ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

Biologists partner bacterium with nitrogen gas to produce more, cleaner bioethanol Posted: 02 Feb 2015 06:21 PM PST Biologists believe they have found a faster, cheaper and cleaner way to increase bioethanol production by using nitrogen gas, the most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, in place of more costly industrial fertilizers. The discovery could save the industry millions of dollars and make cellulosic ethanol -- made from wood, grasses and inedible parts of plants -- more competitive with corn ethanol and gasoline.

Rivers might constitute just 20 percent of continental water flowing into oceans Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 PM PST The Amazon, Nile and Mississippi are mighty rivers, but they and all their worldwide brethren might be a relative trickle compared with an unseen torrent below the surface. New research shows that rivers might constitute as little as 20 percent of the water that flows yearly into the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans from the continents. The rest flows through what is termed the 'subterranean estuary,' which some researchers think supply the lion's share of terrestrial nutrients to the oceans.

Mercury levels in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna increasing Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:12 PM PST Mercury concentrations in Hawaiian yellowfin tuna are increasing at a rate of 3.8 percent or more per year, according to a new study that suggests rising atmospheric levels of the toxin are to blame.

Tree species influence boreal forest fire behavior, subsequent effects on climate Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:48 AM PST For a better understanding of how forest fires behave and interact with climate, scientists are turning to the trees. A new study shows that differences in individual tree species between Eurasia and North America alter the continental patterns of fire -- and that blazes burning the hottest actually cool the climate.

Toward the next biofuel: Secrets of Fistulifera solaris Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:11 AM PST Biofuels are an attractive alternative to fossil fuels, but a key challenge in efforts to develop carbon-neutral, large-scale methods to produce biofuels is finding the right organism for the job. One emerging candidate is the microalga Fistulifera solaris. An international collaboration of scientists has revealed the genome of F. solaris and provided exciting hints at the roots of its ability to grow and produce oil at the same time.

Smoke from fires linked to tornado intensity Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:10 AM PST Researchers have found that smoke from fires can intensify tornadoes. They examined the effects of smoke -- resulting from spring agricultural land-clearing fires in Central America -- transported across the Gulf of Mexico and encountering tornado conditions already in process in the United States.

Study supplies insight into behavior of African monsoon Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:26 AM PST The African monsoon's response to climate forcing is more complicated than previously understood, new research indicates. Current climate models don't do a great job of simulating the complex mechanisms behind the changes. Understanding how the monsoon will respond to gradual increases in greenhouse gases will require a better understanding of the processes, authors of a new study report.

Shrinking range of pikas in California mountains linked to climate change Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST The American pika, a small animal with a big personality that has long delighted hikers and backpackers, is disappearing from low-elevation sites in California mountains, and the cause appears to be climate change, according to a new study. Pika populations were most likely to go locally extinct at sites with high summer temperatures and low habitat area.

Global warming slowdown: No systematic errors in climate models, comprehensive statistical analysis reveals Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:46 AM PST Skeptics who still doubt anthropogenic climate change have now been stripped of one of their last-ditch arguments: It is true that there has been a warming hiatus and that the surface of Earth has warmed up much less rapidly since the turn of the millennium than all the relevant climate models had predicted. However, the gap between the calculated and measured warming is not due to systematic errors of the models, as the skeptics had suspected, but because there are always random fluctuations in Earth's climate, according to a comprehensive statistical analysis.

Actions, beliefs behind climate change stance Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:45 AM PST Strategies for building support for climate change mitigation policies should go beyond attempts to improve the public's understanding of science according to new research. Using an online survey of climate change sceptics and believers living in the US, researchers measured differences between the two groups in terms of environmental behaviours, emotional responses, national and global identification and a number of other variables.

To speed up magma, add water Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:41 AM PST Water dragged into Earth’s interior helps melt rock, but near the Tonga trench there’s the least magma where there’s the most water. A three-dimensional seismic image of the mantle beneath the Lau Basin in the South Pacific has an intriguing anomaly. The image showed the least magma where the scientists expected to find the most. After considerable debate they concluded that magma with a high water content was flushed so rapidly that it wasn't showing up in the images.

Turning up heat on plants could help grow crops of the future Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:56 AM PST Crops that can thrive in warming climates are a step closer, thanks to new insights into how temperature and light affect plant development. Scientists studied the effect of light and temperature on seedlings of a small cress plant known as Arabidopsis. They were surprised to find that at high temperatures, light causes seedling stems to develop in the same way that they normally would in shade or darkness.

Deep ocean a source of dissolved iron in Central Pacific Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:55 AM PST The deep ocean appears to be a major source of dissolved iron in the central Pacific Ocean. This finding highlights the vital role ocean mixing plays in determining whether deep sources of iron reach the surface-dwelling life that need it to survive.

Improving health of marine life, coastal economies Posted: 02 Feb 2015 07:53 AM PST Sea turtles and coral reefs may hold the keys to improving Florida's offshore health and economy. Scientists are getting in on the ground floor of a new alliance that aims to improve the health of Tampa Bay's waters.

Arsenic stubbornly taints many US wells, say new reports Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:14 PM PST Naturally occurring arsenic in private wells threatens people in many US states and parts of Canada, according to a package of a dozen scientific papers. The studies, focused mainly on New England but applicable elsewhere, say private wells present continuing risks due to almost nonexistent regulation in most states, homeowner inaction and inadequate mitigation measures.

Picking up on the smell of evolution: Researchers discover changes that let a species drastically change its lifestyle Posted: 29 Jan 2015 02:04 PM PST Some of the changes in genes, physiology and behavior that enable a species to drastically change its lifestyle in the course of evolution have been discovered by researchers.