padlet 2 by Jessica Pollock https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw jessica pollock en-us 2017-05-04 14:24:10 UTC 2025-10-25 22:31:24 UTC hello@padlet.com What's Behind the Arctic's Mysterious Green Ice 17pollockj https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169946625 It should be dark under the ice cover of the Arctic, and yet in 2011, scientists were perplexed when they discovered phytoplankton blooming beneath it, giving the ice a greenish hue. Now they know why: The ice has thinned enough to let light through to fuel a thriving bunch of little plants. A large bloom of phytoplankton, which is algae, was first found growing under the Arctic sea ice in 2011. Researchers said they were shocked at the discovery, because conditions under the ice should have been too dark for the plants to photosynthesize (making sugars from light, water and carbon dioxide) to survive. As global temperatures rise and the Arctic ice melts and thins, the normally reflective surface has become darker, the researchers said. Melt ponds ― dark pools of water on the ice's surface ― have also lessened the ice's reflectivity of sunlight. And so now, some of the sunlight passes through the ice.]]> 2017-05-04 14:26:09 UTC https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169946625 Gobi Desert Dust Helps Sustain California's Sierra Nevada 17pollockj https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169948917 Phosphorus, along with nitrogen and carbon, is crucial to the survival of life on Earth. It is generally supplied to plants as bedrock is broken down into soil over the slow machinations of geologic time. Researchers have long considered the granite formations of the Sierra Nevada to be limited in phosphorus. "In recent years it has been a bit of mystery how all these big trees have been sustained in this ecosystem without a lot of phosphorus in the bedrock," Emma Aronson, an assistant professor of plant pathology and microbiology at UC Riverside, said in a statement. "This work begins to unravel that mystery and show that dust may be shaping this iconic California ecosystem." A research team found that dust from Asia accounted for an average of 20 percent of the dust at the lowest elevation and 45 percent of the total amount at the highest elevation. The greater amount of Asian dust in the higher locations, the researchers said, is because dust travels high in the atmosphere and only falls to the ground when it comes into contact with an object such as a mountain.]]> 2017-05-04 14:32:01 UTC https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169948917 Clean Power Worldwide Has Doubled in 10 Years 17pollockj https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169949982 Renewable energy generation grew globally by 161 gigawatts in 2016, setting another record for capacity additions and pushing clean power capacity past 2,000 GW.
That’s roughly double the amount of renewable energy that was flowing across the world’s power grids a decade ago, and it reflects the unprecedented adoption of solar, wind, hydro and other emissions-free power by the world’s largest economies. China, Europe and the United States now account for 62 percent of the world’s total installed renewable capacity, with China and the United States supporting the largest clean power portfolios. Other leaders are Brazil, Germany, Canada and India.

]]> 2017-05-04 14:34:49 UTC https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169949982 Why Is the Ozone Hole Shrinking? 17pollockj https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169951484 In 1985, a trio of British researchers noticed a hole in the ozone layer, our protection against harmful UV rays, over the Antarctic. Almost ten years earlier in 1974, scientists had noted a link between possible damage to the ozone layer and the release of chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere. In the 1970s and 1980s, chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs were readily used in coolants for refrigeration systems and everyday propellants like hair sprays or other aerosols. CFCs are fairly stable molecules so, once released, they almost always make their way up into the stratosphere, the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that starts about 10-20 kilometers up. ]]> 2017-05-04 14:38:39 UTC https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169951484 Seagrasses Boost Ecosystem Health by Fighting Bad Bacteria 17pollockj https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169952060 Meadows of underwater seagrass plants might lower levels of harmful bacteria in nearby ocean waters. That could make the whole ecosystem — from corals to fish to humans — healthier. Not actually a grass, seagrasses are flowering plants with long,  leaves. They grow in shallow ocean water, spreading into vast underwater lawns. Seagrasses are “a marine powerhouse, almost equal to the rainforest. They’re one of the largest stores of carbon in the ocean,” says study coauthor Joleah Lamb, an ecologist at Cornell University.  “It’s no secret that seagrasses improve water quality,” says James Fourqurean, a biologist at Florida International University in Miami. The plants are great at removing excess nitrogen and phosphorus from coastal waters. But now, it seems, they might take away harmful bacteria, too.]]> 2017-05-04 14:40:13 UTC https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169952060 Ocean Plastic Emits Chemical that Tricks Seabirds into Eating Trash 17pollockj https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169953021 Plastic smells good for some seabirds. When the common  material ends up in the ocean, it gives off a chemical that Antarctic prions, petrels and shearwaters often use to locate food, which leads the birds to ingest harmful junk instead of a real meal. Researchers let small beads of three common plastics linger off the coast of California. After a couple of weeks, the once-clean plastic accumulated grit, grime and bacteria that gave off an odiferous gas called dimethyl sulfide. Phytoplankton give off the same gas, and certain seabirds use its odor as a cue that dinner is nearby. Birds that rely more heavily on dimethyl sulfide as a beacon for a nearby meal are more likely to ingest plastic than birds that don’t, the team found. And other plankton-feeding marine animals could also be fooled.]]> 2017-05-04 14:42:48 UTC https://padlet.com/17pollockj/ll27q75tvwpw/wish/169953021