Tropical Indian Ocean sea level historically much more sensitive to climate change than the Pacific and Atlantic

Tropical Indian Ocean sea level historically much more sensitive to climate change than the Pacific and Atlantic

The sea-level of the Indian Ocean is rising at a rate and magnitude nearly twice the global average, but insufficient data records have stood in the way of understanding this strong response to climate. In a study recently published in Nature Geoscience, ASE/EOS researchers Dr Kyle Morgan, Research Assistant Ke Lin, A/P Xianfeng Wang and Keven Roy together with colleagues from Canada, Australia and New Zealand tracked relative sea level change on coral atoll islands in the Maldives over the past two millennia.

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Forest fragmentation hits wildlife hardest in the tropics

Forest fragmentation hits wildlife hardest in the tropics

Human development, land conversion, fire and storms are causing the forests worldwide to become increasingly fragmented, to the degree that 70% of the Earth’s remaining forest is within 1 kilometre of a forest edge today. The world’s most intact forest landscapes are found in the tropics, but fragmentation of tropical forests is predicted to accelerate over the next decades.

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MOE Tier 2 grant to Assoc Prof Xianfeng Wang: Predicting future monsoon patterns through cave proxy of past rainfall variation

MOE Tier 2 grant to Assoc Prof Xianfeng Wang: Predicting future monsoon patterns through cave proxy of past rainfall variation

It is hard to underestimate the importance of the Asian monsoon; the world’s largest weather system, affecting almost half of the world’s population, and the base of food security and water supply in Southeast Asia, large parts of China and beyond. With climate change comes more frequent high intensity downpours during the wet season, and the monsoon season also becomes more difficult to predict.

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Global study of world’s most abundant creatures published today in Nature

Global study of world’s most abundant creatures published today in Nature

What is the most abundant animal on the planet? Some may guess mice, or perhaps ants. A simple Google search will give you the answer – it’s nematodes, small worms also called eelworms. There are 440 billion of them and they exist in all of the Earth’s ecosystems (notably in soil, but also in water and as parasites in animal bodies). Still, because of their microscopic size most of us have never seen, and will never see, one. But they play a critical role in the cycling of carbon and nutrients in ecosystems, and are essential to understanding biological activity in soil. Read more

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