News tagged with water ecosystems

Groundwater depletion rate accelerating worldwide

In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, say scientists who have conducted an unusual, global ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 23, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (22) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Study confirms oil from Deepwater Horizon disaster entered food chain in the Gulf of Mexico

Since the explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, scientists have been working to understand the impact that this disaster has had on the environment. For ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Breath of the Earth: Cycling carbon through terrestrial ecosystems

Two recent international studies are poised to change the way scientists view the crucial relationship between Earth's climate and the carbon cycle. These reports explore the global photosynthesis and respiration ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 05, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Fish guts explain marine carbon cycle mystery

Research published today reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Crowded Earth: how many is too many?

Already straining to host seven billion souls, Earth is set to teem with billions more, and only a revolution in the use of resources can avert an environmental crunch, experts say.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Oct 23, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 144

Mesquite trees displacing Southwestern grasslands

As the desert Southwest becomes hotter and drier, semi-arid grasslands are slowly being replaced by a landscape dominated by mesquite trees, such as Prosopis velutina, and other woody shrubs, a team of University ...

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 18, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Listening to Earth breathe through 500 towers

It takes a global village to monitor and analyze trends in Earth's "breathing" -- or the exchange of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between vegetation on the ground and the planet's atmosphere.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 19, 2010 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0

NOAA greenhouse gas index continues to climb

NOAA's updated Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI), which measures the direct climate influence of many greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, shows a continued steady upward trend that began with the Industrial ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 09, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 3

Some Canadian rivers at risk of drying up

(PhysOrg.com) -- Some Canadian rivers are at risk of drying up as impacts of climate change intersect with growing water demand from the country's cities, industries and agriculture, a new WWF report has found.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (8) | comments 3

Long-term research reveals causes and consequences of environmental change

As global temperatures rise, the most threatened ecosystems are those that depend on a season of snow and ice, scientists from the nation's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network say."The vulnerability o ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 06, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

CO2 bonds in sea ice: Small living creatures with major impact

Due to the presence of salts, the freezing point of sea water is below zero. During freezing, channels in which the salt accumulates, so-called "brine channels," are formed in the ice. They serve as a habitat ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 11, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 4

Cliffhanging corals avoid trawler damage

Bottom trawling fishing boats have devastated many cold water coral reefs along the margin of the North East Atlantic Ocean. Now, researchers have found large cold water coral colonies clinging to the vertical ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Hearty bacteria help make case for life in the extreme

(PhysOrg.com) -- The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there, according to researchers.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

They're alive! Megacities breathe, consume energy, excrete wastes and pollute

A scientific trend to view the world's biggest cities as analogous to living, breathing organisms is fostering a deep new understanding of how poor air quality in megacities can harm residents, people living ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 18, 2009 | popularity 2.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Human Impacts and Environmental Factors Are Changing the Northwest Atlantic Ecosystem

(PhysOrg.com) -- Fish in U.S. waters from Cape Hatteras to the Canadian border have moved away from their traditional, long-time habitats over the past four decades because of fundamental changes in the regional ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 31, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0