climate change

Innovative modeling strategies give researchers improved look at Florida’s climate future

Published: May 28, 2019 | 4:20 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

Experts agree that rising atmospheric temperatures and shifts in the global ocean make Florida’s future climate evolution uncertain and potentially precarious. But conventional, poorly resolved climate models have made it difficult to credibly project what may actually be in store for the Sunshine State. While nobody can predict the future with perfect accuracy, meteorology researchers […]

New study could improve understanding of how rare species benefit human beings

Published: May 17, 2019 | 10:22 am | Posted in: Science & Technology

Conservationists have long been committed to the preservation of rare plant and animal species — from California’s colossal sequoias to Atlantic bluefin tuna to China’s giant pandas — without having a rigorous system for determining these unique species’ tangible contributions to human well-being. A team of ecologists including Florida State University Assistant Professor Stephanie Pau […]

New FSU Climate Change Collaboration encourages interdisciplinary study

Published: May 9, 2019 | 4:15 pm | Posted in: University News

Four professors from Florida State University teamed up for a collaborative effort aimed at improving public understanding of the impact climate change is having on Florida. The effort is called the Florida Climate Change Collaboration and involved more than 100 students. They showcased their work last month at the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee’s Railroad Square […]

In ancient oceans that resembled our own, oxygen loss triggered mass extinction

Published: March 27, 2019 | 3:34 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

Seth Young (left) and Jeremy Owens (right), assistant professors in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science

Roughly 430 million years ago, during the Earth’s Silurian Period, global oceans were experiencing changes that would seem eerily familiar today. Melting polar ice sheets meant sea levels were steadily rising, and ocean oxygen was falling fast around the world. At around the same time, a global die-off known among scientists as the Ireviken extinction […]

For these critically endangered marine turtles, climate change could be a knockout blow

Published: December 17, 2018 | 11:22 am | Posted in: Science & Technology

Hawksbill turtles aren’t the only marine turtles threatened by the destabilizing effects of climate change, but a new study from researchers at Florida State University shows that this critically endangered species could be at particular risk. In a study published in the journal PLOS One, researchers from FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science […]

FSU researcher rooting out the errors in storm simulation models

Published: September 11, 2018 | 12:44 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

On the eve of every hurricane season, climatologists around the world offer their studied prognostications: Will we see high activity? Low activity? How will ocean temperature affect storm development? What are the chances of a powerful storm making landfall? Scientists have leveraged improved climate models to simulate tropical cyclone behavior with an ever-increasing degree of […]

In warming Arctic, major rivers show surprising changes in carbon chemistry

Published: August 28, 2018 | 2:31 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

In two major Arctic rivers, a changing climate and shifting human activities are provoking a surprising response. (Credit: Norman Kuring, NASA)

Over the past several decades, the Arctic has begun to show signs of significant ecological upheaval. The rate of warming in the Arctic is nearly twice the global average, and those changes are triggering a cascade of destabilizing environmental effects. Ice is melting, permafrost is thawing, and experts say fires in Arctic forests are as […]

Tropical treetops are warming, putting sensitive species at risk

Published: July 26, 2018 | 11:08 am | Posted in: Science & Technology

Perched in towers high above the treetops, Pau and her team had a panoramic view of the forest canopies.

The vaulted canopies that tower above Earth’s rich tropical forests could be especially vulnerable to climate change-related temperature increases, according to a new report from Florida State University researchers. In a study published in the journal Ecosphere, scientists found temperatures in the forest canopies of Panama’s Barro Colorado Island exceeded maximum air temperatures by as […]

Slimy chemical clues: Changing algae could alter ecosystems

Published: July 23, 2018 | 9:54 am | Posted in: Science & Technology

Coralline algae have a hard skeleton and are often pink, red, purple, yellow or gray-green.

Colorful, hardened algae that dot the ocean floor from Alaska to Mexico often set the tone for which plant and invertebrate species inhabit a given ecological community. But as rising temperatures change the chemistry of ocean waters, a Florida State University researcher said these almost rock-like organisms called coralline algae are changing too. That could […]

Volcanic activity, declining ocean oxygen triggered mass extinction of ancient marine organisms

Published: June 11, 2018 | 3:49 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

Postdoctoral Researcher Theodore Them (left, holding an extinct fossil sample) and Assistant Professor Jeremy Owens (right, holding a rock core sample). The researchers used the samples to study the global record of oxygenation. Credit: Stephen Bilenky

Global climate change, fueled by skyrocketing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, is siphoning oxygen from today’s oceans at an alarming pace — so fast that scientists aren’t entirely sure how the planet will respond. Their only hint? Look to the past. In a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy […]

Life recovered rapidly at impact site of dino-killing asteroid

Published: May 30, 2018 | 1:28 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

The three hair-covered forms (left) represent species of plankton found inside the crater. The geometric form (bottom left) is a species of algae. Small organisms like these moved into the crater so quickly that bones from animals that were killed by the impact, such as the mosasaur pictured here, may have still been visible. (Credit: Original art by John Maisano, University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences.)

About 66 million years ago, an asteroid smashed into the Earth triggering a mass extinction that ended the reign of the dinosaurs and snuffed out 75 percent of life. While the asteroid killed off scores of species, a new study from Florida State University scientists, in collaboration with lead researchers from The University of Texas […]

FSU researchers: Urban growth leads to shorter, more intense wet seasons in Florida peninsula

Published: April 9, 2018 | 2:31 pm | Posted in: Science & Technology

A summer storm gathers over Miami. Misra found that large urban areas are experiencing shorter, more intense wet seasons than rural or less developed areas.

New research from Florida State University scientists has found that urban areas throughout the Florida peninsula are experiencing shorter, increasingly intense wet seasons relative to underdeveloped or rural areas. The study, published in the Nature Partner Journal Climate and Atmospheric Science, provides new insight into the question of land development’s effect on seasonal climate processes. […]