#Amazon river'Breathes'Carbon dioxide from Rain forest Bacteria living in the Amazon river can digest woody materials shed by the surrounding rain forest by turning these pieces of tree bark
and stems into carbon dioxide as they are washed down the river according to a new study. The findings bolster the Amazon basin's reputation as being the lungs of the planet taking in carbon dioxide
Researchers at the University of Washington found that bacteria in the Amazon river can break down almost all of the tree
and plant materials in the water and this process is a major generator of the carbon dioxide breathed by the river.
Rivers were thought once of as passive pipes study co-author Jeffrey Richey a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle said in a statement.
This shows they're more like metabolic hot spots. The World's Longest Rivers To thrive plants convert sunlight carbon dioxide
or get washed into the river during periods of rainfall. Food for the river Previously it was believed that much of this plant matter floated down the Amazon river to the ocean where it ultimately became buried in the seafloor.
A decade ago scientists at the University of Washington discovered that rivers exhale vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
but it was known still not if or how river bacteria could break down such tough materials the researchers said.
People thought this was one of the components that just got dumped into the ocean Nick Ward a doctoral student in oceanography at the University of Washington
and lead author of the new study said in a statement. We've found that terrestrial carbon is respired
and basically turned into carbon dioxide as it travels down the river. A compound called lignin forms the main part of a tree's woody tissue
But rather than flowing into oceans and settling on the seafloor for centuries or millennia bacteria in the Amazon river can break lignin down within two weeks the new study found.
In fact only 5 percent of the Amazon rain forest's plant-based carbon ends up reaching the ocean the researchers said.
The carbon cycle While these findings have important implications for global carbon models they also shed light on the ecology of the Amazon as well as other river ecosystems.
It's a mechanism for the rivers'role in the global carbon cycle it's the food for the river breath.
From their analysis the researchers determined that about 40 percent of the Amazon's lignin breaks down in soils 55 percent is digested by bacteria in the river system
and 5 percent is washed into the ocean where it breaks down or sinks to the ocean floor.
People had assumed just'Well it's not energetically feasible for an organism to break lignin apart so why would they?'
We're thinking that as rain falls over the land it's taking with it these lignin compounds
For thrill seekers there are limitless opportunities from rock climbing to bungee jumping to deep sea diving to skiing to triathlons to a variety of water sports.
From the medieval chill called the Little Ice age to the onset of global warming in the 1800s the coralline algae show how Arctic sea ice has responded to climate swings for the past 650 years.
For the first time researchers now have ancient sea ice information on a yearly scale said lead study author Jochen Halfar a paleoclimatologist at the University of Toronto in Mississauga Canada.
This is important for understanding the rapid short-term changes that are currently ongoing with respect to sea ice decline Halfar said in an email interview.
when sea ice blocks incoming sunlight the calcite layers develop visible bands that are similar to tree rings Halfar said.
During the Little Ice age when volcanoes and sun cycle variations caused a global cooling from the 1300s to the 1800s the coral's underwater tree rings narrowed suggesting extensive sea ice cover and short summers.
Starting in 1850 the onset of the Industrial revolution the algae's growth rings doubled in thickness in sync with the decline in the extent of Arctic sea ice.
The algae records also reveal frequent year-to-year variations in the amount of sea ice as satellites have seen in the past decade
when the Arctic sea ice has seesawed between relative highs and extreme lows. Video: Deep Sea Algae Contain Climate Change Clues Collecting more algae crusts could help fill a gap between climate records from sediment and ice cores
which may only provide a record for every 100 years and satellite tracking which goes back for only a few decades Halfar said.
With our coralline algal sea ice record we might be able to better constrain model prediction.
Old and cold To collect the crystalline crusts divers chiseled off calcite shards from underwater rocks in the Labrador Sea offshore of Kingitok Island and in the Arctic ocean near Nunavut Canada.
Nebuchadnezzar II s Babylon Through military conquests Nebuchadnezzar II would come to rule an empire that stretched from the Persian gulf to the borders of Egypt.
Stumps and logs have been popping out from under southern Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier a 36.8-square-mile (95.3 square kilometers) river of ice flowing into a lake near Juneau for nearly the past 50 years.
Glacial retreat worries many locals who are concerned about the threat of rising sea levels and loss of major freshwater sources that they rely on for drinking water.
Today the fossil trees are at an elevation of 170 meters (550 feet) above sea level and the climate flips between wet and dry seasons
by other fossils discovered near the location where the R. eurasiaticusfossil was found the multituberculate apparently lived in a temperate area rich in plants by the shores of shallow lakes.
aboard the so-called Relitto del Pozzino shipwreck which was discovered about 60 feet (18 meters) underwater in 1974 on the seabed of the Baratti Gulf off the coast of Tuscany.
which at the time the ship foundered was a key port along sea trade routes between the west and east across the Mediterranean sea.
or at least a great part of its cargo came from the east probably the Greek coasts
These findings suggest a physician was traveling by sea with his professional equipment the researchers said.
Meanwhile Petra's inhabitants took advantage of the broad watershed of sandstone hills that naturally guided water to the city center by building a complex system of pipes and channels to direct water to underground cisterns for storage.
The Nabataeans differentiated watersheds and the zones of use for water: water collected and stored in the city itself was cannibalized not for agricultural uses.
and we probably would have a major shortage on the Colorado river and the Rio grande and other rivers upon
The researchers who will begin their mission in November aim to focus on shrinking glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region such as the Pine Island Glacier the longest and fastest-changing glacier on the ice sheet.
and icebergs into the ocean was equal to the amount of water falling as snow onto the ice sheet
This affects sea level all over the world. The speed of changes to this region has taken scientists by surprise
In January a team of researchers will sail into the Amundsen Sea on a 30-day mission to install instruments to measure ocean temperatures at specific locations
and how warm ocean water is when it is close to the ice. The scientists will also deploy a fleet of ocean robots called Seagliders and an unmanned submarine to measure ocean temperature salinity and the speed of currents at different depths.
These observations will help scientists determine how ocean currents transport heat beneath the ice shelf and how climate change will affect this part of Antarctica.
Four autonomous radar instruments capable of taking measurements year-round will also monitor the gradual shifts in the thickness of the ice shelf the part of the glacier that floats on the ocean
while the ocean surface is covered by sea ice making much of the region inaccessible for research ships.
The sensors attached to the Antarctic seals will gather information on ocean temperature and salinity or salt content.
and ocean perspectives Karen Heywood a professor of physical oceanography at the University of East Anglia in the U k. and principal investigator of one of the istar program's ocean investigations said in a statement.
whose thinning ice is contributing to sea level rise. In recent decades Pine Island Glacier's rapid retreat raised fears that the glacier could collapse freeing the ice sheet it buffers to flow even more rapidly into the southern seas.
The West Antarctic Ice contributes 0. 15 to 0. 30 millimeters per year to sea level rise.
The big question is whether the hasty retreat is a recent change caused by climate change or a more long-term phenomenon.
Pine Island Glacier's small ice shelf a platform of ice floating on the ocean's surface acts as a plug holding the rest of the ice stream in place on land.
As warm ocean currents melt the ice shelf from below inland glaciers flow down to the coast and feed the thinning ice shelf.
Changes to Antarctic wind currents driven by global warming have pushed relatively warmer ocean waters beneath the ice shelves.
and meets the ocean has retreated at a rate of more than 1 kilometer a year.
Pine Island Glacier only stretches 45 miles (40 km) across where it meets the ocean
They studied sediments from Pine Island Bay where the ice shelves stick tongues into the ocean.
Microfossils in mud retrieved by ocean drilling aboard a research ship pinpoint when and were covered ice the bay.
which glaciers flow to the sea. The last calving event (the sudden release of ice) let loose in an iceberg that measured 26 by 11 miles (42 km by 17 km) in 2001.
We're pretty sure the most important driver is warm ocean water but this is still an open question Hillenbrand said.
so we can predict better the future behavior of these ice streams and their contribution to future sea level rise.
Changes in sea ice affect ocean circulation which in turn affects atmospheric circulation that then impacts the globe said Bruce Forbes a geographer at the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland in Finland who was involved not in the study.
The snowstorms in Washington D c. and New york and the flooding and the freezing on the River Thames the extreme weather will continue to be extreme
Every year the last birds remaining in the wild leave their breeding grounds at Melaleuca in the remote southwest wilderness of Tasmania to fly to the saltmarshes along the coastline of Victoria and South australia.
The site also happened to be beside a globally important wetland but the parrot copped the blame
Many saltmarshes have been reclaimed along the southern coast of Australia. Those remaining are introduced full of nasty predators like foxes
A team from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station estimates there are 15000 penguins living in four groups at the colony on East Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast.
This a good sign for the survival of the species. The team found only about 100 adult penguins along the shoreline where the ice meets the sea compared with about 1000 adults last year Hubert said.
The baby penguins were further inland slowly migrating toward stable sea ice about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from their overwintering spot where the fathers huddle together for warmth
After winter ends parents make trips to the sea to deliver meals to their chicks.
To make matters worse the drop in atmospheric CO2 plunged the earth into a massive deep freeze that has come to be called the<a href=http://www. livescience. com/27684-snowball-earth-ocean-mixing. html target=blank>Snowball Earth
and life in the dark oceans was driven nearly to extinction. Yet somewhere in the midst of this two-headed crisis a new and more complex form of life emerged:
Under the plan they would be reintroduced to a grassland area near the lower Innoko and Yukon rivers according to the Dispatch.
Maleos at The bronx Zoo are provided with deep river sand which is heated electrically from below so that the birds can find a warm spot to bury their eggs.
In addition the panda's primary habitat is located in the forests of China's Yangtze Basin region the capital of China's economic boom.
or skipping the life-giving Nile floods. The pyramids were built to properly prepare the king for that journey Redding said.
 He assumed half the protein came from meat some from Nile fish. Then he looked at the breeds of cattle found in ancient Egypt
which would have required 640 square miles about 5 percent of the Nile Delta. It would have required almost 19000 people to raise that many animals almost 2 percent of the kingdom's population.
Other think they were shipped in on the river. Every two years representatives of the central government went into the field
Some of the sun's incoming radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere the oceans and the surface of the Earth.
As for the changing landscape the continents drifted apart during the Paleogene Period creating vast stretches of oceans.
During the Pleistocene epoch glaciers covered central North america extending as far east as New york south to Kansas and Nebraska and west to the northern West Coast.
The Great lakes were formed as the glaciers receded. Several of the world s foremost mountain ranges including The alps Himalayas
The Great lakes that formed in the western United states during the Eocene epoch were the perfect home for bass trout
and fed by the Pripyat River was created to provide cooling water for the reactor. The nearest town to the power plant was built the newly city of Pripyat
Like a river saliva washes out some of the bacteria in the mouth she said.
Thousands of dead bloated pigs floating down the river that supplies Shanghai with its drinking water.
In January a chemical accident leaked benzene a known cancer-causing agent into a tributary of the Huangpu River (where the dead pigs were discovered.
Last December shortly after his sister died of lung cancer at age 35 businessman Jin Zengmin from Zhejiang province offered a 200000-yuan ($32000) reward to any local environmental official who would swim in a nearby river
The river is now black with sludge from an upstream shoe factory. His reward remains uncollected.
Blinding dust storms mud-choked rivers and eroded topsoil are often the result of desertification.
In Shangba a city in southern Guangdong province the river that flows through town changes from white to a startling shade of orange because of varying types of industrial effluent Reuters reports.
Many of the river's contaminants like cadmium and zinc are known to cause cancer. All the fish died even chickens
and ducks that drank from the river died. If you put your leg in the water you'll get rashes
Similar celebrations mark the birthday of Mazu the goddess of the sea (also known as Tianhou) in May or June.
Some studies have suggested that sea levels during that time were several meters higher than they are today;
such an increase in sea levels would threaten and could even inundate coastal cities. We can't accept that Hansen said.
because the ocean absorbs some of the heat delaying the inherent atmospheric warming for decades to centuries.
The oceans also absorb some of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere which affects efforts to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere as less carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere the oceans will release some carbon dioxide so that the two systems stay in balance.
Hansen and his co-authors say this emphasizes the urgency of starting to reduce emissions now;
When a juvenile dusky parrot (Pionus fuscus) fell into the river they fished the bird out
The mountainous region holds the headwaters of Suriname's largest rivers making it key for sustainable drinking water agriculture and energy production.
The Conservation International team found that water quality was high in the region's upper Palumeu River watershed where they surveyed four sites.
And less timber-cutting means better water quality in nearby rivers and in the fragile Mesoamerican Reef downstream in the Gulf of mexico.
In China's Yangtze basin wetland ambassadors''promote conservation as part of a rapidly emerging movement to protect a river system that supplies water to more than 400 million people.
Our river-basin conservation work has produced measurable success and with the help of community partners has expanded from 11 countries to 49.
and life to the seas and water that allows the rainforests and the clouds and the world's most iconic species to thrive.
</p><p></p><p>A new species of walking shark has been discovered in a reef off a remote Indonesian island.</
</p><p>Officials with New york's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are planning to survey a lake in Central park for signs of the dreaded northern snakehead fish aka Frankenfish NBCNEWS. com reports.</
</p><p></p><p>A new type of microbe has been found at a lake buried under Antarctica's thick ice according to news reports.
The find may unveil clues of the surrounding environment in the lake according to scientists.</</p><p>The bacteria said to be only 86 percent similar to other types known to exist On earth was discovered in a water sample taken from Lake Vostok
which sits under more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) of Antarctic ice. The freshwater lakehas likely been buried unaltered under the ice for the past million years.</
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/27737-new-bacteria-found-antarctic-lake. html target=blank>New Type of Bacteria Reportedly Found in Buried Antarctic Lake
The Tethys Ocean still separated the northern Laurasia continent from southern Gondwana. Â The North and South Atlantic were closed still
By the middle of the period ocean levels were much higher most of the landmass we are familiar with was underwater.
As a result of suddenly lowered temperatures there may have been a global disruption in the numbers of both land plants and plankton in the oceans evidence
The breakthrough in today s paper is the sequencing of the entire genome of a Ctenophore known as the sea walnut (Mnemiopsis leidyi.
The sea walnut (M. leidyi) is native to the western Atlantic but has been introduced to the Black Caspian
The sea walnut genome contained 16548 protein coding genes 44%of which shared homology-a type of ancestry-with non-Ctenophores.
As sea walnuts glow when disturbed so does this study shed light on some interesting assumptions about animal evolution.
and blowflies helping to reduce the elk herd to an eerie scattered sea of skeletons in the desert.
Other participants in the ongoing bear research study include the U s. Forest Service the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service the Wind River tribe and the wildlife agencies for Idaho Montana Wyoming.
The farmers responding to the survey grew cover crops on an estimated 218000 acres in 36 states mostly in the Mississippi river basin.
Palm trees and Lost Birds of Brazil Shrinking seeds The Atlantic Forest runs along the coast of Brazil starting at the easternmost tip of South america and continuing approximately to the country's southern border.
Soil erosion can also lead to silt entering the lakes streams and other water sources. This can decrease local water quality contributing to poor health in the local population.
and the dog who does not get to go for one more run by the river are both having desires thwarted to the same degree totally.
or lake the fertilizers can kill off fish and other aquatic species causing a harmful algal bloom.
In 2002 a plane inadvertently dumped thousands of gallons of fire retardant into the Fall River in Oregon causing the immediate death of roughly 21000 trout whitefish
And in 2009 fire retardant dropped near the Santa ynez River in California killed about 50 protected steelhead trout.
For example to minimize impacts on aquatic life the Forest Service has agreed to limit the use of flame retardant in areas within 300 feet of streams and lakes;
Previously the earliest evidence of eating meat found in Olduvai gorge in Tanzania dates to 1. 8 million years ago.
More than a decade ago researchers unearthed a trove of thousands of stone tools piled atop animal bones in sandy silty sediment off the shores of Lake victoria in Kenya.
This story has been corrected to note that Olduvai gorge is in Tanzania not Kenya. Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter@tiaghose. Â Followâ Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
since Europeans first arrived in the 1700s on the island located in the Pacific ocean off the west coast of Chile.
and spinach) help prevent eye diseases especially cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. While eggs contain less lutein
China has more than 10 flagship species including Amur tigers musk deer and the Yangtze finless porpoise according to WWF.
while a ship gets bogged down by barnacles as it crosses the ocean a shark swimming in the same ocean remains clean as a whistle.
The project which was developed in an experimental forest at the University of California at Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station near Lake Tahoe in California creates pockets of thinner trees in areas where the fire risk is high
at the Sagehen Creek Field Station near Truckee Calif. as well as the American River Ranger District of the Tahoe National Forest.
A fire is burning in the treated area of the American River Ranger District. Once the fire dies out the team will have a rare chance to see how the new technique worked in action Conway said.
The exceptions are certain minerals that are found in ancient lake and sea beds. These minerals such as sylvite carnallite langbeinite and polyhalite form extensive deposits in these ancient sites
Potassium is found in the ocean but only in relatively small amounts. Foods with potassium Potassium is important to healthy nutrition.
and turtles find the river or beach where they hatched after years at sea. The distances covered by some species run into thousands of kilometres.
Only the fittest overcome natural barriers such as mountains oceans and deserts but few animals can adapt fast enough to surmount modern hazards placed in their way by humans.
To prove the pessimists wrong governments need only adopt a win-win strategy of encouraging development
For two months both parents race back and forth to the coast as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) each day at speeds of up to 98 mph (158 km h)
After the chick hatches it pecks off its redwood-colored down and flying solo launches straight for the ocean.
Each chicken egg was colored painstakingly (Benjamin Moore Oceanfront 660) and speckled to resemble murrelet eggs.
and regenerate an important marine plant depends on animals to eat its seeds and poop them out around the ocean according to recent research.
Eelgrass meadows which grow on the ocean floor in shallow waters also help shelter many different types of fish
and his colleagues looked at 28 years of satellite data from Florida's East Coast. They found that the area taken up by mangrove forests in the northernmost latitudes had doubled over the last few decades
This expansion wasn't connected to changes in average temperature sea level rise rain or land use.
and economically and both are threatened by rising sea levels and coastal development. With further global warming mangrove expansion probably won't be confined to Florida.
A potentially more serious threat to the animals than predators is future sea level rise associated with climate change.
The small atolls or low-lying islands that the animals inhabit only reach between about 3 feet to 10 feet (1 to 3 m) above sea level
if average global sea level rises by as much as 3. 2 feet (0. 98 m) by 2100 as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
And in Colorado's Front Range in the Rocky mountains above Denver pine beetle infestations don't add extra nitrogen to waterways that eventually drain to the city according to a study led by USFS research scientist Chuck Rhoades.
During the day they rest play and sometimes fight in lakes rivers and swamps. They get down to business at night grazing on land for hours at a time.
and walk along river and lake bottoms. Hippos are adapted well to their amphibious lifestyle. They have wide snouts
They can be found near rivers lakes and swamps from Guinea in western Africa to Ethiopia on the eastern side of the continent and down to South africa.
and fat beneath their skin helps them float in rivers and lakes. Adult hippos can hold their breath and stay underwater for up to six minutes.
and as much as half of their diet usually consists of marsh or river plants. A moose stomach can hold up to 112 pounds (51 kg) of food at one time.
Despite its rotund appearance the devil is capable of surprising feats of strength climbing trees and swimming across rivers.
Tree dwellers While most funnel spiders live on the ground a few species on the eastern coast of Australia live in wet forest trees.
Field notes from the early 1900s indicated the animals were collected in Colombia Panama Costa rica and Nicaragua at about 3250 to 5500 feet (1000 to 1700 meters) above sea level much higher than the olingo's known range
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