The Future of Forest Isoprene Emissions
12 May 2010
In a paper published in the 17 September 2009 issue of Nature, Kiendler-Scharr et al., as they describe it, "present evidence from simulation experiments conducted in a plant chamber that isoprene can significantly inhibit new particle formation." The significance of this finding derives from the fact (as they also write) that... Read More

Alaskan and Northwest Canadian Glaciers
12 May 2010
The authors write that prior efforts to estimate the mass loss of glaciers in Alaska and northwest Canada -- which they refer to as simply Alaskan glaciers -- "have relied on extrapolating site-specific measurements to the entire region," citing the studies of... Read More

Floods of the Guadalentin River, Southeast Spain
12 May 2010
Working in southeast Spain, Benito et al. reconstructed flood frequencies of the Upper Guadalentin River using "geomorphological evidence, combined with one-dimensional hydraulic modeling and supported by records from documentary sources at Lorca in the lower Guadalentin catchment"... Read More

The Future of East Africa in a CO₂-Enriched and Warmer World
12 May 2010
The authors modeled future changes in land biogeochemistry and biogeography in the region bounded by 12.5°N, 12.5°S, 25°E and 42.5°E, representing the whole of East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Somalia), as well as portions of Central Africa (the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan). This they did using... Read More

High Northern Latitude Carbon Balance Over the 21st Century
12 May 2010
It has been hypothesized that if or when the frozen soils of earth's Northern High Latitudes (NHLs, land poleward of 60°N) begin to thaw in response to any new spate of global warming that might occur, the metabolism of soil microbes will be enhanced and the decomposition of soil organic matter will accelerate; and it has been further postulated that this, in turn, will lead to an increase in soil organic carbon release to the atmosphere that will amplify global warming... Read More

Orchid Responses to Super-High Atmospheric CO₂ Enrichment
12 May 2010
According to Norikane et al., "the genus Cymbidium comprises about 50 species distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and Oceania," and "almost all cultivated cymbidiums are hybrids, thin-leaved and with a C₃ mode of photosynthesis." In addition... Read More

Climate and the Origin and Demise of Species
7 May 2010
In an intriguing review paper published in Current Biology, Erwin (2009) takes us on a journey that winds through epochs past and explores the myriad nooks and crannies of contemporary earth, all in a search for the primary trigger of speciation... Read More

Sea Level Changes of the Past: Portents of the Future
7 May 2010
In an effort to place some reasonable potential limits (both high and low) on possible future sea-level rise, members of the PALeo SEA Level Working Group (PALSEA) recently looked to the past for some answers... Read More

The Urban Heat Island of Mexicali, Mexico
7 May 2010
Mexicali City borders the United States at the northern end of Mexico's Baja California. It is an urban settlement that had its beginnings in the first decade of the 20th century. At that point in time it had an area of approximately 4 km²; but by 1980 it covered an area of a little over 40 km², and by 2005 it covered something in excess of 140 km²... Read More

Forest Growth Has Accelerated as the Air's CO₂ Content Has Risen
7 May 2010
The authors state "there are indications that forest biomass accumulation may be accelerating where nutrients and water are not limiting," citing the work of Myneni et al. (1997),... Read More

The Future of Malaria
7 May 2010
In prefacing their article, Nabi and Qader write that "since malaria is greatly influenced by climatic conditions because of its direct relationship with the mosquito population, it is widely assumed that its incidence is likely to increase in a future warmer world." However, they say this assumption is "quite controversial and strongly debated"... Read More

CO₂ and O₃ Effects on Two Silver Birch Clones in Finland
7 May 2010
For a period of three years (1999-2001), Vapaavuori et al. grew 20 initially-seven-year-old individual trees of each of two different silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) clones -- 4 and 80 (V5952 and K1659, respectively, in the Finnish forest genetic register) -- out-of-doors at the Suonenjoki Research Unit site of the Finnish Forest Research Institute... Read More