Science Daily

100 feet below the surface of the ocean is a critical depth for ecological activity in the Arctic polar night -- a period of near continuous winter darkness. There, atmospheric light diminishes and bioluminescence from marine organisms becomes the dominant light source.

As diminishing sea ice in the Arctic Ocean expands navigable waters, scientists have traveled to the region to study the changing environment—and provide new tools to help the U.S. Navy operate in a once-inaccessible area.

Arctic sea ice, the vast sheath of frozen seawater floating on the Arctic Ocean and its neighboring seas, has been hit with a double whammy over the past decades: as its extent shrunk, the oldest and thickest ice has either thinned or melted away, leaving the sea ice cap more vulnerable to the warming ocean and atmosphere.

Neanderthals in cold regions probably ate a lot more vegetable food than was previously thought, according to new research on ancient Neanderthal dental plaque.

Areas of the Arctic play a larger role than previously thought in the global nitrogen cycle—the process responsible for keeping a critical element necessary for life flowing between the atmosphere, the land and oceans.

Scientists agree for first time that climate change may be intensifying the effects of the jet stream, causing extreme cold weather in the UK and US. Their study could improve long-term forecasting of winter weather in most populous parts of the world, offering more accurate forecasting to help communities, businesses and economies prepare for severe weather and make life and cost-saving decisions.

Experts have offered up an explanation as to why our planet began to move in and out of ice ages every 100,000 years.

Some fish species are adapting to survive environmental changes without significant genetic evolution, according to new research.

Two new studies have found the fastest ongoing rates of glacier retreat ever observed in West Antarctica and offer an unprecedented look at ice melting on the floating undersides of glaciers. The results highlight how the interaction between ocean conditions and the bedrock beneath a glacier can influence the frozen mass, helping scientists better predict future Antarctica ice loss and global sea level rise.

For the first time scientists can see how the shells of tiny marine organisms grow atom-by-atom, a new study reports. The advance provides new insights into the mechanisms of biomineralization and will improve our understanding of environmental change in Earth's past.

Scientists have reconstructed the ancient atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) record from about 300 million years ago. Their study reveals previously unknown fluctuations of atmospheric CO2 at levels projected for current century, they say. It also highlights the potential impact the loss of tropical forests can have on climate.

Low-frequency vibrations of the Ross Ice Shelf are likely causing ripples and undulations in the air above Antarctica, a new study finds. Using mathematical models of the ice shelf, the study's authors show how vibrations in the ice match those seen in the atmosphere, and are likely causing these mysterious atmospheric waves.

Environmental contaminants such as PFASs can be transferred from mother to offspring through the placenta and mother's milk, exposing the young mammal before and after birth. PFASs are a family of human-made chemicals, which have been used in a number of consumer products such as textiles, carpets, paper plates and food packaging because they repel grease, water and stains and are heat resistant. Since it was discovered that they pose a risk to wildlife and human health, some PFASs have been phased out of use, but they have not been universally banned.

Bolivian glaciers shrunk by 43% between 1986 and 2014, and will continue to diminish if temperatures in the region continue to increase. Glacier recession is leaving lakes that could burst and wash away villages or infrastructure downstream, warns one expert.

August's warmth spread into September, contributing to the warmest year to date for the globe, but not enough to continue the recent 16-month streak of record warmth, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Even so, September 2016 ranked as the second warmest September on record.

The first large-scale map of rainfall declines revealed by signatures in ancient soil could help researchers better understand profound regional and global climate transformation.

The same hotspot in Earth's mantle that feeds Iceland's active volcanoes has been playing a trick on the scientists who are trying to measure how much ice is melting on nearby Greenland. According to a new study, the hotspot softened the mantle rock beneath Greenland in a way that ultimately distorted their calculations for ice loss in the Greenland ice sheet. This caused them to underestimate the melting by about 20 gigatons (20 billion metric tons) per year.

New research reveals how a single warming event in Antarctica may be an indication of future ecosystem changes. Stationed in East Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys -- a polar desert that's among the driest places on Earth -- the research team studied the effects of massive flooding caused by the glaciers that melted when air temperatures suddenly warmed to 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Flooding streams eroded, lake ice thinned, lake levels rose, and water reached new places across the barren landscape.

Geomorphologists who study Earth’s surface features and the processes that formed them have long been interested in how floods, in particular catastrophic outbursts that occur when a glacial lake ice dam bursts, for example, can change a planet’s surface, not only on Earth but on Mars. Now geoscience researchers have proposed and tested a new model of canyon-forming floods that suggests that deep canyons can be formed in bedrock by significantly less water than previously thought.

In pictures, the Arctic appears pristine and timeless with its barren lands and icy landscape. In reality, the area is rapidly changing. Scientists are working to understand the chemistry behind these changes to better predict what could happen to the region in the future. One team reports that sea salt could play a larger role in the formation of local atmospheric pollutants than previously thought.