Category Archives: Environment

North American Mammal Evolution Tracks with Climate Change

By Guest PostJanuary 1, 2012Environment, Nature, Science65 million years, anthropogenic climatic change, borja figueirido, brown university, changes in climate, christine janis, climate changes, deep sea microorganisms, diversity, early middle eocene fauna, early miocene epoch, evolutionary biologists, evolutionary faunas, fossil record, future climactic changes, global paleotemperatures, herbivores, history, immigration events, jack sepkoski, juan perez claros, levels of atmospheric oxygen, life on earth, mammal species, miocene fauna, natural history, North America, paleocene fauna, paleontologist, paul palmqvist, potential connection, quantitative analysis, rise and fall, savannah, six waves of species diversity, species migrations, university of chicago, vegetation, warming and cooling periods, waves, woodland

*Climate changes profoundly influenced the rise and fall of six distinct, successive waves of mammal species diversity in North America over the last 65 million years, shows a novel statistical analysis led by Brown University evolutionary biologists. Warming and cooling periods, in two cases confounded by species migrations, marked the transition from one dominant grouping to the next.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — History often seems to happen in waves — fashion and musical tastes turn over every decade and empires give way to new ones over centuries. A similar pattern characterizes the last 65 million years of natural history in North America, where a novel quantitative analysis has identified six distinct, consecutive waves of mammal species diversity or “evolutionary faunas.” What force of history determined the destiny of these groupings? The numbers say it was typically climate change.

“Although we’ve always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion,” said Christine Janis, professor of evolutionary biology at Brown University. “We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change — the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures — and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events.” (more…)

First Independent Review of Provincial-Level Environmental Data in China

By Guest PostDecember 28, 2011Environmentchina index, chinese policymakers, environmental data, environmental metrics, subnational index

A team of researchers jointly led by Yale University and Columbia University has released a report that introduces a framework for assessing China’s environmental management and performance. This analysis offers the first independent review of Chinese provincial-level environmental performance by international researchers. (more…)

Sea Cucumbers: Dissolving Coral Reefs?

By Guest PostDecember 27, 2011Environmentacidification, australia, biodiversity, caco3, calcium carbonate, carbon dioxide, coral reefs, digestive process, dissolution, dk13, ecosystem, emissions, erika woolsey, great barrier reef, jacob silverman, ken caldeira, kenneth schneider, maria byrne, marine environment, marine organisms, ocean acidification, one tree island, one tree reef, recycling of nutrients, reef environment, sea cucumbers, sea life

Washington, D.C. — Coral reefs are extremely diverse ecosystems that support enormous biodiversity. But they are at risk. Carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying the ocean, threatening reefs and other marine organisms. New research led by Carnegie’s Kenneth Schneider analyzed the role of sea cucumbers in portions of the Great Barrier Reef and determined that their dietary process of dissolving calcium carbonate (CaCO3) from the surrounding reef accounts for about half of at the total nighttime dissolution for the reef. The work is published December 23 by the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Reefs are formed through the biological deposition of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Many of the marine organisms living on and around a reef contribute to either its destruction or construction. Therefore it is crucial that the amount of calcium carbonate remain in balance. When this delicate balance is disrupted, the reef ceases to grow and its foundations can be weakened. (more…)

Abandoned Mines Hold Potential to Capture Wind Energy

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2011Environmentabandoned open pit mines, al rudeck, don fosnacht, electricity demand, energy providers, Europe, great river energy, iron range, minnesota, minnesota power, power supply, pump water, pumped hydro storage, pumped hydro storage process, renewable energy sources, renewable energy technology, reservoirs, rick lancaster, university of minnesota, wind, wind energy

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s Iron Range is pocked with ponds – abandoned open pit mines – that could help energy providers more efficiently use intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind, to meet state renewable energy mandates. A study released Friday by the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute shows that the water-laden pits have the potential to store wind energy using a process developed in Europe in the late 1800s.

The pumped-hydro storage process would use excess late-night wind energy to pump water uphill from the pits to a higher-elevation holding pond. Then, when electricity demand goes up during the day, the process reverses the flow and captures the energy in hydro turbines. For every 100 megawatts used to pump the water upward, the plant generates nearly 80 megawatts through the turbines. (more…)

Acid Rain Poses a Previously Unrecognized Threat to Great Lakes Sugar Maples

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2011Environmentacid rain, forest overstory, granitic soils, great lakes forests, soil acidification, sugar maples

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The number of sugar maples in Upper Great Lakes forests is likely to decline in coming decades, according to University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues, due to a previously unrecognized threat from a familiar enemy: acid rain. (more…)

Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals From Water

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Environmentacid, base, brown university, cadmium, cathodic particles, cation concentration, cations, cep system, charged metal ions, concentration, copper, cyclic electrowinning precipitation, electrochemical reduction, electroextraction, engineers, environmental contaminant, environmental remediation, genie in the bottle, george hradil, heavy metal ions, hydroxides, joseph calo, landfills, metal recovery, metal removal technique, method, nickel, parts per million, pengpeng grimshaw, ph, ppm, reduction of heavy metal ions, release of heavy metals, remove, sodium hydroxide, spe, spouted particulate electrode, sulfides, sulfuric acid, technic inc, textile factories, toxic sludge, trace heavy metals, unhealthy byproduct, water, waterways, zero valent metal

*Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper, and nickel concentrations, returning contaminated water to near or below federally acceptable standards. The technique is scalable and has viable commercial applications, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields. Results appear in the Chemical Engineering Journal.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — An unfortunate consequence of many industrial and manufacturing practices, from textile factories to metalworking operations, is the release of heavy metals in waterways. Those metals can remain for decades, even centuries, in low but still dangerous concentrations.

Ridding water of trace metals “is really hard to do,” said Joseph Calo, professor emeritus of engineering who maintains an active laboratory at Brown. He noted the cost, inefficiency, and time needed for such efforts. “It’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.” (more…)

‘Fingerprinting’ Method Tracks Mercury Emissions from Coal-Fired Power Plant

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2011Environmentatmosphere, brains of fetuses, central nervous system, chemical fingerprints, chlorine producing plants, coal, coal combustion, coal fired power plants, coal samples, crystal river, crystal river plant, eastern kentucky, effects on humans, element mercury, environmental pollution, gerald keeler, global atmospheric pool, global mercury reservoir, heart, immune system, incinerators, isotopic fractionation, jason demers, joel blum, laura sherman, mass dependent fractionation, mdf, mercury emissions, mercury emissions in florida, mercury fingerprinting technique, mercury isotope fingerprints, methylmercury, microorganism, natural phenomenon, naturally occurring element, non radioactive, nuclei, power plant, primary source of mercury pollution, protons, rainfall, timothy dvonch, toxic, university of michigan, west virginia

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— For the first time, the chemical “fingerprints” of the element mercury have been used by University of Michigan researchers to directly link environmental pollution to a specific coal-burning power plant.

The primary source of mercury pollution in the atmosphere is coal combustion. The U-M mercury-fingerprinting technique – which has been under development for a decade – provides a tool that will enable researchers to identify specific sources of mercury pollution and determine how much of it is being deposited locally. (more…)

NASA: Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes

By Guest PostDecember 15, 2011Environmentbiodiversity, biome changes, biosphere, boreal forests, caltech, carbon, climate, climate change, climate model projections, computer modeling, desert, duane waliser, earth, eastern equatorial africa, ecological consequences, ecological sensitivity, ecosystem, element cycles, energy, environmental changes, forest, global climate simulations, grassland, great lakes, great plains, greenhouse gases, himalayas, hotspots, ice, jon bergengren, last glacial maximum, Madagascar, major ecological community type, mediterranean region, melting glaciers, migrate, model projections, modern climate changes, multiple generations, NASA, North America, northern hemisphere, plant communities, rising sea levels, southern south america, tibetan plateau, tundra, water

PASADENA, Calif. – By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth’s land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., investigated how Earth’s plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as Earth’s climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse gases. Study results are published in the journal Climatic Change. (more…)