Climate change is making the Antarctic blue—and that might be good news for the rest of the planet. Seafloor communities are flourishing beneath newly ice-free Antarctic seas, and as they grow, they are turning into carbon sinks, gobbling up carbon that might otherwise end up in the atmosphere. Read more at NOVA Next/

Controlled Fires Could Actually Save Forests and Fight Climate Change

at Nova Next, by Conor Gearin

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/earth/controlled-fires-could-actually-save-forests-and-fight-climate-change/

High profile climate leaders and Mayor Curtatone join forces with Fossil Free MIT to call for a climate action plan at the university. In an open letter on September 16, 33 of these leaders called MIT President Reif to heed the proposals made on campus in order to combat the broader political stagnation on climate change. Read more at the Somerville Times.

Even as climate change causes sea levels to rise, inundating coastlines, new research suggests it will also cause a periodic drop in sea levels in the tropical southwestern Pacific. Full Article »

The primary act of social media—whether Twitter, tumblr, or Instagram—is virtual curation. Around the turn of the 20th century, though, the curation fad was literal: people roamed fields and forests to collect plant specimens and preserve them in plant libraries called herbaria. Now those old specimens are helping scientists reconstruct how trees have responded to shifts in the climate.

Scientists have recently gleaned data from New England herbarium specimens on historical timing of leaf-out—the time in spring when leaves unfurl, an important biological indicator of climate change. A team from Boston University used 1,599 plant specimens from 27 different tree species, dating from 1875 to 2008, to determine past leaf-out dates in New England. By combining herbarium specimen data with weather station data from the same time period, they found that trees leafed out 2.7 days earlier for each degree Celsius increase in April temperature. Full Article »

Between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago, water carved valleys into the Red Planet’s surface. But as planetary scientists try to understand the ancient Martian climate that caused this erosion, the answers from different scientific approaches don’t add up. Read the full story on NOVA Next.

This month, a team of scientists announced that they had identified and combined key genetic mutations to significantly increase fruit production in tomato plants. These new mutations arose from a breeding technique called induced mutation, where seeds are sprayed with DNA-altering chemicals. It’s a research endeavor so risky that some describe it as “spray and pray”–but this time, it appears to have paid off. Tomatoes, the researchers say, are only the beginning: this increased fruit production could someday be translated into other crops, and might help produce more food for a growing world. Read more at NOVA Next.

Miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in cold, pressure, and complete darkness, Earth rips and folds along its seams. Seawater meets molten rock, and shoots upward as a superheated, chemical-laden soup. These are hydrothermal vents, the planet’s underwater volcanoes. Their bizarre world, full of strange creatures and extreme conditions, might seem like the last place to discover broadly applicable scientific breakthroughs. But the smallest organisms from this world, and the unexplored oceans at large, might hold profound insight for our own. Researchers have revealed that one hydrothermal vent microbe contains genetic material seen all over the world, and could help humans fight disease. Full Article »

Can an airport ever be good for the environment? Dayton International is trying. With a new rewilding initiative, they’re bringing back native prairies, reducing carbon emissions, and cutting down on dangerous bird strikes all at the same time. If you’d like to learn more, you can read my article over at NOVA Next.