New melt record for Greenland ice sheet

CCNY's Marco Tedesco says 'exceptional' season stretched up to 50 days longer than average

2011-01-22

(Press-News.org) New research shows that 2010 set new records for the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, expected to be a major contributor to projected sea level rises in coming decades.

"This past melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas stretching up to 50 days longer than average," said Dr. Marco Tedesco, director of the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory at The City College of New York (CCNY – CUNY), who is leading a project studying variables that affect ice sheet melting.

"Melting in 2010 started exceptionally early at the end of April and ended quite late in mid- September."

The study, with different aspects sponsored by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the National Science Foundation and NASA, examined surface temperature anomalies over the Greenland ice sheet surface, as well as estimates of surface melting from satellite data, ground observations and models.

In an article published today in "Environmental Research Letters," Professor Tedesco and co-authors note that in 2010, summer temperatures up to 3C above the average were combined with reduced snowfall.

The capital of Greenland, Nuuk, had the warmest spring and summer since records began in 1873.

Bare ice was exposed earlier than the average and longer than previous years, contributing to the extreme record.

"Bare ice is much darker than snow and absorbs more solar radiation," said Professor Tedesco. "Other ice melting feedback loops that we are examining include the impact of lakes on the glacial surface, of dust and soot deposited over the ice sheet and how surface meltwater affects the flow of the ice toward the ocean."

WWF climate specialist Dr. Martin Sommerkorn said "Sea level rise is expected to top 1 metre by 2100, largely due to melting from ice sheets. And it will not stop there – the longer we take to limit greenhouse gas production, the more melting and water level rise will continue."

### Photographs and other media materials can be accessed on http://greenland.cryocity.org. Dr. Tedesco's continuing research on ice sheets can be followed on www.cryocity.org.

For more on Arctic climate change, visit http://www.panda.org/arctic.

M. Tedesco, X. Fettweis, M. R. van den Broeke, R. S. W. van de Wal, C. J. P. P.Smeets, W. J. van de Berg, M.C. Serreze and, J. E. Box The role of albedo and accumulation in the 2010 melting record in Greenland can be found in Environmental Research Letters at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/6/1/014005.

About WWF WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with more than 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Preventing tooth decay in the youngest American Indians

2011-01-22

INDIANAPOLIS – A study conducted in four American Indian communities in the Pacific Northwest presents an effective strategy to convince mothers to switch young children from drinking sweetened soda to water and shows that eliminating these sugary drinks from the diets of the youngest members of the tribe significantly decreased tooth decay. The results of the dental arm of "The Toddler Overweight and Tooth Decay Prevention Study" (TOTS), which targeted American Indians from birth to 30 months of age, appear in the current issue (Volume 20, Number 4) of the peer reviewed ...

Mars Express close flybys of martian moon Phobos

2011-01-22

Mars Express has returned images from the Phobos flyby of 9 January 2011. Mars Express passed Mars' largest moon at a distance of 100km. The HRSC-camera recorded images of Phobos on 9 January 2011 at a distance of 100 km with a resolution of 8.1 m/pixel. Due to the stereo viewing geometry during the flyby a small part of the moon’s edge is only visible for the right eye resulting in odd 3D-perception in this area. This part has been slightly adjusted for better viewing. Also, for the left eye at the left edge of the image four small data gaps have ...

Defense mechanism against bacteria and fungi deciphered

2011-01-22

Under standard laboratory conditions, the human beta-defensin 1 (hBD-1), a human antibiotic naturally produced in the body, had always shown only little activity against microbes. Nevertheless the human body produces it in remarkable quantities. The solution to the puzzle was the investigation process itself, as the research group led by Dr. Jan Wehkamp at the Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute for Clinical Pharmacology of the Stuttgart-based Robert Bosch Hospital found out. Before the research group took a new approach to this research, defensins were usually tested ...

NFL linemen recover from back surgery, and so can you

2011-01-22

CHICAGO --- If NFL linemen can recover from back surgery and return to their spine-bruising careers, so can you get back into your "game" of horsing around with your kids or working out at the gym after back surgery. That's the good news from a new Northwestern Medicine study that found 80 percent of NFL lineman – whose spines are especially vulnerable to degeneration – were able to return to play many more games after the surgery. These elite athletes spend a lot of time in a squatting stance that puts tremendous stress on their spine. The study is encouraging ...

Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks

2011-01-22

Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter. "Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long ...

Islands in the sky: How isolated are mountain top plant populations?

2011-01-22

Do mountain tops act as sky islands for species that live at high elevations? Are plant populations on these mountain tops isolated from one another because the valleys between them act as barriers, or can pollinators act as bridges allowing genes to flow among distant populations? Dr. Andrea Kramer and colleagues from the Chicago Botanic Garden and the University of Illinois at Chicago were interested in pursuing these questions, particularly for a genus of plants, Penstemon (Plantaginaceae), endemic to the Great Basin region of the Western United States. They published ...

Researchers discover how to tame hammering droplets

2011-01-22

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A water hammer can occur when a valve is suddenly opened or closed in a pipe carrying water or steam, causing a pressure wave to travel down the pipe with enough force that it can sometimes cause the pipes to burst. Now, new research shows that a similar effect takes places on a tiny scale whenever a droplet of water strikes a surface. MIT's Kripa Varanasi, co-author of a report on the new finding published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters, says the phenomenon could help engineers design more durable condensing surfaces, which are used ...

Study of nutrition, Alzheimer's links hampered by research approach

2011-01-22

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Research is trying to determine whether Alzheimer's disease might be slowed or prevented with nutritional approaches, but a new study suggests those efforts could be improved by use of nutrient "biomarkers" to objectively assess the nutrient status of elderly people at risk for dementia. The traditional approach, which primarily relies on self-reported dietary surveys, asks people to remember what they have eaten. Such surveys don't consider two common problems in elderly populations – the effect that memory impairment has on recall of their diet, or ...

Aquatic food web tied to land

2011-01-22

Millbrook, NY – A distant relative of shrimp, zooplankton are an important food source for fish and other aquatic animals. Long characterized as algae feeders, a new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that nearly a third of zooplankton diets are supported by material that originates on land in lake watersheds. The study brings scientists one step closer to clarifying the role that watershed inputs play in aquatic food webs. While it has been recognized that animals living at the bottom of lakes and streams rely, in ...

Scientists find industrial pollutants in Eastern Lake Erie carp

2011-01-22

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Researchers from Upstate New York institutions, including the University at Buffalo, have documented elevated levels of two industrial pollutants in carp in eastern Lake Erie, adding to the body of scientific work demonstrating the lasting environmental effects of human activity and waste disposal on the Great Lakes. The two contaminants the scientists studied were polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), manmade organic compounds once used in products including motor oils, adhesives, paints, plastics, pigments and dyes, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

The Lancet: Plastic pollution is an underrecognised threat to health, experts warn as they launch a project to track plastics’ health impacts and monitor progress

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics to track impact of plastic production and pollution on human health

Announcing The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics

Study unexpectedly finds living in rural, rather than urban environments in first five years of life could be a risk factor for developing type 1 diabetes