Documenting Glacial Change. The Disappearing Aral Sea. Just 30 years ago, Asia's Aral Sea was a wide, shallow lake — the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world.
Today it is clearly in decline: it has lost nearly two-thirds of its volume of water, shrunk in size by more than half, and had its salinity level triple. Although this lake once contributed about 3 percent of the total fish catch of the former Soviet Union, fishing has ceased completely because freshwater species cannot tolerate the saltier conditions. What prompted this marked decline? Rivers that fed into the sea were diverted to provide irrigation for cotton croplands. The resulting major reduction of water flowing into the lake caused a significant net loss of water. The Disappearing Aral Sea. Compost Info. Compost Office. Composting is the transformation of organic material through decomposition into a soil-like material called compost or humus. It is an inexpensive and effective way to both reduce household waste and save dwindling landfill space.
What's more, composting converts waste into something useful: Compost added to topsoil can improve the soil's structure and overall chemistry, increase beneficial microbial activity, and enhance the soil's ability to retain moisture. On close inspection, a compost pile is a complex community of living organisms. Soil invertebrates, such as earthworms, millipedes, and sow bugs, reduce organic matter into smaller pieces.
Microbes — the bacteria and fungi responsible for most of the decomposing — then take over. Climate Wisconsin: Temperature Change. Climate Wisconsin: Temperature Change. Earth as a System. Understanding our planet as an integrated system of components and processes is a fundamental part of Earth and space science research.
Just as the human body is composed of interrelated systems that control specific bodily functions, Earth's four principal components — the atmosphere (air), lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), and biosphere (life) — perform critical roles that, together, support and sustain life on the planet. Nothing influences the subsystems that contribute to Earth's dynamic behavior more than heat.
TM-Big Bang. TM- Global Warming.avi TM-Earth Structure. Thematic Units.