Environment – Page 171 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Breaking Down Plastics: New Standard Specification may Facilitate Use of Additives that Trigger Biodegradation of Oil-Based Plastics in Landfills

By Guest PostSeptember 27, 2011Environmentbiodegradable plastics, bioplastics, landfill bacteria, oil based plastics, oxobiodegradables, plastic water bottles, recycling

Despite efforts to encourage the recycling of plastic water bottles, milk jugs and similar containers, a majority of the plastic packaging produced each year in the United States ends up in landfills, where it can take thousands of years to degrade. To address that problem with traditional polyethylene, polypropylene, Styrofoam and PET products, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working with the Plastics Environmental Council (PEC) to expand the use of chemical additives that cause such items to biodegrade in landfills. (more…)

New Understanding of How Humans and the Environment Interact

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Environmentadaptation to climate change, ancient maya, animal populations in the chobe river region of botswana, cnh, dynamics of coupled natural and human systems program, e coli, earth natural systems, eastern africa, ecosystem services, environmental change today, ignacio peralta, justin brashares, microbe, national science foundation, sarah ruth, sierra foothills of california, steven beissinger, tom baerwald, water quality and environmental health in botswana, wetlands

*National Science Foundation Grants Awarded for Research on Coupled Natural and Human Systems*

Water quality and environmental health in Botswana; wetlands in a working landscape; the collapse of the ancient Maya and what that has to tell us about society and environmental change today.

These and other projects that address how humans and the environment interact are the focus of $21 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to scientists, engineers and educators across the country to study coupled natural and human systems. (more…)

UF-led study: Invasive Amphibians, Reptiles in Florida Outnumber World

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2011Environment, Scienceamerican alligator, bishop museum in honolulu, brown anole, burmese pythons, cargo ships, cement walls, Cuba, everglades, florida, florida museum of natural history, fred kraus, greenhouse frog, iguanas, invasion of lizards, invasive amphibian and reptile, kenneth krysko, lizards, python, turtles, university of florida, west indies, zootaxa

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has the world’s worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of the species’ introductions.

From 1863 through 2010, 137 non-native amphibian and reptile species were introduced to Florida, with about 25 percent of those traced to one animal importer. The findings appear online today in Zootaxa. (more…)

Book Traces Long Trail of Global Warming Scholarship

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2011Environmentcarbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide emissions, climate simulations, co2 data, computer simulations, crystalline substances, david archer, earth climate, foundations of global-warming science, geophysical sciences professor, global warming, global warming and climate change, global warming class, greenhouse effect, humans, impact on climate, infrared intensity of moonlight, louis block professor, methane hydrates, nobel laureate, oceanic sediments, ray pierrehumbert, rising temperatures, svante arrhenius, the smoking gun

Geophysical Sciences Professor David Archer polled the 200 students in one of his Global Warming classes about whether they believed that humans have had an impact on climate. Approximately 90 percent of the students responded “yes,” reflecting the lessons of climate simulations that Archer had shared earlier with the students.

Those computer simulations are able to reproduce the trend toward rising temperatures, but only when they include data on rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Simulations that omit the CO2 data do not accurately reproduce the changes. Archer says the link helps reveal carbon dioxide emissions as “the smoking gun” behind global warming and climate change. (more…)

What’s so Unique About the Tropics?

By Guest PostSeptember 23, 2011Environment, Sciencebeta diversity, brad boyle, calgary, canada, costa rica, distribution of biodiversity across the globe, ecological mechanisms, ecologists, elevations in mountain regions, extinctions, geographical scales, latitudinal diversity gradient, nathan j b kraft, new zealand, northern europe, panama, south america, speciation, temperate forests of canada, tropical rainforests of southeast asia, tropics, university of arizona ecologist, university of british columbia, university of maryland

“Less than we thought,” researchers say in a new study providing insights into the distribution of biodiversity across the globe.

The temperate forests of Canada or Northern Europe may have much more in common with the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia or South America than previously believed, according to a research group including a University of Arizona ecologist.

The assertion, published as the cover article in the journal Science, is focused on the concept of “beta-diversity” – a measure of the change in species composition between two sites, such as neighboring patches of forest. High beta-diversity means that two given sites have few species in common. (more…)

Deep Oceans May Mask Global Warming for Years at a Time

By Guest PostSeptember 22, 2011Environmentatlantic, climate system, community climate system model, computer simulations of global climate, coupled model intercomparison project phase 5, earth, el niño, eric deweaver, gerald meehl, global air temperatures, greenhouse gas, ice and snow, john fasullo, kevin trenberth, la niña, missing heat, national center for atmospheric research, ncar, oceanic circulation, rate of global warming, software tool, temperature, tropical pacific, warming the upper ocean

*Computer simulations of global climate lead to new conclusions*

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. (more…)

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Minimum 2011 Extent, the Second Lowest in the Satellite Record

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 2011EnvironmentArctic, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, arctic sea ice extent, atmosphere, california, floating ice chunks, goddard space flight center, greenbelt, greenhouse gases, mark serreze, NASA, national snow and ice data center, sea ice, texas, university of colorado boulder, walt meier, warming temperatures

The blanket of sea ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2011, the second lowest recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979, according to the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center.

The Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million square miles, or 4.33 million square kilometers on Sept. 9, 2011. This year’s minimum of 1.67 million square miles is more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average extent for September — an area larger than Texas and California combined. (more…)

Scorched Earth: The Past, Present and Future of Human Influences on Wildfires

By Guest PostSeptember 18, 2011Environmentearth, fires, human ignition, jennifer balch, pre human fire history, relative influences of climate, role of fire in natural ecosystems, sustainable fire management practices, university of california at santa barbara, western united states, wildfires

*A new framework for evaluating human influences on wildfires is developed*

Fires have continuously occurred on Earth for at least the last 400 million years. But since the 1970s, the frequency of wildfires has increased at least four-fold, and the total size of burn areas has increased at least six-fold in the western United States alone. Steadily rising, the U.S.’s bill for fighting wildfires now totals $1.5 billion per year.

How much of the increases in the frequency and size of fires are due to human activities? No one knows for sure. But a paper in this week’s issue of the Journal of Biogeography puts the role of fire in natural ecosystems into context and provides support for efforts to plan for future risks from wildfires. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment