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Plants use the sun’s energy to turn carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air into the organic matter, or carbohydrates, that make up their bodies. This process, known as photosynthesis, ultimately feeds the rest of the food chain, with grazers eating the plants and carnivores and omnivores eating the grazers. How much carbon land plants take [...]

In Brief: Nights are warmer than they were in the early 1970s, which exacerbates the urban heat island effect and heat related health problems.
Heat waves – which in the United States kill up to 1,000 people per year – are defined as prolonged periods of abnormally hot weather. They can occur at any time [...]

The oceans are currently absorbing about 22 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) each day and have absorbed an estimated 525 billion tons of CO2 over the last 200 years.
Trivia Question: As the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide, they become…
a. more basic (higher pH).
b. more acidic (lower pH).
c. richer in nutrients.
d. warmer.
The correct answer is [...]

While Lake Chad today covers an area of around 115-200 square miles, at the end of the last ice age (12,000 years ago), there was Lake Megachad, which covered an area as large as 154,000 square miles. Rivers flowing into the lake brought in sediments from the surrounding landscape, and the bodies of plankton growing [...]

Warm ocean surface temperatures in the North Atlantic provide the warm and moist air that fuels hurricanes, which develop out of random disturbances in the tropics that provide the spark for these storms. Warmer waters in the North Atlantic generally mean more fuel for the storms. But did you know that surface temperature conditions in [...]

The term cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) is a fancy way of describing the tiny particles that even smaller water vapor droplets cling to as raindrops form. Once enough water vapor droplets gather on the nuclei, raindrops fall. This is a critical part of Earth’s water cycle, which moves water from the oceans to the land, [...]

Without a steady supply of oxygen in the air around us, we would suffocate. Compared to other planets in our solar system, Earth’s concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is exceptional. Of the air that goes into your lungs, 78 percent is nitrogen and 21 percent is oxygen. The remaining one percent is a combination [...]

In Brief: Wheat grown under elevated ambient carbon dioxide levels is less nutritious that wheat grown under current levels.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key plant nutrient, as carbon is the primary building block of all life on Earth. Other building blocks, however, are just as essential. Nitrogen, for example, is the mineral that plants [...]

The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo injected into the atmosphere about 20 million tons of a certain substance, which blocked the incoming sunlight causing a global cooling of one degree Fahrenheit over 18 months.
Trivia Question: What was this substance?
a. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
b. Carbon monoxide (CO)
c. Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
d. Ash
The correct answer is [...]

Since the 1750’s, the amount of methane (CH4) in the atmosphere has increased by 250 percent. Much of this methane is emitted from lakes in northern regions. Glacial movement across the far North (north of 45 degrees) during the last ice age leveled the landscape, carved depressions in the bedrock and deposited ice that formed [...]

In Brief: Compared to the 1980’s, more carbon is now being released into the atmosphere from the soil.
How changes in the carbon cycle affect Earth’s temperature and how Earth’s temperature affects the carbon cycle are two key questions for climate research. In 2008, there was a net release of about 98 petagrams (98 billion [...]

In Brief: More irrigation likely drove a 3.6 degree Fahrenheit decline in average summertime daily maximum temperatures between 1934 and 2002 at weather stations in heavily farmed areas of California.
Over the past few centuries, large parts of North America were converted from native ecosystems to agricultural and urban landscapes. Agricultural land now covers about 17 [...]

In Brief: Higher elevation areas are experiencing the overall global trend of wind speed “stilling” more acutely than surrounding lowlands.
Wind speeds in the mid-latitudes have shown a downward trend over the past 30-50 years, a phenomenon known as “stilling.” Any trends in wind speed have implications for the water cycle, ecosystems and wind energy [...]

In the Northern Hemisphere, deciduous trees are beginning to come out of their dormant season and unfurl their leaves. Soon, the greys and browns that characterize America’s broadleaf forests during winter will be replaced the by the greens of spring and summer. Over the last four decades, there has been a global trend in the [...]

Over the past 250 years, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has risen from 280 parts per million to almost 400. Plants use sunlight to convert this atmospheric carbon into the sugars and starches that make up their tissues. As the amount of carbon in the atmosphere changes, plant growth patterns change [...]

Changes in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air have been shown to affect plant growth rates, the amount and quality of fruit plants produce and how much water a plant releases through evaporation. A study conducted between 1996 and 2001 in the western Great Plains (parts of Colorado and Wyoming) grew several [...]

The temperature/pressure difference between the equatorial regions and the poles is at its maximum during the winter months. The energy this difference generates is thought to power the “storm tracks,” or the bands in the mid-latitudes where east to west traveling storms (cyclonic high and low pressure systems) are most common. The storm track over [...]

Snow is both a product of the weather and a weather maker. It has long been recognized that snow exhibits a cooling effect on local and regional scales. Snow reflects more sunlight than bare ground, meaning that it absorbs less energy. More snow cover also means soils stay moist for longer following the spring melting [...]

Carbon is a critical element in the Earth system. Carbon molecules are constantly moving from different states and from reservoir to reservoir. One reservoir is the terrestrial biosphere (the life systems that exist on land), which holds carbon primarily in the form of plant matter and soil. The atmosphere holds carbon in the form of [...]

At any given time, there is about 22 million tons of dust suspended in the atmosphere around us. Dust has important effects on Earth’s climate. It absorbs and scatters incoming radiation, affecting how much sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface and how much is reflected back into space. How much sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface helps [...]