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[Scientific Frontline by SFL ORG Educational News Network] Highest-Known Microbial Ecosystems on Earth Fueled by Volcanic ...: The microbial communities atop Socompa -- which straddles Argentina and Chile high in the Atacama Desert -- are in a more extreme environment and not as well understood as microbes living in hydrothermal vents in deep oceans, he said. The Socompa microbial communities are located adjacent to several patches of green, carpet-like plant communities -- primarily mosses and liverworts -- discovered in the 1980s by Stephan Halloy of Conservation International in La Paz, Bolivia, a co-author on the new CU-Boulder study.

[A little about] Earth’s highest known microbial ecosystems being fueled by ...: CU-Boulder Professor Steve Schmidt has likened the physical environment of the Socompa volcano summit, including the thin atmosphere, intense ultraviolet radiation and harsh climate, to the physical characteristics of Mars, where the hunt for microbial life is under way by NASA.

[ENVS News] News Mar 03, 2009: The new study shows the emission of water, carbon dioxide and methane from small volcanic vents near the summit of Socompa sustains complex microbial ecosystems new to science in the barren, sky-high landscape, said CU-Boulder Professor Steve Schmidt. He likened the physical environment of the Socompa volcano summit -- including the thin atmosphere, intense ultraviolet radiation and harsh climate -- to the physical characteristics of Mars, where the hunt for microbial life is under way by NASA.

[Labspaces.net Latest News RSS News Feed] Featured Article - Earth's highest known microbial systems fueled ...: The microbial communities atop Socompa -- which straddles Argentina and Chile high in the Atacama Desert -- are in a more extreme environment and not as well understood as microbes living in hydrothermal vents in deep oceans, he said. The Socompa microbial communities are located adjacent to several patches of green, carpet-like plant communities -- primarily mosses and liverworts -- discovered in the 1980s by Stephan Halloy of Conservation International in La Paz, Bolivia, a co-author on the new CU-Boulder study.

[Wired: Science] Life Thrives in Earth's Most Mars-Like Environment | Wired Science ...: "The Socompa microbial ecosystem is an extremely exciting Earth analog for investing how life on Mars may survive in hydrothermal oases, where water, heat and nutrients are being provided from deep within," said California Institute of Technology ."We have no idea what they're doing or how they're living," said Schmidt, who plans to further study the unlikely bugs.

[Latest Biology News from Bio-Medicine.Org] Earth's highest known microbial systems fueled by volc... ( Gases ...: The microbial communities atop Socompa -- which straddles Argentina and Chile high in the Atacama Desert -- are in a more extreme environment and not as well understood as microbes living in hydrothermal vents in deep oceans, he said. The Socompa microbial communities are located adjacent to several patches of green, carpet-like plant communities -- primarily mosses and liverworts -- discovered in the 1980s by Stephan Halloy of Conservation International in La Paz, Bolivia, a co-author on the new CU-Boulder study.

[Top Headlines at CU Boulder] News Center | University of Colorado at Boulder: In addition, they discovered that nitrogen fixation rates -- the process in which nitrogen gas is converted by bacteria into compounds in the soil like ammonia and nitrate -- increased by about 100-fold in the first five years. "Overall, our results indicate that photosynthetic and nitrogen-fixing bacteria play important roles in acquiring nutrients and facilitating ecological succession in soils near some of the highest-elevation receding glaciers on Earth," wrote the team in Proceedings of the Royal Academy.

[The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond] Andes Vanishing Glaciers Offer Clues into Early Life on Mars: The University of Colorado at Boulder team working at 16,400 feet inthe Peruvian Andes discovered how barren soils uncovered by retreatingglacier ice can swiftly establish a thriving community of microbes,setting the table for lichens, mosses and alpine plants, said .Thestudy offers new insights into how microorganisms are adapting toglobal warming in cold ecosystems on Earth.

[Julian's Bug Blog] Julian’s Bug Blog » Blog Archive » Alien Life Forms Found! ”¦Sort of.: A return expedition to Socompa in February 2009 by Schmidt included a Chilean scientist, an Argentinean microbiologist, a Boulder spectral-imaging expert and an Argentinean archaeologist. There is archaeological evidence that ancient Incans once roamed over Socompa, and the remains of three, 500-year-old mummified Inca children were discovered in 1999 atop the nearby Llullaillaco volcano, apparent sacrifice victims.

[Care2 News Network] Acid oceans 'need urgent action' - Care2 News Network: "After warning 2007 would be the hottest year on record," says Cunningham, "what we experienced was the coolest since 2001." Lamenting that the GW debate had deteriorated into a "religious war" between "true believers and non-believers" Cunningham astutely observes about those who follow Hansen's logic, "it is impossible to reason a person out of positions they have not been reasoned into." Cunningham states Hansen is "a political activist who spreads fear even when NASA's own data contradicts him." To drive home his point that Hansen is circumventing the real science, Cunningham highlights that, "warming in the upper atmosphere should occur before any surface warming effect, but NASA's own data show that has not been happening." Cunningham goes on to note how when Hansen's boss, Michael Griffin, "a distinguished scientist in his own right, attempted to draw a distinction between Hansen's personal and political views and the science conducted by his agency" he was "forced to back off".

[Dot Earth] Arctic Explorer Rebuts ”˜Warming Island’ Critique - Dot Earth Blog ...: If one postulates that the global average surface temperature tracks the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, possibly with some delay, then when the CO2 concentration continues to rise monotonically but the global average surface temperature shows fluctuations as a function of time with changes in slope (periods wherein it decreases), then you must throw the postulate away. It simply is inconsistent and therefore is not the controlling factor in global average surface temperature.

[NASA Watch] Former NAC Chair Jack Schmitt Quits Planetary Society Over New ...: How can you possibly believe that humans can pour hundreds of billions of tons of pollution into the atmosphere each year for decades and not have an effect on the global climate? Do you seriously think that we can take hundreds of millions of years of biomass stored in the earth's crust, dig it up/pump it out, burn it, and eject the by-products into the atmosphere with no effect?

[Jennifer Marohasy] Jennifer Marohasy: The Acquittal of Carbon Dioxide: A Blog Post by ...: The melting caused a series of worldwide floods unlike anything previously experienced by Homo sapiens. (There had been a previous flood at about 120 kyr, but that was before Homo sapiens had moved to Europe or North America.) The flood dumped enough water into the oceans to cause the average sea level to rise 110 meters, enough to inundate the coastal areas, and to cover the Bering Isthmus, and turn it into the Bering Strait.

[Comments for Kiwiblog] Net Greenhouse Gas Emission | Kiwiblog: The reason, I am asking here, is that it seems that you have no clue to the question that you have just asked, and that is : whether AR(1) is an over-simplification or not?. You can pretty much fit any AR model to any data, however the AR model with minimum error could be identified via AIC (akaike information criteria).

RealClimate: Now you’re right about there being few CCNs in the upper atmosphere, but at the same time the temperature is so low that it doesn’t take much to cause clouds to form and often they’ll form of their own accord. I don’t deny it’s a complex situation, but that’s precisely why it’s so dangerous for climate change people to imply that all the important details are known and the models are so robust that we can make wise policy decisions based on what we already know.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Ecosystems, The Green Files