ReportWire

Tag: Climate Science

  • Skiing over Christmas holidays no longer guaranteed – even with snow guns

    Skiing over Christmas holidays no longer guaranteed – even with snow guns

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — For many people, holidays in the snow are as much a part of the end of the year as Christmas trees and fireworks. As global warming progresses, however, white slopes are becoming increasingly rare. Researchers at the University of Basel have calculated how well one of Switzerland’s largest ski resorts will remain snow reliable with technical snowmaking by the year 2100, and how much water this snow will consume.

    The future for ski sports in Switzerland looks anything but rosy – or rather white. Current climate models predict that there will be more precipitation in winter in the coming decades, but that it will fall as rain instead of snow. Despite this, one investor recently spent several million Swiss francs on expanding the Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis ski resort. A short-sighted decision they will regret in future?

    A research team led by Dr. Erika Hiltbrunner from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel has now calculated the extent to which this ski resort can maintain its economically important Christmas holidays and a ski season of at least 100 days with and without snowmaking. The team collected data on the aspects of the slopes, where and when the snow is produced at the ski resort and with how much water. They then applied the latest climate change scenarios (CH2018) in combination with the SkiSim 2.0 simulation software for projections of snow conditions with and without technical snowmaking. The results of their investigations were recently published in the International Journal of Biometeorology.

    No guarantee of a white Christmas

    According to the results, the use of technical snow can indeed guarantee a 100-day ski season – in the higher parts of the ski resort (at 1,800 meters and above), at least. But business is likely to be tight during the Christmas holidays in coming decades, with the weather often not cold enough at this time and in the weeks before. In the scenario with unabated greenhouse gas emissions, the Sedrun region in particular will no longer be able to offer guaranteed snow over Christmas in the longer term. New snow guns may alleviate the situation to a certain extent, say the researchers, but will not resolve the issue completely.

    “Many people don’t realize that you also need certain weather conditions for snowmaking,” explains Hiltbrunner. “It must not be too warm or too humid, otherwise there will not be enough evaporation cooling for the sprayed water to freeze in the air and come down as snow.” Warm air absorbs more moisture and so, as winters become warmer, it also gets increasingly difficult or impossible to produce snow technically. In other words: “Here, the laws of physics set clear limits for snowmaking.”

    540 million liters

    The skiing will still go on, however, because technical snowmaking at least enables resort operators to keep the higher ski runs open for 100 consecutive days – even up until the end of the century and with climate change continuing unabated. But there is a high price to be paid for this. The researchers’ calculations show that water consumption for snowmaking will increase significantly, by about 80% for the resort as a whole. In an average winter toward the end of the century, consumption would thus amount to about 540 million liters of water, compared with 300 million liters today.

    But this increase in water demand is still relatively moderate compared with other ski resorts, the researchers emphasize. Earlier studies had shown that water consumption for snowmaking in the Scuol ski resort, for example, would increase by a factor of 2.4 to 5, because the area covered with snow there will have to be largely expanded in order to guarantee snow reliability.

    For their analysis, the researchers considered periods of 30 years. However, there are large annual fluctuations: In addition, extreme events are not depicted in the climate scenarios. In the winter of 2017 with low levels of snow, water consumption for snowmaking in one of the three sub-areas of Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis tripled.

    Conflicts over water use

    Today, some of the water used for snowmaking in the largest sub-area of Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis comes from the Oberalpsee. A maximum of 200 million liters may be withdrawn annually for this purpose. If climate change continues unabated, this source of water will last until the middle of the century, at which point new sources will have to be exploited. “The Oberalpsee is also used to produce hydroelectric power,” says Dr. Maria Vorkauf, lead author of the study, who now works at the Agroscope research station. “Here, we are likely to see a conflict between the water demands for the ski resort and those for hydropower generation.”

    At first, this ski resort may even benefit from climate change – if lower-lying and smaller ski resorts are obliged to close, tourists will move to larger resorts at higher altitude, one of which is Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis.

    What is certain is that increased snowmaking will drive up costs and thus also the price of ski holidays. “Sooner or later, people with average incomes will simply no longer be able to afford them,” says Hiltbrunner.

    [ad_2]

    University of Basel

    Source link

  • Slime for the climate, delivered by brown algae

    Slime for the climate, delivered by brown algae

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Brown algae are true wonder plants when it comes to absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. They even outcompete forests on land in this, and thus play a decisive role for the atmosphere and our climate. But what happens to the carbon dioxide after the algae have absorbed it? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology now report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that the brown algae can remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the global cycle in the long term and thus can counteract global warming.

    Fucoidan: Brown algae slime is not a favourite dish

    Algae take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use the carbon to grow. They release up to a third of the carbon they absorb back into the seawater, for example in the form of sugary excretions. Depending on the structure of these excretions, they are either quickly used by other organisms or sink towards the seafloor.

    “The excretions of brown algae are very complex and therefore incredibly complicated to measure,” says first author Hagen Buck-Wiese from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. “However, we have managed to develop a method to analyse them in detail.” With this method, the researchers scrutinised a large number of different substances. The so-called fucoidan turned out to be particularly exciting. “Fucoidan made up about half of the excretions of the brown algae species we studied, the so-called bladderwrack,” says Buck-Wiese. Fucoidan is a recalcitrant molecule. “The fucoidan is so complex that it is very hard for other organisms to use it. No one seems to like it.” As a result, the carbon from the fucoidan does not return to the atmosphere quickly. “This makes the brown algae particularly good helpers in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the long term – for hundreds to thousands of years.”

    Brown algae could bind almost all of Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions

    Brown algae are remarkably productive. It is estimated that they absorb about 1 gigaton (one billion tons) of carbon per year from the air. Using the results of the present study, this would mean that up to 0.15 gigatons of carbon, equivalent to 0.55 gigatons of carbon dioxide, are sequestered by brown algae each year in the long term. For comparison: Germany’s annual greenhouse gas emissions currently amount to about 0.74 gigatons of carbon dioxide, according to the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, estimation for 2020).

    “And even better: The fucoidan does not contain any nutrients such as nitrogen,” Buck-Wiese explains further. Thus, the growth of the brown algae is not affected by the carbon losses.

    More species and sites

    For the current study, Buck-Wiese and his colleagues from the MARUM MPG Bridge Group Marine Glycobiology, which is based at both the Bremen Max Planck Institute and MARUM – Centre for Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, conducted their experiments at the Tvärminne Zoological Station in southern Finland. “Next we want to look into other brown algae species and other locations,” says Buck-Wiese. “The great potential of brown algae for climate protection definitely needs to be further researched and utilised.”

    [ad_2]

    Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

    Source link

  • Current Antarctic conservation efforts are insufficient to avoid biodiversity declines

    Current Antarctic conservation efforts are insufficient to avoid biodiversity declines

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Existing conservation efforts are insufficient to protect Antarctic ecosystems, and population declines are likely for 65% of the continent’s plants and wildlife by the year 2100, according to a study by Jasmine Rachael Lee at the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues, publishing December 22nd in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Implementing ten key threat management strategies — at an annual cost of 23 million US dollars — would benefit up to 84% of terrestrial bird, mammal, and plant groups.

    To better understand which species are most vulnerable and identify the most cost-effective actions, researchers combined expert assessments with scientific data to evaluate threats and conservation strategies for Antarctica. They asked 29 experts to define possible management strategies, estimate their cost and feasibility, and assess the potential benefit to different species between now and 2100.

    Climate change was identified as the most serious threat to Antarctic biodiversity and influencing global policy to limit warming was the most beneficial conservation strategy. Under current management strategies and more than 2 degrees Celsius of warming, 65% of land plants and animals will decline by 2100. Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) were identified as the most vulnerable, followed by other sea birds and soil nematode worms. However, regional management strategies could benefit up to 74% of plants and animals at an estimated cost of 1.92 billion US dollars over the next 83 years, equating to 0.004% of global GDP in 2019. The regional management strategies identified as offering the greatest return on investment were minimizing the impacts of human activities, improving the planning and management of new infrastructure projects, and improving transport management.

    As Antarctica faces increasing pressure from climate change and human activities, a combination of regional and global conservation efforts is needed to preserve Antarctic biodiversity and ecosystem services for future generations, the authors say.

    Lee adds, “What this work shows is that climate change is the greatest threat to Antarctic species and what we need is global mitigation efforts to save them. This will not only help to secure their future, but also our own.”

    #####

    In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001921  

    Press-only preview: https://plos.io/3FdShYY

    Citation: Lee JR, Terauds A, Carwardine J, Shaw JD, Fuller RA, Possingham HP, et al. (2022) Threat management priorities for conserving Antarctic biodiversity. PLoS Biol 20(12): e3001921. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001921

    Author Countries: Australia, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, New Zealand, France, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium

    Funding: see manuscript

    Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

    [ad_2]

    PLOS

    Source link

  • Climate change played key role in dinosaur success story

    Climate change played key role in dinosaur success story

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Climate change, rather than competition, played a key role in the ascendancy of dinosaurs through the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods.

    According to new research, changes in global climate associated with the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction – which wiped out many large terrestrial vertebrates such as the giant armadillo-like aetosaurs – actually benefitted the earliest dinosaurs.

    In particular, sauropod-like dinosaurs, which became the giant herbivore species of the later Jurassic like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus, were able to thrive and expand across new territories as the planet warmed up after the extinction event, 201 million years ago.

    The new evidence is published in Current Biology, by an international team of palaeontologists led by the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol, in the UK, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), in Germany, and the University of São Paulo in Brazil.

    The team compared computer models of prehistoric global climate conditions such as temperature and rainfall with data on the different locations of dinosaurs taken from sources such as the Paleobiology Database. They showed how the sauropods, and sauropod-like animals, with their long tails and necks and small heads, were the runaway success story of a turbulent period of evolution.

    Dr Emma Dunne, now a lecturer in palaeontology at FAU, carried out the research while at the University of Birmingham. She said: “What we see in the data suggests that instead of dinosaurs being outcompeted by other large vertebrates, it was variations in climate conditions that were restricting their diversity. But once these conditions changed across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, they were able to flourish.

    “The results were somewhat surprising, because it turns out that sauropods were really fussy from the get-go: later in their evolution they continue to stay in warmer areas and avoid polar regions.”

    Co-author on the paper, Professor Richard Butler, at the University of Birmingham, said: “Climate change appears to have been really important in driving the evolution of early dinosaurs. What we want to do next is use the same techniques to understand the role of climate in the next 120 million years of the dinosaur story”.

    The research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the European Research Council.

    [ad_2]

    University of Birmingham

    Source link

  • Starting small to better understand key steps in the carbon cycle

    Starting small to better understand key steps in the carbon cycle

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — December 14, 2022 – Earth’s carbon cycle works on a global scale. But it can be affected by the tiniest of organisms: soil microbes. These microbes decompose organic matter like plant litter and dead organisms, and create simple carbon compounds. These simple carbon compounds can then be used by other organisms, or turned into gases (like carbon dioxide) and released into the atmosphere.

    Much like us, soil microbes can be picky about where they live and work. “Just as we may prefer a certain range of temperature and humidity, soil microbes have their preferable conditions too,” says Alyssa Kim, a researcher at Cornell University.

    Kim is the lead author of a new study that explores how soil conditions, like moisture level and pore size, can affect soil microbes. Understanding how different soil conditions impact microbial activity can give researchers a better handle on ways to increase soil health and fertility, and help combat climate change. For example, “it can be a critical part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural fields after harvests,” says Kim.

    Kim recently presented her work at the 2022 ASA-CSSA-SSSA annual meeting, held in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Kim and her colleagues at Michigan State University compared microbial activity near corn and switchgrass leaf litter. Corn is a vital crop, and farmers in the United States planted nearly 90 million acres in the 2022 growing year. Switchgrass is a promising bioenergy crop with an expanding footprint. “Also, corn and switchgrass have different litter characteristics,” says Kim. “Litter chemistry affects how easily microbes can decompose different litters. The physical characteristics like texture can affect the water and air environment near litters.”

    Kim and her colleagues found that corn and switchgrass litters differ in how they change moisture levels in the soil near them. “We found distinct moisture depletion 0.1 to 1.5 millimeter away from switchgrass residues,” says Kim.

    To study this moisture distribution, Kim used a method called X-ray and Neutron computed tomography. This method works very similarly to medical CT scans. “It’s a very promising, non-destructive way to study soils and water in them,” says Kim.

    It turns out, moisture content is one of the most important factors influencing soil microbial activity. That’s because one way that microbes decompose organic material, like leaf litter, is by releasing chemicals called enzymes. Different enzymes break down different materials. For example, an enzyme called beta-glucosidase can break down plant cell walls. Another enzyme called chitinase can break down the exoskeletons of insects and some fungi. Once the enzymes break down their target materials into simpler chemicals, soil microbes can feast.

    “When soil moisture levels are optimal for microbes, they tend to produce more enzymes,” says Kim. That can lead to faster decomposition of leaf litter and the release of larger amounts of carbon dioxide. That’s exactly what Kim and her colleagues observed. Soil moisture levels were higher near corn litter, and decomposing corn litter released more carbon dioxide quicker than switchgrass litter.

    Although the study focused on millimeter-scale observations, it has large-scale implications. “Studying these microscale dynamics can help us to understand what is actually happening in our vast corn fields, and also, in promising bioenergy cropping systems like switchgrass,” says Kim.

    Kim also tested how soil pore size affects microbial enzyme activity. These pore sizes ranged from 10 to 30 micrometers, slightly smaller than the thickness of a single strand of most human hair. “It is crucial to study soil pore structures because that’s where soil microbes live,” says Kim.  Kim used a method called Zymography, to map the activity of different enzymes. “We add some chemicals onto the soil surface. Such chemicals show fluorescence when decomposed, and that is how we detect the location of enzymes.”

    Soil pore size affects different enzymes differently. Beta-glucosidase – the enzyme that breaks down plant cell walls – worked more efficiently in soils with smaller pores. On the other hand, chitinase enzyme activity was higher in soils with larger pore sizes. “These contrasting results tell us that what is decomposed in soils can depend on soil pore architecture,” says Kim. “That’s because there are different microbes living in pores of different sizes, producing different enzymes.”

    Soils in farm fields have a mix of large and small pores, which indicates a mix of moisture levels and different microbes. “In the future, I would like to look at soil pores and moisture levels on larger scales and test how differences in moisture distribution affects the decomposition process,” says Kim.

    This research was supported by Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (Award DE – SC0018409); National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research Program (DEB 1832042) at the Kellogg Biological Station; Michigan State University AgBioResearch; and special thanks to Dr. Sasha Kravchenko and Kravchenko Lab at Michigan State University, as well as Anders Kaestner at Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

    [ad_2]

    American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

    Source link

  • New study highlights urgent need to safeguard deep reefs – one of the largest and least protected ecosystems

    New study highlights urgent need to safeguard deep reefs – one of the largest and least protected ecosystems

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — As world leaders, government negotiators, scientists and conservationists gather at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, to agree to halt and reverse nature loss, an international team of marine scientists and conservationists have made an impassioned plea for the urgent conservation of deep reefs.

    Their calls are based on a new study, recently published in the journal Conservation Letters, led by scientists from Nekton, the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) and the University of Oxford. This confirms for the first time that deep reef habitats, notably in the WIO, are largely unprotected despite being under threat from a multitude of stressors, including overfishing, pollution, climate change and, in the near future, seabed mining.

    Their calls follow COP27 in Egypt, where many scientists, politicians and campaigners concluded that the 1.5C climate goal died, signing the death warrant on the vast majority of shallow reefs.

    Deep reefs (found below 30 m) provide essential ecosystem services for climate change resilience, ocean health, and food security whilst also acting as a refugia for organisms threatened in shallow water, including commercially important species. Despite this, deep reefs are barely protected, even though they have a larger geographic footprint than their shallower counterparts. Furthermore, the scarcity of fish in shallow waters combined with modern deep sea fishing technologies is resulting in deep reefs being increasingly exploited by coastal communities who need fish for their food security.

    “We strongly encourage deep reefs to be included in conservation and sustainable management action to complement global targets, notably 30% protection of the global ocean by 2030” said the study’s lead author, Dr Paris Stefanoudis, a marine biologist at the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology and a Research Scientist at Nekton. “Deep reefs are critical to a healthy marine ecosystem and face similar threats from overfishing, pollution and climate change faced by the much-imperilled shallow reef system.”

    Covering over 8% of the global ocean, the Western Indian Ocean is one of the least known, least protected, and most threatened marine regions of our planet. Shallow and deep coral reefs of the WIO are marine biodiversity hotspots with high numbers of species that are found nowhere else on Earth. They are essential to the region’s 100 million people living within 100km of the coastline, including over three million people who are directly dependent on artisanal fishing for their livelihoods. The population is projected to double over the next 30 years, driving greater stressors on the ocean’s biological capacity to support lives and livelihoods.

    The scientific team has co-developed a new framework for conserving deep reefs including practical recommendations and specific actions for regional policy-makers, conservationists and scientists. This has been published in the journal Conservation Letters.

    The researchers urge policy makers to use the COP15 summit to agree to the following:

    1. Highly protect 30% of ecosystems by 2030 (‘30 by 30’), and include deep reefs in this target.
    2. Conserve deep reef ecosystems and their resources by specifically including them in fishery regulations, marine protected areas, and marine spatial planning.
    3. Extend current management efforts on shallow reefs to include deep reefs as these ecosystems are often connected.
    4. Invest in foundational, fundamental, and applied research on deep reef biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and provided services.
    5. Develop national, international, transnational cross-stakeholder collaborations to survey and conserve deep reefs in national and international (High Seas) waters

    “To halt and reverse nature loss, the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15 must prioritise the conservation of unique ecosystems such as deep reefs, one of the least protected ecosystems on Earth” stated co-author Professor Lucy Woodall, Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Oxford, Nekton Principal Scientist, “We hope our recommendations and actions will be useful for decision makers in the WIO, be applied within the new Western Indian Ocean regional policy and provide the springboard for deep reefs to become protected across the global ocean”, continued Professor Woodall.

    Co-author Melita Samoilys, CORDIO East Africa explains: “Our framework was jointly developed with a range of stakeholders from academia, research, management and government, and provides a list of actions across three themes: capacity, information collection, and information sharing. Given the scale of the issue, we have also identified which parties – such as funding agencies, government, Institutions or the research community – are needed to work together to realise those actions”.

    “To ensure a prosperous and resilient Western Indian Ocean, it is essential that deep reefs are no longer ignored by scientists and policy makers, and they must be specifically considered in conservation and management strategies”, shared co-author Athur Tuda, Executive Director of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association, WIOMSA.

    A video summary of the findings and proposals is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1Tm2wo2JU&t=2s 

     

    Notes for Editors

    The Publication

    ‘Stakeholder-derived recommendations and actions to support deep-reef conservation in the Western Indian Ocean’ published in Conservation Letters, co-authored by 18 scientists representing 18 different organisations including from South Africa, Tanzania, Seychelles, Kenya, Mozambique, UK and USA. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12924

    Video, photographic and infographic content: https://nektonmission.org/about/press-news

    WIO Conservation Framework: The UNEP’s Nairobi Convention provides the regional framework for governments, civil society and the private sector to strengthen the health and resilience of the Indian Ocean. At the Nairobi Convention’s COP10 in November 2021, the WIO nations unanimously agreed to co-create an ambitious new regional ocean strategy and accompanying policies to support sustainable ocean development underpinned by science-based management. ‘The Western Indian Ocean – Resilience & Prosperity Initiative’ (WIO-RPI), as it’s known includes establishing a just, equitably designed and managed connected network of ecologically and culturally representative protected areas in national and international waters, complementing global targets. Nekton and University of Oxford scientists are the technical partners supporting the implementation of the WIO-RPI.

    Deep Reefs: Deep reefs include mesophotic (30-150 m), rariphotic (150-300 m), and cold-water coral reefs (>300 m) and have a great geographic                              

    Nekton: Nekton works to accelerate the scientific exploration and conservation of the ocean for people and the planet. Nekton is an independent, not-for-profit research institute and is a UK registered charity. www.nektonmission.org

    University of Oxford: Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the seventh year running, and ​number 2 in the QS World Rankings 2022. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer. Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions. Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.

    [ad_2]

    University of Oxford

    Source link

  • Greta Thunberg effect evident among Norwegian youth

    Greta Thunberg effect evident among Norwegian youth

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Since 2017, nearly 3000 young Norwegians aged 17 to 20 have shared in their own words what they consider important in Norwegian society, and whom they regard as good role models.

    The survey showed a clear shift in Norwegian youth in autumn 2019, when Greta Thunberg received extensive media attention, and the “Fridays for future” movement spread with school strikes in several countries.

    “What we see is that Greta Thunberg has been very important in uniting young people who were already concerned about the climate,” says researcher Jan Frode Haugseth, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). “She also helped to make more young people climate aware, especially in 2019.”

    Study of young people’s engagement

    Haugseth is an associate professor in pedagogy in NTNU’s Department of Teacher Education. He heads the research programme that investigates commitment and values among young people in Norway.

    Haugseth and his colleague Eli Smeplass are behind the article “The Greta Thunberg Effect: A Study of Norwegian Youth’s Reflexivity on Climate Change.”

    Everyone has the opportunity to do what they want, just like everyone can choose to study or do whatever work they want. The most important challenge in society for me is the climate debate, which I believe we really need to tackle. (Female, age 19, 2017 survey)

    “When we started these surveys in 2017, we had no particular ambition to look at climate awareness. We wanted to know what young people think about our times and what inspires them,” says Haugseth.

    “When we observed how the responses changed in autumn 2019, and that young people themselves were mentioning Greta Thunberg and the importance of taking addressing climate and nature issues, we thought this would be an interesting object of study,” he said.

    Let young people speak freely

    One problem with regular surveys is that it is difficult to gauge how engaged the respondents really are. The match between what young people claim is important and how they actually behave is ambiguous.

    In fact, some research suggests that even if young people answer that the climate threat is serious in surveys, they still live lives with high consumption and relatively high emissions.

    I’m really inspired by Greta Thunberg now. She is enormously resourceful, and I greatly admire her efforts. She is brave and uses her voice to fight for something she believes in. And she’s humble at the same time. The focus shouldn’t be on her (Male, age 20, 2019 survey).

    In other words, young people have climate awareness on a theoretical and overall level. But they seem to lack what the researchers call climate change reflexivity when it comes to their personal actions.

    “We wanted a method to be able to measure young people’s awareness of these issues. We found that we had the opportunity to study what young people tell us about the climate threat by simply asking them to speak freely, rather than posing questions. This ensures deeper reflection than survey questions, which are often answered quickly and without reflecting much,” Haugseth said.

    Before and after 2019

    The surveys sent out by the researchers contained open text fields for respondents to express what they thought was important in society and to define their role models in their own words.

    “We found that in 2019 a lot more young people wrote that the climate threat was important, and they were concerned with the transition to a sustainable economy, restructuring and climate solidarity,” said Haugseth.

    “The answers from 2017 were less detailed. Youth were becoming concerned that other ways of managing society had to be found. We could see that after 2019 they argued in a more holistic way,” says Haugseth.

    This tendency applied to young people across geographical and social affiliations.

    We have to start thinking about the Earth and not just ourselves, and we have to start doing things that benefit the Earth – and not just making sure that we have the best possible time and prioritize economic stability so highly when we’re facing such a big crisis. (Female, age 18, 2019 survey)

    “Research often shows that social belonging, like the parents’ level of education and occupation, affects what young people are interested in. But here we see that Greta Thunberg managed to mobilize young people in a broader sense.”

    “We also found that climate-conscious young people in 2019-2020-2021 expressed themselves as ‘we’ to a greater extent than in 2017. They come from different places and don’t know each other, but have nevertheless developed a kind of community. They’ve become aware of each other, that there are more people than themselves who are concerned about the climate, and that more versatile solutions are needed than what the adult generation has come up with,” says Smeplass.

    Youth mention Thunberg – not climate reports

    The researchers do not rule out that the media’s increased attention to climate issues could also have influenced young people’s consciousness around the topic – without Thunberg’s influence.

    “But Thunberg reached the young people to a much greater extent than the UN climate panel managed to do. None of the young people mention the climate reports in their answers,” says Smeplass.

    Young people are engaged with their peers. They’re looking to their age cohorts, not upwards to what their parents are involved with.

    Norway should take advantage of the fact that the country is already in a transition period to switch to green and climate-friendly alternatives. (Female, age 19, 2020 survey)

    “Greta Thunberg represents the young generation. She managed to challenge world leaders and the elite and set the agenda. She is quite simply a young person who managed to back the elite against the wall, and a number of young people write that they admire her for this,” Smeplass said.

    In the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, fewer young people mentioned Thunberg and climate commitment than in 2019. Could COVID have caused young people to become less concerned about climate issues again?

    The best thing about Norway is our beautiful nature that we can all experience freely. We have to solve global warming so that young people can all have a future. (Male, age 19, 2020 survey)

    “We believe we now have evidence to say that we can demonstrate a deeper form of reflection, with a more clearly pronounced ‘we’ and a ‘deeper’ climate reflexivity, one year into the pandemic (spring 2021). At the same time, fewer survey respondents are reporting that they think the climate threat is as serious,” says Haugseth.

    “It’s difficult for researchers to predict the future. The broad Greta Thunberg effect that we described in 2019 has been less visible during the pandemic. But the relevancy of her message for young people is a sign that their climate engagement hasn’t disappeared,” Smeplass said.

    You might also like: When art turns climate activist

    Down-to-earth argumentation

    The researchers believe that young people connect their climate commitment to issues like environmental protection, education, restructuring and solidarity.

    “This is a down-to-earth argument that is adapted to the sustainability focus in modern business development, and that we think will become important in the years to come. And a lot of young people still report that they take the climate threat seriously, even if they don’t necessarily talk much about it. This is also a corrective to the notion that the most effective climate resistance is being organized by climate activists who stop traffic and sabotage art,” says Haugseth.

    … in the future, Norway needs to find a new way to make good money other than oil – it’s going to run out faster than we think. (Male, age 19, 2021 survey)

    The fact that Greta Thunberg is not participating in this year’s COP27 climate conference COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh does not necessarily mean that she will have any less influence on young people’s climate commitment.

    “What we’re interested in is how young people argue for the importance of their climate commitment. Because that tells us something about what they’re really demanding and expecting from the future. In other words, climate summits aren’t necessarily the most effective hotbeds for youth climate engagement going forward,” says Smeplass.

    Reference
    Jan Frode Haugseth og Eli Smeplass: The Greta Thunberg Effect: A Study of Norwegian Youth’s Reflexivity on Climate Change Sociology, First published online November 17, 2022
    https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221122416

    [ad_2]

    Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

    Source link

  • Genetic barriers, a warming ocean, and the uncertain future for an important forage fish

    Genetic barriers, a warming ocean, and the uncertain future for an important forage fish

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — In the vast oceans, one would assume their inhabitants can travel far and wide and, as a result, populations of a species would mix freely. But this doesn’t appear to be the case for a vital forage fish called the sand lance.

    Sand lance are small schooling fish impressively rich in lipids, which makes them a fantastic and significant food source for at least 70 different species ranging from whales and sharks to seabirds, says UConn Associate Professor of Marine Sciences Hannes Baumann.

    The Northern sand lance can be found from the waters off New Jersey all the way north to Greenland. Researchers, including Baumann and Ph.D. student Lucas Jones, were interested to see if sand lance constitute a massive, homogenous population, or whether there are genetically distinct groups. Their findings are published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.

    Baumann explains these are important questions to answer when considering conservation and sustainable management of the species, especially since the regions where sand lance live are warming faster than many areas of the planet due to climate change.

    Sampling fish from such a broad range is no small task, but two years ago, Baumann and Jones began reaching out to other researchers to see if they had tissue samples to spare. Baumann credits the work to the international group of colleagues who contributed samples including co-authors from Canada and Greenland, and who helped sequence and analyze the data including co-authors from Cornell University.

    In all, Baumann, Jones, and the team were able to sequence and analyze nearly 300 samples from a variety of locations across the sand lance’s range using a technique called low-coverage whole genome sequencing. They also sequenced the first reference genome for sand lance.

    In a nutshell, Baumann says they found an area on the Scotian Shelf, off the coast of Nova Scotia, where a genetic break occurs. The researchers distinguished two distinct groups, one north and one south of the divide, with parts of the genome differing quite dramatically – namely on chromosomes 21 and 24. Without obvious physical barriers like a mountain range separating the groups, Baumann says it’s logical to ask how these differences are possible.

    “That is the scientific conundrum,” says Baumann, and the answer, it appears, lies in the currents.

    “When fish from the north reproduce and drift south, they are genetically less adapted to warmer southern waters, even if it’s five or six degrees warmer in the winter, they are just not surviving,” Baumann says. “These populations may be linked by the ocean currents, but the realized connectivity is basically zero.”

    This finding is a first for the sand lance, but it has been shown in other species such as lobsters, cod, and scallops, and this research adds further evidence to an apparent temperature divide at the Scotian Shelf, and helps demonstrate that temperature is an important factor in survival.

    “Example after example shows that the ocean is not as homogeneous a place as expected, and there are all kinds of things that prevent that constant mixing,”Baumann says. “We found another striking example of that.”

    When researchers find adaptation in an environment where mixing is continuous, like in the ocean, Baumann says, the question is how it is possible that groups stay different, even though they are constantly encountering other genotypes. That is where powerful genomic methods, like the ones used in this paper, come in handy.

    “Parts of the genome in many species have what we call a ‘genetic inversion,’ which means that the genes on the chromosome from one parent have a certain order and the genes on the same chromosome that come from the other parent that code for the same thing, and they’re the same area, but they’re flipped,” Baumann says.

    These inversions mean recombination cannot occur; therefore, the genes are passed down through the generations and play an important role in adaptation.

    “We discovered on chromosomes 21 and 24 there are whole regions that are completely different and that is like the trademark signature of what we call an inversion because there’s no recombination going on.”

    Baumann says that knowing there are genetic and ecological barriers on the Scotian Shelf is important, because with climate change, this barrier may move north and while that may be good news for southern fish, it’s bad news for the fish currently there.

    The researchers were also a little relieved in finding two clusters, because had there been many smaller clusters, it could make management and conservation more challenging, especially considering scenarios like the construction of offshore wind parks. Areas potentially well situated for wind turbines can also be habitats for sand lance, and construction disrupts habitats. If there were many, smaller population clusters, a single construction project could pose the risk of completely wiping out a cluster, whereas with more widely dispersed populations, though the local population may be temporarily disturbed, it will not be long before they are able to re-establish after construction is completed.

    Baumann plans to focus further research on studying the genetic basis of the thermal divide.

    “We want to make sure that this fish is productive and resilient, despite climate change, so we should make sure these areas where they are occurring are protected,” Bauman says. “These decisions should include experts to ensure if there’s an area that is very critical to sand lance, that any disturbance is temporary.”

    It isn’t an unsolvable conflict, but it is something that we need to do, says Baumann, who also notes that it is possible that sand lance north of the thermal divide are already suffering more from warming because the region is warming faster.

    “It could be that these two clusters have different vulnerabilities to climate change,” he says. “We don’t know that yet but that’s something that should be pursued.”

    [ad_2]

    University of Connecticut

    Source link

  • Three Techniques, Three Species, Different Ways to Fight Drought

    Three Techniques, Three Species, Different Ways to Fight Drought

    [ad_1]

    The Science

    Rising temperatures and increasing droughts have scientists looking for ways to better predict how plants will react to stress. Every study offers a little more information. Now, scientists have discovered a way to yield a wealth of insights in a single study. Combining three advanced research techniques that are rarely used together, they found they could pinpoint how different types of plants protect themselves from harsh conditions. Even more surprising? Plants try various strategies to assure their survival.

    The Impact

    When used together, the three techniques reveal a surprising amount of information about the chemical processes inside plants. Scientists can also look for patterns across plant communities. The results can help identify when plants require more water or more nutrients to keep growing during times of stress, even in diverse environments. How plants respond to drought can also have profound impacts on the movement of carbon through the environment, which ultimately influences climate. 

    Summary

    Working under the Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) program, scientists examined the effects of drought on chemical processes inside the roots of three tropical rainforest species. The team included researchers from the University of Arizona, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the University of Freiburg. To understand the plant’s chemical functioning, including how it utilized carbon, the team combined cutting-edge metabolomic and imaging technologies at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy (DOE) user facility. They used powerful nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to identify the type and structure of molecules in the plant roots. They then created detailed images of tissues using mass spectrometry (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry) and took nanoscale measurements of elements and iisotopes (nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry).

    This combination of techniques yielded insights into different defense mechanisms plants use to survive drought. One species added woody lignin to thicken its roots. The second secreted antioxidants and fatty acids as a biochemical defense. The third appeared less affected by drought conditions, but the soil around it had a higher level of carbon. This indicates that the plant and the microbes in the soil were working together to protect the plant. Overall, this study demonstrates how multiple techniques can be combined to identify different drought-tolerance strategies and ways to keep plants thriving.

     

    Funding

    A portion of this research was performed under the FICUS exploratory effort and used resources at the DOE Joint Genome Institute and EMSL, both of which are DOE Office of Science user facilities. This research was supported in part by the European Research Council and the DOE Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research program. The Philecology Foundation and the European Research Council also provided financial support.


    Journal Link: Environmental Science & Technology

    [ad_2]

    Department of Energy, Office of Science

    Source link

  • Americans Flocking to Fire: National Migration Study

    Americans Flocking to Fire: National Migration Study

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves—and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, finds one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters.

    The ten-year national study reveals troubling public health patterns, with Americans flocking to regions with the greatest risk of wildfires and significant summer heat. These environmental hazards are already causing significant damage to people and property each year—and projected to worsen with climate change.

    “These findings are concerning, because people are moving into harm’s way—into regions with wildfires and rising temperatures, which are expected to become more extreme due to climate change,” said the University of Vermont (UVM) study lead author Mahalia Clark, noting that the study was inspired by the increasing number of headlines of record-breaking natural disasters.

    Published by the journal Frontiers in Human Dynamics on December 8, the study—titled “Flocking to Fire”—is the largest investigation yet of how natural disasters, climate change and other factors impacted U.S. migration over the last decade (2010-2020). “Our goal was to understand how extreme weather is influencing migration as it becomes more severe with climate change,” Clark said. 

    The top U.S. migration destinations over the last decade were cities and suburbs in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Southwest (in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah), Texas, Florida, and a large swath of the Southeast (from Nashville to Atlanta to Washington, D.C.)—locations that already face significant wildfire risks and relatively warm annual temperatures, the study shows. In contrast, people tended to move away from places in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and along the Mississippi River, including many counties hit hardest by hurricanes or frequent heatwaves, the researchers say. (See maps for migration hotspots.)

    “These findings suggest that, for many Americans, the risks and dangers of living in hurricane zones may be starting to outweigh the benefits of life in those areas,” said UVM co-author Gillian Galford. “That same type of tipping point has yet to happen for wildfires and rising summer heat, our results suggest, probably because they’ve only become problems at the national level more recently.”

    One implication of the study—given how development can exacerbate risks in fire-prone areas—is that city planners may need to consider discouraging new development where fires are most likely or difficult to fight, researchers say. At a minimum, policymakers must consider fire prevention in areas of high risk with large growth in human populations, and work to increase public awareness and preparedness.

    “We hope this study will increase people’s awareness of wildfire risk,” said Clark, noting the study includes several maps highlighting the severity of national hazards across the country. “When you’re looking for a place to live on Zillow or through real-estate agents, most don’t highlight that you’re looking at a fire-prone region, or a place where summer heat is expected to become extreme. You have to do your research,” said Clark, noting the website Redfin recently added risk scores to listings.

    Despite climate change’s underlying role in extreme weather events, the team was surprised by how little the obvious climate impacts of wildfire and heat seemed to impact migration. “If you look where people are going, these are some of the country’s warmest places—which are only expected to get hotter.”

    “Most people still think of wildfires as just a problem in the West, but wildfire now impacts large swaths of the country—the Northwest down to the Southwest, but also parts of the Midwest and the Southeast like Appalachia and Florida,” said Clark, a researcher at UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

    Beyond the aversion to hurricanes and heatwaves, the study identified several other clear preferences—a mix of environmental, social, and economic factors—that also contributed to U.S. migration decisions over the last decade.

    The team’s analysis revealed a set of common qualities shared among the top migration destinations: warmer winters, proximity to water, moderate tree cover, moderate population density, better human development index (HDI) scores—plus wildfire risks. In contrast, for the counties people left, common traits included low employment, higher income inequality, and more summer humidity, heatwaves, and hurricanes.

    Researchers note that Florida remained a top migration destination, despite a history of hurricanes—and increasing wildfire. While nationally, people were less attracted to counties hit by hurricanes, many people—particularly retirees—still moved to Florida, attracted by the warm climate, beaches, and other qualities shared by top migration destinations. Although hurricanes likely factor into people’s choices, the study suggests that, overall, the benefits of Florida’s desirable amenities still outweigh the perceived risks of life there, researchers say.

    “The decision to move is a complicated and personal decision that involves weighing dozens of factors,” said Clark. “Weighing all these factors, we see a general aversion to hurricane risk, but ultimately—as we see in Florida—it’s one factor in a person’s list of pros and cons, which can be outweighed by other preferences.”

    For the study, researchers combined census data with data on natural disasters, weather, temperature, land cover, and demographic and socioeconomic factors. While the study includes data from the first year of the COVID pandemic, the researchers plan to delve deeper into the impacts of remote work, house prices, and the cost of living.

    The study, “Flocking to Fire: How Climate and Natural Hazards Shape Human Migration Across the United States” is the largest investigation yet of how natural disasters and climate change impacted U.S. migration over the last decade.

    As global climate change progresses, the U.S. is expected to experience warmer temperatures, as well as more frequent and severe extreme weather events, including heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires and floods. Each year, these events cost dozens of lives and do billions of dollars worth of damage.

    [ad_2]

    University of Vermont

    Source link

  • Researchers propose new structures to harvest untapped source of freshwater

    Researchers propose new structures to harvest untapped source of freshwater

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — An almost limitless supply of fresh water exists in the form of water vapor above Earth’s oceans, yet remains untapped, researchers said. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the first to suggest an investment in new infrastructure capable of harvesting oceanic water vapor as a solution to limited supplies of fresh water in various locations around the world.

    The study, led by civil and environmental engineering professor and Prairie Research Institute executive director Praveen Kumar, evaluated 14 water-stressed locations across the globe for the feasibility of a hypothetical structure capable of capturing water vapor from above the ocean and condensing it into fresh water – and do so in a manner that will remain feasible in the face of continued climate change.

    Kumar, graduate student Afeefa Rahman and atmospheric sciences professor Francina Dominguez published their findings in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

    “Water scarcity is a global problem and hits close to home here in the U.S. regarding the sinking water levels in the Colorado River basin, which affects the whole Western U.S.,” Kumar said. “However, in subtropical regions, like the Western U.S., nearby oceans are continuously evaporating water because there is enough solar radiation due to the very little cloud coverage throughout the year.”

    Previous wastewater recycling, cloud seeding and desalination techniques have met only limited success, the researchers said. Though deployed in some areas across the globe, desalination plants face sustainability issues because of the brine and heavy metal-laden wastewater produced – so much so that California has recently rejected measures to add new desalination plants.

    “Eventually, we will need to find a way to increase the supply of fresh water as conservation and recycled water from existing sources, albeit essential, will not be sufficient to meet human needs. We think our newly proposed method can do that at large scales,” Kumar said.

    The researchers performed atmospheric and economic analyses of the placement of hypothetical offshore structures 210 meters in width and 100 meters in height.

    Through their analyses, the researchers concluded that capturing moisture over ocean surfaces is feasible for many water-stressed regions worldwide. The estimated water yield of the proposed structures could provide fresh water for large population centers in the subtropics.

    One of the more robust projections of climate change is that dry regions will get drier, and wet areas will get wetter. “The current regions experiencing water scarcity will likely be even drier in the future, exacerbating the problem,” Dominguez said. “And unfortunately, people continue moving to water-limited areas, like the Southwestern U.S.”

    However, this projection of increasingly arid conditions favors the new ocean vapor-harvesting technology.

    “The climate projections show that the oceanic vapor flux will only increase over time, providing even more fresh water supply,” Rahman said. “So, the idea we are proposing will be feasible under climate change. This provides a much needed and effective approach for adaptation to climate change, particularly to vulnerable populations living in arid and semi-arid regions of the world.”

    The researchers said one of the more elegant features of this proposed solution is that it works like the natural water cycle.

     “The difference is that we can guide where the evaporated water from the ocean goes,” Dominguez said. “When Praveen approached me with this idea, we both wondered why nobody had thought about it before because it seemed like such an obvious solution. But it hasn’t been done before, and I think it is because researchers are so focused on land-based solutions – but our study shows other options do, in fact, exist.”  

    The researchers said this study opens the door for novel infrastructure investments that can effectively address the increasing global scarcity of fresh water.

    The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Lovell Professorship in the department of civil and environmental engineering, The University Scholar Program and the National Science Foundation supported this research.

     

    [ad_2]

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Source link

  • Reliable planning tool for the emissions path to achieving the Paris temperature goal

    Reliable planning tool for the emissions path to achieving the Paris temperature goal

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — The central aim of the Paris climate agreement is clear: Limiting man-made global warming to well below 2°C. This limit requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. But what do the intermediate stages look like? How big should the reduction in emissions be within the next five, ten, or fifteen years? And which emissions path is being followed? There is no consensus on these issues between countries, which complicates the active implementation of the Paris Agreement.

    Researchers at the University of Bern have now developed a new method to determine the necessary reduction in emissions on a continuous basis. The main idea: Instead of complex climate models and scenarios, the observed relationship between warming and emissions is applied, and the reduction path is adapted repeatedly according to the latest observations. This new approach has just been published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

    A new calculation method for the emission reduction path

    To date, climate models have been used to calculate possible emissions pathways to the net zero goal. These pathways are based on scenarios including economic and social developments. “These calculations for the emission paths are subject to large uncertainties. This makes the decision-making more difficult and might be one reason why the promised reductions made by the 194 signatory countries to the Paris Agreement remain insufficient,” says lead author Jens Terhaar, explaining the background to the study. Like most of the other authors, Terhaar is a member of the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research at the University of Bern.

    “Since the climate agreement actually aims at regulating temperature, we thought to specify an optimal emissions reduction path for this purpose which is independent of model-based projections,” continues Terhaar. According to this initial idea, a calculation method has emerged which is based exclusively on observation data: on the one hand, global surface temperatures in the past, and on the other hand, CO2 emissions statistics.

    The Paris Agreement calls for a stocktake of the necessary reductions in global emissions every five years. “The new Bern calculation method is ideally suited to support the stocktake mechanism of the Paris Agreement, as it enables the emission reductions to be recalculated regularly on an adaptive basis,” explains co-author Fortunat Joos of the Oeschger Center. For this purpose, a new algorithm has been developed which is known as the AERA (adaptive emissions reduction approach). In simple terms, the algorithm correlates CO2 emissions with rising temperatures, and is adjusted using a control mechanism. In this way, the current uncertainties in the interaction between these variables can be put aside.

    “Our adaptive approach circumvents the uncertainties, so to speak,” explains Fortunat Joos. “In the same way that a thermostat continuously adjusts the heating to the required room temperature, our algorithm adjusts the emission reductions according to the latest temperature and emissions data. This will allow us to approach a temperature goal, such as the 2°C goal, step-by-step and with specific interim goals.”

    Stronger emissions goals and effective implementation

    “The AERA method already confirms that international climate policy must be far more ambitious,” demands Terhaar. According to the Bern study, to achieve the 2°C goal, global CO2 emissions would have to fall by 7 percent between 2020 and 2025. They actually increased by approximately 1 percent in 2021 in comparison with 2020, though. According to the algorithm, limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require as much as a 27 percent reduction by 2025. “We need far stricter emissions goals than those to which nations have committed,” explains Thomas Frölicher, co-author of the study from the Oeschger Center, “and above all else, effective implementation of the goals.”

    The Researchers in Bern hope that the new calculation method will succeed in finding its way into international climate policy. “The AERA algorithm is already attracting a lot of interest in the climate research community, as it can also be applied to climate modelling,” explains Jens Terhaar. Until now, climate models with prescribed greenhouse gas concentrations have been used. This meant that at the end of the 21st century, the warming for a specific greenhouse gas concentration was very uncertain. When using the climate models with the AERA, however, emissions are continuously adjusted according to the calculated temperature and the intended temperature goal. On this basis, the model temperature is eventually stabilised at the intended level and all the models simulate the same warming, but with different emission pathways. “The AERA enables us to study impacts such as heat waves or ocean acidification for different temperature goals – such as 1.5°C versus 2°C versus 3°C – on a consistent basis and with state-of-the-art models,” explains Terhaar.

    Worldwide, 11 research groups have already started to apply the algorithm under the leadership of the University of Bern in order to study such impacts.

    Information about the publication:

    Jens Terhaar, Thomas L. Frölicher, Mathias T. Aschwanden, Pierre Friedlingstein, Fortunat Joos. Adaptive emission reduction approach to reach any global warming target, Nature Climate Change

    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-022-01537-9

    Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research

    The Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research (OCCR) is one of the strategic centers of the University of Bern. It brings together researchers from 14 institutes and four faculties. The OCCR conducts interdisciplinary research at the cutting edge of climate change research. The Oeschger Center was founded in 2007 and bears the name of Hans Oeschger (1927-1998), a pioneer of modern climate research, who worked in Bern.

    Further information: www.oeschger.unibe.ch

    [ad_2]

    University of Bern

    Source link

  • Whole Ecosystem Warming Stimulates Methane Production from Plant Metabolites in Peatlands

    Whole Ecosystem Warming Stimulates Methane Production from Plant Metabolites in Peatlands

    [ad_1]

    The Science

    Newswise — Scientists working at the ongoing Department of Energy’s (DOE) Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment use the site’s northern Minnesota bog as a laboratory. SPRUCE allowed scientists to warm the air and soil by zero to 9 degrees C above ambient temperatures to depths more than 2 m below ground. This warming simulates the effects of climate change on the carbon cycle at the whole ecosystem scale over the long term. The research found that the production of the potent greenhouse gas methane increased at a faster rate than carbon dioxide in response to warming. The results indicate that carbon dioxide release and methane production are stimulated by plants‘ release of metabolites, chemicals that plants create for protection and other functions.

    The Impact

    Soil carbon has accumulated over millennia in peatlands. These results demonstrate that peatlands’ vast, deep carbon stores are vulnerable to microbial decomposition in response to warming. This research suggests that as climate change causes peatland vegetation to have a greater proportion of vascular plants relative to mosses, peatlands will produce more methane and amplify their contribution to climate change.

    Summary

    Northern peatlands store approximately one-third of Earth’s terrestrial soil organic carbon due to their cold, water-saturated, acidic conditions, which slow decomposition. To study these soils, researchers leveraged the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment, where they combined air and peat warming in a whole ecosystem warming treatment. The team included Georgia Institute of Technology, Florida State University, the University of Arizona, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chapman University, the University of Oregon, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

    The scientists hypothesized that warming would enhance the production of plant-derived metabolites, resulting in increased labile organic matter inputs to the surface peat, thereby enhancing microbial activity and greenhouse gas production. In support of this hypothesis, the researchers observed significant correlations between metabolites and temperature consistent with increased availability of labile substrates, which may stimulate more rapid turnover of microbial proteins. An increase in the abundance of methanogenic genes in response to the increase in the abundance of labile substrates was accompanied by a shift towards acetoclastic- and methylotrophic methanogenesis. The results suggest that peatland vegetation trends towards increasing vascular plant cover with warming will be accompanied by a concomitant shift towards increasingly methanogenic conditions and amplified climate-peatland feedbacks.

     

    Funding

    This material is based upon work supported by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research program. A portion of this research was performed using the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Metagenome sequence data were produced by the DOE Joint Genome Institute in collaboration with the user community.


    Journal Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

    [ad_2]

    Department of Energy, Office of Science

    Source link

  • To save nature, focus on populations, not species

    To save nature, focus on populations, not species

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — AMHERST, Mass. – Human-released greenhouse gasses are causing the world to warm, and with that warming comes increasing stress for many of the planet’s plants and animals. That stress is so great that many scientists believe we are currently in the midst of the “sixth extinction,” when entire species are disappearing up to 10,000 times faster than before the industrial era. However, scientists have been uncertain which ecosystems, and which species, are most at risk. New research, recently published in Nature Climate Change, is the first to show that the focus on species-level risk obscures a wide variability in temperature tolerance, even within the same species, and that this variability is greater for marine species than terrestrial ones. The findings have immediate implications for management and conservation practices and offer a window of hope in the effort to adapt to a rapidly warming world.

    “One of the most important biological discoveries in the last century is that evolution can happen much more quickly than previously thought,” says Brian Cheng, professor of marine ecology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the paper’s senior author. “One of the implications of this is that different populations of the exact same species can adapt to their local environments more readily than traditional biology would have thought possible.”

    It turns out that this rapid, localized adaptation may be able to help ensure survival in a warming world.

    By conducting a metanalysis of 90 previously published studies, from which Cheng and his co-authors mined data on 61 species, the team was able to construct a set of “upper thermal limits”—specific temperatures above which each species could not survive. However, by zooming in further and looking at 305 distinct populations drawn from that pool of 61 species, they found that different populations of the same marine species often had widely different thermal limits. This suggests that some populations have evolved different abilities to tolerate high temperatures. The key then, is to keep different populations of the same species connected so that the populations that have adapted to the higher temperatures can pass this advantage on to the populations with the lower thermal limits.

    In other words, imagine a wide-ranging marine species, such as the diminutive Atlantic killifish, which occurs from the warm Florida coast of the United States north to the frigid waters of Newfoundland, Canada. The northern killifish populations may be better able to withstand warming waters if some of their southern kin are able to naturally shift their range to the north.

    “Scale matters,” says Matthew Sasaki, a marine biologist and evolutionary ecologist who completed this research as part of his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Connecticut and is the paper’s lead author. “The patterns you see across species aren’t the same you see within species, and the big-picture story doesn’t necessarily match what is happening on the local level.”

    In yet another twist, the team, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and was composed of biologists specializing in terrestrial as well as marine ecosystems, discovered that this intra-species variability was primarily a feature of animals living in the ocean and intertidal areas. Populations of widespread species that live on land or in freshwater exhibit far more homogeneity in their thermal limits, and thus could be more sensitive to rising temperatures. However, on land, plants and animals can take advantage of microclimates to cool down and avoid extreme temperatures, by moving into shady spots, for example.

    Taken together, the research suggests that a one-size-fits-all-species approach to conservation and management won’t work. Instead, write the authors, we need to understand how populations have adapted to their local conditions if we want to predict their vulnerability to changing conditions. A more effective approach would include ensuring that marine species can find wide swaths of undamaged habitat throughout their entire range, so that different populations of the same species can mix and pass on the adaptations that help them survive warmer waters. And on land, we need to maintain large patches of cool ecosystems—such as old-growth forests—that terrestrial species can use as refuges.

    “The glimmer of hope here,” says Cheng, “is that with conservation policies tailored to individual populations, we can buy them time to adapt to the warming world.”

     

    [ad_2]

    University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Source link

  • As temps rise, low marsh emits more carbon gas than high marsh

    As temps rise, low marsh emits more carbon gas than high marsh

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Salt marshes are a well-known carbon sink and can aid in carbon sequestration efforts. But they are also dynamic ecosystems that change with the seasons and tides.

    New research out of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Ecosystems Center shows how seasonal cycles and the ocean’s ebb and flow affect the amount of carbon stored in New England marshes, using Sage Lot Pond on Cape Cod as a reference marsh.

    “In our recent study, we asked: How does marsh respiration (the conversion of organic carbon to carbon dioxide) vary as a function of temperature, both of air and sediment? This can help us understand how climate change, particularly warming, alters respiration rates in a marsh,” said Joanna Carey, associate professor of environmental science at Babson College. Carey conducted this research while an MBL postdoctoral scientist with Jianwu (Jim) Tang, MBL senior scientist, and Kevin Kroeger, supervisory research chemist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Carey and her collaborators looked at gas exchange from the Sage Lot Pond marsh system over 16 months between 2014 and 2016. They installed static gas chambers in six plots, from high elevation marsh (which is flooded only a few days a month with the tides) to low elevation marsh (which is flooded twice daily with tides). The chambers recorded amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere each second for four minutes straight. The large date range and varied elevations allowed them to capture data representing a spectrum of seasonal temperatures experienced by the marsh.

    Upon reviewing the data, they saw that each degree of warming correlated with an exponential increase in carbon dioxide emission.

    “But what was surprising is that we found higher temperature sensitivity in the low marsh habitat. That means for each degree of warming, there was significantly more carbon dioxide released from the marsh at lower elevation relative to the high-marsh habitat,” Carey said.

    Low marshes store more carbon, which had seemed like a good thing for natural carbon sequestration—especially since sea-level rise is resulting in the conversion of high-marsh to low marsh environments. But this research shows that as the world warms, the sequestration benefit from low marshes may be diminished, since carbon dioxide is released there at a much higher rate with increasing temperatures.

    Sage Lot Pond is a well-quantified marsh, with a number of studies detailing various aspects of carbon movement. The study also showed that this Sage Lot marsh environment loses much more respired carbon to the ocean via ebbing tides than it does directly via vertical fluxes to the air. This is important because, although some of the respired carbon will be returned to the atmosphere as a carbon dioxide flux from the sea, a portion likely remains dissolved in the ocean for extended time, perhaps thousands of years, thereby enhancing the carbon sequestration value of salt marshes.

    Carey and her collaborators hope to continue in this line of work by studying nitrogen loads and emissions using similar techniques. They also want to see how their findings might extend to other marshes. Tracking the fate of carbon and other gases in marshland gives a fuller picture that can inform policies to address climate change and help us understand the fate of these valuable ecosystems. 

    ####

    The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

    [ad_2]

    Marine Biological Laboratory

    Source link

  • Clouds less climate-sensitive than assumed

    Clouds less climate-sensitive than assumed

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — In a major field campaign in 2020, Dr. Raphaela Vogel who is now at Universität Hamburg’s Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) and an international team from the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Paris and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg analyzed observational data they and others collected in fields of cumulus clouds near the Atlantic island of Barbados. Their analysis revealed that these clouds’ contribution to climate warming has to be reassessed.

    “Trade-wind clouds influence the climate system around the globe, but the data demonstrate behavior differently than previously assumed. Consequently, an extreme rise in Earth’s temperatures is less likely than previously thought,” says Vogel, an atmospheric scientist. “Though this aspect is very important for more accurately projecting future climate scenarios, it definitely doesn’t mean we can back off on climate protection.”

    To date, many climate models have simulated a major reduction in trade-wind clouds, which would mean much of their cooling function would be lost and the atmosphere would consequently warm even more. The new observational data shows that this isn’t likely to occur.

    What is certain is that, as global warming progresses, more water on the ocean’s surface evaporates and the moisture near the base of trade-wind clouds increases. In contrast, the air masses in the upper part of the clouds are very dry and only become slightly moister. This produces a substantial difference in moisture above and below. In the atmosphere, this is dispelled when the air masses mix. The previous hypothesis: drier air is transported downward, causing the cloud droplets to evaporate more rapidly and making it more likely that the clouds will dissipate.

    The observational data from Barbados now offers the first robust quantification as to how pronounced the vertical mixing actually is, and how this affects moisture and cloud cover as a whole. As such, it is the first data to shed light on a process that is essential to understanding climate change. In brief: more intensive mixing does not make the lower layers drier or make the clouds dissipate. Rather, the data shows that the cloud cover actually increases with increasing vertical mixing.

    “That’s good news, because it means that trade-wind clouds are far less sensitive to global warming than has long been assumed,” says Vogel. “With our new observations and findings, we can now directly test how realistically climate models portray the occurrence of trade-wind clouds. In this regard, a new generation of high-resolution climate models that can simulate the dynamics of clouds around the globe down to scales of one kilometer are particularly promising. Thanks to them, future projections will be more accurate and reliable.”

     

    The month-long field campaign EUREC4A (2020) was designed by the team members around extended flights with two research aircraft, which were equipped with different instruments and operated at different altitudes, and shipboard measurements from the R/V Meteor — A German research vessel managed by the University of Hamburg. One plane was used to drop hundreds of atmospheric probes from an altitude of nine kilometers. As they fell, the probes gathered atmospheric data on the temperature, moisture, pressure and wind. The other plane surveyed clouds at their base, at an altitude of 800 meters, while the ship performed surface-based measurements. The result: an unprecedented database that will help to understand the unclear role of clouds in the climate system – and to more accurately predict their role in future climate change.

    Whether clouds have a cooling or warming effect depends on how high they are. With a maximum altitude of two to three kilometers, the trade-wind clouds examined here are comparatively low, reflect sunlight, and cool the atmosphere in the process. In contrast, higher clouds amplify the greenhouse effect, warming the climate.

    Publication: Vogel R, Albright AL, Vial J, George G, Stevens B, Bony S (2022): Strong cloud-circulation coupling explains weak trade cumulus feedback; Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05364-y https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05364-y

    Nature Research Briefing: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03640-5

    [ad_2]

    Universitat Hamburg

    Source link

  • Scientists did not release a zombie plague by reviving a dormant virus, but their warning of a potential public health crisis is legitimate

    Scientists did not release a zombie plague by reviving a dormant virus, but their warning of a potential public health crisis is legitimate

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — You may have read the frightening headlines that are trending in the news now, Scientists revive ‘zombie’ virus that was trapped under frozen lake for 50,000 years, Scientists warn about revived ‘zombie virus’ in Russia, Zombie virus is revived after 48,500 years in the permafrost. These headlines may seem like a premise for a science fiction film, but there is some truth to them. The ancient viruses spotlighted in these articles cannot infect humans, but this hasn’t stopped many users on social media (examples here and here) from freaking out. 

    A team of researchers from Aix-Marseille University uncovered ancient viruses from underneath a frozen lake in Siberia. The oldest virus, named Pandoravirus yedoma after the mythological character Pandora, was 48,500 years old, a record age for a frozen virus returning to a state where it has the potential to infect other organisms. The virus infects single-cell organisms known as amoebas, and cannot infect humans or animals. The scientists say the revival was done in a controlled laboratory. And, while dangerous, the viruses could help us prepare for pandemic-level issues as the permafrost thaws. The same researchers discovered a 30,000-year-old virus frozen in permafrost in 2014 and confirmed that it could still infect creatures. Other ancient viruses have been located in mammoth wool and the intestines of a Siberian wolf – all buried beneath the Siberian permafrost.

    The preprint paper, titled, “An update on eukaryotic viruses revived from ancient permafrost” is published on the server bioRxiv. In the study, scientists found that all the “zombie viruses” that have been uncovered have the potential to be infectious, and are therefore a “health threat.”  If these giant viruses are still alive after several millennia, then it stands to reason that other viruses may be as well. The scientists warn, “It is therefore legitimate to ponder the risk of ancient viral particles remaining infectious and getting back into circulation by the thawing of ancient permafrost layers.”

    More research is needed to determine the level of infectiousness of these viruses when exposed to the elements such as the open air or the heat from the sun.

    The concern that climate change could unearth diseases that have been dormant is widespread in the scientific community. Here’s Sandy Dearth, Director, Center for Public Health Practice at Indiana University:

    I think there is legitimate concern about climate change revealing organisms that have been buried/frozen. The frozen anthrax incident the author mentioned in the article is a true event that many of us epidemiologists reference when discussing the potential impact of climate change on public health.

    Dr. Mark Stibich, Epidemiologist and Chief Scientific Officer and founder of Xenex Disinfection Services has this to say…

    Emerging pathogens, whether from species spill-over and antimicrobial resistance or melting permafrost, pose a serious threat to global public health. The COVID-19 pandemic clearly illustrates the need for improved public health investments. Hospital Infection Preventionists and Environmental Services Directors have wanted better weapons in the battle against superbugs for years. Fortunately there are now effective solutions available to battle the pathogens we know about today — and the ones we may face in the future. For example, these pathogens aren’t prepared for the intense UV light that LightStrike disinfection robots produce because UV-C light doesn’t naturally occur on Earth. In other words, these emerging pathogens — even the “zombie viruses” that may emerge from melting permafrost — have never been exposed to the intense UV light generated by our pulsed xenon UV robots and therefore don’t have defenses against it. Because we use physics, not chemistry, to destroy pathogens and disinfect surfaces, our robots are future-proofed against these frightening emerging pathogens.

    [ad_2]

    Newswise

    Source link

  • Media Availability: UNH British Historian to Comment on Royal Visit to Boston

    Media Availability: UNH British Historian to Comment on Royal Visit to Boston

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — DURHAM, N.H.—Prince William and Kate Middleton are both expected to make the trip across the pond for the second annual Earthshot Prize ceremony which will be held in Boston. Nicoletta Gullace, associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, and an expert on the royal family, is available to talk about the significance of the trip and what this means for the monarchy as well as for the city of Boston.

    “While Earthshot and the environment are passion projects for the royals and choosing Boston puts the spotlight on the city’s work around climate change, this will be the first time the Prince and Princess of Wales have traveled to the United States since the passing of Queen Elizabeth and, as William has said, protecting the environment was a cause close to his grandmother’s heart” said Gullace.

    Gullace, who is an expert in 20th century and modern British history, says Earthshot is a decade-long initiative by the royals to find innovative solutions to the Earth’s most pressing issues which include climate change and air pollution. However, there is also chatter about this U.S. trip being a chance to rebuild their popularity since the very public break with Prince Harry and wife Megan Markle. Right now, there is no planned visit between the two brothers. The focus is expected to be on the ceremony. The couple is reportedly excited to come to Boston and see an “inspiring” city.

    “The Earthshot Prize awards will be front and center, but this visit will certainly represent a shift from the old guard to a younger more modern monarchy with new values and attitudes and now that the queen is gone, the world will continue to look for signs of this change,” said Gullace.

    The second Earthshot Prize awards were inspired by President John F Kennedy and his goal of landing on the moon by the end of the 1960s, known as Moonshot. The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. A Carnegie Classification R1 institution, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and received $260 million in competitive external funding in FY21 to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

    ###

    [ad_2]

    University of New Hampshire

    Source link

  • Sea level rise to dramatically speed up erosion of rock coastlines by 2100

    Sea level rise to dramatically speed up erosion of rock coastlines by 2100

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — Rock coasts, which make up over half the world’s coastlines, could retreat more rapidly in the future due to accelerating sea level rise. 

    This is according to new Imperial College London research that modelled likely future cliff retreat rates of two rock coasts in the UK. The forecasts are based on predictions of sea level rise for various greenhouse gas emissions and climate change scenarios.  

    The study found that rock coasts, traditionally thought of as stable compared to sandy coasts and soft cliffs, are likely to retreat at a rate not seen for 3,000-5,000 years.  

    At the UK study sites in Yorkshire and Devon, this will cause rock coast cliffs to retreat by at least 10-22 metres inland. The rate of erosion is likely between three and seven times today’s rate and potentially up to tenfold. 

    Senior author Dr Dylan Rood, of Imperial’s Department of Earth Science said: “Coastal erosion is one of the greatest financial risks to society of any natural hazard. Some rock cliffs are already crumbling, and within the next century, rock coast erosion rates could increase tenfold. Even rock coasts that have been stable in the last hundred years will likely respond to sea level rise by 2030.” 

    Globally, coasts are home to hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure like homes, businesses, nuclear power stations, transport links, and agriculture.  

    The researchers are calling on policymakers, planners, and insurers to take action to classify rock coasts as high-risk areas in future planning for climate change response, as well as to limit climate change through achieving Net Zero as an immediate priority.  

    Dr Rood added: “Rock coast erosion is irreversible: now is the time to limit future sea level rise before it’s too late. Humanity can directly control the fate of our coastlines by reducing greenhouse gas emissions — the future of our coasts is in our hands.” 

    The research is published today in Nature Communications. 

    A rocky road 

    The new study is the first to validate models of the expected erosion of hard rock coasts from sea level rise using observational data over prehistoric timescales. Previous studies have mostly focused on theoretical models of soft, sandy coasts. The new results suggest that as sea levels continue to rise, the rate of rock coastal erosion will also accelerate. 

    To study the future rate of erosion, the researchers looked at past and present cliff retreat rates on the coastlines near Scalby in Yorkshire and Bideford in Devon, finding that by 2100 they will likely retreat by 13-22m and 10-14m, respectively.  

    They collected rock samples and analysed them for rare isotopes called cosmogenic radionuclides (CRNs) that build up in rocks exposed to cosmic rays. Concentrations of CRNs in rock reveal how quickly, and for how long, the rock has been exposed, reflecting the rate of erosion and retreat. 

    They combined these data with observed coastal topography to calibrate a model that tracks the evolution of these rock coasts over time, before comparing them with rates of past sea level change dating back 8000 years. They found that the rate of coastal erosion on these two sites has closely matched the rate of sea level rise.  

    The researchers say this is clear evidence of a causal relationship between cliff retreat and sea level from which future forecasts can be made, and that rock coasts are more sensitive to sea level rise than previously thought. The findings, they say, could be applied to rock coasts worldwide because the rock type is common globally, and similar hard rock coasts are likely to respond in a similar way to sea level rise. 

    Lead author Dr Jennifer Shadrick, who conducted the work in Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering as a member of the NERC Science & Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership, and now works in the marine and coastal risk management team at JBA Consulting, said: “Sea level rise is accelerating, and our results confirm that rock coast retreat will accelerate in line with this. It isn’t a matter of if, but when. 

    “The more positive news is that, now that we have a better idea of magnitudes and timescales, we can adapt accordingly. The more data we have on the effects of climate change on sea level rise and coastal erosion, the more we can prepare by championing urgent policies that protect coasts and their communities.” 

    Sea level rise 

    As the climate warms, sea levels are forecast to rise one metre by 2100 unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. 

    This study is the first to confirm with observational data that the rate of past coastal erosion followed the rate of sea level rise over prehistoric timescales. The researchers say this erosion was driven by waves, which will likely get larger and more forceful as future sea level rises, and more land is given over to the sea. 

    While this study looked at the effects of sea level rise, it did not account for the effects of stronger storms, which some studies forecast will happen more frequently due to climate change. Next, the researchers will adapt their model to also forecast the rate of cliff retreat for softer rock coasts, such as chalk. 

    Dr Rood said: “Our study did not account for the effect of increased storms, which may become stronger and more frequent in the future as the climate changes, on wave-driven cliff erosion. However, increased storms would only speed up the cliff retreat even more than our forecasts. This is another angle to the climate crisis we will account for in future studies to give a more complete picture of likely rates of rock coast erosion. We are also looking to improve our models for softer rock coasts where erosion other than by waves is more important.” 

    Dr Shadrick said: “The findings are a stark warning that we must better adapt to coastal retreat or face the loss of the people, homes, and infrastructure that call coastal areas home.” 

    Study co-author Dr Martin Hurst at the University of Glasgow said: “The implication is that rock coasts are more sensitive to sea level rise than previously thought. We need to pay more attention to how our rock coasts continue to erode as sea levels rise. 

    “Heightened erosion risks at our coasts will continue throughout this century. Even if we achieve Net Zero tomorrow, a substantive amount of sea level rise is already baked in as our climate, glaciers and oceans continue to respond to the emissions that have already taken place.”

    This study was funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), the British Geological Survey (BGS), and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). 

    [ad_2]

    Imperial College London

    Source link

  • Missouri S&T CO2 research is rock solid

    Missouri S&T CO2 research is rock solid

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — As climate change accelerates, scientists are investigating ways to lower carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At Missouri University of Science and Technology, researchers are developing solutions by turning CO2 into rock, including massive rocks for permanent carbon storage, and concrete, the manmade rock that supports modern civilization.

    “CO2 concentration in our atmosphere is now 420 parts per million, the highest in human history,” says Dr. Hongyan Ma, an associate professor of civil engineering at Missouri S&T. “We need ways to not only reduce CO2 emission but also to remove CO2 from the air and utilize or permanently store the removed CO2 at a scale large enough to combat climate change.”

    Ma and a team of researchers in materials science and engineering, chemical engineering, mining, economics, and other disciplines at Missouri S&T are forcing CO2 to react with silicate rocks and industrial wastes generated from power plants, cement plants, concrete recycling facilities, and steel mills to form carbonate minerals. Such reactions happen in nature over millions of years to create natural limestone and dolomite formations that stores trillions of tons of carbon, but they are too slow to address the climate change challenge.

    Ma and his team use innovative technologies to speed up the process. Their manmade rocks are intended for gigaton-scale permanent carbon storage or production of carbon-negative cement materials for making concrete. Traditional cement production emits a metric ton of CO2 for every metric ton of cement produced, and Ma says the innovations will potentially reduce over 2 billion metric tons of CO2 every year.

    Ma’s CO2 conversion and utilization work has garnered more than $2 million in grants for Missouri S&T from the National Science Foundation and other organizations such as the Environmental Research & Education Foundation and the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. These research projects focus on processing various solid wastes using captured CO2 or CO2-rich flue gases to make carbon-negative cement materials and manmade rock for permanent carbon storage.  Ma is seeking follow-up grant funding and investment to scale up these innovations and accelerate commercialization.

    [ad_2]

    Missouri University of Science and Technology

    Source link