Science Daily

An international team has developed newly refined techniques for obtaining past climate data from mollusc shells. Mollusc shells are abundant in archaeological sites spanning the last 160,000 years. Using laser imaging, researchers have now found new ways of reconstructing how climate changed during a mollusc's lifetime, down to the seasonal level. Their technique makes it cheaper and faster to analyze these shells, opening the door to accurately map past climate in coastal areas all over the world.

In a recent study, researchers explored the ways forest succession and climate variability interacted and influenced fires in Alaska's boreal forests over the past four centuries -- from 1550 to 2015.

Using data on 77 North American migratory bird species from the eBird citizen-science program, scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology say that, in as little as four decades, it may be very difficult to predict how climate change will affect migratory bird populations and the ecosystems they inhabit. Their conclusions are presented in a paper published in the journal Ecography.

Scientists placed seismometers on the McMurdo Ice Shelf and recorded hundreds of thousands of tiny 'ice quakes' that appear to be caused by pools of partially melted ice expanding and freezing at night. The phenomenon may be able to help scientists track glacier melting -- and to help explain the breakup of large ice shelves.

The full extent of the human 'footprint' on Antarctica has been revealed for the first time by new research which used satellite images to measure stations, huts, runways, waste sites and tourist camps at 158 locations. The study found that more than half of all large ice-free coastal areas of Antarctica have now been disturbed by human activity.

Researchers have proposed a new idea that may explain why some Antarctic icebergs are tinged emerald green rather than the normal blue, potentially solving a decades-long scientific mystery.

Reconstitution of Amoebozoa's evolution shows significant Precambrian species diversity. This study changes the view of how life evolved in the very remote past and deepens the understanding of current climate change.

New results from the Gulf of Corinth, Greece, a continental rift zone where the first stage of ocean basin formation is taking place, show how the environmental conditions and sediment input into the rift basin changed as the Earth alternated between non-glaciated to glaciated conditions over the last 500 thousand years.

The Arctic Ocean could become ice-free in the summer in the next 20 years due to a natural, long-term warming phase in the tropical Pacific that adds to human-caused warming, according to a new study.

Scientists have unearthed and pieced together evidence on more than 1,000 ancient wetland sites from across the globe, that are presently covered by fields, forests and lakes. Although vanished from the Earth's surface, these buried sites could explain some of the differences between global carbon cycle models and real-life observations.

An international team of scientists has become the first to conduct a study of global peatland extent and carbon stocks through the last interglacial-glacial cycle 130,000 years ago to the present. The team discovered that northern peatland expanded across high latitudes during warm periods and were buried during periods of cooling, or glacial advance.

A new study shows climate change may have contributed to the decline of Cahokia, a famed prehistoric city near present-day St. Louis. And it involves ancient human feces.

Computer modeling shows that marine stratus clouds could disappear if atmospheric CO2 levels climb high enough, raising global temperatures.

The Amazon rainforest has evolved over millions of years and even through ice ages. Yet today, human influences and global climate change put this huge ecosystem at risk of large-scale dieback -- with major consequences for its capability as a global CO2 sink. New research now reveals a key player in shaping the resilience of the Amazon, and finds that regions with generally higher rainfall variability are more resilient to current and future climate disturbances.

Several years ago, an international team of scientists raised sediments from the bottom of Lake Van in eastern Turkey reflecting the past 600,000 years. Soil scientists and paleobotanists have now evaluated the drill cores for residues of early fires -- with surprising findings. The fires did not mainly occur during particularly dry periods as assumed, but in comparatively humid and warm periods.

A major volcanic event could have triggered one of the largest glaciations in Earth's history -- the Gaskiers glaciation, which turned the Earth into a giant snowball approximately 580 million years ago. Researchers have discovered remnants of such a large igneous province that resulted from vast lava flows.

Total human carbon dioxide emissions could match those of Earth's last major greenhouse warming event in fewer than five generations, new research finds. A new study finds humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate nine to 10 times higher than the greenhouse gas was emitted during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a global warming event that occurred roughly 56 million years ago.

The ice-covered season plays an important role in the development of river channels, a new study shows. The spatial variability of sediment transport and differences in depositional and erosional locations increase in ice-covered conditions.

Researchers have succeeded in constructing, from scattered data, a world map of the diversity of tree species. Climate plays a central role for its global distribution; however, the number of species in a specific region also depends on the spatial scale of the observation, the researchers report. The new approach could help improve conservation.

A study has revealed what south-east Queensland's rainfall was like over the last 7000 years -- including several severe droughts worse and longer lasting than the 12-year Millennium Drought.