Snow Avalanches in Forests of the Swiss Alps

Published March 7, 2013

Trends since 1970 indicate there has been a decrease in snow and weather conditions associated with avalanches throughout the region… Read More

The Impact of Elevated CO2 on Forest Arthropod Communities (5 Mar 2013)
According to the authors of this study, “decreases in herbivorous arthropods and increases in predaceous arthropods may contribute to reduced herbivory under elevated CO2 in forest systems,” which is basically what has also been observed in the other studies that have experimentally explored the subject, all of which bodes well for Earth’s forests in a CO2-enriched world of the future… Read More

Simulating the Indian Ocean Subtropical Dipole (5 Mar 2013)
Outputs from 22 state-of-the-art coupled general circulation models reveal that the location and orientation of sea surface temperature anomaly poles “differ considerably” from one model to another… Read More

Tropical Sea Surface Temperature Biases in CMIP 3 & 5 Models (5 Mar 2013)
In the words of Li and Xie (2012), “state-of-the-art coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models (CGCMs) suffer from large errors in simulating tropical climate, limiting their utility in climate prediction and projection,” while noting in this regard that the models’ “sea surface temperature (SST) errors are comparable or larger in magnitude than observed interannual variability and projected change in the 21st century”… Read More

Population Growth, Atmospheric Change and Global Food Security (6 Mar 2013)
With the projected need to feed two billion more people in the year 2050, and running out of land on which to grow crops, as well as lacking sufficient water with which to irrigate them, how are we going to do it? According to the researchers of this study, “adaptation to rising CO2 remains one of the simplest research strategies to ensure that global food security can be maintained in light of the anthropogenic stresses likely to be experienced for the remainder of the twenty-first century”… Read More

Nitrogen Fixation by Legumes in a Future CO2-Enriched World (6 Mar 2013)
A meta-analysis of the subject reveals how the N-fixing plants are “stepping up to the plate,” as it were, to provide the extra nitrogen that they and other crops will need to fill our daily dinner plates, as the human population of the planet – and its need for food – continues to grow… Read More

The Potential for CO2-Induced Species Changes in Grasslands (6 Mar 2013)
What are its ramifications for grassland productivity? The authors of this study conclude that “CO2-stimulation of grassland productivity may be significantly underestimated if feedbacks from plant community change are not considered”… Read More