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How did Borneo get its elephant? This could be just another of Rudyard Kipling's just so stories. The Bornean elephant is a subspecies of Asian Elephants that only exist in a small region of Borneo. Their presence on this southeastern Asian island has been a mystery. Scientists have discovered that elephants might have arrived on Borneo at a time of the last land bridge between the Sunda Islands in Southeast Asia.

Researchers reveal why Arctic sea ice began to melt in the middle of winter two years ago -- and that the increased melting of ice in summer is linked to recurring periods of fair weather.

Scientists are reviewing the potential settings where a global reference section for the Anthropocene might be searched.

A new study suggests that key geological markers align towards a start for the Anthropocene somewhere between 1952 to 1955, based on signals from nuclear testing and fossil fuel burning.

A new article uses machine learning for the first time to craft an improved model for understanding geothermal heat flux -- heat emanating from the Earth's interior -- below the Greenland Ice Sheet.

A new study has tracked the ebb and flow of ecosystem changes over the last 10,000 years, showing patterns that could shed light on current climate change and its role in shaping the world's forests.

Human activities are exposing US rivers and streams to a cocktail of salts, with consequences for infrastructure and drinking water supplies. So reports a new study that is the first to assess the combined, long-term changes in freshwater salinity and alkalization across the country.

A new study reveals that strong El Nino events can cause significant ice loss in some Antarctic ice shelves while the opposite may occur during strong La Nina events.

For years, methane emissions from the seabed have been observed in the Arctic Ocean off Spitsbergen. The assumption that the warming of seawater by climate change is responsible for the release of methane, has not been confirmed. Research shows that post-glacial uplift is the most likely cause of methane hydrate break-down.

In a study spanning two decades, a team of researchers found declining numbers of soil fauna, nematodes and other animal species in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the world's driest and coldest deserts.

Using satellite imaging and drone reconnaissance, archaeologists have discovered an ancient irrigation system that allowed a farming community in northwestern China to raise livestock and cultivate crops in one of the world's driest desert climates.

Scientists have found surprising evidence of rapid climate change in the Arctic: In the middle of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, they discovered that the levels of radium-228 have almost doubled over the last decade.

There's a new way to measure the average temperature of the ocean.

Large areas of Earth's surface are experiencing rising maximum temperatures, which affect virtually every ecosystem on the planet, including ice sheets and tropical forests that play major roles in regulating the biosphere, scientists have reported.

A study by atmospheric scientists has found that the air in the Arctic is extraordinarily sensitive to air pollution, and that particulate matter may spur Arctic cloud formation. These clouds can act as a blanket, further warming an already-changing Arctic.

Projecting the future of extreme weather events across the globe remains a complex task in climate research -- and one in which statisticians are increasingly playing key roles.

New research shows algae growing on the Greenland ice sheet, the Earth's second-largest ice sheet, significantly reduce the surface reflectivity of the ice sheet's bare ice area and contribute more to its melting than dust or black carbon. The new findings could influence scientists' understanding of ice sheet melting and projections of future sea level rise, according to the study's authors.

For the first time scientists have directly observed living bacteria in polar ice and snow -- an environment once considered sterile. The new evidence has the potential to alter perceptions about which planets in the universe could sustain life and may mean that humans are having an even greater impact on levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere than accepted evidence from climate history studies of ice cores suggests.

Winter is coming ... as anyone who watches the hit TV series, Game of Thrones, knows. Some even have their own theories for what causes the strange extended seasons in that world of dragons, kings, queens, and magic. But scientists have gone one stage further, by using a Climate Model to simulate and explore the climate of the world of Game of Thrones.

In a frozen lake in Quebec, tiny red creatures zip about under the ice. Biologists report the discovery of active, unusually red, life in a winter lake. Bright pigment may preserve zooplankton's fatty acids from oxidative damage.