#Hotspots of climate change impacts in Africa: Making sense of uncertaintiesoverlapping impacts of climate change such as drought
or flooding declining crop yields or ecosystem damages create hotspots of risk in specific parts of Africa.
These are identified for the first time in a study now published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
The uncertainties in assessing the impacts do not necessarily hamper but can inform development strategies according to the scientists.
These regions are the ones in Sub-saharan africa where by the end of the century a combination of high likelihood and possibly severe climate change impacts hits territories with relatively high population and high poverty rates.
We tried to identify the places where climate change really hurts most MÃ ller says.
While climate change is a global issue impacts vary widelythe good news is that large countries such as Nigeria
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.
Up to now most studies address singular aspects of climate change impacts only even though multiple stresses amplify the vulnerability.
It's all about risks says Hermann Lotze-Campen co-chair of PIK's research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerability.
we don't have perfect data about future impacts of climate change but computer simulations can help to understand likelihoods and possible impacts.
Climate change clearly threatens people's livelihoods and thus cannot be ignored. Based on likelihoods and values at stake we have to make decisions now--as we always do
but possibly with severe impacts--especially in countries like Tanzania that are subject to severe floods already today.
Yet it can help to decide where to best put the limited resources in the countries most affected by climate change.
The above story is provided based on materials by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK. Note:
Home food environment of overweight womenthe home is an important microenvironment in models of obesity
and the Cancer Coalition of South Georgia sought to examine the home food environment and determine which aspects are associated with healthy eating in low-income overweight and obese women who receive healthcare through local federally-qualified community health centers.
Likewise studies should examine how the home food environment varies in different regions. Story Source:
-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.
But he adds The real power of this framework is that it lets you look at different scenarios of land use change water and climate change.
Add in uncertainties like climate change and volatile transportation prices and it's clear why many people think the ESR should meet more of its own food needs.
Moroever the platform now includes climate data enabling predictions of how future temperature and precipitation scenarios will affect crop yields.
and Agriculture (NIFA) EFSNE is investigating the benefits that increased regional food production may hold both for consumers--especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods--and for local farmers retailers distributors and others in the food supply chain.
Their research is published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. When applied to Salmonella-contaminated tomato plants in a field study the bacterium known as Paenibacillus alvei significantly reduced the concentration of the pathogen compared to controls.
Many innocuous bacterial species thrive within the tomato-growing environment. We hypothesized that such an organism could be found that possessed the ability to outcompete
and natural environments in the Mid-atlantic region we found about 10 isolates of bacteria representing very different genera
and between genes and the environment they looked at genes controlling several crop plant traits.
People need to understand how trees grow in the urban environment and how to recognize potentially hazardous structural defects yet this is not a topic regularly presented in school curriculum Sanagorski said.
Trees are the foundation for healthy social ecology and have proven to be beneficial for children socially physically and emotionally.
what they learned to their real-life outdoor environments. Sanagorski and Fitzpatrick recommend that educators incorporate topics such as tree structure into their teaching.
These fossil studies have been considered tremendously important for understanding how ecosystems have responded and will respond to climate change and disturbance.
We now have direct observational evidence that the fossil data represent changes in actual insect richness
This work also unlocks the potential to use insect damage as a new way to assess living insect richness as in the fossil record in the context of climate change said Carvalho.
Currano assistant professor of geology and environmental earth science Miami University of Ohio; Conrad C. Labandeira department of paleobiology Smithsonian Institution and department of entomology University of Maryland.
Some 29 climate estimates modeled in the paper suggest that VPD will rise significantly over the next 40 years bringing on more severe drought conditions.
In fact the worst drought of this century barely makes the top 10 of a study that extended Utah's climate record back to the year 1429.
Modern climate and stream flow records only go back about 100 years in this part of the country
As Bekker and his co-authors report in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association the west's climate usually fluctuates far more than it did in the 1900s.
The five previous centuries each saw more years of extremely dry and extremely wet climate conditions.
The team is currently working on a climate reconstruction based on tree rings that date back more than 1000 years.
and aquatic ecologist Carlos de la Rosa was passing slowing and quietly by and caught the moment on film.
De la Rosa reported the encounter in a peer-reviewed letter in the May 2014 issue of the Ecological Society of America's journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
This experience reminds us that the world still has many surprises for ecologists de la Rosa said.
The above story is provided based on materials by Ecological Society of America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#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
and saving species threatened with extinction a new study has found. 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.
The main use of land in communities is cattle farming but the study found farmers could make the same
The move would also help boost the populations of many critically endangered species. There are limited financial resources available to tackle climate change
Providing people are willing to spend the money this could be a critical mechanism for stopping climate change
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.
Lead researcher Dr James Gilroy from the University of East Anglia's school of Environmental sciences carried out the research while at the Norwegian University of Life sciences.
This research shows that there are great environmental and ecological benefits to changing land use from cattle farming to forest
learn to avoid dangerbumblebees can distinguish between safe and dangerous environments and are attracted to land on flowers popular with other bees
when bees find themselves in these predator-infested environments they locate safe places to eat by joining other bees that are already safely feeding on flowers.
The scientists trained bees to differentiate between safe and dangerous environments: when bees landed on a flower associated with danger foam pincers would trap the bee
In safe environments the bumblebees subsequently chose to feed from flowers at random but in dangerous environments the bees specifically flew to flowers that were occupied by other bees.
Erika added: It's similar to walking through a bad neighbourhood--you're more likely to choose a busier route where there are lots of other people around than a deserted street to get to your destination
since your chances of being attacked are probably lower. Bumblebees face similar danger when foraging for food.
According to a recent study by Kansas State university published in the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal insects carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from one point to another including from food animal farms and wastewater treatment
and cockroaches said Ludek Zurek K-State professor of microbial ecology and lead author on the published study.
There are likely many other potential environmental connections as well so it's hard to pinpoint specific infections
We just know there are multiple venues where wildlife can acquire resistant strains and move them around in the environment.
Lowering the use of antibiotics in animal industry will be another step to lower prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment
and by taxing those who stick with less sustainable practices Brazil could cut its rate of deforestation by half
and shave off as much as 25 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.
so subsidies can provide a needed boost to make the investment worthwhile said study lead author Avery Cohn an independent fellow at the UC Berkeley Energy Biosciences Institute and a graduate of the Department of Environmental science Policy and Management.
While the growth of cattle ranching has been blamed for 75 to 80 percent of Brazil's deforested areas particularly in the Amazon rainforest the study authors emphasize that many factors beyond beef production cause deforestation.
whether policies affecting beef production will impact deforestation. We're the first to look at Brazil's national policies in an international context by asking what would happen
even if other countries did said nothing Cohn now an assistant professor of environment and resource policy at Tufts University.
but one of the big takeaways from this study is that the effect is overshadowed by other gains in reducing deforestation
There's this notion that fighting climate change requires a stark tradeoff for emerging economies that they must forego development to meet their emissions target said Cohn.
What got us interested in this is the whole question of how the environment--including a person's diet--influences gene expression said Tosi.
Although scientists have studied intensely the impact of environmental factors during prenatal development and early infancy few researchers have examined the impact of such factors later in childhood.
and environmental factors in children is especially helpful for a disease as complex as diabetes said Devaney.
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.
Scientists have assumed that wetland methane release is largest in the tropics said Turetsky. But our analyses show that northern fens such as those created
when permafrost thaws can have emissions comparable to warm sites in the tropics despite their cold temperatures.
and creating these kinds of high methane-producing ecosystems. Most methane studies focus on measurements at a single site said co-author Narasinha Shurpali University of Eastern Finland.
But whether climate change will ramp up methane emissions will depend on soil moisture said Turetsky.
Turetsky holds a Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology. She and her students examine how ecosystems regulate climate in field sites in Canada and Alaska.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Guelph. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Similar to black raspberries their ability to resist juice leakage was poor and cool weather tended to exacerbate this the authors said.
since the spores are able to move considerable distances thanks to the wind or irrigation water.
The new races are in turn more resistant to climate conditions. As a general rule Phytophthora infestans needs temperatures above 10â C and humidity above 90%in order to develop
and other environments around the world can grow on both the methane and propane found in natural gas.
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
and those arising from human-made activity such as fracking and oil spills. Researchers studied the bacterium Methylocella
This type of bacterium has also been found among the microbial community following the Deepwater horizon oil spill in 2010.
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.
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
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.
It is therefore very important that we understand how it can be removed biologically in the environment before it is released into the atmosphere.
The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Norwich Research Park Earth and Life Systems Alliance.'
#Crabs killing Northeast saltmarshes, study confirmsa marathon summer of field work by Mark Bertness professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and a squadron of students may finally help settle the heated debate about
In the other study published in the journal Ecology Letters they directly tested that hypothesis with experiments on Cape cod.
Brown alumnus Tyler Coverdale is a co-author on the Ecology Letters paper. In Narragansett bay they ran several tests during the summer at sites where die off ranged from less than 5 percent to 98 percent.
Sure enough the team reported in Ecology Letters that excluding predators for a single growing season rapidly led to a more than 100-percent increase in Sesarma herbivory a more than 60-percent decrease in aboveground cordgrass biomass a more than 95-percent
There are still experiments the team would like to do to further understand the ecosystem dynamics that lead to the marsh die off
#Determining biocontainers carbon footprintmany efforts to reduce the environmental impacts associated with commercial horticulture production have failed to influence the general public.
despite the positive public perception of biocontainers'environmental benefits as alternatives to petroleum-based plastic pots the impact of biocontainers on commercial greenhouse sustainability has not been evaluated thoroughly.
and focuses on the environmental impacts of container use during the plant production phase explained Andrew Koeser corresponding author of the study published in Hortscience (March 2014).
The authors noted that their work also offers an initial screening of commercially available biocontainers that could be used in future life cycle assessments that focus on manufacturing inputs and environmental impacts.
#Irrigation, soil management strategies investigated for cold climate sweet cherryprevious research efforts have identified several management strategies to improve establishment of new plantings of sweet cherry trees.
Experiments were conducted in a cold climate where variable spring temperatures among years allowed the team to evaluate climate effects on growth productivity and fruit quality.
The aim of this latest research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was to artificially create this mixed environment for a single crop greenhouse.
#Climate change: risks to well-being of nature, people, ways to mitigate exist, experts saythe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has approved the second part of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) titled Climate Change 2014:
Impacts Adaptation and Vulnerability at the IPCC meeting in Yokohama Japan. The key message of the report is that climate change poses serious risks to the well-being of nature and people all over the world.
The observed effects of climate change have an impact on people's health land and marine ecosystems water supplies and people's livelihoods from the polar regions to the tropics and from small islands to continents.
Poor countries that lack the means to adapt to these changes will suffer the worst.
and the climate will change. We must strengthen Finland's ability to manage the risks related to climate change
and adapt to it emphasises Permanent Secretary Jaana Husu-Kallio from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Professor Tim Carter from the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is one of the lead writers of the now published report.
If adequate measures to reduce emissions are taken not the fear is that some of the changes resulting from climate change will push us over an edge after which development can no longer be reversed.
This kind of threshold could be for example the irreversible melting of Greenland's glaciers. Europe's glaciers dwindling and permafrost meltingclimate change impacts Europe in many ways.
The ice sheets of The alps and other mountain ranges are dwindling and an increasing portion of the permafrost is melting.
The risk of forest fires is also increasing in southern Europe Tim Carter explains about the regional effects of climate change.
In Finland the effects of climate change may weaken the water quality of water systems as the ground remains unfrozen for longer periods of time in the autumn and winter.
Water protection efforts will have to adapt to increased run off erosion and nutrition loads. This will result in new challenges particularly in agricultural water protection.
The warming of Finland's climate is already evident in Finnish fauna; birds for example are migrating earlier in the spring and later in the autumn.
The climate has changed already and affected crop yields. The effects observed have been local and for the most part negative.
The most notable effects have had to do with extreme weather events such as heavy rains heat waves and draught.
However climate change will result in more extreme weather draught heat and heavy rains. In northern areas global warming will initially also present benefits such as longer growth periods says Senior Researcher Kaija Hakala from MTT Agrifood Research Finland.
As marine and coastal ecosystems change their diversity and the products and services derived from them will weaken.
Those who depend on coastal areas for their livelihoods such as fishing communities in the tropics and arctic areas will suffer.
Rising sea levels coastal flooding and tidal waves cause danger to life and risk of injury and hinder livelihoods in low-lying coastal areas and in small island nations.
Extreme weather events will hinder important basic services such as water electricity and health and rescue services.
Mortality morbidity and other adverse effects will increase during heat waves particularly among vulnerable urban population groups and those who work outdoors.
Adaptation required in addition to mitigationcountries all over the world have begun to develop climate change adaptation plans and strategies.
IPCC gathers information to support decision-makingthe IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report consists of the now published report along with a report on the state of climate
which was published last September in Stockholm and a report on climate change mitigation which will be finalised at a meeting in Berlin from 7 to 11 april.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was called together by the World meteorological organization WMO and the UN's environmental programme UNEP.
The goal of the panel is to support decision-making related to climate policy. Its tasks include assessing scientific knowledge related to climate change and its effects as well as various climate change mitigation measures.
During 2010-2013 some 813 writers took part in drawing up the report five of them from Finland.
The above story is provided based on materials by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Nitrogen pollution, climate and land use: Why what we eat mattersa new report quantifies for the first time how much our food choices affect pollutant nitrogen emissions climate change and land-use across Europe.
The executive summary of the European Nitrogen Assessment Special report on Nitrogen and Food'Nitrogen on the Table'was released today (Friday 25 april 2014.
and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions while freeing up large areas of farmland for other purposes such as food export or bioenergy.
and Food at PBL (The netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency) said The report shows that the nitrogen footprint of meat
Co-author of the report Prof Mark Sutton an Environmental Physicist at the UK's Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology said Human's use of nitrogen is a major societal challenge that links environment food security and human health.
The UNECE Task force on Reactive Nitrogen is tasked with providing policy makers in the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air pollution with scientific evidence to support international decision making on environmental policies especially as these link air pollution with water
soil climate and biodiversity. Professor Sutton said As the EU now starts to renegotiate the National Emissions Ceilings Directive it is an open question to what extent countries will emphasize technical measures or such behavioural changes.
She said The school food pilot projects in Italy have shown added value environmental benefits and health benefits associated with'smart food'.
but it still misses the connection with environmental co-benefits of the healthy choice. Increasing the awareness of dietary choice in children is the starting point for cleaning the environment.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Soy-dairy protein blend increases muscle mass, study showsa new study published online in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows additional benefits of consuming a blend of soy
As a result of the findings published in the Journal of Applied Ecology planners and policy makers should increase the number of allotments available the authors say.
Working in Leicester ecologist Dr Jill Edmondson from the University of Sheffield took soil samples from 27 plots on 15 allotment sites across the city.
The above story is provided based on materials by British Ecological Society (BES. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
when The british climate was colder. We seem to have found genetic footprints of the retreat of dwarf birch into its current refuges in the Scottish Highlands said Dr Richard Buggs Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary's School of Biological
The two species cross-pollinated in many parts of Britain after the last glacial maximum as the climate warmed
and ice age glaciers melted away. Co-author and Phd student Nian Wang adds: Our genetic results fit well with the fact that fossil pollen from dwarf birch has been found in parts of England and Wales.
By using computer models to predict ecological niches the scientists identified many areas where dwarf birch could potentially grow under current climates.
Their goals are to focus attention on environmental pressures in this key region and to raise a record $400000 for conservation work at the Cornell Lab. After three successful Big Day runs in Texas we're right now planning our route through Arizona
and cutting-edge technologies to find answers to some of the biggest environmental threats Wood says.
As global demand for beef and animal feed increased in the early 2000s annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged to more than 20000 km2 per year--prompting global outrage
Ultimately he warns agricultural productivity depends on the conservation of native ecosystems and the climate stability they provide.
The recent changes affect conservation in all Brazilian biomes including the Amazon Cerrado and Atlantic Forest.
Brazil has done a great job reducing deforestation in the Amazon but the other biomes have been shortchanged in the process notes Dr. Macedo.
and deforestation is increasing. This study estimates that the new law allows legal deforestation of an additional 400000 km2 of the Cerrado That's an area almost the size of California.
Allowing that to happen would be an environmental disaster emphasizes Dr. Macedo. Despite big losses for the environment the law also introduced two key conservation measures that could pave the way for commoditizing standing forests in all biomes.
First it creates a new market that allows landowners to trade surplus forests (those that could be deforested legally) on one property to offset restoration requirements on another.
The study found that if fully implemented this could reduce the areas requiring restoration to as little as 5500 km2 of arable land.
The new law also creates an online land registry system that streamlines the process for landowners to register their property boundaries and environmental information.
and therefore become a big win for the environment. The Forest Code continues to be difficult to enforce
and some worry that the amnesty provided for illegal deforestation may set a dangerous precedent creating the expectation of impunity for future deforestation.
if Brazil hopes to succeed in reconciling environmental conservation and agricultural development. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Woods Hole Research center.
The food environment of youth baseballâ#Take me out to the ballgameâ##doesnâ##t exactly conjure up images of apple slices and kale chips.
and positive health behaviors the food environments are characterized often by less healthy food options with high calorie contents
In this observational study the research team conducted an environmental scan of foods consumed by players and family members during 12 games at a youth baseball field in northwest North carolina.
which informs climate change forecasts. Scientists studied a database of thousands of tree species taken from more than 400 hectare-sized plots across the nine countries of the Amazon basin--Brazil Bolivia Colombia Ecuador French guiana Guyana Peru Suriname
Their research found that forests in the basin's northeast on average stored twice as much carbon as those in the southwest as a result of soil climate and species variation.
The study funded by the Natural Environment Research Council was published in Global Ecology and Biogeography.
and elsewhere could be hugely important for our climate. Professor Oliver Phillips from the University of Leeds'School of Geography who co-led the study said:
and biomass but we must ensure we have sufficient ecological ground data to correctly interpret
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