A cluster of closely timed earthquakes over 100 years in the 17th and 18th centuries released as much accumulated stress on San Francisco Bay Area’s major faults as the Great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, suggesting two possible scenarios for the next ‘Big One’ for the region, according to new research.
Humans have more than doubled tropical nitrogen inputs, according to new research. Scientists used a new method to demonstrate that biological nitrogen fixation in tropical rain forests may be less than a quarter of previous estimates. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant and animal life. Too much nitrogen, however, leads to dead zones, pollutes air and drinking water, contributes to a number of human illnesses, and can affect ecosystems negatively.
Cod fishing in New England has steadily declined over the past three decades. It’s estimated that hundreds of people have lost their jobs as a result and that continued failure to rebuild the fishery could cost the region’s economy a total of $200 million, studies show. Now, researchers explain how various types of fishing gear can impact the Northeast region’s fisheries in the first of a series of research articles.
Rising temperatures and ash from Northern Hemisphere forest fires combined to cause large-scale surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet in 1889 and 2012, contradicting conventional thinking that the melt events were driven by warming alone, a new study finds.
Flyways used by migratory birds as they travel across America have long been a topic of fascination for ornithologists. For larger species like waterfowl that are easily visible during their migratory flights, these flyways have been described, but until now the flyways for smaller-bodied birds have been largely based on conjecture.
The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is known to influence global surface temperatures, with El Niño conditions leading to warmer temperatures and La Niña conditions leading to colder temperatures. However, a new study shows that some types of El Niño do not have this effect, a finding that could explain recent decade-scale slowdowns in global warming.
Cabo Pulmo is a close-knit community in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and the best preserved coral reef in the Gulf of California. But the lands adjacent to the reef are under threat from a mega-development project, ‘Cabo Dorado,’ should construction go ahead. Scientists have published a report on the terrestrial biodiversity of the Cabo Pulmo region that shows the project is situated in an area of extreme conservation value.
Three years of observations show that the Antarctic ice sheet is now losing 159 billion tons of ice each year — twice as much as when it was last surveyed. Scientists have now produced the first complete assessment of Antarctic ice sheet elevation change.
The amount of water flowing through rivers in snow-affected regions depends significantly on how much of the precipitation falls as snowfall, new research has shown for the first time. This means in a warming climate, if less of the precipitation falls as snow, rivers will discharge less water than they currently do.
Greenland’s icy reaches are far more vulnerable to warm ocean waters from climate change than had been thought, according to new research by glaciologists. The work shows previously uncharted deep valleys stretching for dozens of miles under the Greenland Ice Sheet.
