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Research opportunity aboard the RV Investigator

April 11, 2018 12:50 am Published by Comments Off on Research opportunity aboard the RV Investigator

Students and ECRs have an opportunity to take part in a voyage to a standing meander of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) south of Tasmania. They will undertake a 3-dimensional survey of the velocity and density structure of the meander, deploy a fleet of EM-APEX profiling floats and conduct time series measurements.

Hotter, longer, more frequent – marine heatwaves on the rise

April 9, 2018 6:30 am Published by 1 Comment

An international study in Nature Communications co-authored by researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX) and the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) reveals globally marine heatwaves have increased over the past century in number, length and intensity as a direct result of warming oceans.

Regional adaptions can cool heat extremes by up to 2-3°C

April 1, 2018 12:07 am Published by Comments Off on Regional adaptions can cool heat extremes by up to 2-3°C

New research published in Nature Geoscience has found that climate engineering that modifies the properties of the land surface in highly populated areas and agricultural areas over North America, Europe and Asia could reduce extreme temperatures there by up to 2-3°C.

Wind power a winner for all but Queensland

March 30, 2018 10:06 pm Published by Comments Off on Wind power a winner for all but Queensland

There are clear winners and losers for wind power generation across Australia in the century ahead even though climate change will have little impact on wind speeds, according to new research by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW.

Academies call on CHOGM members to do more to fight climate change

March 19, 2018 1:23 am Published by Comments Off on Academies call on CHOGM members to do more to fight climate change

The Australian Academy of Science with 21 other Commonwealth National Academies of Science and societies as part of a consensus statement calling on the members at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to use the best available science to guide action on climate change. The call comes at a time when research has shown that the commitments of the Paris Accord agreed to by international governments will still put the world on track for temperatures 3°C above preindustrial temperatures.

Research brief: How plants survive droughts

March 13, 2018 11:48 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How plants survive droughts

Understanding which plant species can recover from drought, under what conditions and the processes involved, will help researchers predict plant mortality in response to global climate change. In response to drought, some species die because of embolism-induced hydraulic failure, while others recover, following rehydration. This research focuses on structures and processes that might allow some plants to recover from drought stress via embolism reversal.

Leaves by Ren Ran

Research brief: Mapping transpiration in climate models

February 23, 2018 5:04 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Mapping transpiration in climate models

When researchers compared the results derived from FLUXNET data with the results synthesised from the literature, they found substantial differences. As a result, they suggest a new benchmarking metric that could be used to test existing hypotheses embedded in climate models and have mapped a path forward involving using further detailed observations to improve the way coupling/decoupling processes currently represented in climate models.  

NASA image - Sunset over the Phillipines

Research brief: Measuring changes in our atmosphere from seconds to decades

February 23, 2018 4:49 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Measuring changes in our atmosphere from seconds to decades

This paper, A census of atmospheric variability from seconds to decades, synthesises and summarises atmospheric variability on time scales from seconds to decades through a phenomenological census. It focuses mainly on unforced variability in the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere.

Research brief: Understanding water-use efficiency in plants

February 23, 2018 4:21 am Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Understanding water-use efficiency in plants

This study explored the key sources of uncertainty when scaling leaf-level understanding of water-use efficiency to ecosystem scales. The results provide key insights into interpreting (ecosystem-scale) eddy-covariance derived water-use efficiency in an ecophysiological context.