Futurity.org » Earth & Environment

Eco groups need to hit size ‘sweet spot’

Sue Nichols-Michigan State — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:44:49 +0000

MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Sustainability programs are a Goldilocks proposition—the environment benefits when the size of a group of people working to save it is just right, say researchers.

Scientists have found that there is a sweet spot—a group size at which the action is most effective. More importantly, the work reveals how behaviors of group members can pull bad policy up or drag good policy down. The work is published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This paper finds that group size does matter—and the answer is right in the middle,” says Jianguo “Jack” Liu, chair of sustainability at Michigan State University and director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS).

‘Heat dome’ melted Greenland ice sheet in 2012

Amy Stone-Sheffield — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:45:32 +0000

U. SHEFFIELD (UK) — Unusual changes in the jet stream caused the exceptional surface melt of the Greenland ice sheet in 2012, but it’s too early to tell if it was a rare event or a sign of significant change.

Researchers used a computer model simulation, SnowModel, and satellite data to confirm a record surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) for at least the last 50 years—when by July 2012, more than 90 percent of the ice-sheet surface melted. This far exceeded the previous surface melt extent record of 52 percent in 2010.

The team also analyzed weather station data from on top of and around the GrIS, largely collected by the Danish Meteorological Institute but also by US programs, which showed that several new high Greenland temperature records were set in summer 2012.

Speedy evolution may help sea urchins survive

Sonia Fernandez-UCSB — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:51:03 +0000

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Rapid adaptation could be sea urchins’ primary weapon against acidification and climate change as the carbon content of the ocean increases.

“What we want to know is, given that this is a process that happens over time, can marine animals adapt? Could evolution come to the rescue?” says postdoctoral researcher Morgan Kelly, from the department of ecology, evolution, and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Oceans need time to adapt to fast nitrogen cycle

Katherine Gombay-McGill — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:55:40 +0000

MCGILL (CAN) — Scientists have completed the first global study of changes that occurred in a crucial component of ocean chemistry, the nitrogen cycle, at the end of the last ice age.

The findings, reported in Nature Geoscience, show that the ocean the Titanic sailed through just over 100 years ago was very different from the one we swim in today.

River dredging may lower fish diversity

Jeff Mulhollem-Penn State — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:57:39 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — The diversity of fish populations and other aquatic life can dwindle in river ecosystems disrupted by dredging, a recent study suggests.

“Understanding and untangling the complex effects of human activities on aquatic ecosystems present a challenge to ecologists and resource managers,” says lead investigator Jonathan Freedman. “While the physical impacts of dredging have been relatively well studied, less is known about the ecological impacts, particularly on large-river fish populations.”

Freedman, currently a researcher at the Illinois Natural History Survey who received his doctorate in wildlife and fisheries science Penn State, focused on small, bottom-dwelling fishes such as darters because they have limited movements and specific habitat requirements, making them more susceptible to the effects of dredging.

Tropical ‘bridge species’ drive biodiversity

Steve Koppes-Chicago — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:42:31 +0000

U. CHICAGO (US) — By examining marine bivalves—scallops, cockles, and oysters—a new study shows that most evolutionary lineages started in the tropics and expanded outward.

Although scientists have known since the middle of the 19th century that the tropics are teeming with species while the poles harbor relatively few, the origin of the most dramatic and pervasive biodiversity on Earth has never been clear. New research sheds light on how that pattern came about and that the tropics have been and continue to be the Earth’s engine of biodiversity.

How dead orcas can keep others alive

Kat Kerlin-UC Davis — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:45:44 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — A standardized killer-whale necropsy system, developed in 2004, has boosted the collection of complete data from stranded orcas from 2 percent to about 33 percent.

“Because killer whales are apex predators and flagship conservation species, strandings are sad events,” says Joe Gaydos, director of the SeaDoc Society—a program of the Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. “But this study confirms that if we make every effort to understand why the strandings occurred, we will ultimately improve the fate of the species.”

Tropical stalagmites are a climate time capsule

John Toon-Georgia Tech — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:32:41 +0000

GEORGIA TECH / CALTECH (US) — Cave stalagmites collected from Borneo show that the western tropical Pacific responded very differently to abrupt climate change events.

The findings may help scientists assess models designed to predict how the Earth’s climate will respond in the future.

Will thirsty corn limit US ethanol goals?

Mike Williams-Rice — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:44:40 +0000

RICE (US) — If the climate continues to evolve as predicted, the United States stands little to no chance of satisfying its current biofuel goals, new research predicts.

Published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, the study says that in 40 years, a hotter planet would cut the yield of corn grown for ethanol in the US by an average of 7 percent and at the same time would increase the amount of irrigation necessary by 9 percent.

California’s native fish face extinction

Kat Kerlin-UC Davis — Fri, 31 May 2013 13:57:28 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — Salmon and other native freshwater fish in California will likely go extinct within the next century due to climate change if current trends continue.

The study, published online in May in the journal PLOS ONE, assessed how vulnerable each freshwater species in California is to climate change and estimated the likelihood that those species would become extinct in 100 years.