Probabilistic climate forecasts and inductive problems.

The development of ensemble-based 'probabilistic' climate forecasts is often seen as a promising avenue for climate scientists. Ensemble-based methods allow scientists to produce more informative, nuanced forecasts of climate variables by reflecting uncertainty from various sources, such as similarity to observation and model uncertainty. However, these developments present challenges as well as opportunities, particularly surrounding issues of experimental design and interpretation of forecast results. This paper discusses different approaches and attempts to set out what climateprediction.net and other large ensemble, complex model experiments might contribute to this research programme.

Habitability of planets around red dwarf stars.

Recent models indicate that relatively moderate climates could exist on Earth-sized planets in synchronous rotation around red dwarf stars. Investigation of the global water cycle, availability of photosynthetically active radiation in red dwarf sunlight, and the biological implications of stellar flares, which can be frequent for red dwarfs, suggests that higher plant habitability of red dwarf planets may be possible.

Interaction of beggiatoa and rice plant: detoxification of hydrogen sulfide in the rice rhizosphere.

Beggiatoa was obtained from six habitats, including four water-saturated soils from rice fields. The isolate of Beggiatoa from Bernard clay, when reinoculated into soil treatments from pure culture, significantly reduced hydrogen sulfide levels in soils and increased oxygen release from rice plants. Rice plants significantly increased Beggiatoa survival in flooded soils. Some hydrogen sulfide was necessary for survival of the Bernard clay isolate; high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide killed the Bernard clay isolate but were tolerated by a Crowley silt loam isolate from Eagle Lake, Texas. The results suggest that Beggiatoa may be an element of wetlands plant ecosystems.