News & Press
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Climate-driven heat peaks may diminish wheat crop yields
Monday, January 30th 2012
According to a study published Sunday in Nature Climate Change, more intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing.
Current projections based on computer models underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process, the researchers warned.
In some nations, wheat accounts for up to 50 percent of calorie intake and 20 percent of protein nutrition... -
The Biodiversity Crisis and Climate Change
Tuesday, January 24th 2012
The FAO estimates that 40 percent of the world (2.6 billion people) rely on fuelwood or charcoal as their primary source of energy for cooking and heating. Fuelwood consumption has increased 250 percent since 1960. The collection of fuelwood and building material from the rainforest remains an important cause of deforestation by settlers. This ultimately leads to habitat fragmentation and fragmented patches of forest are subject to drying winds that increase the frequency ...
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Deforestation and Climate Change are having a Profound Effect on the Amazon Basin
Friday, January 20th 2012
Deforestation and climate change are shifting the Amazon basin from a carbon sink to a carbon emitter.
The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in the Amazon (LBA) evaluated the connections between climate change, agricultural expansion, logging, and fire risk. The team concluded that there are clear signs of transition to a disturbance-dominated regime in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon basin.
"Deforestation has moved the net b... -
New Research: Climate Change could expose North America, East Asia and the Caribbean to costly hurricane damage
Tuesday, January 17th 2012
Researchers from MIT and Yale University have found that coastal regions of North America and the Caribbean, as well as East Asia, are most at risk for hurricane damage. However, the researchers say by the year 2100, two factors could more than quadruple the economic damages caused by tropical storms in such regions and around the world: growing income and global warming.
In a paper published this week in Nature Climate Change, researchers developed a model to p... -
Climate Change Causes Drastic Ecological Changes
Wednesday, January 11th 2012
A new multi-year study has determined that reduced winter snowfall in mountainous regions as a result of climate change is causing cascading shifts in plant life and animal communities by allowing elk to stay through winter and consume the plants that would normally be home to a variety of bird life.
The study was published online on January 8 in the journal Nature Climate Change and was conducted by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University...
