clark University and involving the University Colorado Boulder.

NASA satellite data helps pinpoint glaciers' role in sea level rise

Thursday, May 23, 2013 00:00 MST

A new study of glaciers worldwide using observations from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise.

European winter weather harder to forecast in certain years

Wednesday, May 22, 2013 00:00 MST

Weather forecasters have a tougher job predicting winter conditions over Europe in some years over others, concludes a new study carried out by the National Oceanography Centre.

Satellites see storm system that created Moore, Okla., tornado

Wednesday, May 22, 2013 00:00 MST

On May 20, 2013, NASA and NOAA satellites observed the system that generated severe weather in the south central United States and spawned the Moore, Okla., tornado.

Scientist studies methane levels in cross-continent drive

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 00:00 MST

After taking a rented camper outfitted with special equipment to measure methane on a cross-continent drive, a UC Santa Barbara scientist has found that methane emissions across large parts of the US are higher than currently known, confirming what other more local studies have found. Their research is published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

Maps developed to help forest industry outwit climate change

Monday, May 20, 2013 00:00 MST

University of Alberta researchers have developed guidelines being used by foresters and the timber industry to get a jump on climate change when planting trees.

Where, when will thunderstorms strike Colorado's Front Range, adjacent Great Plains?

Saturday, May 18, 2013 00:00 MST

To better predict where and when spring thunderstorms rip across Colorado's Front Range and the adjacent Great Plains, researchers are launching a major field project this week with high-flying aircraft and fine-grained computer simulations.

Study shows warming in central China greater than most climate models indicated

Friday, May 17, 2013 00:00 MST

New data from Central China reveal that temperatures have risen 10 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 20,000 years in this region, an increase two to four times greater than what many scientists previously thought.

Ice-free Arctic may be in our future, say international researchers

Wednesday, May 15, 2013 00:00 MST

"While existing geologic records from the Arctic contain important hints about this time period, we are presenting the most continuous archive of information about past climate change from the entire Arctic borderlands. As if reading a detective novel, we can go back in time and reconstruct how the Arctic evolved with only a few pages missing here and there," says lead author Julie Brigham-Grette of UMass Amherst.

Study finds PCB concentrations same in urban and rural areas

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 00:00 MST

Despite the expectation of a large environmental exposure difference, UI researchers report that mothers and children in East Chicago, Ind., and Researchers at the University of Iowa report that residents in a rural area in Iowa have the same PCB levels in their blood as residents in urbanized East Chicago. Results appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

'Dark oxidants' form away from sunlight in lake and ocean depths, underground soils

Monday, May 13, 2013 00:00 MST

Indeed, our bodies aren't perfect. They make mistakes, among them producing toxic chemicals, called oxidants, in cells. We fight these oxidants naturally, and by eating foods rich in antioxidants such as blueberries and dark chocolate.

Organic vapors affect clouds leading to previously unidentified climate cooling

Sunday, May 12, 2013 00:00 MST

University of Manchester scientists, writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, have shown that natural emissions and man-made pollutants can both have an unexpected cooling effect on the world's climate by making clouds brighter.

As climate changes, boreal forests to shift north and relinquish more carbon than expected

Saturday, May 11, 2013 00:00 MST

New Berkeley Lab research maps how Earth's myriad climates -- and the ecosystems that depend on them -- could move from one area to another as global temperatures rise. The approach foresees big changes for one of the planet's great carbon sponges. Boreal forests will likely shift north at a steady clip this century. Along the way, the vegetation will relinquish more trapped carbon than most current climate models predict.

Researchers find that some 'green' hot water systems fail to deliver on promises

Friday, May 10, 2013 00:00 MST

Two researchers affiliated with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering have published a paper which reports that hot water recirculating systems touted as "green," actually use both more energy and water than their standard counterparts. The research found that the "so-called green" hot water recirculation systems used more net water than the conventional systems after accounting for water needed to produce the extra energy.