GeoLog

Geosciences Column

Geosciences Column: How El Niño triggered Indonesia corals die-off

March 3, 2017
Geosciences Column: How El Niño triggered Indonesia corals die-off
Coral bleaching in the Maldives captured by The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey in May 2016. Credit: he Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Richard Vevers.

In the glistening waters of Indonesia, shallow corals – the rain forests of the sea – teem with life.  Or at least they did once. Towards the end of 2015 the corals started to die, leaving a bleak landscape behind. An international team of researchers investigated the causes of the die-off. Their findings, published recently in the EGU’s open access journal, Biogeosciences, are rather ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Africa’s vulnerability to climate change

February 3, 2017
Climate change is set to hit the nations of the Global South the hardest.
Climate change is set to hit the nations of the Global South the hardest. Masai life . Credit: Jaap Berghuijs (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu).

Ravaged by armed conflicts, a deep struggle with poverty, poor governance and horizontal inequality, some parts of Africa and other Global South regions are arguably the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Largely reliant on natural resources for sustenance, current and future changes in temperatures, precipitation and the intensity of some natural hazards threaten the food security, ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Do coastlines have memories?

January 6, 2017
do coastlines have memories
Man O' War Cove Credit: Sarah Weick, (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu

Did you know that the shape of coastlines is determined by the angle at which waves crash against the shoreline. It has long been thought that fluctuations in the wave incidence angle are rapidly felt by coastlines, which change the shapes of their shores quickly in response to shifting wave patterns. Or do they? Researchers at the British Geological Survey, Duke University (USA) and Woods Hole Oc ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: The complex links between shrinking sea ice and cloud cover

December 2, 2016
Sea ice breaking on the Chukchi Sea, Barrow, July 2014
Sea Ice . Credit: Scott Davidson (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The global climate system is complex. It is composed of, and governed by, a plethora of interconnect factors. Solar radiation, land surface, ice cover, the atmosphere and living things, as well as wind and ocean currents, play a crucial role in the climate system. These factors are intricately connected; changes to some can have significant effects on others, leading to overall consequences for th ...[Read More]