Credit: Lee Brown
The loss of glaciers worldwide enhances the breakdown of complex carbon molecules in rivers, potentially contributing further to climate change.
An international research team led by the University of Leeds has for the first time linked glacier-fed mountain rivers with higher rates of plant material decomposition, a major process in the global carbon cycle.
As mountain glaciers melt, water is channelled into rivers downstream. But with global warming accelerating the loss of glaciers, rivers have warmer water temperatures and are less prone to variable water flow and sediment movement. These conditions are then much more favourable for fungi to establish and grow.
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IMAGE: Annual wet-bulb Cooling Degree Days CDDwb (°C-days) in the baseline and the specific warming level scenarios. view more
Credit: See the paper
Space cooling already accounts for 14% of residential electricity demand in Brazil, and it is expected to increase further because of climate change.
Very few studies investigate the relationship between climate change, cooling needs, and electricity demand. In a new study in
Energy and Buildings, a team of researchers from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and CMCC@Ca Foscari - a joint program of Ca Foscari University of Venice and CMCC Foundation - investigate how climate and income during the period 1970-2010 shaped cooling services in Brazil. This historical relationship allows projecting the resulting energy demand for cooling services across three warming scenarios: +1.5°C, +2°C, +4°C.
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IMAGE: This animation depicts the two-stage flash configuration, one of several processes described in a new study detailing how EEMPA, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory-developed solvent, can capture carbon from flue. view more
Credit: (Animation by Michael Perkins | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
RICHLAND, Wash. As part of a marathon research effort to lower the cost of carbon capture, chemists have now demonstrated a method to seize carbon dioxide (CO2) that reduces costs by 19 percent compared to current commercial technology. The new technology requires 17 percent less energy to accomplish the same task as its commercial counterparts, surpassing barriers that have kept other forms of carbon capture from widespread industrial use. And it can be easily applied in existing capture systems.
A study shows that the lower incidence of disease in the Ethiopian highlands at the turn of the century has a close connection with a temporary slowdown in global warming
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For the first time, two researchers one from the University of Copenhagen and the other from Columbia University have accurately dated the arrival of the first herbivorous dinosaurs in East Greenland. Their results demonstrate that it took the dinosaurs 15 million years to migrate from the southern hemisphere, as a consequence of being slowed down by extreme climatic conditions. Their long walk was only possible because as CO2 levels dropped suddenly, the Earth s climate became less extreme.
A snail could have crawled its way faster. 10,000 km over 15 million years that s how long it took the first herbivorous dinosaurs to make their way from Brazil and Argentina all the way to East Greenland. This, according to a new study by Professor Lars Clemmensen of the University of Copenhagen s Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management and researcher Dennis Kent of New York s Columbia University.