Land conversion and climate threaten land birds
... vulnerable to extinction; whereas birds at higher latitudes are less diverse and tend to have large ranges. The irony here is that the protection of tropical forests is also one of the strongest buffers against future climate change. A vastly expanded reserve network in the tropics, coupled with more ambit...Research finds evidence tropical cyclones have climate-control role
...he Pacific Ocean and Indian oceans and past warmer latitudes warming the water brought to North America and Europe, Huber said. In the tropical oceans, this pattern must be reversed; warm, buoyant water must be mixed downward, and cold, dense water must be mixed upward. This process, called vertical mixing, ...Prehistoric remains reveal a drastic shift in northern fur seal ecology
...nce had major breeding colonies at more hospitable latitudes in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the east...years. Prehistoric northern fur seals in temperate latitudes apparently used this "long-term" maternal strategy. Although modern northern fur seals have recently...AGU Journal Highlights -- April 16, 2007
...on the coupling between conditions at low and high latitudes and between conditions in the stratosphere and troposphere as revealed through established data sets. They found that temperature anomalies propagate poleward and downward above the boundary between the stratosphere and the troposphere, but propagate...Tundra disappearing at rapid rate
...slow because conditions are so harsh at these high latitudes and altitudes," said Dr. Ryan Danby, from the Department of Biological Sciences. "But what our data indicates is that there was an upslope surge of trees in response to warmer temperatures. Its like it waited until conditions were just right and then...AGU Journal highlights -- February 23, 2007
...scales, barotropic conditions persist only at high latitudes and in shallow depths. Elsewhere and at even longer timescales, bottom pressure and sea level fields can differ significantly. Title:The relation between sea level and bottom pressure and the vertical dependence of oceanic variability Authors:Na...... have learned that the prevailing winds in the mid latitudes of North America, which now blow from the west, once blew from the east. They reached this conclusion by analyzing 14,000- to 30,000-year-old wood samples from areas in the mid-latitudes of North America (40-50N), which represents the region north of...New poinsettia for the nontraditionalist
...universities in the program are at three different latitudes so they get three separate sets of data. "Here in Illinois, it starts getting cloudy in early November and that affects the amount of light coming into the greenhouse. They don't have that problem in Kansas," said Warnock. The topmost leaves change ...Mars Express and the story of water on Mars
...urned. When the radar passed over the mid northern latitudes of Chryse Planitia, the signals showed a buried impact crater, below the surface. Inside this impact structure was a thick layer of possibly water-ice-rich material. "We are finding reservoirs of ice that have never been seen before," says Plaut, "Bu...Continued warming of the Arctic Ocean
...which were previously unrecorded from the northern latitudes that they had reached via the warm waters. For one month, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Bremen and the Polish Institute of Oceanology were tracking warm waters along the sea ice margin between Greenland and Spitsberge...Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer detects vast polar ethane cloud on Titan
...to see lots of ethane -- vast ethane clouds at all latitudes and extensive seas on the surface of Saturn's gian...acecraft radar found lakes in Titan's north arctic latitudes on a flyby last July 22. However, "We now know that Titan's surface is largely devoid of lakes and o...Evolution of Old World fruit flies on three continents mirrors climate change
...d, is that the chromosome inversions common in low latitudes seemingly provide the flies with protection against warmer temperatures. The genetic composition found in the newest samples corresponded almost exactly to the composition of insects that in earlier studies were collected from sites 70 miles, or 1...Cat parasite may affect cultural traits in human populations
... in humid, low-altitude regions, especially at mid latitudes that have infrequent freezing and thawing. Cultural practices of food preparation such as rare or undercooked meats, or poor hygiene, can increase exposure to infection, as can having cats as pets. Lafferty added, "Toxoplasmosis is one of many factor...Global patterns of geographic range sizes: A bird's eye view
...rule, latitudinal range decreased from low to high latitudes in both hemispheres, rather than vice versa. Simil...eographic realms, range size increased with higher latitudes in only seven out of 13 cases. There was a strong correlation between species richness and latitude,...Taking evolution's temperature: Researchers pinpoint the energy it takes to make a species
...ith differences in ocean temperatures at different latitudes ranging from the tropics to the arctic. The results agreed closely with predictions of their model. "It takes more energy than all the fossil fuel people burn on the planet in a year to form one new species of plankton," said Andrew Allen, Ph.D., the...Using satellite observations to study photosynthetic trends in northern circumpolar high latitudes
... the Center, "This research suggests that the high latitudes might not be responding to climate change as previ...losses. Rather than a systematic greening of high latitudes with warmer temperature, we are seeing a more nuanced and surprisingly rapid response to changes in ...Important gene controlling tree growth and development found
.... This means that trees originating from different latitudes (different origins in the north to south direction, so called "provenances", display different critical daylengths. For instance, an aspen tree from the middle of Germany stops growing and sets buds when the days get shorter than 16 hours. Compare th...Scientists discover that ancient genes dictate flowering, fall bud set
...bserved that the same species of tree at different latitudes will respond to local conditions in order to becom...s. When they grew trees originating from different latitudes in Europe in a growth chamber, the Umea Plant Centre team observed that "This response is under stro...Albatross study shows regional differences in ocean contamination
...t, whereas the Laysan albatrosses forage at higher latitudes near Alaska. So it appears that the California Current system has significantly higher concentrations of these contaminants," Finkelstein said. The researchers published their findings in the April issue of the journal Ecological Applications. Mercu...