National Geographic Society’s Post

As a dendrochronologist, I have been doing this for 10 years. I am very happy to continue our research in the Amazon rainforest and to share some of the difficulties we face in the field. First, being able to reach remote areas of the Amazon rainforest is the first challenge; finding the trees that develop annual rings is the second. When we get there, we will have to collect samples from above the buttresses, otherwise the samples will be useless for cross-dating. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. But being able to correctly date trees and derive climate information from tree ring chronologies from centuries ago is rewarding. They are climate proxies that tell us the climate history of this huge and super important drainage basin, the Amazon basin. #dendrochronogy #tropicaldendrochronology #NSF

For this #SaturdayScience, we welcome warmer weather! ☀️🌊 As we spend more time hitting the beach this summer, it's important to understand our coast. Meet Ryan Lowe, the expert in coastal processes. Ryan has spent his career studying ocean waves, currents, and their interactions with complex coastlines. His work has crucial applications, including predicting beach erosion, and coastal flooding, and mapping nutrient flows and pollution. By running models before heading to the coast, Ryan gains insights into likely ocean conditions, helping him develop better solutions for coastal protection. Follow Ryan's research here for more insights: bit.ly/467PVpR #SaturdayScience #CoastalProtection #OceanScience #BeachErosion #CoastalFlooding

A recent NASA study just revealed a new reason to be concerned about wildfires. You know how we take a sigh of relief when fires are put out? Research talks about how drought conditions significantly hamper the western US's recovery from wildfires. This has serious ramifications for the long-term health of our landscapes and all of us living here. The research analyzed over 1,500 fires across the West (2014-2020) alongside drought data.  It found that: > Drought significantly reduces recovery potential across ecosystems, even for low-severity fires in grasslands and shrublands. > Severe fires combined with drought can lead to long-term alterations in plant communities and affect soil erosion, landslides, and watershed runoff patterns. > Reduced water uptake by burned plants is leading to increased runoff and less water filtering back into the ground. This study underscores the importance of drought management in strengthening ecosystems against wildfires.  With climate change impacting both fire frequency and drought severity, we need to be proactive. Here’s what you can do -  → Land managers: Implement strategies to enhance ecosystem resilience. → Policymakers: Develop long-term plans for fire mitigation and sustainable resource use. → Communities: Increase awareness and work with land managers for a collective response. I’m sure you have heard this before - but the time to act is now. We need to protect our landscapes for our future generations.

Well said (written?) Dan Reese. As a Californian, I've been watching with horror the wildfires in Chile in February and March. The license on my crystal ball has expired, but Chile had significant atmospheric storms during their winter, followed by rapid vegetation growth then a hot summer (our winter). The first two happened in 2023 and 2024. What will the summer hold? Athena can help communities and utilities plan their mitigation programs to be as effective as possible - our conditional, geospatial, AI/ML, profiling algorithm can show which areas have a high risk of a catatrophic wildfire, and where the USFS Wildfire Hazard Potential map overstates the risk. Athena works with a number of engineering firms who, in turn, work with utilities in multiple states ... Starting with Wildfire Mitigation Plans (WMP) and vegetation management departments, then moving into other areas of action/impact. For communities, we work with a team that writes CWPPs (Bintel Inc) which has written over 120 Community Wildfire Protection Plans. At the risk of stating the obvious, we'd love to demo our product to anyone associated with Western Fire Chiefs Association, International Association of Wildland Fire, Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network, FIRE ADAPTED COLORADO, NFPA (Firewise communities, FireWise Texas LLC, FireWISE, CALFIRE PIO or anyone else interested in making their mitigation efforts more effective.

Students and researchers will find the American County Histories a treasure trove of detailed information and recollections on weather and climate of a particular region. Disasters that a region has suffered, especially violent storms, extended weather patterns and other natural disasters are well documented in these histories. Explorers, missionaries, sea captains, and settlers maintained climate and weather records – to determine favorable winds, for agricultural reasons, to know when inland waterways were usable, to prepare for settlement, and more. https://lnkd.in/e4zyU-EW

Learning with the American Meteorological Society: our latest Substack focuses on #tornado #recovey of a #forest. Check it out here:

Some interesting work being done by UCLA researchers: How Amazonian forests can trigger the onset of rain and wet season https://lnkd.in/g3tQWSDg How the Congo rainforest makes its own rain https://lnkd.in/gscje5dB How the Sahel droughts are partly due to land degradation https://lnkd.in/gUrq9XDQ How plankton help sequester carbon https://lnkd.in/gdWsXWR9

Everyone, who is concerned with climate warming, should read the blog of Alpha Lo

I agree places like Ohio, Illinois, Michigan along the Great Lakes, the past few winters have been unusually warm. For example, Michigan Tech University biologists have been observing a remote Lake Superior island’s fragile wolf population every winter since 1958, but they had to cut this season’s planned seven-week survey short after just two weeks. The ski plane they study the wolves from uses the frozen lake as a landing strip because there’s nowhere to touch down on the island. But this weirdly warm winter left the Great Lakes nearly devoid of ice. As climate change accelerates, scientists are scrambling to understand how iceless winters could affect the world’s largest freshwater system. Most of the effects are still theoretical since the lakes are generally too treacherous for data-gathering expeditions during the coldest months and biologists have long thought that little ecological activity takes place under the ice anyway. But they say the changes could have serious environmental, economic and cultural impacts, including by harming certain fish species, eroding beaches, fueling algae blooms and clogging shipping channels. “This year really drives home the point that we need to collect more data,” said Trista Vick-Majors, an assistant biology professor who studies aquatic ecosystems at Michigan Tech. “There’s just no way you can predict how an ecosystem is going to respond to the large-scale changes we’re looking at.” Source: https://lnkd.in/gx4ccY46 @michigantech #Wolves #climatechange

Did you know that European summer weather might become predictable months to years in advance? Check out this fascinating article by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) shedding light on the advancements in weather prediction technology. Understanding weather patterns could revolutionize how we plan for summer activities, agriculture, and more. Dive into the insights here: https://lnkd.in/ec84T3f8 #WeatherPrediction #EuropeanWeather #NOCResearch #SummerForecasting