Porewater salinity reveals past lake-level changes in Lake Van, the Earth’s largest soda lake

by Yama Tomonaga et al., March 22, 2017, Nature


In closed-basin lakes, sediment porewater salinity can potentially be used as a conservative tracer to reconstruct past fluctuations in lake level. However, until now, porewater salinity profiles did not allow quantitative estimates of past lake-level changes because, in contrast to the oceans, significant salinity changes (e.g., local concentration minima and maxima) had never been observed in lacustrine sediments. Here we show that the salinity measured in the sediment pore water of Lake Van (Turkey) allows straightforward reconstruction of two major transgressions and a major regression that occurred during the last 250 ka.

Are methane seeps in the Arctic slowing global warming?

by Randall Hayman, May 8, 2017, in Science


Good news about climate change is especially rare in the Arctic. But now comes news that increases in one greenhouse gas—methane—lead to the dramatic decline of another. Research off the coast of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago suggests that where methane gas bubbles up from seafloor seeps, surface waters directly above absorb twice as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as surrounding waters. The findings suggest that methane seeps in isolated spots in the Arctic could lessen the impact of climate change.

A paleo-perspective on ocean heat content: Lessons from the Holocene and Common Era

by Yair Rosenthal et al., January 1, 2017


 

Here we review proxy records of intermediate water temperatures from sediment cores in the equatorial Pacific and northeastern Atlantic Oceans, spanning 10,000 years beyond the instrumental record.

These records suggests that intermediate waters were 1.5–2 °C warmer during the Holocene Thermal Maximum than in the last century.

Intermediate water masses cooled by 0.9 °C from the Medieval Climate Anomaly to the Little Ice Age.

 

Is Murry Salby Right?

by Red Istvan, May 13,2017


The core of Salby’s theory is derived using CO2 data from MLO’s Keeling Curve since 1958, and satellite temperature data since 1979. (His few charts reaching back to 1880 contain acknowledged large uncertainties.) His theory builds off a simple observation, that in ‘official’ estimates of Earth’s carbon cycle budget, anthropogenic CO2 is only a small source compared to large natural sources and sinks.

Shelf sediments reveal climate shifts through the eons

by University of Queensland, May 10, 2017, in DailyScience


Ms Korpanty said global climate underwent significant change about 14 million years ago when the Antarctic ice sheet expanded.

“The new study presents shallow-marine sediment records from the Australian continental shelf, providing the first empirical evidence linking high-altitude cooling around Antarctica to climate change in the subtropics during the Miocene era,” she said.

Earth’s forests just grew 9% in a new satellite survey

by J.F. Bastin et al., May 11, 2017 in ScienceDaily

in Science May 11, 2017

The Age of Exploration may be long past, but even in the 21st century, our maps can still get a major update. Using satellite imagery, a new study has found hidden forests all over the world—almost enough for a second Amazon—in areas with little moisture known as drylands.

 


A new estimate of dryland forests suggests that the global forest cover is at least 9 percent higher than previously thought. The finding will help reduce uncertainties surrounding terrestrial carbon sink estimates.

See also L‘équipe d’un chercheur belge découvre 467 millions d’hectares de forêt passés sous les radars

Dr. Fred Singer on ‘Global Warming Surprises’

by Fred Singer, May 11, 2017


Temp data in dispute can reverse conclusions about human influence on climate.

Exploring some of the intricacies of GW [Global Warming] science can lead to surprising results that have major consequences. In a recent invited talk at the Heartland Institute’s ICCC-12 [Twelfth International Conference on Climate Change], I investigated three important topics:

1. Inconsistencies in the surface temperature record.

2. Their explanation as artifacts arising from the misuse of data.

3. Thereby explaining the failure of IPCC to find credible evidence for anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

S. Fred Singer is professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and a founding director of the Science & Environmental Policy Project; in 2014, after 25 years, he stepped down as president of SEPP.  His specialty is atmospheric and space physics…

Video: analysis of NASA data shows modern temperature trends are not unusual

by Michael Thomas c/o Anthony Watts, May 10, 2017


An important aspect of the climate change debate can be summed up like this: “One position holds that medieval warm temperatures reached levels similar to the late twentieth century and maintained that the LIA was very cold, while another position holds that past variability was less than present extremes and that the temperature rise of recent decades is unmatched”. This video challenges whether the rise of recent decades is unmatched.

Quelles perspectives pour la politique pétrolière américaine ?

by Olivier Appert, Président du Conseil Français de l’Energie

in Connaissance des Energies, 10 mai 2017


Depuis la découverte du colonel Drake en 1859, le pétrole a joué de façon continue un rôle majeur dans la politique économique américaine et sur le plan international, il a été un outil clé du leadership américain. Au fil du temps, cette politique a dû composer avec une modification des rapports de force sur le marché pétrolier. La révolution récente des hydrocarbures non conventionnels a été un game changer majeur. Au fond, la politique pétrolière du nouveau président américain n’est qu’un retour aux sources.

Recent pause in the growth rate of atmospheric CO2 due to enhanced terrestrial carbon uptake

by Keenan et al., November 8, 2016, Nature


Terrestrial ecosystems play a significant role in the global carbon cycle and offset a large fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The terrestrial carbon sink is increasing, yet the mechanisms responsible for its enhancement, and implications for the growth rate of atmospheric CO2, remain unclear.

 

web- Comments

Jim McIntosh , David Mulberry and 2 others posted in Air-Climate-Energy  (Jim McIntosh 9 May at 11:18):   Reposting because those AGW alarmists hate this report. Yes, plants are doing it better than any carbon tax and they do it for free… as long as we don’t cut them down. You’d think we’d learn by now that managing climate comes back to how we have mismanaged the planet’s forests.

 

Methane-munching microbes living in the deep biosphere for 400 million years: An analogue for extra-terrestrial life

by Linnaeus University, May 9, 2017 in ScienceDaily


It is becoming more and more appreciated that a major part of the biologic activity is not going on at the ground surface, but is hidden underneath the soil down to depths of several kilometres in an environment coined the “deep biosphere”. Studies of life-forms in this energy-poor system have implications for the origin of life on our planet and for how life may have evolved on other planets, where hostile conditions may have inhibited colonization of the surface environment. The knowledge about ancient life in this environment deep under our feet is extremely scarce.

Oldest evidence of life on land found in 3.48 billion-year-old Australian rocks

by UNSW Sydney, May 9, 2017 in ScienceDaily


Fossils discovered by UNSW scientists in 3.48 billion year old hot spring deposits in the Pilbara region of Western Australia have pushed back by 580 million years the earliest known existence of microbial life on land.

he Pilbara deposits are the same age as much of the crust of Mars, which makes hot spring deposits on the red planet an exciting target for our quest to find fossilised life there.”

Snow covers Moscow ahead of V-Day parade, on track to break 1922 precipitation record (PHOTOS)

Winter, apparently, does not want to step back and let spring in as May snow has once again covered the Russian capital ahead of the annual V-Day parade. Meteorologists say May 2017 is on track to break the precipitation record from 1922.

“Storms of such power in Moscow take place once in 30-35 years,” Evgency Tishkovets from the Fobos weather monitoring centre told local Govorit Moskva radio, adding that it is possible that this May can break an absolute record from 1922.

La géologie, une science plus que passionnante … et diverse