E-Mail
When the Thomas Fire raged through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in December 2017, Danielle Touma, at the time an earth science researcher at Stanford, was stunned by its severity. Burning for more than a month and scorching 440 square miles, the fire was then considered the worst in California s history.
Six months later the Mendocino Complex Fire upended that record and took out 717 square miles over three months. Record-setting California wildfires have since been the norm, with five of the top 10 occurring in 2020 alone.
The disturbing trend sparked some questions for Touma, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara s Bren School for Environmental Science & Management.
Nagoya University scientists find a rare mineral in nuclear power plant walls, significantly improving their strength following years of full operation.
Wetland methane cycling increased during a rapid global warming event 56 million years ago and could foreshadow changes the methane cycle will experience in the future, according to new research led by the University of Bristol.
E-Mail
IMAGE: Graphic depicting the temperature tipping point at which Earth s plants will start decreasing the amount of human-caused carbon emissions they can absorb. view more
Credit: Victor O. Leshyk/Northern Arizona University
Earth s ability to absorb nearly a third of human-caused carbon emissions through plants could be halved within the next two decades at the current rate of warming, according to a new study in
Science Advances by researchers at Northern Arizona University, the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Using more than two decades of data from measurement towers in every major biome across the globe, the team identified a critical temperature tipping point beyond which plants ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon a cumulative effect referred to as the land carbon sink decreases as temperatures continue to rise.