Livermore scientists show salinity counts when it comes to sea level
2014-11-20
(Press-News.org) LIVERMORE, California -- Using ocean observations and a large suite of climate models, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have found that long-term salinity changes have a stronger influence on regional sea level changes than previously thought.
"By using long-term observed estimates of ocean salinity and temperature changes across the globe, and contrasting these with model simulations, we have uncovered the unexpectedly large influence of salinity changes on ocean basin-scale sea level patterns," said LLNL oceanographer Paul Durack, lead author of a paper appearing in the November issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Sea level changes are one of the most pronounced effects of climate change impacts on Earth and are primarily driven by warming of the global ocean along with added water from melting land-based glaciers and ice sheets. In addition to these effects, changes in ocean salinity also can affect the height of the sea, by changing its density structure from the surface to the bottom of the ocean.
The team found that there was a long-term (1950-2008) pattern in halosteric (salinity-driven) sea level changes in the global ocean, with sea level increases occurring in the Pacific Ocean and sea level decreases in the Atlantic. These salinity-driven sea level changes have not been thoroughly investigated in previous long-term estimates of sea level change. When the scientists contrasted these results with models, the team found that models also simulated these basin-scale patterns, and that the magnitude of these changes was surprisingly large, making up about 25 percent of the total sea level change.
"By contrasting two long-term estimates of sea level change to simulations provided from a large suite of climate model simulations, our results suggest that salinity has a profound effect on regional sea level change," Durack said. "This conclusion suggests that future sea level change assessments must consider the regional impacts of salinity-driven changes; this effect is too large to continue to ignore."
INFORMATION:
Other collaborators include LLNL's Peter Gleckler, along with Susan Wijffels, an oceanographer from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The study was conducted as part of the Climate Research Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory through the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, which is funded by the Department of Energy's Regional and Global Climate Modeling Program.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-11-20
BANGALORE, INDIA (November 20, 2014) - Participation of non-scientists as volunteers in conservation can play a significant role in saving wildlife, finds a new scientific research led by Duke University, USA, in collaboration with Wildlife Conservation Society and Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru.
The study has shown that citizen science projects greatly contribute to 'increased environmental awareness among the general public'. It also reported direct impacts on conservation including - shift in formal profession by volunteers to become conservationists, initiation ...
2014-11-20
Moderate rainfall was occurring around the center of Tropical Storm Adjali before it dissipated, according to data from NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM satellites.
Adjali became the first named storm of the Southwest Indian Ocean 2014/2015 cyclone season when it formed on November 16, 2014. Adjali became a strong tropical storm the next day and just two days later started to dissipate.
The GPM observatory captured data on Adjali's rainfall rates on Nov. 18. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) instrument is similar to ...
2014-11-20
This new survey was released November 19 as a Web First by Health Affairs. The full text is available free until November 26.
International Survey Of Older Adults Finds Shortcomings In Access, Coordination, And Patient-Centered Care
By Robin Osborn, Donald Moulds, David Squires, Michelle M. Doty, and Chloe Anderson
All authors are affiliated with The Commonwealth Fund in New York.
This study was supported by The Commonwealth Fund and also will appear in the December issue of Health Affairs.
The study surveyed 15,617 adults ages sixty-five and older in Australia, ...
2014-11-20
In many firms sales people spend as much time negotiating internally for lower prices as they do interacting with customers. A new study appearing in the November issue of Marketing Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) finds that firms should allow their sales people to "waste" energy on internal negotiations. In fact, it says, firms should make the process wasteful on purpose.
The study, "Why do sales people spend so much time lobbying for low prices?" was conducted by Duncan Simester, the Nanyang Technological ...
2014-11-20
When blood vessels are damaged through surgery, it can trigger an endless cycle of scarring and repair.
"Scar tissue will always form inside the blood vessel and, in many cases, eventually block blood flow," said Guillermo Ameer, professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. "Then surgeons have to go back in, eliminate the obstruction, or put in a new graft or stent to restore blood flow. In the case of a prosthetic vascular graft used for bypass surgery, it will scar again and ultimately fail."
Ameer, who is also ...
2014-11-20
High blood pressure is a leading cause of death around the world, and its prevalence continues to rise. A study published by Cell Press on November 20th in the journal Immunity shows that a protein in the spleen called placental growth factor (PlGF) plays a critical role in activating a harmful immune response that leads to the onset of high blood pressure in mice. The findings pave the way for the development of more effective treatments for this common and deadly condition.
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects more than 1 billion people worldwide ...
2014-11-20
The portion of the adult brain responsible for complex thought, known as the cerebral cortex, lacks the ability to replace neurons that die as a result of Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and other devastating diseases. A study in the International Society for Stem Cell Research's journal Stem Cell Reports, published by Cell Press on November 20 shows that a Sox2 protein, alone or in combination with another protein, Ascl1, can cause nonneuronal cells, called NG2 glia, to turn into neurons in the injured cerebral cortex of adult mice. The findings reveal that NG2 glia represent ...
2014-11-20
As we age, we have an increasingly harder time ignoring distractions. But new research online November 20 in the Cell Press journal Neuron reveals that by learning to make discriminations of a sound amidst progressively more disruptive distractions, we can diminish our distractibility. A similar strategy might also help children with attention deficits or individuals with other mental challenges.
Distractibility, or the inability to sustain focus on a goal due to attention to irrelevant stimuli, can have a negative effect on basic daily activities, and it is a hallmark ...
2014-11-20
CINCINNATI - Researchers have successfully targeted an important molecular pathway that fuels a variety of cancers and related developmental syndromes called "Rasopathies."
Reporting their results Nov. 20 in Chemistry & Biology, scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say they identified a class of lead compounds that successfully recognize a key target in the Ras signaling pathway - opening the door to future development of therapies that could make treatments more effective with fewer side effects.
Although still in the early stages of the development ...
2014-11-20
While investigating a rare genetic disorder, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that a ubiquitous signaling molecule is crucial to cellular reprogramming, a finding with significant implications for stem cell-based regenerative medicine, wound repair therapies and potential cancer treatments.
The findings are published in the Nov. 20 online issue of Cell Reports.
Karl Willert, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and colleagues were attempting to use induced pluripotent ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Livermore scientists show salinity counts when it comes to sea level