NSF : New, forward-thinking report addresses environmental research, education .- El informe de Nueva visión de futuro se dirige la investigación del medio ambiente, la educación

Hola mis amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., La nación está en una encrucijada  de problemas ambientales, afirma un informe publicado hoy por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencia (NSF).El cambio climático en el Ártico, el crecimiento urbano en Phoenix, la pesca de la costa oeste afectadas por El Niño, el cambio de uso del suelo en Nueva Inglaterra, los nutrientes en las cuencas hidrográficas en el Medio Oeste - el informe señala la sociedad se enfrenta a una amplia gama de desafíos ambientales.

"Estamos experimentando una época en que la sociedad humana y la tecnología están aumentando el ritmo y la velocidad de los cambios ambientales en formas para las que no existe ningún precedente, y que tienen consecuencias potenciales significativos", señala el informe. "Los sistemas humanos se están convirtiendo en fuerzas dominantes en los ecosistemas y el medio ambiente, dando lugar a nuevos paisajes, hidrológico alterado y regímenes biogeoquímicos, y nuevas vías de la enfermedad."

More information...............

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=136041&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click 

NSF advisory committee offers recommendations spanning next decade

Photo gallery: NSF's AC-ERE releases forward-looking report. Credit and Larger Version

September 16, 2015

The nation is at an environmental crossroads, states a report released today by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education (AC-ERE): America's Future: Environmental Research and Education for a Thriving Century: A 10-year Outlook.

Climate change in the Arctic, urban growth in Phoenix, West Coast fisheries affected by El Niño, land-use change in New England, nutrients in watersheds in the Midwest--the report finds society is facing a wide array of environmental challenges.

"We're experiencing a time in which human society and technology are increasing the pace and rate of environmental change in ways for which no precedent exists, and which have significant potential consequences," the report states. "Human systems are becoming dominant forces in ecosystems and the environment, resulting in novel landscapes, altered hydrologic and biogeochemical regimes, and new disease pathways."

Importance of environmental science

At the same time those changes are occurring, society has the opportunity to incorporate environmental science as part of the nation's economic engine, improving the welfare of citizens and creating economic opportunities and prosperity for all Americans, AC-ERE members believe.

The report advances the notion that viewing environmental protection and economic prosperity as conflicting goals is outdated. "Environment and development go hand-in-hand with making a nation strong and prosperous," it states.

"Interdisciplinary research and education are essential to carrying out NSF's vision," says James Olds, NSF assistant director (AD) for Biological Sciences and NSF AD coordinator for environmental research and education. "This report is very forward-looking and highlights the current and potential role of science as a catalyst for progress in the coming decades."

We need to invest in changing the trajectories of current environmental trends away from warming, stress, conflict and vulnerability--and toward resilience, well-being, stewardship and prosperity, the report proposes.

"Whether it's to support sustainable water systems, increased productivity in natural and managed systems, the design of low-carbon built environments, or reducing risk and increasing resilience in our food and energy systems," says scientist David Skole of Michigan State University and chair of the AC-ERE, "NSF-led environmental science will make significant and lasting contributions to America's future in a thriving century ahead."

Looking to science for answers

Society is increasingly looking to science for answers to help solve current, and prevent future, challenges.

"Scientists are increasingly recognizing the need to work together with decision-makers, educators, community leaders, and other stakeholders to enable research and education that fosters well-being on our dynamic and rapidly changing planet," the report says.

It emphasizes that the environment is a network of complex socio-environmental systems, and stresses the need to integrate our understanding of biophysical processes, social processes and engineered systems.

Following NSF's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) portfolio, which began in 2010, the scientific community is ready, according to the AC-ERE, for new approaches to research and education that reach across scales and disciplines to provide the basic understanding needed to solve fundamental environmental and societal challenges.

The report states that, of the U.S. federal agencies that fund science, NSF is uniquely poised to establish broad, systems-level approaches needed to understand complex socio-environmental systems at multiple scales and across multiple disciplines.

Advisory committee recommendations 

"With the goal of building capacity in environmental problem-solving and design, in the next decade NSF should invest in projects focused on studying best practices and supporting research that will improve methods of connecting science with decisionmaking," the report says.

The AC-ERE recommends that NSF build on its current core and special programs--for example, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH), Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS), and Risk and Resilience--to integrate a stable, foundation-wide environmental portfolio across its research and education directorates and programs, creating new programs when needed to address specific research questions and societal-environmental challenges.

Broader impact networks and nodes

Specifically, the AC-ERE proposes creating a program to support Broader Impact Networks and Nodes (BINNs). As envisioned, BINNs would be multi-institutional collaborations to connect education and community engagement professionals with researchers to more effectively accomplish broader impact objectives.

BINNs would enable principal investigators (PIs) who receive NSF awards to embed their projects' education and outreach activities in a larger framework. That framework is designed to integrate current learning science and advance innovation in education and outreach, in what the report calls "robust evaluation plans, iterative engagement with adaptive design, long-term relationships with partners, and involvement of underserved populations."

That integrated approach, the report states, "is more likely to have and document significant broader impacts than small-scale and uncoordinated activities of individual investigators. Establishing larger broader impact frameworks can be achieved through long-term support for networks and nodes which PIs can use in their individual projects."

A program that supports BINNs, AC-ERE members believe, "would accelerate transfer of knowledge to the public to create a scientifically literate nation, integrate current learning in science and advance innovation in education and outreach, establish long-term relationships with broader impact partners, target underserved populations, and allocate sufficient funding levels and terms to have the impact that is needed to address these challenges."

Modeled on the NSF Science and Technology Centers, Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence, and Research Coordination Networks, BINNs could be thematic, regional, or institutional, the AC-ERE envisions.

Environmental challenges and opportunities

The AC-ERE acknowledges that the vision is broad, the challenges enormous, and with current resources that pale in comparison.

"Our recommendation is to build on the environmental education and research programs developed over the first decade and a half of this century," the report states, "but strategically increase investments through 2025."

The time to begin, say AC-ERE members, is now.

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF, (703) 292-7734, cdybas@nsf.gov

Related WebsitesNSF Environmental Research and Education:
http://www.nsf.gov/geo/ere/ereweb/about.cfm
NSF Discovery Article Series: Environmental Research and Education:
 http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=135187
NSF News: NSF Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education Releases New Report (2009):
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115474

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, its budget is $7.3 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 48,000 competitive proposals for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

 Get News Updates by Email 
Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page:
 http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News:
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media:
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics:
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Environmental protection and economic prosperity are not conflicting goals, new report says.
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Degraded ecosystems can become more resilient.
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Researchers are creating new materials from coconut fibers once considered "waste."
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Diverse human capacity and systems thinking are needed to solve environmental problems.
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Next-generation researchers integrate social science with natural and physical sciences.
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 The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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nsf.gov - News - Infectious diseases and climate change intersect with no simple answers

Study highlights challenges of predicting disease outcomes in a warming world.

Credit and Larger Version

Monarch butterflies carry infections in parts of the U.S. where they breed year-round. Credit: P. Davis and S. Altizer Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (445 KB)

Biologist studying tumors on coral; climate warming may fuel lethal coral diseases. Credit: B. Willis

Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (3.6 MB)

Muskoxen may be susceptible to arctic climate change and emerging infectious diseases. Credit: S. Kutz Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1.3 MB)

White-footed mice: the primary reservoir hosts for Lyme disease in the eastern United States. Credit: R. Ostfeld

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Black-legged ticks, the primary vectors of Lyme disease in the northeastern United States. Credit: K. Oggenfuss

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The researchers' findings are described in the Aug. 2, 2013, issue of Science. Credit: Copyright AAAS 2013

Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (228 KB)

Climate change is already affecting the spread of infectious diseases--and human health and biodiversity worldwide--according to disease ecologists reporting research results in this week's issue of the journal Science.

Modeling disease outcomes from host and parasite responses to climate variables, they say, could help public health officials and environmental managers address the challenges posed by the changing landscape of infectious disease.

"Earth's changing climate and the global spread of infectious diseases are threatening human health, agriculture and wildlife," said Sam Scheiner, National Science Foundation (NSF) program director for the joint NSF-National Institutes of Health Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program, which funded the research.

"Solving these problems requires a comprehensive approach that unites scientists from biology, the geosciences and the social sciences."

According to lead author Sonia Altizer of the University of Georgia, the issue of climate change and disease has provoked intense debate over the last decade, particularly in the case of diseases that affect humans.

In the Science paper, Altizer and her colleagues--Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies; Pieter Johnson of the University of Colorado; Susan Kutz of the University of Calgary and Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre; and Drew Harvell of Cornell University--laid out an agenda for future research and action.

"For a lot of human diseases, responses to climate change depend on the wealth of nations, healthcare infrastructure, and the ability to take mitigating measures," Altizer said.

"The climate signal, in many cases, is hard to tease apart from other factors like vector control, and vaccine and drug availability."

In diseases affecting wildlife and agricultural ecosystems, however, findings show that climate warming is already causing changes.

"In many cases, we're seeing an increase in disease and parasitism," Altizer said. "But the effect of climate change on these disease relationships depends on the physiology of the organisms and on the structure of natural communities."

At the organism level, climate change can alter the physiology of parasites. Some of the clearest examples are found in the Arctic, where temperatures are rising rapidly. Parasites are developing faster as a result. A lungworm that affects muskoxen, for instance, may be transmitted over a longer period each summer, making it a more serious problem for the populations it infects.

Climate change is also affecting entire plant and animal communities.

Community-level responses to rising temperatures are evident in tropical marine environments such as the coral reef ecosystems of the Caribbean. Warmer water temperatures have directly stressed corals and facilitated infections by pathogenic fungi and bacteria. When corals succumb, other species that depend on them are affected.

The potential consequences of these changes are serious. The combination of warmer temperatures and altered disease patterns is placing growing numbers of species at risk of extinction, the scientists say.

In human health, there is a direct risk from pathogens like dengue, malaria and cholera. All are linked to warmer temperatures.

Indirect risks also exist in threats to agricultural systems and game species that are crucial for subsistence and cultural activities.

The scientists recommend building on and expanding data on the physiological responses of hosts and parasites to temperature change. Those mechanisms may offer clues to how a system will respond to climate warming.

"We'd like to be able to predict, for example, that if the climate warms by a certain amount, then in a particular host-parasite system we might see an increase from one to two disease transmission cycles each year," Altizer said.

"But we'd also like to try to tie these predictions to actions that might be taken."

Some of those actions might involve more monitoring and surveillance, adjusting the timing of vector control measures and adopting new management measures.

These could include, for instance, closing coral reefs to human activity if a disease outbreak is predicted, or changing the planting strategy for crops to compensate for unusually high risks of certain diseases.

The researchers also point out that certain local human communities, such as those of indigenous peoples in the Arctic, could be disproportionately affected by climate-disease interactions.

Predicting where these local-scale effects might be most intense would allow societies to take measures to address issues such as health and food security.

"Involving local communities in disease surveillance," said Altizer, "could become essential."

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734

cdybas@nsf.gov
Beth Gavrilles, University of Georgia (706) 542-7247

 bethgav@uga.edu
Lori Quillen, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (845) 677-7600

 quillenl@caryinstitute.org
Jim Scott, University of Colorado Boulder (303) 492-7531

jim.scott@colorado.edu
John Carberry, Cornell University (607) 255-5353

 johncarberry@cornell.edu

Related WebsitesNSF Special Report: The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases:

 http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/index.jsp
NSF News: Controlling the Spread of Diseases Among Humans, Other Animals and the Environment:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125496
NSF Discovery Article Series: Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases:

 http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127103&org=NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget was $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

Get News Updates by Email

Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page:

 http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News:

 http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media:

 http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics:

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches:

http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

The National Science Foundation (NSF).-

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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SCIENCE: Study of Yellowstone Wolves Improves Ability to Predict Their Responses to Environmental Changes

Hi my Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Methods developed in this study may ultimately improve predictions of wildlife responses to environmental changes in various ecosystems. Yellowstone wolves at play.
A study of the wolves of Yellowstone National Park recently improved predictions of how these animals will respond to environmental changes.
The study, which was partially funded by the National Science Foundation, appears in the Dec. 2, 2011 issue of Science.
Part of the Yellowstone Wolf Project, researchers tracked changes in various characteristics of wolves living in the national park between 1998 and 2009. They found some tracked characteristics--such as population size--are related to population ecology, while other tracked characteristics--such as coat color--are genetically determined through evolution.
The project also involved using a new model to compare data collected on Yellowstone wolf characteristics to environmental conditions through the years covered by the study. Researchers defined conditions in the park during each year of the study along a continuum from "good years" to "bad years"--with good years more favorable to wolf survival than bad years.
Tim Coulson of Imperial College London, the study's lead author, explains, "The novelty of the new model is that it looks at how the frequencies of changes in environmental conditions along the 'good to bad' year continuum simultaneously impact many wolf characteristics."
Study results indicate:
1.- Environmental changes will inevitably generate simultaneous ecological and evolutionary responses in the Yellowstone wolves.
2.- Changes in mean environment conditions will impact the size of the Yellowstone wolf population more than will changes in the variability of environmental conditions.
3.- A single environmental change may impact various wolf characteristics differently, depending on which particular aspects of wolf biology it impacts.
Researchers say to understand their conclusions, suppose environmental conditions in a "good year" helped increase the population size of Yellowstone wolves by increasing their survival rates. Also, suppose that a grey coat color would confer a survival advantage to wolves. Then, under those particular "good" conditions, an increase in the size of the wolf population would be expected to produce an increase in the prevalence of grey coats among the wolves.
By contrast, suppose that certain environmental conditions in a "good year" helped increase the population size of Yellowstone wolves by increasing the availability of their prey. Because the availability of prey and coat color are not related to one another, under those particular "good" conditions, an increase in the size of the wolf population would not be expected to produce an increase in the prevalence of grey coats among the wolves.
Coulson says increasing the specificity of the model's predictions requires collecting more data on the ecological and evolutionary responses of Yellowstone's wolves to various environmental conditions and on the relationships of these responses to one another.
As part of this effort, the Yellowstone Wolf Project research team currently is studying the differential impacts of various environmental changes on ecological and evolutionary characteristics of Yellowstone wolves during various stages of their life cycles. The team also is working to identify the types of environmental conditions--such as the sizes of various populations of prey species and the amount and residence time of snow on the ground--that define good, bad and intermediary years for wolves.
The researchers hope once the methods developed through this study are refined, they may be applicable to other types of species, such as insects or crop pests, that live in other types of ecosystems. What's more, Coulson suggests that these methods may ultimately help answer questions about human populations. As just one example, the methods developed through this study might ultimately be used to help predict the impacts of the ongoing obesity epidemic on survival and fertility rates and the resulting influence of those variables on the growth rate of selected human populations.
The National Science Foundation provided funding to all of this paper's co-authors: Daniel R. MacNulty of the University of Minnesota at St Paul, Daniel Stahler of the National Park Service, Bridgett vonHoldt of the University of California at Irvine, Robert K. Wayne of the University of California at Los Angeles and Douglas Smith of the National Park Service.
-NSF-
Useful NSF Web Sites:NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov

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Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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