#Sectors damaging the environment are not drivers of economic growthyou could decrease environmental impact without hindering economic growth.
These are two different subsystems says Tuomas Mattila in his doctoral thesis. Tuomas Mattila works as a researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE.
What are the environmental impacts of constructing a kilometre of road? Between which sectors is a price of EUR 1000 paid for a piece of wooden furniture actually divided?
The calculations in the Aalto University thesis in systems and operations research show that the ecological footprint of the Finnish economy mainly comes from the primary production of wood energy crops
and ecological footprint are caused by different parts of the economy. It is thought often that reducing environmental impacts would strain the economy Tuomas Mattila says.
The study applied environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) models which combine consumption production and environmental impacts into a transparent system of equations.
The study identified the most important economic interactions out of a set of 23000 model parameters in the Finnish input-output tables.
which sectors cause environmental impact and biodiversity loss. At the same time it was established which sectors produce value added.
Assessment of environmental impactsin the study environmental impacts were assessed using the latest impact assessment methods of life cycle assessment (LCA)
and services The doctoral thesis broadened the scope of previous analyses by focusing on new environmental impacts:
For example raw wood's journey through sawmills and wood product manufactories to a new apartment is a production chain that proved to have a significant ecological footprint.
Only a few production paths contribute to greenhouse gas emissionsanother surprising observation was that out of tens of thousands of different production paths only a handful had very significant environmental impacts.
The observation made by the researchers is good news for minimising environmental impacts. When solving the environmental problems of the global economy it is a good idea to focus on only a few of the most important questions.
Global calculation model under developmentthe calculation model used in the study was applied to Finland but a similar global model is already under development.
The Finnish Environment Institute will use it in an EU project on the global effects of the smartphone business The study will examine which part of the value added is produced in developing countries
The above story is provided based on materials by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
when it comes to influencing atmospheric carbon dioxide said second author Lars Hedin a Princeton professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Princeton Environmental Institute.
what scientists know about future climate change Batterman said. Computer models that calculate the global balance of atmospheric carbon dioxide also must factor in sinks that offset carbon such as tropical forests.
Dylan Craven a Yale university doctoral candidate in forestry and environmental studies; and Jefferson Hall an STRI staff scientist and leader of the institute's Agua Salud Project that maintains
#Grassroots action in livestock feeding to help curb global climate changein a series of papers to be presented next week scientists offer new evidence that a potent chemical mechanism operating in the roots of a tropical
BNI offers what could be agriculture's best bet for keeping global climate change within manageable limits.
BNI is a rare triple-win technology that's good for rural livelihoods as well as the global environment and climate.
It defies the widespread notion that livestock are necessarily in the minus column of any food security and environmental calculation.
Other research has shown that deep-rooted productive Brachiaria grasses capture large amounts of atmospheric carbon--on a scale similar to that of tropical forests--a further plus for climate change mitigation.
which proposes to deliver major benefits for the poor and the environment through innovative research on tropical forage grasses and legumes.
But they will have harmful effects such as degrading ecosystems and causing food supply problems if other benefits and disbenefits from revegetating agricultural landscapes are taken not also into account in land-use decisions according to an article published in the October issue of Bioscience.
and provide few environmental benefits to local inhabitants. But alternatives such as planting strips of trees on farms agroforestry--integrating trees into cropping systems
while also yielding a broad spectrum of environmental benefits. These benefits may include for example reduced pollution outflow and erosion and better wind protection pest control and pollination.
What is more schemes that have local participation and buy in are more likely to be successful over the long term
which Washington University in St louis biologist Joan Strassmann characterizes as a noxious and terrifying environment for the little things that live there.
since to Washington University in St louis describe this miniature ecosystem and its players in the Sept. 13 2013 online edition of Nature Communications Our results suggest that successful farming is a complex evolutionary adaptation
Bamboo has been championed by many as friendly to the environment although the Federal trade commission issued a 2009 consumer alert noting that some pollutants are released in production from bamboo stalks.
Meanwhile when it comes to buying green consumers who believe that one individual can make even a small difference in impacting the environment were more likely to buy bamboo.
From an environmental standpoint bamboo is touted as a product for the same reasons it is vilified by anyone who has tried to eradicate it from a yard:
so in ways that do not harm the environment such as using organic or recyclable materials he said.
and it's subject to environmental influences so it's been really tricky to do that. Hans Hofmann Ph d. a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin said the study also refutes the assertion that human behavior is too complex to understand.
but for both studies the Fred Hutch researchers had to create an environment in which they could observe the fish in unchanging conditions.
That suggests a single gene could cause fish to detect their environment differently Greenwood said
and tulip trees in 1975 in Kansas. Dilcher and Peter Crane now the dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale university published information about the fossils and named the plant Archaeanthus.
and how they might fare in the future given changing climate and other factors. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Indiana University.
#An unprecedented threat to Perus cloud forestsperu's cloud forests are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world.
and therefore hardest to study ecosystems in the world. To date scientists only believe a fraction of cloud forest tree
and plant species have been discovered. This massive array of underexplored biodiversity will face an unprecedented threat before the end of the century.
Now researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-salem N c. have pieced together startling new evidence that shows rapid 21st century warming may spell doom for tree species in Peruvian cloud forests with species
Lutz who is now a postdoctoral research associate at Dartmouth College in New hampshire says this means cloud forest trees are particularly sensitive to climate change.
Historically Andean cloud forest seedlings sprout higher in elevation during periods of global warming. However an unprecedented rate of projected temperature gain in the region over the next century 5 degrees Celsius will have them going upslope faster than ever before says Miles Silman professor of Biology at Wake Forest University.
Silman says plants are going to have to migrate around 3000 feet to remain in equilibrium with the warming climate by 2100.
Unlike the cloud forest beneath it Silman says the transition between trees and grassland called an ecotone is stationary over most of the landscape
Silman says assuming no additional changes in climatic factors other than temperature timberline would need to migrate around 900 meters in elevation to keep pace with the cloud forest beneath it.
however is that cloud forest trees can't go through or around the ecotone. Previous work we've done shows that the trees in the forest are migrating upwards
It consists of climate change projections based off computer modeling of photos and Quickbird satellite images of remote Cloud Forests in Peru's protected Manu National park and unprotected surrounding areas.
so that the cloud forest can evolve and grow as nature intended. He says a more hands on approach will be needed in the immediate future to protect the region from massive population loss.
Intervention is a strategy conservationists seldom use in this ecosystem but it may be the only way to save it he says.
Our next step is working with local and international conservationists to come up a plan to help cloud forests keep moving upslope.
#Climate change may speed up forests life cyclesmany climate studies have predicted that tree species will respond to global warming by migrating via seed dispersal to cooler climates.
The Duke university-led study published online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology is the first to show that a changing climate may have dual impacts on forests.
It adds to a growing body of evidence including a 2011 study by the same Duke team that climate-driven migration is occurring much more slowly than predicted and most plant species may not be able to migrate fast enough to stay one step ahead of rising temperatures.
and higher temperatures said James S. Clark H. L. Blomquist Professor of Environment at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
The patterns we were able to see from this massive study are consistent with forests having faster turnover where young trees tend to be more abundant than adult trees in warm wet climates.
if populations speed up their life cycle in warming climates said lead author Kai Zhu a doctoral student of Clark's at Duke.
This is a first sign of climate change impacts before we see large-scale migrations. It gives a very different picture of how trees are responding to climate change.
The fact that most trees are not yet showing signs of migration should increase awareness that there is a significant lag time in how tree species are responding to the changing climate Zhu said.
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Zhu was supported by an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant.
The next step involves getting approval from the U s. Environmental protection agency to sell nootkatone for insect control.
and safe for people and the environment throughout its life cycle. The industry has made great strides in reducing the amount of packaging said Risch citing some of the most visible examples such as thinner plastic water bottles and compostable potato chip bags.
The U s. Environmental protection agency recently reviewed the situation and concluded that there is no scientific evidence that the neonicotinoids are causing serious problems with bee colonies.
Then additional factors of temperature humidity and air pressure come into play affecting how deeply the spirits seep into the wood
The team submitted its final report to the Air Resources Board of the California Environmental protection agency June 30.
He worked for many years with the industry through the U s. Environmental protection agency's Energy star for Industry Program.
which includes 12 other research papers on topics ranging from pesticide resistance to monitoring chemicals in the environment to tick spit.
Every living thing On earth has a unique set of strategies to adapt to life-threatening situations in the environment said Fang Zhu Ph d. a leader of the research who spoke at the meeting.
But it also creates a vulnerability to environmental toxins giving bedbugs an unusually large surface area where pesticides can enter their bodies.
and environmental effects of those residual PPCPS especially over whether they might accumulate to dangerous levels in food crops.
or snow thistle that home gardeners visualize at the mention of weed. Rather the battle involves nightmares like Palmer amaranth pigweed
The author Ashley E. Larsen a Ph d. candidate in the Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology built on an earlier study published in PNAS by extending the temporal dimension of that analysis. That study found a strong positive
Ecological theory suggests that these simplified landscapes should have more insect pest problems due to the lack of natural enemies and the increased size and connectivity of crop-food resources.
There is a debate currently in ecology about what the most efficient land use policy for agricultural production is said Larsen.
Some think that complex landscapes are better that they have minimal effect on the environment in
#Interstellar winds buffeting our solar system have shifted directionscientists including University of New hampshire astrophysicists involved in NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission have discovered that the particles streaming into the solar system from interstellar space have changed likely direction over the last 40 years.
Additionally scientists now gain deeper insight into the dynamic nature of the interstellar winds which has major implications on the size structure
because interstellar clouds are astronomically large says Eberhard MÃ bius UNH principal scientist for the IBEX mission
However this finding may teach us about the dynamics at the edges of these clouds
--while clouds in the sky may drift along slowly the edges often are quite fuzzy and dynamic.
Interstellar atoms flow past Earth as the interstellar cloud surrounding the solar system passes the sun at 23 kilometers per second (50000 miles per hour.
The latest IBEX measurements of the interstellar wind direction differed from those made by the Ulysses spacecraft in the 1990s.
or whether the wind direction itself changed over the years. The various sets of observations relied on three different methods to measure the incoming interstellar wind.
IBEX and Ulysses directly measured neutral helium atoms as they coursed through the inner solar system.
while Ulysses'measurements were taken between 1. 3 and 2 times further from the sun. In the final analysis the direction of the wind obtained most recently by IBEX data differs from the direction obtained from the earlier measurements
which strongly suggests the wind itself has changed over time. Prior to this study we were struggling to understand why our current measurements from IBEX differed from those of the past says co-author Nathan Schwadron lead scientist for the IBEX Science Operations center at UNH.
and goats is the primary cause of degraded land in the Mongolian Steppe one of the largest remaining grassland ecosystems in the world Oregon State university researchers say in a new report.
and 70 percent of the grassland ecosystem is considered now degraded. The findings were published in Global Change Biology.
The problem poses serious threats to this ecosystem researchers say including soil and water loss but it may contribute to global climate change as well.
Grasslands depending on their status can act as either a significant sink or source for atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Globally however all ecosystems have a distinct function in world climate he said. Vegetation cools the landscape
whether the underlying cause was overgrazing climate change or something else. This report indicates that overgrazing is the predominant concern.
The study was published in the online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Ecology Letters. The work was authored co by Stanford biology Professors Gretchen Daily Paul Ehrlich and Elizabeth Hadly;
For the past four years China has been paying farmers to grow corn instead of rice an effort that Stanford research shows is paying off for people and the environment.
The brown smog-filled skies that engulf Beijing have earned China a poor reputation for environmental stewardship.
But despite China's dirty skies a study led by Stanford environmental scientists has found that a government-run clean water program is providing substantial benefit to millions of people in the nation's capital.
At the top China sees environmental protection and poverty alleviation as vital to national security said Gretchen Daily a biology professor at Stanford
The work here shows there has been a win-win said Daily a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
or more years old according to the study led by Japan's Tottori University and the United nations University's Canadian-based Institute for Water Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).
In southern Europe reclaimed wastewater is used predominantly for agricultural irrigation (44%of the wastewater projects) and urban or environmental applications (37%of the projects.
In Northern europe wastewater is used primarily for environmental applications and industryrussian Federation and Independent States from the Soviet Unioncomplete information on wastewater generation treatment and use is available for 8 countries--Armenia Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Turkmenistan
Most wastewater goes untreated in Sub-saharan africa where water pollution triggers the spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.
More than half was used for environmental purposes such as landscape irrigation recreation and river maintenance. Wastewater use in agriculture and industry is not substantial accounting only for 7%and 1%of the treated wastewater respectively.
If the volatiles in this study are in fact the most important to the perception of blueberry flavor then'Star'may have the most consistent flavor in response to varying environmental factors they concluded.
and their relationship with climate factors like rainfall weakened according to research published September 4 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jonathan Thompson and colleagues from the Smithsonian Institution.
Though the land use history of the northeastern United states is documented well its ecological consequences remain poorly understood.
and less structured by changes in local climate. Thompson elaborates If you only looked at a list of tree species you'd have the impression that Northeast forests haven't changed.
and climate change over a 26-year period a team of researchers at Kansas State university examined wheat variety yield data from Kansas performance tests along with location-specific weather and disease data.
Given weather trends in recent years climate change is expected to increase temperatures and this is likely to lower wheat yields in Kansas Barkley said.
The study funded by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station is the first to quantify all of these impacts (climate change disease
That made the study's approach unique in this branch of climate change literature which typically relies on weather estimates over broad geographical areas.
The research does not predict climate change or forecast future weather conditions. Instead it shows the predicted change in Kansas wheat yields
if we were to experience a 1 degree (C) increase (1. 8 degrees F) in temperature.
We're in a unique environment and traditional agricultural contracting structures just don't apply Endres said.
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences (ACES.
The report appears in ACS'journal Environmental science & Technology. Junguo Liu and colleagues point out that food waste is a global problem with an estimated one-third to one-half of food produced worldwide being lost
It could be useful for powering devices for use in extreme environments such as oil drilling the military and space.
and supercapacitors that work reliably in high-temperature environments but this has been given challenging the traditional materials used to build these devices Ajayan said.
they may need to tackle a host a problems ranging from climate change to disease control.
and spread of emerging diseases creating agricultural and pharmaceutical products studying climate change controlling invasive species
and establishing plans for conservation and ecosystem restoration. The study appearing today in PLOS Biology describes a significant challenge for the project which is expected to produce an initial draft tree by the end of the year.
The research was funded by Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Stockholm University the Schwartz'foundation Lars Hierta's foundation Knut & Alice
improving forestsa collaborative project involving a Kansas State university ecologist has shown that the Clean Air Act has helped forest systems recover from decades of sulfur pollution and acid rain.
There is a clear shift in the growth reflecting the impact of key environmental legislation Nippert said.
The other level of significance is that environmental legislation can have a tremendous impact on an entire ecosystem.
because they are abundant long-lived and a good recorder of environmental variability. Red cedar trees grow slowly
and rely on surface soil moisture which makes them sensitive to environmental change. Their abilities to live for centuries meant that researchers could analyze hundreds of years of tree rings Nippert said.
It took 10 years for that landmark environmental legislation to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions but it eventually did.
When it did we saw an entire ecosystem recover from years of acidic pollution. Another interesting finding from the tree ring analysis:
It's kind of interesting that those two very important periods in our history match up perfectly in terms of the responses seen throughout this whole forest ecosystem Nippert said.
how soil conditions minerals sun temperature climate altitude and other environmental factors affect the expression of genes in grapes and the chemistry of wine's aromas and color.
Winemaking has always been an art. Today it is also a science says Prof. Carrau.
and aerosols have very distinct properties their effects on spatial patterns of rainfall change are surprisingly similar according to new research from the University of Hawaii at Manoa's International Pacific Research center (IPRC) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Humanmade climate change comes mostly from the radiative forcing of greenhouse gases and air pollutants or aerosols.
Aerosols affect climate in two ways: one is fast and perturbs the physics and behavior of clouds in minutes to days;
the other effect takes years and is mediated by interactions with the ocean and atmosphere. The fast effects of aerosols on clouds have been studied intensely
but their long-term ocean-mediated effect has received little attention. A team of scientists at the IPRC and Scripps has provided now important new insights based on results from experiments with three state-of-the-art climate models.
Even though aerosols and greenhouse gases are concentrated in vastly different regions of Earth all three models revealed similar regional effects on rainfall over the ocean.
This came as a big surprise to us reflected lead-author Shang-Ping Xie a professor of climate science and first Roger Revelle Chair in Environmental science at Scripps.
It took a while for the result to sink in. The result means that it is hard to tell apart the greenhouse and aerosol effects.
and greenhouse-gas-induced changes in rainfall appear to be mediated by the spatial patterns of sea surface temperature.
Although much of the aerosol research has focused on microphysical processes over the ocean the climate response to aerosols appears to be insensitive to details of the micro-processes in clouds Xie said.
The climate changes induced by greenhouse gases and by aerosols share a common set of ocean-atmospheric feedback structures explaining the spatial resemblance between the two types of response.
We want to probe the ocean-atmosphere interaction mechanisms that mediate these rainfall patterns and to determine what forms the foundation.
This will allow us to develop more reliable regional climate projections. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Hawaii#SOEST.
The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change and carried out by researchers at the University of Exeter
The study suggests that the warming climate is allowing pests to become established in previously unsuitable regions.
and ecosystem health has moved now to wheat. Considered a new disease wheat blast is sharply reducing wheat yields in Brazil.
if we are to halt the relentless destruction of crops across the world in the face of climate change.
Another possibility is that red spruce may be one of nature's winners in the face of climate change.
The study Quantifying the legacy of foliar winter injury on woody aboveground carbon sequestration of red spruce trees was published earlier this year in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
and its impacts and it is enormously gratifying to be at the forefront of discovering this amazing turn-around in red spruce growth in New england said Michael T. Rains Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Product Laboratory.
or a developing story about the effects of a changing climate we are not yet sure.
Professor Dallas Swallow from the Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment senior author of the paper said:
Dr Bryony Jones also from the UCL Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment and lead author of the paper said:
and the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests recently gave permission for coal mining development in a key forest corridor connecting two of the habitats in the study.
The authors note that further research is needed to assess how effective LSM is in rural Africa where breeding sites are harder to target such as large flood plains or rice paddies.
or indoor residual spraying to hammer down malaria across the tropics. The authors note that there are limitations in the available data for analysis with a small number of eligible studies and a lack of data in many settings.
The trials included were also likely to have been conducted in environments where experts considered success likely--so may not reflect the likely impact of LSM in every habitat.
#Woodland salamanders indicators of forest ecosystem recoverywoodland salamanders are a viable indicator of forest ecosystem recovery according to researchers from the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station.
when woodland salamanders are found in high abundance it indicates a healthy forest having undergone ecological advancement and ecosystem recovery.
There have been concerns about using indicator species as metrics of ecosystem conditions; however amphibians are increasingly becoming accepted as researchers verify their applicability and usefulness.
but they provide crucial environmental services to society. According to the researchers this type of forest is a unique carbon sink containing the most abundant land carbon stocks on the planet.
Old-growth forests sequester carbon pollution and support the world's most diverse ecosystems. Mill Creek is an old-growth forest located in Del Norte Calif. in a geographically limited coastal redwood forest bioregion
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