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| Climate Variability and Change |
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Tiny airborne particles are a major cause of climate change
Published [07/23/2006]
Source [American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science]
A scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and his colleagues caused a storm in the atmospheric community when they suggested a few years back that tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols, may be one of the main culprits causing climate change – having, on a local scale, an even greater impact than the greenhouse gases effect. Attempts to understand how these particles influence clouds have generated many uncertainties. |
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| Atmospheric Composition |
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Power plants are major influence in regional mercury emissions
Published [07/21/2006]
Source [Yale University]
The amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere in the Northeast fluctuates annually depending on activity in the electric power industry, according to researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. |
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| Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems |
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Direct link established between tropical tree and insect diversity
Published [07/22/2006]
Source [Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute]
Higher tree species diversity leads directly to higher diversity of leaf-eating insects, researchers report in the July 13, 2006 early-online version of the journal Science. |
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| Water and Energy Cycle |
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Rise in sea level, loss of wet lands may account for unstable ground in Mississippi Delta
Published [07/21/2006]
Source [National Science Foundation]
While erosion and wetland loss have become huge problems along Louisiana's coast, the land 30 to 50 feet beneath much of the Mississippi Delta has been very stable for the past 8,000 years, with low to nonexistent subsidence rates. So say geoscientists from Tulane University and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, challenging the notion that subsidence, or sinking of the earth, bears much of the blame for Louisiana's coastal geology problems. |
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| Weather |
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El Niño Phenomenon Could Help Reforest Semi-arid Regions
Published [07/23/2006]
Source [Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona]
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona scientists took part in an international cooperation project to study the El Niño phenomenon and its effects on vegetation. By observing the relationship between the development of two species (Prosopis pallida and Prosopis chilensis) and the El Niño cycles (which have varying intensity), they have reached the conclusion that the increase in precipitation could be used to recover semi-arid zones through reforestation programmes. |
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| Earth Surface and Interior |
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Exposure to volcanic mineral associated with increased mesothelioma incidence in Turkey
Published [07/23/2006]
Source [Journal of the National Cancer Institute]
High exposure to a fibrous volcanic mineral called erionite was associated with a high incidence of a type of cancer called mesothelioma, according to a study in the March 15 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. |
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