For their study the researchers used data from the Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints study (ECLIPSE.
Limited diet records were available for 2167 ECLIPSE participants who provided dietary intake information at eight time points over a three-year period.
Tule fog a thick ground fog that descends upon the state's Central Valley between late fall
but on average the researchers found a 46 percent drop in the number of fog days between the first of November and the end of February.
or dry said Baldocchi professor of Environmental science Policy and Management. Generally when conditions are too dry
or too wet we get less fog. If we're in a drought there isn't enough moisture to condense in the air.
During wet years we need the rain to stop so that the fog can form. Other studies have marked the decline in the Central Valley of winter chill--the number of hours between 0 and 7 degrees Celsius.
The number of hours of winter chill has dropped by several hundred since the 1950s the study authors noted.
Climate forecasts suggest that the accumulation of winter chill will continue to decrease in the Central Valley.
Farmers may also need to consider adjusting the location of orchards to follow the fog so to speak said Baldocchi.
#With climate changing, Southern plants outperform Northerncan plants and animals evolve to keep pace with climate change?
A study published May 19 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that for at least one widely-studied plant the European climate is changing fast enough that strains from Southern Europe already grow better in the north than established
Johanna Schmitt formerly at Brown University and now a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology and colleagues took banked seed samples originally from Spain England Germany and Finland and raised all the plants
although they still may be critical for preserving genetic diversity especially from warmer parts of the species range that may facilitate adaptation to future climates.
or 40 years ago adapt in place to a rapidly changing climate? This is a concern for foresters--trees live a long time
if the climate rug is pulled out from under them? Schmitt said. Coauthors on the study are Amity Wilczek Martha Cooper and Tonia Korves all at Brown University.
To achieve such a feat would require the gardener to rid the whole neighbourhood of snails
A recent poll by the Royal Horticultural Society showed that one-in-five gardeners in the UK have thrown snails into their neighbours'gardens.
Whilst our study shows that this may be more beneficial than actually killing them we believe the gardening community would benefit as a whole by removing the snails to a convenient wasteland rather than passing the burden onto their neighbours.
Ecology, super-sizedthe University of Wisconsin-Madison home of pioneering ecologists who studied lakes forests wetlands
and prairies is playing a key role in the next wave of ecological research: large teams of scientists confronting the dilemma of a changing climate on a shrinking planet.
But where UW-Madison's Edward Birge and Chancey Juday considered the founders of freshwater science once studied lakes one by one UW-Madison scientists are now leading several large-scale ecological investigations.
The university through its Trout Lake Station in Boulder Junction Wisconsin has played a pivotal role in the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) an international network that has placed observation buoys at more than 100 lakes.
The 24/7 nature of data collection is essential says Tim Kratz director of Trout Lake and a GLEON founder.
and the environment can change quickly. Kratz says that when sensors that could ride a buoy
or social settings and climates Kratz says. For example the project has discovered the release of greenhouse gases is controlled differently in large lakes versus small ones.
On land Paleon (the Paleo-Ecological Observatory Network) is looking backward to see forward assembling long-term records from lake sediments and other natural archives to build large-scale reconstructions of forest and climate
history that support better predictions of future changes in climate and land cover. Forests can either supply carbon to the atmosphere
Some ecosystem models predict that forests will store more carbon over this century but others say they will release more.
or mitigate climate change? The Wisconsin scientists are versed well in the multiple methods used to document past forests
and climates including isotopes inside decaying plant material pollen and charcoal trapped in lake sediments historic land surveys and tree rings.
With our traditional strengths in field and laboratory ecology and in building large-scale data syntheses we can carry a heavy burden in the effort to map the changes in North american forests over the last thousand years up through the present.
and Wildlife Ecology says Williams. We are building on 20 years of David's work for Wisconsin
The ultimate goal is to flesh out a deeper history of the effects of climate variability on forests which are essential for the ecosystem models that explore the feedbacks between forest ecosystems
and climate change Williams says. Having this rich history will help us run the various models
and climate models and it's now being done with terrestrial ecosystem models. The new emphasis on large-scale ecosystem research is the next logical step for a university with a long history of studying changes in climate due to human activity
and other causes says Williams. Reid Bryson was one of the first to look seriously at climate change
and John Kutzbach produced a groundbreaking set of studies identifying the key causes of past climate change.
Thompson Webb my advisor at Brown got his Ph d. here in Madison in 1971 and has been studying paleoclimate ever since.
Ecological history--on both land and water--is no longer the province of the lone wolf no matter how talented and dedicated Williams says.
I really see it as'ecology grows up and grows out.''We are looking at bigger questions a longer time scale at wider horizons
and that requires bigger teams and more interdisciplinary work. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Wisconsin-Madison.
#Climate change brings mostly bad news for Ohio: Big algae bloom in Lake erie, very dry 2015 forecastscientists delivered a mostly negative forecast for how climate change will affect Ohioans during the next year or so and well beyond.
Researchers report that the projected increase in precipitation and the associated runoff will likely lead to a larger-than-average bloom of harmful blue-green algae in Lake erie this summer.
But Ohio may fare better than its neighbors in one respect: While drought and high temperatures are expected to shrink crop yields in 2015 Ohio farmers will likely suffer less than those in the rest of the Corn belt.
On the heels of the recently released 3rd U s. National Climate Assessment nearly 200 researchers educators and policy makers gathered with the public to discuss how climate change is projected to affect Ohio.
The meeting was hosted by the university's Byrd Polar Research center and the Office of Energy and the Environment.
The meeting was emblematic of a transformation in the way states are approaching climate change said Ellen Mosley-Thompson director of the BPRC and Distinguished University Professor of geography at Ohio State.
whether climate change exists to how best to manage it and mitigate the likely impacts Mosley-Thompson said.
The climate is changing. The debate on that part is said over she. The impacts of climate change are already evident
and will become more widespread and pervasive over the next half-century. The public and our policy makers need the best scientific information available to help them make important decisions
Longer storm seasons and more severe storms are contributing to an excessive amount of phosphorus in the lake--mostly from domestic and agricultural runoff--that feeds the HABS.
This climate phenomenon generates warm winds that drive weather in North and South america as well as Australia.
From piecing together thousands of years of climate data preserved in ice cores around the world Thompson has learned that periods of extended drought correspond with major world crises--famine disease and war.
That news came from Peter Curtis a professor of evolution ecology and organismal biology who specializes in forest ecology;
and Richard Moore professor of environment and natural resources who studies agricultural trends in the state.
Bruce Braine Vice president for Strategic Policy Analysis at American electric power said that Ohio utilities are preparing for more frequent severe storms
which were forecast by the recently released climate assessment. We're in a world where over the last 30 years we've become much more efficient in our use of electricity than ever before
but we've developed more uses for electricity than ever before he said. The company is using new technologies such as infrared detectors to monitor power lines for preventative maintenance.
#Environmental strategies on livestock farms: Results obtained after evaluationthe Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and development (Neiker-Tecnalia) has coordinated the European BATFARM project
in order to reduce their environmental impact on the air water and soil. In this project a detailed study has been made of the technologies present on livestock farms belonging to various regions in the Atlantic Area.
but it poses numerous environmental problems like the emissions of polluting gases (ammonia nitrous oxide and methane) into the atmosphere and the polluting of soil and water by nitrates.
Directive on the adopting of Best Available Techniquesin connection with the environmental problems involved in livestock production the EU 2010/75/EC Directive also known as the IED (Industrial Emissions Directive) seeks to regulate all forms of emission into the atmosphere water
or 750 sows) and makes the obtaining of comprehensive environmental authorisation compulsory. The Directive proposes adopting Best Available Techniques (BAT)
Although scientists have been trying to answer this question for decades their mystery remains as yet unresolved states Dr. Stephan Getzin from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig
Or do these patches perhaps need to maintain a minimum distance to their respective neighbours?
therefore be able to survive only at an appropriate distance to its neighbour. A similar process of resource-competition may consequently also be the real cause for a self-organising formation of the mysterious fairy circle patterns.
The above story is provided based on materials by Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research-UFZ. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Continued studies may help predict future health of rain foreststwo major droughts within a five-year period have done significant damage to the Amazon forest in Brazil
and to what extent deforestation patterns affect the trees'vulnerability. His team consists of senior scientist Mark Cochrane a wildfire expert;
By 2013 deforestation that began in the 1970s had cleared an area equivalent to North dakota South dakota Minnesota and Iowa combined.
In the last decade the Brazilian government has been enforcing regulations that have helped slow deforestation he added.
Trees near the edge of forest fragments are subjected to more solar radiation lower humidity and stronger winds.
Based upon the results the scientists will try to predict the vulnerability and response of the forest to future changes in climate and land cover.
which future drought events and climate change can cause a lot of ecological changes to the Amazonian system Numata added.
Although Bt proteins provide environmental and economic benefits these benefits are cut short when pests evolve resistance.
Nitrogen enters the environment either through a microbial process called biological nitrogen fixation or through human activity such as fertilization and fossil-fuel consumption.
and can affect ecosystems negatively. That could be given a problem the high biodiversity of tropical rain forests and their important role in the global carbon cycle and the Earth's climate.
This research fundamentally changes our understanding of the tropical nitrogen cycle said Sullivan. It shows that few ecosystems On earth have escaped the impact of human activity.
He notes that human impacts on the nitrogen cycle typically are greatest where biological nitrogen fixation is low and human inputs of nitrogen are high-like in many parts of North america including Montana.
and that humans add relatively little nitrogen to tropical ecosystems. In fact by reducing estimates of naturally occurring nitrogen inputs this research shows that human impacts on the nitrogen cycle are even bigger than we thought.
Preserving human and ecosystem health requires immediate steps to solve this growing problem Cleveland said.
#Climate change, forest fires drove widespread surface melting of Greenland ice sheeta Dartmouth-led study finds that rising temperatures
The findings suggest that continued climate change will result in nearly annual widespread melting of the ice sheet's surface by the year 2100.
Melting in the dry snow region does not contribute to sea level rise. Instead the meltwater percolates into the snowpack
The widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet required the combination of both of these effects--a lowered snow albedo from ash
With both the frequency of forest fires and warmer temperatures predicted to increase with climate change widespread melt events are likely to happen much more frequently in the future.
The massive Greenland ice sheet experiences annual melting at low elevations near the coastline but surface melt is rare in the dry snow region in its center.
In the new study an analysis of six Greenland shallow ice cores from the dry snow region confirmed that the most recent prior widespread melt occurred in 1889.
An ice core from the center of the ice sheet demonstrated that exceptionally warm temperatures combined with black carbon sediments from Northern hemisphere forest fires reduced albedo below a critical threshold in the dry snow region
Air masses from these two areas arrived at the Greenland ice sheet's summit just before the widespread melt event.
The researchers also used Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change data to project the frequency of widespread surface melting into the year 2100.
Since Arctic temperatures and the frequency of forest fires are expected both to rise with climate change the researchers'results suggest that large-scale melt events on the Greenland ice sheet may begin to occur almost annually by the end of century.
This experiment was designed to determine differences among'Fuji'strains in southwestern Idaho which has similar climate conditions as those of the Intermountain West region of the United states
or when wheat is planted. â#oefarmers will need to protect the soil from wind erosion during the fallow phase after harvest of oilseed cropsâ#says Sharratt.
The researchers measured dust particles or wind erosion using a portable wind tunnel. This tunnel was 24 ft long 4 ft tall and 3 ft wide.
or safflower into the crop rotation increased the chances of wind erosion late in the fallow cycle.
From the production of milk to the ripening of cheeses in different environments a wide range of microorganisms have an opportunity to develop.
and their environments even though this would make a major contribution to the diversification sought by industrial cheese producers.
The Pathological Laboratory at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology specializes in such cases. Severe pneumonia as cause of deathnineteen dead chamois from the region of Amstetten Lilienfeld and Salzburg in north-central Austria were investigated.
#Emissions from forests influence very first stage of cloud formationclouds play a critical role in Earth's climate.
Clouds also are the largest source of uncertainty in present climate models according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Much of the uncertainty surrounding clouds'effect on climate stems from the complexity of cloud formation.
New research from scientists at the CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUTDOOR Droplets) experiment at CERN including Carnegie mellon University's Neil Donahue sheds light on new-particle formation--the very
first step of cloud formation and a critical component of climate models. The findings published in the May 16 issue of Science closely match observations in the atmosphere
and can help make climate prediction models more accurate. Cloud droplets form when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses onto tiny particles.
These particles are emitted directly from natural sources or human activity or they form from precursors emitted originally as gaseous pollutants.
The transformation of gas molecules into clusters and then into particles a process called nucleation produces more than half of the particles that seed cloud formation around the world today.
This new study uncovers an indispensable ingredient to the long sought-after cloud formation recipe--highly oxidized organic compounds.
and in detail with the very first steps of new particle formation and growth said Donahue professor of chemistry chemical engineering engineering and public policy and director of CMU's Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.
In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012 Donahue and colleagues showed conclusively that organic molecules given off by pine trees called alpha-pinene are transformed chemically multiple times in the highly oxidizing environment of the atmosphere.
Donahue and an international team of researchers with the CLOUD experiment at CERN set out to test that hypothesis. The CLOUD project at CERN is a unique facility that allows scientists to reproduce a typical atmospheric setting inside of an essentially contaminant-free
By performing experiments in the precisely controlled environment of the CLOUD CHAMBER the project's scientists can change the concentrations of chemicals involved in nucleation
and growth of particles under atmospheric conditions the scientists incorporated their findings into a global particle formation model.
This latter test is a strong confirmation of the fundamental role of emissions from forests in the very first stage of cloud formation
if this vital mutually beneficial relationship goes out of synch due to climate change? That's what Assistant professor of Biology Daniel Bunker and Phd candidate Caroline Devan intend to determine with the help of a $150000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
as a result of global climate change consequences that include poor crop pollination and lower yields. In one troubling scenario the pollinating bees may respond strongly to climate warming
and emerge earlier in the growing season while their preferred flowers respond less strongly and emerge later.
A local outdoor laboratorydevan became interested in climate change and the ecological role of bees after majoring in environmental studies and ecology at the University of Tennessee.
I find bees really interesting and there are a lot of good questions that haven't been asked she says.
and to work with Bunker who is interested also very much in researching the ecological interdependence between plants and other organisms.
In some parts of the country orchard owners provide a hospitable nesting environment to encourage pollinating visits to almond apple cherry and other types of fruit trees.
and the trees leaf Out in addition Morristown is part of the Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) established by the U s. National park service to monitor ecological conditions in 12 parks located in seven northeastern states as well as six
and Bunker to integrate their data into the network's larger ecological picture. We realized that Morristown could give us a really nice model system for looking at how bees
and plants might respond differently to the effects of climate change Bunker says. He explains that the primary experimental focus is on the bees
and how their well-being might be affected by corresponding disruptions caused by climate change. The tags on the bees a special variant of the widely used Quick Response QR code will make it possible to monitor individual bees using computer-assisted image recognition
Agricultural impactthis effort could help to answer key questions about the possible impact of climate change on agriculture.
-boring insects according to a study by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS.
and throughout the world said Michael T. Rains Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Lab. Forest Service research is vital to informing national and international policies addressing those problems.
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
if average global temperatures rise by 1. 5 to 2 degrees Celsius in future decades. â#oeif we hit a climate-system tipping point because of methane our carbon dioxide problem is immaterial.
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 climate system responds much more quickly to reducing methane than to carbon dioxide. If society aggressively controlled carbon dioxide emissions but ignored methane emissions the planet would warm to the dangerous 1. 5 to 2. 0 Degree celsius threshold within 15 to 35 years.
#By itself, abundant shale gas unlikely to alter climate projectionswhile natural gas can reduce greenhouse emissions
The net effect on the climate will depend on whether the greenhouse emissions from natural gas--including carbon dioxide
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.
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.
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.
Reducing methane emissions is important 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.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Duke university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
because knowledge of the kinds of plants and animals that lived here in the past provide us with a framework for understanding today's ecosystems.
The scientist from the Department of Animal Ecology Evolution and Biodiversity also found out that bees are aware of
Wind direction appears to be one of the factors that determine where exactly the male perches to distribute his scent.
and Environmental science and author of a paper titled Sustainability of the Selection System in Northern Hardwood Forests published in the April 2014 issue of the journal Forest Science.
What distinguishes silviculture from forest ecology is the idea of managing the forests to preserve
There could also be an ecological cost. For seedlings to survive and grow in northern hardwoods there must be gaps big enough to allow light to reach the forest floor.
Terry Sharik dean of Michigan Tech's School of Forest Resources and Environmental science called the study important.
The answer is given undoubtedly complex the host of ecological social and economic factors that come into play.
biologists Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes new information about ancient climates. According to their research published online this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences these fossil beetles indicate that during a period of global warming in the geological past there were mild frost-free winters extended even in the uplands
A cooler upland with palms indicates a specific climate type where a temperate average yearly temperature--rather like Vancouver today--had warmer winters where palms can complete their lifecycles.
Understanding more about these temperate yet mild winter climates by looking to the deep past may help show how natural communities are impacted by climate change says Archibald.
Using the fossil record to understand climates of the deep past that had significant similarities to climates that we are now encountering may help forearm us with knowledge that will be important to our future as we increasingly experience the effects of global warming.
Chemical compounds containing reactive nitrogen are major drivers of air and water pollution worldwide and hence of diseases like asthma or cancer.
If no action is taken nitrogen pollution could rise by 20 percent by 2050 in a middle-of-the-road scenario according to a study now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
and destabilizes water ecosystems. Damages in Europe alone have been estimated at around 1-4 percent of economic output worth billions of Euro.
A package of mitigation actions can reverse this trend yet the risk remains that nitrogen pollution still exceeds safe environmental thresholds.
but blown away by the wind washed out by rain or decomposed by microorganisms. To reduce losses
Health effects of nitrogen pollution more important than climate effectsthe nitrogen cycle is interwoven with the climate system in various ways Hermann Lotze-Campen points out co-author of the study
and co-chair of PIK's research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities. Nitrous oxide or laughing gas on the one hand is one of the major greenhouse gases.
and thereby cool the climate. And as fertilizing nutrient nitrogen enhances the growth of forests
because the different climate effects largely cancel out says Lotze-Campen. But this may change--hence limiting nitrogen would have the double benefit of helping our health today
and avoiding climate risks in the future. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK.
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