Oct 24, 2025 01:11 AM
(This post was last modified: Oct 24, 2025 06:16 PM by C C.)
Iceland is no longer mosquito free. Is climate change to blame?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...-180987565
EXCERPTS: Scientists in Iceland have documented the presence of mosquitoes in the wild for the first time in the nation’s history. Experts say the discovery is a sign of the effects climate change and globalization are having on the small country—and that six of the seven continents now host the insects.
The three mosquitoes were caught by Björn Hjaltason [...] “At dusk on the evening of October 16th, I caught sight of a strange fly on a red wine ribbon,” Hjaltason posted on Facebook, according to Icelandic broadcaster RUV. “I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly. It was a female.”
[..] All of them were members of the species Culiseta annulata. The mosquitoes are present in other Nordic and European countries and are adapted to cold temperatures.
[...] “The recent mosquito sightings in Iceland are likely linked to the effects of climate change,” Carla Vieira, a scientist who studies mosquito-borne viruses at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia, said in an email to Kelly Kasulis Cho at the Washington Post. “Rising global temperatures and milder winters are creating more favorable conditions for mosquitoes to survive and reproduce in regions that were previously too cold for them.”
Others, like Matthías Alfreðsson, say we shouldn’t be quick to link the discovery of the mosquitoes to global warming, reports CNN. Colin J. Carlson, an epidemiologist at Yale University School of Public Health, echoes that sentiment to the outlet. “Climate change may have made this more likely, but I’m not convinced it’s a clear, direct impact,” Carlson says. “The truth is, we just don’t know a lot about endemic mosquito range shifts that are already happening.” (MORE - missing details)
Peatlands’ ‘huge reservoir’ of carbon at risk of release
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1102794
INTRO: Peatlands make up just 3% of the earth’s land surface but store more than 30% of the world’s soil carbon, preserving organic matter and sequestering its carbon for tens of thousands of years. A new study sounds the alarm that an extreme drought event could quadruple peatland carbon loss in a warming climate.
In the study, published Oct. 23 in Science, researchers find that, under conditions that mimic a future climate (with warmer temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide), extreme drought dramatically increases the release of carbon in peatlands by nearly three times. This means that droughts in future climate conditions could turn a valuable carbon sink into a carbon source, erasing between 90 and 250 years of carbon stores in a matter of months.
“As temperatures increase, drought events become more frequent and severe, making peatlands more vulnerable than before,” said Yiqi Luo, senior author and the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s Soil and Crop Sciences Section, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). “We add new evidence to show that with peatlands, the stakes are high. We observed that these extreme drought events can wipe out hundreds of years of accumulated carbon, so this has a huge implication.”
It was already well-established that drought reduces ecosystem productivity and increases carbon release in peatlands, but this study is the first to examine how that carbon loss is exacerbated as the planet warms and more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates extreme drought will become 1.7 to 7.2 times more likely in the near future. With that probability, Luo said the study’s results are another warning about the dire impacts of global warming and a call to pay more attention to peatlands, despite their small geographical footprint.
“It’s a huge reservoir of carbon compared to any other ecosystem,” he said. “We need to find a way to mitigate climate change and bend the warming curve.” (MORE - details, no ads)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...-180987565
EXCERPTS: Scientists in Iceland have documented the presence of mosquitoes in the wild for the first time in the nation’s history. Experts say the discovery is a sign of the effects climate change and globalization are having on the small country—and that six of the seven continents now host the insects.
The three mosquitoes were caught by Björn Hjaltason [...] “At dusk on the evening of October 16th, I caught sight of a strange fly on a red wine ribbon,” Hjaltason posted on Facebook, according to Icelandic broadcaster RUV. “I immediately suspected what was going on and quickly collected the fly. It was a female.”
[..] All of them were members of the species Culiseta annulata. The mosquitoes are present in other Nordic and European countries and are adapted to cold temperatures.
[...] “The recent mosquito sightings in Iceland are likely linked to the effects of climate change,” Carla Vieira, a scientist who studies mosquito-borne viruses at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia, said in an email to Kelly Kasulis Cho at the Washington Post. “Rising global temperatures and milder winters are creating more favorable conditions for mosquitoes to survive and reproduce in regions that were previously too cold for them.”
Others, like Matthías Alfreðsson, say we shouldn’t be quick to link the discovery of the mosquitoes to global warming, reports CNN. Colin J. Carlson, an epidemiologist at Yale University School of Public Health, echoes that sentiment to the outlet. “Climate change may have made this more likely, but I’m not convinced it’s a clear, direct impact,” Carlson says. “The truth is, we just don’t know a lot about endemic mosquito range shifts that are already happening.” (MORE - missing details)
Peatlands’ ‘huge reservoir’ of carbon at risk of release
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1102794
INTRO: Peatlands make up just 3% of the earth’s land surface but store more than 30% of the world’s soil carbon, preserving organic matter and sequestering its carbon for tens of thousands of years. A new study sounds the alarm that an extreme drought event could quadruple peatland carbon loss in a warming climate.
In the study, published Oct. 23 in Science, researchers find that, under conditions that mimic a future climate (with warmer temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide), extreme drought dramatically increases the release of carbon in peatlands by nearly three times. This means that droughts in future climate conditions could turn a valuable carbon sink into a carbon source, erasing between 90 and 250 years of carbon stores in a matter of months.
“As temperatures increase, drought events become more frequent and severe, making peatlands more vulnerable than before,” said Yiqi Luo, senior author and the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s Soil and Crop Sciences Section, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). “We add new evidence to show that with peatlands, the stakes are high. We observed that these extreme drought events can wipe out hundreds of years of accumulated carbon, so this has a huge implication.”
It was already well-established that drought reduces ecosystem productivity and increases carbon release in peatlands, but this study is the first to examine how that carbon loss is exacerbated as the planet warms and more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates extreme drought will become 1.7 to 7.2 times more likely in the near future. With that probability, Luo said the study’s results are another warning about the dire impacts of global warming and a call to pay more attention to peatlands, despite their small geographical footprint.
“It’s a huge reservoir of carbon compared to any other ecosystem,” he said. “We need to find a way to mitigate climate change and bend the warming curve.” (MORE - details, no ads)