Phys.org: Earth science

Major snowstorms in Utah's Wasatch Mountains are both a blessing and a curse. They deliver much-needed moisture that supplies water to the state's biggest metropolitan area and fluffy light snow to support the world's finest powder skiing.

Plants both absorb carbon dioxide and release water vapor through their stomata, or pores on their leaves. In drought conditions, plants close these pores to conserve water, and this reduces their carbon dioxide uptake as well.

Human intervention has destroyed critical habitats for salmon and trout in Swedish streams. Researchers at Umeå University have discovered crucial clues to help restore the streams to their natural state.

In 2023, we saw a raft of news stories about climate tipping points, including the accelerating loss of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the potential dieback of the Amazon rainforest and the likely weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation.

When a tropical cyclone forms, people who live in its path anxiously monitor news of its direction—and strength. If a Category 5 storm with wind speeds of 250 kilometers per hour is heading for you, you prepare differently than you would for a Category 1 with wind speeds of 65 km/h.

Earth is a stressed planet. As plates move, magma rises, and glaciers melt—just to mention a few scenarios—rocks are subject to varying pressure and compressional and extensional forces. The effect of these stresses on rock mineralogy and texture is of great interest to the tectono-metamorphic community. Yet the link between process and outcome remains elusive.

An international team of geologists, Earth scientists and mineralogists has found evidence suggesting that volcanic lightning may have fixed huge amounts of atmospheric nitrogen, allowing life on Earth to get its start.

For more than 50 years, the National Hurricane Center has used the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to communicate the risk of property damage; it labels a hurricane on a scale from Category 1 (wind speeds between 74–95 mph) to Category 5 (wind speeds of 158 mph or greater).

In a warming climate, meltwater from Antarctica is expected to contribute significantly to rising seas. For the most part, though, research has been focused on West Antarctica, in places like the Thwaites Glacier, which has seen significant melt in recent decades.

A handful of centuries-old sponges from deep in the Caribbean are causing some scientists to think human-caused climate change began sooner and has heated the world more than they thought.

The Circumpolar Current works as a regulator of the planet's climate. Its origins were thought to have caused the formation of the permanent ice in Antarctica about 34 million years ago. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona, the Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC) and the Imperial College London (United Kingdom) has cast doubt on this theory, and has changed the understanding of how the ice sheet in Antarctic developed in the past, and what this could mean in the future as the planet's climate changes.

The increasing concentration of ozone (O3) is a key factor contributing to the deterioration of air quality in China. O3 and its precursors, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs), could be transported by air masses, leading to interactions of O3 precursors from biogenic and anthropogenic sources.

Branding seems like it's everywhere today. And it's not just the swoosh on your Nikes or the bitten apple icon on your laptop anymore. Social media influencers craft their personal brands. But is there even branding in science? You bet there is.

There's no precedent in at least five centuries for how hot and dry the West has been in the last two decades, new research asserts using analysis of tree rings.

September 2023 broke the global mean temperature record by a staggering 0.5° C difference from the previous record. A new study calls for further analysis of the impact of volcanoes and anthropogenic climate forcing on the new record.

The variability of lake partial carbon dioxide pressure (pCO2) introduces uncertainty into CO2 flux estimates. Knowing the variation pattern of pCO2 is important for obtaining an accurate global estimation.

A new study shows that annual carbon emissions from lakes in the Qingzang Plateau (QZP)—a vast elevated plateau at the intersection of Central, South, and East Asia—have declined, with some lakes shifting from carbon sources between 1970–2000 to carbon sinks between 2000-2020, a finding that has implications for estimates of global warming and climate change relative to China overall.

Although contaminant levels in Arctic environments are often lower than those in temperate locations close to cities and industrial areas, contaminant studies in the Arctic remain important due to the potential for bioaccumulation and biomagnification through food webs to top consumers and humans. Regions important for traditional food harvesting are a priority for monitoring.

Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones—where tectonic plates collide—could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes, according to a research team from Penn State and Brown University.

A new study investigates the sinks and sources of key greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the Arctic landscape with a spatial resolution of only a few square meters. Vegetation and soil conditions explain the differences in greenhouse gas emissions.