atmospheric carbon dioxide

Plants and soils act like sponges for atmospheric carbon dioxide, but new research on the cover of this week's Nature finds that one abnormally warm year can suppress the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by some grassland ecosystems for up to two years.

The findings followed a four-year study of 12-ton containerized grassland plots at Nevada's Desert Research Institute.

Plots were extracted intact from the Oklahoma prairie and sealed inside four, living-room-sized environment chambers.

(The Earth Institute at Columbia University) An ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say researchers.

They say that less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions.

Last year alone global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global climate change, increased by 0.6 percent, or 19 billion tons.

Additionally methane rose by 27 million tons after nearly a decade with little or no increase. NOAA scientists released these and other preliminary findings Aprill 23 as part of an annual update to the agency's greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites around the world.

Increased carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is causing microscopic ocean plants to produce greater amounts of calcium carbonate (chalk) - with potentially wide ranging implications for predicting the cycling of carbon in the oceans and climate modelling.

The sands of the desert are an important and forgotten storehouse of carbon dioxide taken from the world's atmosphere.

Sands like those in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana are full of cyanobacteria. These drought resistant bacteria can fix atmospheric carbon dioxide, and together they add significant quantities of organic matter to the nutrient deficient sands.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at an alarming rate, and new research indicates that soybean plant defenses go down as carbon dioxide goes up.

Elevated carbon dioxide impairs a key component of the plant's defenses against leaf-eating insects, according to a new article.

Using data from an environmental satellite, scientists have for the first time detected regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide -- the most important greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming -- originating from manmade emissions.

Topics include: imaging of impact strata on Mars' Holden Crater; Eocene-Oligocene conditions leading to the freezing of Antarctica; evidence that liquid water is not responsible for recent changes observed in Martian gullies; new insights into Cretaceous early Albian greenhouse conditions and implications for future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels; new estimates of Earth's copper supply; discovery of large nitrate pools under the Mojave's desert pavement; frequency of magnitude 9 earthquakes; and the pre-Grand Canyon Colorado River.