Category Archives: Environment

Climate Adaptation of Rice

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2011Environmentbacteria, China, climate change, climate impacts on plants, developing countries, disease, dna of the rice plant, drought, dunegrass, endophytes, genetically unrelated plant species, geothermal, heat tolerant plants, microscopic fungi, minimum air temperature, native plants, natural and agricultural ecosystems, process of darwinian evolution, rice, rusty rodriguez, salt, salt tolerant, seattle, seawater, symbiogenics, symbiotic endophytes, temperature, the philippines, tiny fungi, U.S. Geological Survey

*Symbiogenics — a New Strategy for Reducing Climate Impacts on Plants*

Seattle – Rice – which provides nearly half the daily calories for the world’s population – could become adapted to climate change and some catastrophic events by colonizing its seeds or plants with the spores of tiny naturally occurring fungi, just-published U.S. Geological Survey-led research shows.

In an effort to explore ways to increase the adaptability of rice to climatic scourges such as tsunamis and tidal surges that have already led to rice shortages, USGS researchers and their colleagues colonized two commercial varieties of rice with the spores of fungi that exist naturally within native coastal (salt-tolerant) and geothermal (heat-tolerant) plants. (more…)

Rising Oceans – Too Late to Turn the Tide?

By Guest PostJuly 16, 2011Environmentantarctic ice sheets, anthropogenic reasons, atmosphere, atmosphere ocean interactions, bahamas, barbados, bette otto bliesner, cause and effect relationships, climate, climate models, computer simulations, current global warming, earth, global distribution of sea surface temperatures, great polar ice sheets, greenhouse gas concentrations, greenhouse gases, greenland, ice caps, jonathan overpeck, last interglacial period, melting ice sheets, mountain glaciers, natural reasons, nicholas mckay, paleoceanic records, paleoclimate, rising sea levels, sea level, thermal expansion of seawater, thermal expansion of warming ocean waters, university of arizona

*Melting ice sheets contributed much more to rising sea levels than thermal expansion of warming ocean waters during the Last Interglacial Period, a UA-led team of researchers has found. The results further suggest that ocean levels continue to rise long after warming of the atmosphere levels off.*

Thermal expansion of seawater contributed only slightly to rising sea levels compared to melting ice sheets during the Last Interglacial Period, a University of Arizona-led team of researchers has found.

The study combined paleoclimate records with computer simulations of atmosphere-ocean interactions and the team’s co-authored paper is accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. (more…)

First Person: U.N. Climate Conference Sparked Passion, Inspiration

By Guest PostJuly 15, 2011Environmentbottleneck, climate change conference in bonn, climate voices, erin schutte, Germany, human rights impacts of climate change, max webster, observing official negotiations, partisan politics, pershing delivered, reduce global warming, rio earth summit, sparked passion, u.n. campus, u.n. climate conference, unfccc, yale daily bulletin, yale university

Max Webster, an undergraduate who founded and directs Climate Voices, a Yale-based NGO working to publicize the human rights impacts of climate change, recently attended the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany. He shared his experiences, frustrations and insights about the meeting and his own mission with the Yale Daily Bulletin.

Bonn, Germany is not a typical tourist destination. Unless you are paying a visit to the birthplace of Beethoven, you are likely to be there only to attend a meeting of one of the 17 United Nations’ institutions housed in the city’s official U.N. campus. (more…)

Decline in Species Shows Climate Change Warnings Not Exaggerated

By Guest PostJuly 15, 2011EnvironmentAntarctica, bering sea, birds, bivalve mollusks, boreal forests, climate change, effects of climate change on plant and animal species, Europe, extinction, extinction risk, fenno scandia, global biodiversity, global warming, human induced climate change, ilya maclean, Madagascar, marine mammals, nematode worm, pine grosbeak, population declines, robert wilson, species, spectacled eider, tenerife, tiger salamander populations, two barred crossbill, types of habitat, united states of america, university of exeter, yellowstone national park

One in 10 species could face extinction by the year 2100 if current climate change impacts continue.

This is the result of University of Exeter research, examining studies on the effects of recent climate change on plant and animal species and comparing this with predictions of future declines.

Published in leading journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study uses the well-established IUCN Red List for linking population declines to extinction risk. The research examines nearly 200 predictions of the future effects of climate change from studies conducted around the world, as well as 130 reports of changes which have already occurred. (more…)

US West Coast Erosion Spiked In Winter 2009-10, Previewing Likely Future As Climate Changes

By Guest PostJuly 13, 2011Environmentamerican geophysical union, california, climate change scenarios, climatic pattern, el niño, el nino modoki, equatorial pacific, global warming, ocean beach, oregon state university, pacific coast, pacific northwest, patrick barnard, san diego, san francisco, scripps institution of oceanography, us west coast, willapa bay

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Knowing that the U.S. west coast was battered during the winter before last by a climatic pattern expected more often in the future, scientists have now pieced together a San Diego-to-Seattle assessment of the damage wrought by that winter’s extreme waves and higher-than-usual water levels. Getting a better understanding of how the 2009-10 conditions tore away and reshaped shorelines will help coastal experts better predict future changes that may be in store for the Pacific coast, the researchers say.

“The stormy conditions of the 2009-10 El Niño winter eroded the beaches to often unprecedented levels at sites throughout California and vulnerable sites in the Pacific Northwest,” said Patrick Barnard, USGS coastal geologist. In California, for example, winter wave energy was 20 percent above average for the years dating back to 1997, resulting in shoreline erosion that exceeded the average by 36 percent, he and his colleagues found. (more…)

Scientists on a Mission: Detailed Study of U.S. Southeast Tornadoes

By Guest PostJuly 12, 2011Environmentalabama, april storm, atlanta, brad smull, cullman storm, dual polarimetric doppler radar, fingerprint of tornado, kevin knupp, memphis, national science foundation, national weather service, nexrad doppler radar system, nsf, nws, psychology and sociology of storm warnings, radar data, rapid, rapid response research, tallahassee, tim coleman, topography, tornado outbreaks, tornadoes, uah, university of alabama in huntsville

*Focus on deadly April 27, 2011, outbreak in Alabama and surrounding states*

It was one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

Now scientists are organizing a research program to better understand the tornadoes that blew through Alabama and other southeastern states on April 27, 2011.

Scientists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are analyzing radar data from that day, then merging the information with detailed storm surveys and other data. They hope to learn more about how the storms formed, what made the storms so powerful and what might be done to make tornado warnings more effective. (more…)

Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs Knotted Together

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2011Environment, Naturearctic breeding grounds, atlantic loggerhead sea turtles, chesapeake bay, conor mcgowan, crabs, delaware bay, ecological links, ecosphere, horseshoe crab, james hines, james lyons, james nichols, mid atlantic region, migrating shorebirds, new jersey, nutrient rich eggs, red knot, scorpions, sea turtle, shorebird species, spiders, ticks, U.S. Geological Survey, usgs, virginia

*Research Bolsters Importance of Horseshoe Crab Spawning for Migrating Shorebirds*

LAUREL, Md. – Speculation that the welfare of a small, at-risk shorebird is directly tied to horseshoe crab populations is in part supported by new scientific research, according to a U.S. Geological Survey- led study published in Ecosphere, a journal of the Ecological Society of America.

Population health of the red knot, a shorebird species whose population has plummeted over the last 15 years, has been directly tied to the number of egg-laying horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay — between Delaware and New Jersey — during the red knot’s northward migration each spring. (more…)

Evaluation of Climate Policy Rocketing But in an Undeveloped and Unsystematic Way

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2011Environmentandrew jordan, climate change, climate governance, complexity of climate change issues, dave huitema, Europe, European Union, poland, policy evaluation, portugal, practices of climate policy evaluation in europe, tyndall centre for climate change research, uk, united nations, university of east anglia, vu university amsterdam

*New research led by the University of East Anglia and the VU University Amsterdam shines new light on the little studied but politically vital practices of climate policy evaluation in Europe.*

Published in the international journal Policy Sciences, a meta-analysis by a team of researchers from across Europe offers the very first systematic cataloging of the emerging patterns of policy evaluation undertaken in different parts of the European Union.

In the last decade or so the politics surrounding the development of new policies has attracted unprecedented attention. Many new targets and policies have been adopted. But a lot less is known about what is being done to check that the resulting policies are actually delivering on their promises. (more…)