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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 4, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1991

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d91jan130

Meeting Reports

• Role of Polar Regions in Global Change, held at Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, June 1990. Eos, p. 1758, Oct. 30, 1990.
• Climate Impact of Solar Variability, held at Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, April 1990. Eos, p. 1103, Sep. 25, 1990.

Item #d91jan131

"Tiny Bubbles Explain the Babble of Undersea Noise," M.W. Browne, New York Times, pp. C1, C4, Dec. 11, 1990. A recent conference on acoustical oceanography discussed developments in understanding and exploiting the sound made by the breaking of tiny bubbles in the ocean. This may provide efficient techniques for measuring rainfall at sea and the direction and speed of ocean currents, both climatically important variables. (See also Sci. News, p. 341, Dec. 1.)

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"`Fixing' the Greenhouse Problem?" J. Emsley, New Scientist, p. 12, Dec. 22-29, 1990. Chemists in Japan have discovered a copper compound that could lead to a process for extracting (or fixing) carbon dioxide from the air, although the practicality of the scheme has been questioned by a leading biochemist.

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"A Climate of Change Sweeps the Tropics," J. Hecht, ibid., p. 13. Two U.S. researchers studying the temperature in the tropics in the distant past have cast doubt upon the assumption that the tropics are well insulated from climatic change.

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"The Sea's Forgotten Carbon Enters the Climate Debate," D. Charles, ibid., p. 10, Dec. 15, 1990. Observations made during one field experiment of the international Joint Ocean Flux Study, show that levels of dissolved organic carbon molecules fall as much as 30 percent during the spring bloom of phytoplankton. Previously, dissolved organic carbon was not even included in models of the earth's carbon cycle because it was thought to be constant.

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"How Do Plankton Handle the Ozone Hole?" C. Joyce, ibid., p. 35, Sep. 22, 1990. Describes research on the effects of increased ultraviolet light on bacteria, algae and plankton, carried out on a National Science Foundation research ship in October, the Antarctic spring.

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"Busy Bacteria May Reduce the Risk of a Runaway Greenhouse," ibid., p. 30, July 28, 1990. Research on tundra at the University of Alaska indicates that warming of the polar regions could produce a negative greenhouse feedback as bacteria reduce methane production. (See Whalen article, Nature, p. 160, July 12, 1990, in Prof. Pubs./Earth System Science.)