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Ice-Age Reptile Extinctions Provide a Glimpse of Likely Responses to Human-Caused Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2010Environment, Natureaegean islands, anthony ives, chances of survival, climate, climate change, ecologist, environmental conditions, extinctions, global warming, greek, greek islands, ice age, johannes foufopoulos, lizards, mediterranean sea, moisture levels, reptile, reptile populations, reptile species, sea levels, snakes, southern hemisphere, turtles

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A wave of reptile extinctions on the Greek islands over the past 15,000 years may offer a preview of the way plants and animals will respond as the world rapidly warms due to human-caused climate change, according to a University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues.

The Greek island extinctions also highlight the critical importance of preserving habitat corridors that will enable plants and animals to migrate in response to climate change, thereby maximizing their chances of survival. (more…)

Tiny Protozoa May Hold Key to World Water Safety

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2010Environment, Sciencebarometers, better world, biologist, bob curtis, camera, car, climate change, department of defense, digital camera, dod, gasoline, groundbreaking technique, microscopic plankton, one celled protozoa, pesticides, plastic containers, protozoa, sbs, scott gallager, software, swimming behavioral spectrophotometer, Technology, toxins, underwater environment, wade mcgillis, water

Right now, it looks a little like one of those plastic containers you might fill with gasoline when your car has run dry. But Scott Gallager is not headed to the nearest Mobil station. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist has other, grander plans for his revolutionary Swimming Behavioral Spectrophotometer (SBS), which employs one-celled protozoa to detect toxins in water sources.

Not only is he working on streamlining the boxy-looking contraption—eventually even evolving it into a computer chip—but he sees it as a tool to potentially “monitor all the drinking water in the world.

“It has a unique utility.” (more…)

Invisible Invasive Species Altering Ecosystems

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2010Environmentair temperatures, asian carp, australia, blue green algae, brackish diatom, climate change, cyanobacteria, dramatic fashion, ecology, ecosystems, elena litchman, european lakes, global change, great lakes, gypsy moths, invasive microbes, invasive species, lake michigan, macroorganism, malaria, microbial invaders, nitrogen fixing rhizobium, nonpathogenic microbes, north american, pathogenic parasitic fungus, portugal, scientific research, subtropical, temperate latitudes, tropical, zebra mussels

Elena Litchman, associate professor of ecology, who works at MSU's Kellogg Biological Station. Image credit: Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. — While Asian carp, gypsy moths and zebra mussels hog invasive-species headlines, many invisible invaders are altering ecosystems and flourishing outside of the limelight.

A study by Elena Litchman, Michigan State University associate professor of ecology, sheds light on why invasive microbial invaders shouldn’t be overlooked or underestimated.

“Invasive microbes have many of the same traits as their larger, ‘macro’ counterparts and have the potential to significantly impact terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,” said Litchman, whose research appears in the December issue of Ecology Letters. “Global change can exacerbate microbial invasions, so they will likely increase in the future.” (more…)

Rewarding Eco-Friendly Farmers Can Help Combat Climate Change

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2010Environmentatmosphere, carbon dioxide, chesapeake bay, cier, climate change, combat, eco-friendly, ecosystem markets, farmers, fertilizer, fertilizer run-off, greenhouse gas, management practices, maryland, maryland farmers, matthias ruth, nitrogen, nutrient trading market, phosphorous, techniques, total maximum daily load, trading market

*UMD Study Advises State on Creation of ‘Nutrient Trading Market’*

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Financially rewarding farmers for using the best fertilizer management practices can simultaneously benefit water quality and help combat climate change, finds a new study by the University of Maryland’s Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). (more…)

Earth’s Lakes Warming Due to Climate Change

By Guest PostNovember 26, 2010Environmentalgal blooms, alpine lake, black, caspian seas, climate change, emerald bay, global survey, great lakes, kazakhstan, lake tahoe, lakes, lakes warming, natural ecosystem, North America, northern europe, northern hemisphere, philipp schneider, satellite data, simon hook, surface temperatures, temperature, trends

Lake Tahoe, seen here from Emerald Bay, was one of the primary validation sites for the global lake study. The lake, which straddles the borders of California and Nevada, is the largest alpine lake in North America. Image credit: NASA-JPL

WASHINGTON – In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, researchers have determined that Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change.

Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide.

They reported an average warming rate of 0.45 degrees Celsius (0.81 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, with some lakes warming as much as 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. The warming trend was global, and the greatest increases were in the mid- to high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. (more…)

Biologists Report More Bad News for Polar Bears

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2010Environment3-d computer models, brown bears, climate change, ecology, Environment, extreme environment, genetic studies, global warming, graham slater, grizzly bears, ice ages, polar bears, van valkenburgh, vegetables

*Climate change will force them south, where they are unsuited for the diet*

A polar bear breaks through thin Arctic Ocean ice Aug. 23, 2009. Image credit: Canadian Coast Guard/USGS

Will polar bears survive in a warmer world? UCLA life scientists present new evidence that their numbers are likely to dwindle.

As polar bears lose habitat due to global warming, these biologists say, they will be forced southward in search of alternative sources of food, where they will increasingly come into competition with grizzly bears.

To test how this competition might unfold, the UCLA biologists constructed three-dimensional computer models of the skulls of polar bears and grizzly bears — a subspecies of brown bears — and simulated the process of biting. The models enabled them to compare the two species in terms of how hard they can bite and how strong their skulls are. (more…)

Water Flowing Through Ice Sheets Accelerates Warming, Could Speed Up Ice Flow, Says New Study

By Guest PostNovember 7, 2010Environmentclimate change, climate warming, conventional thermal models, crevasses, fractures, greenland, ice flows, ice sheet, ice sheets, konrad steffen, melt water, moulins, thermal models, thomas phillips

Melt water flowing through ice sheets via crevasses, fractures and large drains called moulins can carry warmth into ice sheet interiors, greatly accelerating the thermal response of an ice sheet to climate change, according to a new study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The new study showed ice sheets like the Greenland Ice Sheet can respond to such warming on the order of decades rather than the centuries projected by conventional thermal models. Ice flows more readily as it warms, so a warming climate can increase ice flows on ice sheets much faster than previously thought, said the study authors. (more…)

Climate Change: Cultural Shift Needed Similar to Smoking, Slavery

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2010Culture, Environmentandy hoffman, attitudes, cigarette smoking, climate change, cultural attitudes, cultural shift, earth, ecological systems, erb institute, fossil fuels, holcim professor, moral problem, planetary scale, scientific evidence, slavery, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Despite scientific evidence of climate change, it will take a significant cultural shift in attitudes to address the situation, says a University of Michigan researcher.

The shift would be much like what has happened with recent cigarette smoking bans and even similar to the abolition of slavery in the 19th century.

“The present reality is that we tend to overlook the social dimensions of environmental issues and focus strictly on their technological and economic aspects,” said Andy Hoffman, the Holcim (U.S.) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. “To properly address climate change, we must change the way we structure our organizations and the way we think as individuals. (more…)

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