AGU journal highlights -- Nov. 5, 2009

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL).

In this release:

1. Antarctica warming a regional, not local, trend
2. New model factors storms into shoreline loss
3. Study agrees reservoir contributed to Wenchuan earthquake
4. Much Arctic warming linked to sea-ice, cloud-cover changes
5. Sorting out natural from human influences in ocean warming
6. Meteoritic impacts may have cooked up life's components

Anyone may read the scientific abstract for any of these papers by clicking on the link provided at the end of each Highlight. You can also read the abstract by going to http://www.agu.org/pubs/search_options.shtml and inserting into the search engine the full doi (digital object identifier), e.g. 10.1029/2009GL040104. The doi is found at the end of each Highlight below.

Journalists and public information officers (PIOs) at educational or scientific institutions, who are registered with AGU, also may download papers cited in this release by clicking on the links below. Instructions for members of the news media, PIOs, and the public for downloading or ordering the full text of any research paper summarized below are available at http://www.agu.org/jinstructions.shtml

1. Antarctica warming a regional, not local, trend

In the past 50 years, considerable warming has been observed in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Understanding whether these measured changes are a local phenomenon or part of a significant regional trend is important for interpreting observations, validating climate models, and predicting future climate change. To investigate the extent of the warming, Thomas et al. present a new 150-year oxygen isotope record from an ice core drilled in the data-sparse southwestern Antarctic Peninsula. The new record shows about 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in surface temperature since the 1950s. The record correlates well with satellite-derived temperature reconstructions and records from other locations showing similar warming trends. The authors conclude that the warming in the past 50 years has been a regional trend, not a local phenomenon, and has been part of a statistically significant 100-year warming trend that began around 1900. Furthermore, they use climate models to show that the observed warming trend is outside the expected range of natural variability and is therefore probably the result of human influence.

Title: Ice core evidence for significant 100-year regional warming on the Antarctic Peninsula

Authors: E. R. Thomas, T. J. Bracegirdle, and C. Franzke: British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK;

P. F. Dennis: School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.