|
|
| Most new farmland in tropics comes from slashing forests, research shows | | A new study shows that more than 80 percent of the new farmland created in the tropics between 1980 and 2000 came from felling forests, which sends carbon into the atmosphere and drives global warming. But the research team also noted that big agribusiness has largely replaced small farmers in doing most of the tree cutting in Brazil and Indonesia, which may make it easier to rein in the trend. |
| Ants take on Goliath role in protecting trees in the savanna from elephants | | Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new study finds. Columns of angered ants will crawl up into elephant trunks to repel the ravenous beasts from devouring tree cover throughout drought-plagued East African savannas, playing a potentially important role in regulating carbon sequestration in these ecosystems. |
| Giant Greenland iceberg -- largest in the northern hemisphere -- enters Nares Strait | | The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite has been tracking the progression of the giant iceberg that calved from Greenland's Petermann glacier on 4 August 2010. A new animation shows that the iceberg, the largest in the northern hemisphere, is now entering Nares Strait -- a stretch of water that connects the Lincoln Sea and Arctic Ocean with Baffin Bay. |
| Climate change implicated in decline of horseshoe crabs | | A distinct decline in horseshoe crab numbers has occurred that parallels climate change associated with the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study that used genomics to assess historical trends in population sizes. |
| Marine animals suggest evidence for a trans-Antarctic seaway | | A tiny marine filter-feeder that anchors itself to the sea bed offers new clues to scientists studying the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet -- a region that is thought to be vulnerable to collapse. Scientists analyzed sea-bed colonies of bryozoans from coastal and deep sea regions around the continent and from further afield. They found striking similarities in particular species of bryozoans living on the continental shelves of two seas -- the Ross and Weddell -- that are around 1,500 miles apart and separated by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. |
| Extensive relict coral reef found in southern Pacific | | Coral reefs are sensitive to climate change and track sea level. New observations show that an extensive coral reef existed in the southern Pacific Ocean thousands of years ago. Researchers used multi-beam sonar, coring, and dating to examine a relict reef discovered in water about 20-25 meters (65-82 feet) deep around Lord Howe Island in the southern Pacific Ocean. |
| Carnivore species shrank during global warming event | | A new study indicates extinct carnivorous mammals shrank in size during a global warming event that occurred 55 million years ago. The study describes a new species that evolved to half the size of its ancestors during this period of global warming. |
|
|
WEATHER 