Science Daily: Climate News

New research reveals monitor lizards should be regarded as 'ecosystem engineers' as they provide food and shelter to other reptiles, insects and mammals, helping prevent extinction.

The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system can help scientists understand, and possibly improve, how corals respond to the environmental stresses of climate change. New work details how the revolutionary, Nobel Prize-winning technology can be deployed to guide conservation efforts for fragile reef ecosystems.

Although stellar flares are typically viewed as a detriment to habitability, study shows 'life might still have a fighting chance.' Researchers find that flares drive a planets atmospheric composition to a new chemical equilibrium.

Scientists have identified coastal 'bright spots' to repair marine ecosystems globally, paving the way to boost biodiversity, local economies and human wellbeing.

Climate warming is linked to a widening interval between leaf unfolding and flowering in European trees, with implications for tree fitness and the wider environment, according to new research.

In a new study of tidal marsh resilience to sea level rise, geologists observed that Hudson River Estuary marshes are growing upward at a rate two to three times faster than sea level rise, 'suggesting that they should be resilient to accelerated sea level rise in the future,' he says.

Forest managers can now look to a newly enhanced, predictive mapping tool to learn where forests are likely to regenerate on their own and where replanting efforts may be beneficial. This study also indicates a not-so-evergreen future of fewer conifers.

By delving into scientific, technological, environmental and economic data, engineering researchers examined whether New York could achieve a statewide carbon-free economy by 2050. Their finding: Yes, New York can reach this goal - and do it with five years to spare.

Land ecosystems currently play a key role in mitigating climate change. The more carbon dioxide (CO2) plants and trees absorb during photosynthesis, the process they use to make food, the less CO2 remains trapped in the atmosphere where it can cause temperatures to rise. But scientists have identified an unsettling trend - as levels of CO2 in the atmosphere increase, 86 percent of land ecosystems globally are becoming progressively less efficient at absorbing it.

Researchers provide the first-ever case definition for fresh-water skin disease in bottlenose dolphins tied to climate change. The study has major implications for the current outbreak in Australia, which is impacting the rare and threatened Burrunan dolphin in southeast Australia, and could provide professionals with the information needed to diagnose and treat affected animals.

Are clean energy plans missing the forest for the GHGs? A new study presents a roadmap to renewables that unites climate change and biodiversity goals.

More plants and longer growing seasons in the northern latitudes have converted parts of Alaska, Canada and Siberia to deeper shades of green. Some studies translate this Arctic greening to a greater global carbon uptake. But new research shows that as Earth's climate is changing, increased carbon absorption by plants in the Arctic is being offset by a corresponding decline in the tropics.

Sea level could rise higher than current estimates by 2100 if climate change is unchallenged, according to a new assessment.

A new study finds that less traffic on the roads during the first lockdown led to a reduction in air pollution but may have caused potentially damaging surface ozone levels to rise.

A new study reveals the extreme scale of loss and fragmentation of tropical forests, which once covered much of the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. The study also reveals that only 10 percent of the forest that is left remains fire-resistant. The researchers warn that protecting this is crucial for preventing catastrophic fire.

When it gets warmer, organisms rise higher from the lowlands. Researchers investigated what could happen to plant communities on alpine grasslands if grasshoppers from lower elevations settled there.

With no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, ocean anoxic zones are areas where only microbes suited to the environment can live.

New research is changing the way aircraft and wind turbine operators are addressing the risks related to ice build-up. A team has broadened the scope and functionality of their ice sensors.

Climate change is expected to make many grape-growing regions too hot and dry to produce high-quality wine from traditional varieties. But scientists have found that wine grape varieties from regions that are more prone to stress have traits that could help them cope with climate change.

Barnacle geese in the Arctic have been on a diet. So many now migrate to northern breeding grounds that in some places there's less food to go around. The good news is that it doesn't seem to restrict their population growth -- yet.