Reducing fires lit for agricultural management and deforestation, which unduly affect poorer populations, could help prevent 59,000 premature deaths per year.
Research Spotlights
Research spotlights are plain-language summaries of recent articles published in AGU’s suite of 24 journals.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Extinct Style of Plate Tectonics Explains Early Earth’s Flat Mountains
The geologic record suggests that despite Earth’s hot, thin crust during the Proterozoic, mountains were still able to form thanks to an extinct style of crustal deformation.
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Shifts in Weather Patterns Vary by Region
Decisions about water use will have to reflect changing trends in the local hydroclimate.
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A Step Toward Making GPS More Resilient to Space Weather
Researchers have developed a new mathematical model to more accurately capture how irregularities in Earth’s atmosphere interrupt signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
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Pyrenees Glaciers Are Rapidly Disappearing
Three of the remaining glaciers in the Pyrenees mountain range stopped flowing in the past decade.
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Cool Oasis for Cretaceous Feathered Dinosaurs
A new study found that the Jehol Biota had chilly temperatures and high altitudes when feathered dinosaurs roamed the slopes.
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Long-Term Sea Level Cycle Affects Predictions of Future Rise
New research confirms the existence of a regular, long-term fluctuation in sea level, perhaps caused by processes in Earth’s core.
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Earthly Lava Tubes May Offer Insights into Extraterrestrial Life
New research finds that Actinobacteria in lava caves fix carbon and survive independent of surface inputs, offering a fresh perspective in the search for life beyond Earth.
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Could Low-Altitude Reconnection Power Jupiter’s Polar Aurorae?
Magnetic reconnection events less than 2 Jovian radii above the planet’s cloud tops could explain why Juno has yet to observe a source for Jupiter’s polar aurore.
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Minimal Evidence of Permafrost Carbon in Siberia’s Kolyma River
New research finds that Arctic rivers currently transport limited permafrost-derived dissolved organic carbon, which has implications for understanding the region’s changing carbon cycle—and its potential to accelerate climate change.