Trudeau acknowledges charges in Nijjar killing, calls for commitment to democracy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A new study by climate scientists suggests some “hot spot regions” around the world contain ecosystems that are at-risk due to water availability.
A group of researchers from Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia investigated how changes in water and energy availability -- both crucial to the process of photosynthesis -- are projected to change around the world using a simulator, looking at 1980 to 2100.
Their findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday, suggest ecosystems in Central Europe, the Amazon, and Western Russia are going to be impacted as climate change limits water availability.
Energy, including sunlight and heat, is not in short supply as climate change increases energy availability for plants and ecosystems. But Jasper Denissen, a former PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany and the lead author of the study, says water availability is another story.
“We found that globally, ecosystems become thirstier by becoming more water-limited,” Denissen said in a press release.
The simulator suggests an additional six million square kilometres of the Earth’s land surface could become water-limited by 2100, compared to 1980.
Periods of water limitation are also projected to increase in duration, according to the study, with nearly half the study area experiencing water shortages for two months longer per year by 2100.
"These shifts in the vegetation's water limitation in space and time leave vegetation craving for water across larger regions and during longer consecutive periods," said Rene Orth, another lead author of the study, in the release.
The researchers say the information is crucial, as well-functioning ecosystems and the process of photosynthesis play key roles on our planet, including providing food and water security, intaking carbon dioxide created by human activity, and providing evaporative cooling to bring temperatures down.
Evaporative cooling occurs during photosynthesis when small openings on the leaf of a plant, called stomata, open up to take in carbon dioxide, according to the study. Through the open stomata, water from the plant evaporates back into the atmosphere. This process creates a cooling effect, which researchers say is crucial in dealing with rising temperatures and extreme heat waves due to climate change, possibly preventing heat stress and heat-related deaths.
The study’s authors say more research is needed to understand how ecosystems are impacted by climate change to make changes to human activity, including agriculture and forest management, to mitigate the impact on ecosystems.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Princess Anne paid tribute to veterans buried at a cemetery in British Columbia today, laying a wreath to honour the more than 2,500 military personnel and family members buried there.
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.