Climate swings in northern hemisphere linked with changes in tropics

September 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study that reports precise ages for glacial moraines in southern Peru links climate swings in the tropics to those of Europe and North America during the Little Ice Age approximately 150 to 350 years ago. According to lead author Joe Licciardi, associate professor of Earth sciences at the University of New Hampshire, "The study brings us one step closer to understanding global-scale patterns of glacier activity and climate during the Little Ice Age.

September 16th, 2009 TORONTO - A new study by University of Toronto (U of T) physicists has shown that climate change will lead to less ultraviolet radiation over northern high latitudes. They discovered that changes in the Earth's ozone layer due to climate change will reduce the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in northern high latitude regions such as Siberia, Scandinavia and northern Canada.

September 16th, 2009 TORONTO - Ozone layer alterations, prompted by climate change, will enhance ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the tropics and Antarctica, according to a discovery by physicists. Climate change is an established fact, but scientists are only just beginning to understand its regional manifestations, said Michaela Hegglin, a physics researcher at the University of Toronto (U-T) and lead study author.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has determined that species living in restricted environments such as the tropics may lack adequate variation in their genes and be unable to adapt to climate change. Adaptation is a physiological or behavioural change that makes an organism better suited to its environment, and more likely to survive and reproduce.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new 2,000-year-long reconstruction of sea surface temperatures (SST) from the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) suggests that temperatures in the region may have been as warm during the Medieval Warm Period as they are today. The IPWP is the largest body of warm water in the world, and, as a result, it is the largest source of heat and moisture to the global atmosphere, and an important component of the planet's climate.

August 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has drilled an ice core of altogether 1757.87 m length on the Greenland inland ice within 110 days, which is expected to contain data on climate history of about 38,000 years. This completed the first season of the international drilling project NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) in north-western Greenland.

August 15th, 2009 SYDNEY - A team of scientists has found new evidence which indicates that wobbles in the Earth's tilt were responsible for the global warming episodes that helped bring the planet out of prehistoric ice ages. According to a report by ABC News, the finding is the result of research led by Dr Russell Drysdale of the University of Newcastle that has been able to accurately date the end of the penultimate ice age for the first time.

July 28th, 2009 SYDNEY - Mammals living in the tropics are evolving faster than those inhabiting cooler regions, according to a new study. Previously, it had been assumed that rates of genetic change in warm-blooded animals were independent of climate.

July 6th, 2009 SYDNEY - The tropical zone is expanding into what have been humid temperate climate zones, according to a review of scientific data. The authors of a recent study concluded that the effects of a pole-ward expansion of the tropical and subtropical zones were immense, manifesting a variety of social, political, economic and environmental outcomes.

July 6th, 2009 Sydney, July 6 (ANI): Australian experts have warned that the globe's tropical zone is expanding rapidly and more research is needed to help humans adapt to the changing climate, which means less rain. According to a report by ABC News, the finding is a result of a review of over 70 scientific papers done by climate researchers Professor Steve Turton and Dr Joanne Isaacs of James Cook University in Cairns, who have documented the rapid advance of the tropical zone.

June 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by a team of researchers has provided insights into how climate change might impact geographic ranges of species. The study, by researchers led by Jessica Hellmann, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, offers interesting insights into how species may, or may not, change their geographic range - the place where they live on earth - under climate change.

May 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found that for the last 7,000 years, glaciers south of the equator in South America and New Zealand have often moved out of step with glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere, pointing to strong regional variations in climate. "This research should provide much more accurate reconstructions of glacial advances worldwide, allowing us in turn to make climate models more accurate," said Paul Filmer, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research of ice cores by scientists, it has been revealed that a vast, potential source of the potent greenhouse gas, methane, is more stable in a warming world than previously thought. The finding includes Australian contributions from CSIRO and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

January 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Seasons are already arriving 48 hours ahead of schedule, even as the globe gets hotter, according to a new study by California Berkeley (UC-B) and Harvard Universities. Besides global warming, human activity may have also hastened the cycle of seasons, said Alexander R.

January 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Big volcanic eruptions cooled the tropics over the past 450 years, an effect masked by rising global temperatures, says a new study. Scientists already agree that large eruptions have lowered temperatures at higher latitudes in recent centuries, because volcanic particles reflect sunlight back into space.