Science Daily

It took 100 million years for oxygen levels in the oceans and atmosphere to increase to the level that allowed the explosion of animal life on Earth about 600 million years ago, according to a study.

A new analysis of the fossil record shows that a deep pattern in the structure of plant and animal communities remained the same for 300 million years. Then, 6,000 years ago, the pattern was disrupted--at about the same time that people started farming in North America and populations rose. The research suggests that humans were the cause of this profound change in nature.

Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems, according to a study spanning six continents. The study is the largest of its kind and the first to use a combination of satellite temperature data and long-term ground measurements. A total of 235 lakes, representing more than half of the world's freshwater supply, were monitored for at least 25 years.

Fewer landslides resulted from the devastating 2015 Nepal earthquake than expected. In addition, no large floods from overflowing glacial lakes occurred after the magnitude 7.8 quake, which struck near the town of Gorkha, Nepal on April 25, 2015. The pattern of where the landslides occurred was unexpected.

For the first time, scientists have shown how winds blowing across lakes affect the chemical makeup of water vapor above and evaporated from lakes, which may aid research into past and present water cycles under changing climate.

Researchers have investigated what climate models have to say about how phytoplankton and ocean ecosystems will respond to the profound changes that Earth is undergoing.

For the first time, climate an international team of researchers has published their direct observations of the reduction and melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the latest 110 years. The observation-based results close a gap in IPCC's estimate of global sea level budget.

New projections of permafrost change in northern Alaska suggest far-reaching effects will come sooner than expected, scientists report.

Researchers used an innovative technique to date one of Antarctica's ancient lake deposits. They found that the deposits have remained frozen for at least the last 14 million years, suggesting that the surrounding region, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, or EAIS, has likewise remained intact.

Data from animal-borne sensors, including seal tags, can help scientists produce analyses and forecasts of ocean temperature and salinity, according to a new study.

Climate models incorrectly predict El Niño, according to a new study. An analysis of fossil corals and mollusk shells from the Pacific Ocean reveals there is no link between the strength of seasonal differences and El Niño, a complex but irregular climate pattern with large impacts on weather, agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and air quality worldwide.

While some dream of the day that aerial drones deliver their online purchases, scientists are using the technology today to deliver data that was never available before. About 5,000 meters high in the Peruvian Andes, the scientists are mapping glaciers and wetlands in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range with 10-centimeter precision to gauge how climate change will affect the half-million local residents who rely in part on those glaciers for their water supply.

A new report shows that air temperature in 2015 across the Arctic was well above average with temperature anomalies over land more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit above average, the highest since records began in 1900. Increasing air and sea surface temperatures, decreasing sea ice extent and Greenland ice sheet mass, and changing behavior of fish and walrus are among key observations.

Paleoclimatologists have shed new light on how the tilt of the Earth affects the world's heaviest rainbelt. They analyzed data from the past 282,000 years that shows, for the first time, a connection between the Earth's tilt called obliquity that shifts every 41,000 years, and the movement of a low pressure band of clouds that is the Earth's largest source of heat and moisture -- the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ.

Global warming is disturbing the delicate balance of the ocean currents. Petroleum and climate researchers are now working together to try and understand what is happening beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

New hydrophone surveys of migration gateways to the Arctic show that recent extremes in sea ice loss has opened new waters to humpback and fin whales that once ranged through the far north only in summer. And as climate change drives the ice into further retreat, such 'summer' species may begin competing with bowhead whales that once had the habitat to themselves.

Scientists are studying past changes in sea level in order to make accurate future predictions of this consequence of climate change, and they're looking down to Earth's core to do so. 'In order to fully understand the sea-level change that has occurred in the past century, we need to understand the dynamics of the flow in Earth's core' says one of the researchers.

Pioneering new research has shed new light on the causes behind an 'ice-age' that took place on Earth around 170 million years ago.

New fossil evidence shows that Australia’s fire-prone shrubland open vegetation originated at least 70 million years ago – 40-50 million years earlier than previously thought.