#Invasive Earthworms Harming Great lakes Forests DENVER Gardeners and farmers may love earthworms for their rich castings
but in forests near the Great lakes the creatures are alien invaders. No earthworms are native to North america's northern forests (massive ice age glaciers kept the land worm-free.
And in the sugar maple forests near the Great lakes the churning worms actually compact the upper soil layers instead of loosening them Resner said.
#IPCC Green-Lights Kyoto Protocol, Wetlands Reports Countries tallying their total greenhouse gas emissions can now get a better estimate thanks to two new reports adopted this week by the Intergovernmental
and absorbed by wetlands. The reports will help countries improve their greenhouse gas emissions inventories Jean-Pascal van Ypersele vice chair of the IPCC said today (Oct 18) at a news conference announcing the final reports.
The new wetlands report fills in a substantive knowledge gap Thelma Krug co-chair of the IPCC's Task force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories said during the news conference.
Wetlands draining and rewetting is a new elective activity for reporting under the Kyoto Protocol Krug said.
and ocean warming said Gerald Meehl a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and one of the authors of the new report.
In the new summary climate scientists say they are at least 95 percent certain that people are responsible for the warming oceans rapidly melting ice
and rising sea levels that have been observed since the 1950s. The 2007 report linked human activities to climate change with 90 percent certainty which was a considerable leap from the 66 percent probability stated in the organization's 2001 report. 8 Ways Global
and the ocean in changes in the global water cycle in reductions in snow and ice in global mean sea level rise and in changes in some climate extremes the new report says.
The effects of climate change The new assessment also contains updated projections for various climate scenarios including sea level rise melting glaciers and rising global average temperatures.
If greenhouse gas emissions are curbed not sea levels could rise as much as 3 feet (0. 9 meters) by the year 2100 the scientists said.
Sea level rise is a real problem because it poses very high risks around coasts. Global temperatures are also likely to rise by between 0. 5 and 8. 6 degrees Fahrenheit (0. 3 degrees and 4. 8 degrees Celsius) this century depending on global levels
As they set out to sea however they encountered a fleet led by Lord De La Warr with fresh supplies
and charged that the company swept up women off the streets to found families across the ocean.
and relay their positions for two to three years allowing researchers to figure out how quickly the glacier is flowing into the ocean.
Preliminary measurements show that the Pine Island Glacier's march to the sea is speeding up Gudmundsson told Ouramazingplanet.
By some estimates this glacier alone could be responsible for about 5 percent of global sea level rise
when it reaches the ocean. Instead the ice flows into the sea where it floats atop the water forming a platform of ice called an ice shelf.
Measurements have shown that the Antarctic ocean is warmer than it used to be and is melting the bottom of this ice shelf.
which as a result slides toward the ocean faster than before Gudmundsson said. And behind the Pine Island Glacier is an even larger section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet one of the largest in the world.
The glacier acts like a plug in a leaky dam and if it collapses it could have devastating consequences for global sea levels he added.
The same process happens in places like Scotland's Loch Ness where floating logs or large fish that might be considered unremarkable and mundane in other lakes might be reported as a Loch Ness Monster sighting simply
because the monster said to dwell there is so well known. Video: Haunted House in New jersey? The Jersey Devil is clearly a product of folklore
and living in Alberta and focused on the protection of watersheds I organized a canoe expedition down the Athabasca River.
The river is part of a lush watershed that flows through the heart of tar-sands mining
#Lake ontario Facts Lake ontario is the smallest of all the Great lakes in surface area (7340 square miles/18960 square kilometers)
It holds about four times the water volume (393 cubic miles/1640 cubic km) as Lake erie
The easternmost of the Great lakes Lake ontario is positioned at the base of the Niagara falls. It is bordered by Ontario Canada to the southwest and north and New york to the south.
The St lawrence river provides the lake s outlet to the Atlantic ocean. The lake has a number of lagoons and baymouth bars
which are made formations of sand mud or other debris that close off bay areas. There are a number of islands on the lake including the Thousand Islands region
which is an archipelago of nearly 2000 islands that line the U s.-Canadian border. While many of the islands are small
Like all of the Great lakes Lake ontario as it is known today was the result of glacial shifting and melting at the end of the most recent Ice age.
The first European to see reach Lake ontario was Ãienne Brulã The french explorer and protã gã of Samuel de Champlain in 1612.
The lake has a rich history of commerce and trade especially following the War of 1812
The lake was a hub of commerce until the railroads were built and eclipsed the steamers as a way to move shipment.
Because of the lake s depth and the warm weather that comes in from the southwest Lake ontario rarely freezes over.
While the entire region is affected by lake-effect snow there is a prominent snow belt along the southeastern shore that can be deluged with 20 feet (600 cm) of snow annually.
The impact of the lake-effect snow can be felt as far as Syracuse N y
and steelhead are some of the fish that swim the waters of Lake ontario. Invasive mussels cover nearly half of the bottom of the lake in the coastal areas.
Lake ontario s climate is conducive to fruit tress and the area has become a major growing area for apples cherries peaches pears and plums.
Due to its location Lake ontario is host to a number of migratory birds. Swans loons ducks geese grebes and other water fowl are among the wildlife that inhabit Lake ontario.
Birds of prey such as hawks and eagles are also common in the area n
#Land of Giants: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks Giants live in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks. Soaring mountains rocky foothills deep canyons more than 200 marble caverns and the world's largest trees call these side-by-side parks home.
The highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states Mount whitney (with a peak at 14491 feet or 4417 meters) stretches across the Sequoia border.
The above photo of Aster Lake by Scott Toste was one of the contest favorites.
Aster Lake is a high alpine lake popular with backpackers and other outdoor enthusiasts for its remote setting perfect spot to commune with giants.
At that time a shallow sea split North america in two and many animals lived on a long skinny continent called Laramidia that spanned from Alaska all the way to Mexico.
LOS ANGELES Megalodon the most massive shark ever to prowl the oceans may have gotten so big that it was prone to extinction.
For some mysterious reason though the biggest and smallest members of the species were the same length many of the giant sea monsters got longer over a 14-million-year period
Ancient Monsters of the Sea Bigger is better? Megalodon could grow up to 60 feet (18 meters) long
The sea monsters terrorized the oceans from about 16 million to 2 million years ago.
Though the mega-sharks died off their close relatives great white sharks still terrorize the seas today.
and extinction of the top predator lineage that must have had a significant impact to the ocean ecology said Kenshu Shimada a paleobiologist at Depaul University in Chicago who was involved not in the study.
#Melting Sea Ice Keeps Hungry Polar bears On land Polar bears the iconic victims of climate change are shifting their migration patterns because of changes in sea ice.
 They found that the rate at which sea ice melts and re-freezes as well as how the ice is distributed around the bay predicted
Polar bears hunt their main food source seals primarily while on sea ice. Changes in the ice are driving the bears to spend more time on land where they have to go longer without eating
Climate-induced changes that cause sea ice to melt earlier form later or both likely affect the overall health of polar bears in the area Cherry said. 10 Odd Facts About Arctic Sea Ice Cherry
and colleagues fitted 109 female polar bears with tracking collars (males can't wear collars because their necks are wider than their heads).
The findings suggest that it's not only the distribution of sea ice that affects the bears'migration but how quickly that ice melts or forms.
which resemble the type of lava produced along deep sea trenches where mantle magma is forced through Earth s crust.
The volcano located in southwestern Washington used to be a beautiful symmetrical cone about 9600 feet (3000 meters) above sea level.
which winds for 2 miles up through the forest ending along an abandoned logging road that offers a stunning view of the triplet of volcanic peaks known as the Three Sisters according to Oregon Lakes & Rivers.
 The 52.2-million-year-old tomatillo was discovered at the fossil-rich Laguna del Hunco Argentina where ancient lakebeds interlayer with volcanic ashes providing paleontologists with precisely dated discoveries.
During his talk he listed 11 fossils from Laguna del Hunco such as cycads trees and the tomatillo that show their molecular clocks are too young.
and seascape consisting of sand islands coastal mangroves estuaries dry forests and farmland. It is where humpbacks whales mate on their southern migration down the coast;
and a seascape with relatively unexplored reefs. It is also one of the poorest regions in one of the world's poorest countries.
and supported by the CARE-WWF Alliance an increasingly popular and effective solution in such contexts and one of the key current approaches highlighted in the Rockefeller Foundation's Oceans and Fisheries strategy.
In our no-take fishing zones in Moma Estuary we carried out fish surveys with local fishermen.
Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench Tallest tree: The tallest tree in the world is a California coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) known as Hyperion.
The summit of Mount everest at 29035 feet (8850 m) is higher above sea level than the summit of any other mountain so many claim it's the world's tallest mountain.
 In the Paleozoic era life flourished in the seas. After the Cambrian period came the 45-million-year Ordovician period
which saw the spread of jawless fish throughout the seas. Mollusks and corals also thrived in the oceans
but the big news was what was happening on land: the first undisputed evidence of terrestrial life.
Before the Permian mass extinction though the warm seas teemed with life. Coral reefs flourished providing shelter for fish and shelled creatures such as nautiloids and ammonoids.
which caused glaciers to form sending sea levels downward. Gondwana moved further south during the Ordovician while the smaller continents started to move closer together.
Sea levels rose again creating shallow inland seas. In the Devonian the northern land masses continued merging and they finally joined together into the supercontinent Euramerica.
but the rest of the planet was ocean. By the last period of the Paleozoic the Permian Euramerica and Gondwana became one forming perhaps the most famous supercontinent of them all:
The giant ocean surrounding Pangaea was called Panthalassa. Pangaea's interior was likely very dry because its massive size prevented water-bearing rain clouds from penetrating far beyond the coasts.
On spring nights males gather on the shores of ephemeral ponds and lakes to sing for mates.
so they don't pay much attention to what's around in their environment Smalling said. 40 Freaky Frog Photos Researchers collected Pacific chorus frogs on a north-south transect across Lassen volcanic national park Lake Tahoe Yosemite national park Stanislaus National Forest
In the Sierras introducing trout into mountain lakes also hit frogs hard because the fish gobbled up tadpoles and tiny frogs.
March 15 the New york times. The environmental devastation of Lake erie is a tragedy. But it s one that can be reversed.
and other partners in the Western Lake erie Basin to reduce fertilizer and sediment runoff. We count on farmers to produce safe and abundant supplies of food
but it s runoff from farmland that finds its way into the lake and is largely responsible for the devastating algae bloomsâ describedâ by the New york times. Why Lake erie is Under attack from Algae Blooms The key question is:
How do we get enough farmers to practice sustainable agriculture so that algal blooms and dead zones whether in Lake erie or the Gulf of mexico become a thing of the past?
How do we actuallyâ win? The answer lies in convincing farmers that sustainable agriculture is not at odds with high yields and profitability.
and the creation (or maintenance) of wetlands and buffer strips which filter runoff before it can reach streams
#Primeval Underwater Forest Discovered in Gulf of mexico Scuba divers have discovered a primeval underwater forest off the coast of Alabama.
The Bald cypress forest was buried under ocean sediments protected in an oxygen-free environment for more than 50000 years
and the executive director of the nonprofit Weeks Bay Foundation which researches estuaries. The forest contains trees so well-preserved that
and sit about 60 feet (18 meters) below the surface of the Gulf of mexico. Despite its discovery only recently the underwater landscape has just a few years to be explored before wood-burrowing marine animals destroy the ancient forest. 8 of the World's Most Endangered Places Closely guarded secret Raines was talking with a friend who owned a dive shop
The forest had become an artificial reef attracting fish crustaceans sea anemones and other underwater life burrowing between the roots of dislodged stumps.
Mysterious Underwater Stone Structure Some of the trees were truly massive and many logs had fallen over before being covered by ocean sediment.
The trees'growth rings could reveal secrets about the climate of the Gulf of mexico thousands of years ago during a period known as the Wisconsin Glacial period
when sea levels were much lower than they are today. World's Weirdest Geological formations In addition because Bald cypress trees can live a thousand years
The longer this wood sits on the bottom of the ocean the more marine organisms burrow into the wood
Recent research also suggests that protecting watersheds reduces long-term water treatment and storage costs for consumers.
Recognizing this water utilities increasingly are taking responsibility for the health of local watersheds with a special emphasis on protecting the forests they contain.
and maintain watersheds on privately owned forest lands. The project will encourage forest owners and water utilities to work together to conserve watersheds by keeping their forest locations healthy the most cost-effective way for communities to ensure continued access to clean water.
Both the Endowment and SFI believe strongly that one of the best ways to protect the nation's water quality is to develop effective collaborations between water utilities and forest landowners.
In 2011 for example Raleigh N c. established a watershed protection fee of 1 cent per 100 gallons in customers'monthly water bills.
Dozens of communities across the country are taking similar steps to protect their watersheds. The SFI Conservation Grant will help the Endowment educate community stakeholders water utilities
and maintaining the health of the watersheds they manage. This grant builds upon SFI's commitment to water resources through conservation grants awarded in 2012 to the World Resources Institute to examine how SFI requirements related to best-management practices result in improvements
For example the 20-mile-long (32 km) Saemangeum seawall in South korea cut off 170 square miles (440 square km) of estuary and tidal flats feeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of migratory
They constitute a large percentage of all living matter in oceans rivers and lakes. One species Didymosphenia geminata is responsible for creating thick blooms in mountain streams and ponds.
Check out the image gallery Diatoms of the Texas Gulf Coast. Editor's Note: The researchers depicted in Behind the Scenes articles have been supported by the National Science Foundation the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering.
#Rotting Balls of Fish Flesh Invade Salton Sea's Shores DENVER Boneyard beaches littered with dead tilapia line the shores of California's Salton Sea.
when winds stir up low-oxygen water from the lake depths. A fascinating and foul discovery on the skeleton-clad shores recently revealed the fate of the rest of the fish remains.
Their flesh drops to the lake floor where anaerobic bacteria transforms it into adipocere also known as corpse wax researchers from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania reported here Monday (Oct 28) at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting.
Perhaps disturbed by fierce winds globs of decomposed fish flesh recently rose from deep in the Salton Sea coagulated into spheres on the lake surface
Salton Sea Fish balls Fish balls The bone beds first brought Simpson out from Pennsylvania in 2010.
The Salton Sea offers a modern analogue to fishy layers in New jersey's Newark Basin
In the Salton Sea tilapia adipocere is tinted orange to brown.''Evil'stench The sudden appearance of the decomposed flesh globes occurred remarkably close in time to the emergence of a spectacularly awful Salton Sea stench that wafted across Southern California in September 2012.
We are trying to answer whether they are linked Simpson said. We're trying to figure out what the time frame is.
To me something is fundamentally changing in the Salton Sea that's generating these adipocere Simpson said.
The Salton Sea's malodorous perfume often permeates nearby towns but the extent of 2012's rotten-egg smell driven by strong southeasterly winds was unusually broad.
It's amazing Simpson said of the Salton Sea's smell during his 2013 trip.
The greatest numbers of fish balls in 2013 showed up on the northern beaches where wind-driven waves pushed the balls up to the high-water mark said Elizabeth Heness a collaborator who is now a graduate student at the University of Texas at El paso. The rotting fish balls
are just the latest in a string of natural disasters to hit the inland lake from pollution to massive fish
A canal breach created the Salton Sea in 1905. With no outlet and no water source except for farming run off the lake has been shrinking
and growing saltier ever since. The water level is now less than 60 feet (18 meters) deep. This environmental catastrophe really shaped Southern California Simpson said.
In Tanzania and Kenya there has been debate about how to connect the Lake victoria region and its growing human population with areas to the east.
In general vineyards in higher latitudes at higher altitudes or surrounded by ocean will benefit from climate change.
as if the same calories were in solid form says David Cummings associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington and the Veterans Affairs Puget sound Health care System.
and toxic plants. 8 Strange Things Scientists Have tasted Party ice At camps on sea ice scientists drink their study subject
but has nibbled never an Antarctic pteropod called the naked sea butterfly (Clione limacina) which makes a chemical antifeedant compound.
The team collected ancient charcoal samples buried in the mud at the bottom of 14 lakes in the area.
More than 600 million cubic meters (20 billion cubic feet) of diatoms from a lake flew into the air Van Eaton reported Sept. 6 in the journal Geology.
Biggest Volcanoes On earth World domination cell by cell Diatoms a golden brown algae rule Earth's waterways.
From Antarctica's glacial lakes to acidic hot springs to unkempt home aquariums diatoms are everywhere.
When Wyoming's Yellowstone Lake emerged from its mile-thick ice cover 14000 years ago diatoms quickly arrived Theriot said.
Diatoms particularly love volcanic lakes because they are the only creatures that build shells of glass.
Silica-rich magma often causes the volcanic explosions that leave behind lake-filled craters and silica is the key ingredient in diatom shells.
Yellowstone Lake which sits in a caldera created by a super-eruption contains so many diatoms that the lake sediments are mostly shells (85 percent by weight) Theriot said.
when a massive volcano like Yellowstone blasts through a big lake. Immaculate preservation The Taupo Volcano super-eruption slammed through a deep lake that filled a rift valley similar to the elongated lakes in East Africa.
The combination of water and ash created a hellish dirty thunderstorm with towering clouds and roaring winds.
Diatoms fashion spores to ride out inhospitable changes in their environment Two years ago Danish researchers revived 100-year-old resting spores from muck in a local fjord.
and dispersing the diatomite that is being created at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake Theriot said. This is the most thoroughly studied
A dozen or so supervolcanoes exist today some of them lying at the bottom of the sea.
Ash in Africa Lane and her colleagues examined ash from Toba recovered from mud extracted from two sites at the bottom of Lake Malawi the second largest lake in the East African Rift valley.
Their analysis discovered that a thin layer of ash in this sediment about 90 feet (27 m) below the lake floor was from the last of the Toba eruptions known as Youngest Toba Tuff.
I was surprised to find so much ash in the Lake Malawi record Lane added. The ash is composed very tiny of shards of volcanic glass smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
Quick recovery If the area had seen dramatic cooling because of all the ash spewed into the atmosphere living matter near the lake surface would likely have died off significantly altering the composition of the lake's mud.
or may not have had on other lakes in East Africa. Whilst from this we can hypothesize that the global climatic impact was not as dramatic as some have suggested we will need to find similarly high-resolution records of past climate from other regions that also contain Youngest Toba Tuff
#The 10 Weirdest Spills in Naturefrom molasses to rubber ducks some strange substances have spilled into waterways and onto roadways.
when it sprung a leak dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of the goo into the ocean.
or continually depleting the oceans. It could also answer the problem of methane emissions from agriculture.
The fan contains more than a billion cubic meters of sediment reaching down to the Golden gate. The miners used high pressure hoses called monitors to blast the hillsides washing the gold-bearing mud into sluices.
Mercury was added to the sluices to form an amalgam with the gold that settled to the bottom.
because we know there are nice wetlands with herbivores on the other side. We know that
For example warmer oceans remove less CO2 from the atmosphere than cooler oceans and they have even become net CO2 emitters during warming periods in the Earth's past;
The primeval underwater forest long buried under the sediments at the bottom of the Gulf of mexico was uncovered probably by Hurricane Katrina
You have to think of the cachet of something made from a 50000-year-old wood said Ben Raines the diver who first reported on the site and the executive director of the Weeks Bay Foundation a waterways conservation organization.
Primeval forest The grove of 50000-year-old bald cypress trees was preserved beneath ocean sediments off the coast of Alabama until Hurricane Katrina swept those sediments away.
The enchanted forest became a natural reef teeming with fish and crustaceans that sheltered between tree roots.
Secrets of the Deep The foundation has contacted several federal agencies including the Bureau of Ocean Management to begin that process.
Scientists believe the grove of thousand-year-old trees could reveal millennia of the Gulf of mexico's climate history.
or be eaten away by sea life in the next few years. But Raines believes it's worth protecting the underwater treasure
Here underwater trees in the Great lakes may not be subject to shipworms zebra mussels are slowly eating through the wood.
when we post our photos of rosy sunsets blooming gardens and tranquil lakes online. Could we apply biophilic design to our hardware
because it is among the most rapidly melting ice masses in the world thinning as it flows to the Amundsen Sea at a rate of about 2. 5 miles (4 kilometers) each year.
Since warm seawater flows beneath the ice shelf (the part of the glacier that floats on the ocean) scientists have known that the Pine Island Glacier was melting from below.
and ultimate break up of the ice shelf David Holland a professor of mathematics at the Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science at New york University said in a statement.
and without that restraining force the Pine Island catchment basin could further contribute to global sea-level rise.
Glacial plug The Pine Island Glacier currently acts as a plug that holds back the immense West Antarctic Ice Sheet whose melting ice contributes to rising sea levels.
and empties into the ocean causing sea levels to rise. Warming oceans also cause sea levels to go up
because water expands as its temperature increases. Still understanding precisely why these changes are occurring
and how much sea levels are projected to rise in the future is tricky researchers have said. Last November a study published in the journal Science estimated that ice lost from the entire Antarctic ice sheet
and floated freely into the Amundsen Sea. Modeling melt To see how much the Pine Island Glacier was melting Holland
The instruments measured ocean temperatures salinity (or salt content) and the movement of warm-water currents that carve channels through the ice shelf and flow underneath it.
What we have brought to the table are detailed measurements of the melt rates that will allow simple physical models of the melting processes to be plugged into computer models of the coupled ocean/glacier system Tim Stanton a research professor at the Naval
and glacier-melt rates of the potentially unstable Western Antarctic Ice Sheet in response to changing ocean forces.
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