Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Under-Ice Phytoplankton Blooms: Shedding Light On The "Invisible" Part Of Arctic Primary Production, Mathieu Ardyna, C. J. Mundy, Nicolas Mayot, Lisa C. Matthes, Laurent Oziel, Christopher Horvat, Eva Leu, Philipp Assmy, Victoria Hill, Patricia A. Matrai, Matthew Gale, Igor A. Melnikov, Kevin R. Arrigo

OES Faculty Publications

The growth of phytoplankton at high latitudes was generally thought to begin in open waters of the marginal ice zone once the highly reflective sea ice retreats in spring, solar elevation increases, and surface waters become stratified by the addition of sea-ice melt water. In fact, virtually all recent large-scale estimates of primary production in the Arctic Ocean (AO) assume that phytoplankton production in the water column under sea ice is negligible. However, over the past two decades, an emerging literature showing significant under-ice phytoplankton production on a pan-Arctic scale has challenged our paradigms of Arctic phytoplankton ecology and phenology. …

S3e7: Did Climate Impact Wwi, Spanish Flu Casualties?, Ron Lisnet, Paul A. Mayewski, Alex More

The Maine Question

Incessant torrential rain and cold air over Europe from 1914 to 1919 likely increased the number of people who died during World War I (22 million) and the Spanish flu pandemic (50 million). Alex More and Paul Mayewski from the Climate Change Institute connected data from climate science, history and public health to make the discovery. The colleagues say the once-in-a-century climate anomaly may have been caused by dust and explosives from the war that impacted the local atmosphere. As we anticipate another wave of COVID-19, More says we should be mindful of the interconnectedness of human-caused climate change, environmental …

Non-Conventional Vehicles As A Way Towards Carbon Neutrality In Iceland, Julia Sokolowska

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Paris Agreement’s chief objective is to protect the Earth and its inhabitants from a point of no return, when the effects of climate change will be so intense that they will shift the equilibrium of ecosystems. The distinctiveness of this international environmental treaty is that it does not impose climate change mitigation measures, but rather allows nation states to create their own set of measures, the NDCs, to reach the global warming of ‘well below 2oC’ by the end of the century. Thus, Iceland has submitted its own NDC, the Climate Action Plan 2018-2030, which has an ambitious goal of …

On Environmental, Climate Change & National Security Law, Mark P. Nevitt

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers a new way to think about climate change. Two new climate change assessments — the 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA) and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel’s Special Report on Climate Change — prominently highlight climate change’s multifaceted national security risks. Indeed, not only is climate change a “super wicked” environmental problem, it also accelerates existing national security threats, acting as both a “threat accelerant” and “catalyst for conflict.” Further, climate change increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events while threatening nations’ territorial integrity and sovereignty through rising sea levels. It causes both internal displacement …

Thermal Stress-Related Spatiotemporal Variations In High-Latitude Coral Reef Benthic Communities, Nicholas P. Jones, Joana Figueiredo, David S. Gilliam

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

High-latitude coral reef communities have been postulated as the first areas to undergo reorganisation under climate change. Tropicalisation has been identified in some high-latitude communities and is predicted in others, but it is unclear how the resident benthic taxa are affected. We conducted a long-term (2007–2016) assessment of changes to benthic community cover in relation to thermal stress duration on the Southeast Florida Reef Tract (SEFRT). Thermal stress events, both hot and cold, had acute (thermal stress duration affected benthic cover that year) and chronic (thermal stress duration affected benthic cover the following year) impacts on benthic cover. Chronic heat …

Scientific Assessment Of Climate Change And Its Effects In Maine, Maine Climate Council Scientific And Technical Subcommittee, Ivan Fernandez, Robert Marvinney, Susie Arnold, Linda Bacon, Andrew Barton, Brian Beal, Sean Birkel, Russell Black, Alix Contosta, Amanda Cross, Adam Daigneault, Thomas Danielson, Stephen Dickson, Jeanne Difranco, Susan Elias, Glenn Hodgkins, Brian Hubbell, Joe Kelley, Rick Kersbergen, Glen Koehler, Rebecca Lincoln, William Livingston, Pamela Lombard, Bradfield Lyon, Andrew Pershing, Nichole Price, Jonathan Rubin, Joseph Salisbury, Erin Simons-Legaard, Peter Slovinsky, Robert Steneck, Sally Stockwell, Richard Wahle, Jay Wason, Aaron Weiskittel, Carl Wilson

Climate Change

Climate change has already made its presence known in Maine, from shorter winters and warmer summers with ocean heat waves, to stronger storms, new species showing up in our backyards and the Gulf of Maine, aquatic algal blooms, acidic ocean waters that affect shellfish, and new pests and diseases that harm our iconic forests and fisheries.

The health of Maine people is also being affected by climate change, from high heat index days driving increased emergency room visits to the ravages of Lyme and other vector-borne diseases. And our economy is feeling the effects, too — with farmers trying to …

Statement Of World Aquatic Scientific Societies On The Need To Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based On Scientific Evidence [Dear Colleague Letter], Scott A. Bonar, Brian R. Murphy, Leanne H. Roulson, Jesse T. Trushenski, Douglas J. Austen, Michael Edward Douglas

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

Dear Colleague Letter from the American Fisheries Society to fellow scientific societies, July 25, 2020, about the urgent need for responsive collective action to mitigate impending radical climate change. Includes the Statement of World Aquatic Scientific Societies on the Need to Take Urgent Action Against Human-Caused Climate Change, Based on Scientific Evidence, emphasizing the importance of aquatic ecosystems. Includes extensive citations and notes.

"Water is the most important natural resource on Earth as it is vital for life. Aquatic ecosystems, freshwater or marine, provide multiple benefits to human society, such as provisioning of oxygen, food, drinking water, genetic resources; regulation …

Projected Surface Water For Fruit And Vegetable Irrigation Under A Changing Climate In The Us, Marty Matlock, Greg Thoma, Kieu Ngoc Le, Eric Cummings, Zach Morgan, Andrew Shaw

Water Systems

Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, resulting in climate impacts, are raising concerns over the hydrologic cycle and its effects upon agricultural productivity. If rainfall patterns change, meeting an increased demand for fruits and vegetables will pose a challenge for domestic production regions in the United States (U.S.). Information on potential water supply scarcity in the current production regions provides decision makers with critical information for risk mitigation for future production. We used a hydrologic balance-based model of historic and future water availability to evaluate risk of available irrigation water to support major fruit and vegetable production the US. …

Climate Change Impacts The Subsurface Transport Of Atrazine And Estrone Originating From Agricultural Production Activities, Renys Enrique Barrios, Simin Akbariyeh, Chuyang Liu, Khalid Muzamil Gani, Margarita T. Kovalchuk, Xu Li, Yusong Li, Daniel D. Snow, Zhenghong Tang, John Gates, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Climate change will impact soil properties such as soil moisture, organic carbon and temperature and changes in these properties will influence the sorption, biodegradation and leaching of trace organic contaminants to groundwater. In this study, we conducted a modeling case study to evaluate atrazine and estrone transport in the subsurface under current and future climate conditions at a field site in central Nebraska. According to the modeling results, in the future, enhanced evapotranspiration and increased average air temperature may cause drier soil conditions, which consequently reduces the biodegradation of atrazine and estrone in the water phase. On the other hand, …

Communicating Climate Change Risk: A Content Analysis Of Ipcc's Summary For Policymakers, P. Marijn Poortvliet, Meredith T. Niles, Jeroen A. Veraart, Saskia E. Werners, Fiona C. Korporaal, Bob C. Mulder

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This study investigated the effectiveness of climate change risk communication in terms of its theoretical potential to stimulate recipients' awareness and behavioral change. We selected the summary for policy makers (SPM) of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in order to conduct a content analysis; the extended parallel process model and construal level theory served as conceptual lenses to perform the analysis. Specifically, we evaluated to what extent the SPM included informational elements of threat, efficacy and psychological distance related to climate change. The results showed that threat information was prominently present, but efficacy information was …

Uncovering The Role Of Symbiodiniaceae Assemblage Composition And Abundance In Coral Bleaching Response By Minimizing Sampling And Evolutionary Biases, Timothy D. Swain, Simon Lax, Vadim Backman, Luisa A. Marcelino

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Background

Biodiversity and productivity of coral-reef ecosystems depend upon reef-building corals and their associations with endosymbiotic Symbiodiniaceae, which offer diverse functional capabilities to their hosts. The number of unique symbiotic partners (richness) and relative abundances (evenness) have been hypothesized to affect host response to climate change induced thermal stress. Symbiodiniaceae assemblages with many unique phylotypes may provide greater physiological flexibility or form less stable symbioses; assemblages with low abundance phylotypes may allow corals to retain thermotolerant symbionts or represent associations with less-suitable symbionts.

Results

Here we demonstrate that true richness of Symbiodiniaceae phylotype assemblages is generally not discoverable from …

Urgent Need For Coral Demography In A World Where Corals Are Disappearing, Peter J. Edmunds, Bernhard Riegl

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Coral reefs have long attracted attention because of their biological and economic importance, but this interest now has turned to examining the possibility of functional extirpation. Widespread declines in coral abundances have fueled the shift in motivation for studying reefs and catalyzed the proliferation of monitoring to record the changes underway. Despite appreciation of monitoring as a scientific endeavor, its primary use has continued to be the quantification of cover of coral, macroalgae, and a few other space holders. The limitations of coral cover in evaluating the consequences of changing coral abundance were highlighted decades ago. Yet neglect of the …

Assessing The Hierarchy Of Long-Term Environmental Controls On Diatom Communities Of Yellowstone National Park Using Lacustrine Sediment Records, Victoria Chraibi, Sherilyn C. Fritz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

An ecosystem’s ability to maintain structure and function following disturbance, defined as resilience, is influenced by a hierarchy of environmental controls, including climate, surface cover, and ecological relationships that shape biological community composition and productivity. This study examined lacustrine sediment records of naturally fishless lakes in Yellowstone National Park to reconstruct the response of aquatic communities to climate and trophic cascades from fish stocking. Sediment records of diatom algae did not exhibit a distinct response to fish stocking in terms of assemblage or algal productivity. Instead, 3 of 4 lakes underwent a shift to dominance by benthic diatom species from …

No Evidence Of Fine Scale Thermal Adaption In Green Turtles, Taylor Apter

Scientific Communication News

No abstract provided.

Metabolic Profiling Reveals Biochemical Pathways Responsible For Eelgrass Response To Elevated Co2 And Temperature, Carmen C. Zayas-Santiago, Albert Rivas-Ubach, Li-Jung Kuo, Nicholas D. Ward, Richard C. Zimmerman

OES Faculty Publications

As CO₂ levels in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans steadily rise, varying organismal responses may produce ecological losers and winners. Increased ocean CO₂ can enhance seagrass productivity and thermal tolerance, providing some compensation for climate warming. However, the metabolic shifts driving the positive response to elevated CO₂ by these important ecosystem engineers remain unknown. We analyzed whole-plant performance and metabolic profiles of two geographically distinct eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) populations in response to CO₂ enrichment. In addition to enhancing overall plant size, growth and survival, CO₂ enrichment increased the abundance of Calvin Cycle and …

Water Use Governance In A Temperate Region: Implications For Agricultural Climate Change Adaptation In The Northeastern United States, Rachel E. Schattman, Meredith T. Niles, Hannah M. Aitken

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change and access to water are interrelated concerns for agriculture and other sectors, even in temperate regions. Governance approaches and regulatory frameworks determine who has access to water, for what purpose, and when. In the northeastern United States, water governance has historically been conducted by states through a combination of statutory guidance and common law. However, it is unclear what effect if current governance approaches will be sufficient for achieving resource conservation and equitable allocation in a changing climate. To provide insight into these issues, we conducted the first review of freshwater governance in the 12 states that comprise …

Historical Trends In Air Temperature, Precipitation, And Runoff Of A Plateau Inland River Watershed In North China, Along Zhang, Ruizhong Gao, Xixi Wang, Tingxi Liu, Lijing Fang

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Understanding historical trends in temperature, precipitation, and runoff is important but incomplete for developing adaptive measures to climate change to sustain fragile ecosystems in cold and arid regions, including the Balagaer River watershed on the Mongolian Plateau of northeast China. The objective of this study was to detect such trends in this watershed from 1959 to 2017. The detection was accomplished using a Mann-Kendall sudden change approach at annual and seasonal time scales. The results indicated that the abrupt changes in temperature preceded that in either runoff or precipitation; these abrupt changes occurred between 1970 and 2004. Significant (α = …

Standardized Short-Term Acute Heat Stress Assays Resolve Historical Differences In Coral Thermotolerance Across Microhabitat Reef Sites, Christian R. Voolstra, Carol Buitrago-López, Gabriela Perna, Anny Cárdenas, Benjamin C. C. Hume, Nils Rädecker, Daniel J. Barshis

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Coral bleaching is one of the main drivers of reef degradation. Most corals bleach and suffer mortality at just 1–2°C above their maximum monthly mean temperatures, but some species and genotypes resist or recover better than others. Here, we conducted a series of 18‐hr short‐term acute heat stress assays side‐by‐side with a 21‐day long‐term heat stress experiment to assess the ability of both approaches to resolve coral thermotolerance differences reflective of in situ reef temperature thresholds. Using a suite of physiological parameters (photosynthetic efficiency, coral whitening, chlorophyll a , host protein, algal symbiont counts, and algal type association), we assessed …

Decarbonization In Democracy, Shelley Welton

All Faculty Scholarship

Conventional wisdom holds that democracy is structurally ill-equipped to confront climate change. As the story goes, because each of us tends to dismiss consequences that befall people in other places and in future times, “the people” cannot be trusted to craft adequate decarbonization policies, designed to reduce present-day, domestic carbon emissions. Accordingly, U.S. climate change policy has focused on technocratic fixes that operate predominantly through executive action to escape democratic politics — with vanishingly little to show for it after a change in presidential administration. To help craft a more durable U.S. climate change strategy, this Article scrutinizes the purported …