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3 January 2019
Climate warming experiment finds unexpected results
Climate models predict plant decomposition in the tropics will increase in a warmer world, but a new study shows the opposite
17 May 2018
Explaining the history of Australia’s vegetation
New research explores how plants using the more complex C4 photosynthetic pathway to create sugar from sunlight expanded to dominate the Australian continent, and how climate change is likely to affect these critically important native plants.
22 July 2013
Busy beavers capture carbon
A few environmental problem-solvers have proposed drawing carbon out of the air and burying it to reduce greenhouse gasses and curb climate change. Maybe they could take some tips from nature’s own geoengineers – beavers – which have been sequestering carbon for thousands of years in the ponds and meadows created by their dams. A new study finds that, due to decreasing populations, much less carbon is getting tucked away by beavers than in the past.
5 December 2012
New model of sea level rise accounts for splash in the bath
Vulnerable to Earth’s changing climate, people living on small, low-lying islands dread the day when rising seas will swallow up their homes for good. But new findings predict that some islands will become uninhabitable long before they’re submerged. Some island habitats will be destroyed up to 10 times faster than current models project, scientists reported Tuesday at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
21 November 2012
Salt-spitting grass could rescue marsh from sea-level rise
Sweet Hall Marsh along the Pamunsky River in Virginia hasn’t been able to keep pace with rising seas, putting it in danger of being flooded. But the emergence of a grass that is a stranger to the marsh could turn out to be its savior.
21 February 2012
Barren marsh reveals plant-loss peril
When the plants go, the whole marsh falls apart. That’s what researchers have found in an innovative experiment in Belgium in which acres of reeds were literally mowed down, enabling the team to observe the consequences of extensive plant loss, which were more severe than expected.
31 May 2011
After canals go in, fish diversity goes up… many millenia from now
Facing a growing population and increasing demands for fresh water, India is hoping that an engineering fix will help solve its water-scarcity problems. The country’s National Water Development Agency has begun work on the first of a system of 30 canals that would link 46 rivers, in a process known as inter-basin water transfer.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.