NSF: Discovery .- New land use strategies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions .- Nuevas estrategias de uso de la tierra pueden reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=138170&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click
Improved land use practices needed as strategies for lowering greenhouse gases

Automated chambers measure greenhouse gas levels in a young stand of wheat. Credit and Larger Version

April 7, 2016

The following is part 21 in a series on the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. Visit parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.

The most common strategies for lowering greenhouse gas emissions involve reducing the use of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil.

While these fossil fuels are the largest contributors of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, other sectors of the global economy can also contribute substantially to greenhouse gas emissions -- and efforts to reduce them.

A new analysis published this week in the journal Nature and led by soil and crop scientist Keith Paustian at Colorado State University (CSU) shows that changes in land-use practices can also help reduce levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

 

Land use: A key role

 

"No matter what approach we take to reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- whether it is the use of fossil fuels, changes in how we manage the production supply chain, or new innovations in agriculture -- land use plays a key role," Paustian said. "What needs to change is how we incentivize new land-use strategies for farmers, ranchers and producers."

One difficulty in using improved land-use practices as strategies for greenhouse gas reductions is that land use-related emissions, and how to best reduce them, come with more scientific uncertainty than approaches like fossil fuel replacement.

But emerging research and information technology developments offer promise in reducing these uncertainties, Paustian said, and for paving the way for policies that make use of the large greenhouse gas mitigation potential available through improved land use and management.

 

Land use, soils and ecosystem services

 

The answers may lie in soils.

"The beauty of soils is that they can be managed to provide ecosystem services often ignored," said paper co-author Phil Robertson of Michigan State University and the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. "Managing soils to become 'climate-smart' builds both ecosystem resilience against climate change and an important underutilized capacity to mitigate that change."

Added Lou Kaplan, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funds the Kellogg Biological Station LTER site, "These scientists highlight the role of basic research on soils in guiding strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture, and ultimately to assist greenhouse gas mitigation."

One example of such developments is an online tool designed to help farmers and ranchers understand how their practices affect their carbon footprints.

 

New tools and approaches

 

The web-based tool, called COMET-Farm (which stands for CarbOn Management and Evaluation Tool), was developed by CSU in partnership with USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service to help producers estimate their greenhouse gas footprints, and to evaluate alternative management practices through data unique to each farming or ranching operation.

Paustian noted that these new approaches and new tools will not only allow for increased engagement by farmers and ranchers, but also offer a chance for industry to become more actively involved in land-use issues.

"Land use is as much as social issue as it is an environmental issue," Paustian said. "We need to develop the right policies and incentives for industry, and we need to do so by marshaling our scientific research and expertise."

Among other recommendations are generating more high-quality data about land use effects on greenhouse gas emissions, and greater engagement with land users through education and outreach.

The study's other authors include: Johannes Lehmann, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Cornell University; Stephen Ogle, CSU Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability; David Reay, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh; and Pete Smith, Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen.

--	Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734  cdybas@nsf.gov
--	Jason Kosovski, CSU (970) 491-2392  jason.kosovski@colostate.edu

Investigators Douglas Landis
Thomas Schmidt
Katherine Gross
Stephen Hamilton
G. Philip Robertson

Related Institutions/Organizations Michigan State University
Related Awards #1027253 The KBS LTER Project: Long-term Ecological Research in Row-crop Agriculture
Total Grants $6,540,767
Related WebsitesNSF Kellogg Biological Station LTER Site:
 http://lter.kbs.msu.edu/

Midwest corn fields offer surprising opportunities, scientists say, to mitigate greenhouse gases.
Credit and Larger Version

Carbon dioxide flux tower in a cropped field at the NSF Kellogg Biological Station LTER site.
Credit and Larger Version

Cover crops such as clover in a maturing wheat field can capture and store carbon dioxide in soil.
Credit and Larger Version

Scientists sample for new soil carbon storage in a Midwest field crop.
Credit and Larger Version

Researchers study soil carbon gains in reforested agricultural land.
Credit and Larger Versión
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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NSF: Scientists discover that salty sea spray affects clouds .- Científicos descubren que el mar salado nubes con efectos de aerosol

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Haciendo una parodia En todo el planeta, cada día, los océanos envían plumas de mar aerosol en la atmósfera. Más allá de la poesía de la que se estrellan las olas del mar, este spray salada y rica en carbono también tiene un efecto dramático en la formación de nubes y la duración. 

More  information............  

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=136822&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Aerosols have impact on cloud composition, duration

Oceans send plumes of sea spray into the atmosphere, altering the formation and duration of clouds. Credit and Larger Version

December 21, 2015

All over the planet, every day, oceans send plumes of sea spray into the atmosphere. Beyond the poetry of crashing ocean waves, this salt- and carbon-rich spray also has a dramatic effect on cloud formation and duration.

In a new paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Paul DeMott finds that sea spray is a unique, underappreciated source of what are called ice nucleating particles. These microscopic bits make their way into clouds and initiate the formation of ice, affecting the clouds' composition.

"The presence of these particles is critically important for precipitation and the lifetime of clouds, and consequently, for their radiative properties," DeMott said.

Added Nick Anderson, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research: "The development of clouds and precipitation is a core issue for understanding weather and climate processes. By studying ice nuclei, which can be considered a building block for clouds, these researchers will help piece together the puzzle of how clouds and precipitation form, especially over remote oceanic regions."

Clouds cover 60 percent of the Earth's surface at any given time. With their ability to reflect solar energy and absorb terrestrial radiation, clouds have dramatic effects on climate.

That ability is greatly influenced by the number, size and type of droplets and ice particles they contain. These cloud particles come from aerosols -- particles suspended in air -- from land and ocean surfaces.

From desert dust to fossil fuels, aerosols that affect clouds are everywhere.

The study has confirmed that ice nucleating particles from oceans are distinct -- both in their abundance and ice-making properties -- from land-sourced particles. Hence, their influence on the liquid-to-ice phase structure of clouds, and the clouds' radiative characteristics, can differ over vast swaths of Earth.

The laboratory portion of the study was conducted with other researchers at the NSF-supported Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE), at which DeMott is a senior scientist.

Based at the University of California-San Diego, CAICE has laboratory wave flumes that simulate how ocean waves send sea spray aerosols into the air.

Researchers can study the biological and chemical makeup of these particles, as well as the transformations they undergo, and use special instruments to see how they influence cloud formation. DeMott and colleagues compared these data to other measurements made over oceans.

The study offers one explanation for why global climate models have consistently underestimated reflected, short-wave solar radiation in regions dominated by oceans, particularly in the southern hemisphere.

"Our paper gives a clearer picture of the behavior of major classes of atmospheric aerosols in clouds," DeMott said.

-NSF-

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

cdybas@nsf.gov
Anne Manning, Colorado State University, (970) 491-7099,

anne.manning@colostate.edu

Related WebsitesNSF Award: Laboratory and Surface-based Studies of Atmospherically-relevant Ice Nucleating Particle Sources, Concentrations and Compositions:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1358495&HistoricalAwards=false
Science Nation: Sea Spray -- Complex chemistry with big effects on climate:

 http://1.usa.gov/1IdPDCi
NSF Award: CCI Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1305427&HistoricalAwards=false

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.

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Ice nucleating particles from sea spray make their way into clouds, affecting clouds' longevity.
Credit and Larger Version

Clouds cover 60 percent of Earth's surface at any given time.
Credit and Larger Version

Clouds' ability to reflect solar energy and absorb radiation affect Earth's climate.
Credit and Larger Version

Earth's oceans and atmosphere are inextricably linked in how long clouds last.
Credit and Larger Version

Ice nucleating particles from oceans are distinct from those on land, scientists have found.
Credit and Larger Version
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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NASA | Observing the 2015 El Niño.- Observando el Fenómeno de El Niño en 2015

People the world over are feeling, or soon will feel, the effects of the strongest El Niño event since 1997-98, currently unfolding in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. New satellite observations are beginning to show scientists its impact on the distribution of rain, tropospheric ozone and wildfires around the globe.

Credits: NASA

 

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-examines-global-impacts-of-the-2015-el-ni-o

One big question about the current El Niño is whether it will bring significant rainfall to drought-plagued California. Researchers studying storms and their relationship to strong El Niños believe it will.

Duane Waliser, chief scientist of the Earth Science and Technology Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and his colleagues analyzed the historical record of atmospheric rivers. These concentrated rain bands account for 40 percent of California's water supply. Their results suggest the number of atmospheric rivers California receives will remain the same, at an average 10 per year, but they will be stronger, warmer and wetter.

"Overall we'll likely get more precipitation, but maybe less in terms of snowfall," Waliser said, adding that they may contribute to more flooding.

It’s the strength of the El Niño that determines its impact on total rainfall in California, said Martin Hoerling, a research meteorologist with the Earth Systems Research Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado. His group ran a statistical analysis of the relationship between past El Niño strength and precipitation.

"What we learned is weak El Niños don't necessarily change the odds of precipitation being much different from normal," said Hoerling. "The rare occurrence of a strong El Niño, like what we're currently experiencing, however, greatly increases the odds of a wet California winter."

El Niño's elevated sea surface temperatures shift rain patterns by affecting the temperature of the air above the ocean, which alters how winds and air masses circulate air around the planet.

The change in winds also affects the distribution of tropospheric ozone around the planet. Tropospheric ozone exists in the atmospheric layer closest to the surface and comprises ozone produced naturally and from human pollution. Ozone in the troposphere is a greenhouse gas and a health hazard. Understanding El Niño's influence on ozone concentration is important for understanding the atmosphere's response to natural variation and distinguishing natural changes from human causes.

Mark Olsen, an atmospheric research scientist at Morgan State University in Baltimore and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and his colleagues produced the first near-global map of ozone sensitivity caused by El Niño and La Niña events. Previous work showed that El Niño events cause a strong change in ozone in the tropics. Olsen's new work uses satellite data combined with a computer model to show that a smaller but still significant effect occurs in the mid-latitudes.

"El Niño is just one factor in the variability," Olsen said. "But you do see regions like the central United States where El Niño explains 20 to 25 percent of the variability."

Ozone in this region tends to decrease where El Niño-driven changes to local wind circulation patterns causes them to draw air upward. According to Olsen, it's a large enough influence that El Niño does need to be considered if you want to attribute causes of ozone concentration changes and long-term trends.

Jim Randerson, Earth system scientist at the University of California, Irvine, and his team analyzed wildfire burned area maps from satellite data to study how El Niño-driven effects change the distribution and severity of wildfires worldwide. During El Niños, the number and size of fires increases in tropical forests across Asia and South America.

"The change in atmospheric dynamics shifts the rainfall," Randerson said. "So El Niño causes less rain to fall in many areas of the tropics, making forests more vulnerable to human-ignited fires."

 

Shown here is the monthly average of global burned area for August 2015, produced from data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. Light blue indicates a small percentage of burned area, while red and orange indicate high percentages of burned area.

Credits: NASA

Fires in tropical forests also accelerate carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere and reduce air quality. Indonesia, for example, has carbon-rich peatlands that ignite as soon as the rain stops, which is what happened this fall, Randerson said. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia, Central America, and the southern Amazon have very high fire risk for 2016. El Niño tends to reduce rainfall in their wet seasons, and less rain means drier vegetation and drier air, which make forests vulnerable to dry season burning.

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

For more information on El Niño and NASA’s Earth-observing missions, visit:

http://climatesciences.jpl.nasa.gov/enso

-end-

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.cole@nasa.gov

Ellen Gray
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-1950 / 301-502-4064
ellen.t.gray@nasa.gov

Last Updated: Dec. 15, 2015

Editor: Karen Northon

Tags:  Climate, Earth, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

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NASA : NASA Holds Media Briefing on Carbon’s Role in Earth’s Future Climate .- NASA Sostiene Reunión informativa sobre el papel de Carbono en futuro clima de la Tierra

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., NASA está avanzando nuevas herramientas como el modelo supercomputadora que creó esta simulación de dióxido de carbono en la atmósfera para comprender mejor lo que sucederá con el clima de la Tierra si la tierra y el mar ya no pueden absorber casi la mitad de todas las emisiones de CO2 con el  calentamiento del clima.

More information.......

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-holds-media-briefing-on-carbon-s-role-in-earth-s-future-climate

NASA is advancing new tools like the supercomputer model that created this simulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to better understand what will happen to Earth’s climate if the land and ocean can no longer absorb nearly half of all climate-warming CO2 emissions.

Credits: NASA/GSFC

 

NASA will host a media teleconference at noon EST on Thursday, Nov. 12 to discuss the latest insights into how Earth is responding to rising levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, and what this means for our future climate.

Later this month, a United Nations climate meeting in Paris will focus on setting limits on future levels of human-produced carbon emissions. This NASA briefing will present new observations from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission, NASA’s first satellite dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide, and preview field work planned in the North Atlantic and Alaska.

The panelists will be:

• Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington
• Mike Behrenfeld, principal investigator for NASA’s NAAMES field campaign, Oregon State University in Corvallis
• George Hurtt, lead for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System, University of Maryland in College Park
• Annmarie Eldering, deputy project scientist for NASA’s OCO-2 mission at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
• Lesley Ott, research scientist in the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

To participate, media must email their name and affiliation to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov by 11 a.m. on Thursday. Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

Earth’s land and ocean currently absorb about half of all carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, but it’s uncertain whether the planet can keep this up in the future. NASA’s Earth science program works to improve our understanding of how carbon absorption and emission processes work in nature and how they could change in a warming world with increasing levels of carbon dioxide and methane emissions from human activities.

Audio of the briefing will stream live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about NASA's Earth science programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earth

-end-

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

Last Updated: Nov. 9, 2015

Editor: Karen Northon

Tags:  Climate, Earth, OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2),

 

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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National Science Foundation - Methane-eating microorganisms help regulate emissions from wetlands .- Microorganismos que se alimentan de metano ayudan a regular las emisiones de los humedales

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de Los Estados Unidos, que sus cientíicos han descubierto que microorganismos que se alimentan del metano ayudan a regular las emisiones en los humedales.

NSF, nos dice: A pesar de que ocupan una pequeña fracción de la superficie de la Tierra, los humedales de agua dulce son la mayor fuente natural de metano emitido a la atmósfera. Una nueva investigación identifica un proceso inesperado que actúa como un guardián clave en la regulación de las emisiones de metano procedentes de estos ambientes de agua dulce.
Los resultados del estudio se publican esta semana en la revista Nature Communications por el biólogo Samantha Joye, de la Universidad de Georgia y colegas.
Los investigadores informan de que las altas tasas de anaeróbico (sin oxígeno) la oxidación del metano en los humedales de agua dulce reducir sustancialmente las emisiones atmosféricas de metano.

More information.....
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=135306&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Without this process, methane emissions from freshwater wetlands could be 30 to 50 percent higher:
Sin este proceso, las emisiones de metano de los humedales de agua dulce podría ser de 30 a 50 por ciento más alto

Scientists collect sediment samples in Maine's Acadia National Park. Credit and Larger Version

June 30, 2015

Though they occupy a small fraction of Earth's surface, freshwater wetlands are the largest natural source of methane emitted into the atmosphere. New research identifies an unexpected process that acts as a key gatekeeper in regulating methane emissions from these freshwater environments.

The study results are published this week in the journal Nature Communications by biologist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia and colleagues.

The researchers report that high rates of anaerobic (no oxygen) methane oxidation in freshwater wetlands substantially reduce atmospheric emissions of methane.

New attention

The process of anaerobic methane oxidation was once considered insignificant in freshwater wetlands, but scientists now think very differently about its importance.

"Some microorganisms actually eat methane, and recent decades have seen an explosion in our understanding of the way they do this," says Matt Kane, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. "These researchers demonstrate that if it were not for an unusual group of methane-eating microbes that live in freshwater wetlands, far more methane would be released into the atmosphere."

Although anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater has been gathering scientific attention, the environmental relevance of this process was unknown until recently, Joye says.

"This paper reports a previously unrecognized sink for methane in freshwater sediments, soils and peats: microbially-mediated anaerobic oxidation of methane," she says. "The fundamental importance of this process in freshwater wetlands underscores the critical role that anaerobic oxidation of methane plays on Earth, even in freshwater habitats."

Without this process, Joye says, methane emissions from freshwater wetlands could be 30 to 50 percent greater.

Comparison of wetlands

The researchers investigated the anaerobic oxidation process in freshwater wetlands in three regions: the freshwater peat soils of the Florida Everglades; a coastal organic-rich wetland in Acadia National Park, Maine; and a tidal freshwater wetland in coastal Georgia.

All three sites were sampled over multiple seasons.

The anaerobic oxidation of methane was coupled to some extent with sulfate reduction. Rising sea levels, for example, would result in increased sulfate, which could fuel greater rates of anaerobic oxidation.

Similarly, with saltwater intrusion into coastal freshwater wetlands, increasing sulfate inhibits microbial methane formation, or methanogenesis.

So while freshwater wetlands are known to be significant methane sources, their low sulfate concentrations previously led most researchers to conclude that anaerobic oxidation of methane was not important in these regions.

Crucial process

The new findings show that if not for the anaerobic methane oxidation process, freshwater environments would account for an even greater portion of the global methane budget.

"The process of anaerobic oxidation of methane in freshwater wetlands appears to be different than what we know about this process in marine sediments," Joye says. "There could be unique biochemistry at work."

Adds Katherine Segarra, an oceanographer at the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and co-author of the paper: "This study furthers the understanding of the global methane budget, and may have ramifications for the development of future greenhouse gas models."

Additional financial support for the research was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via the Research Center/Cluster of Excellence at the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and department of geosciences at the University of Bremen, Germany.

--	Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
--	Alan Flurry, University of Georgia (706) 542-3331 aflurry@uga.edu

Investigators
Samantha Joye
Christof Meile
Vladimir Samarkin

Related Institutions/Organizations University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc

Related Awards #0717189 Temperature Driven Decoupling of Carbon Cycling in Freshwater Sediments and the Relative Production and Flux of Methane Versus Carbon Dioxide

Total Grants $672,990

Acadia National Park is dotted with freshwater wetlands.
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Same wetland as above, covered in ice and snow. Researchers are studying what goes on beneath.
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Researchers sample the overlying water of a frozen wetland in Acadia National Park.
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Scientists use an airboat to collect samples in the Florida Everglades.
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Researchers collected samples from freshwater wetlands in coastal Georgia during a winter trip.
Credit and Larger Version
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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nsf.gov - National Science Foudation - Ocean Acidification: NSF awards $11.4 million in new grants to study effects on marine ecosystems

Oceans may be acidifying faster today than in the past 300 million years

Coral reefs' ability to adapt to acidifying waters is the focus of an ocean acidification grant. Credit and Larger Version

September 9, 2014

With increasing levels of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere and moving into marine ecosystems, the world's oceans are becoming more acidic.

The oceans may be acidifying faster today than at any time in the past 300 million years, scientists have found.

To address concerns for acidifying oceans, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded new grants totaling $11.4 million through its Ocean Acidification program. The awards are supported by NSF's Directorates for Geosciences and Biological Sciences.

From tropical oceans to icy seas, the projects funded will foster research on the nature, extent and effects of ocean acidification on marine environments and organisms.

"The Ocean Acidification program at NSF has been wonderfully successful," says David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.

"We're seeing exciting results from earlier funding, and looking forward to similarly productive research from the current group of awardees."

Ocean acidification affects marine ecosystems, organisms' life histories, ocean food webs, and biogeochemical cycling, scientists have discovered.

Researchers believe there is a need to understand the chemistry of ocean acidification and its interplay with marine biochemical and physiological processes before Earth's seas become inhospitable to life as it is known today.

Animal species from pteropods--delicate, butterfly-like planktonic drifters--to hard corals are affected by ocean acidification. So, too, are the unseen microbes that fuel ocean productivity and influence the chemical functioning of ocean waters.

As the oceans become more acidic, the balance of molecules needed for shell-bearing organisms to manufacture shells and skeletons is altered.

The physiology of many marine species, from microbes to fish, may be affected. A myriad of chemical reactions and cycles are influenced by the pH, or acidity, of the oceans.

"Ocean acidification is an under-appreciated aspect of climate change, affecting the ecology of organisms and creating novel evolutionary pressures," says George Gilchrist, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.

"The integrated nature of these eco-evolutionary studies will provide new insights into how changes in ocean chemistry reshape populations and communities of marine organisms."

NSF Ocean Acidification grantees will ask such questions as: Will regional differences in marine chemistry and physics increase acidification? Are there complex interactions, cascades and bottlenecks that will emerge as the oceans acidify, and what are their ecosystem implications? And if current trends continue, how far-reaching will the changes be?

"This research on the physiological and metabolic responses of organisms to ocean acidification," says Irwin Forseth of NSF's Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, "is essential to our understanding of how these environmental changes will affect the structure and function of sensitive ecosystems worldwide."

The grants are part of NSF's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative.

NSF 2014 Ocean Acidification awardees, their institutions and projects are:

Marguerite Koch, Florida Atlantic University:

Ocean acidification, temperature and light effects on carbon-use mechanisms, calcification, and growth of tropical macroalgae: Drivers of winners and losers

Robert Toonen, University of Hawaii:

Ocean Acidification: Coral reef adaptation and acclimatization to global change: resilience to hotter, more acidic oceans

Andreas Andersson, University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institute of Oceanography: Collaborative Research Ocean Acidification: Establishing the links between offshore biogeochemistry, coral reef metabolism and acidification

Rodney Johnson, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences:

 Collaborative Research Ocean Acidification: Establishing the links between offshore biogeochemistry, coral reef metabolism and acidification

Timothy Bralower, Pennsylvania State University:

 Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: The response of calcareous nannoplankton to ocean acidification during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum

James Zachos, University of California, Santa Cruz:

Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: The response of calcareous nannoplankton to ocean acidification during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum

Paul Falkowski, Rutgers University:

 Ocean Acidification: Mechanisms of coral biomineralization

Zackary Johnson, Duke University:

 Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification: microbes as sentinels of adaptive responses to multiple stressors: contrasting estuarine and open ocean environments

Konstantinos Konstantinidis, Georgia Institute of Technology:

Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification: microbes as sentinels of adaptive responses to multiple stressors: contrasting estuarine and open ocean environments

Jan Pechenik, Tufts University:

 Ocean Acidification/Collaborative Research/RUI: Effects of Ocean Acidification on Larval Competence, Metamorphosis, and Juvenile Performance in a Planktotrophic Gastropod

Anthony Pires, Dickinson College:

 Ocean Acidification/Collaborative Research/RUI: Effects of Ocean Acidification on Larval Competence, Metamorphosis, and Juvenile Performance in a Planktotrophic Gastropod

Andreas Schmittner, Oregon State University:

Effects of acidification and warming on long-term ocean carbon cycling constrained by observations

Robert Carpenter, University of California - Northridge:

 Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: Scale Dependence and Adaptive Capacity

Kevin Gross, North Carolina State University:

 Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: Scale Dependence and Adaptive Capacity

Eric Kaltenbacher, SRI International:

 Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: Development of a Compact Instrument for Field Measurements of pH, Total Dissolved Inorganic Carbon, and Total Alkalinity

Robert Byrne, University of South Florida:

 Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: Development of a Compact Instrument for Field Measurements of pH, Total Dissolved Inorganic Carbon, and Total Alkalinity

Giulio De Leo, Stanford University:

 Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: Interactive effects of acidification, low dissolved oxygen and temperature on abalone population dynamics within the California Current

James Barry, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute:

 Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: Interactive effects of acidification, low dissolved oxygen and temperature on abalone population dynamics within the California Current

C. Brock Woodson, University of Georgia:

 Ocean Acidification: Collaborative Research: Interactive effects of acidification, low dissolved oxygen and temperature on abalone population dynamics within the California Current

Scott Hamilton, San Jose State University:

 Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification: RUI: Multiple stressor effects of ocean acidification and hypoxia on behavior, physiology, and gene expression of temperate reef fishes

Cheryl Logan, California State University - Monterey Bay:

 Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification: RUI: Multiple stressor effects of ocean acidification and hypoxia on behavior, physiology, and gene expression of temperate reef fishes

Brian Tissot, Humboldt State University:

 Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification: RUI: Multiple stressor effects of ocean acidification and hypoxia on behavior, physiology, and gene expression of temperate reef fishes

-NSF-

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

Related WebsitesNSF News: Natural Underwater Springs Show How Coral Reefs Respond to Ocean Acidification: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128243
NSF News: World Oceans Month Brings Mixed News for Oysters: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128228
NSF News: Ocean Acidification Linked With Larval Oyster Failure in Hatcheries: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123822
NSF Discovery: Trouble in Paradise: Ocean Acidification This Way Comes: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=122642
NSF News and Audioslideshow: On 'Earth Week,' World Is No Longer Our Oyster: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116767
NSF News: Palau's coral reefs surprisingly resistant to ocean acidification: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=130129
NSF News: Ocean Acidification Changes Nitrogen Cycling in World Seas: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118233
NSF News: Oceans Acidifying Faster Today Than in Past 300 Million Years: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123324

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) 2014, its budget is $7.2 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/

Decreasing ocean pH (increasing acidity) threatens already vulnerable abalone populations.
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Juvenile rockfish are susceptible to changing ocean pH: ocean acidification.
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Tiny phytoplankton, shown here as light blue and green blooms, are at risk from ocean acidification.
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Tropical algae may respond well to acidification, affecting coral reefs the algae may overgrow.
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NSF ocean acidification grant awardees will develop compact new ocean instruments.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

The National Science Foundation: Ancient ocean currents may have changed pace and intensity of ice ages

Slowing of currents may have flipped switch

About 950,000 years ago, North Atlantic currents, Northern Hemisphere ice sheets underwent changes. Credit and Larger Version

June 26, 2014

Climate scientists have long tried to explain why ice-age cycles became longer and more intense some 900,000 years ago, switching from 41,000-year cycles to 100,000-year cycles.

In a paper published this week in the journal Science, researchers report that the deep ocean currents that move heat around the globe stalled or may have stopped at that time, possibly due to expanding ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere.

"The research is a breakthrough in understanding a major change in the rhythm of Earth's climate, and shows that the ocean played a central role," says Candace Major, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.

The slowing currents increased carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage in the oceans, leaving less CO₂ in the atmosphere. That kept temperatures cold and kicked the climate system into a new phase of colder, but less frequent, ice ages, the scientists believe.

"The oceans started storing more carbon dioxide for a longer period of time," says Leopoldo Pena, the paper's lead author and a paleoceanographer at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). "Our evidence shows that the oceans played a major role in slowing the pace of the ice ages and making them more severe."

The researchers reconstructed the past strength of Earth's system of ocean currents by sampling deep-sea sediments off the coast of South Africa, where powerful currents originating in the North Atlantic Ocean pass on their way to Antarctica.

How vigorously those currents moved can be inferred by how much North Atlantic water made it that far, as measured by isotope ratios of the element neodymium bearing the signature of North Atlantic seawater.

Like tape recorders, the shells of ancient plankton incorporate these seawater signals through time, allowing scientists to approximate when currents grew stronger and when weaker.

Over the last 1.2 million years, the conveyor-like currents strengthened during warm periods and lessened during ice ages, as previously thought.

But at about 950,000 years ago, ocean circulation slowed significantly and stayed weak for 100,000 years.

During that period the planet skipped an interglacial--the warm interval between ice ages. When the system recovered, it entered a new phase of longer, 100,000-year ice age cycles.

After this turning point, deep ocean currents remained weak during ice ages, and ice ages themselves became colder.

"Our discovery of such a major breakdown in the ocean circulation system was a big surprise," said paper co-author Steven Goldstein, a geochemist at LDEO. "It allowed the ice sheets to grow when they should have melted, triggering the first 100,000-year cycle."

Ice ages come and go at predictable intervals based on the changing amount of sunlight that falls on the planet, due to variations in Earth's orbit around the sun.

Orbital changes alone, however, are not enough to explain the sudden switch to longer ice age intervals.

According to one earlier hypothesis for the transition, advancing glaciers in North America stripped away soils in Canada, causing thicker, longer-lasting ice to build up on the remaining bedrock.

Building on that idea, the researchers believe that the advancing ice might have triggered the slowdown in deep ocean currents, leading the oceans to vent less carbon dioxide, which suppressed the interglacial that should have followed.

"The ice sheets must have reached a critical state that switched the ocean circulation system into a weaker mode," said Goldstein.

Neodymium, a key component of cellphones, headphones, computers and wind turbines, also offers a good way of measuring the vigor of ancient ocean currents.

Goldstein and colleagues had used neodymium ratios in deep-sea sediment samples to show that ocean circulation slowed during past ice ages.

They used the same method to show that changes in climate preceded changes in ocean circulation.

A trace element in Earth's crust, neodymium washes into the oceans through erosion from the continents, where natural radioactive decay leaves a signature unique to the land mass from which it originated.

When Goldstein and Lamont colleague Sidney Hemming pioneered this method in the late 1990s, they rarely worried about surrounding neodymium contaminating their samples.

The rise of consumer electronics has changed that.

"I used to say you could do sample processing for neodymium analysis in a parking lot," said Goldstein. "Not anymore."

-NSF-

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

cdybas@nsf.gov
Kim Martineau, LDEO, (845) 365-8708,

kmartine@ldeo.columbia.edu

Related WebsitesNSF Grant: Late Quaternary Variability of the Agulhas Thermohaline Valve from Nd Isotopes in Planktonic Foraminifera:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1031198&HistoricalAwards=false
International Ocean Discovery Program:

 http://www.iodp.org/

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) 2014, its budget is $7.2 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/

 

Ocean currents slowed 950,000 years ago, triggering colder but less frequent ice ages.
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Scientists (pictured: Leo Pena) analyzed fossil plankton shells to reconstruct ocean circulation.
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In an Ultra Clean Lab, neodymium isotopes in fossils were isolated and measured.
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The scientific drillship JOIDES Resolution was used as a platform to collect deep-ocean sediment.
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The researchers' findings are described in the June 27 issue of Science.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF)

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@Hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - Climate change may worsen summertime ozone pollution

Americans face 70 percent increase in unhealthy ozone levels by 2050

Ozone pollution across the continental U.S. will become worse as global temperatures rise. Credit and Larger Version

May 5, 2014

Ozone pollution across the continental United States will become far more difficult to keep in check as temperatures rise, according to new research results.

The study shows that Americans face the risk of a 70 percent increase in unhealthy summertime ozone levels by 2050.

The results appear online this week in a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, published by the American Geophysical Union.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Warmer temperatures and other changes in the atmosphere related to a changing climate, including higher atmospheric levels of methane, spur chemical reactions that increase overall levels of ozone.

Unlike ozone in the stratosphere, which benefits life on Earth by blocking ultraviolet radiation from the sun, ground-level ozone can trigger a number of health problems.

These range from coughing and throat irritation to more serious aggravation of asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.

Even short periods of unhealthy ozone levels can cause local death rates to rise. Ozone pollution also damages crops and other plants.

Unless emissions of specific pollutants associated with the formation of ozone are sharply cut, most of the continental United States will experience more summer days with unhealthy air by 2050, the research shows.

Heavily polluted locations in parts of the East, Midwest and West Coast, in which ozone already frequently exceeds recommended levels, could face unhealthy summer air in most years.

"It doesn't matter where you are in the United States, climate change has the potential to make your air worse," said National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Gabriele Pfister, lead scientist on the study.

In addition to NCAR, the paper co-authors are from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; University of Colorado, Boulder; and North-West University in South Africa.

"A warming planet doesn't just mean rising temperatures, it also means risking more summertime pollution and the health effects that come with it," said Pfister.

However, the research also showed that a sharp reduction in the emissions of certain pollutants would lead to dramatically decreased levels of ozone even as temperatures warm.

The research is one of the first of its type to be conducted with new, highly advanced geoscience supercomputing capabilities.

"Understanding future changes in surface ozone over the summer has tremendous implications for air quality and human health," said Anjuli Bamzai, a program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research through NSF's Decadal and Regional Climate Prediction using Earth System Models (EaSM) Program.

"Through a series of 'what if' simulations," said Bamzai, "atmospheric chemists, climate modelers, regional modelers and developers of emissions scenarios demonstrate that a balance of emission controls can counteract the increases in future temperatures, emissions and solar radiation that in turn lead to decreases in surface ozone."

 

Ozone and heat

Ozone pollution is not emitted directly. It forms as a result of chemical reactions that take place between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight.

These gases come from human activities such as combustion of coal and oil, as well as natural sources such as emissions from plants.

To examine the effects of climate change on ozone pollution, Pfister and colleagues looked at two scenarios.

In one, emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from human activities would continue at current levels through 2050.

In the other, emissions would be cut by 60-70 percent. Both scenarios assumed continued greenhouse gas emissions with significant warming.

The researchers found that, if emissions continue at present-day rates, the number of eight-hour periods in which ozone would exceed 75 parts per billion (ppb) would jump by 70 percent on average across the United States by 2050.

The 75 ppb level over eight hours is the threshold that is considered unhealthy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (The agency is considering tightening the standard to a value between 65 and 70 ppb over eight hours.)

Overall, the study found that, 90 percent of the time, ozone levels would range from 30 to 87 ppb in 2050 compared with an estimated 31 to 79 ppb at present.

Although the range itself shifts only slightly, the result is a much larger number of days above the threshold considered unhealthy.

There are three primary reasons for the increase in ozone with climate change:

• Chemical reactions in the atmosphere that produce ozone occur more rapidly at higher temperatures.
• Plants emit more volatile organic compounds at higher temperatures, which can increase ozone formation if mixed with pollutants from human sources.
• Methane, which is increasing in the atmosphere, contributes to increased ozone globally and will enhance baseline levels of surface ozone across the United States.

In the second scenario, Pfister and colleagues found that sharp reductions in nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds could reduce ozone pollution even as the climate warms.

In fact, 90 percent of the time, ozone levels would range from 27 to 55 ppb.

The number of instances when ozone pollution would exceed the 75 ppb level dropped to less than 1 percent of current cases.

"Our work confirms that reducing emissions of ozone precursors would have an enormous effect on the air we all breathe," Pfister said.

Pfister and a nationwide scientific team expect to learn more about the sources, chemistry and movement of air pollutants this summer when they launch a major field experiment known as FRAPPÉ along Colorado's Front Range.

 

The role of supercomputing

The study was among the first conducted on the new 1.5 petaflops Yellowstone supercomputer. The IBM system, operated by NCAR and supported by funding from NSF and the University of Wyoming, is one of the world's most powerful computers dedicated to research in the atmospheric and related sciences.

"High resolution models can consume significant time and resources on massive computers, but as shown in this research, they're often required for accurate regional ozone projections," said Irene Qualters, division director for Advanced Computing Infrastructure at NSF.

"Running these models wouldn't have been possible without the parallel processing power of the Yellowstone supercomputer, a critical part of NSF's cyberinfrastructure.

"The work will also help other researchers in related climate topics determine scenarios where coarse resolution is sufficient and, conversely, where high resolution is needed."

Thanks to its computing power, the scientists were able to simulate pollution levels hour-by-hour for 39 hypothetical summers.

This allowed the team to account for year-to-year variations in meteorological conditions, such as hot and dry vs. cool and wet, thereby getting a more detailed and statistically significant picture of future pollution levels.

To simulate the interplay of global climate with regional pollution conditions, the scientists turned to two of the world's leading atmospheric models, both based at NCAR and developed through collaborations in the atmospheric sciences community.

They used the Community Earth System Model, funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy and NSF, to simulate global climate as well as atmospheric chemistry conditions.

They also used an air chemistry version of the multiagency Weather Research and Forecasting Model to obtain a more detailed picture of regional ozone levels.

Even with Yellowstone's advanced computing speed, it took months to complete the complex simulations.

"This research would not have been possible even just a couple of years ago," said Pfister.

"Without the new computing power made possible by Yellowstone, you cannot depict the necessary detail of future changes in air chemistry over small areas, including the urban centers where most Americans live."

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF-GEO, (703) 292-7734, cdybas@nsf.gov
Aaron Dubrow, NSF-CISE, (703) 292-4489, adubrow@nsf.gov
David Hosansky, NCAR, (303) 497-8611, hosansky@ucar.edu
Nanci Bompey, AGU, (202) 777-7524, nbompey@agu.org

Related WebsitesNSF Grant: Collaborative Research: Developing a Next-Generation Approach to Regional Climate Prediction at High Resolution:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1048829&HistoricalAwards=false

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) 2014, its budget is $7.2 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/

If you breathe the air, this alert is for you: Ozone levels affect all of us.
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In future decades, ozone advisories are likely to be issued far more frequently.
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How does ground level ozone form? Through complex chemistry from atmosphere to city street.
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A warming planet means more summertime air pollution and the health effects that come with it.
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On high ozone level days, mow when the sun is low, advises the City of Fort Collins, Colo.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF)

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!