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.
-
CryoSat-2 Produces First Map of Arctic Sea Ice Changes Throughout Winter
26.04.2012
Scientists have made the first map showing changes in the thickness of Arctic sea ice over the course of the boreal (northern) winter of 2010-2011 using data from CryoSat-2, a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite launched in April 2010 designed to track sea and land ice thickness changes at the…
-
Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program Releases Report on Trends in Arctic Wildlife
25.04.2012
According to a report from the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) released on 23 April at the IPY “From Knowledge to Action” conference in Montreal, populations of many animal species are undergoing changes.
-
Surface Lake Melt in Greenland Causing Ice Sheet to “Slip Away”
25.04.2012
According to results of a study by a team of researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Greenland Ice Sheet is slipping into the ocean at a faster rate due to “catastrophic lake drainages” – when huge amounts of meltwater from surface lakes on top of the ice…
-
Newly Discovered Methane Source in the Arctic: Ocean Surface Waters
24.04.2012
According to a multi-institutional study published in Nature Geoscience, areas in the Arctic Ocean appear to be emitting the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH4). As a greenhouse gas, methane is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2).
-
Scientists Advocate Moratorium on Fishing in Arctic
24.04.2012
In an open letter released by the Pew Environment Group, more that 2,000 scientists from 67 countries are encouraging calling for a moratorium on commercial fishing in the Arctic until more research can be done on the regions that were once covered by sea ice throughout the year.
-
Satellite Mapping Shows Emperor Penguin Populations Almost Double of Previous Estimates
16.04.2012
Using satellite imagery, an international team of scientists have shown that populations of emperor penguins in Antarctica have been severely underestimated. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, estimates that the population stands at 595,000 penguins –almost double previous estimates of 270,000 – 350,000.
-
Increase Seen in Plant Biomass in Arctic Tundra
12.04.2012
According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of Alaska Fairbanks and published in Environmental Resarch Letters, the aboveground live biomass of Arctic tundra vegetation has increased by 19.8% all throughout the circumpolar North since 1982.
-
Mystery Disease Afflicting Polar Bears, Seals and Walruses in the Arctic
12.04.2012
A mystery disease that has been blamed for the deaths of many seals and has infected walruses has now appeared in polar bears as well. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), polar bears were found to have patchy hair loss and oozing sores. These symptoms are similat to what researchers…
-
Study Shows Increase in Atmospheric CO2 Helped End Last Ice Age
10.04.2012
Scientists have been able to reconstruct past temperatures using proxy methods such as reading ice cores, tree rings and sediment cores from the bottom of lakes and oceans. They have also been able to reconstruct past levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from air bubbles…
-
Thawing Permafrost Attributed to Acute Global Warming in Past
10.04.2012
An international study conducted by researchers from the US, Italy and the UK published in Nature has shown that past thawing of permafrost on Earth and the carbon that was released from it into the atmosphere led to a runaway warming effect.
