Science Daily

Weathering of Earth by glaciers may have warmed the planet over eons by aiding the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A new study shows the cumulative effect may have created negative feedback that prevented runaway glaciation.

A lake beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet contains large amounts of methane and describes how methane-eating microbes may keep the climate-warming gas from entering the atmosphere.

Arctic sea ice is not merely a passive responder to the climate changes occurring around the world, according to new research. Scientists say the ongoing Arctic ice loss can play an active role in altering one of the planet's largest water circulation systems: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

Earlier this year Arctic sea ice sank to a record low wintertime extent for the third straight year. Now NASA is flying a set of instruments north of Greenland to observe the impact of the melt season on the Arctic's oldest and thickest sea ice.

Small mountain glaciers play a big role in recharging vital aquifers and in keeping rivers flowing during the winter, according to a new study. The study also suggests that the accelerated melting of mountain glaciers in recent decades may explain a phenomenon that has long puzzled scientists -- why Arctic and sub-Arctic rivers have increased their water flow during the winter even without a correlative increase in rain or snowfall.

In 2014, a team of researchers found that clams from the Holocene Epoch (that began 11,700 years ago) contained clues about how sea level rise due to climate change could foreshadow a rise in parasitic trematodes. Now, an international team has found that rising seas could be detrimental to human health on a much shorter time scale.

Climate change may be harming the future of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) by impacting the survival rates of pups, according to one of the first studies on how shifting temperatures are impacting tropical species.

Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is not enough to limit global warming to a level that wouldn't risk young people's future, according to a new study by scientists who say we need negative emissions. Measures such as reforestation could accomplish much of the needed CO2 removal from the atmosphere, but continued high fossil fuel emissions would demand expensive technological solutions to extract CO2 and prevent dangerous warming.

Stronger winds 6000kms away on the East Antarctic, have generated waves that circle the continent at almost 700kmh. When these waves meet the steep underwater topography of the West Antarctic Peninsula they push warm water under the ice shelves. This helps explain the increased ice melt in this region that can lead trillion tonne ice shelves, like Larsen C, to break away from the continent.

Although Charles Darwin lived and worked in the 19th century, modern evolutionary biologists are far from exhausting all avenues of inquiry regarding birds and evolution. For example, in the 1990s, researchers began to explore a new question concerning the relationship between climate and the evolution of beak size.

A one trillion tonne iceberg -- one of the biggest ever recorded -- has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica, after a rift in the ice finally completed its path through the ice.

Climate scientists will now be able to more accurately study the pattern and causes of global surface temperature changes than was previously possible, thanks to a large international team of scientists contributing to PAGES (Past Global Changes).

Arctic winter warming events -- winter days where temperatures peak above 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) -- are a normal part of the climate over the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. But new research by an international team that includes NASA scientists finds these events are becoming more frequent and lasting longer than they did three decades ago.

Although many are relatively well informed, an alarming number remain either uninformed or misinformed when it comes to the impacts of climate change on the ocean, a new in-depth study of the European public's awareness shows. Many believe that Arctic sea-ice is already completely lost during the summer and that sea temperatures have already risen by more than 2°C. Climate science needs to be effectively communicated to the public so that citizens demand climate action.

The Greenland ice sheet is often seen as a pristine environment, but new research has revealed that may not be the case. Scientists have examined how microbes from the ice sheet have the potential to resist and degrade globally-emitted contaminants such as mercury, lead, PAH and PCB.

Major changes in the chemical composition of the world's oceans enabled the first large organisms -- possibly some of the earliest animals -- to exist and thrive more than half a billion years ago, marking the point when conditions on Earth changed and animals began to take over the world.

Relief from the current dry spell across the interior of the Middle East is unlikely within the next 10,000 years, results of a new study show, which include information during the last glacial and interglacial periods.

During the transition to the last ice age approximately 80,000 years ago global temperature declined, while the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere remained relatively stable. Scientists have now discovered that a falling sea level may have caused enhanced volcanic activity in the ocean, which can explain the anomaly.

While global ocean health has remained relatively stable over the past five years, individual countries have seen changes, according to a new study.

Iron-rich meltwater from Greenland's glaciers are helping fuel a summer bloom of phytoplankton, suggests new research.