Subscribe Now

Since 1953, the dates when Japan’s plants bloom in the spring have been arriving progressively earlier in the calendar year, and the dates when the trees change color and lose their leaves in the fall have been arriving progressively later. The average date when the country’s famous Cherry trees bloom is now arriving an average [...]

The Earth’s largest and oldest lake, Russia’s Lake Baikal, provides habitat for over 2,500 species, most of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Baikal has changed rapidly over the last 60 years. These changes include a two degree Fahrenheit rise in the temperature of the water, a corresponding 300 percent increase in chlorophyll concentration [...]

Polar bears, Earth’s largest land predator, are most common on annual sea ice that sits over shallow seas. This ice provides the bears with a platform from which they can hunt for food. In Canada’s Western Hudson Bay region, which is at the southernmost extent of the polar bear’s range, winter and spring are the [...]

In the mid-latitude climates, insect species have a dormant period during the cold winter months, meaning that there is a limited period of time throughout the year when they can reproduce. In regions where there is little seasonal difference in rainfall and temperature, such as in the equatorial rainforests, insects do not have a dormant [...]

Autumn (March to May) rainfall in southeast Australia is important for soil moisture and river recharge because the region is dependent on reliable water sources for cereal crop production. Since 1950, there has been a 40 percent decline in the region’s average autumn rainfall. This has been linked to fewer occurrences of La Niña events, [...]

Did you know that 75 percent of the water resources in the West originate from snowmelt? Mountain snowpack accumulates over the winter and as it melts during the spring, summer, and fall, it feeds the region’s rivers and streams. Over the last half of the 20th Century, November to March temperatures in the Pacific Northwest [...]

In the Pacific Northwest, Mountain Hemlocks grow at elevations between 3,600 and 7,500 feet. These shade tolerant trees grow underneath the faster growing but shorter-lived Douglas Firs, and gradually make their way to the top of the canopy over their 700 year life spans. At the region’s high elevations, some of the world’s most extensive [...]

While cold temperatures limit growth for many plant species inhabiting the boreal forest and tundra regions of the northern hemisphere (from about 50 to 80 degrees North), increases in temperature can cause more evaporation from the soil and lead to drought stress. This appears to be the case with White Spruce forests in Alaska. A [...]

A common cotton disease in the southeast, hardlock, is caused by fungus and affected by temperature and humidity. The disease does better during years when humidity and rainfall levels are above average, especially during the months of July to September, when cotton plant flowers and bolls (pods containing 32 seeds from which the cotton fibers [...]

Seabirds, such as auks, gulls, petrels, terns, and gannets, have spent tens of millions of years adapting to life on the ocean. Some species, such as the Sooty Tern, can spend years at sea before returning to land. The success of these species is dependent on the success of their food sources (such as fish [...]

During the last ice age, an advancing glacier carved out a basin in the Siskiyou Mountains of what is northern California today. As the glacier melted, Castle Lake was formed. Every spring, as the ice on the lake melts and warm water on the bottom of the lake moves to the surface, stirring up nutrients in [...]

During the spring and summer, moths and butterflies from continental Europe make a 100-mile journey across the open sea to the south coast of England. Over the past three decades, the average number of butterfly and moth species that make the annual migration has increased at a rate of 1.34 species each year. This increase [...]

During the winter in the northern Mid-West, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]

During the winter in the northern Mid-West, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]

During the winter in the northern Mid-West, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]

During the winter in the northern Midwest, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]

Since 1910, overall precipitation in the lower 48 states has increased by ten percent. This extra ten percent has made heavy and extreme precipitation events more frequent and more intense. Extreme precipitation events are defined as a 24-hour period with more than two inches of rainfall, and over the last century the proportion of rainfall [...]

During the winter in the northern Mid-West, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]

During the winter in the northern Mid-West, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]

During the winter in the northern Mid-West, the uppermost ten centimeters of the soil surface freezes. The duration and the depth of the soil freeze are dependent upon the severity of the winter. Warmer winters mean shallower and shorter-lived soil freezes, whereas colder winters mean deeper and longer-lived soil freezes. Also, because snow acts as [...]