Environment – Page 13 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Ecologist: Up-and-Coming Forests Will Remain Important Carbon Sinks

By Guest PostAugust 13, 2011Environmentaging forests, aspen canopy, carbohydrates, carbon storage, christopher gough, climate change analysts, ecological theories, ecosystem, effective carbon sink, Environment, faset, forest accelerated succession experiment, greenhouse gas emissions, kyoto protocol, lucas nave, national carbon sink, nitrogen cycling, ohio, ohio state university, oxygen, peter curtis, photosynthesis, policymakers and ecologists, upper great lakes, upper midwest

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The aging forests of the Upper Great Lakes could be considered the baby boomers of the region’s ecosystem.

The decline of trees in this area is a cause for concern among policymakers and ecologists who wonder whether the end of the forests’ most productive years means they will no longer offer the benefits they are known for: cleansed air, fertile soil, filtered water and, most important to climate change analysts, carbon storage that offsets greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)

The Winners of Mass Extinction: With Predators Gone, Prey Thrives

By Guest PostMay 11, 2011Scienceage of fishes, age of the crinoids, crinoid fossils, devonian era, devonian period, ecology, ecosystem, Environment, fish, fossil record, fossils, hangenberg event, lauren sallan, lotka volterra cycles, marine vertebrate, mass extinction, modern biodiversity, natural experiment, ocean life, ohio state university, paleontologist, population of prey species, predator prey dynamics, predator prey relationships, residual defenses, robert nicholls, thomas kammer, university of chicago, william ausich

*Extinction of fishes 360 million years ago created natural ecology experiment*

In present-day ecology, the removal or addition of a predator in an ecosystem can produce dramatic changes in the population of prey species. For the first time, scientists have observed the same dynamics in the fossil record, thanks to a mass extinction that decimated ocean life 360 million years ago.

What was bad for fish was good for the fish’s food, according to a paper published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from the University of Chicago, West Virginia University and The Ohio State University found that the mass extinction known as the Hangenberg event produced a “natural experiment” in the fossil record, with results that mirror modern observations about predator-prey relationships. (more…)

Ancient Fossils Hold Clues for Predicting Future Climate Change, Scientists Report

By Guest PostApril 18, 2011Environmentadam csank, ancient climate record, ancient fossils, Antarctica, aradhna tripati, arctic circle, arctic temperatures, beaver pond, canada, carbon dioxide, climate modeling, coal mine, early pliocene epoch, ellesmere island, Environment, fossilized mollusks, geochemical techniques, geosciences, global climate change, greenland, mollusk shells, natalia rybczynski, polar ice cap, strathcona fiord

By studying fossilized mollusks from some 3.5 million years ago, UCLA geoscientists and colleagues have been able to construct an ancient climate record that holds clues about the long-term effects of Earth’s current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global climate change.

Two novel geochemical techniques used to determine the temperature at which the mollusk shells were formed suggest that summertime Arctic temperatures during the early Pliocene epoch (3.5 million to 4 million years ago) may have been a staggering 18 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than today. And these ancient fossils, harvested from deep within the Arctic Circle, may have once lived in an environment in which the polar ice cap melted completely during the summer months. (more…)

Climate Change From Black Carbon Depends on Altitude

By Guest PostApril 14, 2011Environmentairborne particles, atmospheric stability, ban weiss, black carbon, carbon, climate dynamics, climate effect of black carbon, Environment, global warming, human health, ken caldeira, long cao, upper atmosphere

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. (more…)

Reframing Climate Change: It’s as Much Cultural as Scientific

By Guest PostMarch 16, 2011Culture, EnvironmentAl Gore, andy hoffman, climate change, climate change exists, debate, democrats, diagnostic, Environment, evidence of global warming, logic schism, man made phenomena, newspaper editorials, political ideology, prognostic, republicans, united states, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— While debate on climate change often strikes a caustic tone, the real impediment to meaningful dialogue is that the two sides often talk past each other in what amounts to a “logic schism,” says a University of Michigan researcher.

“In a logic schism, a contest emerges in which opposing sides are debating different issues, seeking only information that supports their position and disconfirms their opponents’ arguments,” said Andy Hoffman, the Holcim (U.S.) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at U-M’s Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. “Each side views the other with suspicion, even demonizing the other, leading to a strong resistance to any form of engagement, much less negotiation and concession.” (more…)

Pollution Triggers Genetic Resistance Mechanism in a Coastal Fish

By Guest PostFebruary 24, 20112 commentsEnvironmentacushnet river estuary, ahr2, amino acids, antibiotics, atlantic tomcod, bacteria, diana franks, Environment, evolutionary change, fish, fish populations, general electric facilities, genetic receptor, genetic resistance, hudson environment, hudson river, insecticides, insects, isaac wirgin, mark hahn, natural selection, new york, pahs, PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, protein, receptor gene, stress factors, superfund basic research, tomcod, toxicity, vertebrate population

For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York’s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined colleagues from New York University (NYU) and NOAA to investigate this phenomenon and report that the tomcod living in the Hudson River have undergone a rapid evolutionary change in developing a genetic resistance to PCBs. (more…)

Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Worm-like Animals Tell Story of Ancient Oxygen

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2011Sciencealgae and worms, black shale, cambrian explosion, dynamic and complex nature, ediacaran period, Environment, eukaryotes, evolution of life, geochemical data, global ocean, lantian, lantian basin, macrofossils, macroscopic eukaryotes, organic rich black, oxygen, pristine fossils, richard lane, seaweeds, shuhai xiao, snowball earth, south china, virginia tech, xunlai yuan

*Geobiologists uncover Davy Jones Locker of fossils near small village in south China*

Almost 600 million years ago, before the rapid evolution of life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche near what is now Lantian, a small village in south China.

Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free and unbreathable waters. (more…)

Iceland Volcano’s Molten Rock Could Become Source of High-Grade Energy

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2011Environmentbasaltic, electric power, Environment, geologists, geothermal fluids, geothermal steam, geothermal well, hydrothermal alteration, hydrothermally altered basalt, Iceland, iceland deep drilling project, krafla caldera, krafla volcano, leonard johnson, magma, silica poor basalt magma, sources of power, southwest iceland, supercritical geothermal resources, supercritical pressures and temperatures, supercritical water, underground lava, volcanic rocks, volcano, wilfred elders

*Krafla volcano gives geologists unique, unexpected opportunity to study magma*

Geologists drilling an exploratory geothermal well in 2009 in the Krafla volcano in Iceland met with a big surprise: underground lava, also called magma, flowed into the well at 2.1 kilometers (6,900 feet) depth.

It forced the scientists to stop drilling. (more…)

Tag Archives: Environment