PLANET IN PERIL

Common Dreams Daunting new report shows coastal communities are at-risk and unprepared for flooding caused by climate change. Story here. RELATED: "Angry Oceans - Pt. #1" and "Pt. #2."

Nature Human activity has been a major source of mercury pollution in  the Arctic, and a new  study   has identified the form most often  taken by the pollutant: gaseous elemental  mercury  (GEM). The  present  News & Views  article discusses how the Arctic tundra  acts as a major sink for mercury, as the local plants uptake GEM  from  the atmosphere; and  what this means for the global mercury  cycle as  global temperatures warm. Isotopic data  collected in the  original study  by Obrist  et al.  reveal that GEM accounts for 90% of  the  mercury in plants,  and the uptake of GEM by plants is  especially  high in the summer. Since  plant matter decomposes  into the soil,  the Arctic soil may soon become  a substantial  mercury sink. ======== Editor's summary Anthropogenic activities have led to large-scale mercury pollution in the Arctic, but it remains uncertain whether wet deposition of oxidized mercury via precipitation and sea-salt-induced ch

theguardian Satellite data confirms ‘calving’ of trillion-tonne, 5,800 sq km iceberg from the Larsen C ice shelf, dramatically altering the landscape. Story here. The Larsen ice shelf as it was in 2004. NASA photo.

Royal Society Open Science  We're only beginning to find out all the ways in which industrial activity disrupts the ecosystem, and a new bird study gives yet another example of the unexpected ways in which human activity affects the local fauna. Researchers at the University of Manitoba have found that the presence of oil and natural gas infrastructure—such as fences, power lines, and transmitters around oil wells—in Canada's Northern Great Plains helped boost the number of brown-headed cowbirds by four times. Cowbirds are a parasitic species who lay their eggs in other birds' nests, forcing others to raise their brood. The parasitic species uses oil and gas infrastructures as perches, and the availability of perches makes it easier for these birds to find their brood hosts.  Savannah sparrow. Photo by  D. Gordon E. Robertson Cowbirds' abundance in the area could hurt another grassland bird species, the Savannah sparrow, which often falls victim to the parasitic

New Scientist Greenland.  Túrelio Earthquakes in Greenland are rare. At least, they’re supposed to be. But a few weeks ago, a 4.1 “quake” struck a tiny island off Greenland’s west coast, triggering a massive tsunami that smashed homes, leaving at least four people dead. But what residents – and seismic equipment – initially labelled a quake may be nothing of the sort. Story here.

Nature Much research has been dedicated to studying the effects of climate   change and global warming on the Antarctic ice sheet and sea levels; but  t he same can't be said about the ice-free parts of the region, which cover  l ess than 1% of the continent.  Australian researchers modelled the potential effect of climate change   under two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate-forcing   scenarios. Their findings suggest that under the more radical of the two   scenarios, the ice-free areas in the Antarctic can expand by as much as   25% by the end of the 21st century.  Such a drastic increase in surface area   can bring about a homogenization of the biome, the extinction of less- competitive species and the spread of invasive species. Though the   expansion of habitat space can be viewed as a positive outcome,  r esearchers say that sticking to the protocol that aims to reduce global   temperature increases will help maintain the current biodiversity