Climate Number: 123 Petagrams of Carbon
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...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Pacific Tropical Cyclones and Chlorophyll
In Brief: Less chlorophyll in the North Pacific Gyre can influence Pacific tropical cyclone dynamics. Many factors influence how many tropical cyclones form in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans...
View ArticleClimate Number: Six parts per million
Earth’s carbon dioxide (CO2) levels rose from about 315 parts per million in 1960 to around 390 parts per million today. CO2 levels vary from place to place around the globe, with urban areas generally...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Volcanic Ash and Phytoplankton
In Brief: Volcanic dust stimulated a large phytoplankton bloom in August 2008. On August 7, 2008, the Aleutian Island volcano of Kasatochi erupted, spewing out volcanic ash rich in minerals such as...
View ArticleClimate Number: 0.55 petagrams
Plants use the sun’s energy to turn carbon dioxide in the air into the organic matter, or carbohydrates, that make up their bodies. Each year, Earth’s land plants take about 123 petagrams...
View ArticleClimate Number: Five Gigatonnes of Carbon per Year
Commonly known as the biological carbon “pump,” oceans take carbon from out of the atmosphere and deposit it down to the depths. This process is dominated by phytoplankton on the surface taking carbon...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Reflecting Snow Encourages Photosynthesis
In Brief: Sunlight reflecting off snow covered forest floors gives extra energy to boreal forest trees as they come out of their winter dormancy. Boreal (Northern Hemisphere) spring is here. Even in...
View ArticleClimate Number: 1670 Petagrams of Carbon
The northern circumpolar permafrost region – located mostly above 60 degrees North or the southern tip of Scandinavia – is an area where temperatures are so cold that the soil remains permanently...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Ocean Acidification
More acidic waters mean there are fewer carbonate molecules in the water available to the organisms that build their bodies out of calcium carbonate, such as coral, oysters and tiny plankton. All of...
View ArticleClimate Fact: Controls on Annual River Flow Trends
In Brief: Climate is the dominant force behind changes in river flow on a global scale, despite many other significant contributing factors that must be accounted for when making accurate estimates of...
View ArticleClimate Number: 195 Kelvin (-108.67 degrees Fahrenheit)
Commercial airline flights spend most the time in the lower reaches of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the atmosphere beginning at five to six miles up in the air. The air in the...
View ArticleClimate Trivia: Ocean Phytoplankton or Land Plants?
Plants take carbon out of the air and combine it with water to build their bodies, releasing oxygen as a bi-product, which sustains animals and humans. On land, plants like trees, grasses and shrubs,...
View ArticleClimate Trivia: Indian Subcontinent and Climate
Today, the Indian subcontinent is connected to Eurasia. Seventy million years ago, however, this was not the case. Between 70 and 40 million years ago, the configuration of Earth’s tectonic plates...
View ArticleClimate Number: 2,930,000,000,000 Pounds
Globally, wildfires affect an average of 1.4 million square miles of land each year. Fire has been an important factor in terrestrial ecosystem development and dynamics for at least 400 million years....
View ArticleClimate Number: 29 Teragrams
The rapid expansion of drought conditions over the contiguous United States during the past year led to the largest moderate to extreme drought coverage since the 1950s. While the epicenter of the...
View ArticleClimate Number: Two Pounds of Carbon per Year
Mangrove forests form some of the world’s richest ecosystems. Scientists who study how ecosystems interact with Earth’s climate want to know how much carbon dioxide (CO2) plants take out of the...
View ArticleClimate Number: 2,800 Petagrams of Carbon
About 760 petagrams (760 billion tons) of carbon dioxide are held in the atmosphere, which is about the same weight as 140,000 Great Pyramids of Giza. While this may sound like a large number, carbon...
View ArticleClimate Trivia: Decay and Rising Temperature
Living organic matter has its origins in the atmosphere: energy from the Sun enables plants and some microbes to build sugars out of water and atmospheric carbon dioxide. These sugars ultimately feed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Climate Fact: How Far Can Wildfire Smoke Travel? Implications for Air Quality...
Did you know that smoke from Canadian wildfires can travel over 4,000 miles to Europe? People in Houston, Texas breathe Alaskan wildfire pollutants that traveled over 3,000 miles. Not only has climate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Earth Science Week 2013: Mapping Our World
October 13-19, 2013 is Earth Science Week. This year’s theme is Mapping Our World – an exploration of how geoscientists, geographers and other professionals use maps to represent and study weather and...
View Article
