An international study involving Monash University mathematician Dr Malcolm Clark has been used to demonstrate the impact of global warming and to predict the effect further warming will have on plant life.
The study, published in the International Journal of Climatology, predicts a difference in flowering times of certain plants in certain climates by as much as 50 days by the year 2080.
The study, by Dr Malcolm Clark, an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University’s School of Mathematical Sciences and Professor Roy Thompson, a geophysicist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, investigated the possibilities of flowering spring plants blooming in the depths of winter as the plants respond to the effects of global warming.
The study …

Using a completely new method, researchers have shown that high atmospheric and oceanic oxygen content makes the climate colder.
In prehistoric times, the earth experienced two periods of large increases and fluctuations in the oxygen level of the atmosphere and oceans. These fluctuations also lead to an explosion of multicellular organisms in the oceans, which are the predecessors for life as we know it today. The results are now being published in Nature.
Everybody talks about CO2 and other greenhouse gases as causes of global warming and the large climate changes we are currently experiencing. But what about the atmospheric and oceanic oxygen content? Which role does oxygen content play in global warming?
This question has become extremely …

A rare opportunity has allowed a team of biologists to evaluate corals and the essential, photosynthetic algae that live inside their cells before, during, and after a period in 2005 when global warming caused sea-surface temperatures in the Caribbean Ocean to rise.
The team, led by Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Todd LaJeunesse, found that a rare species of algae that is tolerant of stressful environmental conditions proliferated in corals as the more-sensitive algae were being expelled from corals. The results will be published in the online version of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on 9 September 2009.
“Symbiodinium trenchi is normally a rare species of micro-alga in the Caribbean,” said LaJeunesse. “Because …

Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.13 C per decade
August temperatures (preliminary)
Global composite temp.: +0.23 C (about 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for August.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.28 C (about 0.50 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for August.
Southern Hemisphere: +0.18 C (about 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for August.
July temperatures (revised):
Global Composite: +0.41 C above 20-year average
Northern Hemisphere: +0.21 C above 20-year average
Southern Hemisphere: +0.61 C above 20-year average
(All temperature variations are based on a 20-year average (1979-1998) for the month reported.)
Notes on data released September 8, 2009:
The tropics continued to respond in August to warming caused by the El Niño Pacific Ocean warming event, with the average temperature in the tropics warming from …

Urban workers could suffer most from climate change as the cost of food drives them into poverty, according to a new study that quantifies the effects of climate on the world’s poor populations.
A team led by Purdue University researchers examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, drought and heavy rains, on those in 16 developing countries. Urban workers in Bangladesh, Mexico and Zambia were found to be the most at risk.
“Extreme weather affects agricultural productivity and can raise the price of staple foods, such as grains, that are important to poor households in developing countries,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, the associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and interim director …

Chemistry researchers uncover why the archean world was not frozen solid
When Planet Earth was just cooling down from its fiery creation, the sun was faint and young. So faint that it should not have been able to keep the oceans of earth from freezing. But fortunately for the creation of life, water was kept liquid on our young planet.
For years scientists have debated what could have kept earth warm enough to prevent the oceans from freezing solid. Now a team of researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology and University of Copenhagen’s Department of Chemistry have coaxed an explanation out of ancient rocks, as reported in this week’s issue of PNAS
A perfect greenhouse gas
- “The young …

At a time when water supplies are scarce in many areas of the United States, scientists in Minnesota are reporting that production of bioethanol — often regarded as the clean-burning energy source of the future — may consume up to three times more water than previously thought. Their study appeared in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Sangwon Suh and colleagues point out in the study that annual bioethanol production in the U.S. is currently about 9 billion gallons and note that experts expect it to increase in the near future.
The growing demand for bioethanol, particularly corn-based ethanol, has sparked significant concerns among researchers about its impact on water availability. Previous studies estimated that a gallon …