XYNaPSE
12-11-2006, 02:50 PM
I just wanted to share a few articles with you guys. More proof of the dangers of global warming.
NASA: Global warming cuts ocean food
Source: UPI
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- NASA scientists say global warming is reducing the
Oceans' primary food supply, posing a threat to fisheries andecosystems.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers reached
that conclusion by comparing nearly a decade of global ocean satellite
data with several records of Earth's changing climate. They found
whenever climate temperatures increased, m marine plant life in the
form of microscopic phytoplankton declined. When climate temperatures
lowered, marine plant life became more vigorous or productive.
"The evidence is pretty clear that the Earth's climate is changing
dramatically, and in this NASA research we see a specific consequence
of that change," said oceanographer and study co-author Gene Carl
Feldman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Md. "It is
only by understanding how climate and life on Earth are linked that we
can realistically hope to predict how the Earth will be able to
support life in the future."
The study is published in the current edition of the journal Nature.
-****************
Seismologists take Earth's temperature
Source: UPI
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (UPI) -- U.S. seismologists say they have directly
measured, for the first time, the heat flowing from the Earth's molten
core into an area at the mantle's base.
The scientists say that flow helps drive both the movement of tectonic
plates at the Earth's surface, as well as the geodynamo in the core
that generates Earth's magnetic field.
The boundary between the core and the mantle is halfway to the center
of the Earth, at a depth of 1,740 miles. The new temperature
measurements were obtained by relating seismic observations to a
recently discovered mineral transformation that occurs at the
ultrahigh pressures and temperatures prevailing near the core-mantle
boundary.
"This is the first time we've had a 'thermometer' that tells us the
temperature halfway down to the center of the Earth," said University
of California-Santa Cruz Professor Thorne Lay, first author of the
paper.
Using 72,000 hours of supercomputing time, the scientists determined
the temperature at the upper boundary is about 4,000 degrees
Fahrenheit. At the lower end of the boundary the temperature is about
5,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The study appeared in the Nov. 24 issue of the Science.
************
Mass extinction also changed ocean ecology
Source: UPI
CHICAGO (UPI) -- A U.S.-led study suggests the Earth's biggest mass
extinction about 250 million years ago changed the ecology of the
oceans.
Researchers say the event wiped out an estimated 95 percent of marine
species and 70 percent of land species. But it did more than eliminate
species: it fundamentally changed the basic ecology of the world's
oceans by displacing complex communities of ecologically simple marine
life.
Furthermore, scientists say the apparently abrupt shift set a new
pattern that has continued ever since: the dominance of
higher-metabolism, mobile organisms that find their own food, over
older groups of low-metabolism, stationary organisms that filter
nutrients from the water.
"We were able to combine a huge data set with new quantitative
analyses," said Peter Wagner of Chicago's Field Museum and lead author
of the study. "We think these are the first analyses of this type at
this large scale. They show that the end-Permian mass extinction
permanently altered not just taxonomic diversity, but also the
prevailing marine ecosystem structure."
The findings by Wagner; Scott Lidgard, also from the Field Museum; and
Matthew Kosnik of Australia's James Cook University, appeared in the
Nov. 24 issue of Science.
NASA: Global warming cuts ocean food
Source: UPI
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- NASA scientists say global warming is reducing the
Oceans' primary food supply, posing a threat to fisheries andecosystems.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers reached
that conclusion by comparing nearly a decade of global ocean satellite
data with several records of Earth's changing climate. They found
whenever climate temperatures increased, m marine plant life in the
form of microscopic phytoplankton declined. When climate temperatures
lowered, marine plant life became more vigorous or productive.
"The evidence is pretty clear that the Earth's climate is changing
dramatically, and in this NASA research we see a specific consequence
of that change," said oceanographer and study co-author Gene Carl
Feldman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Md. "It is
only by understanding how climate and life on Earth are linked that we
can realistically hope to predict how the Earth will be able to
support life in the future."
The study is published in the current edition of the journal Nature.
-****************
Seismologists take Earth's temperature
Source: UPI
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (UPI) -- U.S. seismologists say they have directly
measured, for the first time, the heat flowing from the Earth's molten
core into an area at the mantle's base.
The scientists say that flow helps drive both the movement of tectonic
plates at the Earth's surface, as well as the geodynamo in the core
that generates Earth's magnetic field.
The boundary between the core and the mantle is halfway to the center
of the Earth, at a depth of 1,740 miles. The new temperature
measurements were obtained by relating seismic observations to a
recently discovered mineral transformation that occurs at the
ultrahigh pressures and temperatures prevailing near the core-mantle
boundary.
"This is the first time we've had a 'thermometer' that tells us the
temperature halfway down to the center of the Earth," said University
of California-Santa Cruz Professor Thorne Lay, first author of the
paper.
Using 72,000 hours of supercomputing time, the scientists determined
the temperature at the upper boundary is about 4,000 degrees
Fahrenheit. At the lower end of the boundary the temperature is about
5,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
The study appeared in the Nov. 24 issue of the Science.
************
Mass extinction also changed ocean ecology
Source: UPI
CHICAGO (UPI) -- A U.S.-led study suggests the Earth's biggest mass
extinction about 250 million years ago changed the ecology of the
oceans.
Researchers say the event wiped out an estimated 95 percent of marine
species and 70 percent of land species. But it did more than eliminate
species: it fundamentally changed the basic ecology of the world's
oceans by displacing complex communities of ecologically simple marine
life.
Furthermore, scientists say the apparently abrupt shift set a new
pattern that has continued ever since: the dominance of
higher-metabolism, mobile organisms that find their own food, over
older groups of low-metabolism, stationary organisms that filter
nutrients from the water.
"We were able to combine a huge data set with new quantitative
analyses," said Peter Wagner of Chicago's Field Museum and lead author
of the study. "We think these are the first analyses of this type at
this large scale. They show that the end-Permian mass extinction
permanently altered not just taxonomic diversity, but also the
prevailing marine ecosystem structure."
The findings by Wagner; Scott Lidgard, also from the Field Museum; and
Matthew Kosnik of Australia's James Cook University, appeared in the
Nov. 24 issue of Science.