Research News

(Simons Consulting) Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that conserving rainforests in the Amazon River Basin will increase the amount of electricity that hydropower projects in the area can produce.

Climate change will cause widespread global-scale loss of common plants and animals. More than half of common plants and one third of the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change, according to new research.

(University of East Anglia) Almost two-thirds of common plants and half the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change -- according to research from the University of East Anglia. But acting quickly to mitigate climate change could reduce losses by 60 percent and buy an additional 40 years for species to adapt.

On May 9, the daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since measurements began in 1958. Independent measurements made by both NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have been approaching this level during the past week.

(National Physical Laboratory) The Centre for Carbon Measurement at the National Physical Laboratory has been unveiled as one of the first verification bodies of the EU Environmental Technology Verification Pilot Programme with specific remit for the independent verification of Energy Technologies under the scheme.

(Global Biodiversity Information Facility) Climate change could dramatically reduce the geographic ranges of thousands of common plant and animal species during this century, according to research using data made freely available online through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Cirrus clouds influence global climate, cooling the planet by reflecting incoming solar radiation and warming it by trapping outgoing heat. Understanding the mechanisms by which these clouds form may help scientists better predict future climate patterns. Scientists have now identified the major seeds on which cirrus clouds form.

Analyses of the longest continental sediment core ever collected in the Arctic provide "absolutely new knowledge" of Arctic climate from 2.2 to 3.6 million years ago. The research has major implications for understanding how the Arctic transitioned from a forested landscape without ice sheets to the ice- and snow-covered land we know today.

Coral reefs are in decline, but their collapse can still be avoided with local and global action. That's according to findings based on an analysis that combines the latest science on reef dynamics with the latest climate models.

(Indiana University) "Eternal flames" fueled by hydrocarbon gas could shine a light on the presence of natural gas in underground rock layers and conditions that let it seep to the surface, according to research by geologists at the Department of Geological Sciences and the Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University Bloomington.