Hello there Greenzoners!
One of the largest shelves of Antarctica is called Larsen B – and in a period of over 35 years it has lost over 2000 square kilometers and it’s still declining, mostly because of rising temperature. Antarctica consists of more than 2/3 of Earth’s freshwater supply, which makes ocean levels to rise .
Scientists are aware that the warming of Antarctica may affect the population of penguins, whose homes and habitats are being threatened.
Pictures by National Geographic.
Hello Greenzoners! Some another interesting facts – this time about global warming. 😉
Did you know that forest fires are now more common in the US?
We recommend you to see this video – top 10 Surprising Global Warming Effects. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuH-ThmNUjM
Hello Greenzoners!
Geology professor and scientist, Summer Rupper recently stated that the progressing global warming is affecting the Himalayas.
Yes – the highest mountains in the world are suffering from rising temperature, which leads to the shrinking of glaciers by melting, – leading to huge amounts of water coming down from the mountains. (more…)
Hello Greenzoners! We already spoke about phytoplankton, sea otters and others. Now let’s talk about something more exotic – orangutans. 🙂
Recently orangutan’s populaion on Sumatra island (south-east Asia) have undergone significant decline. For now there’s only 6,600 individuals left and orangutans are now endangered species. The reason of this reduction is, as it often occured, massive deforestation of tropical areas. (more…)
Hello Greenzoners, I hope you are having good day in which we greet you with new Eco News. 😉
Mountain meadows are slowly declining and being destroyed in the Northern Pacific areas. Once huge tracts of green grass and rare, wild flowers, now they are being dominated by spreading trees and other thick and territorialy invasive plant species. The reason behind this is progressing global warming and rising temperature (more…)
Sea otter is a specie of a mammal that lives on the coasts of northern and eastern Pacific Ocean. They belong to the weasel family, and are able to live on the land, but most of the time, they spend their lives in water.
Scientists recently discovered that sea otters have a great abilities that can help our environment. Because they feed on sea urchins, it keeps the kelp population balanced. It helps reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere, especially if there is starting to be too much CO2, emitted by industrial areas, exhaust fumes and greenhouse gases. That means sea otters are able to prevent from global warming!
As it was confirmed by scientists, deforestation reduces the amount of rain and can be a cause of drought – as says the research ran by team from the University of Leeds and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
According to their observations, deforestation in a massive scale such as in Amazon region or Congo may reduce the amount of rain in such a degree, that it could lead to catastrophic consequences. Provided that the deforestation scale will be the same until 2050, there will be only one-fifth (21% to be exact) of rain during dry seasons. It may have harmful effect on places inhabited by humans, in areas that strongly depend on the rainfall. (more…)
Recently we spoke of fish adapting to changing climate, as well as coral reefs. Now about tropical species.
Those species, that used to live in warm, humid areas, like lizards or insects are ectotherms – animals that require heat from environment to prosper correctly. That makes them dependent of temperature, which means – changing temperature would cause harm to them.
Recently we spoke about climate changes affecting life in coral reefs. This time, however, scientists agreed that fish have abilities to adapt to changing conditions.
(more…)
According to recently published articles in scientific press, overall climate change caused coral reef to collapse during last few thousands of years. Because of naturally shifting climate zones, the growth of reef in the eastern Pacific ceased for around 2,500 years. But because of the increasing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, this climatic change gets faster, which causes reefs to decay faster than usual.
This is the result of research done using small aluminium pipes stuck into dead coral reef and then by examining the geological history of the reef.
Now the reefs at coasts of Panama are slowly disappearing. Eologists say, that climate changing often destroys reefs, but since industrial waste got into atmosphere and the ocean, this collapse will come faster and will be more devastative, without natural balance.
Remember that coral reefs are home of many different species of underwater life.
Even though they are being damaged, ecologists stay optimistic. “Coral reefs used to prove that they are resilient and can endure many different environmental ups and downs“, they say.
Found on http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120705181241.htm
Anyone volunteer to help saving the reef? 😉
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