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Scientists review the ecological effects of sea ice loss

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2013Environmentarctic fox, arctic ocean, biological productivity, caribou, cecilia bitz, donald walker, ecological effects, eric post, ice microbes, jedediah brodie, jeffrey kerby, kristin laidre, microorganisms, mountainous tundra, pennsylvania state university, polar bears, ringed seals, sea ice decline, sea ice loss, tundra, uma bhatt, university of alaska, university of washington, west greenland

The Arctic Ocean has more open water each summer, a trend most scientists predict will continue in coming years. September 2012 set the record for the most open water since satellite observations began.

A University of Washington researcher is co-author on a review paper published (Aug. 2) in the journal Science looking at the ecological consequences of sea ice decline.

Led by corresponding author Eric Post, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, the international team looked at effects on animals ranging from microorganisms to polar bears. As well as obvious changes for organisms that live in or on the ice, there also are trickle-down effects for food webs, animal behavior, species ranges, interbreeding and disease dynamics. (more…)

CU Research Shows Warming Climate Threatens Ecology at Mountain Research Site West of Boulder

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Environmentamerican pika, amy miller, andrew fountain, Antarctica, boulder, changes in climate, climate station, colorado, continental divide, ecological change, ecosystem, forest, glacial lake, human dimension, island of moorea, john marr, katie suding, lter, mark williams, meteorological station, mountain, mountain range, nevada, niwot ridge site, North America, puerto rico, subalpine forest, tahiti, talus slopes, threshold, tundra, united states, university of colorado, warming temperature, wetland

A series of papers published this month on ecological changes at 26 global research sites — including one administered by the University of Colorado Boulder in the high mountains west of the city — indicates that ecosystems dependent on seasonal snow and ice are the most sensitive to changes in climate.

The six papers appeared in the April issue of the journal BioScience. The papers were tied to data gathered at sites in North America, Puerto Rico, the island of Moorea near Tahiti, and Antarctica, which are known as Long-Term Ecological Research, or LTER, sites and are funded by the National Science Foundation. CU-Boulder’s Niwot Ridge site, one of the five original LTER sites designated by NSF in 1980, encompasses several thousand acres of subalpine forest, tundra, talus slopes, glacial lakes and wetlands stretching up to more than 13,000 feet on top of the Continental Divide. (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…)

Scientists, Public Team Up to Discover Biodiversity

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2011Education, Science2011 bioblitz, arizona, arizona sonora desert museum, bioblitz, bobcat, cecil schwalbe, creosote, disease, diversity, don falk, don swann, dustin sandberg, ecology and biodiversity, elizabeth betsy arnold, facebook for students, fungi, globe, gps device, jaguar, jeff eble, jojoba, kim franklin, mountain lion, natalie luna rose, nick massimo, ocelot, palo verde, pharmaceutical drug discovery, Phoenix, photosynthesis, plant pathogens, saguaro national park, sonoran desert, team endophyte, tropics, tucson, tundra, university of arizona, ziploc bags

*During the 2011 BioBlitz at Saguaro National Park Oct. 21-22, school children and volunteers teamed up with experts to embark on a 24-hour race to discover and tally as many of the park’s living creatures as possible in an effort to better understand the ecology and biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert.*

Under an afternoon sun that is beating down much too relentlessly for this time of year, our group of eleven is scrambling up a hillside in Saguaro National Park just west of Tucson.

What has brought us together is the 2011 BioBlitz, a two-day celebration of biodiversity organized by the National Park Service, National Geographic, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Friends of Saguaro National Park. For two and a half hours, we get to be field biologists on a real science mission. (more…)

UF Study Shows Tundra Fires Could Accelerate Climate Warming

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2011Environmentanaktuvuk river fire, arctic carbon cycle, arctic fires, arctic tundra, atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide, canada, carbon, city of miami, ecologist, ecosystem ecology, global climate, global climate warming, greenhouse gases, michelle mack, Nature, north slope of alaska brooks range, organic matter, permafrost, radiocarbon dating, russia, smoke, soil bound carbon, ted schuur, terry chapin, tundra, university of alaska, university of florida, wildfires

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a University of Florida study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames.

In a study published in the July 28 issue of the journal Nature, UF ecologist Michelle Mack and a team of scientists including fellow UF ecologist Ted Schuur quantified the amount of soil-bound carbon released into the atmosphere in the 2007 Anaktuvuk River fire, which covered more than 400 square miles on the North Slope of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The 2.1 million metric tons of carbon released in the fire — roughly twice the amount of greenhouse gases put out by the city of Miami in a year — is significant enough to suggest that Arctic fires could impact the global climate, said Mack, an associate professor of ecosystem ecology in UF’s department of biology. (more…)

Tag Archives: tundra

Scientists review the ecological effects of sea ice loss

CU Research Shows Warming Climate Threatens Ecology at Mountain Research Site West of Boulder

NASA: Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes

Scientists, Public Team Up to Discover Biodiversity

UF Study Shows Tundra Fires Could Accelerate Climate Warming