A small group of ecologists is looking beyond the pristine to study the scrubby, feral and untended. Emma Marris learns to appreciate 'novel ecosystems'.
Ice cores extracted from the Antarctic ice sheet suggest that glacial conditions and the relationship between temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have been constant over the last 800,000 years, but there is some evidence for a fluctuating severity of glacial periods mediated by previously unidentified mechanisms.
The presence of ice-rafted debris (IRD) in middle Eocene ocean sediments has previously been demonstrated, but it has been unclear whether the source of IRD was land-based glacial ice or sea ice, a distinction with important climate implications.
At times in the past, mobile ocean fronts in the subtropics have exercised an influence on the magnitude of climate change by decoupling temperature from levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Galactic cosmic rays could influence Earth's cloudiness by creating aerosol particles that prompt cloud formation. That possible effect looks to be smaller than thought, but the story won't end there.
At their annual summit last week, leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations pledged to try to keep the planet from warming by more than 2
The modern Arctic Ocean is regarded as a barometer of global change and amplifier of global warming and therefore records of past Arctic change are critical for palaeoclimate reconstruction.
The testing of substances for adverse effects on humans and the environment needs a radical overhaul if we are to meet the challenges of ensuring health and safety.
