Earth

  1. Humans

    Harappans may have lived, died by monsoon

    Waning of seasonal rains over millennia gave rise to a civilization and then doomed it, a new study suggests.

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  2. Climate

    Rising CO2 promotes weedy rice

    There has been a lot of research, recently, showing how global change — especially warming — can alter the habitat and preferred range of marine and terrestrial species. But rising levels of greenhouse gases can also, directly, do a number on agricultural ecosystems, a new study shows. At least for U.S.-grown rice, rising carbon dioxide levels give a preferential reproductive advantage to the weedy natural form — known colloquially as red rice (for the color of its seed coat).

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  3. Life

    Delay of bloom blamed on climate change

    Flowers that appear immune to global warming in spring may simply be taking a cue from the previous warmer autumn.

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  4. Earth

    Pumping groundwater raises sea level

    Two new studies flag an underreported factor in global ocean change.

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  5. Life

    Climate change miscues may shrink species’ outer limits

    Ecological partnerships are getting out of sync especially at high latitudes, a study of hummingbirds suggests.

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  6. Humans

    Redefining ‘concern’ over lead

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced May 16 that it would no longer designate any particular blood-lead value in children as representing a “level of concern.” Its justification: There is no threshold below which lead exposures are not a concern.

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  7. Earth

    Natural sinks still sopping up carbon

    Ecosystems haven’t yet maxed out their ability to absorb fossil fuel emissions, new calculations suggest.

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  8. Life

    Climate change may leave many mammals homeless

    In some places over the next century, projected warming threatens the survival of more than one in three species.

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  9. Earth

    Big Antarctic ice sheet appears doomed

    Warming climate is expected to trigger the sudden retreat of a partially floating glacier on the continent’s western side by 2100.

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  10. Oceans

    Director’s exploration of the abyss goes deeper than Hollywood glitz

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  11. Earth

    Study keeps pace with Greenland glaciers

    Herky-jerky motion of the island’s ice suggests that melting ice is unlikely to contribute to dramatic sea level rise this century, but the news isn’t all good.

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  12. Earth

    Oceans’ salinity changed over last half-century

    Warmer atmosphere may be to blame for changes in the water cycle.

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