Life Sciences Commons^™

London Free Press And Sun Media: Reader Beware Of Bias., Richard B. Philp

Richard B. Philp

Recent articles in the London Free Press, a Sun Media publication, have attempted to discredit environmentalists concerned about climate change and the environmental impact of the Alberta tar sands. Articles by authors with right wing leanings (but not so identified) have appeared in the news pages rather than in the editorial pages where they belong.These have promoted the tar sands and their related pipelines, suggested an American conspiracy to influence public opinion by funding Canadian environmental groups and attempted to resurrect the so-called e-mail scandal from climate scientists. The present paper offers a rebuttal to these claims with supporting references.

Global Effects Of Climate Change On Wildfire: Causal Relationships Of Fire, The Natural Environment And Human Activities, Lindon N. Pronto

Lindon N Pronto

Climate change and human activity is significantly impacting the frequency and severity of wildfires across the globe. Although climate change and human population are the overarching factors affecting wildfires in the current dialogue, the issues are more complex and often not fully understood. These issues range from global temperature increases and severe drought cycles to the relatively new phenomenon of the wildland urban interface (WUI). This is the area where structures are integrated with or immediately surrounded by areas of moderate to high fire risk and are directly linked to fuel types and topographic features. Because climate change is such …

Exploring The Effects Of Hypoxia On Sulfate Reducing Anaerobes, Annaliese K. Jones

Senior Honors Projects

Exploring the Effects of Hypoxia on Sulfate Reducing Anaerobes

Annaliese K. Jones

Sponsor: Bethany Jenkins, Cell and Molecular Biology

As a student about to graduate with a degree in Biological Sciences, I find myself faced with the need to find my own independent research interests and scientific voice. As a result of my interests in the fields of both microbiology and ecology, I am drawn to questions surrounding the role and behavior of microorganisms in the environment. With climate change being an issue capturing the attention of a large portion of the scientific community, I have chosen to focus my …

Bryoecology In The American Southwest: Patterns Of Biodiversity And Responses To Global Change, John Carroll Brinda

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation combines investigation of the large-scale responses of bryophyte species diversity and distribution with small-scale physiological adaptations to global change. These two areas of inquiry are linked because one way to predict plant species responses to global change is to examine their distribution across current ecological gradients produced by factors such as latitude and elevation. By examining these biogeographic patterns one can identify those species that have a narrow tolerance and therefore are most sensitive to change. Selected bryophytes might then be used as indicator species in long-term monitoring programs. Where historical data exist, these can be used to …

Forage News [2011-11], Department Of Plant And Soil Sciences, University Of Kentucky

Forage News

• Brent White is Kentucky Forage Spokesman
• KFGC Presents Awards
• KFGC Nominating Committee Report
• AFGC Coming to Louisville
• Forages at KCA
• Selling & Shipping Hay to Texas and Other Southern Tier States
• Hay Production Changes in Kentucky
• Climate Change Effects on Forage Quality of Kentucky Hay Fields
• Be Alert to Health Risks When Grazing Turnips

Severe 2010 Cold-Water Event Caused Unprecedented Mortality To Corals Of The Florida Reef Tract And Reversed Previous Survivorship Patterns, Diego Lirman, Stephanie Schopmeyer, Derek Manzello, Lewis J. Gramer, William F. Precht, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Kenneth Banks, Brian Barnes, Erich Bartels, Amanda Bourque, James Byrne, Scott Donahue, Janice Duquesnel, Louis Fisher, David S. Gilliam, James C. Hendee, Meaghan E. Johnson, Kerry Maxwell, Erin Mcdevitt, Jamie Monty, Digna Rueda, Rob Ruzicka, Sara Thanner

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Background

Coral reefs are facing increasing pressure from natural and anthropogenic stressors that have already caused significant worldwide declines. In January 2010, coral reefs of Florida, United States, were impacted by an extreme cold-water anomaly that exposed corals to temperatures well below their reported thresholds (16°C), causing rapid coral mortality unprecedented in spatial extent and severity.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Reef surveys were conducted from Martin County to the Lower Florida Keys within weeks of the anomaly. The impacts recorded were catastrophic and exceeded those of any previous disturbances in the region. Coral mortality patterns were directly correlated to in-situ and satellite-derived …

Going All The Way: Phylogeography And Trans-Pacific Divergence Genetics Of Nucella Lima, Lisa Cox

All Theses

Fluctuating climate over the last 2 million years (MY) has repeatedly caused latitudinal shifts in species distributions, fueling the hypothesis that the glacial-interglacial dynamics of the Pleistocene could have driven regional genetic differentiation and potentially speciation. For species whose distributions spanned the entire North Pacific, regional extinction of northern populations during cooler glacial periods may have resulted in isolation and genetic differentiation of eastern and western populations. To test this hypothesis, I gathered genetic data from a rocky shore intertidal gastropod, Nucella lima, whose current (i.e. warm interglacial) distribution spans the entire North Pacific. Mitochondrial DNA sequences are genetically structured …

Identifying Changes In Climatic Trends And The Fingerprints Of Landuse And Landcover Changes In The High Plains Of The Usa, Denis Mutiibwa

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Human activities such as conversion of natural ecosystem to croplands and urban-centers, deforestation and afforestation impact biophysical properties of land surface such as albedo, energy balance, and surface roughness. Alterations in these properties affect the heat and moisture exchanges between the land surface and atmospheric boundary layer. The objectives of this research were; (i) to quantitatively identify the High plains’ regional climate change in temperatures over the period 1895 to 2006, (ii) detect the signatures of anthropogenic forcing of LULC changes on the regional climate change of the High Plains, and (iii) examine the trends in evolving regional latent heat …

Impacts Of Tropospheric Ozone And Climate Change On Net Primary Productivity And Net Carbon Exchange Of China's Forest Ecosystems, Wei Ren, Hanqin Tian, Bo Tao, Arthur Chappelka, Ge Sun, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Mingliang Liu, Guangsheng Chen, Xiaofeng Xu

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

We investigated how ozone pollution and climate change/variability have interactively affected net primary productivity (NPP) and net carbon exchange (NCE) across China's forest ecosystem in the past half century. Using the dynamic land ecosystem model (DLEM) in conjunction with 10-km-resolution gridded historical data sets (tropospheric O3 concentrations, climate variability/change, and other environmental factors such as land-cover/land-use change (LCLUC), increasing CO2 and nitrogen deposition), we conducted nine simulation experiments to: (1) investigate the temporo-spatial patterns of NPP and NCE in China's forest ecosystems from 1961–2005; and (2) quantify the effects of tropospheric O3 pollution alone or in combination with climate variability …

Modeling Plant Ranges Over 75 Years Of Climate Change In California, Usa: Temporal Transferability And Species Traits, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, James H. Thorne, Johnathan A. Greenberg, Hugh D. Safford, Alison R. Mynsberge, Shawn M. Crimmins, Alan K. Swanson

Forest Management Faculty Publications

Species distribution model (SDM) projections under future climate scenarios are increasingly being used to inform resource management and conservation strategies. A critical assumption for projecting climate change responses is that SDMs are transferable through time, an assumption that is largely untested because investigators often lack temporally independent data for assessing transferability. Further, understanding how the ecology of species influences temporal transferability is critical yet almost wholly lacking. This raises two questions. (1) Are SDM projections transferable in time? (2) Does temporal transferability relate to species ecological traits? To address these questions we developed SDMs for 133 vascular plant species using …

Climate Change And Community Dynamics: A Hierarchical Bayesian Model Of Resource-Driven Changes In A Desert Rodent Community, Glenda M. Yenni

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Predicting effects of climate change on species persistence often assumes that those species are responding to abiotic effects alone. However, biotic interactions between community members may affect species’ ability to respond to abiotic changes. Latent Gaussian models of resource availability using precipitation and NDVI and accounting for spatial autocorrelation and rodent group-level uncertainty in the process are developed to detect differences in seasons, groups, and the experimental removal of one group. Precipitation and NDVI have overall positive effects on rodent energy use as expected, but meaningful differences were detected. Differences in the importance of seasonality when the dominant group was …

Super-Aggregations Of Krill And Humpback Whales In Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctic Peninsula, Douglas P. Nowacek, Ari S. Friedlaender, Patrick N. Halpin, Elliott L. Hazen, David W. Johnston, Andrew J. Read, Boris Espinasse, Meng Zhou, Yiwu Zhu

Environmental, Earth, and Ocean Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Ecological relationships of krill and whales have not been explored in the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), and have only rarely been studied elsewhere in the Southern Ocean. In the austral autumn we observed an extremely high density (5.1 whales per km²) of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding on a super-aggregation of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in Wilhelmina Bay. The krill biomass was approximately 2 million tons, distributed over an area of 100 km² at densities of up to 2000 individuals m⁻³; reports of such ‘super-aggregations’ of krill have been absent in …

Climate And Land Use Controls Over Terrestrial Water Use Efficiency In Monsoon Asia, Hanqin Tian, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Guangsheng Chen, Xiaofeng Xu, Mingliang Liu, Wei Ren, Bo Tao, Ge Sun, Shufen Pan, Jiyuan Liu

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

Much concern has been raised regarding how and to what extent climate change and intensive human activities have altered water use efficiency (WUE, amount of carbon uptake per unit of water use) in monsoon Asia. By using a process-based ecosystem model [dynamic land ecosystem model (DLEM)], we examined effects of climate change, land use/cover change, and land management practices (i.e. irrigation and nitrogen fertilization) on WUE in terrestrial ecosystems of monsoon Asia during 1948–2000. Our simulations indicated that due to climate variability/change, WUE in the entire area decreased by 3·6% during the study period, with the largest decrease of 6·8% …

Crop Updates 2011 - Nutrition, Precision Agriculture & Climate And Forecasting, Deb Archdeacon, Andrew Gulliver, David Cullen, Qifu Ma, Richard Bell, Ross Brennan, Craig Scanlan, Wen Chen, Geoff Anderson, Mike Bolland, Peter Rees, Sandy Alexander, Frank D'Emden, Stephen Davies, Breanne Best, Louise Barton, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Ralph Kiese, Daniel Murphy, Peter Newman, Roger Mandel, Roger Lawes, Michael Robertson, Derk Bakker, Jeremy Lemon, Alison Lacey, John Paul Collins, Glen Riethmuller, Fiona H. Evans, David Stephens, Caroline Peek, Tim Scanlon

Crop Updates

This session covers sixteen papers from different authors:

Nutrition

1. Balance® used in conventional cropping practice with half of the upfront fertiliser rate can sustain crop yield and build soil biological fertility, Deb Archdeacon1, Andrew Gulliver2 and David Cullen2, 1Agronomica, Wellington Mill, WA, 2Custom Composts, Nambeelup, WA

2. Effects of potassium (K) supply on plant growth, potassium uptake and grain Yield in wheat grown in grey sand, Qifu Ma1, Richard Bell1, Ross Brennan2 and Craig Scanlan2, 1School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 2Department of Agriculture and Food

3. Improving fertiliser management: redefining the …

The Heat Is On: A Look Into New England's Future Climate, David Nicosia

Wrack Lines

What will New England's climate be like over the next century, given global warming and climate change? Could New England lose its colorful fall foliage?

Evaluating The Influence Of Disturbance And Climate On Red Spruce (Picea Rubens Sarg.) Community Dynamics At Its Southern Range Margin, Relena R. Ribbons

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Picea rubens(red spruce) populations experienced a synchronous rangewide decline in growth and vigor starting in the 1960’s, which was likely caused by climate change or environmental disturbances (e.g., acid deposition); However, it is yet unknown if populations continue to decline or have recovered. In the context of global warming, red spruce is a species of concern because it is at its southern continuous range margin in Massachusetts. This study uses tree-ring data coupled with population data from permanent plots to quantify the status of red spruce in Massachusetts. Tree cores were extracted from red spruce and used to examine …

Warming Alters Photosynthetic Rates Of Sub-Boreal Peatland Vegetation, Arvo Aljaste

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Boreal peatlands are important in the global carbon cycle. Despite covering only 3% of the global land area, peatlands store approximately one third of all soil carbon. Temperature is one of the major drivers in peatland carbon cycling as it affects both plant production and CO₂ fluxes from soils. However, it is relatively unknown how boreal peatland plant photosynthesis is affected by higher temperatures. Therefore, we measured plant photosynthetic rates under two different warming treatments in a poor fen in Northern Michigan. Eighteen plots were established that were divided into three treatments: control, open-top chamber (OTC) warming and infrared …

Biological Reserves Under Climate Change; A Case Study In Brazil's Atlantic Rainforest, Maria Amin

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Carbon Sinks: Can Forest Carbon Management Serve As A Framework To Implement Ocean Iron Fertilization As A Climate Change Treaty Compliance Mechanism?, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

Any post-Kyoto climate change treaty regime must seek to fully engage the use of carbon sinks to complement emissions reduction measures in order to comply with the treaty's mandates. The Kyoto Protocol did not include avoided deforestation as a mechanism for earning emission reduction credits. However, reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) quickly gained popularity as a viable climate change compliance strategy in the period immediately preceding the negotiations at the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen in 2009. The Copenhagen Accord is replete with references to REDD as a focus for the international community's progression …

Effects Of Normative Messages On Pro-Environmental Attitudes And Behaviorseffects Of Normative Messages On Pro-Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors, Connor Harron

Occam's Razor

As stated in the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the planet’s climate is warming at an unprecedented rate, and humans are responsible for the large majority of causes creating this situation. If humans are to repair the balance between themselves and nature, then a global environmental movement that includes widespread behavior and attitude reconstruction will have to occur. The current study seeks to build upon past research attempting to promote pro-environmental behavior change in individuals. The author examines the ability of modeling and norms presented in a video format to motivate individuals to change …

Flowering Phenology Change And Climate Warming In Southwestern Ohio, Ryan Mcewan, Robert J. Brecha, Donald R. Geiger, Grace P. John

Biology Faculty Publications

Global surface temperature has increased markedly over the last 100 years. This increase has a variety of implications for human societies, and for ecological systems. One of the most obvious ways ecosystems are affected by global climate change is through alteration of organisms’ developmental timing (phenology). We used annual botanical surveys that documented the first flowering for an array of species from 1976 to 2003 to examine the potential implications of climate change for plant development. The overall trend for these species was a progressively earlier flowering time. The two earliest flowering taxa (Galanthus and Crocus) also exhibited the strongest …

Beneath The Surface Of Global Change: Impacts Of Climate Change On Groundwater, Timothy R. Green, Makoto Taniguchi, Henk Kooi, Jason J. Gurdak, Diana M. Allen, Kevin M. Hiscock, Holger Treidel, Alice Aureli

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Global change encompasses changes in the characteristics of inter-related climate variables in space and time, and derived changes in terrestrial processes, including human activities that affect the environment. As such, projected global change includes groundwater systems. Here, groundwater is defined as all subsurface water including soil water, deeper vadose zone water, and unconfined and confined aquifer waters. Potential effects of climate change combined with land and water management on surface waters have been studied in some detail. Equivalent studies of groundwater systems have lagged behind these advances, but research and broader interest in projected climate effects on groundwater have been …

Causes And Consequences Of Changes In Algal Community Structure Of Arctic Tundra Ponds From Barrow, Alaska, Mariana Vargas Medrano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Algal communities in the Arctic are highly sensitive to environmental change, such as longer growing seasons and changes in ice cover. On the north slope of Alaska, ponds and lakes cover large portions of the total land area. We surveyed the periphytic algal communities in tundra ponds from Barrow, Alaska to assess environmental effects on their populations. Samples were collected in August 2008-10 from two main study areas: the IBP (the International Biological Program), which was also studied in 1970-71 but now is located near to human settlements, and the BEO (Barrow Environmental Observatory), which is within a protected area. …

Past And Projected Future Changes In Snowpack And Soil Frost At The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, Usa, John L. Campbell, Scott V. Ollinger, Gerald N. Flerchinger, Haley Wicklein, Katharine Hayhoe, Amey S. Bailey

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Long-term data from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire show that air temperature has increased by about 1°C over the last half century. The warmer climate has caused significant declines in snow depth, snow water equivalent and snow cover duration. Paradoxically, it has been suggested that warmer air temperatures may result in colder soils and more soil frost, as warming leads to a reduction in snow cover insulating soils during winter. Hubbard Brook has one of the longest records of direct field measurements of soil frost in the United States. Historical records show no long-term trends in maximum …

Global Perspectives On First Generation Liquid Biofuel Production, Rok Fink, Saso Medved

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Transport today is mostly sustained by liquid fossil fuels, despite the fact that the invention of the combustion engine started with biofuels. However, known environmental impacts and the instability of the fossil-fuel market have revived the status of biofuels. Some concerns have appeared regarding how emerging global climate changes will affect biofuels' feedstock production, since agriculture is strongly dependent on climate variables. Therefore, numerical models were introduced to calculate how temperature and precipitation could affect crop production for biodiesel and bioethanol production. Furthermore, 4 scenarios projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were put into the calculations. The results …

Heat Waves Measured With Modis Land Surface Temperature Data Predict Changes In Avian Community Structure, Thomas P. Albright, Anna M. Pidgeon, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Murray K. Clayton, Curtis H. Flather, Patrick D. Culbert, Volker C. Radeloff

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Heat waves are expected to become more frequent and severe as climate changes, with unknown consequences for biodiversity. We sought to identify ecologically-relevant broad-scale indicators of heat waves based on MODIS land surface temperature (LST) and interpolated air temperature data and assess their associations with avian community structure. Specifically, we asked which data source, time periods, and heat wave indices best predicted changes in avian abundance and species richness. Using mixed effects models, we analyzed associations between these indices and data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey in the central United States between 2000 and 2007 in four ecoregions …

Strategies For Conserving Forest Genetic Resources In The Face Of Climate Change, John Bradley St.Clair, Glenn Thomas Howe

Turkish Journal of Botany

Conservation of genetic diversity is important for continued evolution of populations to new environments, as well as continued availability of traits of interest in genetic improvement programs. Rapidly changing climates present new threats to the conservation of forest genetic resources. We can no longer assume that in situ reserves will continue to preserve existing genetic diversity. Management of reserves should become more active. In some reserves, existing genetic diversity should be preserved by creating stands that are more resistant to threats using silvicultural treatments such as thinning and prescribed burning. In other reserves, natural selection and adaptation to changed environments …

Current Status Of Lichen Diversity In Iowa, James T. Colbert

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Inter-Colony Comparison Of Diving Behavior Of An Arctic Top Predator: Implications For Warming In The Greenland Sea, Nina J. Karnovsky, Zachary W. Brown '07, Jorg Welcker, Ann M.A. Harding, Wojciech Walkusz, André Cavalcanti, Johanna S. Hardin, Alexander Kitaysky, Geir Gabrielsen, David Grémillet

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The goal of this study was to assess how diverse oceanographic conditions and prey communities affect the foraging behavior of little auks Alle alle. The Greenland Sea is characterized by 3 distinct water masses: (1) the East Greenland Current (EGC), which carries Arctic waters southward; (2) the Sørkapp Current (SC), which originates in the Arctic Ocean but flows north along the west coast of Spitsbergen; and (3) the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC), which carries warm Atlantic-derived water north. Each of these 3 water masses is characterized by a distinct mesozooplankton community. Little auks breeding adjacent to the EGC have …

Climate Influences The Demography Of Three Dominant Sagebrush Steppe Plants, Harmony Dalgleish, David N. Koons, Melvin Hooten, Corey Moffet, Peter B. Adler

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Climate change could alter the population growth of dominant species, leading to profound effects on community structure and ecosystem dynamics. Understanding the links between historical variation in climate and population vital rates (survival, growth, recruitment) is one way to predict the impact of future climate change. Using a unique, long-term dataset from eastern Idaho, we parameterized Integral Projection Models for Pseudoroegneria spicata, Hesperostipa comata, and Artemisia tripartita to identify the demographic rates and climate variables most important for population growth. We described survival, growth and recruitment as a function of genet size using mixed effect regression models that …