Tags: climate change

Earth system scientists have identified another culprit (other than rain) that causes a river to overflow its banks: leafy plants. In a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the UCI researchers describe the emerging role of ecophysiology in riparian flooding. As an adaptation to an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, trees, plants and grasses constrict their stomatal pores to regulate the amount of the gas they consume,…

When Hurricane Dorian roared up the East Coast during the first week of September, the places where people live and work in several states were under threat. The first line of protection against storm damage was made up of coastal vegetated ecosystems, including nearly 300,000 acres of salt marshes in Georgia. The salt marsh, seagrass, and mangrove ecosystems that bore the brunt of pounding waves are not, however, immune from damage.…

For plant biology major and Goldwater Scholar Sarah Saddoris, research has played a primary role in defining her goal to improve the production of the global food supply: As my primary focus, research has played a defining role in my studies. I have spent my fair share of Friday nights in the lab finishing experiments at 2 in the morning and many game days in Davison Life Sciences (benchwork waits for no man!). I have also had the opportunity to…

In the world of climate change studies, there are extensive global and regional models but fewer site-specific models. Lindsey Cochran, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology, is working with digital data from the Georgia coast to recreate models that simulate site-specific changes from now until 2100. “Archaeologists care a lot more about the context in which an artifact was found than the…

Franklin faculty continue to lead by sharing their expertise on many international issues of the day. A recent sampling: Greenland’s in the middle of a record melting event - Distinguished Research Professor and Franklin College associate dean Thomas Mote quoted in a widely circulated article, Science Alert Academics, sports or both? A personal reflection from an atmospheric scientist - Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of…

The American Geophysical Union has awarded its 2019 Climate Communications Prize to Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography at the University of Georgia. The award for recognition of the communications of climate science is among the class of 2019 Union honorees announced August 22. An international nonprofit scientific association with 60,000 members in 137 countries, The…

Though causes of the civilizational collapse that took place in the Maya lowlands of southeastern Mexico and Central America during the Terminal Classic Period (1200 – 900 before present) remain uncertain, changing precipitation patterns have long been suspected. Now, a new study from the University of Georgia and the Florida Museum of Natural History establishes fossilized white-tailed deer teeth as part of the climate record, a reliable proxy…

Even during the quiet days of June, Franklin College faculty expertise never sleeps! Here are a few of the many articles written by or featuring the work of faculty members from across the college over the past month:   Meteorologists fear 5G network could take forecasting back to the 1980s, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography Marshall Shepherd speaking on CBS This Morning Researchers use…

As scientists improve their understanding of the impacts of microorganisms on the broad systems and that keep global biological cycles in balance, responses to a changing climate by microbes on land and sea across the Earth have become key indicators. Now, more than 30 microbiologists from 9 countries have issued a warning to humanity – they are calling for the world to stop ignoring an ‘unseen majority’ in Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystem…

Mirror-like optical illusion in the deep Pacific Ocean and the world's first ever gene-edited lizards lead the many media mentions of research and scholarship by Franklin faculty during April. A sample: Why our youth should be celebrated not mocked – a climate case study, writes Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor Marshall Forbes in his regular column at Forbes   Church in the Maelstrom: A historian’s reflection on the violence…