Australian scientists have revealed the role that plants can play in saving the Earth from climate change disasters, due to their great ability to absorb more carbon dioxide resulting from human activities.
The journal Science Advances indicates that researchers have discovered that the approved climate model, which is used to predict the effects of global warming, predicts an increase in the uptake of carbon dioxide by plants by the end of the twenty-first century, if some features of the photosynthesis process are taken into account. Such as the efficiency of carbon dioxide moving within the leaf, and how plants adapt to changes in temperature and distribution of nutrients.
Carbon fixation through photosynthesis is a natural mechanism to mitigate climate change. It has been reported that carbon absorption has increased due to the rise in carbon dioxide concentration over the past decades. But it was not clear how plants would respond to carbon dioxide, temperature and precipitation levels that would be different from what we observe today. Scientists believe that extreme droughts and heat can severely weaken the absorption capacity of terrestrial ecosystems.
The researchers studied different climate models. It turned out that the simpler model ignored three important physiological mechanisms related to the photosynthesis process, while the more complex model took all three mechanisms into account. It turns out that it predicts a significant increase in carbon uptake by plants around the world. The three mechanisms reinforce each other, beyond the simple sum of the effects considered individually.
The researchers point out that planting trees alone will not solve all the problems associated with the high level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so its emissions resulting from human activity must be reduced.
After 30 years the largest iceberg in the world is moving!
The world's largest iceberg has begun to move, after 30 years of being "stuck" in place, according to experts.
The ice mass, called A23a, has an area of about 1,540 square miles and is 1,312 feet (399.9025 meters) thick.
Now, A23a is moving northward due to winds and ocean currents “rapidly,” after 30 years of resting on the ocean floor.
It is drifting across the Antarctic Peninsula, and should collapse under strong waters once it reaches the open ocean.
Good morning! We are on our way to visit A23A, at the moment the world's biggest iceberg.
Large objects like the A23a must be constantly tracked after they move, because they can pose a threat to ships, as well as wildlife.
Unlike many large icebergs that break off from Antarctica and float away, A23a has moved only a few hundred miles since breaking off from the Filchner Ice Shelf in August 1986.
Its stability is due to it being “anchored” (or stuck) to the seabed. However, the huge iceberg has now broken free.
Dr. Andrew Fleming, a remote sensing expert from the British Antarctic Survey, told the BBC that he detected the first signs of movement from A23a in 2020.
“We were wondering if there was any potential change in shelf water temperatures that triggered A23a, but the consensus is that the time has just come,” he said.
A23a is expected to reach the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a 13,000-mile-long ring of ocean water that flows around Antarctica.
It could be anchored near South Georgia, an island further north in the South Atlantic Ocean that is a hotspot for seals and seabirds.
If this happens, experts fear it could disrupt the creatures' feeding routine.
But if it melts, minerals released from the ice could provide nutrients to organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain.
Rising water and air temperatures caused by global warming are causing instability along the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland, accelerating the melting of ice.
What makes so many volcanoes active during the winter months?
Over the past few weeks, Earth has witnessed an increase in global volcanic activity, in Iceland, Italy, Mexico and others, raising questions about whether there is a “volcanic eruption season.”
According to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, which tracks eruptions around the world, 46 volcanoes were in a state of continuous eruption as of October 11, 2023. An eruption described as "continuous" does not always mean continuous daily activity, but rather refers to intermittent eruption events. Without interruption for 3 months or more.
There are usually between 40 and 50 ongoing eruptions, and of these, generally, about 20 volcanoes will be actively erupting on any given day.
The weekly volcanic activity report issued by the Global Volcanology Program for the week ending November 21, 2023 indicates that there are 22 “continuously” active volcanoes. So constant activity is completely normal.
What's more, every year since 1991, between 56 and 88 volcanoes have erupted on our planet. In the past 12,000 years, there have been about 1,350 active volcanoes.
Volcanic eruptions are not only natural, but they are responsible for shaping the Earth as we know it. “More than 80% of the Earth’s surface, above and below sea level, is of volcanic origin,” explains the USGS. “Gaseous emissions from volcanic vents over hundreds of millions of years formed Earth’s oldest oceans and atmosphere, which provided the vital ingredients for evolution.” And preserve life."
In modern times, we may notice more volcanic eruptions, but this does not mean that activity is increasing, according to the Global Volcanism Programme.
Many note that volcanoes around the world are 18% more likely to erupt during the northern winter months than at any other time of the year. This pattern is particularly strong for volcanoes along the Pacific Rim, where winter eruption rates in some places are up to 50% higher than average, said a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
According to scientists, because there is more land in the northern hemisphere, greater amounts of rain and snow are stored on the ground compared to the southern winter. This lowers global sea levels by about a centimeter during the boreal winter, and changes the shape of the Earth.
These seasonal changes are large enough to affect the planet's rotation ever so slightly, compress the rocks and, in a way, trigger a new round of excitation of the volcanoes' magma chambers.