Science Daily: Climate News

New research gives insights into tornado casualty rates across the United States and casualty prediction models.

With climate change, plants of the future will consume more water than in the present day, leading to less water available for people living in North America and Eurasia, according to a new study. The research suggests a drier future despite anticipated precipitation increases for places like the United States and Europe, populous regions already facing water stresses.

Scientists have created an 'artificial leaf' to fight climate change by inexpensively converting harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into a useful alternative fuel.

Satellites now play a key role in monitoring carbon levels in the oceans, but we are only just beginning to understand their full potential.

Research combining future climate conditions and arsenic-induced soil stresses predicts rice yields could decline about 40 percent by 2100, a loss that would impact about 2 billion people dependent on the global crop.

A set of genes that make up the biosynthetic pathway controlling hormone production in sorghum plants can influence the number of flowers and seeds produced per plant. The gene has implications in plant breeding, where it could potentially double crop yield.

Two million-year old ice from Antarctica recently uncovered by a team of researchers provides a clearer picture into the connections between greenhouse gases and climate in ancient times and will help scientists understand future climate change.

A team of scientists have used climate models and geological records to better understand changes in the East Asian monsoon over long geologic time scales.

Buried alongside the famous Ötzi the Iceman are at least 75 species of bryophytes -- mosses and liverworts -- which hold clues to Ötzi's surroundings, according to a new study.

A new study says that carbon impacts from the loss of intact tropical forests has been grossly underreported.

Researchers project that as the permafrost continues to degrade, the climate in various regions of the Arctic could potentially change abruptly in the relatively near future. Their research also suggests that as the permafrost degrades, the severity of wildfires will double from one year to the next and remain at the new and higher rate for regions in the Northwestern Territories and the Yukon.

In the last decade, Ethiopia has invested more than US $1.2 billion annually in restoring landscapes in several regions of the country. Research takes stock of Ethiopia's major restoration projects and investigates their impact on ecosystem services. Researchers say their work can help policymakers tailor future restoration actions to specific ecosystem needs.

Housing developers and urban planners could be the unlikely heroes in the battle against the 'new tobacco' -- air pollution -- say researchers.

Scientists have found that the air in the tropics is teeming with a rich and diverse range of at least 725 different microorganisms.

Almost one third of Canadians live near a major road -- and this means they go about their everyday lives exposed to a complex mixture of vehicle air pollutants. A new study reveals that emissions from nearby traffic can greatly increase concentrations of key air pollutants, with highly polluting trucks making a major contribution.

For three hurricane seasons in a row, storms with record-breaking rainfall have caused catastrophic flooding in the southern United States. A new analysis explains why this trend is likely to continue with global warming: Both the higher moisture content of warmer air and storms' increasing wind speeds conspire to produce wetter storms.

Global warming may increase undernutrition through the effects of heat exposure on people, according to a new study.

Soil erosion reduces the productivity of ecosystems, it changes nutrient cycles and it thus directly impacts climate and society. An international team of researchers, recorded temporal changes of soil erosion by analyzing sediment deposits in more than 600 lakes worldwide. They found that the accumulation of lake sediments increased significantly on a global scale around 4,000 years ago.

The impact of 1°C of global heating is already having devastating impacts on communities and ecosystems across the globe. Researchers have identified biases towards some selected carbon budgets in the current scenario literature. They propose a more comprehensive approach to systematically explore the carbon budget scenario space.

Unchecked climate change could drive Britain's crop growing north and west, leaving the east and south east unable to support crop growing, new research suggests.