Earth’s Oceans Were Stressed Before Abrupt, Prehistoric Global Warming – SciTechDaily

Scanning electron microscopy images of foraminifera from different angles. Credit: Northwestern University Shelled organisms helped buffer ocean acidification by consuming less alkalinity from seawater. Third recent Northwestern study to detect calcification stress before and across ancient ocean acidification events Massive…

The Earth is Melting: Global Warming Brings Rain to Greenland Ice Sheets – Greek Reporter

Polar bears in northeast Greenland. Greenland’s summit has experienced rain for the first time in its history. Credit:Andreas Preusser, CC BY-ND 3.0 It rained on the summit of Greenland for the first time in the ice sheet’s history. The rainfall…

Predicting solar storms to protect Earth

Predicting solar storms isn’t easy. We’re still a long way from forecasting space weather events days in advance. But we’re getting closer.

The post Predicting solar storms to protect Earth first appeared on EarthSky.

Aerosols add a new wrinkle to climate change in the tropical Pacific Ocean – Yale News

A new Yale study suggests that aerosols in the atmosphere may be temporarily holding down ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, are an indication that the surprisingly modest warming observed…

Last ice-covered parts of summertime Arctic Ocean vulnerable to climate change – National Science Foundation

Research News Last ice-covered parts of summertime Arctic Ocean vulnerable to climate change One area might serve as a refuge to harbor ice-dependent wildlife The Wandel Sea is inside what’s known as the ‘Last Ice Area’ in the Arctic Ocean….

Southeastern US herbaria digitize three million specimens, now freely available online

(Botanical Society of America) The National Science Foundation recently provided funding to over 100 herbaria across the Southeast U.S. to digitize more than three million plant specimens collected by botanists and naturalists across the country. Researchers tracked the speed and productivity of staff and students who handled the specimens, from the collection drawers to online repositories, to provide institutions with a framework to better determine the time and money needed to digitize remaining collections.

Visualizing a city’s energy use

(University of Pittsburgh) Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation used the City of Pittsburgh to create a model built upon the design, materials and purpose of commercial buildings to estimate their energy usage and emissions.

New tests can detect tiny but toxic particles of coal ash in soil

(Duke University) Duke University scientists have developed tests sensitive enough to detect and measure microscopic particles of coal ash in soil, even at concentrations so low and sizes so small that other tests would likely miss them. The four new tests complement tests previously developed at Duke to detect coal ash contamination in water and larger particles of coal ash in soil.

California’s carbon mitigation efforts may be thwarted by climate change itself

(University of California – Irvine) To meet an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, California’s policymakers are relying in part on forests and shrublands to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but researchers at the University of California, Irvine warn that future climate change may limit the ecosystem’s ability to perform this service.

Deep-sea research bolstered with $2 million grant

(Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has been awarded $2 million by NSF to accelerate scientific understanding of the impacts of emerging industries in the deep sea – one of the most mysterious, and potentially lucrative, areas of the ocean.