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This page contains previous stories from the Clearinghouse’s Highlights & Home webpage. Each link will be kept here until the information is integrated into the site.
Arctic sea ice melting: No record this year
In August, the Associated Press reported that “experts expect new low” in sea ice (see the New York Times version, which is headlined with a photo of a swimming polar bear), citing five scientists who agree that what is happening in the Arctic constitutes a “tipping point.” However, in mid-September, the NYT reported that “annual summer retreat of the sea ice cloaking the Arctic Ocean appears to have ended with the ice not quite matching last year’s extraordinary recession.”
Associated Press on melting of Arctic sea ice: “experts expect new low”
The New York Times version of this story can be found here. The article is headlined with a photo of a swimming polar bear, and cites five scientists who agree that what is happening in the Arctic constitutes a “tipping point.”
EarthJustice sues to put pika on endangered species list
In late August, the conservation group EarthJustice sued the Department of the Interior to add the American pika to the endangered species list due to the threat of climate change (stories at Grist, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Guardian). This action follows the submission in October 2007 of a petition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service by the Center for Biological Diversity (see story at Exit Stage Right). For background on the pika, see this WWF page. For legal documents and other information, go to EarthJustice and do a search for “pika.”
EPA report on adaptation for “climate sensitive” ecosystems
Quickly following the release of a “synthesis & assessment product” (SAP) on The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States (see previous Highlight for a blurb and links), the U.S. Climate Change Science Program has put forth the latest SAP: Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources. From the press release: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a report that can help reduce the potential impacts of climate change on estuaries, forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and other sensitive ecosystems….To develop this assessment, scientists studied national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, national estuaries, and marine protected areas – all protected by the federal government. The report takes a unique approach by using the management goals set for each protected area to understand what strategies will increase the resilience of each ecosystem.”
Climate change reduces Caribou capacity to find plant food
An article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (7 September 2008) documents the increasing difficulty of Greenland caribou to find forage as they move across the landscape. Although it might seem that large herbivores are sufficiently mobile to track down resources, the “trophic mismatch” between plants and herbivores revealed “heretofore unexpected adverse consequences of climatic warming for herbivore population ecology.” See the abstract along with a review.
Conference report on “Conservation & Climate Change"
In June 2008, some one hundred individuals gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace in Washington, DC, to consider “how the land and biodiversity conservation community can effectively devise and implement effective adaptive management strategies to address the ongoing impacts of climate change on conservation land and water resources, as well as agriculture and rural communities.” The meeting was the latest in a series of “Conservation Leadership Dialogues,” hosted by the Lincoln Land Institute and organized by the Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest. The final report of the meeting summarizes the key findings and recommendations, and see commentary on the issue and conference by Lincoln Institute’s Anthony Flint.
U.S. government report on climate change’s effects on natural resources
From the U.S. Climate Change Science Program: “Published May 2008, the Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 (SAP 4.3): The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States is the most extensive examination of the impacts of climate change on important U.S. ecosystems undertaken to date. SAP 4.3 is one of a series of 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products being produced under the auspices of the U.S. CCSP, which coordinates the climate change research activities of U.S. government agencies.” Coming off this report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now formally seeking public comments on its draft “Strategic Plan for Climate Change Research, Education, and Extension” (see request in the Federal Register).
Science policy forum examines assisted migration
A group of seven scientists working on the relationship between climate change and biodiversity have published a “policy forum” article in Science entitled “Assisted Colonization and Rapid Climate Change.” Arguing that “resource managers and policy-makers must contemplate moving species to sites where they do not currently occur or have not been known to occur in recent history,” the authors present a “decision framework that can be used to outline potential actions under a suite of possible future climate scenarios.” See also commentary from the World Resources Institute, and for a range of articles on “assisted migration” (which, at least up until the publication of the article in science, was the more common term) see the listing by the Torrey Guardians.
Climate change affects long-studied predator-prey interaction
The Washington Post recently reported on wolf-moose population dynamics on Isle Royale, Michigan. At the end of July the National Park Service will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Isle Royale Wolf/Moose Study, “which has helped reveal how predator-prey interactions can affect entire ecosystems.” But as the Post reported, “the anniversary may not be a happy one, as both populations are close to their lowest-ever levels and have been feeling the effects of Earth's rising temperatures.”
Arid Lands Newsletter focuses on climate change & desertification
The June issue of the Arid Lands Newsletter focuses on “desertification and local resilience,” with several articles highlighting the role of climate change in desertification.
Oregon Wild release report on global warming, carbon, and forests
The conservation organization Oregon Wild has released the report, The straight facts on forests, carbon, and global warming. The report concludes that the “best way to think of the carbon potential of forests is not as carbon sponges, but as carbon reservoirs…and not to think of the carbon in forests at any single point in time, but strive to maintain a high average amount of carbon stored over long periods of time and across large forest landscapes. Old-growth forests are one of the most secure forms of carbon storage, while converting old-growth to plantations causes a significant net loss of carbon to the atmosphere.” A related slide presentation can be found here.
Heinz Center releases fact sheet on ecosystems & climate change
This fall, Island Press will release the State of the Nation’s Ecosystems 2008 report. The report comes out of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, which has released a 6-page preview entitled: Focus on Climate Change. The pamphlet contains a particularly useful summary of various types of climate change indicators.
Special issue of Endangered Species Research to focus on climate change
An upcoming issue of the journal Endangered Species Research will be thematically focused on “Incorporating climate change into endangered species conservation.” A number of articles-including useful review articles on migratory species and mammalian extinction risks-have already been posted on the site and are downloadable without subscription.
Science covers forest-climate change dynamics
The June 15 issue of Science featured a special section on “Forests in Flux,” focusing on the relationship between forests & climate change (see table of contents). Of the eleven articles, Gordon B. Bonan’s review article on the dynamics between forests and climate change is particularly useful. In addition, Science has released an online video on the topic (available without subscription).
WWF-U.S. on a global approach to species conservation
A June press release from WWF-U.S. is headlined: “Senior WWF official Urges Congress to Embrace Global Approach to Species Conservation: Efforts to Protect Single Species Fall Short by Failing To Address Larger Issues Threating Long-term Survival.” Although not strongly highlighted, climate change figures throughout the materials associated with WWF’s advocacy on H.R. 4455, a bill to improve the U.S. FWS’s Wildlife Without Borders program.
Climate change affecting caribou’s reproductive success?
In an upcoming issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: B, Post and Forchhammer find a “trophic mismatch” between caribou movements and peak resource availability. Focusing on caribou populations in West Greenland, the study concludes that by not keeping pace with the advance of the plant-growing season, “offspring mortality has risen and offspring production has dropped fourfold.” [Posted 23 May 2008]
Analysis highlights the effects of climate change on tropical insects?
In the May issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Deutsch et al. argue that tropical insects may be at greater risk than those of higher latitudes. They suggest that “the greatest extinction risks from global warming may be in the tropics, where biological diversity is also greatest.” [Posted 23 May 2008]
Experimental evidence of evolutionary change to climate change in annual plant
Using stored seeds, three scientists from UC-Irvine compared the growth of ancestral and descendent genotypes of the annual plant, Brassica rapa. Divided in time by a multiyear drought, the two genotypes displayed differing timing of the onset of flowering. “Natural selection for drought escape thus appears to have caused adaptive evolution in just a few generations.” [Posted 23 May 2008]
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