Earth

MADISON - If a warmer Wisconsin climate causes some northern tree species to disappear in the future, it's easy to imagine that southern species will just expand their range northward as soon as the conditions suit them.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida and Florida Institute of Technology engineering researchers have narrowed the search for the source of X-rays emitted by lightning, a feat that could one day help predict where lightning will strike.

A type of wild rice that only grows in a small stretch of the San Marcos River is likely so rare because it plays the sexual reproduction game poorly, a study led by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin has revealed.

NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University are forecasting that the "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico this summer could be the largest on record.

More than 7,000 large commercial vessels follow a major North Pacific shipping lane through Unimak Pass in Alaska's Aleutian Islands annually. That number is expected to climb with increases in vessel traffic between Asia and North America. Over the years, there have been numerous accidents, including in 2004 when the Selendang Ayu ran aground in a severe storm and spilled more than 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. One of the largest spills in U.S. waters since the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989.

Palisades, N.Y., July 14, 2008—A group of scientists has used deep ocean-floor drilling and experiments to show that volcanic rocks off the West Coast and elsewhere might be used to securely imprison huge amounts of globe-warming carbon dioxide captured from power plants or other sources. In particular, they say that natural chemical reactions under 78,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of ocean floor off California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia could lock in as much as 150 years of U.S. CO2 production.

For the first time, researchers have taken a detailed look at what lies beneath all of Iceland's volcanoes – and found a world far more complex than they ever imagined.

They mapped an elaborate maze of magma chambers - work that could one day help scientists better understand how earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in Iceland and elsewhere in the world.

WASHINGTON -- A remotely piloted aircraft carrying a NASA sensor flew over much of California earlier this week, gathering information that will be used to help fight more than 300 wildfires burning within the state. Additional flights are planned for next week.

The St. Lawrence Seaway, a series of canals and channels managed by both the U.S. and Canada that give large ships traveling from the Atlantic Ocean access to the Great Lakes, has been an entry point for invasive species since it was first opened in 1959. A new report from the National Research Council, ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY: ISSUES AND OPTIONS, reviews ways to prevent ships from transporting invasive species into the Great Lakes, and makes recommendations on what the U.S. and Canada should do to deter future introductions of potentially harmful species.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The forests of the future may need to be managed as much for a sustainable supply of clean water as any other goal, researchers say in a new federal report – but even so, forest resources will offer no "quick fix" to the insatiable, often conflicting demands for this precious resource.

Fairbanks, Alaska—A 150-meter ice core pulled from the McCall Glacier in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this summer may offer researchers their first quantitative look at up to two centuries of climate change in the region.

This year, the world and, in particular, developing countries and the poor have been hit by both food and energy crises. As a consequence, prices for many staple foods have risen by up to 100%. When we examine the causes of the food crisis, a growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanization, dietary changes, biofuel production, and climate change and regional droughts are all responsible. Thus we have a classic increase in prices due to high demand and low supply.

As water demand increases in the United States, the nation's water managers are looking for ways to ensure reliable supplies of water. A new report from the National Research Council, HYDROLOGIC EFFECTS OF A CHANGING FOREST LANDSCAPE, explores how better management of forest resources could increase water supplies and quality and identifies future research needs.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A Brown University-led research team has for the first time discovered evidence of water that came from deep within the Moon, a revelation that strongly suggests water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence – and perhaps ever since it was created by a cataclysmic collision between the early Earth and a Mars-sized object about 4.5 billion years ago.

Washington, D.C. Using new techniques, scientists have discovered for the first time that tiny beads of volcanic glasses collected from two Apollo missions to the Moon contain water. The researchers found that, contrary to previous thought, water was not entirely vaporized in the violent events that formed the Moon. The new study suggests that the water came from the Moon's interior and was delivered to the surface via volcanic eruptions over 3 billion years ago.