Tropics

Latest news on tropics

Catering for vacation rental

I'm a personal chef looking to trade my service for a vacation rental....the tropics would be my prefrance. I have 6 years of refrences...i'm the real deal! Thanks

Is this really New York or are we in the tropics?

Heat-loving plants thrive in a Long Island garden.

Climate change making seas more salty, research finds

Global warming is making the sea more salty, according to new research that demonstrates the massive shifts in natural systems triggered by climate change. Experts at the UK Met Office and Reading University say warmer temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean have significantly increased evaporation and reduced rainfall across a giant stretch of water from Africa to the Carribean in recent years. The change concentrates salt in the water left behind, and is predicted to make southern Europe and the Mediterranean much drier in future.Peter Stott of the Met Office, who led the study, said: "With global warming we're talking about very big changes in the overall water cycle. This moisture is being evaporated and transported to higher latitudes." The team wanted to see whether manmade climate change could be blamed for changes in salinity measured in the Atlantic. In 2003, experts reported that the north Atlantic waters were freshening, with salt levels decreasing ? a mild version of the scenario depicted in the Hollywood film The Day After Tomorrow where massive amounts of fresh water shut down warm ocean currents and cause temperatures to plunge. Meanwhile, further south towards the tropics, Atlantic waters have been getting saltier ? about 0.5% more since the 1960s.Using state-of-the-art climate models, the scientists simulated events over both parts of the ocean with and without increased levels of greenhouse gases. They found that the freshening of the north Atlantic could be explained by natural variations, a conclusion supported by a recent recovery of the salt levels there.But for the mid Atlantic, the models showed that only human-driven global warming could explain the increase in saltiness ? the first time such an explicit link has been made between climate change and salinity. The results will appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.Climate changeWaterEndangered habitatsClimate changeMeteorologyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Leafy Skyscraper Going Up in Singapore

Construction on architects TR Hamzah & Yeang's EDITT Building (Ecological Design in the Tropics) is underway in Singapore read more

Berkeley Hills Home For Mex. or tropics in Jan or Feb. (berkeley north / hills)

A Decorative Artist's Home in quiet, lovely neighborhood in cultured and cosmopolitan Berkeley. 4 blocks to "Gourmet Ghetto", 1 mile to UC Berkeley, 25 minutes to San Francisco, 45 minutes to Napa Valley wineries, & 4 Hours to Tahoe skiing and resorts. Lower Berkeley Hills, close to buses & mass transit. "Charming, imaginative, sun-filled - a livable work of art" are some of the words that have been used to describe our home. 1600 sq.ft, open beam ceilings in living room, dining room and kitchen, 2 bedrooms, all with hand painted walls, study with private deck, 1 bath, lovely garden. Charming older cat included. Our home is perfect for single person or couple. Would also consider renting for 1 month or less.

Climate Change May Threaten Biodiversity in Tropics

CHICAGO - Climate change may soon make the tropics too hot for many native species, which will be forced to head for higher ground to escape the heat, US researchers said on Thursday.

Climate Change Also Threatens Tropics

Some tropical species may suffer under warmer conditions, scientists say.

Claim That Simulated Temperature Trends For Tropics Inconsistent With Observations Is Flawed, Expert...

Scientists have helped reconcile the differences between simulated and observed temperature trends in the tropics. They have refuted a recent claim that simulated temperature trends in the tropics are fundamentally inconsistent with observations. This claim was based on the application of a flawed statistical test and the use of older observational datasets.

Climate change 'threatens biodiversity in tropics'

Climate change may soon make the tropics too hot for many native species, which will be forced to head for higher ground to escape the heat, US researchers said yesterday.

Aircraft Emissions Are Bad, But How Bad?

It's become almost a reflex to bash aviation's role in climate change. Passenger planes are big, they emit stuff into the atmosphere, so they must be bad. It's true, but it's not quite that simple. Last week, climate and atmospheric scientists from the US and Europe presented research to a group of aviation types gathered at the Royal Society of London. Much of their focus was on nitrogen oxide (NOx), and what they found is that simply dismissing NOx as just another nasty greenhouse gas is not only bad science, but could also be unwise policy. Keith Shine, a professor from Reading University, says that while there's a great deal of research being conducted on the role of NOx in climate change, nothing is conclusive at this point, in part because the gas seems to both harm and help. "NOx has some particularly slippery issues we have to grapple with," he says. "It is a very reactive gas in the atmosphere and has different impacts."  One of those impacts is the formation of ozone, which facilitates growth in CO2 by preventing its absorption by plants. But NOx only leads to ozone formation in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere). Once you get above 20km, into the stratosphere, NOx actually causes ozone depletion. As an added bonus, NOx leads to creation of hydroxyl, which acts as a sort of detergent that cleans many pollutants out of the atmosphere and and helps destroy methane, another bad news greenhouse gas. ?The discovery in recent years of the effect of the OH molecule as a detergent chemical has been a pleasant surprise to the scientific community,? Shine says. He says that at this point it's hard to know if there is a net impact one way or the other. "It turns out that by emitting on greenhouse gas into the atmosphere we are also partly destroying another. To add complexity to the subject, methane is one of the most important molecules that leads to ozone formation. So NOx is creating more ozone but also destroying methane, leading to less ozone." And it's even trickier than that. The effects of NOx depend not just on the altitude at which they are released, but also on the geographical region. "With COx it doesn't matter where the emissions take place," Shine says. Whether it be the North Pole or the tropics, the impact is the same." But this isn't the case for NOx, which seems to have a bigger impact at the equator. It's pretty complicated stuff, and Shine is the first to admit that although the science is getting better there's still a lot to figure out. When asked what advice he'd give policy makers with regards to aviation and the climate based on what we know so far, he urges them to stay focused on one just one thing. "If the worry is about climate change over a 50 or 100 year period....in my view the only thing we should be concerned with is CO2 emissions." Photo by Flickr user Jasmic