Ice-Age Reptile Extinctions Provide a Glimpse of Likely Responses to Human-Caused Climate Change by Dana Tricarico

This article talks about reptile extinction on the Greek islands over the past 15,000 that may offer a preview into the future, of how plants and animals will respond to the changing climates of global warming. These extinctions also show the major importance of preserving the habitats that will enable plants and animals to migrate in response to climate change, in order to survive. Many reptile populations perished as the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age, due to sea levels rising, and cool and moist forested areas spread as aridity took over the regions they lived in. Johannes Foufopoulos and his colleagues found a pattern to the Greek island extinctions. This pattern was that most reptile populations (of the 34 researched) disappeared on the smallest islands first. This correlates to the fact that the habitat choices were most limited in those areas. “Habitat specialist” reptiles were hard hit because they required a narrow range of environmental conditions to survive, while northern-dwelling species that required cool, moist conditions showed some of the highest extinction rates as well. The researchers conclude that a similar pattern of extinctions will happen at certain spots as the climate becomes hotter in the coming decades and centuries. This suggests that if species survive the global climate shift that is currently happening, not only do humans have to conserve more land, but they will also have to be connected through a network of habitats so that they can migrate.

This idea, that changes in climate will elicit a similar response from plants and animals now, that it did 15,000 years ago, makes sense. This is because, if it was hard for plants and animals to migrate, due to small areas of land, like on the Greek Islands, that pattern will not change now without our help. Therefore, I think that the idea to have a connected network of habitats to help them migrate if they survive the current climate change, is a great idea, because since humans have the capacity to help save their species, we should do everything we can. For instance, conserving more land is something that can be easily done, and can allow a great deal of species to migrate depending on the climate.

This relates to this course, because one of the main points of Earth Science is what affects the earth. It also touches on environmental issues. Greenhouse gases affect the earth, which creates global warming-a huge environmental issue in our world today. Not only will plants and animals have to adapt to a changing climate, but they will have to be forced to traverse an increasingly changed natural landscape.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101209141243.htm

Earthquake risk spurs race for faster supercomputer

BY: Joseph Stinton

Thomas Jordan is director of the Southern California Earthquake Center. Jordan is very concern by the state of the faults in Southern California. A way to give himself and the Southern California Earthquake Center some more reassurance about safety from earthquakes, they are now using supercomputers. These supercomputers run simulations on how an earthquake would affect southern California, so that the state can be more prepared when an earthquake does happen. This is in the forefront of their minds as the San Andres fault is “locked and load” according to Jordan.

They currently are using the Jaguar computer system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jordan’s team has been running simulations of how an earthquake might affect southern California. The computer is running at 1.75 petaflops; currently Jaguar is the world’s second-fastest supercomputer. Currently Jordan is preparing his application to work on Blue Waters, a 10-petaflop system that’s being built by IBM for use late next year at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

An application with a runtime of 4,000 hours (167 Days) per processor on Jaguar could be completed in just 770 hours (32 Days) on Blue Waters. There is an urgency to Jordan’s need for this computing power because many scholars believe that there’s a 99% chance of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake during the next 30 years in California.

In class we learned that California is in a high hazard area for earthquakes because it lies on plates that are elastically rebounding. Which causes the earth’s tectonic plates to deform, causing elastic energy that builds up. Eventually this energy reaches a breaking point where it needs to be release, and released rapidly; this causes the earthquake to occur.

Earthquakes can be devastating as we saw recently in Haiti this year. Elastic energy built up and released rapidly on an area of populated land that was not made ready for earthquakes. This lead to mass death and Haitian infrastructure destroyed.

Jordan hopes that by using these computers he can determine how much destruction will occur, where it will occur, and best ways to prevent it from happening. The faster technology advances the faster and more simulations we will be able to perform that will prevent the most damage possible.

I found this article interesting because it combines modern technological advances with trying to prevent a natural phenomenon on earth that has been occurring since the formation of the planet. The fact that computers have the potential to advance so much that simulation after simulation, can be calculated, interpreted and even able to predict where an earthquake will occur, blows the mind.

Source:

Earthquake risk spurs race for faster supercomputer

By Patrick Thibodeau

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/352973/Scientists_Race_to_Simulate_Earthquakes

Northern Wildfires Threaten Runaway Climate Change, Study Reveals

Dominic Stracqualursi

The article “Northern Wildfires Threaten Runaway Climate Change, Study Reveals”, which was published on December 10, 2011, discusses another dangerous effect of climate change. Climate change is causing wildfires that are already dangerous enough to grow even bigger. As serious of a problem as the wild fires are in a direct effect, it is the indirect effect that is proving to be more dangerous in the long run. As the fires increase so does the amount of green house gases, which are being released into the atmosphere. It has become such a grave issue because of the cyclical nature of the problem. The fires are growing in size because of the increase in climate temperature. The green house gases being released are greater because of the bigger fires, and the greater the amount of green house gases that enter the atmosphere the higher the climate temperature raises. The article goes on to say, “This cycle can be broken for a number of reasons, but likely not without dramatic changes to the boreal forest as we currently know it”. This article relates to our earth science class because we have covered the whole that is being created in our atmosphere. We learned that the hole in the ozone is because of CDC’s that are released in greenhouse gases like the ones in the fires. It is the hole in the ozone that causes the temperature of the earth to increase. Without the protection of our ozone we are exposed to greater heat from the sun and this greater can have effects like the melting of sea ice or an increase of wildfires. I think that the issue of global warming is not taken seriously enough by most people in today’s world and is clearly a source of a lot of the rising problems in the world. There have been a large number of effects that can be correlated to the rise of climate temperatures, with wildfires just being the most recent instance. I think that drastic steps need to be taken to reduce the amount of green house gases that are being pumped into the atmosphere before we have even more serious effects that have to be dealt with. As of right now there aren’t too many blatant life-altering effects of climate change. However, if we continue to not care about the pollution to the atmosphere there will be life-altering effects that future generations are going to have to deal.

"Northern Wildfires Threaten Runaway Climate Change, Study Reveals." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 05 Dec. 2010. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. .

Dark Matter Could Transfer Energy in the Sun by Steven Priestley (Extra Credit)

In this article Researchers from the Institute for Corpuscular Physics (IFIC) and other European groups have studied the effects of the presence of dark matter in the Sun. According to Mark Taoso (researcher at the IFIC) they assume that the dark matter particles interact weakly with the Sun’s atoms, and what they have done was calculated at what levels the interactions can occur. The purpose of this would give a better description of the structure and evolution of the Sun. According to calculations low mass dark matter particles could be transferring energy from the core to the external parts of the Sun, which would inevitably affect the quantity of neutrinos that reach Earth. (Science Daily) According to Models the WIMP’S (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) interact weakly with other normal ones , such as atoms and could be building up on the inside of stars. Scientist believe that the majority dark matter particles gather together in the center of the Sun interacting and exchanging with the solar atoms, the WIMP’S transport the energy from the burning central core to the cooler parts. Taso refers  to "This effect produces a cooling down of the core, the region from where the neutrinos originate due to the nuclear reactions of the Sun,". The neutrinos that reach Earth can be measured by means of different techniques. The transport of energy by these particles depends on the likelihood of them interacting with the atoms, and the "size" of these interactions is related to the reduction in the neutrino fluctuation. "As a result, current data about solar neutrinos can be used to put limits on the extent of the interactions between dark matter and atoms, and using numerical codes we have proved that certain values correspond to a reduction in the flux of solar neutrinos and clash with the measurements," Taoso reveals. The team has applied their calculations to better understand the effects of low mass dark matter particles  and Taoso concludes that their calculations show that the modifications of the star’s structure are too small to support that the WIMP’S cannot explain the problem of the composition of the Sun. Therefore the dark matter is not giving a better description of the structure and description of the Sun. (Science Daily)

Plataforma SINC. "Dark matter could transfer energy in the Sun." ScienceDaily 3 December 2010. 5 December 2010 .

Coastal Wetlands Likely to Disappear This Century

Brian Cary

"Many Coastal Wetlands Likely to Disappear This Century, Scientists Say" is an article posted in Science Daily on December 3, 2010. This article discusses how wetlands across the globe will be impacted by climate change and sea-level rise. According to U.S. Geological Survey scientists, rapid sea-level rise scenarios show that most wetlands located along coasts will be destroyed by the end of the 21st century. Slow sea-level rise projections show that there would be a chance of survival for some wetlands, but survival would be determined by sediment availability in these wetlands. The higher the sediment in the wetland, the greater the chance of survival. This is because water floods the wetland, causing sediment to be carried upstream and raise the wetlands elevation. The rate at which sea level rises is mostly dependent on future climate changes. Wetlands are primarily important to the environment because they play a critical part in absorbing the energy of coastal storms, which is a direct effect on the safety of humans. They also act as a habitat for migratory birds, preserve shorelines, and absorb water pollutants. I believe this article relates to this course because it involves things that we have discussed such as climate change, air pollution, and the relationship between sediment deposit and water flow. I believe the most important aspect that this article touches on though is how much damage mankind seems to be doing on its own environment. Wetlands serve a very important purpose in our ecosystem, especially along coastlines, and the thought of complete wetland extinction within the next 90 years is scary. It shows just how fast change can happen in the ecosystem, even on a global scale. The biggest effect on us humans would likely be the loss of a energy absorbing buffer zone between us and coastal storms as they begin to hit land. Without wetlands, these storms will hit with more force and potentially do much more damage to our coastal cities. Almost every part of our ecosystem would be negatively effected by the loss of wetlands. Humans do have the ability to make a change for the better, though. As we learned earlier this semester, 28% of greenhouse gas emissions which lead to climate change are created by human transportation and another 5% is from residential use. These numbers that any ordinary person can help cut down on and help preserve not only our wetlands, but all of our bodies of water.

United States Geological Survey (2010, December 3). Many coastal wetlands likely to disappear this century, scientists say.ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 5, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2010/12/101201134256.htm

Snow from Space: Satellite Imagery of Snow-Bound UK by Steven Priestley

In an article from sciencedaily.com European Space Agency satellite instruments have been monitoring the icy blast in the UK from their vantage points in space. Meaning Scientists used two instruments MERIS, and AATSR which illustrate images of a snow-bound UK from observations took on the 29^th of November and the 1^st of December. The MERIS image shows from white snow and clouds to green vegetation opposed to the AASTR images which depict non-snow areas in red to show the differences in the snow. The amount of snow covered in the images within two days is visibly apparent. Professor John Remedios Head of Earth Observation Science at the University of Leiceste says “"These images demonstrate how much our local climate depends on a combination of the climate mean temperature in a given month and the meteorological variability which can produce very cold and very warm months. For the UK, it is another cold winter. At one time a few years ago our children complained that there was never any snow. Now there is plenty!" The AATSR measures climate variables such as sea and land surface temperature, aerosols and clouds opposed to the MERIS instrument which observes vegetation green pigment and ocean color, and their variations over the seasons. These two instruments MERIS and AASTR are hand and hand in determining weather prediction and forecasting. According to Professor Remedios the “AASTR instrument is very good for both measurements for climates and for weather forecasting”. In reference to this article MERIS and AATSR are two vital components in forecasting weather and predicting weather in European Space Agency for the UK. Apparently these recorded images of the UK’s winter by MERIS and AASTR are very beneficial, they show and prove that the two instruments are working well and provide the European Space Agency with vital information so they can predict and forecast accurately and accordingly. The Envisat just recently made an alteration to manage the orbit change to extend the life of MERIS and AATSR to 2013 because it is working so well.   All in all the team of scientist and professionals of the European Space Agency are very impressed and pleased with how the recorded images depict the landscape of the UK. 

(Science Daily)

University of Leicester (2010, December 3). Snow from space: Satellite imagery of snow-bound UK. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 5, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/12/101203123517.htm

The Warming of Earth's Lakes by Olivia Raymond (extra credit)

In an article from Science Daily.com “Earth’s Lakes Are Warming, NASA Study Finds” a study conducted by scientists from NASA found that Earth’s bodies of water, especially lakes, have increased “an average warming rate of 0.45 degrees Celsius (0.81 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, with some lakes warming as much as 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade”. This increase in temperature has been happening over the past 25 years as a direct result of climate change. Scientists measure the temperature trends of lakes, oceans, rivers, and other bodies of water through the use of data collected from thermal infrared satellites. The researchers from NASA used this method for their study to collect data and found a trend of change of warming water temperatures. The data focused on lake temperatures from night time during the months of “July to September in the Northern Hemisphere and January to March in the Southern Hemisphere”. The negative impacts of warming water in lakes affect the ecosystems that live within these bodies of water. These impacts include “algal blooms that can make a lake toxic to fish or result in the introduction of non-native species that change the lake's natural ecosystem”. NASA’s researchers chose the bodies of water for their study based on large surface area, distance from shore lines, and other unique scientific characteristics. The study found that the largest concentrated area of warming water is in northern Europe. In the United States the southwest was warming more so than the Great Lakes region. This article relates to our class because the hydrosphere is one of the main focuses of our studies in Earth Science. Though the article doesn’t exactly state how we can help stop the warming of our waters I think we can do so by eliminating the emissions of greenhouse gasses. Climate change is a direct result of global warming and is what is causing our waters to warm up. We can help stop or at least decrease this trend by eliminating our carbon foot print and the emissions of Carbon Dioxide and other toxins into our atmosphere.


NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2010, November 29). Earth's lakes are warming, NASA study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 3, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2010/11/101128220357.htm