Feed aggregator

Researchers suggest that locally variable habitats such as hummocky hillsides or shaded valleys could help a range of native species survive this modern warming episode -- in much the same way as species such as red deer and squirrel survived the Ice Age by seeking refuge in pockets of warmer conditions sheltered from the extreme cold.

Major abrupt shifts occurred in the climate of ancient northern Europe, according to a new study. The research reports that sudden cold spells, lasting hundreds of years, took place in the middle of the warm Eemian climate period, about 120,000 years ago.

This study brings us closer to knowing the complex interactions between topography and climate change, and how these factors influence the evolutionary histories and biodiversity of species in natural ecosystems.

Scientists have shown how much sea level would rise if Larsen C and George VI, Antarctic ice shelves at risk of collapse, were to break up. While Larsen C has received much attention due to the break-away of a trillion-ton iceberg from it last summer, its collapse would contribute only a few millimeters to sea-level rise. The break-up of the smaller George VI Ice Shelf would have a much larger impact.

Data suggest that the recent, rapid slowdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation is not a sign of imminent collapse, but a shift back toward a more sluggish phase. The slowdown implies that global air temperatures will increase more quickly in the coming decades.

Arctic climate change research relies on field measurements and samples that are too scarce, and patchy at best, according to a comprehensive review study. The researchers looked at thousands of scientific studies, and found that around 30% of cited studies were clustered around only two research stations in the vast Arctic region.

A new study demonstrates that a correlation also exists between cumulative carbon emissions and future sea level rise over time -- and the news isn't good.

Researchers say they may be able to estimate how glaciers moved by examining how the weight of the ice sheet altered topography and led to changes in the course of the river.

In 1991, German tourists discovered a human body that was later determined to be the oldest naturally preserved ice mummy, known as Otzi or the Iceman. Now, researchers who have conducted the first in-depth analysis of the Iceman's stomach contents offer a rare glimpse of our ancestor's ancient dietary habits. Among other things, their findings show that the Iceman's last meal was heavy on the fat.

The melting of glaciers on one side of the globe can trigger disintegration of glaciers on the other side of the globe, as has been presented by scientists, who investigated marine microalgae preserved in glacial deposits and subsequently used their findings to perform climate simulations.

The inclusion of taxon-specific sensitivity to a shifting climate helps us understand species distributional responses to changes in climate.

A new explanation for the Heinrich 1 event, where temperatures over Antarctica rose 5C in less than a century, suggests strengthening westerlies around the Antarctic led to a substantial increase in atmospheric carbon. Today, human-caused climate change is causing these same westerly winds to contract towards Antarctica and strengthen, suggesting an unexpected spike in carbon dioxide could occur again.

Scientists have discovered the oldest colors in the geological record, 1.1-billion-year-old bright pink pigments extracted from rocks deep beneath the Sahara desert in Africa.

A research team found the fingerprint of a massive flood of fresh water in the western Arctic, thought to be the cause of an ancient cold snap that began around 13,000 years ago.

A team of scientists has captured on video a four-mile iceberg breaking away from a glacier in eastern Greenland, an event that points to one of the forces behind global sea-level rise.

A new study offers an enhanced view of the origins and ultimate fate of the first dogs in the Americas. The dogs were not domesticated North American wolves, as some have speculated, but likely followed their human counterparts over a land bridge that once connected North Asia and the Americas, the study found.

Geoscientists have been intrigued by a potential link between erosion rates at the Earth's surface and changes in global climate. A new study now calls into question this link. A team of researchers re-examined 30 locations with reported accelerated erosion after the onset of glacial-interglacial cycles a few million years ago. In nearly all of the locations, the proposed link between erosion and global climate could not be confirmed.

A technical breakthrough was achieved in the source determination of very small carbon samples at the Accelerator Laboratory and the Laboratory of Chronology of the University of Helsinki. The development work is essential in climate research as it facilitates disentangling the origin of, for instance, black carbon particles.

Future global warming may eventually be twice as warm as projected by climate models under business-as-usual scenarios and even if the world meets the 2°C target sea levels may rise six meters or more, according to an international team of researchers from 17 countries.

The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world's largest dead zones, areas of oxygen-starved waters where most marine animals can't survive. But while parts of this sea have long suffered from low oxygen levels, a new study shows that oxygen loss in coastal areas over the past century is unprecedented in the last 1,500 years.