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How El Niño impacts global temperatures

Science Daily - Thu, 06/09/2016 - 10:51
Scientists have found past El Niño oscillations in the Pacific Ocean may have amplified global climate fluctuations for hundreds of years at a time.The team uncovered century-scale patterns in Pacific rainfall and temperature, and linked them with global climate changes in the past 2,000 years, which will influence climate models of current trends.

Greenland's 2015 melt records consistent with 'Arctic amplification'

Science Daily - Thu, 06/09/2016 - 05:45
Following record-high temperatures and melting records that affected northwest Greenland in summer 2015, a new study provides the first evidence linking melting in Greenland to the anticipated effects of a phenomenon known as Artic amplification.

Early farmers from across Europe were direct descendants of Aegeans

Science Daily - Mon, 06/06/2016 - 14:49
Paleogeneticists have shown that early farmers from across Europe have an almost unbroken trail of ancestry leading back to the Aegean.

Ice age bison fossils shed light on early human migrations in North America

Science Daily - Mon, 06/06/2016 - 14:48
Scientists using evidence from bison fossils have determined when an ice-free corridor opened up along the Rocky Mountains during the late Pleistocene. The corridor has been considered a potential route for human and animal migrations between the far north (Alaska and Yukon) and the rest of North America, but when and how it was used has long been uncertain.

Antarctic coastline images reveal four decades of ice loss to ocean

Science Daily - Wed, 06/01/2016 - 10:07
Part of Antarctica's coastline has been losing ice to the ocean for far longer than had been expected by scientists, a study of satellite pictures has shown.

Shifting bird distribution indicates a changing Arctic

Science Daily - Wed, 06/01/2016 - 07:23
Shifts in the distribution of Spectacled Eiders, a predatory bird at the top of the Bering Sea's benthic food web, indicate possible changes in the Arctic's marine ecosystem, according to new research.

Studying life on the rocks

Science Daily - Tue, 05/31/2016 - 10:27
Researchers have developed an apparatus to meet the growing need for measuring ice as it changes in response to external forces, a process ice scientists call 'deformational behaviors.'' These forces occur on Earth in glacial ice as it flows due to gravity, and in space as icy satellite bodies respond to tidal forces from their parent bodies.

Bee populations expanded during global warming after the last Ice Age

Science Daily - Tue, 05/31/2016 - 09:42
Population sizes of the Australian carpenter bee have increased dramatically during the global warming following the last Ice Age. This matches previous studies on bees in North America and Fiji, showing that bees from diverse habitats respond strongly to climate change.

Deep, old water explains why Antarctic Ocean hasn't warmed

Science Daily - Mon, 05/30/2016 - 10:55
The water around Antarctica has not seen the atmosphere for centuries, since long before the machine age. New observations and model simulations suggest this may be the last place on Earth to feel climate change.

Arctic Ocean methane does not reach the atmosphere

Science Daily - Fri, 05/27/2016 - 10:26
250 methane flares release the climate gas methane from the seabed and into the Arctic Ocean. During the summer months this leads to an increased methane concentration in the ocean. But surprisingly, very little of the climate gas rising up through the sea reaches the atmosphere, report investigators.

Evidence of ice age at Martian north pole

Science Daily - Thu, 05/26/2016 - 14:19
Using radar data scientists found evidence of an ice age recorded in the polar deposits of Mars. Ice ages on Mars are driven by processes similar to those responsible for ice ages on Earth, that is, long-term cyclical changes in the planet's orbit and tilt, which affect the amount of solar radiation it receives at each latitude.

Wildfire: It's not spreading like wildfire

Science Daily - Tue, 05/24/2016 - 13:49
A new analysis of global data related to wildfire reveals major misconceptions about wildfire and its social and economic impacts. Researchers carried out detailed analysis of global and regional data on fire occurrence, severity and its impacts on society. They found that global area burned has seen an overall slight decline over past decades, despite some notable regional increases.

A history of snowfall on Greenland, hidden in ancient leaf waxes

Science Daily - Mon, 05/23/2016 - 13:12
The history of Greenland's snowfall is chronicled in an unlikely place: the remains of aquatic plants that died long ago, collecting at the bottom of lakes in horizontal layers that document the passing years. Using this ancient record, scientists have determined that snowfall at one key location in western Greenland may have intensified from 6,000 to 4,000 years ago, a period when the planet's Northern Hemisphere was warmer than it is today.

A fiery world aids the peopling of America

Science Daily - Mon, 05/23/2016 - 07:40
North America experienced regular fires for thousands of years before the arrival of humans in North America according to new research.

As European glaciers dwindle, dams could replace them

Science Daily - Thu, 05/19/2016 - 21:06
Water management in reservoirs could substantially mitigate future summer water shortages, expected as a consequence of ongoing glacier retreat, researchers report. The team simulated the effect of climatic change on glaciers across the European Alps and estimated that two thirds of the effect on seasonal water availability could be avoided when storing water in areas becoming ice free.

Will more snow over Antarctica offset rising seas? Don't count on it

Science Daily - Thu, 05/19/2016 - 09:06
Heavier snow over Antarctica was supposed to be one of the few brakes on sea-level rise in a warming world. But that prediction is not reliable, says a new study of Antarctic snowfall over the past 31,000 years.

Scientists getting warmer on mimicking anti-freeze in nature

Science Daily - Thu, 05/19/2016 - 09:05
Researchers have taken an important step forward in mimicking nature's prowess at protecting cells from deep-freeze conditions.

Scientists predict extensive ice loss from huge Antarctic glacier

Science Daily - Wed, 05/18/2016 - 12:38
Current rates of climate change could trigger instability in a major Antarctic glacier, ultimately leading to more than 2m of sea-level rise.

New data on variability of Earth's reflectance over the last 16 years

Science Daily - Wed, 05/18/2016 - 11:55
The Earth's albedo is a fundamental atmospheric parameter having deep implications for temperature and climate change. Experiments have been performed to monitor it over the past two decades to reveal how it evolves. One of these has brought up to date the observations made since 2007 and gives a new systematic record of the Earth's albedo covering the period between 1998-2014.

Curtailing global warming with bioengineering? Iron fertilization won't work in much of Pacific

Science Daily - Mon, 05/16/2016 - 17:10
Over the past half-million years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean has seen five spikes in the amount of iron-laden dust blown in from the continents. In theory, those bursts should have turbo-charged the growth of the ocean's carbon-capturing algae -- algae need iron to grow -- but a new study shows that the excess iron had little to no effect.

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