Throughout the U.S., the Onset of Autumn Is Falling Back
If it feels or looks like autumn leaves are taking longer to change color, you’re not imagining things. Over the past 25 years, the onset of autumn has shifted throughout the lower 48 states, with leaves now staying on trees about 10 days longer than they did in the early 1980s. Using satellite-based measurements of the Normalized Difference Veget… Read More
World’s Biggest Geoengineering Test ‘Violates’ UN Rules
Controversial U.S. businessman's iron fertilization off the west coast of Canada contravenes two UN conventions.… Read More
Great Barrier Reef Loses More Than Half its Coral Cover
Coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef has dropped by more than half over the last 27 years, according to scientists, a result of increased storms, bleaching and predation by population explosions of a starfish which sucks away the coral's nutrients. At present rates of decline, the coral cover will halve again within a decade, though scientists sa… Read More
Fish Size to Shrink Due to Climate Change, Study Says
Global warming is likely to shrink the size of fish by as much as a quarter in coming decades, according to a groundbreaking new study of the world's oceans. The reduction in individual fish size will be matched by a dwindling of overall fish stocks, warned scientists, at a time when the world's growing human population is putting ever greater … Read More
Ocean Acidification Threatens Food Security, Report
Rising temperatures, meanwhile, have forced some fish to migrate away from their normal territory. “Some fish just don’t like it too hot, Huelsenbeck said. A recent NOAA study, for example, found that Atlantic cod populations in the Gulf of Maine are shifting northeastward in response to rising ocean temperatures.… Read More
Avian Malaria in Alaska: The Climate Change Connection
A team of biologists has just announced the first documented case of bird-to-bird malaria transmission in Alaska. Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, they’ve shown that this frequently fatal illness, normally associated with the tropics and temperate areas, may be expanding its range. Since avian malaria doesn’t affect humans, said co-author Ravinder … Read More
It’s Official: Arctic Sea Ice Shatters Record Low
What makes this year unique is that the 2012 minimum is lower than any since modern satellite observations first began in the late 1970’s — and by a wide margin. The 2012 minimum of 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers) shatters the previous mark of 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square kilometers), which was set in 20… Read More
Climate Change and Fall Foliage: Not a Good Match
This year, at least in some places, the money may not be flowing in. “I hope I’m wrong, said Karl Niklas, a professor of plant biology at Cornell, in an interview, “but I just think it’s not going to be a great year in central New York.… Read More
