Pollution News

New Study by University of Vermont : Climate Change Could Outpace EPA Lake Champlain Protections

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 16:48:00 +0000

New research by University of Vermont suggests that Lake Champlain may be more susceptible to damage from climate change than was previously understood—and that, therefore, the rules created by the EPA to protect the lake may be inadequate to prevent algae blooms and water quality problems as the region gets hotter and wetter.

“This paper provides very clear evidence that the lake could be far more sensitive to climate change than is captured by the current approach of the EPA,” said University of Vermont professor Asim Zia, the lead author of the new study. “We may need more interventions—and this may have national significance for how the agency creates regulations.”

The research was published November 17 in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

More than modest

The study, led by a team of ten scientists from UVM and one from Dartmouth College, used a powerful set of computer models that link the behavior of social and ecological systems. Their results show that accelerating climate change could easily outpace the EPA’s land-use management policies aimed at reducing the inflow of pollution from agricultural runoff, parking lots, deforestation, cow manure, lawn fertilizer, pet waste, streambank erosion—and other sources of excess phosphorus that cause toxic algae and lake health problems.

The EPA’s modeling to prepare its rules under what’s called the TMDL, for “total maximum daily load,” concluded that “any increases in the phosphorus loads to the lake due to the climate change are likely to be modest (i.e. 15%),” the agency writes. But the eleven scientists, within the Vermont EPSCoR program at UVM, who led the new modeling were concerned that this approach might underestimate the range of likely outcomes in a warmer future.

UVM professor Chris Koliba, a co-author and social scientist on the new study observed that, “there have been extensive efforts by federal regulators, the State of Vermont, and many other stakeholders to try to remediate and improve water quality in our watersheds. These should be honored. The message of our research is not to demean that work, but to say that in the long run protecting the lake is going to take a lot more than what's being proposed right now.”

Limited options

The new lake model, with support from the National Science Foundation, integrates a much larger assembly of possible global climate change models and greenhouse gas pathways than the current TMDL approach used in its modeling. And the Vermont scientists delved deeply into the indirect and interactive effects of land use changes, “legacy phosphorus” that’s been piling up for decades in the sediment at the bottom of the lake, and other factors. From this, they created a set of forecasts for what might happen to Lake Champlain over the next few decades out to 2040—including changes in water quality, temperature, and the severity of algae blooms. Their result: a much more dramatic range of possible outcomes—and greater uncertainty—than those assumed in the EPA’s approach.

In several of the plausible hotter and wetter scenarios that the model considers, a cascading set of problems could lead to phosphorous pollution levels in segments of Lake Champlain that “drastically limit land management options to maintain water quality,” the team wrote—especially in shallow bays like Missisquoi Bay that was the focus of the new study. In the long run, the risk of underestimating the impacts of climate change could lead to what the scientists call “intractable eutrophic conditions”—a permanent change in the lake that leads to self-perpetuating algae blooms, lost fisheries, and poor water quality.

New tool

The new integrated assessment model created by the NSF-funded team under the science leadership of Asim Zia provides a powerful tool that goes far beyond understanding Lake Champlain.

By connecting sub-models—of human behavior and land use, watershed dynamics, global climate models “downscaled” to the local region, and the hydrology of the lake itself—the overall model links together “the behavior of the watershed, lake, people and climate,” said Judith Van Houten, UVM professor of biology, director of Vermont EPSCoR, and co-author on the new study. This provides “a way forward to pull back the veil that often surrounds effects of climate change,” she says.

“Integrating these models is an enormous achievement that will be exportable across the US and be of practical use to many states and countries as they try to develop policies in the face of climate change,” she said. It can allow lake and land managers to test scenarios that draw in a huge range of time scales and types of interactions, ranging from water chemistry to air temperature to land use policies.

Only by solving this kind of model-of-many-models problem, “as we have done,” Van Houten said, could a tool be created that has predictive power for decades ahead, “allowing stakeholders to test their ideas,” she says, and even “describing the health of the lake out to the turn of the century.”

UVM hydrologist Arne Bomblies, a co-author on the study, noted that, “We show through this modeling work the importance of a more comprehensive consideration of climate change impact mechanisms to achieve water quality goals, and the need to adequately address climate change uncertainty.”

“Lake Champlain’s future is sensitive to climate change,” Bomblies said, “and similar challenges are faced by other impaired waters throughout the United States.”

From University of Vermont. Original written by Joshua E. Brown.

For 'greener' control measures Termite genome shows roadmap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 May 2014 19:36:00 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A team of international researchers has sequenced the genome of the Nevada dampwood termite, providing an inside look into the biology of the social insect and uncovering new genetic targets for pest control.

Michael Scharf, a Purdue University professor of entomology who participated in the collaborative study, said the genome could help researchers develop control strategies that are more specific than the broad-spectrum chemicals conventionally used to treat termite infestations.

"The termite genome reveals many unique genetic targets that can be disrupted for better termite control," said Scharf, who is the O. Wayne Rollins/Orkin Chair in Molecular Physiology and Urban Entomology. "Depending on which gene or protein that is targeted, we could disrupt termites' neurological processes, molting, digestive factors or cuticle formation. We're just limited by our imagination."

The Nevada dampwood termite is the first termite species to have its genome sequenced. While dampwood termites do not cause significant damage to buildings, they are closely related to key pests such as the eastern subterranean termite, which is the main pest species in Indiana and the Eastern U.S.

Termites are major pests of human structures, costing an estimated $40 billion in damage and control treatment each year. Having the genome in hand will enable researchers to look for common features expressed across termite species to find control targets effective for all types of termites, Scharf said.

Current termite control measures consist largely of synthetic chemical-based products, some of which are toxic to vertebrates.

"While current pesticides are very effective products, the problem is that you're injecting large volumes of them into the soil around the house," Scharf said. "It would be nice to move to a greener technology, and that's what the genome sequence could enable us to do."

Baiting termites with small quantities of treated wood that they could eat and share with colony-mates would be one such technique, he said. Newer technology such as gene silencing, which targets termite RNA to reduce the expression of critical genes, could also knock out the pests.

"With termites, you don't have to impact all of them," he said. "Targeting just a fraction of the workers could cause an entire colony to collapse."

The study also highlights genes related to chemical communication, the way in which termites "talk" to one another to signal aggression or a desire to reproduce.

"There's a lot of social strife in a termite colony, and it's got to stay cohesive to survive," Scharf said. "Chemical communication is crucial to keeping the labor force in place."

The genome could also help researchers better understand the symbiosis between termites and the more than 4,000 species of bacteria that thrive in their guts, aiding in processes such as digestion and defense. Previous studies of the termite gut were hampered by the inability to distinguish between termite and microbe genes. Understanding the gut biology is important to Scharf, who is researching the enzymes that termites use to digest wood. Identifying these enzymes could lead to novel methods of producing cellulosic biofuels.

"The genome provides a well-defined roadmap that could help us find the right cocktail of enzymes to break wood down into its simple sugars," he said. "It takes a lot of the guesswork out."

The study was published in Nature Communications Tuesday (May 20).

Funding for the research was provided by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinscharf and the Loewe Research Focus "Insect Biotechnology."

Writer: Natalie van Hoose, 765-496-2050, nvanhoos@purdue.edu

Source: Michael Scharf, 765-496-6710, mscharf@purdue.edu

Shrub growth decreases as winter temperatures fluctuate up

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 May 2014 19:39:00 +0000

Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.

“When winter temperatures fluctuate between being cold and warm enough for growth, plants deplete their resources trying to photosynthesize and end the winter with fewer reserves than they initially had. In the summer they have to play catch up,” said Melanie Harsch, a University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in biology and applied mathematics. She is lead author of a paper on the subject recently published in PLOS One.

Southern plants do better than Northern locals With climate changing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 May 2014 19:33:00 +0000

Can plants and animals evolve to keep pace with climate change? A study published May 19 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that for at least one widely-studied plant, the European climate is changing fast enough that strains from Southern Europe already grow better in the north than established local varieties.

Small and fast-growing, Arabidopsis thaliana is widely used as the “lab mouse” of plant biology. The plant grows in Europe from Spain to Scandinavia and because Arabidopsis is so well-studied, there is a reference collection of seeds derived from wild stocks across its native range. Originally collected from 20 to 50 years ago, these plants have since been maintained under controlled conditions in the seed bank.

Johanna Schmitt, formerly at Brown University and now a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology, and colleagues took banked seed samples originally from Spain, England, Germany and Finland and raised all the plants in gardens in all four locations.

“This shows that the adaptive optimum has moved really fast.”“The southern imports do better across the range than locals,” Schmitt said.

Seed stocks banked decades ago may no longer be the best for their locations of origin, she said, although they still may be critical for preserving genetic diversity, especially from warmer parts of the species range that may facilitate adaptation to future climates.

Whether wild Arabidopsis can evolve fast enough to thrive in warming conditions, or southern varieties move north fast enough to replace northern strains, remains an open question, Schmitt said.

Arabidopsis is a fast-growing, short-lived species. For forest managers, there is another question: can trees that sprouted 30 or 40 years ago adapt in place to a rapidly changing climate?

“This is a concern for foresters — trees live a long time, but will they die if the climate rug is pulled out from under them?” Schmitt said.

Coauthors on the study are Amity Wilczek, Martha Cooper and Tonia Korves, all at Brown University. The study was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Newly Discovered Receptors in Plants Help Them Recover from Environmental Changes, Pests, and Plant Wounds, MU Study Shows

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 15:40:00 +0000

Discovery could lead to herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides that naturally work with plants to make them stronger

COLUMBIA, Mo. – ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the main energy source inside a cell and is considered to be the high energy molecule that drives all life processes in animals and humans. Outside the cell, membrane receptors that attract ATP drive muscle control, neurotransmission, inflammation and development. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found the same receptor in plants and believe it to be a vital component in the way plants respond to dangers, including pests, environmental changes and plant wounds. This discovery could lead to herbicides, fertilizers and insect repellants that naturally work with plants to make them stronger.

“Plants don’t have ears to hear, fingers to feel or eyes to see,” said Gary Stacey an investigator in the MU Bond Life Sciences Center and professor of plant sciences in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “Plants use these chemical signals to determine if they are being preyed upon or if an environmental change is occurring that could be detrimental to the plant. We have evidence that when ATP is outside of the cell it is probably a central signal that controls the plant’s ability to respond to a whole variety of stresses.”

Stacey and fellow researchers, graduate student Jeongmin Choi and postdoctoral fellow Kiwamu Tanaka, screened 50,000 plants over two years to identify the ATP receptors. By isolating a key gene in the remaining plants, scientists found the receptor that aids in plant development and helps repair a plant during major events.

“We believe that when a plant is wounded, ATP is released into the wound and triggers the gene expressions necessary for repair,” Stacey said. “We think ATP is central to this kind of wound response and probably plays a role in development and a whole host of other plant responses to environmental changes and pests. We believe that with further study, researchers may be able to identify ways to naturally work with a plant’s own processes to protect it from major environmental events, plant wounds and insects.”

Future research will focus on how this receptor works with ATP, its protein structure, how it reacts to pests and how it may signal growth. The study, “Extracellular ATP signaling in plants,” was published in Science, and includes research from Sang Yeol Lee with the Plant Molecular Biology & Biotechnology Research Center, Gyeongsang National University in Korea. The study was funded in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy – Basic Energy Sciences and the Republic of Korea.

By: Jeff SossamonRoger Meissen from www.missouri.edu

More emphasis needed on recycling and reuse of Li-ion batteries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

The discovery of potential environmental and human health effects from disposal of millions of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries each year has led scientists to recommend stronger government policies to encourage recovery, recycling and reuse of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery materials. That's the conclusion of a new paper in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Oladele A. Ogunseitan and colleagues point out that Li-ion batteries have become mainstays for powering everything from smart phones to components in new jetliners, with global sales approaching $8 billion annually. They realized that the short life span (2-4 years) of Li-ion batteries in portable electronic devices would make a huge contribution to the electronic waste problem, which already is the fastest growing form of solid waste. So they decided to see whether potentially toxic materials leach out and become a health and environmental threat after disposal.

Using standardized leaching tests, hazard assessment models and other methods for evaluating hazardous waste, the scientists showed that Li-ion batteries from cell phones would meet federal government definitions of hazardous waste because of lead content. California standards would classify them as hazardous due to cobalt, copper and nickel content. "These findings support the need for stronger government policy at the local, national, and international levels to encourage recovery, recycling, and reuse of lithium battery materials," their report states.

Global nitrogen availability consistent for past 500 years, linked to carbon levels

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:26:00 +0000

A Kansas State University research team has found that despite humans increasing nitrogen production through industrialization, nitrogen availability in many ecosystems has remained steady for the past 500 years. Their work appears in the journal Nature.

"People have been really interested in nitrogen in current times because it's a major pollutant," said Kendra McLauchlan, assistant professor of geography and director of the university's Paleoenvironmental Laboratory. "Humans are producing a lot more nitrogen than in the past for use as crop fertilizer, and there is concern because excess levels can cause damage. The mystery, though, is whether the biosphere is able to soak up this extra nitrogen and what that means for the future."

Nitrogen is a key component of the ecosystem and the largest regulator of plant growth. It determines how much food, fuel and fiber the land can produce. It also determines how much carbon dioxide plants remove from the atmosphere, and it interacts with several components of the climate system. Excessive amounts of nitrogen in ecosystems contribute to global warming and impairment of downstream ecosystems.

McLauchlan worked with Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in biology; Joseph Williams, postdoctoral research associate; and Elizabeth Jeffers, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford. The team published their findings, "Changes in global nitrogen cycling during the Holocene epoch," in the current issue of Nature.

In the study the team also looked at how nitrogen availability changed thousands of years ago.

Roughly 15,000 years ago, the Earth began to warm, melting many glaciers and ice sheets that covered the landscape. Researchers found that Earth experienced an 8,000-yearlong decline in nitrogen availability as temperatures rose and carbon and nitrogen became locked up in soils. According to researchers, how the nitrogen cycle responded to these ancient global changes in carbon dioxide could be a glimpse into the future.

"What happened in the past might be a dry run for Earth's future," Craine said. "By looking at what happened millennia ago, we can see what controlled and prevented changes in nitrogen availability. This helps us understand and predict how things will change in the future."

The team collected and analyzed data from the sediment records of 86 lakes scattered across six continents. The lakes were distributed between tropical and temperate zones. With the data, the team was able to compare past and present cycling in various regions.

Researchers found that once most of the glaciers and ice sheets had melted around 11,000 years ago, the Earth continued to experience a global decline in nitrogen that lasted another 4,000 years.

"That was one of the really surprising findings," Craine said. "As the world was getting warmer and experiencing higher carbon dioxide levels than it had in the past, just like we are currently experiencing, the ecosystems were starting to lock carbon in the soils and in plants, also like we are seeing today. That created a long decline in nitrogen availability, and it scrubbed nitrogen out of the atmosphere."

McLauchlan said the most surprising finding, however, was that although humans have nearly doubled the amount of nitrogen to the ecosystems, globally nitrogen levels have remained stable at most sites for the past 500 years.

One reason may be that plants are using more nitrogen than they previously have, keeping nitrogen levels consistent with those thousands of years ago even though humans continue to add carbon dioxide and nitrogen to the atmosphere, McLauchlan said.

"Our best idea is that the nitrogen and carbon cycles were linked tightly back then and they are linked tightly today," McLauchlan said. "Humans are now manipulating both nitrogen and carbon at the same time, which means that there is no net effect on the biosphere."

The balance may be only temporary, McLauchlan said.

"Based on what we learned from the past, if the response of plants to elevated carbon dioxide slows, nitrogen availability is likely to increase and ecosystems will begin to change profoundly," McLauchlan said. "Now more than ever, it's important to begin monitoring our grasslands and forests for early warning signs."

The Nature study is an extension of McLauchlan's National Science Foundation CAREER Award that examines the history of nitrogen cycling in forested and grassland environments, her research on nitrogen concentrations and grasslands at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, andCraine's research on grasslands and climate change.

Credit

Before Dinosaurs' Era, Volcanic Eruptions Triggered Mass Extinction

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:28:00 +0000

More than 200 million years ago, a massive extinction decimated 76 percent of marine and terrestrial species, marking the end of the Triassic period and the onset of the Jurassic.

The event cleared the way for dinosaurs to dominate Earth for the next 135 million years, taking over ecological niches formerly occupied by other marine and terrestrial species.

It's not clear what caused the end-Triassic extinction, although most scientists agree on a likely scenario.

Over a relatively short time period, massive volcanic eruptions from a large region known as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) spewed forth huge amounts of lava and gas, including carbon dioxide, sulfur and methane.This sudden release of gases into the atmosphere may have created intense global warming, and acidification of the oceans, which ultimately killed off thousands of plant and animal species.

Now, researchers at MIT, Columbia University and other institutions have determined that these eruptions occurred precisely when the extinction began, providing strong evidence that volcanic activity did indeed trigger the end-Triassic extinction.

Results of the research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are published this week in the journal Science.

"These scientists have come close to confirming something we had only guessed at: that the mass extinction of this ancient time was indeed related to a series of volcanic eruptions," says Lisa Boush, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

"The effort is also the result of the EARTHTIME initiative, an NSF-sponsored project that's developing an improved geologic time scale for scientists to interpret Earth's history."

The scientists determined the age of basaltic lavas and other features found along the East Coast of the United States, as well as in Morocco--now-disparate regions that, 200 million years ago, were part of the supercontinent Pangaea.

The rift that ultimately separated these landmasses was also the site of CAMP's volcanic activity.

Today, the geology of both regions includes igneous rocks from the CAMP eruptions as well as sedimentary rocks that accumulated in an enormous lake. The researchers used a combination of techniques to date the rocks and to pinpoint CAMP's beginning and duration.

From its measurements, they reconstructed the region's volcanic activity 201 million years ago, discovering that the eruption of magma--along with carbon dioxide, sulfur and methane--occurred in repeated bursts over a period of 40,000 years, a short span in geologic time.

"This extinction happened at a geological instant in time," says Sam Bowring, a geologist at MIT. "There's no question the extinction occurred at the same time as the first eruption."

In addition to Bowring, the paper's co-authors are Terrence Blackburn and Noah McLean of MIT; Paul Olsen and Dennis Kent of Columbia; John Puffer of Rutgers University; Greg McHone, an independent researcher from New Brunswick, N.J.; E. Troy Rasbury of Stony Brook University; and Mohammed Et-Touhami of the Université Mohammed Premier (Mohammed Premier University) Oujda, Morocco.

Blackburn is the paper's lead author.

More than a coincidence

The end-Triassic extinction is one of five major mass extinctions in the last 540 million years of Earth's history.

For several of these events, scientists have noted that large igneous provinces, which provide evidence of widespread volcanic activity, arose at about the same time.

But, as Bowring points out, "just because they happen to approximately coincide doesn't mean there's cause and effect."

For example, while massive lava flows overlapped with the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, scientists have linked that extinction to an asteroid collision.

"If you want to make the case that an eruption caused an extinction, you have to be able to show at the highest possible precision that the eruption and the extinction occurred at exactly the same time," Bowring says.

For the time of the end-Triassic, Bowring says that researchers have dated volcanic activity to right around the time fossils disappear from the geologic record, providing evidence that CAMP may have triggered the extinction.

But these estimates have a margin of error of one to two million years. "A million years is forever when you're trying to make that link," Bowring says.

For example, it's thought that CAMP emitted a total of more than two million cubic kilometers of lava.

If that amount of lava were spewed over a period of one to two million years, it wouldn't have the same effect as if it were emitted over tens of thousands of years.

"The timescale over which the eruption occurred has a big effect," Bowring says.

Tilting toward extinction

To determine how long the volcanic eruptions lasted, the group combined two dating techniques: astrochronology and geochronology.

The former is a technique that links sedimentary layers in rocks to changes in the tilt of the Earth.

For decades, scientists have observed that the Earth's orientation changes in regular cycles as a result of gravitational forces exerted by neighboring planets.

The Earth's axis tilts at regular cycles, returning to its original tilt every 26,000 years. Such orbital variations change the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, which in turn has an effect on the planet's climate, known as Milankovich cycles.

This cyclical change in climate can be seen in the types of sediments deposited in the Earth's crust.

Scientists can determine a rock's age by first identifying cyclical variations in deposition of sediments in quiet bodies of water, such as deep oceans or large lakes.

A cycle of sediment corresponds with a cycle of the Earth's tilt, established as a known period of years.

By seeing where a rock lies in those sedimentary layers, scientists can get a good idea of how old it is. To obtain precise estimates, researchers have developed mathematical models to determine the Earth's tilt over millions of years.

Bowring says the technique is good for directly dating rocks up to 35 million years old, but beyond that, it's unclear how reliable the technique is.

He and colleagues used astrochronology to estimate the age of the sedimentary rocks, then tested those estimates against high-precision dates from 200-million-year-old rocks in North America and Morocco.

The geologists broke apart rock samples to isolate tiny crystals known as zircons, which they analyzed to determine the ratio of uranium to lead.

The technique enabled the team to date the rocks to within approximately 30,000 years--a precise measurement in geologic terms.

Taken together, the geochronology and astrochronology techniques gave the geologists precise estimates for the onset of volcanism 200 million years ago.

The techniques revealed three bursts of magmatic activity over 40,000 years--a short period of time during which massive amounts of carbon dioxide and other gas emissions may have drastically altered Earth's climate.

While the evidence is the strongest thus far for linking volcanic activity with the end-Triassic extinction, Bowring says that more work can be done.

"The CAMP province extends from Nova Scotia all the way to Brazil and West Africa," he says. "I'm dying to know whether those are exactly the same age."

-NSF-

Credit

Study shows resources giveaway in Latin America; Outdated model tramples human rights, environment

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:22:00 +0000

A new study reveals that governments in Latin America have returned to natural resources extraction to fuel development—while paying scant attention to the impact mining, oil exploration and other activities have on the environment or on the people who own the land. The study, which reported on both domestic and international investments, was released at the 14th Rights and Resources Initiative Dialogue on Forests, Governance, and Climate Change bringing stakeholders and indigenous, Afro-descendant and rural community leaders from 13 nations to Bogotá this week.

"We seem to have returned to an almost colonial mentality," said Margarita Florez, Executive Director, Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad, whose study reviewed the recent activities impacts of extractive activities on lands owned by Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and other forest communities in Colombia, Panama and Guatemala. "Our governments are being shortsighted. They are undervaluing renewable resources such as forests and water, and are putting the rights of foreign investors before those who have lived and worked the land for generations."

Florez's study strengthens reports of a growing trend in the region of increased dependence on the export of non-renewable resources, including gold, silver, oil and natural gas. Foreign direct Investment (FDI) in Colombia, for example, has increased more than 500% between 2000 and 2010, and most of the funds are going into mining and related activities. In Peru, mining now ranks fourth in importance among industries that contribute to the gross domestic product.

In all four countries Florez found repeated instances of forced displacement of local peoples, the presence of non-state security forces, large-scale deforestation, damage to local sources of water in terms of both quantity and quality, loss of access to food sources, illegal land acquisition, the weakening of the social fabric of communities, and the emergence of parallel economic activities with significant implications for traditional communities.

The researchers also provide an overview of the legal and fiscal policies that govern investors and their use of lands, demonstrating that the laws are being interpreted so they benefit investors, with detriment to both the environment and the rights and livelihoods of the people who inhabit the lands.

While all the countries covered in the study have environmental licensing regulations on paper that require environmental impact studies (EIS), Florez said, relevant laws have been weakened, and there is little technical expertise and too few human resources to properly control the rapidly expanding extractive industries in the region.

In the long-run, the lack of concern for tenure rights could affect the financial health of investors as well as the livelihoods of those who live on the land, according to another recent report commissioned by the non-profit Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

In The Financial Risks of Insecure Land Tenure: An Investment View, authors looked at companies involved in land acquisitions worldwide, revealing "an astonishing amount of financial damage." Investors faced massive increases in operating costs—as much as 29 times above a normal baseline scenario, in some cases having to abandon their operations because they had failed to recognize customary or local land rights.

"Examples from around the globe are showing that these new pressures -- of mining, infrastructure, agribusiness, oil palm and biofuels are happening simultaneously – making it tremendously challenging for local people to defend themselves," said Andy White, Coordinator of RRI. "But the risks don't lie just with the communities and their defenders. Faced with the inevitable reaction from communities whose land has been sold out from under them, a growing number of investors have lost millions."

In 2009, for example, the U.S.-based Muriel Mining Corporation's project was suspended, after the Superior Tribunal and the Supreme Court of Justice in Colombia found that the project did not respect the communities' right to free, prior, and informed consultation and consent.

"The solution is to create territorial planning based on an environmental and rights-based perspective, in such a way that everyone knows what lands are open for exploitation and which are not," Florez said. "Furthermore, any company that has an interest in going onto traditionally-owned lands should only be able to do so following previous consultation with the people who own those lands. This is a right that has been recognized under international law, and often under the laws of the same set of countries."

The choice confronting governments in Latin America today is whether to embrace a more sustainable development path built on inclusiveness and respect for the rights of all their citizens, or instead hand out their people's lands and forests to industrial investors.

"The investment 'boom' in Latin America can be an opportunity to overcome failed models of the past, rather than a threat to the livelihoods of those who have depended on the land for generations," White said. "We just need to figure out how to shape and guide this investment to promote new kinds of business and development models that respect human rights and local land rights, and also produce sound social and economic development."

He added that the plans that underlie government development strategies often give the illusion that countries have evaluated the costs and benefits of their choices. However, development sectors competing with one another for the next deal neither measure nor address the real impact of the projects on local communities.

"Without the recognition of local rights, transparency of deals and decisions, and mechanisms to ensure accountability of governments and investors, there will be a rollback of environmental, human and tenure rights of forest communities," said Omaira Bolanos, RRI's Regional Program Director for Latin America. "Foreign investors will prefer countries with weakened regulations to expand their investments."

"Governments, citizens, civil society and business-people must work together to address the risks and opportunities of advancing the economic development and prosperity all Latin Americans," she added. "But this must be done without harming the human and tenure rights of rural, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities."

Credit

Study shows wildfires' positive and negative economic impacts

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Despite the disruptions they cause, large wildfires are a mixed economic bag for nearby communities, according to findings from a research project by the University of Oregon's Ecosystem Workforce Program and its collaborators.
Wildfires disrupt the lives of workers, employers and families, and lead to longer-term instability in local labor markets, the project funded by Joint Fire Science Program found. But on the flip side of the coin, countywide employment and wages increase in some sectors during the wildfires, often mitigating the short-term employment disruptions wildfires cause.

"The increased spending on services related to fire suppression efforts certainly does not undo the social and economic damage caused by a wildfire," said Cassandra Moseley, director of the Ecosystem Workforce Program and the Institute for a Sustainable Environment.
"But that initial burst of money does offset some of the immediate economic damage." Moseley said. "How the Forest Service spends its suppression money greatly influences how a community experiences a fire."
The UO study found that employment and wages in a county tend to increase during large wildfires. But those same fires often lead to longer-term instability in local labor markets, by amplifying seasonal "ups and downs" in employment over the subsequent year. Among the sectors most affected in the months following a fire are tourism and natural resources, which are often vital to the well-being of rural communities.
There has been little previous research on the effects of large wildfires on local employment and wages. The study, done in collaboration with researchers at the U.S. Forest Service, analyzed the impacts on labor markets as well as the extent of economic relief that results from spending on fire suppression. The purpose of the study was to help fire managers, policy makers and community leaders understand the short- and long-term effects of wildfires so they can better plan for the challenges and opportunities wildfires present.
The amount of fire suppression money spent by the U.S. Forest Service in the counties where large wildfires occurred ranged from zero to 25 percent, but averaged about 6 percent, according to the study. But rural and resource-dependent counties may take the biggest hit from wildfires because of their limited capture of fire suppression spending.
The UO research is based on an in-depth case study of the community economic impacts of a series of wildfires in Trinity County, California, in 2008, along with Bureau of Labor Statistics and Forest Service data that compared labor market trends in selected Western counties between 2004 and 2008. The research group will be releasing a number of reports later this year that detail the study's results.
Source : http://www.eurekalert.org

Airborne Technology Helps Manage Elephants

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:25:00 +0000

For years, scientists have debated how big a role elephants play in toppling trees in South African savannas. Tree loss is a natural process, but it is increasing in some regions, with cascading effects on the habitat for many other species. Using high resolution 3-D mapping, Carnegie scientists have for the first time quantitatively determined tree losses across savannas of Kruger National Park. They found that elephants are the primary agents—their browsing habits knock trees over at a rate averaging 6 times higher than in areas inaccessible to them. The research also found that elephants prefer toppling trees in the 16-to-30 foot (5-8 m) range, with annual losses of up to 20% in these height classes. The findings, published in Ecology Letters, bolster our understanding of elephant conservation needs and their impacts, and the results could help to improve savanna management practices.

“Previous field studies gave us important clues that elephants are a key driver of tree losses, but our airborne 3-D mapping approach was the only way to fully understand the impacts of elephants across a wide range of environmental conditions found in savannas,” commented lead author Greg Asner of Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology. “Our maps show that elephants clearly toppled medium-sized trees, creating an “elephant trap” for the vegetation. These elephant-driven tree losses have a ripple effect across the ecosystem, including how much carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere.”

The technology used for monitoring trees is Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), mounted on the fixed-wing Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO). It provides detailed 3-D images of the vegetation canopy at tree-level resolution using laser pulses that sweep across the African savanna. The CAO’s lasers can detect even small changes in each tree’s height, and its vast coverage is far superior to previous field-based and aerial photographic evaluations.
The scientists considered an array of environmental variables spread over four study landscapes within Kruger and in very large areas fenced off to prevent herbivore entry. For years, four of these exclosures have kept out all herbivores larger than a rabbit. Two other partial enclosures have permitted entry of herbivores other than elephants. The scientists identified and monitored 58,000 individual trees from the air, inside and outside of these exclosures and across the landscape in 2008 and again in 2010. They found that nearly 9% of the trees decreased in height in two years, and that the mapped changes in treefall were linked to different climate and terrain conditions. Most tree losses occurred in lowland areas with more moisture and on soils high in nutrients that harbor trees preferred by elephants for browsing. Critically, the partial exclosures definitively identified elephants, as opposed to other herbivores and fire, as the major agent of tree losses over the two-year period.

“These spatially explicit patterns of treefall highlight the challenges faced by conservation area managers in Africa, who must know where and how their decisions impact ecosystem health and biodiversity. They should rely on rigorous science to evaluate alternative scenarios and management options, and the CAO helps provide the necessary quantification,” commented co-author Shaun Levick.

Danie Pienaar, head of scientific services of the South African National Parks remarked, “This collaboration between external scientists and conservation managers has led to exciting and ground-breaking new insights to long-standing questions and challenges. Knowing where increasing elephant impacts occur in sensitive landscapes allows park managers to take appropriate and focused action. These questions have been difficult to assess with conventional ground-based field approaches over large scales such as those in Kruger National Park.”

Source: Carnegiescience.edu

How iron reacts in the environment?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Using ultrafast X-rays, scientists for the first time have watched how quickly electrons hop their way through rust nanoparticles.This gives key insight to how iron oxide, one of the most abundant minerals in soil, behaves and alters the condition of soil and water around it. This also demonstrates the potential of time-resolved X-ray and optical methods to study chemical reactions at the subnanoscale in other semiconductors.

Scientists have long known that certain minerals, redox active ions and biological proteins can exchange electrons to initiate chemical changes in the mineral. But the process of how electrons hop from atom to atom inside a nanoparticle to facilitate change has been too fast to see until now. The same process controls charge collection in solar energy devices involving metal oxides, and thus this work may have relevance to new energy technologies.

Using the Advanced Photon Source and Center for Nanoscale Materials at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, an international team of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne, the Technical University of Denmark, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Polish Academy of Sciences detailed how electrons hop inside iron particles. This plays a significant role in controlling how the iron reacts with the environment.
Iron is an integral part of the natural environment and many important chemical reactions involve changes in iron that are caused by an electron being transferred to the iron from other minerals, water or biological agents. Electron transfer to iron(III) oxides creates iron(II) sites in the mineral. But the iron(II) site is not fixed, as the electron can hop to other sites. Because iron(II) is more soluble than iron(III), when an electron hops to an iron atom at the mineral surface, that iron(II) atom can be released into solution, and dramatically affect the chemistry and mineralogy of soils and surface waters.
Iron reduction is particularly important for the mobility of contaminants in the environment. Because many contaminants, most notably uranium, bind to iron, the change also can affect the spread of these contaminants. A soluble form of iron will help spread the contamination while iron with larger particles can be used to trap contaminants in filter systems. Knowledge of how fast iron oxides undergo reaction and dissolution – controlled in part by the electron hopping rates – will help the management of some contaminant remediation efforts.
"We believe that this work is the starting point for a new area of time-resolved geochemistry," said Benjamin Gilbert, a scientist at LBNL. "Time-resolved science seeks to understand chemical reaction mechanisms by making various kinds of "movies" that depict in real time how atoms and electrons move during reactions. We have imported some of these ideas and approaches into geochemistry, and are very excited about the future possibilities."
The research team detailed their findings and how they made these "movies" in a paper "Electron Small Polarons and Their Mobility in Iron (Oxyhdr)oxide Nanoparticles" published Sept. 6 in the journal Science.
Electron transfer was only made viewable by recent advances in light source technology that allow scientists to take a quick succession of pictures to track the action of the electron traveling through the iron oxide. The journey takes pico-to-nano-seconds, depending on temperature and the structure of the iron oxide.
"Much like a sports photographer must use a camera with a very fast shutter speed to capture an athlete in motion without blurring, to be able to watch electrons moving, we needed to use a exceedingly short and very bright (powerful) pulse of X-rays," said Jordan Katz, the lead author on the Science paper, formerly of LBNL and now a scientist at Denison University. "For this study, the X-rays were produced at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source."
Because iron oxide is a semiconductor, the research team had to develop a way other than an electric charge to jump-start the process. They adapted a pump-probe technique from research in ultrafast science and also used for nanomaterial photovoltaic materials. First, they used laser light to excite a dye molecule sensitized on the surface of the iron to inject an electron into the iron. They used femtosecond optical transient absorption spectroscopy at the Center for Nanoscale Materials to show that the light-initiated electron transfer was extremely fast – much faster than the thermally-driven electron hopping they sought to measure. Then they captured different instantaneous snapshots of the rapid electron transfer process by using ultra-short pulses of X-rays like the shutter on a camera, collecting a sequence of X-ray spectra that indicated the location of the electrons on the subnanosecond timescale.
This technique can be used to study all types of electron transfer in nature and in synthesized materials such as nanofilms aimed at making solar cells more efficient.
"This opens up studies with many other semiconductor materials," said Xiaoyi Zhang, a scientist at the APS. "The same technique of using a light-induced electron to initiate chemistry can be applied to studies of solar cells, hydrogen generation, catalysis and electrochemical (battery) energy storage. It can provide new insights into how electrons or energy flow inside materials."
The APS is uniquely situated to undertake this type of study.
"We used two different specialties of the APS," said Karena Chapman, a scientist at the APS. "The APS is a scientific hub for understanding dynamic processes in nanoparticles. As the materials we investigate become more complex, we only completely understand them by combining what we learn from several different techniques and beamlines."
Beamline 11-ID-D provides an up-close view of individual electron hops by allowing scientists to look at action on multiple time scales so that they can see all of the processes that underlie electron or energy transfer. Scientists can look at action as fast as 80 picoseconds, or 80 trillionths of a second, and the planned APS upgrade will enable even faster viewing. That will allow scientists to see the final step in the process, the electron being injected from the photosensitized molecule to the iron or another semiconductor. That process takes up to several picoseconds.
At the same time, beamline 11-ID-B, the U.S.'s first and only dedicated pair-distribution-function beamline, provided scientists with more of a global view of the resulting atomic structure, which is out of reach for other techniques. Taken together, all of these techniques provided the most complete picture ever of electron hopping and the transformation of iron (III) to iron (II).

Scientists 'read' the ash from the Icelandic volcano 2 years after its eruption

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 May 2012 03:34:00 +0000

the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull reached the Iberian Peninsula and brought airports to a halt all over Europe. At the time, scientists followed its paths using satellites, laser detectors, sun photometers and other instruments. Two years later they have now presented the results and models that will help to prevent the consequences of such natural phenomena.
The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull in the south of Iceland began on the 20 March, 2010. On the 14 April it began to emit a cloud of ash that moved towards Northern and Central Europe, resulting in the closure of airspace. Hundreds of planes and millions of passengers were grounded.

After a period of calm, volcanic activity intensified once again on the 3 May. This time the winds transported the aerosols (a mixture of particles and gas) towards Spain and Portugal where some airports had to close between the 6 and 12 May. This was also a busy time for scientists who took advantage of the situation to monitor the phenomenon. Their work has now been published in the Atmospheric Environment journal.
"The huge economic impact of this event shows the need to describe with precision how a volcanic plume spreads through the atmosphere. It also highlighted the importance of characterising in detail its particles composition and establishing its concentration limits to ensure safe air navigation," explains Arantxa Revuelta, researcher at the Spanish Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT).
The team identified the volcanic ash cloud as it passed over Madrid thanks to LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), the most effective system for assessing aerosol concentration at a height. The CIEMAT station is one of 27 belonging to the European network EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network) that use this instrument. Its members have also published a publicly accessible article on the matter in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics journal.
Using LIDAR technology, scientists direct a laser beam towards the sky, like a saber in Star Wars. The signal reflected back from particles provides information on their physical and chemical properties. A maximum aerosol value of 77 micrograms/m3 was estimated, which as a concentration is below the risk value established for air navigation (2 miligrams/m3).
Furthermore, the levels of particles rich in sulphates shot up even though they were fine particles (with a minimum diameter of 1 micra). This meant that they were much smaller than those particles over 20 micra found in countries in Central Europe.
These thicker particles are generally considered to be 'ash' and can really damage aircraft motors. The fine matter, like that detected over the Iberian Peninsula, is similar to that commonly found in urban and industrial areas. It is subject to study more for its damaging health effects rather than its impact on air navigation.
NASA's network of sun photometers It is important to track the evolution of all the particles in order to provide information to managers responsible for this kind of crisis. Working in this field were members of NASA's AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) network, which is made up by the different tracking stations in Spain and Portugal (integrated into RIMA) equipped with automatic sun photometers. These instruments focus towards the sun and collect data each hour on the aerosol optical thickness and their distribution by size in the atmospheric column.
The combined use of sun photometers and LIDAR technology boosts data collection. For example, the station in Granada and Évora revealed that the volcanic ash cloud circulated between 3 km and 6 km above the ground.
"Instruments like LIDAR are more powerful on an analytical level but their spatial and weather coverage is low. This means that sun photometers come in very useful in identifying volcanic aerosols when no other measures are available," outlines the researcher Carlos Toledano from the University of Valladolid and member of the AERONET-RIMA network.
From their stations it was confirmed that "there is great variation between the size and characteristics of the volcanic aerosol particles over successive periods." This was also verified by members of another European Network, EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Program), which traces atmospheric pollution and is managed in Spain by the National Meteorological Agency. This group confirmed an increase in aerosols and their sulphate concentrations over the Iberian Peninsula and recorded the presence of sulphur dioxide from the Icelandic volcano.
Models and Predictions The large part of observations of Eyjafjallajökull's eruption, which were taken from aeroplanes, satellites or from earth, helped scientists validate their prediction and particle dispersion models.
"During the management of the crisis it became evident that there are still no precise models that provide real time data for delimiting an affected airspace, for example," admits Toledano. Nevertheless, his team put the FLEXPART model to test using empirical data. From the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), it managed to calculate the arrival of volcanic ash in certain situations.
The powerful equipment available at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) was used on this occasion to validate a model which had been developed at the centre: the Fall3d. As one of the authors Arnau Folch states, "the model can be applied to the dispersion of any type of particle. But, in practice, it has been especially designed for particles of volcanic origin, like ash."
Volcanologists and metereologists use this model to re-enact past events and, above all, to make predictions. More specifically it predicts the amount of aerosols in the ground and their concentration in the air. It is therefore of "special interest" to civil aviation. The final objective is to make this type of prediction so as to be prepared during the next volcanic eruption.

Air pollution linked to diabetes and hypertension in African-American women

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:48:00 +0000

The incidence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension increases with cumulative levels of exposure to nitrogen oxides, according to a new study led by researchers from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University. The study, which appears online in the journal Circulation, was led by Patricia Coogan, D.Sc., associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health and the SEC.
While it is well established that air pollution increases the risks of acute cardiovascular events such as stroke and myocardial infarction, it is not known whether exposure increases the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. However, emerging findings from laboratory and clinical studies suggest that air pollution may predispose to both conditions.

Researchers assessed the risks of incident hypertension and diabetes associated with exposure to nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM2.5) in a cohort of approximately 4,000 African American women living in Los Angeles. NOx are indicators of traffic-related air pollution. From 1995-2005, 531 incident cases of hypertension and 183 incident cases of diabetes occurred among the participants in the Los Angeles area. The risk of diabetes increased by a significant 24 percent, and the risk of hypertension by 11 percent, for each 12 ppb increase in exposure to NOx. There also were suggestive increases in risks of both diseases associated with exposure to (PM2.5), but the evidence for this was weaker than for NOx.
According to the researchers, two previous follow-up studies have suggested that traffic-related pollution increased the incidence of diabetes, but no African Americans were included. "A link between air pollution and the risks of diabetes and hypertension is of particular importance to African American women, because the incidence of both conditions is almost twice as high in African American women as in white women and African Americans live in more highly polluted areas than white Americans," said Patricia Coogan, D.Sc., the study's lead author. "In addition, even a modest effect of air pollutants on the risks of hypertension and diabetes will have significant public health impact due to the high incidence of these conditions and the ubiquity of exposure to air pollution," she added.

Benefits of new air quality rules greatly outweigh costs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:35:00 +0000

A report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides an expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA). These include the first national standards for reducing dangerous emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. Though the cost of implementing the new regulations is estimated to be about $195 billion over the next 20 years or so, the economic, environmental and health benefits amount to well over $1 trillion, considerably outweighing the control costs, according to the report, which was issued by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Patrick L. Kinney, ScD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and director of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health's Program on Climate and Health, and MPH candidate Amruta Nori-Sarma also examined the role that environmental justice issues play in the development of EPA regulations. The researchers further analyzed the findings in light of a recent poll conducted by the Joint Center on climate change, health and conservation behaviors.

Building on the data from EPA, the report finds that six new air quality regulations would offer benefits and savings in doctors' visits, hospitalizations, and a reduction in cases of bronchitis, respiratory illness, and aggravated asthma particularly for African American populations and residents in vulnerable communities. The rules analyzed include the Heavy-duty Vehicles Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Standards, the 2017-2025 Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle GHG Emissions and Café Standards, the Utility Air Toxics Rule, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, the Boiler MACT, and the standards of Performance for Petroleum Refineries
The paper highlights the importance of the two motor vehicle rules, since urban air pollution tends to be dominated by motor vehicle emissions. The most beneficial of these rules is the light-duty vehicle rule, which will cost an estimated $140 billion but bring about $561 billion in benefits that include billions of barrels of oil saved, reduced emissions, and the health benefits related to non-greenhouse gas pollutants over the lifetime of vehicles sold between 2017 and 2025. According to the analysis, these will yield net societal benefits of $421 billion.
The findings also show that Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will provide significant health and environmental benefits to low income, minority, and tribal individuals in both rural areas and inner cities in the regions affected by the rule.
The poll, which surveyed 1500 African American adults in Atlanta, Cleveland and Philadelphia, asked respondents about issues related to air quality, climate change and the need for new regulations.
Among the poll's key findings:

A solid majority (59%) of African Americans polled in the three cities believe that global warming is causing serious problems
84% of respondents want the federal government to take strong action to deal with global warming
80% support EPA's Toxics Rule
40% described the air quality where they lived as excellent or good, while 59% said the air quality where they lived was fair or poor
83% believe that environmental factors such as air pollution play a major role in causing asthma in children

The authors believe that the close correspondence between public opinion and analytical findings pointing to the health and economic benefits of further air quality improvements should provide a strong mandate for action by the federal government.

Saving millions of lives and protecting our climate through clean cooking options

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:21:00 +0000

For many people in the developing world getting enough food to eat is a persistent challenge. However the challenge does not stop there. A new issue of the international journal Energy Policy details the human and environmental cost of cooking food using the only energy source available to many people, woody biomass.
The Special Issue explores the type of decision frameworks that are needed to guide policy development for clean cooking fuels and to ensure that the provision of clean energy becomes a central component of sustainable development. Additionally, it presents a research agenda and an action agenda to facilitate the development and adoption of cleaner cooking fuels and technologies and analyses why past programs to improve access to clean cooking fuels have succeeded or failed.
Universal access to clean energy is a stated goal of the United Nations and is a key entry point for reducing emissions of black carbon and other particulates - known to negatively impact the climate. The scale of the issue and opportunity to minimise emissions through adoption of clean cooking fuels and stoves was highlighted in a new report from the UN Environment Program released on Friday 25th November and will be a focus of discussions at the UNFCCC climate talks commencing in Durban today.

While the use of biomass for cooking is in itself not a cause for concern, it is the unsustainable harvesting and dirty and inefficient burning of the wood that inhibits social and economic development, harms the environment, and takes a significant toll on human health. Latest estimates from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) indicate that in 2005, over 2 million people, mostly woman and children, died prematurely due to household air pollution – soot and other particles that are emitted when biomass is burned indoors in poorly ventilated environments.
“The collection and burning of woody biomass to cook food has consequences on many levels,” says co editor of the Special Issue and a lead author Shonali Pachauri from IIASA. “It traps women [in particular] in poverty as they must devote much of their time to wood collection. It affects the environment and climate due to deforestation and the emission of black carbon and greenhouse gases that result from burning, and tragically it is costing the lives of many woman and children in the developing world, predominantly in India, sub-Saharan African nations and China.”
The articles presented in the Special Issue consider the options for transitioning the nearly 2.7 billion people globally who are reliant on traditional biomass fuels to cleaner cooking fuels, such as LPG, biogas, ethanol and biodiesel, as well as electricity. “Much of the emphasis to date has been on increasing access to electricity, which while important may be too slow a path and may not address cooking energy needs (electricity is rarely used for cooking in many developing countries). Providing improved cooking stoves to households will have an immediate positive impact on people and the environment.
The issue presents new research findings on many issues associated with resolving the challenge of improving access to clean fuels and cookstoves including; how to measure and monitor energy poverty; an evaluation of the health and climate benefits of cookstove replacement options; how to improve the likelihood of adoption and sustained use of cleaner cooking stoves and fuels, and a cost - benefit analysis of reducing indoor air pollution. The research draws strongly on case studies conducted in India, Nepal, Kenya, Sudan, Indonesia and Mexico.
The issue also refers to several significant and recent initiatives established to raise awareness and improve access to clean cooking options and explains why they may or may not succeed. One example is the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, an international program established in 2010 with a goal of equipping 100 million homes with clean cooking stoves and fuel by 2020. The program is based on the idea that carbon credits will encourage the adoption of clean cooking stoves. However, experience to date suggests that only international players with good contacts to international institutions will be able to access this money. This raises questions about how likely the program is to be adopted and persist at the community level, but also raises the more important issue of how business and the policy communities must work with communities to facilitate change. The articles included in this Special Issue reflect discussions that were held at an Istanbul Workshop in 2008 as part of the annual conference of the International Association for Energy Economics. Participants included the public and private sector as well as NGOs and donor organizations representing Asia, Africa and OECD countries. The Workshop brought energy economists and policy makers together to better understand the knowledge deficit when it comes to overcoming energy poverty and the enormous opportunities for the business, research and international development communities to work together to overcome this pervasive and harmful issue.
Universal access to clean energy remains a key goal of organizations like the United Nations and is a significant impediment to attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals. It is also key to achieving other global objectives with regards to climate change mitigation and ecosystem management. The research presented in this issue helps to inform how to achieve access for all.
Reference: Energy Policy Vol 39 (2011) Household cooking fuels and technologies in developing countries. Shonali Pachauri, Hisham Zerriffi, Wesley Foell, Daniel Spreng (Editors).

Climate change will show which animals can take the heat

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 08:04:00 +0000

As climate change continues to take hold this century, which species will be able to take the heat? Researchers at Brown University, in simulations examining species and their projected range, show that animals' ability to withstand fluctuations in temperature during their climate-induced journeys will be a crucial determinant of their ultimate survival.
In a new study based on simulations examining species and their projected range, researchers at Brown University argue that whether an animal can make it to a final, climate-friendly destination isn't a simple matter of being able to travel a long way. It’s the extent to which the creatures can withstand rapid fluctuations in climate along the way that will determine whether they complete the journey.

In a paper in Ecology Letters, Regan Early and Dov Sax examined the projected “climate paths” of 15 amphibians in the western United States to the year 2100. Using well-known climate forecasting models to extrapolate decades-long changes for specific locations, the researchers determined that more than half of the species would become extinct or endangered. The reason, they find, is that the climate undergoes swings in temperature that can trap species at different points in their travels. It’s the severity or duration of those climate swings, coupled with the given creature’s persistence, that determines their fate.
“Our work shows that it’s not just how fast you disperse, but also your ability to tolerate unfavorable climate for decadal periods that will limit the ability of many species to shift their ranges,” said Sax, assistant professor of biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “As a consequence, many species that aren’t currently of conservation concern are likely to become endangered by the end of the century.”
The researchers chose to study frogs, salamanders, and toads because their living areas are known and their susceptibility to temperature changes has been well studied. Based on that information, they modeled the migratory paths for each creature, estimating their travels to be about 15 miles per decade. The climate models showed fluctuations in temperatures in different decades severe enough that four creatures would become extinct, while four other species would become endangered at the least. The other seven would “fare OK,” Early said, “but they all lose out a lot.”
The temperature swings can cause a species to be stopped in its tracks, which means that it has to do double time when the climate becomes more favorable. “Instead of getting warmer, it can get cooler,” said Early, the paper’s lead author, of the climate forecasts. “That means that species can take two steps forward, but may be forced to take one step backward, because the climate may become unsuitable for them. Unfortunately, if they take a step back, they have to make up all of that ground. That’s what causes the gaps in the climate path.”
The study is unique also in that it considers at species’ ability to weather adverse intervals. Early and Sax said unfavorable climate lasting a decade would put the species in a bind. If the interval lasted two decades or more, it was likely the species would become extinct. “We’ve identified one critical piece of information that no one’s really thought about, and that is what’s the ability of species to persist under non-optimal conditions,” Sax said. "If you move to those conditions, can it hang on for a while? The answer will vary for different species.”
Rapid changes to climate already being witnessed underscores the study’s value. A growing number of scientists believe climate change is intensifying so quickly that the planet is hurtling toward a sixth mass extinction in history — and the first widespread perishing of creatures since the dinosaurs’ reign ended some 65 million years ago. For the first time, species are grappling not just with projected temperatures not seen for the last 2 million years but also with a human-shaped landscape that has compromised and fragmented animals’ natural habitats.
Confronted with these realities, Early and Sax say wildlife managers may need to entertain the idea of relocating species, an approach that is being hotly debated in conservation circles. “This study suggests that there are a lot of species that won’t be able to take care of themselves,” Sax said. “Ultimately, this work suggests that habitat corridors will be ineffective for many species and that we may instead need to consider using managed relocation more frequently than has been previously considered.”
Brown University, the U.S. Forest Service and the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology funded the research.

Steep increase in global CO2 emissions despite reductions by industrialized countries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) – the main cause of global warming – increased by 45 % between 1990 and 2010, and reached an all-time high of 33 billion tonnes in 2010. Increased energy efficiency, nuclear energy and the growing contribution of renewable energy are not compensating for the globally increasing demand for power and transport, which is strongest in developing countries.
This increase took place despite emission reductions in industrialised countries during the same period. Even though different countries show widely variable emission trends, industrialised countries are likely to meet the collective Kyoto target of a 5.2 % reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 as a group, partly thanks to large emission reductions from economies in transition in the early nineties and more recent reductions due to the 2008-2009 recession. These figures were published today in the report "Long-term trend in global CO2 emissions," prepared by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

The report, which is based on recent results from the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) and latest statistics for energy use and other activities, shows large national differences between industrialised countries. Over the period 1990-2010, in the EU-27 and Russia CO2 emissions decreased by 7% and 28% respectively, while the USA's emissions increased by 5% and the Japanese emissions remained more or less constant. The industrialised countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol (so called 'ratifying Annex 1 countries') and the USA, in 1990 caused about two-thirds of global CO2 emissions. Their share of global emissions has now fallen to less than half the global total.
Continued growth in the developing countries and emerging economies and economic recovery by the industrialised countries are the main reasons for a record breaking 5.8% increase in global CO2 emissions between 2009 and 2010. Most major economies contributed to this increase, led by China, USA, India and EU-27 with increases of 10%, 4%, 9% and 3% respectively. The increase is significant even when compared to 2008, when global CO2 emissions were at their highest before the global financial crisis. It can be noted that in EU-27, CO2 emissions remain lower in absolute terms than they were before the crisis (4.0 billion tonnes in 2010 as compared to 4.2 billion tonnes in 2007).
At present, the USA emits 16.9 tonnes CO2 per capita per year, over twice as much as the EU-27 with 8.1 tonnes. By comparison, Chinese per capita CO2 emissions of 6.8 tonnes are still below the EU-27 average, but now equal those of Italy. It should be noted that the average figures for China and EU-27 hide significant regional differences.
Long term global growth in CO2 emissions continues to be driven by power generation and road transport, both in industrial and developing countries. Globally, they account for about 40% and 15% respectively of the current total and both have consistent long-term annual growth rates of between 2.5% and 5%.
Throughout the Kyoto Protocol period, industrialised countries have made efforts to change their energy sources mix. Between 1990 and 2010 they reduced their dependence on coal (from 25% to 20% of total energy production) and oil (from 38% to 36.5%), and shifted towards natural gas (which increased from 23% to 27 %), nuclear energy (from 8% to 9%) and renewable energy (from 6.5% to 8%). In addition they made progress in energy savings, for example by insulation of buildings, more energy-efficient end-use devices and higher fuel efficiencies.
The report shows that the current efforts to change the mix of energy sources cannot yet compensate for the ever increasing global demand for power and transport. This needs to be considered in future years in all efforts to mitigate the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions, as desired by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Bali Action Plan and the Cancún agreements.
Source : European Commission Joint Research Centre

Deep oceans may mask global warming

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:07:00 +0000

Earth's deep oceans may absorb enough heat at times to flatten the rate of global warming for periods of as long as a decade--even in the midst of longer-term warming. This according to a new analysis led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
The study, based on computer simulations of global climate, points to ocean layers deeper than 1,000 feet as the main location of the "missing heat" during periods such as the past decade when global air temperatures showed little trend.
The findings also suggest that several more intervals like this can be expected over the next century, even as the trend toward overall warming continues.
"We will see global warming go through hiatus periods in the future," says NCAR's Gerald Meehl, lead author of the study.

"However, these periods would likely last only about a decade or so, and warming would then resume. This study illustrates one reason why global temperatures do not simply rise in a straight line."
The research, by scientists at NCAR and the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia, was published online Sunday in Nature Climate Change.
Funding for the study came from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR's sponsor.
"The research shows that the natural variability of the climate system can produce periods of a decade or more in which Earth's temperature does not rise, despite an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations," says Eric DeWeaver, program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences.
"These scientists make a compelling case that the excess energy entering the climate system due to greenhouse gas increases may not be immediately realized as warmer surface temperatures, as it can go into the deep ocean instead."
The 2000s were Earth's warmest decade in more than a century of weather records.
However, the single-year mark for warmest global temperature, which had been set in 1998, remained unmatched until 2010.
Yet emissions of greenhouse gases continued to climb during this period, and satellite measurements showed that the discrepancy between incoming sunshine and outgoing radiation from Earth actually increased.
This implied that heat was building up somewhere on Earth, according to a 2010 study by NCAR researchers Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo.
The two scientists, who are both co-authors on the new study, suggested that the oceans might be storing some of the heat that would otherwise go toward other processes, such as warming the atmosphere or land, or melting more ice and snow.
Observations from a global network of buoys showed some warming in the upper ocean, but not enough to account for the global build-up of heat.
Although scientists suspected the deep oceans were playing a role, few measurements were available to confirm that hypothesis.
To track where the heat was going, Meehl and colleagues used a powerful software tool known as the Community Climate System Model, which was developed by scientists at NCAR and the Department of Energy with colleagues at other organizations.
Using the model's ability to portray complex interactions between the atmosphere, land, oceans and sea ice, they performed five simulations of global temperatures.
The simulations, which were based on projections of future greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, indicated that temperatures would rise by several degrees during this century.
But each simulation also showed periods in which temperatures would stabilize for about a decade before climbing again.
For example, one simulation showed the global average rising by about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 degrees Celsius) between 2000 and 2100, but with two decade-long hiatus periods during the century.
During these hiatus periods, simulations showed that extra energy entered the oceans, with deeper layers absorbing a disproportionate amount of heat due to changes in oceanic circulation.
The vast area of ocean below about 1,000 feet (300 meters) warmed by 18 percent to 19 percent more during hiatus periods than at other times.
In contrast, the shallower global ocean above 1,000 feet warmed by 60 percent less than during non-hiatus periods in the simulation.
"This study suggests the missing energy has indeed been buried in the ocean," Trenberth says. "The heat has not disappeared and so it cannot be ignored. It must have consequences."
The simulations also indicated that the oceanic warming during hiatus periods has a regional signature.
During a hiatus, average sea-surface temperatures decrease across the tropical Pacific, while they tend to increase at higher latitudes, especially in the Atlantic, where surface waters converge to push heat into deeper oceanic layers.
These patterns are similar to those observed during a La Niña event, according to Meehl.
He adds that El Niño and La Niña events can be overlaid on top of a hiatus-related pattern.
Global temperatures tend to drop slightly during La Niña, as cooler waters reach the surface of the tropical Pacific, and they rise slightly during El Niño, when those waters are warmer.
"The main hiatus in observed warming has corresponded with La Niña conditions, which is consistent with the simulations," Trenberth says.
Source: National Science Foundation

NASA's Aqua satellite sees tropical storms Nate, Lee, fires

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:38:00 +0000

Tropical Storm Nate is perched to make landfall in Mexico this weekend, and warnings are in effect. Nate is one of three major weather events around the Gulf of Mexico today, and NASA's Aqua satellite captured all three in one image.
Raging wildfires are occurring in Texas while the remnant clouds from Tropical Storm Lee in the northern Gulf of Mexico were also seen by Aqua.One satellite image taken by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured the two tropical systems and smoke from the Texas fires on Sept. 8 at 19:05 UTC (3:05 p.m. EDT). The image shows Tropical Storm Nate was still lingering along the eastern Mexico coastline, the western edge of the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee (around a low pressure area centered over Indiana) appeared in the northern Gulf and smoke plumes from Texas wildfires.

The largest plume appeared light brown in color and was from the Bear Creek fire.
Current forecasts from the National Hurricane Center take Nate on a westward track and away from Texas that would benefit from the rains to combat the wildfires.
A Tropical storm warning is in effect from Chilitepec to Celestun and a Hurricane Watch is in effect from Tampico to Veracruz. A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect from Celestun to Progreso, from Veracruz to Punta El Lagarto, and from Tampico to La Cruz, Mexico.
On Friday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. EDT, Tropical Storm Nate was still not moving much in the Bay of Campeche. Nate was crawling to the northwest near 2 mph (4kmh). Nate was centered about 140 miles (225 km) west-northwest of Campeche, Mexico near 20.3 North and 92.6 West. Because tropical-storm-force winds extend 105 miles (165 km) from the center, Campeche is not yet experiencing them. Nate's maximum sustained winds had climbed to 65 mph (100 kmh) and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Nate to reach hurricane status later today or Saturday, Sept. 10. Nate is a compact storm, over 210 miles in diameter.
Tropical Storm conditions are expected in the warning areas today and rainfall from 4 to 6 inches with isolated amounts up to 12 inches are possible over the Mexican states of Campeche and Tabasco, and over southern Veracruz today. Storm surge levels are expected to raise the water levels by 1 to 3 feet along the coast in the warning area.The NHC is forecasting Nate to become a hurricane and continue moving to the northwest, then turn west and make landfall in Mexico this weekend.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Study finds local temperature influences belief in global warming

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 May 2011 03:39:00 +0000

A study by Columbia Business School Professor Eric Johnson, co-director of the Center for Decision Sciences (http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/decisionsciences) at Columbia Business School, Ye Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Decision Sciences, and Lisa Zaval, a Columbia graduate student in psychology, found that those who thought the current day was warmer than usual were more likely to believe in and feel concern about global warming than those who thought the day was unusually cold. The study, recently featured in Psychological Science, explains why public belief in global warming can fluctuate, since people can base their thinking off of the day's temperature. The researchers behind this study are also affiliated with Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, CRED (http://www.cred.columbia.edu/).

The team surveyed about 1,200 people in the United States and Australia in three different studies in order to determine their opinions about global warming and whether the temperature on the day of the study was warmer or cooler than usual. Respondents who thought that day was warmer than usual were more concerned about global warming than respondents who thought that day was colder than usual.
"Global warming is so complex, it appears some people are ready to be persuaded by whether their own day is warmer or cooler than usual, rather than think about whether the entire world is becoming warmer or cooler," said lead author Ye Li. "It is striking that society has spent so much money, time and effort educating people about this issue, yet people are still so easily influenced."
The study also revealed that respondents were fairly good at knowing if it was unusually hot or cold--perceptions correlated with reality three quarters of the time. While politics, gender and age all had the predicted influences – for instance, on the researchers' 1-to-4 scale of belief in global warming, Democrats were 1.5 points higher than Republicans – after controlling for the other factors, the researchers found that perceived temperatures still had nearly two-thirds the power as political belief, and six times the power as gender.
These results join a growing body of work that shows how irrelevant environmental information, such as the current weather, can affect judgments and opinions on climate change.

Chemical found in crude oil linked to congenital heart disease

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 May 2011 15:44:00 +0000

While it may be years before the health effects of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are known, a new study shows that fetal exposure to a chemical found in crude oil is associated with an increased risk of congenital heart disease (CHD).
The study, to be presented Saturday, April 30, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver, also showed that babies who had been exposed in utero to a chemical found in cleaning agents and spot removers were at increased risk of CHD.
Environmental causes of CHD have been suspected, and animal studies have suggested certain chemicals may cause CHD, a problem with the heart's structure and function due to abnormal heart development before birth.
"Congenital heart disease is a major cause of childhood death and life-long health problems," said D. Gail McCarver, MD, FAAP, lead author of the study and professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Research Institute, Milwaukee. "Thus, identifying risk factors contributing to CHD is important to public health."

Dr. McCarver and her colleagues sought to determine whether human fetal exposure to solvents is associated with increased risk for CHD. The researchers tested samples of meconium, or fetal stool, from 135 newborns with CHD and 432 newborns without CHD. Meconium has been used to assess fetal exposure to illicit drugs such as cocaine. Seventeen compounds were measured in meconium samples using methods that detect very low levels of chemicals.
Additional data collected included race of the mothers and infants, family history for CHD, and maternal alcohol, tobacco, vitamin and drug use.
Infants with chromosomal abnormalities known to be linked to CHD, and babies of diabetic mothers were excluded from the study.
Results showed that 82 percent of infants had evidence of intrauterine exposure to one or more of the solvents measured.
Among white infants, but not black infants, fetal exposure to ethyl benzene was associated with a four-fold increased risk of CHD. In addition, exposure to trichloroethylene was associated with a two-fold increased risk for CHD among white infants and an eight-fold increased risk among black infants.
"This is the first report that exposure to ethyl benzene, a compound present in crude oil, was associated with CHD," Dr. McCarver said. Humans also can be exposed to ethyl benzene through inhalation of motor vehicle emissions, gasoline pump vapors and cigarette smoke.
"The association with ethyl benzene exposure is concerning, particularly considering recent oil spills," she said. "However, additional confirmatory studies are needed."
The study also adds to existing concerns about trichloroethylene (TCE). "This is of particular importance because TCE is a commonly used degreasing agent, which also is present in many cleaners and spot removers. TCE also has been the most common chemical identified around hazardous waste sites," Dr. McCarver said.
"Limiting known maternal exposure to this compound during early pregnancy appears prudent, particularly among those at increased CHD risk," Dr. McCarver concluded.
Source

Climate change from black carbon depends on altitude

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:22:00 +0000

Palo Alto, CA—Scientists have known for decades that black carbon aerosols add to global warming. These airborne particles made of sooty carbon are believed to be among the largest man-made contributors to global warming because they absorb solar radiation and heat the atmosphere. New research from Carnegie's Long Cao and Ken Caldeira, along with colleagues George Ban-Weiss and Govindasamy Bala, quantifies how black carbon's impact on climate depends on its altitude in the atmosphere. Their work, published online by the journal Climate Dynamics, could have important implications for combating global climate change.
Black carbon is emitted from diesel engines and burning wood, among other sources. In the atmosphere, it acts as an absorbing aerosol—a particle that absorbs the sun's heating rays. (Other types of aerosols reflect the sunlight back out into space, providing a cooling effect.) The climate effect of black carbon is difficult to quantify because these particles heat the air around them, affecting clouds even before they begin to heat the land and ocean surface.

The team's research involved idealized simulations of adding a theoretical megatonne of black carbon uniformly around the globe at different altitudes in the atmosphere. They found that the addition of black carbon near the land and ocean surface caused the surface to heat. As the altitude of black carbon increased, surface warming decreased. The addition of black carbon to the stratosphere caused the land and oceans to cool. This cooling occurred despite the fact that the black carbon caused the Earth as a whole to absorb more energy from the sun. When black carbon is high in the atmosphere, it can lose its energy to space while helping to shade the land and ocean surface.
"Black carbon lower in the atmosphere is more effective at warming the surface, even though black carbon particles at higher altitudes absorb more solar radiation," said Ban-Weiss, formerly of Carnegie and currently at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He continued: "Just analyzing instantaneous changes in absorption of radiation from black carbon cannot accurately predict changes in surface temperatures. If we want a consistent framework for predicting changes in surface air temperature from black carbon we need to account for rapid atmospheric responses in things like clouds."
Black carbon also had varying effects on precipitation. In the lower layers it increased precipitation and in the upper layers it decreased precipitation, a result of changes in atmospheric stability.
"We showed that black carbon near Earth's surface has the greatest effect on global warming. Unfortunately, this is exactly where we are putting most of the black carbon that we add to the atmosphere," Caldeira said. "This black carbon also often causes health problems, so cleaning up these emissions would help both the environment and human health."
Major sources of black carbon emissions into the lower atmosphere include forest fires, cooking stoves, and emissions from trucks and automobiles. Aircraft are a notable source of emissions to the upper atmosphere.
"This study points out the importance of understanding the complexities of how human activities affect the globe. If we want humans to live well while protecting the environment, we need to understand how our activities affect climate," Caldeira said.
Source

Algae and bacteria hogged oxygen after ancient mass extinction, slowing recovery of marine life

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:49:00 +0000

A mass extinction is hard enough for Earth's biosphere to handle, but when you chase it with prolonged oxygen deprivation, the biota ends up with a hangover that can last millions of years.
Such was the situation with the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history 250 million years ago, when 90 percent of all marine animal species were wiped out, along with a huge proportion of plant, animal and insect species on land.
A massive amount of volcanism in Siberia is widely credited with driving the disaster, but even after the immense outpourings of lava and toxic gases tapered off, oxygen levels in the oceans, which had been depleted, remained low for about 5 million years, slowing life's recovery there to an unusual degree.
The reason for the lingering low oxygen levels has puzzled scientists, but now Stanford researchers have figured out what probably happened. By analyzing the chemical composition of some then-underwater limestone beds deposited over the course of the recovery in what is now southern China, they have determined that while it took several million years for most ecosystems in the ocean to recover, tiny single-celled algae and bacteria bounced back much more quickly.

In fact, according to biogeochemist Katja Meyer, the tiny organisms rebounded to such an extent that the bigger life forms couldn't catch a break – much less their breath – because the little ones were enjoying a sustained population explosion.
As the vast hordes of tiny dead organisms rotted, dissolved oxygen in the seawater was consumed by aerobic microbes involved in the decay process, leaving scant oxygen for larger organisms in what became an oxygen-depleted, or anoxic, environment.
The driver of the ongoing population boom appears to have been the massive amounts of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere during the volcanism, Meyer said, which caused the world to warm.
"More warmth means an invigorated hydrological cycle, so you get more rain and this rain is also more acidic because there is more carbon dioxide dissolved in the rain," Meyer said.
The increased amounts of more acidic rain increased weathering of the land surface, which sent more nutrients into the ocean, which fueled explosions of life such as algae blooms.
"It is kind of counterintuitive that high productivity on the part of algae and bacteria would likely be generating these toxic geochemical conditions that prevent most of animal life from recovering from mass extinction," Meyer said.
But the process, she said, is basically the same as when excess runoff from fertilizers goes into a body of water, whether it's a pond on a golf course or the infamous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico created by farm runoff carried down the Mississippi River.
"You get this giant bloom of algae and then it starts to smell bad as that algae decays, pulling oxygen out of the water and causing fish die-offs," Meyer said.
In spite of the almost inestimably high numbers of algae and bacteria living and dying during this time, there is little direct evidence of them in the fossil record because such tiny, soft-bodied creatures just don't preserve well.
So Meyer and her colleagues had to work with indirect evidence of the microorganisms to determine their abundance during the years after the mass extinction. The population proxy they used was the carbon present in the limestone.
Carbon – like all elements – comes in different varieties, called isotopes, distinguished by the number of neutrons each has in its nucleus. The researchers worked with two carbon isotopes, carbon 12, which has six neutrons, and carbon 13, which has seven.
Both isotopes are present in ocean water, but living things on Earth have always shown a preference for incorporating the lighter isotope, carbon 12, into their structures. Thus, where life is abundant, the ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12 in seawater is higher than it is where there is no life.
Limestone records the composition of the seawater in which it was deposited, including the relative amounts of light and heavy carbon isotopes, so by analyzing the isotope ratio in the rocks, Meyer could infer the abundance of life in the water where the limestone formed.
Comparable modern environments, such as the Bahama Banks in the Caribbean Sea, where carbonate platforms similar to the limestones are forming, are typically teeming with life at the range of depths in which Meyer's limestones formed. In these environments, the ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12 is generally constant from shallow to deep water.
But microorganisms are typically most abundant in shallow waters, so if marine life in the era after the mass extinction had been confined to algae and bacteria, then the shallower depths should show a markedly greater ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12 than would be found at depth.
Meyer's analysis showed there was a difference of about 4 parts per thousand in carbon isotope ratios from the shallow waters to depths, roughly twice what it is today.
"We only see this gradient in the interval after the mass extinction prior to the recovery of animal life," said Meyer.
Meyer is the lead author of a research paper about the study published last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The extinction 250 million years ago is known as the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, as it coincides with the end of the Permian period and the beginning of the Triassic period on the geologic time scale.
"It appears there was a huge amount of biological productivity in the shallow waters that was making the bottom waters uninhabitable for animals," said Jonathan Payne, assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences, who is a coauthor of the paper and in whose lab Meyer has been working.
"It looks like the whole recovery was slowed by having too much food available, rather than too little," Payne said. "Most of us think that if the biota isn't doing well, maybe we should feed it more. This is clearly an example where feeding it less would have been much better."
Funding for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation, Agouron Institute, American Chemical Society and National Geographic Society.

Hotspots of carbon confusion in Indonesia threaten to warm the world more quickly

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:54:00 +0000

Indonesia has promised to become a world leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, the president committed to a 26% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to below 'business-as-usual' levels. Of this total, 14% would have to come from reducing emissions from deforestation or forest degradation. Investments by foreign governments and other bodies are expected to raise total emission reduction from 26% to 41%.
While international negotiations on rules about how to reduce emissions and slow global warming are slow but ongoing, the Indonesian and Norwegian governments signed a letter of intent under which up to US$ 1 billion is available to assist in setting up a 'stop deforestation and forest degradation' system that also addresses peatland emissions. Part of the agreement is that Indonesia will implement a moratorium or 'two-year suspension on all new concessions for conversion of peat and natural forest'.
Promising as this may sound, the devil is in the detail. A lot depends on how 'peat' and 'natural forest' are defined and how rights are agreed upon. Strong lobbies from the forest and tree-crop plantation industry argue that the economy will be harmed if 'business as usual' is interrupted. According to news sources, definitions of 'natural forest' and 'peat' differ between drafts prepared by the Indonesian Government's emissions reduction taskforce and by the Ministry of Forestry. There are several key issues that need to be resolved.

First, if the moratorium is limited to the 'kawasan hutan' (forest estate), one-third of current emissions from clearing or converting woody vegetation will remain unaccounted for. The institutional mandates and types of permits issued by the government differ between 'kawasan hutan' and the 'other land uses' category, however. Multi-strata agroforests managed by farmers used to cover approximately 10% of the country (or 20 million hectare) in 1990 but were reduced to about 17 million hectare by 2005, with further conversion continuing to this day. Part of this change is based on the economic incentives farmers perceive from conversion to monoculture farming and part is due to external pressure.
Second, the draft of the Ministry of Forestry aims to allow for new plantation concessions in logged forests, where tree planting or conversion to monocultural tree plantations is presented as forest improvement. The Ministry proposes a moratorium limited to protecting primary forests, and defines these as 'natural forests untouched by cultivation or silvicultural systems applied in forestry'. Part of Indonesia's logged-over (secondary) forest still has high carbon stocks and is important for biodiversity conservation. It would help if a map of Indonesia could clarify where the moratorium applies.
Third, peatlands are immense storage houses for carbon and their protection from drainage and fire play a crucial role in the reduction of carbon emissions. Peatlands occur both within and outside of the forest estate and are source of emissions whether forested or not. The Ministry of Forestry draft excluded any new concessions on peatlands deeper than three metre, but this is already illegal and yet still occurs. A further challenge is that existing maps of peat depth are not very accurate.
Fourth, laws, regulations and customary norms applied by different levels of government, the private sector and local communities have often conflicted in the past and continue to do so in the present. These conflicts hamper the application of any scheme and will need serious attention to resolve.
These issues are hot in peatland-rich Central Kalimantan, which has been selected by the Indonesian and Norwegian governments as the primary pilot province for the proposed emissions reduction scheme. Over the past few decades in the province, shifting national policies have shaped the distribution of power and the actual use of peatland, with hundreds of thousands of hectare cleared of forest in a failed attempt to create farmland.
Expectations of payments for carbon emission reduction are currently shaping decisions over natural resource management. But any actions to reduce emissions will need to appreciate the institutional complexity. Different levels of government and the private sector are attempting to influence policy and exercise power, each interpreting history, facts, rules and norms differently in support of their own claims.
The World Agroforestry Centre's research shows that the contesting claimants used the current contradictions and inconsistencies of Indonesian laws, multi-sector policies and the articulation of local property and customary rights for their own purposes. Legal arguments were not necessarily decisive in settling disputes and the lack of respect for legality contributed to confusion, undermining authority.
Furthermore, carbon rights in the area were not clear. They are at least as complex as the laws, regulations, layers of government, NGOs and private sector players that interact during the process that starts with a natural forest and ends with a landscape with few trees, high emissions but still high carbon stock, that is, the peatlands of Kalimantan.
A letter from Yayasan Petak Danum (Water Land Foundation, an NGO in Central Kalimantan) published on 27 February 2011 on red-monitor.org highlights the impact of these complexities on indigenous people's groups involved with one of the pilot projects designed to help reduce emissions in the province, the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership. The World Agroforestry Centre conducted research into tenure and other issues for the Partnership in the early days of the project, which has been encapsulated in ASB Policybrief 21, Hot spots of confusion: contested policies and competing carbon claims in the peatlands of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia .
All this is also pertinent in a place like the Tripa swamp along the western coast of Aceh, where a block of dense swamp forest on peatland, high both in carbon stock and orangutan population density, is threatened by conversion to oil palm.
Part of the permits for such conversion exist but conflicts remain between local communities, local and national governments and private companies. The land status was changed a decade ago from 'watershed protection' forest to 'other land uses'. The forest is, therefore, outside the proposed definition of 'forest' under the emission reduction scheme yet it is exactly the type of carbon stock that the world wants saved.
If conversion to oil palm takes place, it will be widely seen as a failure of the moratorium and the international commitment made by Indonesia.
Recent studies by the World Agroforestry Centre, Yayasan Ekosistem Leuseur and PanEco provide details on the case.
Although it is a challenge to resolve all the above issues in a country the size of Indonesia, it can happen if a) the goal of reducing carbon emissions while supporting human wellbeing is kept in focus; b) the moratorium is clear and operational; and c) it goes beyond restating existing regulations that have not prevented 'business as usual'. This leads to several recommendations.
First, all forests, irrespective of their location and land status, should be included.
Second, logged forests should be included and protected under any emissions reduction scheme because they still contain high carbon stocks and substantial biodiversity.
Third, all peatlands should be included, irrespective of their depth.
Fourth, the definition of 'forest' should be made relevant to its purpose, which is to reduce carbon emissions by avoiding removing or decreasing woody vegetation.
Fifth, national and provincial governments are two among several contesting players and a negotiated settlement is needed rather than asserting a single legal authority.
Sixth, market-based implementation of an emissions reduction scheme will add confusion because unresolved carbon rights are an addition to the already complex layers of unresolved property rights. A 'co-investment' approach, in which all parties work together for human and environmental benefit at local and global levels, can contribute to resolving disputes on property rights and see more transparent use of state authority.
For the moratorium, a simple rule could be that it applies to new concessions on all lands, except those with an aboveground carbon stock of less than 35 tonne of carbon per hectare, and it applies to all peatlands regardless of the amount of above-ground carbon. This would be relatively easy to map and monitor. It would set clear rules to move forwards for now. It would buy time to think through the issues that relate to the lands that are included in the moratorium and refine rules in future as needed.
From www.worldagroforestry.org