Dunes of the Sahara Desert. Image Credit: Flickr/Patrick Wuske
New research investigating the transition of the Sahara from a lush, green landscape 10,000 years ago to the arid conditions found today, suggests that humans may have played an active role...
During the day, the Chaoborus spp hide in the sediment where dissolved methane is transferred into their gas sacs. Using the buoyancy from the methane, they float to the lake surface at night to feed on zooplankton. At the...
A new research paper describes a period more than 2.4 billion years ago, when Earth's atmosphere was filled with a thick, methane-rich haze much like Saturn's moon Titan, seen here in an image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in...
Permian-Triassic boundary in shallow marine sediments, characterised by a significant sedimentation gap between the black shales of Permian and dolomites of Triassic age. This gap documents a globally-recognised regression phase, probably linked to a period of a cold climate...
In the new study, the researchers combined tree physiology, ecology, and evolution to construct a new model in which tree species and their niches coevolve in mutual dependence.Image Credit:Flickr/ChrisA1995
Forests, especially tropical forests, are home to thousands of species...
A map of a seamount in the Arctic Ocean created by gathering data with a multibeam echo sounder. Researchers have found that such topographic features can trap deep waters and produce turbulence.Image courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
Earth's interior and the location of super-deep diamonds.Credit: Fumiya Maeda
Researchers at Tohoku University believe that it is possible for natural diamonds to form at the base of Earth's mantle. The formation of such "super-deep" diamonds was simulated using high-pressure...
Image credit:Flickr/Cosimo
Research by the University of Southampton has found that methods used to predict the effect of species extinction on ecosystems could be producing inaccurate results. This is because current thinking assumes that when a species vanishes, its role...
A composite image of the Western hemisphere of the Earth. Credit: NASA
New research findings show that as the world warmed millions of years ago, conditions in the tropics may have made it so hot some organisms couldn't survive.
Longstanding theories...
We often think of the Amazon rainforest as a vast expanse of nature untouched by humans. But a new study in Science suggests that's not true -- in fact, today's rainforest is shaped by trees that were cultivated by...
In an analysis of 20 years of wildfire records led by researchers at UMass Amherst and the University of Colorado-Boulder, they found human-started fires accounted for 84 percent of all wildfires, exhibiting 'a remarkable influence' on modern US wildfire...
