CIRES study shows summer climate change, mostly warming
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/11/13/cires-study-shows-summer-climate-change-mostly-warming[font face=Serif][font size=5]CIRES study shows summer climate change, mostly warming[/font]
November 13, 2012
[font size=3]Analysis of 90 years of observational data has revealed that summer climates in regions across the globe are changing -- mostly, but not always, warming --according to a new study led by a scientist from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences headquartered at the University of Colorado Boulder.
It is the first time that we show on a local scale that there are significant changes in summer temperatures, said lead author CIRES scientist Irina Mahlstein. This result shows us that we are experiencing a new summer climate regime in some regions.
The technique, which reveals location-by-location temperature changes rather than global averages, could yield valuable insights into changes in ecosystems on a regional scale. Because the methodology relies on detecting temperatures outside the expected norm, it is more relevant to understand changes to the animal and plant life of a particular region, which scientists would expect to show sensitivity to changes that lie outside of normal variability.
If the summers are actually significantly different from the way that they used to be, it could affect ecosystems, said Mahlstein, who works in the Chemical Sciences Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Earth System Research Laboratory.
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