climate change

FSU researchers: Multifactor models reveal worse picture of climate change impact on marine life

Published: September 30, 2019 | 11:26 am | Posted in: Education & Society, Science & Technology

Rising ocean temperatures have long been linked to negative impacts for marine life, but a Florida State University team has found that the long-term outlook for many marine species is much more complex — and possibly bleaker — than scientists previously believed. FSU doctoral student Jennifer McHenry, Assistant Professor of Geography Sarah Lester and collaborators […]

Ice sheets underpin core elements of the Earth’s carbon cycle

Published: August 16, 2019 | 9:44 am | Posted in: Science & Technology

Scientists once believed that the ice sheets covering about 10 percent of Earth’s land surface were frozen wastelands, devoid of life and with supressed chemical weathering — irrelevant parts of the Earth’s carbon cycle. Now, a world-leading international team including researchers from Florida State University and the University of Bristol have pulled together a wealth […]

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 […]