The simple story says that during the last ice age, temperatures were colder and ice sheets expanded around the planet. That may hold true for most of Europe and North America, but new research from the University of Washington tells a different story in the high-altitude, desert climates of Mongolia.

For nearly two decades, scientists have noted dramatic changes in arctic tundra habitat. Ankle-high grasses and sedges have given way to a sea of woody shrubs growing to waist- or neck-deep heights. This shrubification of the tundra challenges animals like caribou that are adapted to low-stature arctic vegetation.

Tropical trees respond to drought differently depending on their ages, according to new research led by a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Wyoming.

Mario Bretfeld, who works in the lab of UW Department of Botany Professor Brent Ewers, is the lead author of an article that appears today (Monday) in the journal New Phytologist, one of the top journals in the field of plant controls over the water cycle. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).

Warm, wet summers are historically unusual and could bring unexpected disruptions to ecosystems and society, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

There are several ways to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100, and new research led by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis researcher Joeri Rogelj shows under what conditions this could happen.

A new study of long-term snow monitoring sites in the western United States found declines in snowpack at more than 90 percent of those sites – and one-third of the declines were deemed significant.

Infrared imagery provides valuable temperature data in storms, and when NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over newly developed Tropical Cyclone 11S in the Southern Indian Ocean, its gathered that data allowing forecasters to see where the strongest storms were located within.

Spring is arriving earlier, but how much earlier? The answer depends on where on Earth you find yourself, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis.

As ice the melts, the organic carbon found in permafrost is being released once again after ages of confinement in the soil. It is making its way into Arctic and subarctic lakes and ponds, and modifying their composition. The portrait presented by an international team of researchers that includes Professor Isabelle Laurion of INRS shows the influence that thawing permafrost has on surface water biogeochemistry. Published in Limnology and Oceanography Letters, the results demonstrate that organic carbon from permafrost is making its way into the waters of these regions. This type of carbon is particularly good at absorbing sunlight. As a result, these water bodies are getting increasingly darker and stratified, which affects a number of biological processes in these ecosystems.

For the past 40 years, the total number of Adélie Penguins, one of the most common on the Antarctic Peninsula, has been steadily declining—or so biologists have thought. A new study led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), however, is providing new insights on of this species of penguin.