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 …

The warming of an Arctic current over the last 30 years has triggered the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from methane hydrate stored in the sediment beneath the seabed.
Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway London and IFM-Geomar in Germany have found that more than 250 plumes of bubbles of methane gas are rising from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin in the Arctic, in a depth range of 150 to 400 metres.
Methane released from gas hydrate in submarine sediments has been identified in the past as an agent of climate change. The likelihood of methane being released in …

Climate change or global warming is a major issue in today’s world but it only accounts for part of the damage being done to the environment currently. This damage will dramatically change the way the planet is able for provide for its inhabitants especially in the future. As a matter of fact, climate change isn’t actually the problem but a symptom of two far more important problems.
The first problem is the vast amount of the Earth’s natural resources that humans are currently consuming. This is a very large number especially in advancing economic countries. The second problem is that the waste from resource consumption spills into the Earth’s land and atmosphere and pollutes it. When …

Study in July 24 Science magazine shows strong evidence that cloud changes may exacerbate global warming
The role of clouds in climate change has been a major question for decades. As the earth warms under increasing greenhouse gases, it is not known whether clouds will dissipate, letting in more of the sun’s heat energy and making the earth warm even faster, or whether cloud cover will increase, blocking the Sun’s rays and actually slowing down global warming.
In a study published in the July 24 issue of Science, researchers Amy Clement and Robert Burgman from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and Joel Norris from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San …

The old technologies use fossil fuels to generate energy. As the same technology was in use for several years, the fossil fuels have depleted. Coal formation requires several thousands of years and it can’t be manufactured artificially. Using non-renewable sources for energy production must be minimized and everyone should look for alternative energy sources.
The refrigerators, air conditioning systems and other electrical appliances that we normally use contribute to global warming. When the temperature of the Earth keeps on increasing at a rapid rate, it will result in disastrous climate changes and many of the islands will be drowned. By using intelligent energy saving techniques, you can not only save energy but also reduce global warming …