and completely isolates it from the external environment--a situation that mimics that of natural fossils write the researchers in their paper
The findings come from a collaboration of scientists led by Scott Peck of the University of Missouri that includes researchers from Missouri the Biological sciences Division at PNNL and EMSL DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.
Five new NASA Earth science missions are launching in 2014 to expand our understanding of Earth's changing climate and environment.
because most climate models predict tropical forests may be under stress due to increasing severe water shortages in a warmer and drier 21st century climate Zhou said.
whether that is in the form of rainfall water stored in the ground water in near-surface soils or water within the vegetation.
These changes in available water were detected in part with NASA satellites including the NASA/JAXA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission NASA's Quick Scatterometer (Quikscat) and NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
and provided us with insights into the environmental and physiological mechanisms of the browning observed by the MODIS data said co-author Sassan Saatchi of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena Calif. Climate factors known to affect vegetation growth were also in line with the observed
Decreased cloudiness allowed more solar radiation to reach the plants which typically promotes photosynthesis but in this case it likely posed an extra stress on the plants from the resulting depletion of soil moisture.
Forests of the Congo basin are known to be resilient to moderate climate change because they have been exposed to dry conditions in the past few hundred years Saatchi said.
However the recent climate anomalies as a result of climate change and warming of the Atlantic ocean have created severe droughts in the tropics causing major impacts on forests.
How the changes affect individual plant species in the area remains to be seen. For example drier conditions may favor deciduous trees at the expense of evergreen trees.
#Late freeze kills fruit buds, study showsthe recent late cold snap could mean less fruit this year.
One of the most influential ecological disturbances is fire. Fire can spread so rapidly and for such far distances that its impact on land is for the most part far greater than any other factor.
Millions of acres of forest have been lost with severe economic and ecological impacts from a beetle outbreak ten times larger than previous outbreaks.
and conclude that the mountain pine beetle may have been able to spread by adjusting its cellular and metabolic functions to better withstand cooler climates
Testing in beds of sandstone or with actual Kuwaiti dolomite to mimic oilfield environments helped the team perfect the size
and Tomson a professor of civil and environmental engineering. Tour is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science.
or hospital infections Since there is a connection between AR genes found in environmental bacteria and bacteria in hospitals we wanted to know what kind of bacteria are released into the environment via this route of manure fertilization says Fabienne Wichmann lead study author and former postdoctoral researcher at Yale university in New haven Connecticut.
Farmers use raw or composted cow manure on some vegetable crops which could lead to a scenario where residual manure bacteria might cling to produce
and they or their genes might move to the human ecosystem. Is this a route for movement of these genes from the barn to the table?
AR genes can enter the human ecosystem by two routes--either the bacteria that contain them colonize humans
and it occurs in most environments that host bacteria. Some manure bacteria might be pathogenic to humans
Maxwell and colleagues have published results of their study of beetle effects on stream flows in this week's issue of the journal Nature Climate Change.
The research is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Water Sustainability and Climate (WSC) Program.
Increases in stream flow and groundwater levels are very hard to detect because of fluctuations from changes in climate and in topography.
nchez said the technology consists of a motherboard embedded computer systems (for specific functions) a graphical interface for monitoring variables such as humidity temperature wind speed
. Results from the four-pronged investigation--based on linguistic and ecological evidence as well as the more traditional archaeological and genetic data--suggest a regional rather than a geographically specific birthplace for the domesticated chili pepper.
which will be critically important as we work to deal with climate change and provide food for a rapidly increasing global population Gepts added.
This is the first research ever to integrate multiple lines of evidence in attempts to pinpoint where when under what ecological conditions and by
and again set seed and in this way people inadvertently selected species they were eating that also did well in the disturbed and nutrient-rich environment of the dump heap.
After all the first domestications may have been triggered by climate change at the end of the last ice age--in combination with social issues.
As we head into a new era of climate change Marshall said it would be comforting to know that we understood what happened then and why.
#Climate benefit of biofuels from corn residue: Researchers cast doubtusing corn crop residue to make ethanol
and can generate more greenhouse gases than gasoline according to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study's findings likely will not surprise farmers who have recognized long the importance of retaining crop residue on their fields to protect against erosion
and the rest is vulnerable to human-caused impacts such as climate change. But what if altered agricultural landscapes could play vital roles in nurturing wildlife populations
A new study published April 16 in the journal Nature and co-authored by three Stanford scientists finds that a long-accepted theory used to estimate extinction rates predict ecological risk
and assessing ecological risks. Current projections forecast that about half of Earth's plants and animals will go extinct over the next century because of human activities mostly due to our agricultural methods.
which economic prosperity and all other aspects of human well-being depend said co-author Gretchen Daily the Bing Professor in Environmental science at Stanford
or countryside biogeography the researchers turned to bats acutely sensitive to deforestation. The study focused on bat populations within a mosaic of forest fragments and farmland in Costa rica and on islands in a large lake in Panama.
Conservation opportunities for tropical wildlife are linked tightly to adequate management of these human-modified habitats said co-author Christoph Meyer a researcher at the University of Lisbon's Center for Environmental Biology.
and significantly higher in the island ecosystem and species abundances were compared increasingly uneven to the countryside ecosystem the study found.
and slow extinction rates compared to true island ecosystems. Especially in the tropics island biogeographic theory's application is distorting our understanding and conservation strategies in agriculture the enterprise on
which the future of biodiversity most critically hinges the study's authors wrote. Not only do more species persist across the'sea of farmland'than expected by island biogeographic theory novel yet native species actually thrive there said co-author Elizabeth Hadly the Paul S. and Billie Achilles Professor in Environmental Biology at Stanford and senior
fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. This indicates that human-altered landscapes can foster more biological diversity than we anticipated.
A new approach The fate of much of the world's wildlife is playing out in human-altered landscapes that are threatened increasingly by chemical inputs such as herbicides and pesticides.
A theory of countryside biogeography is pivotal to conservation strategy in the agricultural ecosystems that comprise roughly half of the global land surface
or natural input processes such as erosion of a sloping soil and sediment-rich carbon deposition on a soil located on a lower landscape position or in a waterway.
Olson said that aeration drainage tillage disturbance more intensive crop rotations use of synthetic fertilizers erosion
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences (ACES.
and magnitude of the effects of climate change said lead author Stephen Shifley a research forester with the Northern Research Station.
Addressing these issues today will make northern forests more resilient to the effects of climate change and to any other natural or anthropogenic disturbances in the long term.
and 124 million people said Michael T. Rains Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory.
What landowners should knowcumulative habitat loss encroachment by invasive woody plants wind energy development petroleum production
More normal rainfall patterns would also be beneficial. Most crop producers will not be affected by the listing he said
If destruction of the CRP cover is determined to cause adverse environmental effects then the CRP participant must obtain an approved conservation plan from the NRCS for destruction of the CRP cover for planned crop production.
Agricultural productivity food security food safety the environment health nutrition and obesity--they are interconnected all Davies said.
The perfect storm for horticulture and agriculture is also an opportunity Davies said. Consumer trends such as views on quality nutrition production origin
and the United states currently are not necessary in East Africa said Elliud Muli senior lecturer in the Department of Biological sciences South Eastern Kenya University and researcher at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
Honeybees are pollinators of untold numbers of plants in every ecosystem on the African continent Patch said.
and the environment to better understand what factors are most important in bee health in this region said Grozinger.
In addition Varroa numbers increased with elevation suggesting that environmental factors may play a role in honeybee host-parasite interactions.
We suspect the seemingly greater tolerance of African bees to these pests over the western bees is a combination of genes and environment.
and as landscape degradation increases due to increased urbanization farming and climate change we expect to see the combination of all these factors negatively impact the bees in the future Grozinger said.
#Recommendations on climate change mitigationthe latest assessment of global climate change is out and scientists from around the world have recommended changes including some in agriculture forestry
and other land use designed to mitigate their effects on climate change. As a lead author of a chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report released this month Kansas State university Distinguished Professor
and soil microbiologist Chuck Rice gave a presentation at the World bank on April 16. Rice was part of a group of 18 authors from around the world who wrote the chapter pertaining to agriculture forestry and other land use.
although deforestation industrial processes and some agricultural practices also emit gases into the atmosphere according to the Environmental protection agency.
This is called the greenhouse effect and is natural and necessary to support life On earth. However a buildup of greenhouse gases can change Earth's climate.
Agriculture globally contributes about 10 to 12 percent to greenhouse gas emissions Rice said. If you add in forestry it moves it up to around 25 percent.
when the first President bush signed with other countries that climate change was an issue for the planet said Rice who added that this latest report is one of a series that has come out every seven years.
Overall the panel includes three working groups--one studying the science involved in climate change one studying the adaptation to climate change and one studying the mitigation of climate change
He acknowledged that the words climate change can be controversial among some people but added As far as greenhouse gas emissions
It is certainly clear by 97 percent of those climate scientists that the increases in greenhouse gases such as CO2 nitrous oxide
Rice said that even the cold weather in the United states this past winter might make sense in relation to climate change
It makes it more productive less prone to erosion and the organic matter helps hold water
and ecosystem services including water quality and wildlife. So this sector has some opportunities to help improve the quality of land resources as well as mitigating climate change.
Increasing crop yields and livestock feeding efficiency. Rice described this proposal as reducing inputs while maintaining or increasing outputs
A lot of these mitigation options are things we should be doing anyway--improving soil quality reducing erosion--so this effort is going to help Kansas agriculture
whether you agree that humans are having an effect on climate change Rice said. A lot of the things we're talking about are things that you should be doing for the environment as well as things that are profitable for the farmer including increasing efficiency and reducing tillage.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university Research and Extension. The original article was written by Mary Lou Peter.
It's easy to assume that a 3-year drought is an inconsequential blip on the radar for ecosystems that develop over centuries to millennia.
But new research just released in Ecological Monographs shows how short-lived but severe climatic events can trigger cascades of ecosystem change that last for centuries.
Some of the most compelling evidence of how ecosystems respond to drought and other challenges can be found in the trunks of our oldest trees.
Results from an analysis of tree rings spanning more than 300000 square miles and 400 years of history in the eastern U s.--led by scientists at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory the Harvard Forest and elsewhere--point to ways in
Trees are great recorders of information says Dave Orwig an ecologist at the Harvard Forest
There's no historical evidence that the dead trees succumbed to logging ice storms or hurricanes. Instead they were weakened likely by repeated drought leading up to the 1770s followed by an intense drought from 1772 to 1775.
Pederson who will become a senior ecologist at the Harvard Forest in fall 2014 notes that as climate warms increasing drought conditions
We are seeing more and more evidence of climate events weakening trees making them more likely to succumb to insects pathogens
Pederson adds With this perspective the changes predicted by models under future climate change seem more real.
what we're looking at now is lopping it off really fast so we'll be left with little diversity to survive all the climate
Paradoxically environmental selection may in many instances have been stronger than artificial selection. Early herds were vulnerable to disease droughts
and storms disasters that would have forced pastoralists to replenish herds from wild populations better adapted to harsh local conditions.
We must also investigate sources of selection more critically Marshall said bearing in mind the complex interplay of human and environmental selection
It is also the case that the people who first domesticated animals valued wild ones more than did Darwin's Victorian neighbors.
and the effects of the environment on the expression of genes--might have slowed the selection of plants with the desired traits.
Epistasis and environmental effects in domestication genesby selecting animals for coat color animal breeders may have stabilized certain epistatic
and environmental interactions in companion animals (see photos at right). But when the plant scientists looked at comparable genetic mechanisms in domesticated plants they found the reverse to be true.
Farmers seem to have selected for plant variants that were insensitive to epistatic and environmental interactions.
Branching in maize illustrates insensitivity to environmental effects. Shattering in foxtail millet and its wild ancestor green millet is controlled by two stretches of DNA containing
Teosinte provides a good example of the sensitivity of gene expression to the environment. Teosinte is affected strongly by crowding.
The domesticated trait is less sensitive to the environment than the wild trait; plants with the domesticated tb1 gene allele are unbranched
Unlike companion-animal breeders early farmers seem to have selected domestication-gene alleles that are insensitive to genetic background and to the environment.
The study's authors say the global shift toward a more intensive style of coffee farming is probably having a negative effect on the environment communities and individual farmers.
and bats and provide ecosystem services such as filtering water and air stabilizing soil during heavy rains storing carbon and replenishing soil nutrients.
In this latest study the researchers found that total global production of shade grown coffee has increased
Full sun coffee plantations often result in deforestation loss of biodiversity and soil depletion while leaving communities more vulnerable to flooding and landslides.
which floods the whole body with antibiotics rather than just a specific region said Rodrigo Bicalho assistant professor of dairy production medicine at the College of Veterinary medicine.
precious habitat for the long-billed curlewdespite the recent rainfall California is still in a drought (snowpack 32%of average) so not only are limited water supplies
and fall says Dave Shuford Point Blue ecologist and lead author of the publication. The Central Valley's protected wetlands (federal wildlife refuges state wildlife areas and private lands)
and probably drier conditions under a changing climate. These threats might be offset if a program of economic incentives can be devised for farmers to maintain flooding of crops such as alfalfa
Such a strong relationship to food has had a profound impact on human health by reshaping environmental biodiversity influencing the diets of neighbors and preserving elements of culture.
and agriculturally different environment Anderson explains. This shows that everyone has a commitment to cultural foundations
Brett Robinson a scientist with New zealand's Lincoln University recently published an article in the Mar 21 2014 edition of the Journal of Environmental Quality that gives some solutions to the problem.
#Deforestation could intensify climate change in Congo Basin by halfby 2050 deforestation could cause temperatures in the Congo Basin to increase by 0. 7 °C. The increase would intensify warming caused by greenhouse gases
Deforestation will add an extra 0. 7 °C to that figure. The results also show a strong spatial correlation between deforestation and global warming.
In certain deforestation'hot spots'increases caused by deforestation could rise to 1. 25 °C
in addition to the warming caused by greenhouse gases. Such drastic temperature increases will drive off plant and animal species and may even threaten some with extinction warn the researchers.
and the spatial pattern of deforestation to forecast changes in the Congo Basin climate The study also maps the region's vegetation mix
The deforestation-induced warming forecasted by the model can be attributed in large part to reduced evaporation say the researchers.
Once deforestation has occurred the solar energy that rainforests would otherwise use to evaporate water accumulates near the Earth's surface causing the atmosphere to warm.
However because of the complexities of air circulation and cloud formation the link between the spatial pattern of change and the deforestation pattern is pronounced less.
Their deforestation scenario is far from extreme. The results point to the need to address the causes of deforestation in the Congo Basin says Tom Akkermans of the Regional Climate Studies research group at the University of Leuven
and lead author of the study. Not only does deforestation in this region contribute to the global rise in temperature through CO2 emissions from wood burning it also has a direct impact on the climate of Central africa.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by KU Leuven. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Dead wood is great habitat for wildlife provides a sheltered environment for young seedlings holds soil
and moisture on the site and stores carbon said Carolyn Copenheaver an associate professor of forest ecology In virginia Tech's College of Natural resources and Environment.
and forest ecology at the University of Tehran and his graduate committee members were Reinhard Mosandl chair of silviculture at the Technical University of Munich.
#Fire and drought may push Amazonian forests beyond tipping pointfuture simulations of climate in the Amazon suggest a longer dry season leading to more drought and fires.
Over an eight-year period the team repeatedly burned 50-hectare forest plots in southeast Amazonia to learn how fire frequency and weather conditions affected tree deaths.
Climate change is expected to cause shorter more intense rainy seasons and longer dry seasons with more frequent droughts like those observed in this study.
In 2007 fires in southeast Amazonia burned 10 times more forest than in an average climate year an area equivalent to a million soccer fields according to co-author Douglas Morton of NASA.
and highlights the need to include interactions between extreme weather events and fire when attempting to predict the future of Amazonian forests under a changing climate.
None of the models used to evaluate future Amazon forest health include fire so most predictions grossly underestimate the amount of tree death
A ground telescope will transmit a laser beacon to OPALS on the space station as it travels across the sky.
and nutrient delivery but uses the cabin environment on the space station for temperature control and as a source of carbon dioxide to promote growth.
The cameras are enclosed in a temperature-specific case and exposed to the harsh radiation of the space environment.
The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change showed that forests growing in fertile soils with ample nutrients are able to sequester about 30%of the carbon that they take up during photosynthesis. In contrast forests growing in nutrient-poor
This paper produces the first evidence that to really understand the carbon cycle you have to look into issues of nutrient cycling within the soil says IIASA Ecosystems Services
Marcos Fernandez-Martinez first author of the paper and researcher at the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) says In general nutrient
The new study includes both those factors as well as nitrogen availability in an analysis synthesizing data from 92 forests in different climate zones on the planet.
Furthermore the study showed that nutrient-rich ecosystems also generally have more stable ground organic material
Dr. Natia Kopaliani Dr. David Tarkhnishvili and colleagues from the Institute of Ecology at Ilia State university in Georgia and from the Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia used a range of genetic techniques to extract
#Cool climate, clean planet: Research suggests cooling action will clean airever-rising greenhouse gas emissions
and the potential need to deploy untested and expensive climate engineering technologies are just two of the many bits of bad news in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's new report on Mitigation
of Climate Change released on 13 april. But there's good news hidden in the bad. If we take action to cool the planet we can also expect the added benefit of cleaner air particularly in China says Professor Edgar Hertwich from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Hertwich director of NTNU's Industrial Ecology program was one of four lead authors of the IPCC report from Norway along with his Industrial Ecology colleague Professor Daniel Beat MÃ ller.
And as an industrial ecologist like Hertwich will tell you price is everything in determining the kinds of choices we will make to either protect the planet's climate
As head of NTNU's Industrial Ecology program and with all of his public contributions to efforts like the IPCC Hertwich's mission is to help people clearly see the costs
A menu for actionin its own words the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change.
Created by the United nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World meteorological organization (WMO) in 1988 the group has released four assessment reports that present ever more sobering appraisals of
what humankind is doing to the climate by burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Working group III whose report was released on 13 april has been charged with studying options for mitigating the negative impacts of climate change.
Urgent need to cut emissionsalthough Hertwich is relentlessly upbeat about our ability to tackle climate change he is
#Warming climate has consequences for Michigans forestsin the last 100 years Michigan has become warmer with more rain coming through heavy downpours.
Climate models suggest that the state will continue to warm and variability in precipitation patterns will increase
A new U s. Forest Service report describes the potential risks and opportunities of climate change for forests in the eastern Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula.
More than 30 scientists and forest managers contributed to Michigan Forest Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis. The study is part of the Northwoods Climate Change Response Framework a collaboration of federal state academic and private partners led by the Forest Service's Northern Institute of Applied Climate
Science (NIACS). ) Climate change information is presented often at scales that are hard to digest said Stephen Handler the lead author for the vulnerability assessment.
This report is designed to give forest managers in Michigan the best possible science on effects of climate change for our particular forest ecosystems
so they can make climate-informed decisions about management today. The assessment evaluates the vulnerability of forest ecosystems within a 16.6-million-acre area in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula about 70 percent of the state's forested land cover.
Topics covered include information on the contemporary landscape past climate trends and a range of projected future climates.
Climate impact models project a decline in northern species such as balsam fir black spruce white spruce tamarack jack pine northern white-cedar and paper birch.
Southern tree species near their northern range limits may fare better. Species that may become more widespread include American basswood black cherry green ash white ash and white oak.
Climate change is expected also to intensify several stresses that forests already face such as damaging insect pests and diseases drought and wildfire.
While climate models vary on the degree of change and the regions where it will occur by the end of the 21st century northern Michigan is projected to experience a climate that is hotter with more variable precipitation more moisture stress towards the end of the growing season and less characteristic winter weather.
In addition to conditions becoming less favorable for northern forest species and conditions improving for southern species the vulnerability assessment finds:
In the past 100 years the mean annual temperature across the area studied in the vulnerability assessment increased 1. 7 degrees Fahrenheit.
In Michigan there was a 180-percent increase in rainstorms of 3 inches or more between 1960 and 2011.
Confronting the challenge of climate change presents opportunities for foresters and other decision-makers to plan ahead manage for resilient landscapes
and ensure that the benefits that forests provide are sustained into the future said Michael T. Rains Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory.
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