Ice Cores and Climate Change

While everyone's on their winter break I thought I'd share a great video on how scientists use ice cores to study climate change. The video takes place in Antarctica. The U.S research community is conducting a deep ice coring project in West Antarctica for studies of climate, ice sheet history and cryobiology. This project is collecting a deep ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) ice flow divide and integrating approximately 20 separate but synergistic projects to analyze the ice and interpret the records.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Thanks! Megan

Climate and Habitat

This is a link to an interesting article from Scientific American about a forest they are protecting in Canada. They are putting aside a large tract of land to protect both the animals that live there and the climate by keeping the area as a carbon sink.

Here is the link to the article. One of the best ways to offset the impacts of a changing climate is healthy habitats.

Thanks, Megan

Can Climate Change Cause Conservation?

A unprecedented effort to set aside huge swathes of Canada's boreal forest includes--for the first time--global warming mitigation as a key objective

By Christopher Pala and The Daily Climate  | Monday, July 19, 2010 | 0

GUARDING THE GROWTH: A new conservation effort will protect Canadian boreal forests and help mitigate climate change, experts say. Image: NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY

 

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories – The scale of the conservation effort is staggering: 470,000 square miles – half the size of the Louisiana Purchase, five times the size of the U.S. national park system – forever shielded from logging, mining and damming.

It is part of an ongoing and unprecedented drive to protect Canada's northern boreal forests, peat bogs, wetlands and tundra – a drive that is also changing how land managers view their stewardship, civic leaders approach economic growth and companies view their bottom line. And for the first time, some of the protections have a climate component.

"It’s our gift to future generations," said Alan Latourelle, chief executive officer of Parks Canada, the agency managing the nation's parks, which is in the process of doubling their size. "We’re the last generation that can do that."

Preserving wildlife, notably migratory birds and the iconic woodland caribou, is the paramount purpose. But climate change mitigation is part of the equation: Canada's peat bogs and forests, if left undisturbed, store a tremendous amount of carbon – 233 billion tons, according to some estimates, or almost one third of the carbon stored in the Earth's atmosphere. More than 80 percent of that is stored within the country's boreal region, and politicians are beginning to write protections for that carbon into the law.

"This is the first time in Canada, and quite possibly the world, where a government is creating a law that intends to protect carbon," said Janet Sumner, president of the Wildlands League, an Ontario non-profit.

The conservation drive, which started over a decade ago, is being carried out on separate tracks by the three provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba; the Northwest Territories; a key logging industry association; environmentalists and Parks Canada.

The myriad parts are working toward two main goals: The first will preserve half of Canada’s northern boreal region, about 470,000 square miles, by creating a network of parks off-limits to loggers, miners and other developers. The second will ensure that the other half is developed under stricter ecological standards. The two goals involve almost 940,000 square miles – more than a quarter of Canada's land mass. And while only a small fraction of the necessary regulations are in place now, conservationists hope to have the land fully protected within 15 years.

"Canada is setting a world record in the contest to save the world’s last great forests," said Steve Kallick, Director of the Pew Environment Group’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign. "With this much of the forest protected, there’s going to be a natural regulator on the throttle of growth that will avoid the kind of climb, stall and crash cycle of development that you typically see on frontiers."

A canoe trip on the north arm of the Great Slave Lake, deep in the Northwest Territories, offers a glimpse of what this means practically. Jason Charlwood, a conservation specialist with Ducks Unlimited, points to hundreds of water birds, freshly arrived from the south, sitting on one of the spring’s last pieces of floating ice. The cluster includes majestic tundra swans and red-faced sandhill cranes, along with green-wing teals, lesser scaups, pintails, northern shovelers, widgeons, and the ubiquitous green-necked mallards.

"This place is really important for them" he whispered, noting that the water is full of algae and small insects that migratory birds gobble up to give them the strength to reach their nesting grounds in the tundra farther north.

As a result, conservationists and the Tlicho nation have asked the federal government to designate this spot, and the 255 square miles around it, as the North Arm National Wilderness Area. In three years, the place is expected to be fully protected.

The threat here is development that could follow the construction of a pipeline likely to be built along the Mackenzie River from the Great Slave Lake to rich gas fields near its estuary in the Arctic Ocean. The result: While aboriginal hunting will continue, any development activity that is allowed cannot interfere with the conservation of wildlife.

The seeds for the conservation effort were planted in 1996 a few miles away in Yellowknife, when the Northwest Territories began a process call the Protected Area Strategy. The aim was to turn nearly a quarter of the territories' land into wilderness areas. The process brings together First Nations, as Native Canadians are called here, conservation biologists, business interests and various layers of government. The first three agree on what to save, and the governments enshrine that into law.

The conservation effort is a marked departure from the paradigm that has driven preservation to date in Canada's southern half – a philosophy that caribou biologist Justina Ray, head of the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, describes as "develop what we want and try to salvage the best of what’s left." Whether it will work depends on how it’s implemented, she adds.

Overall, the effort recasts how one of the world's last intact ecosystems will be preserved and managed. All indications suggest the northern latitudes are changing far more rapidly than expected in response to climate change. As more of the boreal opens to development, the protections become crucial, proponents say.

One of the package's more progressive elements is its inclusion of carbon mitigation. Ontario explicitly mentions carbon sequestration and storage as an objective in its conservation plan. And an accord between a loggers trade group, the Forest Products Association of Canada, and environmental groups calls on industry to reduce greenhouse gas "along the full life cycle from forest to end of product life."

The effort does have its detractors.

In Ontario, logging communities have denounced the Far North Act as harmful to their livelihood. Some First Nations object to a secret deal between loggers and environmentalists.

But logging is in some ways a sidebar. Proponents say the Far North Act will have little effect on the timber industry because it affects an area farther north where trees are relatively small, grow less densely and are not economical to harvest.

Rather, the main threat to the region is the so-called Ring of Fire, an area holding a wealth of minerals waiting to be mined as warmer weather and depletion of cheaper sources increase their attractiveness. The new law ensures that such development, when it happens, will do the least possible damage to wildlife and carbon stocks, proponents say.

"Conservation on this scale," said Pew's Kallick, "helps assure that growth cannot overdraft ecological balances, that an ample reserve of natural resource capital will remain in the bank for future generations to use."

Christopher Pala is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who has traveled the world covering various topics. He is author of The Oddest Place on Earth: Rediscovering the North Pole. DailyClimate.org is a nonprofit news service that covers climate change.
This article originally appeared at The Daily Climate, the climate change news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.

Pictures from the Aquarium

Show me your fish Face

Attack of the giant gator

There's a frog on my head!

Luna the Albino Alligator

Wood Duck

Burrfish

Copperhead

Keela met a stingray. She was a bit nervous

Yellow Stingray that startled Keela

Touching the stringrays

 

We met Scuba Santa

Watching the fish get fed

Baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Dustin and the loggerhead skull

We love baby turtles

Evan as a fiddlercrab

Keela

Jessica

Dustin

Sea Horses

Going to see the cold stunned green sea turtles. The aquarium helped rescue 17 turtles. The cold stunned turtles are about a month earlier than last year. Another sign of more extreme winters

Some of the cold stunned turtles

 The students hiding under the bushes that are shaped by the wind

The students blowing in the wind

 Posing in front of the sea wall that protects the historic fort

North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher

Dustin, Jessica, Keela, Evan, and Sarah

Saturday we toured the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, and came face-to-face with many animals directly affected by climate change. First, we learned about the base of the Cape Fear River, Raven Rock, where species such as Striped Bass live. We discovered that as climate changes, salt water moves up the river, causing freshwater fish to move farther north. As we progressed through the aquarium, we saw Wood Ducks, Alligators, and Newts, all animals that would be affected by climate change. Alligators, for example, are in their northern-most range in North Carolina. If the climate becomes warmer, they could potentially move further north, and increase in size in North Carolina.

After visiting the Aquarium, we observed first-hand the ineffectiveness of sea walls and sandbags. The Fort Fisher Historic Site has put up a large sea-wall consisting of granite blocks. This merely holds the sand in place in one area as it migrates quicker in another area. Where the wall is there is very little beach, with the water coming up to the rocks. The other ineffective structure we observed was sand bags. They are enormous, and if left long enough, the bag will begin to break apart and pieces will go into the ocean, a hazard to many organisms. The sandbags serve their purpose for the houses which they sustain, which otherwise would be underwater by now. But I was left to wonder if there might be more eco-friendly solutions to this problem. The group which bought the sand bags has had them for 10 years, surely enough time to grow some sand dunes! 

Overall, the human impacts upon the beach are not good for the environment. We also observed some playful dolphins and birds off the coast, having fun in such ravaging weather. I couldn't help but wonder what will happen to them if somebody doesn't do something soon. This is a huge problem, and we all have to do our part to stop it.

More pictures to come soon.

Thanks~ Evan

Jessica, Keela, Evan, and Dustin with the Coastal America logo.

Today at the aquarium

Today the students came to the aquarium. They're going to write up what we talked about but I wanted to share a few pictures.
Thanks
Megan

 

Seasons Eating from all of us at the Cape Fear Student Delegation!

scuba santa

Thanks~ Megan

Our Trip to Holly Shelter

Recently, the CAP students and teachers went to Holly Shelter to learn about how climate change affects this land and species living on the land. One of the trees that is found on Holly Shelter is the Long Leaf Pine. 

Longleaf pine forest

The long leaf pine flourishes in dry environments and is affected by climate change. As the temperature increases, sea-levels also rise. This will cause water to push into the habitats of the long leaf pines, which will, consequently, cause them to die because they need dry environments in order to live.

Keith and Katy teaching the students about the long leaf pine ecosystem

As the long leaf pines disappear, species that depend on these trees also start to disappear. For instance, the red-cockaded woodpeckers live in the long leaf pines and as the sea levels rise and cause the pines to disappear, a home is taken away from the red-cockaded woodpeckers, and they could potentially become extinct. 

Red Cockaded Woodpecker Hole in a pine tree

Keith and Katy teaching the students about the red-cockaded woodpecker

At Holly Shelter we also learned about Venus Flytraps which only grow wild in South and North Carolina (within a 100 mile radius of Wilmington NC) and need wet land to survive. Venus Flytraps are affected by climate change, as well. As the climate changes there is a potential for a drought, which can end up killing all of the Venus Flytraps. 

Venus Flytraps

 Other carnivorous plants we saw included pitcher plants and sundews.

Yellow pitcher plants

Purple pitcher plants

Sundews. This plant is about the size of a dime.

Jessica, Dustin, and Keela with a pitcher plant

Another animal that is affected by climate change are frogs. We saw a pond that the park had created trying to reintroduce the gopher frog.

Overall, climate change affects not only humans, but plants, and animals.

Dustin, Jessica, and Keela in front of the river

Dustin thought the girls could use a swim

Look! Over there!

Megan, Jessica, Bryan, Keela, and Dustin. Sadly, we were missing Evan

~Jessica

Evan's Action Plan and video storyline

This is Evan's outline for our Action Plan:

The issue we selected: Climate change on a coastal level.

Our Target Audience: General Audiences

Our Desired Outcome: To educate others about the impacts humans have upon the natural cycle of climate change, and how it affects our coastal environment. We also hope to help educate the public on eco-friendly practices which will slow this process.

Our Implementation Plan: To create an informative video which will educate the public about this growing issues. The video will include opinions from experts and non-experts in all fields. 

This is what I think should be included in the video:

Main Content Objective: While Climate Change is accelerated by human actions, it can be slowed by eco-friendly decisions and habits.

Hook: Video of little kids conducting an experiment where they raise the water level on a play-doh island. Then an announcer saying: "Imagine if this island was our earth..."

Sequence:

1. What is climate change? (Little kid interviews/the science explanation)
2. Ex. of Climate Change Locally
1. Meteorologists
2. Fishermen
3. Solemn Mood at this Point
3. The Future (what will happen if we keep this up, (Possibly a future world skit?) Model/Demonstration of some kind
4. WAIT! YOU CAN HELP! (Ways for people to help)
1. 10 Best Ways to stop climate change
2. Clips from experts and visuals to accompany 10 things.
5. Finale! :) 
1. Wrap up, tie everything together
2. Summary
3. "Please do your part. Thank You" 

An article on Coastal Wetland in North Carolina

This is an article published this week that emphasizes why our project is so important. I linked it to the original article if you want more information. Thanks Megan

Many coastal wetlands likely to disappear this century, scientists say

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2010) — Many coastal wetlands worldwide -- including several on the U.S. Atlantic coast -- may be more sensitive than previously thought to climate change and sea-level rise projections for the 21st century.

U.S. Geological Survey scientists made this conclusion from an international research modeling effort published December 1 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Scientists identified conditions under which coastal wetlands could survive rising sea level.

Using a rapid sea-level rise scenario, most coastal wetlands worldwide will disappear near the end of the 21st century. In contrast, under the slow sea-level rise projection, wetlands with low sediment availability and low tidal ranges are vulnerable and may drown. However, in the slow sea-level rise projection, wetlands with higher sediment availability would be more likely to survive.

Several coastal marshes along the east coast of the United States, for example, have limited sediment supplies and are likely to disappear this century. Vulnerable east coast marshes include the Plum Island Estuary (the largest estuary in New England) and coastal wetlands in North Carolina's Albemarle-Pamlico Sound (the second-largest estuary in the United States).

"Accurate information about the adaptability of coastal wetlands to accelerations in sea-level rise, such as that reported in this study, helps narrow the uncertainties associated with their disappearance," said USGS scientist Glenn Guntenspergen, an author of this report. "This research is essential for allowing decision makers to best manage local tradeoffs between economic and conservation concerns."

"Previous assessments of coastal wetland responses to sea-level rise have been constrained because they did not consider the ability of wetlands to naturally modify their physical environment for adaptation," said USGS scientist Matt Kirwan, an author of this report. "Failure to incorporate the interactions of inundation, vegetation and sedimentation in wetlands limits the usefulness of past assessments."

USGS scientists specifically identified the sediment levels and tidal ranges (difference between high and low tide) necessary for marshes to survive sea-level rise. As water floods a wetland and flows through its vegetation, sediment is carried from upstream and deposited on the wetland's surface, allowing it to gain elevation. High tidal ranges allow for better sediment delivery, and the higher sediment concentrations in the water allow wetlands to build more elevation.

Coastal wetlands provide critical services such as absorbing energy from coastal storms, preserving shorelines, protecting human populations and infrastructure, supporting commercial seafood harvests, absorbing pollutants and serving as critical habitat for migratory bird populations. These resources and services will be threatened as sea-level rise inundates wetlands.

The rapid sea-level rise scenario used as the basis for this study is accredited to Stefan Rahmstorf at Potsdam University, one of the contributing authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. The slow sea-level rise projection is from the A1B scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report.

Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by United States Geological Survey.

Journal Reference:

   1. Matthew L. Kirwan, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Andrea D'Alpaos, James T. Morris, Simon M. Mudd, Stijn Temmerman. Limits on the adaptability of coastal marshes to rising sea level. Geophysical Research Letters, 2010; 37 (23) DOI: 10.1029/2010GL045489