Could El Niño deliver record warmth to Eastern Canada? - The Weather Network

Plants with white, cotton-like tufts grow on a rocky hillside. /VCG Plants with white, cotton-like tufts grow on a rocky hillside. /VCG

MELBOURNE, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Extreme global warmth drove both mass extinctions and explosions in plant diversity during two periods over the past 140 million years, offering new insights into how flowering plants became dominant on Earth, a new study has found. The study examined fossilized pollen and spores to show that the mid-Cretaceous and early Cenozoic periods of extreme global warmth were central to plant evolution, both for flowering plants and the other main types on Earth, according to a statement released Thursday by Australia's University of Tasmania (UTAS). Researchers said that land plants sustain almost all terrestrial animals, fungi and bacteria, while flowering plants are the most productive and diverse group, with about 400,000 species worldwide. The team examined more than 60,000 fossil occurrences and applied methods that overcome the major biases in the fossil record, generating revised estimates of fossil pollen and spore diversity over the past 130 million years, according to the study published in Nature Plants.

The 20th annual Cape to Cabot road race is taking place tomorrow. The grueling 20 km trek sees participants running from one historic landmark to another: From Cape Spear to Cabot Tower on top of Signal Hill. The race starts at 8 a.m., and because of that there are a few related road closures in St. John’s. Between 7:45 and 11a.m. there will be numerous road closures along the route. A full list can be found online at VOCM dot com. Expect traffic impacts from 7:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. on routes including Blackhead Road, Southside Road, Water Street, Harbour Drive, Duckworth Street, Temperance Street and Signal Hill Road.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement