Ancient Arctic Water Cycles Are Red Flags To Future Global Warming

[Barrett808]

Ancient plant life recovered in recent Arctic Ocean sampling cores shows that at the time of the last major global warming, humidity, precipitation levels and salinity of the ocean water altered drastically, along with the elevated temperatures and levels of greenhouse gases, according to a report in the August 10 issue of Nature.

The Arctic Ocean drilling expedition in 2004 allowed scientists to directly measure samples of biological and geological material from the beginning of the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), a period of rapid, extreme global warming about 55 million years ago. It has given researchers a direct resource of measurable information on global warming -- from a time when the overall global temperature was higher and more uniform from the subtropics to the arctic.

"Analysis of carbon and hydrogen isotopes in the recovered fossil plants told us a lot about the way water is transported in the atmosphere and its effect on the climate," said Mark Pagani, professor of geology and geophysics at Yale and principal author of the study. "The isotope traces we measured indicated that a large-scale alteration in the water cycle occurred and that future alterations may leave us poorly equipped to predict our water supply."

"Without being hysteric, it is important to realize that the impact of global warming is not just about searing hot summers -- it is about water as a resource. It is about when and where it rains and how much we have to drink," said Pagani. "This is a red flag"

Pagani and his collaborators show that water and atmospheric water vapor are a major indicator of the "greenhouse" changes. Rather than just looking at changes in ocean water -- that can be influenced by many factors -- the researchers measured carbon and hydrogen isotopes in the fossil plants and reconstructed the pattern of precipitation and characteristics of the ancient arctic water.

(more)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060812085938.htm

[jpak]

1. A recent paper in Science reported that the discharge of Arctic rivers

has increased by 7% since 1936 - consistent with changes in high latitude hydrological cycles associated with a warming climate...

[Boomer]

2. K&R

The news just gets better and better...

:eyes:

[Phredicles]

3. How many more "hints" do we need that we have a problem we need

to deal with?

As a digression, does anyone know what caused the the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM)referred to in the article? I've heard it described in other discussion of global warming, but I don't remember hearing what set it in motion.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Wikipedia is your friend

:hi:

From the Wikipedia article on the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

What unleashed the PETM is unclear. Most evidence points to volcanic eruptions that disgorged gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, or coastal reservoirs of methane gas, sealed by icy soil, that were breached by warmer temperatures or receding seas.

[Odin2005]

5. An enormous burst of methane from the North Sea.

55 million years ago there was some volcanic activity in the North sea (the north sea itself the result of a short period of rifting seperating Britain and Norway). For reasons I can't rember a huge amout of methane was traped on the ocran floor there and when a undersea volcano erupted all the methane in the North Sea was released. The event killed nearly all the deep sea animals at the time, it is thought that most living deep sea animals (like the ones near hydrothermal vents) evolved from surface animals AFTER the event, the deep sea animals living before the event died from lack of oxygen.

[obreaslan]

7. Your post talked about Global Warming and Evolution...

In the same paragraph. That's a way to get conservative heads spinning. :)

[Odin2005]

9. Who cares, my gives-a-fuck is broken.

:dunce:

[obreaslan]

10. I was cheering you on.

:)

[hatrack]

6. K&R - thanks for posting

:toast:

[genieroze]

8. But the babble er uh bible said the earth is only six thousand years old.