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IMAGE: Airborne LiDARs are usual airplanes flying across the studied forests with a sensor attached to them. view more
Credit: Photo: Aircraft NERC, landscape Benjamin Blonder. Image processing Jani Närhi
In light of the United Nations (UN) declaration that 2021-2030 is the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a group of scientists voice concerns about restoration in heavily fragmented landscapes under a hotter and drier future scenario.
Poor recovery of small fragments will end up costing management and wider society later down the line. Millions are invested in setting aside patches, but management is then weak and costly.
Rainforests turn into oil palm plantations
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IMAGE: Atmospheric drying (referred to as water vapor pressure deficit or VPD) is expected to increase as a result of climate change. This could reduce crop yields and make trees shorter. view more
Credit: Maria H Park
A global observation of an ongoing atmospheric drying known by scientists as a rise in vapor pressure deficit has been observed worldwide since the early 2000s. In recent years, this concerning phenomenon has been on the rise, and is predicted to amplify even more in the coming decades as climate change intensifies.
In a new paper published in the journal Global Change Biology, research from the University of Minnesota and Western University in Ontario, Canada, outlines global atmospheric drying significantly reduces productivity of both crops and non-crop plants, even under well-watered conditions. The new findings were established on a large-scale analysis covering 50 years of research and 112 plant species.
Nuisance flooding has increased on U.S. coasts in recent decades due to sea level rise, and new research co-authored by the University of Central Florida uncovered an additional reason for its added frequency higher local tide ranges. The results are in a study appearing today in the journal
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IMAGE: Satellite imagery of the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica. The blue lines represent the movement of the ice as it flows from the continent to the edge of the. view more
Credit: Shujie Wang, Penn State
When a block of ice the size of Houston, Texas, broke off from East Antarctica s Amery Ice Shelf in 2019, scientists had anticipated the calving event, but not exactly where it would happen. Now, satellite data can help scientists measure the depth and shape of ice shelf fractures to better predict when and where calving events will occur, according to researchers.
Ice shelves make up nearly 75% of Antarctica s coastline and buttress or hold back the larger glaciers on land, said Shujie Wang, assistant professor of geography at Penn State. If the ice shelves were to collapse and Antarctica s glaciers fell or melted into the ocean, sea levels would rise by up to 200 feet.
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IMAGE: Clemson University graduate student Cierra Sullivan used herbarium specimen data in her research linking temperature and aridity changes to flower color changes over the past 124 years. view more
Credit: Clemson University College of Science
CLEMSON, South Carolina - Clemson University scientists have linked climatic fluctuations over the past one and a quarter-century with flower color changes.
Researchers combined descriptions of flower color from museum flower specimens dating back to 1895 with longitudinal- and latitudinal-specific climate data to link changes in temperature and aridity with color change in the human-visible spectrum (white to purple).
The study, which was published in the journal