greenhouse gas expert warnsas the shale gas boom continues the atmosphere receives more methane adding to Earthâ##s greenhouse gas problem.
Robert Howarth greenhouse gas expert and ecology and environmental biology professor fears that we may not be many years away from an environmental tipping point â
and natural gas is the largest methane pollution source in the United Statesâ#said Howarth who explains in an upcoming journal article that Earth may reach the point of no return
Methane Emissions and the Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Natural Gasâ#will be published May 20 in the journal Energy Science and Engineering.
Natural gas â#that once seemingly promising link between the era of oil and coal to the serenity of sustainable solar wind and water power â#is a major source of atmospheric methane due to widespread
leaks as well as purposeful venting of gas. Howarth points to â#oeradiative forcingâ#a measure of trapped heat in Earthâ##s atmosphere from man-made greenhouse gases.
The current role of methane looms large he says contributing over 40 percent of current radiative forcing from all greenhouse gases based on the latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The role of methane as a driver of global warming is even more critical than this 40 percent value might indicate Howarth notes.
â#with another like natural gas will not suffice as an approach to take on global warming. Rather we should embrace the technologies of the 21st century
#By itself, abundant shale gas unlikely to alter climate projectionswhile natural gas can reduce greenhouse emissions
when it is substituted for higher-emission energy sources abundant shale gas is not likely to substantially alter total emissions without policies targeted at greenhouse gas reduction a pair of Duke researchers find.
If natural gas is abundant and less expensive it will encourage greater natural gas consumption and less of fuels such as coal renewables and nuclear power.
The net effect on the climate will depend on whether the greenhouse emissions from natural gas--including carbon dioxide
and methane--are lower or higher than emissions avoided by reducing the use of those other energy sources.
Most evidence indicates that natural gas as a substitute for coal in electricity production gasoline in transport and electricity in buildings decreases greenhouse gases.
But natural gas production and consumption has higher emissions than renewables and nuclear power. Over the range of scenarios that we examine abundant natural gas by itself is neither a climate hero nor a climate villain said Richard Newell Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and director of the Duke university Energy Initiative.
The findings are published in a special issue of Environmental science and Technology Understanding the Risks of Unconventional Shale Gas Development.
Natural gas from shale formations is favored by proponents as a cleaner inexpensive replacement for fuels such as coal
and oil that emit more carbon dioxide and local air pollutants. But extracting processing and transporting the fuel can result in emissions of methane--itself a potent greenhouse gas.
The precise level of these methane emissions is uncertain and extensive research on the subject is under way.
We find that so far increased natural gas has taken mostly the place of coal but looking forward there also may be increased consumption for sectors such as industry as well as some degree of displacement of zero-emission sources such as renewables
The net effect on U s. greenhouse gas emissions appears likely to be small in the absence of policies specifically directed at greenhouse gas mitigation.
one where natural gas production and prices follow a reference case scenario and another where increased shale gas production lowers prices
and encourages increased consumption. They also account for a range of methane emissions scenarios ranging from 25 percent below to 50 percent above the levels estimated by the U s. Environmental Production Agency.
The fact that increased shale gas doesn't have a huge climate impact on its own doesn't mean it's not important.
If broad climate policy is enacted having abundant natural gas could be very helpful by making it cheaper for society to achieve climate goals Newell said.
If natural gas is expensive then it will be more costly to switch away from fuels that have higher greenhouse gas emissions such as coal and oil.
But keeping methane emissions low is essential to maximizing the potential benefits of natural gas. The climate benefits of natural gas are reduced
if there are a lot of methane emissions but while recent evidence suggests methane emissions may be higher than the EPA currently estimates it's not clear how this new information will affect those estimates Raimi said.
but even if methane emissions from natural gas systems are significantly higher than current EPA estimates we did not find this significantly alters the impact of abundant natural gas on long-term national or global greenhouse gas emissions pathways.
some species consider skatole a compound occurring in faeces part of the bouquet. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum.
Chemical compounds containing reactive nitrogen are major drivers of air and water pollution worldwide and hence of diseases like asthma or cancer.
In the different forms it can take through chemical reactions it massively contributes to respirable dust leads to the formation of aggressive ground-level ozone
Nitrous oxide or laughing gas on the one hand is one of the major greenhouse gases. On the other hand nitrogen containing aerosols scatter light
Cary Mitchell professor of horticulture said the technique could be particularly useful for growing transgenic crops to produce high-value medicinal products such as antibodies for the budding plant-derived industrial and pharmaceutical compounds industry.
Grains of corn could be engineered to produce proteins that could be extracted and processed into medicine pharmaceuticals
and nutraceuticals such as essential vitamins he said. This is a young industry but what we've done is show that you can successfully grow these high-value crops in contained environments.
It is an affordable non-chemical means of taking genetically modified crops to harvest maturity without getting any kind of pollen or seed into the ecosystem.
and rich in glutathione can reduce the oxidation process that is produced by the aroma loss of young wines The fresh fruity and floral aroma of young wines (white
and rosã) can quickly disappear during their storage because of the oxidation process. Additionally young wines can change their color due to the formation of polymers producing orange and brown color tones.
However the most widespread oenological practice the usage of chemical antioxidants (sulfites) can provoke adverse effects in some consumers sensitive to this compound.
As a result they statistically proved that the wines with additives based on antioxidant inactive yeasts were more intense in fruit aromas (strawberry and banana) and less intense in aromatic notes more specific for oxidation (yeast.
It's not good news--as greenhouse gases continue to rise we'll get fewer storms chased up into Australia Dr Abram said.
and by combining our observations with climate models we can clearly link this to rising greenhouse gas levels.
This new research suggests that climate models do a good job of capturing how the westerly winds respond to increasing greenhouse gases added Professor England from the Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW.
Such a high level of chemical filtration might sound positive but the unfortunate implication is that the river's natural filtration systems for nitrates appear to be operating at or very close to full capacity.
The sediment operates as a chemical filter in that microbes in the sand gravel and mud gobble up compounds such as oxygen
and nitrates from the water before the water discharges back into the stream. The more time the water spends in sediment the more some of these compounds are transformed to potentially more environmentally benign forms.
One compound nitrate is a major component of inorganic fertilizers that has helped make the area encompassed by the Mississippi river network the biggest producer of corn soybeans wheat cattle
and hogs in the United states. But too much nitrogen robs water of oxygen resulting in algal blooms and dead zones.
When a river system gets totally overwhelmed You lose the chemical functions the chemical buffering said Cardenas.
Borneoâ##s productive trees vitally important for global carbon cyclinga team of scientists has found that the woody growth of forests in North borneo is half as great again as in the most productive forests of northwest Amazonia
The new study published today in the Journal of Ecology examined differences in aboveground wood production (one component of the total uptake of carbon by plants)
which is critically important in the global cycling of carbon. Trees are taller for a given diameter in Southeast asia compared with South america meaning they gain more biomass per unit of diameter growth
whether plant species composition matters at all to fundamental ecosystem functions such as productivity or carbon storage.
and sequester carbon is vitally important for managing them best to keep carbon out of the atmosphere.
Macronutrients (carbohydrates protein and fat) provide calories or energy. Our bodies need smaller amounts of micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
The researcher cited studies demonstrating that high fruit and vegetable consumption can lower blood pressure and improve microvascular function.
A diet rich in a variety of colors and types of vegetables and fruits is a way of getting important nutrients that most people don't get enough of including vitamins minerals and dietary fiber.
They are also naturally low in saturated fat. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by American Heart Association.
and other species. A new report calls for saving half of boreal forest acreage to protect the habitat for more than 300 migratory bird species. The northern landscape is beset with oil gas mining
Southern boreal forests have already been affected by oil and gas mining forest product industries hydropower and roads and infrastructure.
and chemicals and mechanical means are expensive and ineffective too. Using a hatchet that is designed to pump fungal spores into the trees the researchers tested the fungus on 14 tree-of-heaven stands in south-central Pennsylvania.
and distribution of the toxicants--as a means of explaining the variation in sensitivity to chemicals.
We cannot answer these questions before linking the effects first to chemical concentrations in the tissues where the target receptors are present.
I am convinced that imaging the chemical distribution inside aquatic species in general holds great promise to better understand their sensitivity to pesticides and other chemicals.
and distribution of the toxicants--as a means of explaining the variation in sensitivity to chemicals.
We cannot answer these questions before linking the effects first to chemical concentrations in the tissues where the target receptors are present.
I am convinced that imaging the chemical distribution inside aquatic species in general holds great promise to better understand their sensitivity to pesticides and other chemicals.
Wheat and rice also saw notable declines in protein content at higher CO2. Across a diverse set of environments in a number of countries we see this decrease in quality Leakey said.
The new material detailed in the American Chemical Society journal Biomacromolecules takes the state of the art a few steps further Rice scientists said.
and matures said Mikos Rice's Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular engineering.
That process known as syneresis defeats the purpose of defining the space doctors hope to fill with new tissue.
Watson and his colleagues at Rice's Bioscience Research Collaborative solved the problem by adding chemical cross-linkers to the gel's molecules.
These chemical crosslinks are attached by phosphate ester bonds which can be degraded by catalysts--in particular alkaline phosphatase--that are produced naturally by bone tissue.
The catalysts are naturally present in your body at all times in low levels. But in areas of newly formed bone they actually get to much higher levels he said.
So what we get is a semismart material for bone-tissue engineering. As new bone is formed the gel should degrade more quickly in that area to allow even more space for bone to form.
Engel's help with the sophisticated chemistry was especially valuable he said. Watson expects that the material degradation can be tuned to match various bone growth rates.
and the underlying molecular mechanismsthe National institutes of health the Keck Center Nanobiology Training program of the Gulf Coast Consortia and the Baylor College of Medicine Medical scientist Training program supported the research.
Scientists debate the cause of this global dimming with many scientists attributing it to pollution particles injected into the atmosphere by human activity that deflect incoming sunlight.
Major volcanic events such as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines also have spewed tons of light-scattering sulfur dioxide particles into the atmosphere decreasing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface.
Stine said the findings could have implications for geoengineering proposals that would pump more aerosol particles into the atmosphere as a way to block sunlight
--and thus not soak up as much atmosphere-polluting carbon--under such a plan. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by San francisco State university.
The above story is provided based on materials by American Chemical Society. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The Southeast is a major energy producer of coal crude oil and natural gas. Decreased water availability exacerbated by population growth
Rising air and ocean temperatures shifting rainfall patterns changing frequencies and intensities of storms and drought decreasing streamflows rising sea levels and changing ocean chemistry will threaten the sustainability
Ocean waters are becoming warmer and more acidic broadly affecting ocean circulation chemistry ecosystems and marine life.
and productivity of many marine species. The rising temperature and changing chemistry of ocean water combine with other stresses such as overfishing and coastal and marine pollution to alter marine-based food production
Studies show that the chemicals within cigarettes such as arsenic nicotine lead and ethyl phenol could leach into salt
and can leach chemicals for up to ten years. In the US alone an estimated 49.8 million kilograms of filters are discarded annually.
While climate change certainly is a global challenge as greenhouses-gases from the use of fossil fuels disturb ecosystems worldwide the impacts vary widely over space and time.
A new Cornell study published this May in Eating Behaviorsinvolving 502 young women (20-35 years old) showed that tofu lovers saw it as a great source of light inexpensive energizing protein.
While women in the study who already cooked Tofu were twice as likely to think of it as a great source of protein
and diet related aspects of Tofu such as being high in protein and calcium or that it has no cholesterol only resulted in a 12%increase in the likelihood of purchase.
This specialized approach is used by Charles W. Luetje chairman of the department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology in the UM Miller School of medicine
The oocytes are useful for expression of a wide variety of proteins and are particularly helpful
when studying difficult proteins that don't express well in other systems. Based on their work figuring out what Apglnt1 transports
-symbiont interface is published in the journal of Molecular Ecology. That study found that the presence of amino acid transporters is expanded significantly in some sap-feeding insects relative to non sap-feeding insects.
The research which appears online this week in Molecular Systems Biology was conducted at the Texas Medical center in Houston by researchers from Rice the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine.
The story for poorly aggressive cells was said quite different Nagrath assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of bioengineering at Rice.
The three-year study included cell culture studies at Rice as well as a detailed analysis of gene expression profiles of more than 500 patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas and protein-expression profiles from about 200
The compounds then were incorporated into edible films made from pullulan and the researchers determined the antimicrobial activity of these films against bacterial pathogens inoculated onto petri dishes.
The chemistry of binding the two together is the challenge but we need to find a way to do it
were most likely seeking scarce minerals and an extra boost of protein. On a beautiful December day in 2013 they found the precious nutrients in the tears of a spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) relaxing on the banks of the RÃ o Puerto Viejo in northeastern Costa rica.
When minerals are rare in the soil animals sometimes gather salt and other rare minerals and proteins from sweat tears urine and even blood.
Because these markers typically have high rates of molecular evolution the number of repeats present in the genome often differs between individuals.
and between populations of a single species. Scientists at Hendrix College have determined the location of a set of SSR regions that were originally found in the chloroplast genome of two species of pines.
Importantly all loci used in this study were from the plastid genome. Nuclear markers have historically been difficult to work with in pines explains Willyard.
The author of the work studied the role played by this molecule in the development of various pathologies associated with infection So after analysing the MR expression in 124 tissue samples from 31 animals we saw that there was a greater expression of the mannose receptor in the more affected organs.
#Switch from cattle fields to carbon farms could tackle climate change, save endangered animals cheaplychanging cattle fields to forests is a cheap way of tackling climate change
Researchers from leading universities including the University of Sheffield carried out a survey of carbon stocks biodiversity and economic values from one of the world's most threatened ecosystems the western Andes of Colombia.
Under carbon markets designed to stop global warming they could get paid to change the use of their land from growing cows to'growing carbon'--receiving around US$1. 99 per tonne of carbon dioxide the trees remove from the atmosphere.
and they would be paid for the carbon grown. We studied older forests that are around 20-30 years old and found they had recovered around half of the carbon of a really mature forest.
More carbon comes back every single year and as it does so large numbers of highly threatened species return.
The impact on reducing the biodiversity extinction crisis and climate change could be huge. The study also found that letting forests regenerate had a massive impact on the populations of threatened species. In secondary forests in the region researchers found 33 of 40 red-listed bird species that are threatened with extinction.
and Dr Estrella Luna at the University of Sheffield has identified the key receptor binding a chemical called BABA (Î-aminobutyric acid)
Binding of the chemical to this protein triggers a secondary function that'primes'the plant immune system against future attacks by pests and diseases.
The research which has been published in the international journal Nature Chemical Biology also involved scientists from the University Jaume I in Spain and Utrecht University in The netherlands.
but when danger lurks they dine together to seek safety in numbers commented co-author Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical sciences.
Producing food--and beef in particular--is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions which are projected to grow as rising incomes in emerging economies lead to greater demands for meat.
gas impact. The new study to be published Monday April 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that by subsidizing more productive use of pastureland
Exploring options and tradeoffsbecause beef is such a greenhouse-gas intensive food the researchers looked for unintended impacts such as lowering beef prices to the point where people want to consume more
and greenhouse gases said Cohn who was supported by the International Institute for Applied Systems analysis while he was a UC Berkeley student.
#Higher calcium intake may reduce body fat, mitigating genetic risk for diabetesas the number of people with type 2 diabetes continues to rise
Among children who tested positive for gene variants known to be associated with type 2 diabetes those who consumed higher amounts of calcium had a significantly lower body mass index and percent body fat than those with lower
Body mass index and percent body fat are strong indicators of a child's risk for developing diabetes later in life.
Studya surprising recent rise in atmospheric methane likely stems from wetland emissions suggesting that much more of the potent greenhouse gas will be pumped into the atmosphere as northern wetlands continue to thaw
and human changes to those ecosystems--a timely topic as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prepares to examine land use impacts on greenhouse gas emissions says Prof.
One of the strongest greenhouse gases methane comes from agriculture and fossil fuel use as well as natural sources such as microbes in saturated wetland soils.
Not only are fens one of the strongest sources of wetland greenhouse gases but we also know that Canadian forests
Under warmer and wetter conditions much more of the gas will be emitted. If wetland soils dry out from evaporation
These results were confirmed likewise by means of molecular techniques after the DNA had been extracted. Sexual reproduction produces new racesthe Phytophthora infestans fungus can also reproduce asexually without being crossed.
#Bacteria combat dangerous gas leaksbacteria could mop up naturally-occurring and human-made leaks of natural gases before they are released into the atmosphere and cause global warming according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Findings published today in the journal Nature shows how a single bacterial strain (Methylocella silvestris) found in soil
and propane found in natural gas. It was thought originally that the ability to metabolize methane and other gaseous alkanes such as propane was carried out by different groups of bacteria.
because it means that one type of bacteria can mop up the components of natural gas very efficiently
and reduce pollution The findings could help mitigate the effects of the release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere from both natural gas seeps in the environment
They then measured its ability to grow on methane and other gases. Lead researcher Prof Colin Murrell from UEA's school of Environmental sciences said:
Natural gas from geological sources contains methane as well as substantial quantities of ethane propane and butane. We have shown that one microbe can grow on both methane and propane at a similar rate.
which it uses to harness both gases at once. This is very important for environments exposed to natural gas either naturally or through human activity.
These microbes may play an important role in mitigating the effects of methane and other gases before they have a chance to escape into the atmosphere.
These findings could be used to inform land use management decisions. For example areas where high levels of methane and propane are released could benefit from an environment rich in these microbes which live naturally in soil.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas which is released from natural sources such as wetlands as well as from human activities including waste management the oil and gas industries rice production and livestock farming.
Globally it is estimated that more than half of methane emissions are made human. Molecule-for-molecule the effect of methane on global warming is more than 20 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100 year timeframe.
It is therefore very important that we understand how it can be removed biologically in the environment before it is released into the atmosphere.
'Trace-gas metabolic versatility of the facultative methanotroph Methylocella silvestris'by Andrew Crombie and Colin Murrell is published in the journal Nature on Monday April 28 2014.
and analyzed their chemistry. In the second week in July they measured herbivory at each site by walking a 20-meter line at each site
#Determining biocontainers carbon footprintmany efforts to reduce the environmental impacts associated with commercial horticulture production have failed to influence the general public.
A conventional plastic container and nine types of biocontainers (bioplastic coir manure peat bioplastic sleeve slotted rice hull solid rice hull straw and wood fiber) were included in the life cycle
The impacts were presented in terms of contribution to the carbon footprint or global warming potential (GWP) of a single finished plant in a 10-cm-diameter container.
while they were being bombarded with the different plant chemicals. Publishing their findings this week in the academic journal Agronomy of Sustainable Development research leads Dr Colin Tosh
and is controlled traditionally using chemical pesticides or biological methods such as parasites. Previous studies have shown that whitefly become'restless
when they are under attack--producing chemicals which warn other plants close by of the threat.
At the same time they produce a chemical which is unpleasant to the predator. But this response doesn't happen immediately
Despite our efforts global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and the climate will change.
#Critical end-stage liver disease discovery madea team of researchers in the University of Arizona's College of Pharmacy has discovered a molecular pathway that could be key to creating new therapeutics that would slow or even reverse
which refers to damage inflicted to biological tissues by reactive oxygen molecules. Such molecules also called free radicals occur naturally as a byproduct of metabolic processes in the body
and are associated with many chronic diseases including cancer diabetes neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases. Cells keep oxidative stress under control through various mechanisms said Donna Zhang a professor in the UA Department of Pharmacology
and Toxicology explaining that most of these mechanisms involve Nrf2 a protein present in virtually every cell that acts as a molecular switch.
Nrf2 activates various biochemical mechanisms inside the cell that capture reactive oxygen molecules or dispose of damaged cellular components before they can cause more trouble.
and vegetables exert their healthful benefits by capturing reactive oxygen molecules. Under normal healthy conditions when no oxidative stress response is needed an enzyme called Keap1 constantly chews up Nrf2 keeping its level low.
Then under stress from reactive oxygen molecules or when you eat antioxidants from certain plants like broccoli sprouts it prevents Keap1 from eating up Nrf2 allowing it to accumulate in the cell explained Zhang who is also a member of the UA BIO5 Institute.
That protein Hrd1 is part of the cells'garbage disposal--it specializes in destroying misfolded proteins before they can accumulate
Previous efforts only focused on the Keap1 protein and tried to prevent it from breaking down Nrf2 Zhang said.
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