Chris Mooney, The Washington Post Published 10:16 am, Wednesday, April 18, 2018 Two years after a long-lasting undersea heat wave scalded large sections of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists have now found that because so many corals died, much of the reef has likely been altered "forever." "What we just experienced is one hell of a natural selection event," said Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland. In a notably blunt study in the journal Nature - laden with words like "unprecedented," "radical" and "catastrophic" - Hughes and 15 colleagues report that in 2016 alone, about 30 percent of the Great Barrier Reef's corals were lost, with the most severe damage in the isolated northern sector. (In 2017, another ocean heat wave claimed another roughly 20 percent of corals, Hughes said.) Many corals died faster than expected and at a lower level of sustained heat than had … [Read more...] about Global warming has changed the Great Barrier Reef ‘forever,’ scientists say
Global warming
Global warming is messing up nature’s dinner time, study says
WASHINGTON -- Global warming is screwing up nature's intricately timed dinner hour, often making hungry critters and those on the menu show up at much different times, a new study shows. Timing is everything in nature. Bees have to be around and flowers have to bloom at the same time for pollination to work, and hawks need to migrate at the same time as their prey. In many cases, global warming is interfering with that timing, scientists said. A first-of-its-kind global mega analysis on the biological timing of 88 species that rely on another life form shows that on average species are moving out of sync by about six days a decade, although some pairs are actually moving closer together. While other studies have looked at individual pairs of species and how warming temperatures have changed their migration, breeding and other timing, the study in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives the first global look at a worsening timing problem. Climate change: … [Read more...] about Global warming is messing up nature’s dinner time, study says
Global Warming Is Weakening Key Ocean Circulation: Study
Global warming is likely slowing the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, which has plunged to its weakest level on record, according to a new study. The slowdown in the circulation — a crucial part of Earth's climate — had been predicted by computer models, but researchers said they can now observe it. It could make for more extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe, and could increase sea level rise along the U.S. East Coast, they said. The slowdown also raises the prospect of a complete circulation shutdown, which would be a dangerous "tipping point," according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature. Such a shutdown was the premise of the scientifically inaccurate 2004 disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow." Study authors said a collapse is at least decades away but would be a catastrophe. NASA has captured 20 years of seasonal changes in a new global map of the home planet. (Published Friday, Nov. 17, 2017) "We know somewhere out there is a … [Read more...] about Global Warming Is Weakening Key Ocean Circulation: Study
Global warming is slowing Atlantic Ocean circulation, study finds
WASHINGTON -- Global warming is likely slowing the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, which has plunged to its weakest level on record, according to a new study. The slowdown in the circulation -- a crucial part of Earth's climate -- had been predicted by computer models, but researchers said they can now observe it. It could make for more extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe, and could increase sea level rise along the U.S. East Coast, they said. The slowdown also raises the prospect of a complete circulation shutdown, which would be a dangerous "tipping point," according to a study Wednesday in the journal Nature. Such a shutdown was the premise of the scientifically inaccurate 2004 disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow." Study authors said a collapse is at least decades away but would be a catastrophe. "We know somewhere out there is a tipping point where this current system is likely to break down," said study co-author Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate … [Read more...] about Global warming is slowing Atlantic Ocean circulation, study finds
Study: Global warming is weakening key ocean circulation
WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming is likely slowing the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, which has plunged to its weakest level on record, according to a new study.The slowdown in the circulation — a crucial part of Earth's climate — had been predicted by computer models, but researchers said they can now observe it. It could make for more extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere, especially Europe, and could increase sea level rise along the U.S. East Coast, they said.The slowdown also raises the prospect of a complete circulation shutdown, which would be a dangerous "tipping point," according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature .Such a shutdown was the premise of the scientifically inaccurate 2004 disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow." Study authors said a collapse is at least decades away but would be a catastrophe."We know somewhere out there is a tipping point where this current system is likely to break down," said study co-author Stefan Rahmstorf, a … [Read more...] about Study: Global warming is weakening key ocean circulation