Science picks leads, feeds and story seeds (October 2002 edition)
...mastodons roamed the Earth holds clues to what the atmosphere was like hundreds of thousands of years ago -- long before human activities could have had any effect on climate. Carefully preserved at -32 degrees F at the National Ice Core Lab in Denver, Colorado, ice cores from Antarctica, Greenland, and other l...Research reveals how an acid dissolves, molecule by molecule
...ituations, especially ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere and proton motion in water, which is important in ...ne of the compounds whose dissolution in the upper atmosphere contributes to the formation of the ozone hole, and Castleman's research sheds light on issues relat...Increased CO2 levels are mixed blessing for agriculture
...vels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be a boon for agricultural crops, as this greenhouse gas helps crop plants grow and reproduce more. But that boon comes with a price, said Peter Curtis, a ...Living in a glass house: Ocean organism's novel dwelling helps Earth's atmosphere
... owes its present-day, oxygen-rich and carbon-poor atmosphere in part to diatoms and their effective use of glass. Diatoms are one-celled organisms that are so prolific they account for a quarter of all the photosynthesis on the planet. In photosynthesis, organisms use sunlight and carbon dioxide to make sugar...New Amazon forest monitoring team: RAINFOR
... forests may be mopping up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions of the entire European Union, thus slowing the rate of global climate change. Climate change and forest fragmentation (Laurance et al. 2002), as well as surprising ecological changes such as newly repo...AAAS at the BA: Whale food, winners and losers in Antarctica and solar insights
...aid, that "the chaotic eddying motions in the real atmosphere often do the opposite thing. They drive the fluid system away from solid rotation. This is sometimes called "negative friction", or "anti-friction". It is intimately part of today's understanding of the ozone hole, and of how global circulation patte...Mass spectrometer weighs in as proteomics breakthrough
...s into how microorganisms gobble carbon out of the atmosphere and the role proteins play in a virus known to cause blindness. PNNL researchers have constructed the first-ever high-throughput, or extremely fast, Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance, or FTICR, mass spectrometer. The system will provide an u...For elephants, its not just their ears and trunk that make them unique on land
... atmospheric, because the lung is connected to the atmosphere by the open proboscis, or trunk. The result is that the systemic vascular pressures are very high, whereas the pressure inside the thoracic cavity remains low. This inequality of pressures has dramatic effects at the interface between the lung and th...Scientists confirm age of the oldest meteorite collision on Earth
...eteorite collisions. "A meteor passes through the atmosphere in about one second, leaving a hole a vacuum behind it, but air can't move in fast enough to fill that hole," Lowe explained. "When the meteor hits the surface, it instantaneously melts and vaporizes rock, and that rock vapor is sucked right back u...Songbird population declines linked to acid rain
...such as nitric and sulfuric acid, falls out of the atmosphere as rain, snow, mist and fog. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are the primary causes of acid rain. In the United States, about two-thirds of all SO2 and one-fourth of all NOx come from electric-power generation that relies on burning...Trees encroaching grasslands may lock up less carbon than predicted
...s, carbon from the plant matter will return to the atmosphere in only a matter of years. However, another sink for carbon is the soil. The "organic carbon" in soils "can stay there for a long time, longer than in the plant," Jackson said in an interview. "It can remain in the soil for centuries. Furthermore, t...Satellites see big changes since 1980s in key element of ocean's food chain
...t for half the transfer of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere back into the biosphere by photosynthesis, a proce...oplankton play in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere helps reduce the rate at which CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere, and may help mitigate global warmi...ASPB Annual Meeting, August 3-7, media tip sheet
...fornia, Berkeley - Discusses leaves, canopies, and atmosphere interactions: Using biophysical models to investigate how plant canopies respond to environmental change. Symposium: High Throughput Plant Biology in the Post-Genomics Era. 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, August 6 in Plaza Ballrooms D, E & F. Abstracts and pr...The effects of human-caused atmospheric changes on tropical forests
... have been changing the composition of the world's atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture, ...nd up contributing even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as temperature rises. Data from La Selva show a strong negative correlation between tree growth and ...Harvard Medical School consortium receives grant to harness microbe genomes for environment/energy
... of the photosynthesis on earth, removing from the atmosphere carbon dioxide--which is linked to global warming--and producing oxygen. Pseudomonas, while a member of a family of significant human pathogens, is also one of the most versatile bio-chemical factories on earth. It has more different chemical react...Acid rain threatens forests in more ways than previously thought
...hern Chile (see Fig. 1). "We went to the cleanest atmosphere on earth and looked for a stable ecosystem so that we could find the closest thing to a long-term sustainable forest," Kennedy said (see Fig. 2). "There, we sampled soils, stream water, rain and plants, and analyzed the strontium isotope composition...Researchers arming farms to halt increases in greenhouse gases
...ltural research venture to capture carbon from the atmosphere will help ensure that Indiana remains in the foref...reen plants and trees grab carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to tissue. After they die, the carbon in their tissue is incorporated into soil mater...New computer model promises detailed picture of worldwide climate
...ial resolution in both oceans and sea ice, and the atmosphere is represented by a larger number of vertical layers." To achieve the extensive modifications in the latest version, which was released last month, scientists applied the model to specific problems. For example, they weighed the climatic impacts of ......ionary studies since it is believed that the early atmosphere of Earth had little oxygen. That is why some scientists have suggested the green-sulfur bacteria were the first photosynthetic organisms." The sequenced genome of C. tepidum, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represent...