SciencePoles news

Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.

Antarctic Temperatures Disagree with Climate Model Predictions

20.02.2007

Scientists from the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University reported that Antarctic temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models.
Antarctic Warming Causes Drastic Changes in Fragile Ecosystems

20.02.2007

The warming most global climate models predict will do more harm than simply raise the sea levels that most observers fear. It will make drastic changes in fragile ecosystems throughout the world, especially in the Antarctic warns the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.
Study Finds Subglacial Water in West Antarctica Considerably More Active than Previously Observed

19.02.2007

Using NASA satellite data, a team of scientists led by research geophysicist Helen Fricker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography detected for the first time the subtle rise and fall of the surface of fast-moving ice streams as the lakes and channels below nearly a half-mile of solid ice filled…
Melting Trend of Greenland’s Glaciers Not Necessarily Steady and Linear

16.02.2007

A year ago, a study in the journal Science revealed that discharge from Greenland's glaciers had doubled between 2000 and 2005, but these results were based on "snapshots" of discharge taken five years apart. A new study shows that glaciers' behaviour can change a lot from year to year and…
ESA Cluster Satellites: New Insights into Polar Aurorae

15.02.2007

New results obtained thanks to ESA's Cluster satellites provide a new insight into the source of the difference between the two types of electrical circuits currently known to be associated to the auroral arcs.
Female Antarctic Seals Choose Males to Maintain Genetic Diversity

09.02.2007

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) studied a colony of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) on the subantarctic island of South Georgia and discovered that females choose males to maintain genetic diversity.
Methane Bubbling through Seafloor Creates Undersea Hills

09.02.2007

According to a recent paper published by MBARI geologists and their colleagues, methane gas bubbling through seafloor sediments has created hundreds of low hills on the floor of the Arctic Ocean.
NASA Summary: Melting Ice Sheets and Sea Level Rise

07.02.2007

Nasa recently published a good summary of past sea level fluctuations, put side by side with actual trends. Their study begins at the Last Glacial Maximum 20.000 years ago, when sea level was 120 meters lower than today. Studying past sea level fluctuations provides a longer-term geologic context, which can…
Antarctic Deepsea Fauna Found in Surprisingly Shallow Waters

31.01.2007

Talking about the Polarstern Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) expedition, Julian Gutt from the Alfred Wegener Institut reported that deep-sea sea cucumbers and stalked feather stars were ubiquitously found in unusually shallow waters, under the former Larsen ice shelf east of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Peat Moorlands Storing Greenhouse Gases

31.01.2007

Wet peat moorlands form a sustainable storage place for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, but are also a source of the much stronger greenhouse gas methane. Up until now it was not clear how peat moorland areas influenced the greenhouse effect. According to Dutch researcher Wiebe Borren, peat moorlands act…