Norway helps endangered eel wriggle from fish nets

Photo: Andrew Brigmond

Norwegian fisheries regulators have banned all fishing of the critically endangered European eel starting in 2010 and cut 2009 catch quotas by 80 per cent.

The Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries has also announced that all recreational fishing of European eels would stop on July 1, as stock of the eels hit historically low levels and continue to decline. The decision represents a major conservation decision that is a model for proper fisheries management, according to WWF-Norway.

“The minister of fisheries is making an important, and the only right choice, and is showing international leadership in fisheries management,” said Rasmus Hansson, WWF-Norway CEO. “Norway’s fisheries minister, Helga Pedersen, has used every occasion to point out that Norway is the best in the world on fisheries management, and by making bold moves like this they have probably earned the title.”

The European eel is listed as critically endangered in Norway and on the IUCN Redlist. Stocks are at historically low levels with spawning levels at between one and five per cent from their 1970 level, with only the Atlantic area seeing higher levels. In the Baltic Sea, including Kattegat and Skagerrak, indices show a sharp decline in young yellow eel stocks since 1950.

As early as 1999, the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) stated that the eel stock was outside safe biological limits, and that the fishery was unsustainable. Yet, fishing has been ongoing for decades, despite scientific advice.

“A total fishing ban is the strongest measure the fisheries management can use, and when a species is critically endangered one must use the strongest and most efficient measures. This protection should have been implemented many years ago, and we are hoping that the long-overdue protection is not too late,” Hansson said.

A successful rebuilding strategy for the eel, both in Norway and the EU, will have a substantial impact on eel numbers in Norwegian waters. Consequently, Norway has a great responsibility in influencing both the management and the research that is being undertaken in Europe, where fishing for eel continues, despite the very severe and depleted state of the stock.

“WWF urges Ms Pedersen to fight for the EU taking similar bold measures in their fisheries management, and WWF will fight to stop the eel fishery in the EU,” Hansson said.

EPA approves California greenhouse gas rules

Four days after the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a legislation aimed at curbing climate change, the US Environmental Protection Agency has granted California’s request to apply its own tough emission standards for motor vehicles. The approval is to boost fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases linked to climate change.

When California requested the Clean Air Act waiver from the EPA in 2005 it was denied by the Bush administration. The Tuesday's approval is a reversal of the 2005 decision. While acknowledging California's need for a tight emissions programme, the EPA said this decision marked a return to the "traditional legal interpretation of the Clean Air Act."

Now the California state can start implementing a 2004 law that requires automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of cars by 40 per cent.

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said, "After review of the scientific findings, and another comprehensive round of public engagement, I have decided this is the appropriate course under the law."

US joins International Renewable Energy Agency

The US has joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) as part of the government's commitment to developing a new energy policy.

The move is as part of an initiative to develop clean, renewable energy, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The IRENA "will engage governments around the world in promoting a rapid transition towards the widespread and sustaibale use of renewable energy on a global scale," Clinton said.

Clinton said renewable sources of energy will be the growth industry of the 21st century and will help safeguard the health of the planet.

IRENA was established in January to promote development of the renewable energy industry worldwide.

So far, 135 nations have joined the IRENA which will be headquartered in the UAE.

Clinton's statement came after US Ambassador Reno Harnish, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science, signed the statute at the second session of the IRENA Preparatory Commission in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

UN welcomes new UK climate change financing scheme

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the new initiative announced by the UK government on financing for climate change, ahead of this December’s meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, where countries are expected to wrap up negotiations on an ambitious new pact to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

According to media reports, UK prime minister Gordon Brown unveiled the “Roadmap to Copenhagen” proposal for USD100 billion to be raised annually to finance mitigation and adaptation measures, especially in the world’s poorest nations.

“This initiative comes at a critical time, and is precisely the kind of leadership developed countries must demonstrate” if talks on a new climate change framework, seeking to replace the Kyoto Protocol whose first commitment period ends in 2012, are to succeed, Michele Montas, Ban’s spokesperson, said.

“Without a serious commitment on financing from developed countries, a deal in Copenhagen is unlikely,” she added.

The UK proposal’s focus on adaptation, says the Secretary-General, is especially crucial since the poorest and most vulnerable developing countries are suffering most acutely from climate change.

“He also welcomes the reaffirmation of the principle that additional public funding, beyond existing pledges for development assistance, is necessary to finance adaptation,” Montas noted.

Ban also voiced hope that the UK scheme will spur discussion and financing commitments from other member states.

Last week, he invited heads of governments to attend an “unprecedented” global summit at UN Headquarters to propel action towards “sealing the deal” on a new global warming accord in Copenhagen.

“Climate change is the greatest challenge facing this and future generations,” he said at a press conference in New York. “Emissions are rising and the clock is ticking.”

The high-level meeting will be held on September 22, just over two months before the start of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in the Danish capital.

Governments seek to avoid radioactive catastrophe in Central Asia

High-Level International Forum reaches unanimous agreement on joint declaration to consolidate efforts to resolve problems of radioactive and toxic waste in the region

More than 100 high-level Central Asian country delegates and representatives from international organisations, donors, diplomatic corps and other stakeholders met in Geneva the other day to develop concrete measures to address the challenge of radioactive waste in Central Asia.

The UNDP Geneva conference was organised in a bid to identify viable solutions and to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

Uranium tailing deposits left over from mining during the cold war in Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan contain more than 800 million tons of radioactive and toxic waste. Much of this waste sits in precarious ponds held back by unstable dams and alongside international rivers and watersheds. Overstrained budgets and lack of capacity have prevented these countries from dealing adequately with the problem.

UNDP administrator Helen Clark said the legacy of nuclear waste and related environmental management issues has a direct impact on human development in the region.

“As most of the uranium tailing sites are located in densely populated and natural disaster-prone areas of Central Asia’s largest river basins, they represent a major potential risk to the region’s water supply and the health of millions of people,” said Clark in a statement to the participants of the forum. “Many more are likely to suffer if uranium contamination moves downstream to other areas.”

Igor Chudinov, prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, said his country adheres to the principles of nuclear non-proliferation. “The potential harm from uranium tailings in our countries is a serious and dangerous threat that needs urgent attention. We need to develop security for our people and support their human development.”

UNDP resident representative and UN coordinator Neal Walker said these tailings are not only highly toxic and dangerous to human health, but they are also extremely vulnerable to, for examples, earthquakes, which are inevitable and only a matter of time.

"The dumps were not very well designed to begin with, and have been degrading over time. By leaving them in their current state, we are playing Russian roulette with millions of human lives. The governments of Central Asia have come at a high level to affirm their commitment to a results-approach to resolving the problem together,” said Walker.

Miroslav Jenca, special representative of the UN Secretary General to Central Asia, said although the forum was not a pledging conference, it yielded several important results, including the creation of political and technical consensus among both Central Asian governments and with major donors.

“Several international organisations and donors expressed support for the initiative, including UNDP, OSCE, the European Commission, EurAsEC, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the governments of Canada, Finland, Norway, Russia and others. We now have real momentum towards a multilateral approach to dealing with the problem,” said Jenca

Walker said there were three definitive outcomes to the forum:

*Strengthening regulatory frameworks and national capacity to address the problem.

*Community development including both containment of toxic waste and community economic, ecological and social development.

*A call for public-private partnerships to bring in investments and to explore opportunities to further exploit the tailings for economic gain.

“With the publicity around the event, we have generated important public awareness of the problem and broad political support for the implementation of solutions,” said Walker.

Australian prawn fishers praised

Photo: Austral FisheriesAustralia’s wild-caught prawns come from the best managed marine fisheries in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

In its report, A global study of shrimp fisheries, the FAO praises Australia’s Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) as a global model of fair, flexible and accountable management.

The USD64 million NPF harvests banana prawns and tiger prawns from a fishing ground that extends from Weipa in far north Queensland to Cape Londonderry in northern Western Australia.

Senior CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientist, Dr Cathy Dichmont, says the NPF is among the first major fisheries in the world to fully embrace both economic efficiency and environmental sustainability in an operational management system.

“This has been achieved by using a bioeconomic model developed by CSIRO, the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and the Australian National University to set harvest levels that maintain productive prawn stocks while maximising fishery returns,” Dr Dichmont says.

Research on the model was funded by CSIRO and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, and supported by the NPF and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA).

The CEO of NPF vessel operator Austral Fisheries, David Carter, says continuing collaboration between the industry, scientists and fishery managers should ensure the NPF’s future success.

“Extensive research in the NPF has helped us address market downturns, over-fishing of tiger prawn stocks, and the environmental impacts of fishing,” Carter says.
“Annual surveys designed by CSIRO monitor prawn stocks and bycatch (non-target species), and science-based management strategies underpin a profitable and sustainable way of fishing.”

The NPF formed the company NPF Industry Pty Ltd in 2008 and is trialling a pioneering co-management approach that, if successful, will provide shared responsibilities between industry and AFMA in the delivery of key fishery management functions.

Carter says the company structure will also provide benefits in areas including cooperative purchasing, standardised trade descriptions and product promotion such as the launch last year of the “Go Wild Go Bananas” campaign.

Invasive ladybird threatens over 1000 native species in Britain

Scientists at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition in London have warned that the invasive harlequin ladybird is likely to threaten more than 1000 of Britain's native species. The harlequin has spread from Essex to Orkney in only four years and is now one of the fastest spreading non-native species in Europe, as well as the most invasive ladybird on Earth.

Dr Helen Roy of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is leading the project to monitor the harlequin's spread and impact on native species. She said the negative impact on Britain could be far-reaching and disruptive, with the potential to affect over 1000 of our native species. "In the US, where the harlequin arrived over 20 years ago, it has been associated with severe declines in native species," she said.

After concerns in the 1990s that the harlequin would soon arrive in Britain, its appearance here was confirmed in 2004. Researchers' first step has been to understand its subsequent rapid spread. The public has played a key role in monitoring the invasion through the Harlequin Ladybird Survey website, launched in 2005 and has since received more than 30,000 online records.

"Invasive alien species are one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity," says co-investigator Dr Remy Ware, from the University of Cambridge. "Using data from the Harlequin and UK Ladybird Surveys, we have a unique opportunity to study the early establishment, spread and adaptation of an invasive species."

The research team are now exploring how the few native enemies of the harlequin that do exist could be used to control the invasion. One idea is to use a sexually transmitted mite, which makes some ladybirds infertile. If the transmission of the mites could be encouraged, the harlequin population could become greatly reduced.
Other possible control options involve fungal disease, male-killing bacteria, a parasitic wasp and parasitic flies.

EPA releases 44 higher risk coal ash sites

The Environmental Protection Agency in the US has released 44 coal-fired power plant waste sites because of the high risk they pose to humans. North Carolina has the highest sites, 12, followed by nine in Arizona and seven in Kentucky and a large storage pond in Pennsylvania.

The Agency has listed more than 400 such impoundments across the country, but the 44 are the ones which are near thickly populated areas, posing a higher danger. The EPA was relectunt to release the information, saying it would share them only with members of Congress.

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the presence of "liquid coal ash impoundments near our homes, schools and business could pose a serious risk to life and property in the event of an impoundment rupture. By compiling a list of these facilities, EPA will be better able to identify and reduce potential risks by working with states and local emergency responders."

It may be recalled that in 2008 December, a coal ash pond broke near Kingston, sending five million cubic yards of ash and sludge across more than 300 acres. Though no one was killed, the spill destroyed or damaged 40 homes.

Following this, the Agency conducted an investigation. It also required electric utilities that store coal ash in surface impoundments to respond to mandatory questionnaires about their sites.

The EPA is working on new regulations for coal ash waste that are expected by the end of the year.

The Agency said the next step was to review the information about the coal-ash sites and call for the necessary cleanup.

Declining coastal seagrass threatens coastal ecosystems

Photo: Patrick ZangerléGlobally, we lose a seagrass meadow the size of a soccer field every thirty minutes

An international team of scientists warns that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems. The team has compiled and analysed the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass observations and found that 58 per cent of world's seagrass meadows are currently declining.

The assessment was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study shows an acceleration of annual seagrass loss from less than one per cent per year before 1940 to seven per cent per year since 1990. Based on more than 215 studies and 1,800 observations dating back to 1879, the assessment shows that seagrasses are disappearing at rates similar to coral reefs and tropical rainforests.

The team estimates that seagrasses have been disappearing at the rate of 110 square-kilometers (42.4 square-miles) per year since 1980 and cites two primary causes for the decline: direct impacts from coastal development and dredging activities, and indirect impacts of declining water quality.

"A recurring case of 'coastal syndrome' is causing the loss of seagrasses worldwide," said co-author Dr. William Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "The combination of growing urban centers, artificially hardened shorelines and declining natural resources has pushed coastal ecosystems out of balance. Globally, we lose a seagrass meadow the size of a soccer field every thirty minutes."

"While the loss of seagrasses in coastal ecosystems is daunting, the rate of this loss is even more so," said co-author Dr. Robert Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary.

"With the loss of each meadow, we also lose the ecosystem services they provide to the fish and shellfish relying on these areas for nursery habitat. The consequences of continuing losses also extend far beyond the areas where seagrasses grow, as they export energy in the form of biomass and animals to other ecosystems including marshes and coral reefs," he said.

"With 45 per cent of the world's population living on the 5 per cent of land adjacent to the coast, pressures on remaining coastal seagrass meadows are extremely intense," said co-author Dr. Tim Carruthers of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "As more and more people move to coastal areas, conditions only get tougher for remaining seagrass meadows."

Seagrasses profoundly influence the physical, chemical and biological environments of coastal waters. A unique group of submerged flowering plants, seagrasses provide critical habitat for aquatic life, alter water flow and can help mitigate the impact of nutrient and sediment pollution.

Water should be a human right

Privatisation of water, as witnessed in countries like Bolivia, has not effectively served the poor

Access to clean water should be recognised as a human right, notwithstanding recent international objections, aruges an editorial in PLoS Medicine.

At the March 2009 United Nations meetings, coinciding with the World Water Forum, Canada, Russia, and the US refused to support a declaration that would recognise water as a basic human right. But this flies in the face of considerable evidence that access to water, which is essential for health, is under threat, argue the editorial.

According to the WHO, 1.2 billion people worldwide don't have access to clean drinking water, and a further 2.6 billion lack adequate sanitation services, and these numbers are expected to rise. The UN has estimated that 2.8 billion people in 48 countries will be living in conditions of water stress or scarcity by 2025.

Three reasons are outlined for why access to clean water should be declared a basic human right. Firstly, access to clean water can substantially reduce the global burden disease caused by water-borne infections. Millions of people are affected each year by a range of water-borne diseases including diarrhea, which is responsible for 1.8 million potentially preventable deaths per year, mostly among children below age five.

Secondly, the privatisation of water, as witnessed in Bolivia, Ghana and other countries, has not effectively served the poor, who suffer the most from lack of access to clean water. As Maude Barlow, senior advisor on water issues to the president of the General Assembly of the UN, has argued, "high water rates, cut-offs to the poor, reduced services, broken promises and pollution have been the legacy of
privatisation."

Thirdly, the prospect of global water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, industrial pollution, and population growth, means that no country is immune to a water crisis. The US is facing the greatest water shortages of its history, and in Australia severe drought has caused dangerous water shortages in the Murray-Darling river basin, which provides the bulk of its food supply.

A human rights framework, argue the editorial, offers what the water situation needs: international recognition from which concerted action and targeted funding could flow; guaranteed standards against which the protected legal right to water could be monitored; and accountability mechanisms that could empower communities to advocate and lobby their governments to ensure that water is safe, affordable, and accessible to everyone.

Water webs: Connecting spiders, residents in the Southwest

If you are a cricket and it is a dry season on the San Pedro River in Arizona, on your nighttime ramblings to eat leaves, you are more likely to be ambushed by thirsty wolf spiders, suggests a June 19 study, published in the journal Ecology, and featured as an editor's choice in the journal Science.

A potential horror story for any cricket. However, it is also a tale of water limitation that looks beyond how most ecosystem studies are considered. Much current work about the relationships between predators and prey is based on nutrients or energy limitation, via a food web.

The research, performed by graduate student Kevin McCluney and associate professor John Sabo in School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, demonstrates that under restricted water conditions, crickets consume more moist green leaves and wolf spiders more crickets. This distinct increase is driven by water limitation and the connectivity between organisms based on water; a water web.

With water the key ingredient to life, especially in the desert, why the focus on crickets and spiders and water webs? Studies on insects and riparian ecosystems such as these lend specific insights into how arid and semi-arid environments and their flora and fauna may be specifically affected by global climate change.

The authors note: "Water seems to be the ecological currency governing consumption behavior at multiple trophic levels, which indicates a role for water in understanding effects of global change on animal communities."

This article coincides with the June 18 release of the national report "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States," funded by the National Science and Technology Council and authored by members of the U.S. Global Change Research Programme, including ASU professor Nancy Grimm. The report contains a special section on the Southwest. Major changes in soil moisture and precipitation are expected as a result of climate change. McCluney and Sabo's study highlights one way ecological communities may be affected.

"Kevin's experiments suggest that by understanding water webs, we can find clues about how biodiversity may change as our region experiences drier climates under climate change," adds Sabo.

In that way, this study of crickets and spiders offers a looking glass into a future that extends much farther than the banks of one of the last undammed perennial rivers in the Southwest and the vibrant riparian community it supports.

"Drylands constitute more than one third of the land mass on Earth," McCluney notes. "While further testing is needed, our study may have implications for other ecosystems in light of recent reports of droughts and rivers drying up globally."

In addition to examining the water ties that bind inhabitants of terrestrial systems, Sabo and his students also examine aquatic ecosystems and the effects of human activity and water policy in the Southwest. In 2008, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Sabo launched a series of workshops to examine the impacts of dams on waterways in the US held at the National Center for Ecological Synthesis and Analysis at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Participants are working to define the ecological footprint that dams have had on water quantity and quality, the number of native and non-native species in rivers, the salinity of soils in some of the most productive agricultural areas, and the demand for irrigated water by the 100 largest cities in the US. Along with studies by his ASU colleagues in the Global Institute of Sustainability and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, such as Juliet Stromberg, author of "The Ecology and Conservation of the San Pedro," Sabo seeks to illuminate the complexity of relationships behind developing sustainable management of water resources for both human and biodiversity needs.

Desert dust alters ecology of Colorado alpine meadows

Accelerated snowmelt, prompted by dust, changes how plants respond to seasonal climate cues

Accelerated snowmelt, precipitated by desert dust blowing into the mountains, changes how alpine plants respond to seasonal climate cues that regulate their life cycles, says a study reported this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

These results indicate that global warming may have a greater influence on plants' annual growth cycles than previously thought. Current mountain dust levels are five times greater than they were before the mid-19th century, due in large part to increased human activity in deserts.

"Human use of desert landscapes is linked to the life cycles of mountain plants, and changes the environmental cues that determine when alpine meadows will be in bloom, possibly increasing plants' sensitivity to global warming," said Jay Fein, programme director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funded the research in part.

This year, 12 dust storms have painted the mountain snowpack red and advanced the retreat of snow cover, likely by more than a month across Colorado.

"Desert dust is synchronising plant growth and flowering across the alpine zone," said Heidi Steltzer, a Colorado State University scientist who led the study. "Synchronised growth was unexpected, and may have adverse effects on plants, water quality and wildlife."

"It's striking how different the landscape looks as a result of this desert-and-mountain interaction," said Chris Landry, director of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies (CSAS) in Silverton, Colo., who, along with Tom Painter, director of the Snow Optics Laboratory at the University of Utah, contributed to the study.

"Visitors to the mountains arriving in late June will see little remaining snow even though snow cover was extensive and deep in April. The snow that remains will be barely distinguishable from the surrounding soils," said Landry.

"Earlier snowmelt by desert dust," said Painter, "depletes the natural water reservoirs of mountain snowpacks and in turn affects the delivery of water to urban and agricultural areas."

With climate change, warming and drying of the desert southwest are likely to result in even greater dust accumulation in the mountains.

In an alpine basin in the San Juan Mountains, the researchers simulated dust effects on snowmelt in experimental plots. They measured dust's acceleration of snowmelt on the life cycles of alpine plants.

The timing of snowmelt signals to mountain plants that it's time to start growing and flowering. When dust causes early snowmelt, plant growth does not necessarily begin soon after the snow is gone.

Instead, plants delay their life cycle until air temperatures have warmed consistently above freezing.

"Climate warming could therefore have a great effect on the timing of growth and flowering," said Steltzer.

Competition for water and nutrient resources among plants should increase, leading to the loss of less competitive species. Delayed plant growth could increase nutrient losses, decreasing water quality.

Similarity in flowering times and plant growth will result in abundant resources for wildlife for a short time rather than staggered resources over the whole summer, Steltzer believes.

"With increasing dust deposition from drying and warming in the deserts," she said, "the composition of alpine meadows could change as some species increase in abundance, while others are lost, possibly forever."

World's largest aerosol sensing network has leafy origins

On the roof of a building at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., AERONET manager Brent Holben explains how sun-sky photometers work. Photo: NASA

Twenty years ago, Brent Holben was part of a NASA team studying vegetation from space. In an unlikely career twist, his research morphed into the study of a critical, if overlooked, subplot in the story of climate change.

From his office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Holben helps manage the world's largest network of ground-based sensors for aerosols, tiny specks of solids and liquids that waft about in the atmosphere. These particles come from both human and natural sources and can be observed everywhere in the world.

Scientists know that some of them play an outsized role in Earth's climate. And much of that knowledge has come from the Aerosol Robotic Network, or AERONET, the collaborative, international sensor network which Holben leads.

"Aerosols play a key role in climate, and pretty much everybody who studies aerosols uses data from AERONET," said William Lau, director of the Atmospheric Sciences Division at Goddard. "Without AERONET, our understanding of the climate system simply wouldn't be where it is today."

Trouble seeing the forest and the trees

The origins of AERONET date to the late 1980s, when Goddard researchers were attempting, and struggling, to study vegetation using satellites.

"The atmosphere kept getting in the way," Holben said. Satellites couldn't properly sense the vegetation through all the dust, minerals, soot, salt, and other atmospheric aerosols obscuring the view. The problem prompted Holben to put his vegetation research aside "temporarily" to tackle aerosols.

In 1992, he planned a field campaign to the Amazon, where farmers were burning swaths of rainforest to clear the land. The heavy emissions from the fires made it an ideal environment to study aerosol particles. During that project, Holben began to develop a method for studying aerosols that became a template for future campaigns.

He used lamp-sized instruments called sun-sky photometers to measure the intensity of light filtering through a given column of atmosphere. Aerosol particles scatter or absorb portions of the incoming light, allowing scientists to deduce their size, shape, and chemical composition. Often the instruments are installed on the roofs of universities, but solar-powered versions of the devices can also be deployed in remote corners of the world, far off the grid.

Intriguing results began to emerge from the Amazon campaign as well as others in Africa, Canada, and Hawaii. Though aerosols generally reside in the atmosphere for just a few weeks, the data from the Amazon showed that heavy fires could increase pollution levels dramatically for as long as two months after the burning season ended.

A time to plant, a time to reap

The timing of Holben's foray into aerosol research turned out to be impeccable. Around the time he was deploying photometers in the Amazon, the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines flooded the atmosphere with sulfate aerosols.

The burst blocked some solar radiation from reaching Earth's surface and caused global temperatures to drop by 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) for a few years. The eruption underscored the profound impact sulfate aerosols could have on climate. It also reminded researchers how poorly they understood many other types of aerosols.

Deploying more photometers was a logical and relatively low-cost way to start filling the gaps in knowledge. Holben and colleagues slowly set up an array of sensors in the US, while forging collaborations for similar networks in France, Brazil, Spain, Canada, and Japan. Soon, Holben and his collaborators realised that they had created a global network.

In 1998, he described the network's potential in an article in Remote Sensing of Environment, laying out methods of calibrating the sensors and guidelines for collecting and interpreting data. With that paper, AERONET was officially born.

Today AERONET consists of approximately 400 sites in 50 countries on all seven continents. There are AERONET stations on remote sand dunes in Mali, on the ice sheet at South Pole, and on the tiny island nation of Nauru in the South Pacific.

An ever-wider net

By providing accurate measurements from the ground, AERONET has emerged as the best tool to validate the accuracy of new satellite instruments. For example, scientists have relied upon AERONET to reconcile differences between aerosol measurements from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), two instruments on NASA's Terra satellite.

"Without AERONET, we'd have no baseline for comparison," said Michael Mishchenko, a remote sensing expert at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and project scientist for NASA's upcoming Glory mission. Glory will rely on AERONET to validate the Aerosol Polarimetery Sensor, an innovative instrument that will distinguish between different types of aerosols from space. Though developed nations are dense with AERONET stations, coverage in many developing areas remains sparse.
That's a problem because aerosols don't recognise borders and they aren't limited to land masses.

Gaps in coverage can lead to gaps in understanding, said Venkatachalam Ramaswamy, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and a professor of geosciences at Princeton University, N.J.

Compared to other factors that affect climate, such as the output of the Sun or greenhouse gases, aerosols are considered the least-well understood. So Holben and colleagues are working to expand AERONET and continue filling in the gaps. Zhanqing Li, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md. is leading an international field campaign in China, where aerosol loading is exceptionally high. The scientists are deploying AERONET photometers and other instruments that gather information about the impact of aerosols on the region's climate, especially on the dynamics of the Asian monsoon.

In India, AERONET-affiliated researchers are deploying sensors along the flight track of NASA's CALIPSO satellite, which uses light detection and ranging (LIDAR) to measure aerosols. AERONET's open-source approach to data collection and analysis has also aided its expansion. All data is relayed through weather satellites to a centralised database at Goddard, where it quickly becomes available on the Internet.

"It's always been important to me that AERONET data be freely available," Holben said. "The taxpayers fund this project, and they deserve to know what we're finding."

"Scientists are typically protective of their data, so Holben's insistence on data sharing was a bit avant-garde," said Joel Schafer, a Goddard AERONET scientist. The strategy has paid off. The 1998 study Holben used to introduce AERONET recently passed an impressive academic milestone: it has been cited more than 1,000 times, making it one of the most referenced papers in contemporary earth science. With that accomplishment under his belt, perhaps Holben will have the time to turn back to that old vegetation research.

Hand-held aerosol sensors help fill crucial data gap over oceans

Since NASA researchers began assembling the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) in the 1990s, the worldwide network of ground-based aerosol sensors has grown to 400 sites across seven continents.

The trouble is that two-thirds of the planet is covered by ocean. And aerosols, the tiny atmospheric particles that can have an outsized impact on the climate, are just as likely to be found in the air above the oceans as they are over land.

Yet aerosols are scarcely measured over the oceans. Alexander Smirnov, an AERONET project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., hopes to change that. Smirnov is leading a new effort called the Maritime Aerosol Network (MAN), which will send researchers with portable photometers on oceanographic research cruises. The hand-held devices can detect the presence of aerosols in air by measuring how light scatters as it strikes the particles.

Taking the measurements is relatively easy: Several times a day, a researcher stands on a ship's deck when the sun is fully visible, points the instrument at the sun, and pushes a button. The photometer performs a series of scans within a few seconds.
Finding "ships of opportunity" and volunteer scientists willing to take the measurements is not so easy. And transporting the photometers between the ships and Goddard for calibration can be a lengthy process.

Even so, Smirnov has arranged to have the have handheld photometers carried aboard more than 50 vessels, both commercial and research, from 12 countries since November 2006. Initial results show that data from the portable photometers correspond well with permanent AERONET stations on select islands.

The initial efforts have produced a tantalising observation. "Aerosol concentrations over the oceans at the high latitudes are not as high as satellite measurements suggest they should be," said Smirnov. This could be a fluke, given the relatively small number of ocean measurements so far. Or it could mean, as researchers suspect, that the satellite instruments and measurement methodologies should be improved. We need to figure out why we're seeing this difference," said Smirnov.

Unless scientists achieve greater confidence in aerosols measurements, predicting how climate in specific regions will respond to global temperature increases will remain difficult.

Sulfate lens enhances climate warming properties of atmospheric soot

Particulate pollution thought to be holding climate change in check by reflecting sunlight instead enhances warming when combined with airborne soot, a new study has found.

Like a black car on a bright summer day, soot absorbs solar energy. Recent atmospheric models have ranked soot, also called black carbon, second only to carbon dioxide in potential for atmospheric warming. But particles, or aerosols, such as soot mix with other chemicals in the atmosphere, complicating estimates of their role in changing climate.

"Until now, scientists have had to assume how soot is mixed with other chemical species in individual particles and estimate how that ultimately impacts their warming potential," said Kimberly Prather, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

"Our measurements show that soot is most commonly mixed with other chemicals such as sulfate and this mixing happens very quickly in the atmosphere. These are the first direct measurements of the optical properties of atmospheric soot and allow us to better understand the role of soot in climate change."

Prather and Ryan Moffet, a former graduate student at UC San Diego who is now at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, measured atmospheric aerosols over Riverside, California and Mexico City. Using an instrument that measures the size, chemical composition and optical properties of aerosols in real time, they showed that jagged bits of fresh soot quickly become coated with a spherical shell of other chemicals, particularly sulfate, nitrate, and organic carbon, through light-driven chemical reactions.

Within several hours of sunrise, most of the atmospheric carbon they measured had been altered in this way, they report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Particles of sulfate or nitrate alone reflect light, and some have proposed pumping
sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere to slow climate change. But these chemicals play a different role when they mix with soot.

"The coating acts like a lens and focuses the light into the center of the particle, enhancing warming," Prather said. "Many people think sulfate aerosols are a good thing because they are highly reflective and cool our planet. However we are seeing that sulfate is commonly mixed with soot in the same particles, which means in some regions sulfate could lead to more warming as opposed to more cooling as one would expect for a pure sulfate aerosol."

Their measurements showed that in the atmosphere the lens-like shell of sufate and nitrate enhances absorption of light by coated soot particles 1.6 times over pure soot particles.

Soot comes from fires, including those used to cook food and clear agricultural fields, as well as burning of diesel fuel in trucks and ships. Simple measures such as providing better cook stoves with more complete combustion to those in developing countries would help reduce atmospheric soot levels.

Efforts to reduce soot would pay off soon. Unlike carbon dioxide, which lingers in the atmosphere for centuries, soot falls from the sky in a matter of days to weeks, making the reduction of soot a quicker option for slowing down climate change.

"While reducing CO2 concentrations is extremely important, changes we make today will not be felt for quite a while, whereas changes we make today on soot and sulfate could affect our planet on timescales of months," Prather said. "This could buy us time while we grapple with the problems of reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases."

Your own private global warming

Measuring the effects of temperature increases in the Antarctic fauna

A group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey have collected individuals from a wide range of species commonly found in Antarctic waters and subjected them to increasing levels of water temperature to learn how each species is prepared to cope with the conditions that they are likely to experience in the future.

The study showed that several of these species are already living really close to their upper temperature range, and that further increases caused by global warming could easily provoke serious ecological imbalances in this region. These results will be presented by Dr. Lloyd S. Peck at the Society of Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow on June 30, 2009.

The researchers found that, for a given species, smaller individuals were able to tolerate higher temperatures compared to larger ones. Since larger individuals are the ones more likely to have reached sexual maturity, their vulnerability to temperature change could seriously damage population levels within a few generations.

In addition, since active species such as predators fared better than sessile ones when dealing with temperature increase, a disruption in the food chain could add up to the direct effect of global warming to cause disruptions earlier and to greater extents in the Antarctic marine ecosystem.

UK's rivers and lakes to get a facelift

Photo: Niels Timmer

England’s rivers, lakes, canals and wildlife will get a facelift through funding for a range of projects announced by the environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies.

An extra 10 million pound is being invested over the next year in improving the quality of water around the country, which will in turn help the country's native wildlife, flora and fauna to flourish. The projects will also create or sustain up to 130 ‘green’ jobs over the next year.

Currently only 21 per cent of the country's water bodies are assessed as being of Good Ecological Status under European requirements and the extra funding announced, in line with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, will help to improve that.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will work with the Environment Agency on a range of projects aimed at:

*Restoring wildlife habitats in rivers;

*Restoring and protecting wetlands;

*Researching where river pollution comes from to help target future action
Improving river routes to help fish migrate;

*Removing invasive non-native species from some sites;

*Tracing pollution from urban sources such as chemical waste and taking action against polluters, and;

*Helping rivers and lakes to adapt to the effects of climate change, such as protecting them from pollution from higher rainfall.

Huw Irranca-Davies said: “This funding will be a really welcome boost for our rivers, lakes and canals and the wildlife that needs them to thrive and I look forward to seeing the results over the next couple of years.

I would also encourage our partners like the Association of Rivers Trusts to think creatively about how we take this work forward and maximise the impact of this new funding. I’m delighted that these projects will create jobs for several local communities around the country.”

Dr Paul Leinster, Chief Executive at the Environment Agency, said: “Improving the quality of rivers and lakes is a top priority for the Environment Agency. They are an important part of the environment for both people and wildlife. The extra funding will support local projects which will help bring life back to waters across England.”

Corals stay close to home

The thought of coral reefs tends to conjure up images of tropical vacations, complete with snorkeling among tropical fish in crystal clear waters.

Rapid climate change, and increased pollution, ocean acidification and overfishing threaten to darken this picture considerably. These factors heavily stress corals, and thus put both the countless marine organisms that count on corals for habitat and shelter, and the USD1 billion dollar tourism industry fuelled by coral reefs at significant risk.

Conservation biologists have been scrambling to find ways to conserve and protect these remarkable sea creatures. However, the design of marine reserves requires knowledge of the distances moved by the mobile juvenile stage of corals so that the natural processes that maintain healthy populations can be encouraged.

A recent study by Australian biologist Jim Underwood has found surprisingly that despite the fact that corals cast their eggs and sperm haphazardly into the oceans, certain species of coral show remarkable fidelity to their home range.

Underwood sampled DNA from coral reefs in the Indiana Ocean and found that individual corals located in the same group of reefs are more closely related than previously thought.

These results suggest that since most recruitment of these Indian Ocean coral populations comes from other locally sourced coral, one cannot depend on genetic material from distant populations of corals to replenish or restore degraded local populations. In these regions, marine reserves that maintain high local genetic diversity should be favoured.

Nationwide network of green flight paths in Australia

Photo: Jorge vicente

Airservices Australia and PBN solutions provider Naverus have signed a contract that will lay the foundations for the worlds first nationwide performance-based navigation (PBN) network, delivering significant reductions in aircraft emissions and noise, reduced flight miles and substantial fuel savings.

Airservices CEO Greg Russell and Naverus CEO Steve Forte said the initiative was the first of its kind in the world. Both Airservice and Naverus will develop Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures (a form of Performance-Based Navigation) for arrival and departure flight paths at up to 28 major airports around Australia over the next five years.

Appropriate collaboration and consultation will occur with all affected stakeholders, including the community, in the development of these environmentally friendly procedures.

The programme could create a reduction of 122 million tonnes of CO emissions and save 39 million kg of fuel per year, based on actual flight-trial experience at Brisbane.

All airlines whose aircraft are appropriately equipped and certified will be able to take advantage of the new RNP procedures.

The new RNP procedures will be similar to those designed by Naverus for the 2007 Brisbane Green Trial, conducted by Airservices and Qantas. These procedures are saving on average 2.6 minutes of flying time, 125kg of fuel and 390kg of CO per flight compared to standard approach procedures into Brisbane Airport.

"This application of these procedures will allow us to deliver benefits to the aviation industry and the community through improvements in aviation safety and efficiency and environmental impact," Russell said.

G8 fails on climate goals. Again.

G8 countries have so far failed to take sufficient action to protect the world against climate change. The latest G8 Climate Scorecards report shows that Germany, followed by the UK and France, is performing better than the rest of the rich nations’ group. Italy and Japan are in a lower medium ranked group. Canada and Russia are lagging, the USA moving up one rank.

The report carried out by Ecofys for WWF and Allianz SE ranks the top eight industrialised countries and five major developing countries according to their climate change policy.

Only five months ahead of crucial climate talks in Copenhagen, the 2009 edition of the annual WWF-Allianz G8 climate scorecards show that while some efforts had been made, action remains insufficient to set the world on a low carbon economy course.

The report states the lack of a clear leader among the ranked nations and while Germany has slightly improved, countries such as Canada and Russia have completely failed to pass the test.

In the foreword of the report, James Leape, the head of WWF and Allianz board member Joachim Faber urged the nations to take action now and help seal a good deal in Copenhagen.

“While there might be a bailout possibility for the financial system, no amounts of money will save the planet once climate change crosses the danger threshold,” Leape and Faber wrote. “It is therefore crucial to limit the rise of global temperature to below two degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.”

The G8 Climate Scorecards 2009 measure countries’ performance and trends in areas such as development of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, the distance to their Kyoto-targets, their share of renewable energies and the efficiency of their climate policies.

According to the report, Germany, the UK and France have already achieved their Kyoto targets - but their long-term climate performance is not adequate to limit the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius.

Climate initiatives so far planned or announced by the Obama administration have helped the US climb from the last rank to seventh place.

Canada and Russia which are at the bottom of the rank either do not have political plans to change this development or do not implement them.

Joachim Faber, board member of Allianz SE says: “A low carbon future holds growth potential for G8 countries as well as for emerging nations. Future investments and product development therefore require a sustainable political framework.”

Carbon Sciences achieves milestone in CO2-to-Fuel reaction time

Carbon Sciences Inc, the developer of a breakthrough technology to recycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into gasoline and other fuels, announced a significant technical development in reducing the reaction time of its CO2-to-Fuel process from hours to minutes. This achievement dramatically increases the scalability and decreases the costs of building and operating an industrial scale CO2-to-Fuel plant.

Reaction time is the time required to convert a unit amount of raw material to products in a fixed biochemical reactor and is a very important parameter for scalability and process economics.

In the case of CO2 to fuel, a slow reaction time translates to a very large reactor size for holding and processing a continuous stream of CO2 from a large emitter, such as a coal-fired power plant. For example, if a 1 cubic meter reactor can process 1 ton of CO2 per day, then 5,000 reactors are required to process 5,000 tons/day of CO2 emissions from a medium-sized coal-fired power plant. However, if a 1 cubic meter reactor can process 10 tons of CO2 per day, then only 500 reactors are required.

In previous designs of the company’s biocatalytic process, CO2 was transformed into fuel in approximately 10 hours. Due to advanced breakthroughs in enzyme encapsulation and a new and novel micro-sized biocatalytic structure, the company has achieved a major milestone by transforming CO2 into fuel within 10 to 30 minutes.

Dr. Naveed Aslam, the company’s CTO, said: “We are very excited about this milestone. Due to our proprietary process and reaction design, we believe we can lower the reaction time even more. We are not aware of any other renewable fuel technology that can come close to our reaction time. For example, corn requires an effective reaction time of 3-4 months as it absorbs CO2 from the air into kernels that are then fermented into ethanol fuel. As a result of this long ‘reaction time’, an enormous amount of farmland is required by corn to (a) absorb CO2, and (b) produce meaningful amounts of fuel.”

Byron Elton, the company’s CEO, said, “With our recent technical breakthroughs, we strongly believe that we are developing the most efficient and viable renewable fuel technology in the world. We estimate that with less than half of the CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants alone, we can produce 30 per cent of the world’s liquid fuel supply. I am delighted with our progress and we are on schedule with our development plan.”

The company's solution to energy and climate challenges is to enable a sustainable world of fuel consumption and climate stability by recycling CO2 into fuel. For example, Carbon Sciences' breakthrough technology can be used to recycle CO2 emitted from fossil fuel power plants into gasoline to run cars and jet fuel to fly aircraft.

Australia’s first hybrid-electric bus trial launched

Photo: Karolina Michalak

Australia’s first hybrid-electric bus trial was launched adding to the Brumby Labor Government’s USD38 billion investment towards a sustainable and lower emissions transport system through the Victorian Transport Plan.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings said the USD500,000 trial, which will involve buses on two outer suburban routes, will assess the viability of hybrid buses in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the public transport sector.

“This Australia-first trial is the latest addition to the Brumby Labor Government’s portfolio of electric vehicle technology initiatives and again shows we are taking action to provide a sustainable and healthy future for all Victorians through innovative projects,” Jennings said.

“We believe the hybrid-electric bus trial will show how improvements in transport technology can deliver air quality improvements and reduce our carbon emissions. It is estimated this hybrid-electric technology will provide a saving of around 20 per cent on fuel and greenhouse gas emissions compared to a conventional diesel bus," he said.

“The trial will allow us to examine the financial, social and environmental effects from the use of this new technology on Melbourne’s roads. The Brumby Labor Government believes a strong and vibrant innovation sector will not only drive technologies to help us adapt to climate change but will also secure our economy and create jobs for future generations of Victorian families,” he added.

The Brumby Labor Government has partnered with the Commonwealth Government to provide USD500,000 to the trial, being conducted with Grenda Corporation and Ventura Buses. Grenda Corporation will trial a hybrid bus along its 900 route from Stud Park to Caulfield while Ventura Buses will conduct a trial along its 250 route from Garden City to La Trobe University.

Managing Director of Grenda Corporation, Scott Grenda, and Managing Director of Ventura Buses, Andrew Cornwall, joined Jennings at today’s launch.

“We’re really pleased to be partnering with the Victorian Government in developing this new hybrid electric bus for our Melbourne commuters. We’ve made a significant commitment to the local design and manufacture of the vehicle.” Grenda said.

“Ventura Buses is excited about doing our bit to help Melbourne become a cleaner and greener city, while still offering customers the service they depend on,” Cornwall said.

Should the hybrid-electric bus trial be successful, Jennings said the Brumby Labor Government would consider increasing its hybrid-electric bus fleet.

Time to get serious for tuna nations

Photo: Mohamed Aly

International tuna treaty parties have totally failed to come up with ways to cap fishing capacity, and are mostly failing to follow the advice of their own scientists and are making only slow progress in reducing illegal fishing, overfishing and bycatch of other marine life, according to a new assessment by WWF.

Three scorecards, covering the management of fisheries, and performance in reducing illegal fishing and levels of bycatch, were issued as representatives of around 80 nations involved in the five tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) gathered in San Sebastian, Spain amid rising global awareness and concern on tuna.

WWF found that not one of the tuna RFMOs is doing a good job in any area. Most are making slow progress and have room for improvement, but some are falling way short in important areas.

In general terms, governments are performing most poorly in the area of conservation and management of tuna stocks, with little advance in the key area of addressing the size and capacity of the fleets chasing fewer and fewer fish.

All 23 identified, commercially exploited stocks of tuna are heavily fished, with at least nine classified as fully fished and a further four classified as overexploited or depleted. Three stocks are classified as critically endangered, three as endangered, and three as vulnerable to extinction.

“Our assessment shows a resource in trouble, fisheries in trouble and institutions in trouble,” said Miguel Jorge, marine director at WWF International. “But we believe there is still time to protect key ocean ecosystems where tuna is a top predator, and conserve the fisheries and the communities that depend on them.”

“We now have too much experience to ignore on how fast over-exploited fisheries collapse and how slowly, if at all, they recover. With Bluefin tuna none of the collapsed populations are recovering and the remaining populations are clearly heading towards collapse.”

WWF will be asking the meeting to do more to prevent bycatch of turtles, sharks, juvenile tuna and other animals. Key measures will involve more effective regulation of the bycatch problem associated with the use of Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs).

“We know enough right now for governments to immediately adopt and implement best-practices to avoid bycatch,” said Jorge. “Even best-practices can be improved, so ongoing research and on-the-water trials are critical to bring bycatch as close to zero as possible.”

WWF’s assessment traced progress on key fisheries management measures since the first global meeting of governments involved in tuna fisheries, in Kobe, Japan in 2007. That meeting agreed on a 14 point action plan for all RFMOs.

“So far, we haven’t seen much action,” said Jorge.

“We know what needs to be done. What we would like to see from San Sebastian are clear signs that the community of tuna nations is setting up global consensus on real moves towards addressing the key issues of over-capacity and bycatch. We know it won’t be easy, but there are no other choices,” he said.

Photo: Mohamed Aly

International tuna treaty parties have totally failed to come up with ways to cap fishing capacity, and are mostly failing to follow the advice of their own scientists and are making only slow progress in reducing illegal fishing, overfishing and bycatch of other marine life, according to a new assessment by WWF.

Three scorecards, covering the management of fisheries, and performance in reducing illegal fishing and levels of bycatch, were issued as representatives of around 80 nations involved in the five tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) gathered in San Sebastian, Spain amid rising global awareness and concern on tuna.

WWF found that not one of the tuna RFMOs is doing a good job in any area. Most are making slow progress and have room for improvement, but some are falling way short in important areas.

In general terms, governments are performing most poorly in the area of conservation and management of tuna stocks, with little advance in the key area of addressing the size and capacity of the fleets chasing fewer and fewer fish.

All 23 identified, commercially exploited stocks of tuna are heavily fished, with at least nine classified as fully fished and a further four classified as overexploited or depleted. Three stocks are classified as critically endangered, three as endangered, and three as vulnerable to extinction.

“Our assessment shows a resource in trouble, fisheries in trouble and institutions in trouble,” said Miguel Jorge, marine director at WWF International. “But we believe there is still time to protect key ocean ecosystems where tuna is a top predator, and conserve the fisheries and the communities that depend on them.”

“We now have too much experience to ignore on how fast over-exploited fisheries collapse and how slowly, if at all, they recover. With Bluefin tuna none of the collapsed populations are recovering and the remaining populations are clearly heading towards collapse.”

WWF will be asking the meeting to do more to prevent bycatch of turtles, sharks, juvenile tuna and other animals. Key measures will involve more effective regulation of the bycatch problem associated with the use of Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs).

“We know enough right now for governments to immediately adopt and implement best-practices to avoid bycatch,” said Jorge. “Even best-practices can be improved, so ongoing research and on-the-water trials are critical to bring bycatch as close to zero as possible.”

WWF’s assessment traced progress on key fisheries management measures since the first global meeting of governments involved in tuna fisheries, in Kobe, Japan in 2007. That meeting agreed on a 14 point action plan for all RFMOs.

“So far, we haven’t seen much action,” said Jorge.

“We know what needs to be done. What we would like to see from San Sebastian are clear signs that the community of tuna nations is setting up global consensus on real moves towards addressing the key issues of over-capacity and bycatch. We know it won’t be easy, but there are no other choices,” he said.

Ozone depletes oil seed rape productivity

High ozone conditions cause a 30 per cent decrease in yield and an increase in the concentration of a group of toxic compounds within oilseed rape plants.

Combined with the results of previous studies which have shown a decrease in oil, protein and carbohydrate content of oilseed rape seeds in high ozone, these results could signal a significant income loss for farmers and an indirect effect on human health and the safety of food in future climates.

The research, to be presented by Maarten De Bock of the University of Antwerp, showed changes in the concentration of glucosinolates, a family of compounds involved in plant defences against herbivores, in oilseed rape plants.

Such changes could influence crop resistance to insect pests, or the palatability of food crops. As oilseed rape is important as a feed crop, increased levels of glucosinolates may cause problems due to the large quantities of fodder consumed by farm animals.

For human consumption, however, an increase in glucosinolates, in cabbage plants for example, would be favourable due to their anticarcinogenic properties. Interaction of these factors and their impact on the food web in changing climates will be investigated further throughout the course of this ongoing project.

New crops needed for new climate

Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO2 and drought conditions.

The research, to be presented by Dr Ros Gleadow on June 29 at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow, has shown that the concentration of cyanogenic glycosides, which break down to release toxic hydrogen cyanide, increased in plants in elevated CO2. This was compounded by the fact that protein content decreased, making the plants overall more toxic as the ability of herbivores to break down cyanide depends largely on the ingestion of sufficient quantities of protein.

Data have also shown that cassava, a staple food crop in tropical and subtropical regions due to its tolerance of arid conditions, may experience yield reductions in high CO2. Combined with an increase in cyanogenic glycosides, this has major implications for the types of crops that can be grown in the future if CO2 levels continue to rise:

"We need to be preparing for the predicted reduction in nutritional value of many plants in the coming century by developing and growing different cultivars which, for cassava in particular, may not be easy," says Dr Gleadow.

In the warming West, climate influences wildfires' flames

Photo: Benjamin EarwickerStudy finds that climate's influence on production, drying of fuels, not higher temperatures or longer fire seasons alone, critical determinant of Western wildfire burned area

The recent increase in areas burned by wildfires in the Western United States is a product not of higher temperatures or longer fire seasons alone, but a complex relationship between climate and fuels that varies among different ecosystems, according to a study conducted by U.S. Forest Service and university scientists. The study is the most detailed examination of wildfire in the US to date and appears in the current issue of Ecological Applications.

"We found that what matters most in accounting for large wildfires in the Western US is how climate influences the build up, or production, and drying of fuels," said Jeremy Littell, a research scientist with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group and lead investigator of the study.

"Climate affects fuels in different ecosystems differently, meaning that future wildfire size and, likely, severity depends on interactions between climate and fuel availability and production."

To explore climate-fire relationships, the scientists used fire data from 1916 to 2003 for 19 ecosystem types in 11 Western States to construct models of total wildfire area burned. They then compared these fire models with monthly state divisional climate data.

The study confirmed what scientists have long observed: that low precipitation and high temperatures dry out fuels and result in significant fire years, a pattern that dominates the northern and mountainous portions of the West. But it also provided new insight on the relationship between climate and fire, such as Western shrublands' and grasslands' requirement for high precipitation one year followed by dry conditions the next to produce fuels sufficient to result in large wildfires.

The study revealed that climate influences the likelihood of large fires by controlling the drying of existing fuels in forests and the production of fuels in more arid ecosystems. The influence of climate leading up to a fire season depends on whether the ecosystem is more forested or more like a woodland or shrubland.

"These data tell us that the effectiveness of fuel reductions in reducing area
burned may vary in different parts of the country," said David L. Peterson, a research biologist with the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and one of the study's authors.

"With this information, managers can design treatments appropriate for specific climate-fire relationships and prioritise efforts where they can realise the most benefit."

Findings from the study suggest that, as the climate continues to warm, more area can be expected to burn, at least in northern portions of the West, corroborating what researchers have projected in previous studies. In addition, cooler, wetter areas that are relatively fire-free today, such as the west side of the Cascade Range, may be more prone to fire by mid-century if climate projections hold and weather becomes more extreme.

New framework to link up Europe’s polar research

More than 26 leading scientific institutions across Europe have signed up to closer research cooperation through a new European Polar Framework agreement in Brussels aimed at streamlining links between the many national research programmes in the Arctic and Antarctic, led by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and European Polar Board.

The framework agreement is a major outcome from the four-year EUROPOLAR ERA-NET initiative, funded by the EC under Framework Programme 6, which ended in February this year.

It will make it easier for agencies to launch joint funding calls, share scientific data and for countries to host scientists in each others’ research stations, creating international teams similar to those in the International Space Station and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme.

Signatures for the agreement come from organisations involved in financing,
organising or conducting polar research, including national programme authorities, research funders and polar institutes.

“Recent environmental shifts in the Poles have been large and rapid. By linking together Europe’s polar research more closely we can get a better grasp on the wide-ranging series of changes taking place,” said Dr Paul Egerton, executive director of the ESF European Polar Board, an international committee of leaders of polar programmes hosted by the ESF.

“This flexible, open agreement will improve cooperation between countries. It will also help implement key recommendations of last year’s EC Arctic Communication Paper. An international network of polar observatories could be one outcome of this cooperation. Joined-up observations will help predict the course, magnitude and consequences of future changes, enabling us to create adaptable responses to them,” he said.

The Polar Regions react more rapidly and intensely to global changes than any other part of the planet. Shrinking Arctic sea-ice cover, potentially opening new sea lanes to the north of Eurasia and North America, and the calving of vast table icebergs from the Antarctic ice shelves are the latest examples of these changes.

Much of the information needed to understand these events can only be collected by dedicated research vessels, from permanently manned stations or during multidisciplinary expeditions with considerable logistical demands. These complex interdisciplinary experiments demand closer international cooperation.

Overfishing drives open sharks to extinction

Photo: Jan Willem Stad

Overfishing is driving 32 per cent of open ocean sharks to extinction, according to World Conservation Union (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group.

The percentage of open ocean shark species threatened with extinction is higher for the sharks taken in high-seas fisheries (52 per cent), than for the group as a whole.
“Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas,” says Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and policy director for the Shark Alliance.

“The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open ocean sharks mean they need coordinated, international conservation plans. Our report documents serious overfishing of these species, in national and international waters, and demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale.”

The report comes days before Spain hosts an international summit of fishery managers responsible for high seas tuna fisheries in which sharks are taken without limit. It also coincides with an international group of scientists meeting in Denmark to formulate management advice for Atlantic porbeagle sharks.

IUCN experts classify the Great Hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) and Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) sharks, as well as Giant Devil Rays (Mobula mobular), as globally endangered. Smooth Hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena), Great White (Carcharodon carcharias), Basking (Cetorhinus maximus) and Oceanic Whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) sharks are classed as globally vulnerable to extinction, along with two species of Makos (Isurus spp.) and three species of Threshers (Alopias spp.).

Porbeagle Sharks (Lamna nasus) are classified as globally vulnerable, but Critically endangered and endangered in the Northeast and Northwest Atlantic, respectively. The Blue Shark (Prionace glauca), the world’s most abundant and heavily fished open ocean shark, is classified as near threatened.

Lenient enforcement

Once considered only incidental “bycatch”, these species are increasingly targeted due to new markets for shark meat and high demand for their valuable fins, used in the Asian delicacy shark fin soup. To source this demand, the fins are often cut off sharks and the rest of the body is thrown back in the water, a process known as “finning”. Finning bans have been adopted for most international waters, but lenient enforcement standards hamper their effectiveness.

Sharks are particularly sensitive to overfishing due to their tendency to take many years to mature. In most cases, pelagic shark catches are unregulated or unsustainable. Twenty-four per cent of the species examined are categorised as near
threatened, while information is insufficient to assess another 25 per cent.

“The completion of this global assessment of pelagic sharks and rays will provide an important baseline for monitoring the status of these keystone species in our oceans,” says Roger McManus, vice-president for Marine Programs at Conservation International.

Set catch limits

The IUCN Shark Specialist Group calls on governments to set catch limits for sharks and rays based on scientific advice and the precautionary approach. It further urges governments to fully protect Critically Endangered and Endangered species of sharks and rays, ensure an end to shark finning and improve the monitoring of fisheries taking sharks and rays.

Governments should invest in shark and ray research and population assessment, minimise incidental bycatch of sharks and rays, employ wildlife treaties to complement fisheries management and facilitate cooperation among countries to conserve shared populations, according to the group.

New fossil tells how piranhas got their teeth

How did piranhas, the legendary freshwater fish with the razor bite, get their telltale teeth? Researchers from Argentina, the US and Venezuela have uncovered the jawbone of a striking transitional fossil that sheds light on this question. Named Megapiranha paranensis, this previously unknown fossil fish bridges the evolutionary gap between flesh-eating piranhas and their plant-eating cousins.

Present-day piranhas have a single row of triangular teeth, like the blade on a saw, explained the researchers. But their closest relatives, a group of fishes commonly known as pacus, have two rows of square teeth, presumably for crushing fruits and seeds.

"In modern piranhas the teeth are arranged in a single file," said Wasila Dahdul, a visiting scientist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. "But in the relatives of piranhas, which tend to be herbivorous fishes, the teeth are in two rows," said Dahdul.

Megapiranha shows an intermediate pattern: its teeth are arranged in a zig-zag row. This suggests that the two rows in pacus were compressed to form a single row in piranhas. "It almost looks like the teeth are migrating from the second row into the first row," said John Lundberg, curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and a co-author of the study.

If this is so, Megapiranha may be an intermediate step in the long process that produced the piranha's distinctive bite. To find out where Megapiranha falls in the evolutionary tree for these fishes, Dahdul examined hundreds of specimens of modern piranhas and their relatives.

"What's cool about this group of fish is their teeth have really distinctive features. A single tooth can tell you a lot about what species it is and what other fishes they're related to," said Dahdul. Her phylogenetic analysis confirms their hunch; Megapiranha seems to fit between piranhas and pacus in the fish family tree.

The Megapiranha fossil was originally collected in a riverside cliff in northeastern Argentina in the early 1900s, but remained unstudied until paleontologist Alberto Cione of Argentina's La Plata Museum rediscovered the startling specimen, an upper jaw with three unusually large and pointed teeth, in the 1980s in a museum drawer.

Cione's find suggests that Megapiranha lived between 8-10 million years ago in a South American river system known as the Parana. But you wouldn't want to meet one today. If the jawbone of this fossil is any indication, Megapiranha was a big fish. By comparing the teeth and jaw to the same bones in present-day species, the researchers estimate that Megapiranha was up to one meter (three feet) in length. That's at least four times as long as modern piranhas. Although no one is sure what Megapiranha ate, it probably had a diverse diet, said Cione.

Other riddles remain, however. "Piranhas have six teeth, but Megapiranha had seven," said Dahdul. "So what happened to the seventh tooth?"

"One of the teeth may have been lost," said Lundberg. "Or two of the original seven may have fused together over evolutionary time. It's an unanswered question. Maybe someday we'll find out."

Beef trader says no to Amazon destruction

Photo: Igor Spanholi

The world's fourth largest beef trader, Marfrig, has announced a moratorium on buying cattle from farms that deforest the Brazilian Amazon.

The cattle sector is the key driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. According to the Brazilian government, cattle are responsible for about 80 per cent of all deforestation in the Amazon region. In recent years, on average one hectare of Amazon rainforest has been lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds.

The move by Marfrig comes in the wake of the release of a Greenpeace report 'Slaughtering the Amazon' on Amazon deforestation and climate change.
"This initiative is an important step towards halting Amazonian destruction and the related greenhouse gases emissions," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaign director.

According to Greenpeace, Satellite data of the forest cover will be made available to the public so that companies can identify farms engaged in ongoing deforestation and stop buying cattle products from them.

Tropical rainforest destruction accounts for approximately 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, making Brazil the world's fourth biggest polluter.

Wind speeds declining in parts of US

Declining wind speeds in parts of the US could impact more than the wind power industry, say Iowa State University climate researchers.
Three Iowa State researchers contributed their expertise in modeling North America's climate to a study to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres. The study, led by Sara C. Pryor, a professor of atmospheric science at Indiana University Bloomington, found that wind speeds across the country have decreased by an average of .5 per cent to 1 per cent per year since 1973.

"The study found that across the country wind speeds were decreasing, more in the East than in the West, and more in the Northeast and the Great Lakes," said Gene Takle, an Iowa State professor of geological and atmospheric sciences and agronomy.
In Iowa, a state that ranks second in the country for installed wind power capacity, Takle said the study found annual wind speed declines that matched the average for the rest of the country.

The study's findings made headlines across the country. Most of those stories focused on the potential implications for the wind power industry.

But Iowa State's team of climate researchers, Takle; Ray Arritt, a professor of agronomy; and Bill Gutowski, a professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, say the study raised other issues and questions too.

The study looked at eight sets of wind data going back to 1973 and up to 2005: actual wind speed measurements from anemometers; a hybrid of measurements and computerised climate models; and two different regional climate models. Iowa State researchers contributed a regional model of North America's climate they've worked with since the early 1990s. It's a community model that researchers across the globe share and use. The Iowa State researchers have used the model to run long-term climate simulations.

Takle said there wasn't a lot of agreement between the measurements and the various models. The model that most closely matched the measurements was the one used by the Iowa State researchers.

Gutowski said the differences aren't surprising because the study was an initial examination of surface wind trends. He also said those differences tell climate researchers they have more work to do.

"We see this trend toward slower wind speeds and our unanswered question is whether this is part of global warming or something else," Gutowski said. "What we're poking into here is not something that's commonly explored. Most studies look at
temperature and precipitation, not surface winds."

But the researchers said slower surface winds can have significant impacts beyond the wind power industry.

Crops, for example, depend on the wind for ventilation and cooling. Slower winds could mean higher field temperatures and less productive crops.

Slower winds could also mean more dew covering crops for longer periods, Takle said. That could mean problems with fungus and plant disease and may lead to lower yields at harvest time.

In cities, slower winds can mean more pollution and heat, the Iowa State researchers said.

"Air pollution episodes in major cities happen when there's high pressure and
stagnant air," Takle said. "Less wind means less ventilation and less sweeping away of pollutants."

Slower winds can also be a problem when heat waves hit a city, he said. The winds wouldn't dissipate as much heat, allowing heat to linger and build.
All of those potential impacts need further study, the researchers said. And so does the cause of the apparent decline in the country's wind speeds.

Takle suggested three possibilities for the trend: changes in instrumentation produced flawed measurements (though Takle said researchers made corrections to account for the changes); the study didn't account for land-use changes such as development and tree planting that slowed winds near instruments; or the climate is changing and one consequence is slower winds.

Arritt said the study appears to support theories that climate change could affect surface winds.

"There are some good theoretical reasons to think that global warming will cause lighter winds in regions between the tropics and the Arctic," Arritt said. "But we like to confirm our theory with data, and our results make us think the theory is on track."

CO2 missing from new EU pollution law

European environment ministers provisionally agreed on a new law to limit industrial pollution that doesn't include the world’s most important pollutant, carbon dioxide, denounces WWF.

The EU Environment Council reached a common position on the new Industrial Emissions Directive. The draft law overhauls the framework for controlling pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust from thousands of industrial installations across Europe, combining and strengthening seven earlier pieces of legislation.

WWF is calling for carbon dioxide standards to be added to the proposal, in order to respond adequately to the increasing scale and urgency of the global climate crisis. Such a move could cut Europe’s total greenhouse gas emissions by around a quarter over the next two decades. But EU ministers failed on this occasion to seize the opportunity.

“Environment ministers skipped aimlessly past what is an obvious game-changing move. In the face of increasingly stark warnings from scientists, Europe has missed a straight-forward opportunity, using a proven regulatory tool, to plan the phase out of dirty coal-fired power stations,” said Mark Johnston, Coordinator for Power Plant CO2 Standards at WWF. “Such a move, which is still possible later this year, would inject a huge confidence boost into the slow-moving global negotiations.”

Emission performance standards have been used successfully by European law-makers for more than two decades, leading to dramatic environmental improvements on issues like acid rain and smog.

According to WWF, CO2 standards should apply to the largest category of power plants, approximately 400-500 installations, which account alone for around 25 per cent of Europe’s total emissions. Compared to other sectors, electricity has the greatest potential to decarbonise rapidly.

Such standards would mean, for example, that no new coal-fired power plants could be built without carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and that existing plants must use CCS by a given year, e.g. 2025, or close down. As an alternative, electricity companies could expand renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes.

In Europe today, around 50 conventional large coal-fired power stations are currently being proposed with no guarantee of carbon sequestration. If all are built, Europe will find it impossible to achieve its mid- and longer-term climate targets.

In 2007, the EU agreed to cut by 30 per cent CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, linked to the Copenhagen agreement. Yet the EU institutions are failing to say specifically what mix of policies will be used to deliver the target domestically, as the 2008 climate package only delivers 20 per cent and allows for a lot of offsets.

The lack of clarity regarding Europe’s Copenhagen implementation, including further emissions cuts between 2020 and 2050, is holding up investments in low-carbon technologies while allow high-carbon investments, such as new coal-fired power stations, to proceed unhindered.

The draft law will now have to go through second reading, and will be discussed by the European Parliament and Council during the run-up to and after the Copenhagen climate summit.

UNEP welcomes action on HFC gases

The head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has welcomed a scientific paper highlighting the need to accelerate action over a group of gases known as Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as part of the climate change agenda.

The findings, by an international team of researchers, are published in the Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientists argue that HFC use could climb sharply in the coming years in products such as insulation foams, air conditioning units and refrigeration as replacements for ones being phased out to protect the ozone layer.

Under a scenario where carbon dioxide emissions are pegged to 450 parts per million HFCs could equal nine Gigatonnes, equivalent to around 45 per cent of total C02 emissions, by 2050 if their growth is unchecked.

Conversely, rapid action to freeze and to cut emissions annually alongside fostering readily available alternatives could see HFC emissions fall to under one Gigatonne by 2050.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP executive director, said: “Dramatically cutting carbon dioxide emissions from society’s inefficient energy use is the key to catalysing a transition to a low, carbon, resource-efficient Green Economy. It is also central to delivering a stabilisation of the atmosphere as outlined by the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”.

“But there are other low hanging fruit in the climate change challenge and this new scientific paper spotlights one of them, HFCs. By some estimates, action to freeze and then reduce this group of gases could buy the world the equivalent of a decades-worth of C02 emissions,” he added.

The projected growth in production and consumption of HFCs is in part linked with the success of the UNEP-administered Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer.

Since the late 1980s, this treaty has successfully phased out 97 per cent of 100 chemicals that damage the protective shield that filters out harmful ultra violet rays to the Earth.

Over recent years, research has outlined that global efforts to protect the ozone layer has also delivered climate benefits as many of the chemicals that damage the ozone layer, such as chloroflurocarbons or CFCs, which also cause global warming.
In 2007, a scientific paper calculated the climate mitigation benefits of the ozone treaty as totalling an equivalent of 135 billion tonnes of C02 since 1990 or a delay
in global warming of seven to 12 years.

In that same year countries meeting in Canada, under the Montreal Protocol, agreed to an accelerated freeze and phase out of Hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs), chemicals designed to replace the old, more ozone-damaging CFCs, in the main for the climate benefits.

The new paper indicates that unless there is action on HFCs, then countries and companies are likely to pick this group of gases to replace HCFCs in products such as air conditioning units, refrigeration and insulating foams.

Guus Velders of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the lead author, said: “Our team of scientists calculates that HFCs present a significant threat to the world’s efforts to stabilise climate emissions”.

“Because of the projected growth of these climate-warming chemicals, they could represent up to 45 per cent of the total global C02 emissions by 2050 under a scenario that stabilises C02 emissions at 450 parts per million. Preventing strong growth in HFC use is an important climate mitigation option the world has now”.
Under a business as usual scenario, where C02 emissions are higher, HFCs could equate to between nine and 19 per cent of C02 emissions in 2050 causing a greenhouse effect equal to 6-13 years of global C02 pollution.

In 2008, governments requested the executive secretaries of the Montreal Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Marco Gonzalez and Yvo de Boer, to cooperate more closely including on the issue of HFCs and that cooperation is on-going.

Whale meeting makes climate change breakthrough

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) adopted a major climate change resolution on the last day of its 61st meeting, although it failed to take decisions on contentious whaling issues after days of negotiations that have hampered its progress in recent years.

On June 25, IWC member countries unanimously agreed to adopt a resolution on climate change co-sponsored by the US and Norway. The 85-member body set aside most major decisions until later in the year.

The resolution states that climate change is a key threat to whales, and urges governments to commit to reducing their carbon emissions at the UN Climate meeting in Copenhagen in December. It also directs IWC to engage in external climate change meetings in the run up to Copenhagen.

“This is a very positive development that will help ensure that climate negotiations take into account impacts on biodiversity,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman, WWF International Species Programme director. “However, members did not take action that would stop commercial whaling outside of IWC regulation, which is a fundamental problem the IWC must address.”

IWC members, for example, did not take action on “scientific whaling” by Japan, which has led to the killing of thousands of whales, particularly in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. Under the guise of scientific research, Japan has continued to defy the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling by hunting whales in both the Antarctic and the North Pacific, claiming that these whales must be killed to answer critical management questions.

Although IWC members did not take decisions on many key whaling-related issues that have dominated negotiations during the annual meeting in past years, they discussed another prominent whale conservation issue that needs attention: the protection of smaller whales, such as dolphins and porpoises.

That discussion coincided with the release during the meeting on Wednesday of Small Cetaceans: The Forgotten Whales, a new WWF report stating that small whales are disappearing from the world’s oceans and waterways as they fall victim to fishing gear, pollution, and habitat loss, compounded by a lack of conservation measures such as those developed for great whales.

Support for the recommendations in the report at the meeting came from Australian environment minister Peter Garrett, who simultaneously announced an AUD500,000 pledge to the IWC for the conservation and protection of smaller whales. Meanwhile, Belgium called for a review of work on conservation and management for small cetaceans to take place before IWC 62 in 2010.

“It is time for the IWC to build on these commitments, to become a modern 21st century convention, and to dedicate itself to the conservation of all whales, great and small,” Dr. Lieberman said.