NSF News -- Geosciences

Two-month Time-lapse Video of Antarctic Ice Goes Viral

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

Cassandra Brooks is a Stanford University doctoral student with the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources.

She spent two months in 2013 aboard the National Science Foundation-operated icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer as part of a research cruise investigating the role of dissolved organic carbon in the Ross Sea ecosystem.

She--and a video she produced on the voyage--became ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Scientists Discover Oldest Evidence of Split Between Old World Monkeys and Apes

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:17:00 EDT

Two fossil discoveries from the East African Rift reveal new information about the evolution of primates, according to a paper published this week in the journal Nature.

Findings by scientists at Ohio University's (OU) Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and colleagues document the oldest fossils of two major groups of primates: the group that today includes apes and humans (hominoids) and the group that includes Old World monkeys such as baboons and ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Human Disease Leptospirosis Identified in New Species, the Banded Mongoose, in Africa

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:00:00 EDT

The newest public health threat in Africa, scientists have found, is coming from a previously unknown source: the banded mongoose.

Leptospirosis, the disease is called. And the banded mongoose carries it.

Leptospirosis is the world's most common illness transmitted to humans by animals. It's a two-phase disease that begins with flu-like symptoms. If untreated, it can cause meningitis, liver damage, pulmonary hemorrhage, renal failure and death.

"The ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Where, When Will Thunderstorms Strike Colorado's Front Range, Adjacent Great Plains?

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:02:00 EDT

To better predict where and when spring thunderstorms rip across Colorado's Front Range and the adjacent Great Plains, researchers are launching a major field project this week with high-flying aircraft and fine-grained computer simulations.

The month-long study could point the way to major improvements in lead times for weather forecasts during what has been called a crucial six- to 24-hour window.

"People want to know whether there will be thunderstorms ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

National Science Foundation Statement By Acting Director Cora B. Marrett on the National Strategy for the Arctic Region

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:35:00 EDT

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is pleased to have participated in the development of the new National Strategy for the Arctic Region. The release of the Arctic Strategy is timely and builds upon existing governmental collaborations to identify and address ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Climate Record From Bottom of Russian Lake Shows Arctic Was Warmer Millions of Years Ago

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:53:00 EDT

The Arctic was very warm during a period roughly 3.5 to 2 million years ago--a time when research suggests that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was roughly comparable to today's--leading to the conclusion that relatively small fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels can have a major influence on Arctic climate, according to a new analysis of the longest terrestrial sediment core ever collected in the Arctic.

"One of our major findings is that the Arctic was very warm in the ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Life on a Coral Reef: Insult Is (Sometimes) Added to Injury

Wed, 08 May 2013 05:23:00 EDT

When is insult added to injury for a Caribbean coral reef?

When overfishing removes predatory fish that feed on sponges, according to results reported this week in the journal PLOS ONE.

Using the undersea habitat Aquarius--moored on Conch Reef off Key Largo, Florida--marine scientist Joseph Pawlik of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) and colleagues found that these predator-fish are the same brightly colored angelfish and parrotfish ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

NSF Chooses U.S. Students to Participate in Joint Science Education Program in Greenland

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:00:00 EDT

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected five high-school students from as many states nationwide to deploy to the Arctic this summer as part of a science-education and cultural-exchange program with their peers from Denmark and Greenland.

The students will participate in a three-week field experience in Greenland as part of the multinational Joint Science Education Project (JSEP). The U.S. students were selected in a competitive process that drew 375 ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

'Dark Oxidants' Form Away from Sunlight in Lake and Ocean Depths, Underground Soils

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:35:00 EDT

Breathing oxygen...can be hazardous to your health?

Indeed, our bodies aren't perfect. They make mistakes, among them producing toxic chemicals, called oxidants, in cells. We fight these oxidants naturally, and by eating foods rich in antioxidants such as blueberries and dark chocolate.

All forms of life that breathe oxygen--even ones that can't be seen with the naked eye, such as bacteria--must fight oxidants to live.

"If they don't," ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

What Happened to Dinosaurs' Predecessors After Earth's Largest Extinction 252 Million Years Ago?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:11:00 EDT

Predecessors to dinosaurs missed the race to fill habitats emptied when nine out of 10 species disappeared during Earth's largest mass extinction 252 million years ago.

Or did they?

That thinking was based on fossil records from sites in South Africa and southwest Russia.

It turns out, however, that scientists may have been looking in the wrong places.

Newly discovered fossils from 10 million years after the mass extinction ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Trail of Fire Leads to Less Snow, Threatened Water Resources

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:24:00 EDT

The following is part seven in a series on the National Science Foundation's Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) Network. Visit part one, part two, part three, ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Earth Day: Big Ecosystem Changes Viewed Through the Lens of Tiny Carnivorous Plants

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EDT

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.

---Kahlil Gibran

What do a pond or a lake and a carnivorous pitcher plant have in common?

The water-filled pool within a pitcher plant, it turns out, is a tiny ecosystem whose inner workings are similar to those of a full-scale water body.

Whether small carnivorous plant or huge lake, both are subject to the same ecological "tipping points," of concern on ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Sunlit Snow Triggers Atmospheric Cleaning, Ozone Depletion in the Arctic

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:16:00 EDT

National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Purdue University have discovered that sunlit snow is the major source of atmospheric bromine in the Arctic, the key to unique chemical reactions that purge pollutants and destroy ozone.

The new research also indicates that the surface snowpack above Arctic sea ice plays a previously unappreciated role in the bromine cycle and that loss of sea ice, which been occurring at an increasingly rapid pace in recent years, could have extremely ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

NSF Invites News Media to Apply for Opportunity to Report From Antarctica

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:58:00 EDT

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is accepting written proposals from media professionals to report on scientific research supported by NSF in Antarctica. In particular, NSF is interested in proposals from media whose work primarily is designed to reach children between the ages of 11 and 14.

NSF envisions selecting a broadcast, print or online journalist whose work has a national scope and whose reporting would help to make the nation's young people ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.

Where Does Charcoal, or Black Carbon, in Soils Go?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EDT

Scientists have uncovered one of nature's long-kept secrets--the true fate of charcoal in the world's soils.

The ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change.

However, until now, researchers only had scientific guesses about what happens to charcoal once it's incorporated into soil. They believed it stayed there.

Surprisingly, most of these ...

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This is an NSF News - Geosciences item.