The more green space in the neighborhood the happier people reported feeling. Across neighborhoods of Wisconsin from the North Woods to the cities the results are striking says Dr. Kristen Malecki assistant professor of population health sciences at the UW School of medicine and Public health.
Higher levels of green space were associated with lower symptoms of anxiety depression and stress. The study published recently in the International Journal of Environmental Research
and Public health combines mental-health data from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) and Landsat 5 satellite data from July 2009 that analyzed how much vegetation was present in each of the SHOW census blocks.
About 2500 Wisconsin residents from 229 neighborhoods answered an assessment that asked them to rate their symptoms of depression anxiety and stress.
They found that across all strata of society people who lived in a neighborhood with less than 10 percent tree canopy were much more likely to report symptoms of depression stress and anxiety.
It also suggests a relatively simple solution to improving the mental health of poor urban neighborhoods:
The greening of neighborhoods could be a simple solution to reducing stress says Malecki. If you want to feel better go outside.
and how nitrogen is preserved in layers of snow according to a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
UW researchers began their study of ice cores interested in smog not acid rain. They discovered a link between the two forms of pollution in the geologic record.
which causes ground-level ozone the main ingredient in smog and relates to compounds that are the detergent of the atmosphere.
Within a day or two most of the NOX changes into nitrate a water-soluble molecule essential to life that gets deposited in soil and snow.
What's more airborne nitrate dissolves in water and falls at the poles as snow.
While that snow sits on the ground sunlight bouncing off the surface triggers chemical reactions that send some of it back into a gas form.
Acid air can also influence the reactivity of nitrate in snow and thus the preservation of nitrate in ice cores.
The results published in the journal Ecology in April 2014 show that pollutants that accumulate at the Poles can indeed cause a decline in bird populations.
Part of the mercury from industrial and domestic activities (burning of hydrocarbons and coal) is transported to the Arctic and Antarctic by winds.
This could be due to the fact that in Adã lie Land the more severe environmental conditions combined with the increasing presence of other pollutants (pesticides PCBS) magnify the impact of mercury contamination.
Like any species at the edge of its range they face challenges in this environment. The habitats of these boreal specialists--cool wet sphagnum-draped bogs and swampy woods--are thought to be vulnerable to climate change particularly in the Adirondacks where they are fragmented more than in forest to the north.
In her paper Dynamics of Boreal Birds at the Edge of Their Range in the Adirondack Park NY author
The study which appears in Northeastern Naturalist (2014 Volume 21 Issue 1) presents an evaluation of the potential influence of climate change and habitat alteration on species occurrence patterns over time.
and/or elevations a pattern documented for many species responding to climate change around the globe.
In addition to the stresses of a warming climate they may face competition and displacement from more cosmopolitan birds like blue jays which tend to come along with residential development.
which has added environmental benefits. We were able to show that if you reduce water use in intensive salad production by about 20 percent you actually develop smaller tougher leaves with stiff cells walls
So far the assumption had been that camels with similar digestion produce the same amount of the climate-damaging gas.
In the atmosphere methane contributes to the greenhouse effect--that's why researchers are looking for ways of reducing methane production by ruminants.
on faculty in environmental Earth system science and senior fellows at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
electricity from solar infrastructure and easily transportable liquid fuel from biofuel cultivation said Ravi the lead author of a new study published in a recent issue of the journal Environmental science & Technology that details the idea.
and their foliage would help reduce the ability of wind to kick up dust Computer simulations of a hypothetical co-location solar farm in Southern California's San bernardino County by Ravi
#Farming for improved ecosystem services seen as economically feasibleby changing row-crop management practices in economically and environmentally stable ways US farms could contribute to improved water quality biological diversity pest suppression
and soil fertility while helping to stabilize the climate according to an article in the May issue of Bioscience.
The article based on research conducted over 25 years at the Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan further reports that Midwest farmers especially those with large farms appear willing to change their farming practices to provide these ecosystem services in exchange for payments.
And a previously published survey showed that citizens are willing to make such payments for environmental services such as cleaner lakes.
which is part of the Long term Ecological Research Network. The research analyzed by Robertson and colleagues investigated the yields
and the environmental benefits achievable by growing corn soybean and winter wheat under regimes that use one third of the usual amount of fertilizer--or none at all--with cover crops fertilizing the fields in winter.
The danger is that it will become more vulnerable to climate extremes and pest outbreaks.
Now is the time to guide this intensification in a way that enhances the delivery of ecosystems services that are marketed not currently they conclude.
Ultimately Kanan would like to see a scaled-up version of the catalytic cell powered by electricity from the sun wind or other renewable resource.
As Liberia has released large areas for deforestation the local decision-makers can now use the results of this study
Our survey makes it clear that this action has saved also a large number of West african chimpanzees says co-author Menladi Lormie Max Planck researcher and FDA ecologist of the President's decision.
The processing system environment essentially supports their growth he reports. Many of these biofilm-embedded organisms cannot be inactivated through conventional cleaning methods.
Milk cheese milk powder and environmental samples were collected from 10 dairies in eastern South dakota and three processing plants outside the state.
Damaging equipmentwhen spore formers persist in an environment they can also do irreversible damage to the stainless steel contact surfaces within the milk-processing equipment Anand explains.
The environmental fate of black carbon is understood not well said study co-author Caroline Masiello a Rice biogeochemist who began studying black carbon with Druffel in the 1990s.
or how human-produced black carbon is affecting global climate. Our aim was to show how the black carbon cycle likely works in the ocean Druffel said.
On the one hand a comprehensive 2013 study found that soot is a far more important player in global climate than was believed previously.
Airborne soot gets into the ocean via rainfall and runoff from streams. Though charcoal residue can stay trapped in soils for thousands of years runoff
and erosion eventually carry some of it to the ocean as well. The researchers used radiocarbon dating and other techniques to examine the black carbon that was buried in seafloor sediments in the Northeast Pacific that dated to about 20000 years ago.
Sometimes mobility increases sometimes it declines depending on culture and environmental context. After the transition to farming cultural change was prolonged
This variability in the sexual division of labour in living agro-pastoralist groups shows the importance of context ecology and various cultural factors on sex differences in physical activity.
The recent rains coupled with the sun has caused a huge growth spurt in the trees
An octogenarian Dr. Leija rises before dawn to collect specimens from his pollen-catching-machine atop a building on the Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus to deliver the count to the public by 7 a m. You cannot control the weather
but you can control your environment he says. Take your allergy medication and see your allergist before you experience health problems.
#Putting a price on ecological restorationputting a price on clean water and soil fertility helps the UN set ecological restoration targets for degraded
and deforested land. Forests provide essential ecosystem services for people including timber food and water.
For those struggling with the after-effects of deforestation the main hope lies in rebuilding forest resources through ecological restoration.
Researchers at BU have shown that placing a monetary value on ecosystem services provides a mechanism for evaluating the costs and benefits of reforestation activity.
Ecological restoration initiatives are being undertaken around the world attracting investment of $us billions annually explained Professor Adrian Newton.
They make a significant contribution to sustainable development but few attempts have been made to systematically evaluate their effectiveness.
and fellow BU researchers analysed 89 different types of restored ecosystem sites across the world.
although restored land was not as productive as land that had not been degraded restoration efforts increased biodiversity by 44%and provision of ecosystem services by 25%.
%What's unique about Professor Newton's research is that it also provides one of the first evidence-based assessments of how cost-effective ecological restoration initiatives actually are.
Reforlan brought together researchers from six countries to assess the environmental degradation and the potential for ecological recovery through restoration.
The methodology assigns financial value to ecosystem services such as the provision of clean water carbon storage
We examined whether ecological restoration can be cost effective based on the value of ecosystem services provided by restoration actions he explained.
This was undertaken by analysing the value of the increased provision of ecosystem services that could potentially be provided as a result of ecological restoration actions.
So successful is the methodology that it was used to inform the United nations Environment Programme's restoration targets
and specifically'Target 15'of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets to restore 15%of the world's degraded ecosystems by 2020.
and enhance ecosystem service provision for those living within them. The Forest Landscape Restoration method has been heralded as the solution to restoring 150 million acres of degraded
He conclude Ecosystems are a rich source of biodiversity and the services they provide are relied upon by local people.
The approach developed through the Reforlan project allows policy makers to identify locations where ecological restoration is most likely to be cost effective.
field study showsfor the first time a field test has demonstrated that elevated levels of carbon dioxide inhibit plants'assimilation of nitrate into proteins indicating that the nutritional quality of food crops is at risk as climate change intensifies.
Findings from this wheat field-test study led by a UC Davis plant scientist will be reported online April 6 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
and the HYBAM environmental research observatory conducted many field-studies in the Amazon region and analysed satellite images.
In fact the researchers showed a very high export ratio toward the aquatic environment of the gross primary production of the Amazon wetlands:
#Large-scale fences can cause ecological meltdown, study showswildlife fences are constructed for a variety of reasons including to prevent the spread of diseases protect wildlife from poachers
which has been termed ecological meltdown. In some parts of the world fencing is part of the culture of wildlife conservation--it's assumed that all wildlife areas have to be fenced.
But fencing profoundly alters ecosystems and can cause some species to disappear. We're asking that conservationists as well as other sectoral interests carefully weigh up the biodiversity costs
In addition to their ecosystem-wide impact fences do not always achieve their specific aims Construction of fences to reduce human-wildlife conflict has been successful in some places
Some of these fences have had devastating environmental effects. Fortunately it is recognized increasingly that a combination of improved testing vaccination
The authors conclude that as climate change increases the importance of facilitating wildlife mobility and maintaining landscape connectivity fence removal may become an important form of climate change preparedness
and so fencing of wildlife should be avoided whenever possible. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
and creating fewer environmental pollutants. One of the largest impediments for the pulp and paper industry as well as the emerging biofuel industry is a polymer found in wood known as lignin says Shawn Mansfield a professor of Wood Science at the University of British columbia.
or were susceptible to wind snow pests and pathogens. It is truly a unique achievement to design trees for deconstruction
Our activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation are pushing the cycle out of its natural balance adding more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Natural processes are working hard to keep the carbon cycle in balance by absorbing about half of our carbon emissions limiting the extent of climate change.
and how they might change as the climate warms. To understand and prepare for the carbon cycle of the future we have need an urgent to find out.
A research ship moves about the speed of a 10-speed bicycle said Scott Doney director of the Ocean and Climate Change Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole Mass.
The winds are changing there and carbon dioxide uptake may change too. On land Earth's great forests might be understood the least areas.
Fewer than 20 percent of these measurements will be sufficiently cloud-free to allow an accurate estimate of carbon dioxide
Combined with data on winds and other conditions the OCO-2 data will allow modelers to better locate carbon sources
Under current climate conditions the model predicts a design for a soybean crop with 8. 5 percent more productivity
or all of them simultaneously said Praveen Kumar a co-author of the study who is the Lovell Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois. There might be some areas where you look at only one aspect
Third combating climate change by reflecting more sunlight off the leaves. To address all three they used the unique tactic of computationally modeling the whole soybean plant.
The model looks at biological functions such as photosynthesis and water use as well as the physical environment.
And changing the angle of the leaves can let the plant reflect back more solar radiation to offset climate change.
what these plant canopies can do in a future climate so that it will still be valid 40 or 50 years down the line.
--and yet will have to do that with probably no more water while at the same time dealing with climate change.
and optimization we have the potential to greatly expedite the development of new types of agricultural plants that can tackle some of the greatest challenges facing society today related to the need to produce more food in a more variable and uncertain climate system
and US Forest Service in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecosphere last week but outlier project sites with good grouse habitat may yield clues to successful management scenarios.
The sagebrush ecosystem is adapted not to frequent fires like some forests in California and the central Rockies and fires have increased in frequency and in size over the last half century.
and it's not very good at dispersing seeds long distance said author Robert Arkle a supervisory ecologist for the USGS Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center at the Snake river Field Station in Idaho.
BLM's Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) program is designed to reestablish perennial plant cover following wildfire preventing erosion
The limiting factor could be related to climate or prevalence of nonnative plants. It is a question the researchers hope to address in the future.
and colleagues found preferring a sagebrush steppe environment featuring very little human development and dwarf sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula A. nova or A. tripartita) but not cheatgrass or other nonnative plants.
The outlier ESR sites preferred by sage grouse had healthier sagebrush and shared common climate and post-treatment weather conditions.
Spring weather has big role in successful germination and growth of sagebrush during the crucial first growing season.
But the factors that ultimately determine the survival of the sagebrush ecosystem may be out of managers'control.
The study and another tracking the recovery of mountain big sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. vaseyana) at high elevation suggest that climate may play a role in the failure of big sage germination and establishment in hotter locations.
and around climate and weather constraints but impending climate changes will likely make this task more difficult.
It's possible that parts of the Great Basin will cross a tipping point of climate and species representation from
The above story is provided based on materials by Ecological Society of America. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
The paper published in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology gives farmers of pollination-dependent crops tangible results to convert marginal acreage to fields of wildflowers said Rufus Isaacs MSU entomologist
More people die of heart attacks in cold weather because the stress of the cold temperatures causes blood pressure to increase
To simulate cold weather conditions one hand of the subject was dipped into 39 degree water (or 4 degrees Celsius) while Figueroa's team took their blood pressure and other vital measurements.
Scott Jackson director of the University of Georgia Center for Applied Genetic Technologies in the College of Agricultural and Environmental sciences serves as chair of the International Peanut Genome Initiative or IPGI.
and build more secure livelihoods said plant geneticist Rajeev Varshney of the International Crops Research Institute for Semiarid Tropics in India who serves on the IPGI.
It's a surprise to find methane is such a big source of energy in these gin-clear waters famed for their luxuriant plant growth said co-author Professor Mark Trimmer Head of the Aquatic Ecology Group at Queen Mary
#Amazon studied to predict impact of climate changethree extreme weather events in the Amazon basin in the last decade are giving scientists an opportunity to make observations that will allow them to predict the impacts of climate change and deforestation on some of the most important ecological
processes and ecosystem services of the Amazon river wetlands. Scientists from Virginia Tech the Woods Hole Research center and the University of California Santa barbara funded by NASA are collaborating with Brazilian scientists to explore the ecosystem consequences of the extreme droughts of 2005 and 2010 and the extreme flood
of 2009. The research fills an important gap in our understanding of the vulnerability of tropical river-forest systems to changes in climate
and land cover said the project's leader Leandro Castello assistant professor of fish and wildlife conservation In virginia Tech's College of Natural resources and Environment.
The huge study area encompasses 1. 7 million square miles the equivalent of half of the continental United states
Amazon floodplains and river channels--maintained by seasonal floods--promote nutrient cycling and high biological production and support diverse biological communities as well as human populations with one of the highest per capita rates of fish consumption said Castello.
and forest productivity in the floodplains and how extreme events such as floods and droughts may disturb this cycle.
We are confident that deforestation and climate change will in the future lead to more frequent and severe floods
and droughts said Michael Coe a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research center. It is important that we understand how the Amazon river
and ecosystem services such as fisheries are affected so that we can devise mitigation strategies. Amazonian grasses sometimes called macrophytes convert atmospheric carbon to plant biomass which is processed then by aquatic microorganisms upon decomposition.
and then die when the floods arrive releasing the carbon into the aquatic system said Thiago Silva an assistant professor of geography at SãO Paulo State university in Rio Claro Brazil.
They are followed by aquatic grasses that need to grow extremely fast to surpass the rising floods
and floods on fishery yields said Castello whose specialty is Amazon fisheries. Floods in the Amazon are almost a blessing
because in some years they can almost double the amount of fish in the river that is available for fishermen and society.
The researchers will examine the potential impact of future climate scenarios on the extent and productivity of floodplain forests--those enriched by rising waters called whitewater river forests and nutrient-poor blackwater river forests.
Prolonged periods of inundation on the other hand may decrease productivity or increase mortality due to waterlogging stress. We will evaluate these responses for the first time at a regional scale using remotely sensed indicators of vegetation condition
and extreme climate events said Marcia Macedo a research associate at the Woods Hole Research center.
Previous research has focused on Amazon upland forests and the potential impacts of deforestation fire and drought.
Our research informs large river ecology globally because natural flowing rivers like the Amazon are rare these days
#Deforestation of sandy soils a greater climate threatdeforestation may have far greater consequences for climate change in some soils than in others according to new research led by Yale university scientists--a finding that could provide critical insights into which ecosystems
which ecosystems are more resilient to widespread tree removal. In a comprehensive analysis of soil collected from 11 distinct U s. regions from Hawaii to northern Alaska researchers found that the extent to which deforestation disturbs underground microbial communities that regulate the loss of carbon into the atmosphere depends almost exclusively on the texture of the soil.
The results were published in the journal Global Change Biology. We were astonished that biodiversity changes were affected so strongly by soil texture
& Environmental Studies and lead author of the study. Texture overrode the effects of all the other variables that we thought might be important including temperature moisture nutrient concentrations
A serious consequence of deforestation is extensive loss of carbon from the soil a process regulated by subterranean microbial diversity.
Specifically the researchers found that deforestation dramatically alters microbial communities in sandy soils but has minimal effects in muddy clay-like soils even after extensive tree removal.
they're lost into the atmosphere lost into rivers lost through rain Crowther said. But in clay-like soil you can cut down the forest
The researchers also examined how the effects of deforestation on microbial biodiversity change over time. Contrary to their expectations they found no correlation even over the course of 200 years.
The effects are consistent no matter how long ago deforestation happened Crowther said. In a clay soil you cut down the forest
Using previously documented information about soil distribution the researchers were able to map potential areas where belowground ecosystems are more likely to be vulnerable to deforestation.
The above story is provided based on materials by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The original article was written by Kevin Dennehy.
In an era of climate change pollution and the global spread of pathogens these new grains must also be able to handle stress.
and abiotic caused by environmental agents like nutrient deficiency flood and salinity. Traditionally scientists have believed that different sets of genes regulated plants'responses to biotic and abiotic stress.
In the comprehensive study scientists from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&es) and the University of Washington's College of the Environment evaluated a range of scenarios including leaving forests untouched burning wood for energy
and Environmental Studies director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at F&es and lead author of the new study.
and densities in non-reserved forests--in addition to keeping some global forests in reserves--would help preserve biodiversity in ecosystems worldwide Oliver said.
Story Source The above story is provided based on materials by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
#Warming climate may spread drying to a third of earth: Heat, not just rainfall, plays into new projectionsincreasing heat is expected to extend dry conditions to far more farmland
and cities by the end of the century than changes in rainfall alone says a new study.
Much of the concern about future drought under global warming has focused on rainfall projections but higher evaporation rates may also play an important role as warmer temperatures wring more moisture from the soil even in some places where rainfall is forecasted to increase say the researchers.
The study is one of the first to use the latest climate simulations to model the effects of both changing rainfall and evaporation rates on future drought.
Published this month in the journal Climate Dynamics the study estimates that 12 percent of land will be subject to drought by 2100 through rainfall changes alone;
but the drying will spread to 30 percent of land if higher evaporation rates from the added energy and humidity in the atmosphere is considered.
An increase in evaporative drying means that even regions expected to get more rain including important wheat corn
and rice belts in the western United states and southeastern China will be at risk of drought.
We know from basic physics that warmer temperatures will help to dry things out said the study's lead author Benjamin Cook a climate scientist with joint appointments at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth
In its latest climate report the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that soil moisture is expected to decline globally
The IPCC also predicts a strong chance of soil moisture drying in the Mediterranean southwestern United states and southern African regions consistent with the Climate Dynamics study.
Using two drought metric formulations the study authors analyze projections of both rainfall and evaporative demand from the collection of climate model simulations completed for the IPCC's 2013 climate report.
Both metrics agree that increased evaporative drying will probably tip marginally wet regions at mid-latitudes like the U s. Great plains and a swath of southeastern China into aridity.
what really matters said study coauthor Jason Smerdon a climate scientist at Lamont-Doherty. If rain increases slightly
but temperatures also increase drought is a potential consequence. Today while bad weather periodically lowers crop yields in some places other regions are typically able to compensate to avert food shortages.
In the warmer weather of the future however crops in multiple regions could wither simultaneously the authors suggest.
Food-price shocks could become far more common said study coauthor Richard Seager a climate scientist at Lamont-Doherty.
Large cities especially in arid regions will need to carefully manage their water supplies he added. The study builds on an emerging body of research looking at how evaporative demand influences hydroclimate.
It confirms something we've suspected for a long time said Toby Ault a climate scientist at Cornell University who was involved not in the study.
and adapt to climate change. Rainfall changes do not tell the whole story agrees University of New south wales researcher Steven Sherwood in a recent Perspectives piece in the leading journal Science.
Many regions will get more rain but it appears that few will get enough to keep pace with the growing evaporative demand.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by The Earth Institute at Columbia University.
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