Tags: Earth


Greenland ice melting and arctic amplification

Clear skies and warmer weather in northern Greenland from this high-pressure system resulted in record setting surface temperature and meltwater runoff in the northwest. With less summer snow falling and melting underway, northern Greenland's reflectivity also decreased and the water absorbed more heat from the sun, further increasing melting.  It is unclear whether this set of circumstances will continue to hold true this summer, or in…

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Climate Feedback

Not the feedback loop, but fact-checking media reports. In perhaps the next iteration of evaluating climate news and data, how trustworthy is the science you read about? A new group will track the accuracy of climate news to evaluate what's out there: Last week, Climate Feedback announced the Scientific Trust Tracker, a feature that will track news outlets’ accuracy on climate change, one scientist-reviewed story at a time. Right now,…

flowering plant close-up
How plants respond to climate change

Jill Anderson, an assistant professor of genetics, has received a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Program to study the effects of climate change on plants. Among the NSF's most prestigious, CAREER awards support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar and the integration of education and research: Anderson's project tests whether plants will be able to survive on a warming…

oil sheen on water from the air
UGA team travels to Gulf of Mexico to investigate May 12 oil spill

Marine scientist Samantha Joye organized a rapid response research cruise to assess the impact of a crude oil spill approximately 90 miles south of Timbalier Island, Louisiana: The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the spill reportedly discharged from a Shell subsea wellhead flow line on May 12. "Our goal for this response mission is to document the distribution of oil in the water column, to characterize the hydrocarbons and to assess the fate of…

micro-organisms on black
Understanding the microbiomes

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted a May 13 event on microbiomes—communities of microorganisms that live on and in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere—featuring presentations from four scientists including UGA's Samantha Joye: Microbiomes maintain the healthy function of ecosystems, influencing diverse features of the planet from human health to climate change and food security. During the event, the…

four people in a lab, with model
Dawn Of the DAWGSat program

The time when UGA did not have a space program is soon to be ending, thanks to some truly ambitious and imaginative undergraduate students and an interdisciplinary faculty team: A University of Georgia project led by a team of undergraduate students and including faculty from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering was recently selected for funding by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. The UGA proposal, "CubeSat…

man, with students and fire demo
Discover UGA: Helping Communities

Flashes and Bangs Service-learning course designed to reach and teach budding young scientists is just one of the Discover UGA features this month on the theme of Helping Communities: The course is designed to combine and develop different skills of the students. “When we started the shows, as part of the grant, Nick Barker, who is an outreach professional, was the lead presenter who explained the science and concepts, while my research…

glacier melting, with people
Tracking the Greenland meltwater

Very interesting work in the context of a significant increase in the melting of glacial land ice on the island of Greenland due to atmospheric warming: a team of researchers led by faculty at the University of Georgia has discovered the fate of much of the freshwater that pours into the surrounding oceans as the Greenland ice sheet melts every summer. They published their findings today in the journal Nature Geoscience. "Understanding…

people on board a research vessel
Scientists discover new reef system at mouth of Amazon River

Marine sciences professor Patricia Yager is part of an incredible story of the unlikely discovery of a reef system near the mouth of the Amazon River: A new reef system has been found at the mouth of the Amazon River, the largest river by discharge of water in the world. As large rivers empty into the world's oceans in areas known as plumes, they typically create gaps in the reef distribution along the tropical shelves—something that makes…

graphic with UGA arch
Watershed UGA

Urban watersheds represent one of the most complex and intractable environmental quandaries: overlapping jurisdictions, streets, property boundaries and buildings make it all but impossible to reclaim any relationship to a naturally existing water collection basin. Watersheds are drainage points for surface water to reach a river or other outlet and they are essential for the health of both land and water. The heart of the UGA campus sits in the…

sea, with sun, waves
Combined Symphony Orchestra and Choirs concert

Setting Whitman to music was something of an English tradition from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and Williams was a notable participant. While [perhaps] not technically an Earth Week event, we have made it so. Our student orchestra and choirs are second-to-none, led by the best faculty that attract amazing musicians to campus to study and perform. Williams' great 'Sea Symphony' places our finest large ensembles in the vanguard of…

U.S. map with coastal counties highlighted
Study predicts impacts of sea level rise

Assessing the risk from rising seas using year 2100 population forecasts for all 319 coastal counties in the continental U.S., a new UGA study predicts that more than 13 million American homes will be threatened by rising sea levels by the end of the century: The study is based on analyses by Mathew Hauer for his doctoral work with the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; Deepak Mishra of the UGA department of geography; and Jason…

earth illustration
Attributing extreme weather events to climate change

Can extreme weather events - hurricanes, droughts - be linked to climate change? A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine establishes for the first time that science can now estimate the influence of climate change on these extreme events: The findings, presented to White House and congressional leaders on March 10 by committee members who conducted the study and wrote the report, describes how the…

carbon ocean cycle diagram
Deciphering Ocean Carbon

The complex unpacking of how micro-organisms work - and work together - in the world's oceans continues apace, as this new perspective article by marine sciences faculty members attests: In the past, studying the connections between ocean-borne compounds and microbes has been impractical because of the sheer complexity of each. Three University of Georgia faculty members-along with an international team of scientists-bring to the forefront…

man with Earth orbiting graphic
Leaplings

Faculty members Marshall Shepherd, Danny Krashen and Kevin Moore, along with a few UGA students, explain why today is Leap Day:  

portrait of two men
CSP at Thirty

The 29th annual Center for Simulational Physics Workshop at UGA will take place the week of Feb. 22. Hosted by the UGA Center for Simulational Physics, it will be held in Room 322 of the physics building. The meeting is open to the UGA community, but registration is required. For more information, including the complete schedule of invited speakers, visit csp.uga.edu. We'll have a longer piece up at the UGA.EDU this week to commemorate…

building under construction, day
The Science Learning Center

Students studying the physical and biological sciences will usher in a new era this fall with the opening of the Science Learning Center on South campus: The Science Learning Center, a three-story, 122,500-square-foot building tailor-made for undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics instruction, opens for classes in August. The SLC will offer a new setting for effective teacher-to-student interaction and student-to-student…

model form with t shirt
Natalie Chanin, Georgia Sewn Expo

Continuing this weekend, Athens Fashion Collective and the Willson Center's Global Georgia Initiative present sustainable fashion events featuring Natalie Chanin, founder and designer of Alabama Chanin, and Georgia Sewn, a one-day expo of the regional fashion design industry: Chanin is an internationally recognized leader in the sustainable fashion movement. Based in Florence, Alabama, her company, Alabama Chanin, produces garments and other…

headshot with ACS logo
Harrop selected as ACS Emerging Investigator

The American Chemical Society, in its Select Virtual Issue, featured the research of 17 emerging investigators in the field of bioinorganic chemistry, including UGA associate professor of chemistry Todd Harrop. The feature highlighted the group of early career researchers who have received their Ph.D. since 2004. Born and raised in San Francisco, CA Harrop was a chemistry/biology split major at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, CA where he did…

earth, sun model
Leap Year, explained

Professor Marshall Shepherd uses his Forbes column to embark on a perfectly understandable explanation of why we have seasons, the actual length of Earth's trips around the sun, et voilà, the need for a Leap Year: Throughout the year, different parts of the Earth receive the Sun’s rays more directly. In Boreal Winter, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun. At the same time, Austral Summer is happening because the Southern…

man with instruments, inside
Molecular fingerprints track oil and dispersants

Oil-degrading marine microorganisms in the Gulf of Mexico are the focus of a broad array of research at UGA, and a new study documents biodegradation in deep seawater using ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry: The challenging task of quantifying the chemical composition of oil and weathered oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has been the focus of past studies and continues with ongoing investigations. The researchers in this…

woman with people on boat, day
Joye: Standing Firm

UGA marine scientist continues to influence policy as a scientist, teaching and inspiring as she brings relentless energy to complex problems in our marine ecosystems: Today, on World Oceans Day, Joye has invited the press to tour the research vessels, Endeavor and Point Sur, that she and other scientists and students use to reveal what's happening under the deep blue waters. Journalists and photographers, as well as two documentary film…

oysters in hand
Marine Extension to launch hatchery

Oysters in Georgia (Geoysters?) have a healthy past and now their future is also looking strong, thanks to the efforts of UGA Marine Extension: Marine Extension has opened the state's first oyster hatchery, which is expected to revive the once-thriving oyster industry in Georgia. The hatchery will help establish an oyster aquaculture industry in Georgia, allowing harvesters to farm single oysters that can be sold on the half-shell, a lucrative…

woman with marsh
Understanding the global ocean microbiome

The community of microorganisms in the world's oceans turn out to be the most important control mechanisms of how the Earth functions. Understanding their function and behavior will leverage our grasp on how the Earth will adjust to broad environmental changes, says Mary Ann Moran in a review article in the journal Science: The ocean microbiome covers the majority of the Earth's surface, extending an average of more than 2 miles deep to the sea…

woman outside day
Class of 2015: Carmen Kraus

In just over seven days, double major Carmen Kraus (B.S. in Ecology, B.F.A. in Scienitific Illustration) will join the distinguished ranks of UGA graduates. What brought her to that unique combination of credentials? Attending the Ecological Society of America annual meeting convinced me once and for all that I had chosen the correct career path. I went to as many lectures as I could, focusing mainly on bioremediation but also hearing some…
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