http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/geography-blog.html Geography blog from networlddirectory, the place for information. Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT en-us http://www.networlddirectory.com/images/blogs/geography-blog.jpg http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/geography-blog.html 105 85 http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2011/oil-spill-and-microbes.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/10-2011/oil-spill-and-microbes.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT In the results of a newly released study, researchers explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill--and the particular microbes responsible for consuming natural gas immediately after the spill. Water temperature played a key role in the way bacteria reacted to the spill, the scientists found........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/8-2011/carbon-hitches-a-ride-from-field-to-market.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/8-2011/carbon-hitches-a-ride-from-field-to-market.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Today, farming often involves transporting crops long distances so consumers from Maine to California can enjoy Midwest corn, Northwest cherries and other produce when they are out of season locally. But it isn't just the fossil fuel needed to move food that contributes to agriculture's carbon footprint........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2011/wildfires-still-a-wide-open-climate-question.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2011/wildfires-still-a-wide-open-climate-question.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT How the frequency and intensity of wildfires and intentional biomass burning will change in a future climate requires closer scientific attention, as per CSIRO's Dr Melita Keywood. 5 July 2011. Dr Keywood said it is likely that fire - one of nature's primary carbon-cycling mechanisms - will become an increasingly important driver of atmospheric change as the world warms........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2011/how-hot-did-earth-get-in-the-past.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2011/how-hot-did-earth-get-in-the-past.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT The question seems simple enough: What happens to the Earth's temperature when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase? The answer is elusive. However, clues are hidden in the fossil record. A newly released study by scientists from Syracuse and Yale universities provides a much clearer picture of the Earth's temperature approximately 50 million years ago when CO2 concentrations were higher than today. The results may shed light on what to expect in the future if CO2 levels keep rising........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2011/2004-sumatra-earthquake-deadliest-in-history.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2011/2004-sumatra-earthquake-deadliest-in-history.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT An international team of georesearchers has discovered an unusual geological formation that helps explain how an undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in December 2004 spawned the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. Instead of the usual weak, loose sediments typically found above the type of geologic fault that caused the earthquake, the team found a thick plateau of hard, compacted sediments. Once the fault snapped, the rupture was able to spread from tens of kilometers below the seafloor to just a few kilometers below the seafloor, much farther than weak sediments would have permitted. The extra distance allowed it to move a larger column of seawater above it, unleashing much larger tsunami waves........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2011/carbon-release-to-atmosphere.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2011/carbon-release-to-atmosphere.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT The rate of release of carbon into the atmosphere today is nearly 10 times as fast as during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 55.9 million years ago, the best analog we have for current global warming, as per an international team of geologists. Rate matters and this current rapid change may not allow sufficient time for the biological environment to adjust........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2011/potential-for-great-earthquake.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2011/potential-for-great-earthquake.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT The region east of the central Andes Mountains has the potential for larger scale earthquakes than previously expected, as per a newly released study posted online in the May 8th edition of Nature Geoscience Prior research had set the maximum expected earthquake size to be magnitude 7.5, based on the relatively quiet history of seismicity in that area. This newly released study by scientists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and his colleagues contradicts that limit and instead suggests that the region could see quakes with magnitudes 8.7 to 8.9........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2011/air-pollution-near-michigan-schools.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2011/air-pollution-near-michigan-schools.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT -Air pollution from industrial sources near Michigan public schools jeopardizes children's health and academic success, as per a newly released study from University of Michigan researchers. The scientists observed that schools located in areas with the state's highest industrial air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates---an indicator of poor health---as well as the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2011/analysis-of-national-petroleum-reserve-in-alaska.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2011/analysis-of-national-petroleum-reserve-in-alaska.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT "The USGS conducts evaluation updates to re-evaluate petroleum potential as new data and information become available," said USGS Energy Resources Program Coordinator Brenda Pierce. "Understanding how much undiscovered, technically recoverable resource might be present serves as a basis for calculating how much might be economically developed."....... ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2011/precedent-setting-and-biodiversity.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2011/precedent-setting-and-biodiversity.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Frequent reports of accelerating species losses invariably raise questions about why such losses matter and why we should work to conserve biodiversity. Biologists have traditionally responded to such questions by citing societal benefits that are often presumed to be offered by biodiversity--benefits like controlling pests and diseases, promoting the productivity of fisheries, and helping to purify air and water, among a number of others. Nevertheless, a number of of these presumed benefits are have yet to be supported by rigorous scientific data........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2011/some-peoples-climate-beliefs-shift-with-weather.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2011/some-peoples-climate-beliefs-shift-with-weather.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Social researchers are struggling with a perplexing earth-science question: as the power of evidence showing manmade global warming is rising, why do opinion polls suggest public belief in the findings is wavering? Part of the answer appears to be that some people are too easily swayed by the easiest, most irrational piece of evidence at hand: their own estimation of the day's temperature........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/extra-cold-winters-in-north-america.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/extra-cold-winters-in-north-america.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT If you're sitting on a bench in New York City's Central Park in winter, you're probably freezing. After all, the average temperature in January is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But if you were just across the pond in Porto, Portugal, which shares New York's latitude, you'd be much warmer--the average temperature is a balmy 48 degrees Fahrenheit........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/earthscope-seismic-sensors.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/earthscope-seismic-sensors.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Most seismic activity--and earthquakes--have been in the U.S. West. But the East is not out of the woods in terms of risk, geologists say. After a six-year march eastward from the U.S. West Coast, the EarthScope Transportable Array seismic network has reached a major milestone: installation of the first Transportable Array station east of the Mississippi River........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/newly-discovered-natural-arch-in-afghanistan.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/newly-discovered-natural-arch-in-afghanistan.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society have stumbled upon a geological colossus in a remote corner of Afghanistan: a natural stone arch spanning more than 200 feet across its base. Located at the central highlands of Afghanistan, the recently discovered Hazarchishma Natural Bridge is more than 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) above sea level, making it one of the highest large natural bridges in the world. It also ranks among the largest such structures known........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/communicating-uncertain-climate-risks.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/communicating-uncertain-climate-risks.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Despite much research that demonstrates potential dangers from climate change, public concern has not been increasing. One theory is that this is because the public is not intimately familiar with the nature of the climate uncertainties being discussed. "A major challenge facing climate researchers is explaining to non-specialists the risks and uncertainties surrounding potential" climate change, says a new Perspectives piece published recently in the science journal Nature Climate Change........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/antarctic-icebergs-and-global-carbon-cycle.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/antarctic-icebergs-and-global-carbon-cycle.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT In a finding that has global implications for climate research, researchers have discovered that when icebergs cool and dilute the seas through which they pass for days, they also raise chlorophyll levels in the water that may in turn increase carbon dioxide absorption in the Southern Ocean. An interdisciplinary research team supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) highlighted the research this month in the journal Nature Geosciences........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/algae-and-bacteria-hogged-oxygen.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/algae-and-bacteria-hogged-oxygen.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT A mass extinction is hard enough for Earth's biosphere to handle, but when you chase it with prolonged oxygen deprivation, the biota ends up with a hangover that can last millions of years. Such was the situation with the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history 250 million years ago, when 90 percent of all marine animal species were wiped out, along with a huge proportion of plant, animal and insect species on land........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/climate-change-hits-home.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/climate-change-hits-home.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Direct experience of extreme weather events increases concern about climate change and willingness to engage in energy-saving behaviour, as per a new research paper reported in the first edition of the journal Nature Climate Change this week. In particular, members of the British public are more prepared to take personal action and reduce their energy use when they perceive their local area has a greater vulnerability to flooding, as per the research by Cardiff and Nottingham universities........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/think-globally-but-act-locally.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/think-globally-but-act-locally.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Global warming is clearly affecting plants and animals, but we should not try to tease apart the specific contribution of greenhouse gas driven climate change to extinctions or declines of species at local scales, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin advise. Camille Parmesan, Michael C. Singer and their coauthors published their commentary online this week in Nature Climate Change....... ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/can-biochar-help-suppress-greenhouse-gases.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2011/can-biochar-help-suppress-greenhouse-gases.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:45 GMT Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas and a precursor to compounds that contribute to the destruction of the ozone. Intensively managed, grazed pastures are responsible for an increase in nitrous oxide emissions from grazing animals' excrement. Biochar is potentially a mitigation option for reducing the world's elevated carbon dioxide emissions, since the embodied carbon can be sequestered in the soil. Biochar also has the potential to beneficially alter soil nitrogen transformations........ ]]>