Sea surface temperatures along the northeastern U.S. were warmer in 2012 than during any year in the last 150 years, a new report finds. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest Ecosystem Advisory for the Northeast Shelf, sea surface temperatures across the region — which extends from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the Gulf of (more…)

First global study of the impacts of climate change on wine and conservation reveals loss of majority of current area suitable for grape growing by 2050 and expansion of vineyards into wildlife habitats.

Could your merlot be growing alongside the moose of Yellowstone National Park soon or in prime panda habitat in China? A new study by a team of (more…)

Climate change is causing plant and animal species across the U.S. to shift their geographic ranges and life events — from flowering to migration — are being transformed at a faster rate than observed even a few years ago, a new analysis by 60 scientists says.

According to the report, “Climate Change on (more…)

A new study finds that nearly one-quarter of the world’s population lives in regions where water is being used faster than it can be replenished. Using computer models of global groundwater resources and water use data, scientists from Canada and the Netherlands calculated that the planet’s “groundwater footprint” — the area above ground that relies on (more…)

The carbon cycle is a complex thing. There is carbon in the air (carbon dioxide), carbon in plants and animals, dissolved carbon in the sea and carbon in the soil that is constantly circulating to and from. Elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide may accelerate carbon cycling and soil carbon loss in forests, as found in new research led by an Indiana University (more…)

On June 20th the health and use of the world’s oceans takes center stage at Rio +20, the sustainable development conference in Rio de Janeiro. The garden of the city’s modern art museum (MAM) is where the Blue Pavilion has been erected in order to house a line-up of events that will unfold during the day. The program will kick off with a press conference about the film Planet (more…)

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed critical revisions to the nation’s Forest Code that environmental advocates said would lead to rampant deforestation of the Amazon.

Speaking to reporters, government officials said Rousseff had vetoed 12 of the 84 articles in (more…)

The planet’s seagrass meadows store more than twice as much carbon per square kilometer as forests, demonstrating that coastal vegetation can play an important role in mitigating climate change, a new study says.

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists calculated that coastal seagrass beds can (more…)

Studies designed to predict how plants and trees will react to rising temperatures have consistently underestimated those responses, with the actual flowering and leafing of plants advancing far more rapidly than most experiments forecast.

That is the conclusion of new research by Canadian (more…)

Duke University researchers have predicted that climate change in California will result in a declining percentage of rangeland. Such a change will have widespread impact on the state’s large cattle industry of California’s Central Valley. No matter if climate change will cause wetter or drier weather, available pasture will decline. Forage areas, known as one of (more…)