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Insights Into Lead Pollution
As well as providing important new information about the secretive otter species, post-mortems on otters killed by cars since 1992 gave an insight into the levels of lead pollution in the environment. The results have important implications for human health as lead can damage the central nervous system including the brain, as well as affecting the kidney and reducing growth, especially in children. Researcher Dr Liz Chadwick in the School of Biosciences at the University said: "We measured the level of lead in rib-bones taken from over 300 otters found dead in south-west England between 1992 and 2004 and collected by wildlife veterinary pathologist Vic Simpson. "We compared this with levels of lead found in stream sediment by the British Geological Society and airborne emissions recorded by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. While some variation correlation to geology, we found an extremely strong decline over time, reflecting declining emissions from car fuel: otter bone lead levels in 2004 were less than a quarter of those in 1992." Dr Chadwick stresses that the research highlights the importance of long-term monitoring and archiving of samples and shows that with help from the public, valuable use can be made of undesirable events such as wildlife road traffic accidents......... Posted by: Sarah Permalink Source Katrina After 1 year
New Orleans houses are swamped by floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina.
Credit: Liz Roll According to a FEMA report, more than 1,300 people lost their lives in Louisiana and Mississippi alone; 450,000 were displaced. Total economic losses exceeded an estimated $125 billion, including homes, universities, bridges and other infrastructure--and some 350,000 vehicles and 2,400 ships. Some researchers arrived on the scene immediately to collect critical clues before they were lost to rescue and clean-up operations--and time. Other research took place in distant laboratories, where scientists plugged numbers into computer models or built search robots. The scientists and engineers all sought to understand exactly how the destruction happened, if and when it could happen again, and especially, how to prevent such carnage in the future. The National Science Foundation (NSF) supported many of the studies under its Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program. Although the program was created to support small-scale, exploratory, high-risk research of all kinds, it has proved to be especially well-suited for rapid-response situations because SGER requests can be processed and approved more quickly than other research proposals. Indeed, NSF has previously used the SGER program to field research teams in the aftermaths of both the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami......... Posted by: Tom Permalink Source High-flying balloons track hurricane formation
The first launch of a balloon with its instruments, called a driftsonde, took place at Zinder, Niger, on Aug. 28. Some seven more driftsondes will be released from Zinder through late September, coinciding with the peak period of hurricane formation over the tropical Atlantic. "Data from the driftsondes should help characterize the conditions that either foster or suppress hurricane formation," said the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Cliff Jacobs, who oversees support for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Researchers and engineers at NCAR and the French space agency, CNES, developed the driftsondes. The research was funded by NSF, NCAR's primary sponsor, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Each balloon will drift from Africa toward the Caribbean at heights of around 65,000-70,000 feet, where light easterly winds prevail. Twice a day, each balloon will release an instrument known as a dropsonde that falls by parachute, sensing the weather conditions during its 20-minute descent and sending data back to the balloon and then to the scientists by satellite......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Collecting Data about Nantucket Sound
Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Scott Gallager and his colleagues have installed a package of sensors on the 235-foot freight ferry Katama to measure water quality and to photograph plankton as the ferry crisscrosses the western side of Nantucket Sound year-round, several times daily. "Hitchhiking science on a ferry provides a terrific opportunity for us to better understand how water quality and ocean life change over time," Gallager said. The measurements for the Nantucket Sound Ferry Scientific Environmental Monitoring System began in May. With the interest and cooperation of the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, which operates the ferry service between Cape Cod and the islands, Gallager and his colleagues developed a sensor package to measure water temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, and water clarity, and take images of plankton living in the water column. Real-time data from the sensors travel over a wireless connection to Gallager's shore-based lab, where he and WHOI colleagues Steve Lerner, Emily Miller, Andrew Girard, Andy Maffei, and collaborator Kevin Fall from Intel Corporation make them available to researchers and the public on the project Web site, http://4dgeo.whoi.edu/ferries......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Hurricane Katrina One Year Later
3-day average of actual sea surface temperatures
Several NASA satellites gave important details about Katrina's storm structure and strength throughout her life cycle, aiding forecasters and emergency managers. In the aftermath, data from satellites and instruments on NASA planes became useful in recovery efforts, damage assessments, and analysis of the storm's environmental impacts. Katrina left as a number of as 1,833 dead as per the National Hurricane Center, and over $80 billion in damage. Katrina began as only a feeble storm being tracked by satellites and forecasters. On Aug. 23, Katrina was nothing but a mass of organized clouds over the Bahamas. But later that day, she quickly intensified and headed toward the U.S. coastline. Late on Aug. 25, she made her first landfall just south of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a Category 1 hurricane. As Katrina moved into the Gulf of Mexico, atmospheric conditions were favorable for rapid development. Data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite showed uncommonly warm ocean temperatures in her path -- prime fuel for a hurricane. By early in the morning of Aug. 28, Katrina's winds reached a remarkable 175 mph -- a category 5 storm -- with a central pressure of 902 millibars, the fourth lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic. During this phase of rapid development, forecasters were aided by data from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra satellite that supplied information on Katrina's cloud motion and height, improving the accuracy of forecasts and warnings......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Planet Earth May Have Tilted
By analyzing the magnetic composition of ancient sediments found in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Princeton University's Adam Maloof has lent credence to a 140-year-old theory regarding the way the Earth might restore its own balance if an unequal distribution of weight ever developed in its interior or on its surface. The theory, known as true polar wander, postulates that if an object of sufficient weight -- such as a supersized volcano -- ever formed far from the equator, the force of the planet's rotation would gradually pull the heavy object away from the axis the Earth spins around. If the volcanoes, land and other masses that exist within the spinning Earth ever became sufficiently imbalanced, the planet would tilt and rotate itself until this extra weight was relocated to a point along the equator. "The sediments we have recovered from Norway offer the first strong evidence that a true polar wander event happened about 800 million years ago," said Maloof, an assistant professor of geosciences. "If we can find good corroborating evidence from other parts of the world as well, we will have a very good idea that our planet is capable of this sort of dramatic change"......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Forecast Accuracy Gets Boost
The high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) is the first model to serve as both the backbone of the nation's public weather forecasts and a tool for cutting-edge weather research. Because the model fulfills both functions, it is easier for research findings to be translated into improved operational models, leading to better forecasts. The model was adopted for use by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) as the primary model for its one-to-three-day U.S. forecasts and as a key part of the NWS's ensemble modeling system for short-range forecasts. The U.S. Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) also has used WRF for several areas of operations around the world. "The Weather Research and Forecasting model development project is the first time scientists and operational researchers have come together to collaborate on a weather modeling project of this magnitude," says Louis Uccellini, director of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Remote Island Provides Clues On Population Growth
Until only recently, little was known about the French Polynesian Island, where the current population is less than 500. Archaeological, linguistic and genetic data suggest that the island, like much of East Polynesia, was inhabited in a final pulse of colonization by seafaring travelers who originated from Island Southeast Asia. New research, led by the University of Oregon's Douglas Kennett, has shed fresh new light on Rapa, particularly on what life may have been like for as a number of as 1,500 to 2,000 people who lived there before the arrival of European explorers. Kennett's team, which included scientists from three institutions, published in the recent issue of the journal Antiquity that Polynesians arrived on the island around A.D. 1200, much later than long assumed. The settlers spread across the island, splintering from a shoreline-based society into competing groups that built and likely defended a growing number of spectacular fortifications carved from mountaintops in the years before English explorer George Vancouver sailed by in 1791, ushering in European contact......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Why are so many people dying on Everest?
It used to be thought that it would be physiologically impossible to climb Mount Everest with or without oxygen. In 1953 Hillary and Tenzing proved that it was possible to reach the summit with oxygen and in 1978 Messner and Habeler demonstrated it was possible without oxygen. Eventhough Everest has not changed, and we now have a better understanding of acclimatisation, improved climbing equipment, and established routes, it would therefore seem logical that climbing Everest might have become an altogether less deadly activity. However, this year the unofficial body count on Mount Everest has reached 15, the most since the disaster of 1996 when 16 people died, eight in one night following an unexpected storm. The death rate on Mount Everest has not changed over the years, with about one death for every 10 successful ascents. For anyone who reaches the summit, they have about a 1 in 20 chance of not making it down again. So why are there so a number of people dying on Mount Everest? And more importantly, can we reduce this number? The main reasons for people dying while climbing Mount Everest are injuries and exhaustion. However, there is also a large proportion of climbers who die from altitude related illness, specifically from high altitude cerebral oedema (HACE) and high altitude pulmonary oedema (HAPE)......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Mountain Climate Change May Predict Water Resources
The findings suggest this area, known as the Upper Indus Basin, could be reacting differently to global warming, the phenomenon blamed for causing glaciers in the Eastern Himalaya, Nepal and India, to melt and shrink. Scientists from Newcastle University, UK, who publish their findings in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, looked at temperature trends in the Upper Indus Basin over the last century. They found a recent increase in winter temperatures and a cooling of summer temperatures. These trends, combined with an increase in snow and rainfall - a finding from earlier in their research - could be causing glaciers to grow, at least in the higher mountain regions. These findings are especially significant because temperature and rain and snow trends in the Upper Indus Basin also impact on the water availability for more than 50 million Pakistani people. Melt water from glaciers and the prior winter's snow supplies water for the summer 'runoff' which feeds irrigation both in the mountains and in the plains of the Lower Indus. The vast Indus Basin Irrigation System is the mainstay of the national economy of Pakistan, which has 170,000 square kilometres of irrigated land, an area two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source |
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