An official website of the United States government
Did you know that microbes and plants can help each other survive? Microbes—like bacteria and fungi, for example—can help plants find food and water and can even make them healthier during stressful times. In return, plants give microbes food and a place to live. The world as we know it would not exist without plants, microbes, and their partnerships. Unfortunately, changes to climate will also change our environments. Therefore, studying how plants and microbes partner will help us predict environmental changes to our planet and its inhabitants. In this article, we discuss how microbes and plants partner to support life on Earth.
more »
« less
A Time Machine to Pangea’s Climate Past
If you could time travel to the central U.S. 300 million years ago, you would find yourself at the equator of the supercontinent Pangea. At first you might enjoy a warm climate, surrounded by seas filled with life. But, after some millions of years, the seas would vanish as the climate turned increasingly hot, dry, and hostile. Billowing dust would engulf you, and nearly all life on Earth would vanish in an event called the Great Dying. How do we know? Geoscientists reconstruct past landscapes and climates by drilling into ancient sediments—tiny grains of sand and silt. These tiny particles tell us how fast the mountains rose and which way the wind blew. Microscopic fossils reveal water and air temperatures. And miniature bubbles trapped in salt preserve actual fossil water, from nearly 300 million years ago. Travel back in time with us to explore the Great Dying.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10526349
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers in Earth Science
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers for Young Minds
- Volume:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2296-6846
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract In this manuscript, I provide ideas that may help early‐career colleagues on their paths in science, especially in research and academia. I discuss the inevitability of failure at times, the importance of finding great collaborators and mentors and making time for the things that bring you joy in your life, and suggest a few practices that I hope make us more pleasant human beings. I share a few difficulties I've navigated and advice I've shared with my students, postdocs, and early‐career colleagues through the years. I hope such thoughts are useful, and help others find the joy in being a scientist.more » « less
-
From our climate to the air we breathe, the ocean influences the world around us. Scientists are always looking for new ways to explore and study the ocean. One way we do this is by going on specially designed ships that allow us to study the deep sea, far from land. On our latest expedition aboard the Research Vessel Sally Ride, we went out 300 miles into the North Pacific Ocean for a week. We used some of the most important ocean science tools to catch tiny marine animals, collect water from some of the deepest depths, uncover mysteries of oceans past, and study how desert dust feeds marine animals today.more » « less
-
Abstract In contrast to the modern‐day climate, North Pacific deep water formation and a Pacific meridional overturning circulation (PMOC) may have been active during past climate conditions, in particular during the Pliocene epoch (some 3–5 million years ago). Here, we use a climate model simulation with a robust PMOC cell to investigate the pathways of the North Pacific deep water from subduction to upwelling, as revealed by Lagrangian particle trajectories. We find that similar to the present‐day Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), most subducted North Pacific deep water upwells in the Southern Ocean. However, roughly 15% upwells in the tropical Indo‐Pacific Oceans instead—a key feature distinguishing the PMOC from the AMOC. The connection to the Indian Ocean is relatively fast, at about 250 years. The connection to the tropical Pacific is slower (∼800 years) as water first travels to the subtropical South Pacific then gradually upwells through the thermocline.more » « less
-
In this study, sediments from the Pliocene warm period (3-5 million years ago) from a sediment drift deposit in the Amundsen Sea in Antarctica (drillsite U1533) were treated and analyzed for particle size distribution and sortable silt percentage. These variables help explain how fast ocean currents were moving under warmer climate scenarios. The sediments from beneath the seafloor were treated using hydrogen peroxide to break down any organic matter, followed by boiling with hydrochloric acid to break down carbonate. To remove chemicals, the sediment samples were placed into a centrifuge with 50 mL of DI water for 30 minutes, decanted, then another 30 minutes with 50 mL of DI water. After the samples were treated, they were placed into the Malvern Mastersizer 2000 to measure particle size distributions by using a laser and the resulting scatter patterns of the sediment particles. The results were graphed with depth beneath the seafloor to show the differences in sortable silt percentage over time. The results showed that the sortable silt percentage was low around the onset of the warm period, concluding that the movement of ocean currents during this time period dropped. These results were not typical, as models had predicted that warm periods would have faster ocean currents, and opens up the possibility for future research.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2024.1254286
