Science Daily

A change in precipitation at one location may be caused by changes on the other side of the planet. An international team with the participation of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences now investigated Japanese lake sediments to decipher the interplay between local climate changes on the northern hemisphere about 12,000 years ago. Their results show that a regional warming in Europe caused a cooling and an increase in snowfall in East Asia.

The glaciers and ice caps that dot the edges of the Greenland coast are not likely to recover from the melting they are experiencing now, a study has found.

Every year an increasing amount of sea ice is melting in the Arctic. This can start a chain reaction, which leads to increased production of algae and hence more food for creatures in the sea.

In 2011, researchers observed something that should be impossible — a massive bloom of phytoplankton growing under Arctic sea ice in conditions that should have been far too dark for anything requiring photosynthesis to survive. So, how was this bloom possible? Using mathematical modeling, researchers found that thinning Arctic sea ice may be responsible for these blooms and more blooms in the future, potentially causing significant disruption in the Arctic food chain.

Norwegian Sea acted as carbon dioxide source in the past. It pumped the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere instead of absorbing it, as it does today, report scientists.

The Arctic sea ice maximum extent and Antarctic minimum extent are both record lows this year. Combined, sea ice numbers are at their lowest point since satellites began to continuously measure sea ice in 1979.

Nearly 1,000 feet below the bed of the Dead Sea, scientists have found evidence that during past warm periods, the Mideast has suffered drought on scales never recorded by humans -- a possible warning for current times. Thick layers of crystalline salt show that rainfall plummeted to as little as a fifth of modern levels some 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago.

The last piece of the ice sheet that once blanketed much of North America is doomed to disappear in the next several centuries, says a new study.

The sub-antarctic island of South Georgia -- famous for its wildlife -- was covered by a massive ice cap during the last ice age, new research indicates.

When spring arrives, temperatures begin to rise, ice is melts, and the world around us starts to blossom. Scientists sometimes refer to this transition from winter to the growing season as the 'vernal window,' and a new study shows this window may be opening earlier and possibly for longer.

Collecting ice cores from high-mountain glaciers most at risk from climate change and storing them in Antarctica for future generations of scientists: that is the goal of ICE MEMORY, an international program aimed at preserving the memory of high-mountain glaciers.

A properly-managed subsistence harvest of polar bears can continue under climate change, according to analysis that combines sea-ice forecasts with a polar bear population model.

China's severe winter air pollution problems may be worsened by changes in atmospheric circulation prompted by Arctic sea ice loss and increased Eurasian snowfall -- both caused by global climate change.

Polar cod fulfil a key role in the Arctic food web, as they are a major source of food for seals, whales and seabirds alike. But the polar cod themselves might soon be the hungry ones.

Efficient nutrient consumption by plankton in the Southern Ocean drove carbon sequestration in the deep ocean during the ice ages, a new study suggests.

During the ice ages, an unidentified regulatory mechanism prevented atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from falling below a level that could have led to runaway cooling, reports a team of researchers. The study suggests the mechanism may have involved the biosphere, as plants and plankton struggled to grow under very low carbon dioxide levels.

Scientists have found the seasonal 'fingerprints' of Arctic sea ice, El Nino, and other climate phenomena in a new study that probes the global interactions between weather and climate.

The dramatic decline of Arctic sea ice in recent decades is caused by a mixture of global warming and a natural, decades-long atmospheric hot spot over Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.

What caused the largest glaciation event in Earth's history, known as 'snowball Earth'? Geologists and climate scientists have been searching for the answer for years but the root cause of the phenomenon remains elusive. Now, researchers have a new hypothesis about what caused the runaway glaciation that covered the Earth pole-to-pole in ice.

For the past eight years, Operation IceBridge, a NASA mission that conducts aerial surveys of polar ice, has produced unprecedented three-dimensional views of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, providing scientists with valuable data on how polar ice is changing in a warming world. Now, for the first time, the campaign will expand its reach to explore the Arctic's Eurasian Basin through two research flights based out of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the northern Atlantic Ocean.