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Humans hastened the extinction of the woolly mammoth

Science Daily - Thu, 11/11/2021 - 12:03
New research shows that humans had a significant role in the extinction of woolly mammoths in Eurasia, occurring thousands of years later than previously thought. An international team of scientists has revealed a 20,000-year pathway to extinction for the woolly mammoth.

Global temperatures over last 24,000 years show today's warming 'unprecedented'

Science Daily - Wed, 11/10/2021 - 12:16
An effort to reconstruct Earth's climate since the last ice age, about 24,000 years ago, highlights the main drivers of climate change and how far out of bounds human activity has pushed the climate system.

Why did glacial cycles intensify a million years ago?

Science Daily - Mon, 11/08/2021 - 15:14
A study says the Mid-Pleistocene Transition may have been linked to previous erosion of continental soils that subsequently allowed glaciers to stick to the underlying hard bedrock more efficiently.

Save the planet (and your health) by steering clear of sweets and pastries

Science Daily - Fri, 11/05/2021 - 09:38
Need another reason to cut back on sugary foods and drinks, apart from an expanding waistline? They're not helping the environment, contributing to a higher cropland, water scarcity and ecological footprint, according to a new review.

Black carbon aerosols heating Arctic: Large contribution from mid-latitude biomass burning

Science Daily - Thu, 11/04/2021 - 13:01
Researchers have revealed that the year-to-year spring variation in Arctic black carbon aerosol abundance is strongly correlated with biomass burning in the mid-latitudes. Moreover, current models underestimate the contribution of BC from biomass burning by a factor of three.

1,000 years of glacial ice reveal 'prosperity and peril' in Europe

Science Daily - Wed, 11/03/2021 - 13:01
Europe's past prosperity and failure, driven by climate changes, has been revealed using thousand-year-old pollen, spores and charcoal particles fossilized in glacial ice. This first analysis of microfossils preserved in European glaciers unveils earlier-than-expected evidence of air pollution and the roots of modern invasive species problems.

Is ski tourism heading downhill due to climate change?

Science Daily - Mon, 11/01/2021 - 09:49
Is ski tourism on a downward slope or can winter holiday resorts weather the ongoing impact of climate change? Researchers investigated the impacts of melting snow and ice on the future of tourism.

Increased frequency of extreme ice melting in Greenland raises global flood risk

Science Daily - Mon, 11/01/2021 - 08:48
Global warming has caused extreme ice melting events in Greenland to become more frequent and more intense over the past 40 years according to new research, raising sea levels and flood risk worldwide.

Runoff, sediment flux in High Mountain Asia could limit food, energy for millions

Science Daily - Fri, 10/29/2021 - 09:31
Rivers flowing from the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding high Asian mountains which support one-third of the world's population have experienced rapid increases in annual water and sediment runoff since the 1990s, and the volume of sediment washed downstream could more than double by 2050 under the worst-case scenario, a team of scientists has found.

Polar bear diet may indicate prey distribution changes due to climate shifts

Science Daily - Wed, 10/27/2021 - 11:20
How are warming temperatures and a loss of sea ice affecting polar bears and their marine mammal prey in the Arctic? A York University-led research team used a novel approach to the question by monitoring what polar bears eat across Nunavut and where they are catching their prey.

Clues from the ancient past can help predict abrupt climate change

Science Daily - Mon, 10/25/2021 - 16:20
Climate 'tipping points' can be better understood and predicted using climate change data taken from the ancient past, new research shows.

Northern lakes warming six times faster in the past 25 years

Science Daily - Thu, 10/21/2021 - 11:10
Lakes in the Northern Hemisphere are warming six times faster since 1992 than any other time period in the last 100 years, new research has found.

Some of the world’s oldest rubies linked to early life

Science Daily - Thu, 10/21/2021 - 07:46
While analyzing some of the world's oldest colored gemstones, researchers discovered carbon residue that was once ancient life, encased in a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby.

Changing ocean currents are driving extreme winter weather

Science Daily - Wed, 10/20/2021 - 13:00
Slower ocean circulation as the result of climate change could intensify extreme cold weather in the U.S., according to new research.

Ancient driftwood tracks 500 years of Arctic warming and sea ice

Science Daily - Tue, 10/19/2021 - 11:01
A new study reconstructs the path of frozen trees as they made their way across the Arctic Ocean over 500 years, giving scientists a unique look into changes in sea ice and currents over the last half millennium. By dating and tracing pieces of driftwood on beaches in Svalbard, Norway's archipelago in the Arctic Circle, scientists have determined where these fallen trees floated.

Lakes are changing worldwide: Human activities to blame

Science Daily - Mon, 10/18/2021 - 10:24
Worldwide, lake temperatures are rising and seasonal ice cover is shorter and thiner. This effects lake ecosystems, drinking water supply and fishing. International research now shows that these global changes in lake temperature and ice cover are not due to natural climate variability. They can only be explained by massive greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution. To demonstrate this, the team has developed multiple computer simulations with models of lakes on a global scale, on which they ran a series of climate models. The researchers found clear similarities between the observed changes in lakes and model simulations of lakes in a climate influenced by greenhouse gas emissions. Besides measuring the historical impact of climate change, the team also analyzed various future climate scenarios.

Scientists discover large rift in the Arctic’s last bastion of thick sea ice

Science Daily - Thu, 10/14/2021 - 12:11
In May 2020, a hole a little smaller than the state of Rhode Island opened up for two weeks in the Last Ice Area, a million-square-kilometer patch of sea ice north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island that's expected to be the last refuge of ice in a rapidly warming Arctic. The polynya is the first one that has been identified in this part of the Last Ice Area.

Popular theory of Native American origins debunked by genetics and skeletal biology

Science Daily - Wed, 10/13/2021 - 07:16
A widely accepted theory of Native American origins coming from Japan has been attacked in a new scientific study, which shows that the genetics and skeletal biology 'simply does not match-up.'

Arctic sea ice may make a last stand in this remote region; it may lose the battle

Science Daily - Tue, 10/12/2021 - 14:00
With warming climate, summer sea ice in the Arctic has been shrinking fast, and now consistently spans less than half the area it did in the early 1980s. This raises the question: It this keeps up, in the future will year-round sea ice -- and the creatures who need it to survive -- persist anywhere? A new study addresses this question, and the results are daunting.

Greenland’s groundwater changes with thinning ice sheet

Science Daily - Tue, 10/12/2021 - 12:07
For more than a decade, a team of researchers and students have studied the dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet as it responds to a warming climate. But while much of their focus has been on the importance of water in controlling processes occurring on the ice sheet, their most recent research findings have flipped the order of their thinking. Researchers discovered that changes to the ice sheet have an immediate impact on the groundwater underlying the Greenland island, an area larger than the state of Alaska.

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