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As Earth's climate changes, extreme weather events known as atmospheric rivers will intensify, but they will also become less frequent.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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A new NASA-led study shows that climate change is likely to intensify extreme weather events known as atmospheric rivers across most of the globe by the end of this century, while slightly reducing their number.

The new study projects atmospheric rivers will be significantly longer and wider than the ones we observe today, leading to more frequent atmospheric river conditions in affected areas.

"The results project that in a scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, there will be about 10 percent fewer atmospheric rivers globally by the end of the 21st century," said the study's lead author, Duane Waliser, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "However, because the findings project that the atmospheric rivers will be, on average, about 25 percent wider and longer, the global frequency of atmospheric river conditions -- like heavy rain and strong winds -- will actually increase by about 50 percent."

The results also show that the frequency of the most intense atmospheric river storms is projected to nearly double.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow jets of air that carry huge amounts of water vapor from the tropics to Earth's continents and polar regions. These "rivers in the sky" typically range from 250 to 375 miles (400 to 600 kilometers) wide and carry as much water -- in the form of water vapor -- as about 25 Mississippi Rivers. When an atmospheric river makes landfall, particularly against mountainous terrain (such as the Sierra Nevada and the Andes), it releases much of that water vapor in the form of rain or snow.

These storm systems are common -- on average, there are about 11 present on Earth at any time. In many areas of the globe, they bring much-needed precipitation and are an important contribution to annual freshwater supplies. However, stronger atmospheric rivers -- especially those that stall at landfall or that produce rain on top of snowpack -- can cause disastrous flooding.

Atmospheric rivers show up on satellite imagery, including in data from a series of actual atmospheric river storms that drenched the U.S. West Coast and caused severe flooding in early 2017.

The study

Climate change studies on atmospheric rivers to date have been mostly limited to two specific regions, the western United States and Europe. They have typically used different methodologies for identifying atmospheric rivers and different climate projection models -- meaning results from one are not quantitatively comparable to another.

The team sought to provide a more streamlined and global approach to evaluating the effects of climate change on atmospheric river storms.

The study relied on two resources -- a set of commonly used global climate model projections for the 21st century developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest assessment report, and a global atmospheric river detection algorithm that can be applied to climate model output. The algorithm, developed earlier by members of the study team, identifies atmospheric river events from every day of the model simulations, quantifying their length, width and how much water vapor they transport.

The team applied the atmospheric river detection algorithm to both actual observations and model simulations for the late 20 th century. Comparing the data showed that the models produced a relatively realistic representation of atmospheric rivers for the late 20 th century climate.

They then applied the algorithm to model projections of climate in the late 21 st century. In doing this, they were able to compare the frequency and characteristics of atmospheric rivers for the current climate with the projections for future climate.

The team also tested the algorithm with a different climate model scenario that assumed more conservative increases in the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. They found similar, though less drastic changes. Together, the consideration of the two climate scenarios indicates a direct link between the extent of warming and the frequency and severity of atmospheric river conditions.

What does this mean?

The significance of the study is two-fold.

First, "knowing the nature of how these atmospheric river events might change with future climate conditions allows for scientists, water managers, stakeholders and citizens living in atmospheric river-prone regions [e.g. western N. America, western S. America, S. Africa, New Zealand, western Europe] to consider the potential implications that might come with a change to these extreme precipitation events," said Vicky Espinoza, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California-Merced and first author of the study.

And secondly, the study and its approach provide a much-needed, uniform way to research atmospheric rivers on a global level -- illustrating a foundation to analyze and compare them that did not previously exist.

Limitations

Data across the models are generally consistent -- all support the projection that atmospheric river conditions are linked to warming and will increase in the future; however, co-author Marty Ralph of the University of California, San Diego, points out that there is still work to be done.

"While all the models project increases in the frequency of atmospheric river conditions, the results also illustrate uncertainties in the details of the climate projections of this key phenomenon," he said. "This highlights the need to better understand why the models' representations of atmospheric rivers vary."

The study, titled "Global Analysis of Climate Change Projection Effects on Atmospheric Rivers," was recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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intergovernmental panel on climate change

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Climate change may lead to bigger atmospheric rivers - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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A new NASA-led study shows that climate change is likely to intensify extreme weather events known as atmospheric rivers across most of the globe by the end of this century, while slightly reducing their number. The new study projects atmospheric rivers will be significantly longer and wider than the ones we observe today, leading to more frequent atmospheric river conditions in affected areas.

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For the first time, scientists have captured images of dissolved organic carbon molecules in the ocean. This will help them to analyze the compounds that contribute to global warming.

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from research organizations

In a first, researchers from the University of California, Irvine -- as well as Switzerland's University of Zurich, IBM Research-Zurich and UC Santa Cruz -- have obtained direct images of dissolved organic carbon molecules from the ocean, allowing better analysis and characterization of compounds that play an important role in the Earth's changing climate.

Using an atomic force microscopy technique developed by IBM, the team was able to visualize individual atoms and bonds, yielding clues about their persistence in the marine environment. Findings were published today in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"To understand processes happening on the scale of ocean basins, it is sometimes necessary to view objects that are orders of magnitude smaller," said study co-author Ellen Druffel, professor and Fred Kavli Chair of Earth System Science at UCI. "By seeing with our own eyes the double bonds and rings of dissolved organic carbon molecules, we are better equipped to explain how they remain in the ocean for tens of thousands of years."

The molecules that were imaged were collected by UC Santa Cruz researchers from waters in the northern central Pacific Ocean.

The marine dissolved organic carbon pool, comparable in size to the atmospheric CO ₂ reservoir, is about 200 times larger than the amount of carbon contained in all the plants and animals on the planet. Because of its complexity, diverse origins and varied reactions to environmental conditions, only about 10 percent of DOC has been characterized.

"We are still trying to figure out how the vast majority of this substance is going to be impacted by the ongoing addition of new CO ₂ from fossil fuel burning and from increasing temperatures due to global climate change," said co-author Brett Walker, a UCI assistant researcher in Earth system science.

Most DOC near the ocean surface is derived from the remains of recently living phytoplankton. However, radiocarbon dating of DOC in the deep ocean shows it to be much older than expected -- by as much as 4,500 years -- indicating that a portion of this DOC survives multiple ocean mixing cycles.

Researchers have suggested that the chemical structure of DOC is responsible for its endurance in the environment, and through the atomic force microscopy technique, scientists are now able to see real-space images of the bound atoms in these compounds. The team has found that molecules from the deep ocean frequently exhibit aromaticity, meaning they're flat rings of atoms that are very stable and do not break apart easily.

"These atom-scale visualizations help demonstrate that the old age of small DOC molecules in the deep ocean has to do with their chemical structure, which bacteria do not seem to utilize," Walker said. "This is a crucial finding that will help researchers better understand the cycling of carbon in the oceans and the overall health of our planet's marine environments."

The work was funded by the University of Zurich, IBM Research-Zurich, the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society.

Journal Reference:

Shadi Fatayer, Alysha I. Coppola, Fabian Schulz, Brett D. Walker, Taylor A. Broek, Gerhard Meyer, Ellen R. M. Druffel, Matthew McCarthy, Leo Gross. Direct Visualization of Individual Aromatic Compound Structures in Low Molecular Weight Marine Dissolved Organic Carbon. Geophysical Research Letters, 2018; DOI: 10.1029/2018GL077457

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Below are relevant articles that may interest you. ScienceDaily shares links and proceeds with scholarly publications in the TrendMD network.

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oceanography; environmental awareness; earth science; global warming; geochemistry; climate; geography; environmental issues

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Scientists analyze first direct images of dissolved organic carbon from the ocean: Joint research project furthers understanding of important CO2 reservoir

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from research organizations In a first, researchers from the University of California, Irvine -- as well as Switzerland's University of Zurich, IBM Research-Zurich and UC Santa Cruz -- have obtained direct images of dissolved organic carbon molecules from the ocean, allowing better analysis and characterization of compounds that play an important role in the Earth's changing climate.

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A large glacier in Antarctica is melting as a result of climate change. This could make a devastating contribution to sea-level rise.

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Retreating Glacier in Antarctica Could Double Global Sea-Level Rise

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Recent scientific models showing that the hastened melting of Antarctica's Thwaites glacier could cause catastrophic sea-level rise in this century prompted the United States' National Science Foundation and the United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council to launch a major collaborative effort to study the glacier and its resiliency to climate change.

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The sea-level rise due to climate change is resulting in more floods across the country.

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CLOSE

Got flippers?

High-tide flooding is happening across the USA at twice the rate it was just 30 years ago, according to a new report released Wednesday.

And this flooding isn't necessarily caused by a storm, but by rising seas: As ocean levels rise because of global warming, flooding can now occur with high tides in many locations.

Also known as "sunny-day," "clear-sky" or "nuisance" flooding, 27 locations across the nation set or tied records for most days with floods from May 2017 to April 2018, the report said. Cities such as Boston and Atlantic City both had 22 days with high-tide floods.

"Due to sea level rise, the national average frequency of high-tide flooding is double what it was 30 years ago," the report said. William Sweet, a NOAA oceanographer and co-author of the report, said at a press briefing that "what used to be uncommon is now becoming fairly common."

More: May was warmest on record for USA, breaking mark set during Dust Bowl

Nationwide, the average of six flood days for each location was the highest on record.

Ben Horton. a Rutgers University researcher who was not involved in the study, called it "a warning, a shot across the bow. Across the whole of the U.S. coastline, we are in dire need of action," he said.

The report found tidal flooding was at record levels last year along parts of the southeast Atlantic and eastern Gulf coasts. It examined only coastal flooding, not inundation brought on by sudden, heavy rain or overflowing rivers.

"As they examine their risk, communities can use this information to help better mitigate and prepare for high tide flooding from long-term sea-level rise," according to NOAA.

These floods lead to road closures, overwhelmed storm drains and damaged property but are seldom life-threatening. They're mostly caused by climate-related sea-level rise, NOAA said.

Heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels causes glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to melt. Warmer water takes up more space that cooler water or ice, causing sea levels to rise.

Since 1880, the ocean has risen nearly 8 inches worldwide, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, but it doesn't do so evenly. In the past 100 years, it's climbed about a foot or more in some U.S. cities.

In addition to sea-level rise, the loss of natural barriers and land subsidence - a gradual settling or sudden sinking of the Earth's surface because of underground movement of soil, rock and other materials - also contributes to flooding.

The effects of rising sea levels along most of the continental U.S. coastline are expected to become more noticeable and severe in the coming decades, likely more so than any other climate-change related factor, NOAA said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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'Clear-sky' flooding worsens across U.S. as sea levels rise, report says

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CLOSE Got flippers? High-tide flooding is happening across the USA at twice the rate it was just 30 years ago, according to a new report released Wednesday. And this flooding isn't necessarily caused by a storm, but by rising seas: As ocean levels rise because of global warming, flooding can now occur with high tides in many locations.

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Extremely dangerous levels of mercury were found around gold mines in Senegal.

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A Duke University-led study has found dangerously high levels of mercury and its more toxic chemical cousin, methylmercury, in soils, sediments and rivers near artisanal gold mines in the West African nation of Senegal.

"Nearly every sample we collected from in and around four mining villages contained mercury concentrations higher than regulatory standards set by the World Health Organization and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency," said Jacqueline Gerson, a PhD student in ecology at Duke.

"In nearly all cases, the level of contamination was more than 10 times higher than these standards, with some cases up to 100 times higher," she said. "This makes them some of the highest levels ever reported at artisanal and small-scale gold mining sites worldwide."

Mercury poisoning can cause a wide range of health impacts, including tremors, muscle weakness, vision and hearing impairments, and loss of coordination and balance. In severe cases, it can lead to birth defects or death.

Artisanal gold miners in Senegal and many other developing nations use mercury to separate gold ore from soil and sediments, often with inadequate safeguards to protect themselves or the surrounding environment. This process results in large amounts of mercury being burned off into the atmosphere or spilled into nearby soils and waters.

Scientists previously believed that mercury from these mines is converted into its more toxic form, methylmercury, mostly in aquatic ecosystems. "But our study conclusively shows it is being formed in soil systems, too. It's initially released from mining operations as elemental mercury but once in the soil, it can be converted into methylmercury by microbial activity," Gerson said.

This newfound knowledge raises concerns that villagers could be exposed to mercury not only by eating contaminated fish from the water, but also by eating crops grown on contaminated soil or livestock grazing on this land. Children might be at risk if they accidentally ingest this soil during play.

Humans and other large predators face the highest risks, since methylmercury bioaccumulates in body tissue as it moves up the food chain. "Birds and amphibians have been shown to have lower survivorship and reduced viability of offspring when exposed to high levels of methylmercury," Gerson noted.

She and her colleagues published their peer-reviewed study Feb. 2 in the journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.

To conduct the research, they collected soil, sediment and water samples from in and around four artisanal gold-mining communities in southeastern Senegal, as well as from a control village where no mining took place. Sampling was conducted in May, 2016.

Gerson has shared the team's study with the Senegalese government and nongovernmental organizations in Senegal. Policymakers can use the findings to inform a nationwide action plan now being developed to reduce mercury emissions and human exposures under the terms of the UN-sponsored Minamata Convention on Mercury, which went into effect in August 2017.

Working with a Senegalese colleague, she also has shared her team's findings with community members within the gold-mining villages, and led training workshops for miners on the dangers of mercury use.

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energy and resources; nanotechnology; nature of water; energy policy; mining; environmental science; hazardous waste; ecology

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Small gold mines in Senegal create high mercury contamination

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A new study has found high levels of mercury and methylmercury in soils, sediments and rivers near artisanal gold mines in Senegal. Nearly every sample collected from four mining villages contained mercury levels at least ten times higher than World Health Organization and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.

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A new study supports the idea that the process of seabed mining could destroy aquatic ecosystems.

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Mining on the ocean floor could do irreversible damage to deep-sea ecosystems, says a new study of seabed mining proposals around the world. The deep sea (depths below 200m) covers about half of the Earth's surface and is home to a vast range of species.

Little is known about these environments, and researchers from the University of Exeter and Greenpeace say mining could have "long-lasting and unforeseen consequences"- not just at mining sites but also across much larger areas.

The study is the first to give a global overview of all current plans to mine the seabed, in both national and international waters, and looks at the potential impacts including physical destruction of seabed habitats, creation of large underwater plumes of sediment and the effects of chemical, noise and light pollution arising from mining operations.

"Our knowledge of these ecosystems is still limited, but we know they're very sensitive," said Dr David Santillo, a marine biologist and senior Greenpeace scientist based at the University of Exeter. "Recovery from man-made disturbance could take decades, centuries or even millennia, if these ecosystems recover at all."

"As we learn more about deep sea ecosystems and the role of oceans in mitigating climate change, it seems wise to take precautions to avoid damage that could have long-lasting and unforeseen consequences."

Despite the term "mining," much seabed mining would involve extraction of minerals over very wide areas of the sea floor rather than digging down to any great depth, potentially leaving a vast 'footprint' on the deep-sea habitats in which these mineral deposits occur.

Rising demand for minerals and metals, including for use in new technology, has sparked renewed interest in seabed mining.

Some operations are already taking place, generally at relatively shallow depths near national coastlines.

The first commercial enterprise in deeper waters, expected to target mineral-rich sulphides at depths of 1.5-2km off Papua New Guinea, is scheduled to begin early in 2019.

Speaking about these plans last year, Sir David Attenborough said it was "tragic that humanity should just plough on with no regard for the consequences."

The Exeter and Greenpeace research team say there are "many questions and uncertainties" around seabed mining, including legal issues and the difficulties of predicting the scale and extent of impacts in advance, and of monitoring and regulating mining activity once it takes place in the deep sea. The paper says that alternatives to seabed mining have already been proposed, including substituting metals in short supply for more abundant minerals with similar properties, as well as more effective collection and recycling of components from disused products and wastes.

However, Dr Santillo said demand for seabed mining would also diminish if humanity could cut overproduction and overconsumption of consumer goods. "Rather than using human ingenuity to invent more and more consumer products that we don't actually need, we could deploy it instead to build goods that last longer, are easier to repair and make better use of the limited natural resources we have," he said.

"With the right approaches, we can avoid the need for seabed mining altogether and stop the 'race to the bottom'.

"As governments prepare to set the rules and the first companies gear up to mine, now is the time to ask whether we just have to accept seabed mining, or should instead decide that the potential damage is just so great that we really need to find less destructive alternatives."

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fish; marine biology; sea life; energy and resources; energy policy; chemistry; mining; environmental science; oceanography; ocean policy; resource shortage; surveillance

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Mining on the ocean floor could do irreversible damage to deep-sea ecosystems, says a new study of seabed mining proposals around the world. The deep sea (depths below 200m) covers about half of the Earth's surface and is home to a vast range of species.

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A uranium mine announced plans to cease operations in 2021. This mine was heavily depended on by a nearby town of 1,000 people.

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Operators of a controversial uranium mine inside Kakadu national park have released their plans to close it, but make no mention of how the shutdown will affect the nearby town that has relied on the mine for its survival.

The Ranger mine, which in its more than 30-year existence has had a number contamination and fire incidents, including one that prompted a six-month shutdown, will stop operations by January 2021 and close by January 2026.

Energy Resources Australia (ERA) had sought to extend its operations with another site, the 3 Deeps mine. In 2015 it said its clean-up costs were contingent on the expansion, but the mine lost the support of its parent company, Rio Tinto, and the expansion was rejected by traditional owners later that year.
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The more than 500-page plan for closure, released on Tuesday, is based on Western Australian guidelines for mine closures as the Northern Territory government has none of its own. It comes after years of concern at the lack of planning by previous NT governments leaving residents and business owners in limbo.

The closure plans are vital to the future of Jabiru, the township of about 1,000 people, originally built to service the mine but which has now grown into a tourist hub for Kakadu.

The report acknowledged the mine was a "significant" socio-economic contributor to the town and region, however there is no formalised plan to transition away from a mine-based economy.

While ERA has conducted a social impact assessment of the mine's five-year rehabilitation phase, it has not yet done one for after it has closed.

The assessment on the rehabilitation phase had recommended "early decision making about Jabiru and its closure".

The general obligation of the mine's rehabilitation is that the area is returned to its original site but there is no desire for Jabiru to close or to lose ERA-built services, including the airport.

The long-term future of the airport is undecided and plans for the town itself aren't covered by the plan.

The Ranger mine site is surrounded by Kakadu national park and sits on Mirrar traditional land. It has recorded 171 places of Indigenous cultural heritage significance and more than 160 archaeological sites and artefacts, including one that proved Indigenous habitation of up to 80,000 years.

How or if the site will be incorporated into the world heritage-listed park is up to the Unesco world heritage committee, and ERA said that might not happen until well after the mine was closed.

ERA said consultation with Aboriginal traditional owners had identified some future uses including land management activities, traditional food sourcing, cultural visits and ritual responsibilities as people reconnect with the land.

A separate rehabilitation plan will be submitted to the federal government to determine how much of its security bond the government will keep.

The Northern Land Council and Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation welcomed the plan, which they said was of a very high level but "decades overdue". They said a "significant amount" of planning and supporting studies were still outstanding.

"Rio Tinto must clearly demonstrate that they have sufficient resources devoted to mine closure to provide stakeholders with confidence that the objectives outlined in the closure plan can be met," the organisations said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation and Environment Centre NT said Ranger's mining period was "highly adversarial" and ERA and Rio Tinto had to adopt the "highest levels of transparency, inclusion, and evidence-based decision making".

"It is essential that the new post-mining chapter at Ranger reflects a new way of working," said ACF campaigner Dave Sweeney. "Australia has a sorry history of poor or failed mine rehabilitation and Ranger cannot be allowed to join this list."

The closure plan has been assessed by Rio Tinto but is still undergoing a feasibility assessment.

The chief executive of ERA, Paul Arnold, said it was fully committed to meeting its rehabilitation and environmental obligations.

"The plan, which will be subject to ongoing review and refinement, is based on extensive scientific research and world class engineering design," Arnold said.
Topics

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Kakadu uranium mine closure planning ignores impact on Jabiru township

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Operators of a controversial uranium mine inside Kakadu national park have released their plans to close it, but make no mention of how the shutdown will affect the nearby town that has relied on the mine for its survival.

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A small town in Australia is being taken over by KCGM, a large gold mining company.

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Posted May 23, 2018 06:28:41

A small community in Western Australia is fighting a losing battle to save itself from being literally undermined in a decades-long struggle against one of the nation's largest gold mining companies.

Residents of Williamstown, just outside of Kalgoorlie, say the disturbance caused by regular controlled explosions only a few hundred metres beneath them is growing, and causing damage to property.

Rich deposits of gold underneath and around the community have made it an attractive prospect for mining giant KCGM.

But despite this, and with no new houses built or permanent residents moving in, the community of about 132 people is in decline and its population is steadily shrinking.

KCGM has substantially grown its mining operations under Williamstown in recent years, but remains tight-lipped about its long-term plans for mining underneath the town.

Lifelong local Fay Henderson said after years of fighting, she is exhausted and feels a sense of dread that it will not be long before the suburb of Williamstown is gone altogether.

"It's been quite heartbreaking really. It's difficult to feel very uplifted when you think, well maybe tomorrow some other house will go," she said.

"Williamstown itself is getting smaller and smaller. But I think that it eventually has to pass that we just won't be here, that the mine will engulf us eventually.

"It's just that it's very hard to be hanging on here, waiting and not knowing what the next step will be."

Blasts make floors crack and houses shake

Another long-time resident and retired underground miner, John Bourke, said that while he had grown used to the blasting, it could still sometimes comes as a shock.

"You ever heard a good car crash? The bang and that? That's what it's like," he said.

"It doesn't let you sleep in. You're awake at five o'clock every morning."

Several residents the ABC spoke to described feeling the ground shake during blasts, as well as seeing floors cracking and personal effects becoming dislodged.

"When there's blasting in the afternoons, it feels like out the back it's just going to open up the ground," another local, Noelene Walley, said.

"I would like KCGM to buy me out because I'm just scared. I've got grandkids and family here all the time, so if something happens down the back, I wouldn't like that to happen to my family."

"I remember having an old dog who is no longer here, and she would leap a metre off the ground because they were so big," pub worker Janet Linzer said.

"If you move the bloody ground around, you must be doing some damage to what's above it. I'm worried about the whole lot going down the hole," Mr Bourke added.

The explosions are not random, and Williamstown residents most of the time know when to expect them, from letters left by KCGM in their mailboxes.

But each time they do happen, they serve as a reminder that the community is slowly being chipped away from below.

'We're dying off like jack rabbits'

With the population diminishing and ageing, Mr Bourke said residents felt like they were helplessly awaiting an inevitable fate.

"As a few more of us fall off the perch, they [KCGM] have won. No-one else is coming in. No-one else is basically interested in the place," he said.

"If they hang on for a few more years, there'll be none of us left anyway. We're dying off like jack rabbits.

"I reckon it's big brother screwing the little guy again. And they just hide behind everything, and won't come and talk to you properly."

KCGM is the largest employer in the surrounding region and oversees the nearby Super Pit, the largest open-cut gold mine in Australia.

In neighbouring Kalgoorlie, the company and the mining industry at large has a domineering influence on everyday life, from community programs to local politics.

KCGM did not agree to an interview, and a statement provided by a spokesperson did not fully address the ABC's questions, including what the company's long-term plans were for mining operations beneath Williamstown.

"KCGM regularly consults with the Kalgoorlie-Boulder community, including Williamstown, and prides itself on open and transparent engagement," the statement read.

"KCGM has not recently made offers or purchased residential properties in Williamstown."

It added that Williamstown residents were encouraged to use a 24-hour public interaction line to submit complaints and feedback.

Topics: mining-environmental-issues, community-organisations, people, williamstown-6430, kalgoorlie-6430

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The community fighting to save itself from being literally undermined

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Posted May 23, 2018 06:28:41 A small community in Western Australia is fighting a losing battle to save itself from being literally undermined in a decades-long struggle against one of the nation's largest gold mining companies.

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Everett plans to create a new modernized city center known as "Metro Everett".

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Planetizen - Urban Planning News, Jobs, and Education

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"Everett has an ambitious city center planning proposal that has been circulating city hall for more than two years," reports Stephen Fesler. "Known as ' Metro Everett,' the proposal would rezone large swaths of the city center and nearby areas while pairing extensive development regulations to realize modern, integrated urban districts."

Planetizen picked up news about Metro Everett back in 2016, but the plan reached a major milestone this week when the city's Planning Commission held a public hearing on some of the code changes included in the plan. According to Fesler, "the plans have to get the commission's buy-off before an ordinance would be transmitted to the city council for consideration."

The Planning Commission hearing means a new draft of the plan is available for perusal, resembling a draft version released in January. Fesler gives analysis of the zones proposed for the plan, Urban Mixed (UM), Urban Residential (UR), and Urban Light Industrial (ULI). According to Fesler, some of the principles applied in those zones could be extended beyong the Metro Everett boundaries into a Core residential Area overlay.

A few key characteristics of the zoning scheme put forward by metro Everett is the role of street type determining use regulations (i.e., "on TOD streets, residential uses would generally be restricted on ground floor street frontages to no more than 25% of a block (defined as 400 feet of frontage) in order to encourage active streets"). The zones also set regulations on matters of building form, like density, building heights, building locations, and ground floor spaces.

Published on Tuesday, June 5, 2018 in

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Everett's New Downtown Plan Ready for Scrutiny

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"Everett has an ambitious city center planning proposal that has been circulating city hall for more than two years," reports Stephen Fesler. "Known as ' Metro Everett,' the proposal would rezone large swaths of the city center and nearby areas while pairing extensive development regulations to realize modern, integrated urban districts."

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As a result of our land use, there have been changes in vegetation cover on a global scale. This has caused the Earth's surface to increase in temperature.

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Natural ecosystems play a crucial role in helping combat climate change, air pollution and soil erosion. A new study by a team of researchers from the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science and knowledge service, sheds light on another, less well-known aspect of how these ecosystems, and forests in particular, can protect our planet against global warming.

The research team used satellite data to analyse changes in global vegetation cover from 2000 to 2015 and link these to changes in the surface energy balance. Modifying the vegetation cover alters the surface properties -- such as the amount of heat dissipated by water evaporation and the level of radiation reflected back into space -- which has a knock-on effect on local surface temperature. Their analysis reveals how recent land cover changes have ultimately made the planet warmer.

"We knew that forests have a role in regulating surface temperatures and that deforestation affects the climate, but this is the first global data-driven assessment that has enabled us to systematically map the biophysical mechanisms behind these processes," explains Gregory Duveiller, lead author of the study.

The study also looked beyond deforestation, analysing changes between different types of vegetation, from evergreen forests to savannas, shrublands, grasslands, croplands and wetlands. However, they found that the removal of tropical evergreen forest for agricultural expansion is the vegetation cover transition most responsible for local increases in surface temperature.

From a greenhouse gas perspective, the cutting of forests might only affect the global climate in the mid-to-long term. However, the scientists point out that local communities living in areas where the trees are cut will immediately be exposed to rising temperatures.

Journal Reference:

Gregory Duveiller, Josh Hooker, Alessandro Cescatti. The mark of vegetation change on Earth's surface energy balance. Nature Communications, 2018; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02810-8

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environmental issues; climate; global warming; forest; environmental policies; land management; resource shortage; ocean policy

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Land use change has warmed Earth's surface

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Natural ecosystems play a crucial role in helping combat climate change, air pollution and soil erosion. A new study by a team of researchers from the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science and knowledge service, sheds light on another, less well-known aspect of how these ecosystems, and forests in particular, can protect our planet against global warming.

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A new study reveals that one third of the world's protected areas are under intense pressure from human activities.

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A shocking study in the journal Science by the University of Queensland, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and University of Northern British Columbia confirms that one third of the world's protected areas -- an astonishing 2.3 million square miles or twice the size of the state of Alaska -- are now under intense human pressure including road building, grazing, and urbanization.

The study is a reality check for nations striving to meet commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to halt biodiversity loss through protected area creation. Since 1992, the global extent of protected areas has roughly doubled in size; more than 202,000 cover more than 15 percent of the world's terrestrial area, with a goal of at least 17 percent coverage by 2020.

Though management objectives differ, ranging from strict biodiversity conservation areas to zones permitting certain human activities and sustainable resource extraction, the primary goal of all protected areas is to conserve nature.

The authors looked at global "Human Footprint" maps to make their assessment which shows that 32.8 percent of protected land is highly degraded. For protected areas created before the CBD was ratified 1992, 55 percent have since experienced human pressure increases. The authors warn that CBD goals will be severely undermined if widespread human pressure continues inside protected areas.

Said the paper's lead author, Kendall Jones of University of Queensland: "A well-run protected area network is essential in saving species. If we allow our protected area network to be degraded there is a no doubt biodiversity losses will be exacerbated."

The study shows that governments are overestimating the space available for nature inside protected areas. Governments are claiming these places are protected for the sake of nature when in reality they aren't. It is a major reason why biodiversity is still in catastrophic decline, despite more and more land being 'protected'.

However, the authors are not suggesting that high pressure protected areas be de-gazetted or defunded. To the contrary, it is crucial that nations recognize the profound conservation gains that can be realized by upgrading and restoring degraded protected areas while respecting the needs of local people.
THE GOOD NEWS
The most impacted protected areas were found in Asia, Europe, and Africa in places with massive human populations. But the study did find some good news: protected areas with strict biodiversity conservation objectives are subject to significantly lower levels of human pressure.

Some of these least impacted protected areas include Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia, Madidi National Park in Bolivia, and Yasuni Biosphere Reserve in Ecuador -- places where WCS has made considerable conservation investments and therefore has successfully staved off degradation.

Said Professor James Watson of WCS and University of Queensland, and the study's senior author: "We know protected areas work -- when well-funded, well-managed and well placed, they are extremely effective in halting the threats that cause biodiversity loss and ensure species return from the brink of extinction. There are also many protected areas that are still in good condition and protect the last strongholds of endangered species worldwide. The challenge is to improve the management of those protected areas that are most valuable for nature conservation to ensure they safeguard it."

Protected areas are at the core of WCS's conservation strategy, as these are areas that are most effective at protecting natural ecosystems and their complement of biodiversity and ecosystem services -- over 80 percent of WCS's site-based field work takes place within or around protected areas. When well-managed (through sound enforcement, monitoring, clear boundaries) and funded appropriately, protected areas are effective in reducing the loss of natural habitat, and sustaining wildlife populations.

Said Watson: "Most importantly we've got to recognize that these jewels in the crown need support- there are some protected areas that are safeguarding nature and that still haven't got any evidence of human encroachment in them. We must ensure these values are maintained."

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nature; mice; ecology research; biodiversity; ecology; sustainability; land management; disaster plan; urbanization

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Shocking study shows one third of world's protected areas degraded by human activities: 2.3 million square miles -- twice the size of Alaska -- impacted by road building, grazing, and urbanization

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A shocking study confirms that one third of the world's protected areas -- an astonishing 2.3 million square miles or twice the size of the state of Alaska -- are now under intense human pressure including road building, grazing, and urbanization.

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This article aims to educate readers about the benefits of using the same land for energy and food production.

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At a recent solar energy conference in Minneapolis, attendees unwound at happy hour tasting free pints of a local honey-based India pale ale called "Solarama Crush." Minnesota-based 56 Brewing makes the smooth IPA using honey from hives located on solar farms outside the Twin Cities.

Honey producers Travis and Chiara Bolton keep bees at three solar farms where developers seeded native plants underneath and around panels. "The advantage to these sites is that they are intentionally planted for pollinators," says Travis Bolton. "At these sites, they're really trying to get them back to a native prairie, and that's a benefit to us."

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Energy and food together: Under solar panels, crops thrive

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At a recent solar energy conference in Minneapolis, attendees unwound at happy hour tasting free pints of a local honey-based India pale ale called "Solarama Crush." Minnesota-based 56 Brewing makes the smooth IPA using honey from hives located on solar farms outside the Twin Cities.

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A global 24-hour boycott on plastic packaging is being planned in order to fight the pollution of our oceans.

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Millions of customers are being urged to boycott food and drink in plastic packaging for 24 hours on Tuesday, as the war against plastic pollution inspired by BBC documentary Blue Planet II gathers momentum.

Each year more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally, and 10 per cent will end up in the sea. It is estimated that there is now a 1:2 ratio of plastic to plankton and, left unchecked, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.

Marine animals cannot digest it and it has been shown that even humans who eat seafood ingest 11,000 pieces of microplastic each year. More than eight tonnes of plastic enters the sea each year, mostly from land, but most plastic are not bio-degradable and not all plastic can be recycled.

In what is billed as a global first, campaign group A Plastic Planet, supported by organisations in Europe, Asia and the Americas such as TimeOut, Spotify and Sky Ocean Rescue, is hoping to inspire 250 million people around the world to stop using plastic-packaged products to mark World Environment Day on Tuesday.

Campaigners said they also hoped international companies would make pledges to cut their plastic footprint.

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Global 24-hour boycott on plastic packaging to fight ocean pollution begins in wake of 'Blue Planet effect'

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Millions of customers are being urged to boycott food and drink in plastic packaging for 24 hours on Tuesday, as the war against plastic pollution inspired by BBC documentary Blue Planet II gathers momentum. Each year more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally, and 10 per cent will end up in the sea.

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Pollution is changing the fungi that provide nutrients to the roots of trees in Europe. This has caused many trees to become malnourished across the continent.

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Pollution is changing the fungi that provide mineral nutrients to tree roots, which could explain malnutrition trends in Europe's trees.

A huge study of 13,000 soil samples across 20 European countries has revealed that many tree fungi communities are stressed by pollution, indicating that current pollution limits may not be strict enough.

To get nutrients from the soil, trees host fungi, known as mycorrhizal fungi, in their roots. These fungi receive carbon from the tree in exchange for essential nutrients, like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which they gather from the soil. Some of these fungi are known above-ground from the mushrooms and truffles they form.

This plant-fungal symbiotic relationship is crucial for the health of the tree. Recent studies have noted signs of tree malnutrition across Europe, such as discoloured leaves or leaves lost from the crown, but the mechanisms underpinning these symptoms are unclear.

Now, in a ten-year pan-European study led by Imperial College London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, researchers have revealed that tree characteristics and local air and soil quality have a large impact on mycorrhizae.

The study, published today in Nature, examined 40,000 roots from 13,000 soil samples at 137 forest sites in 20 European countries. This allowed the authors to discover large-scale trends in mycorrhizal communities, including their tolerance to pollution.

Lead researcher Dr Martin Bidartondo, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial and Kew Gardens, said: "There is an alarming trend of tree malnutrition across Europe, which leaves forests vulnerable to pests, disease and climate change. To see if changes in mycorrhizae might be behind this trend, we opened the 'black box' of soil. Processes happening in soil and roots are often ignored, assumed or modelled, because studying them directly is difficult, but it is crucial for assessing tree functioning.

"A major finding of the study is that European pollution limits may be set far too high. In North America the limits are set much lower, and we now have good evidence they should be similar in Europe. For example, current European nitrogen limits may need to be cut by half. Our trees in Europe are not more tolerant than those in North America -- their fungi are just suffering more."

The team found that the characteristics of the tree (species and nutrient status) and the local environmental conditions (atmospheric pollution and soil variables) were the most important predictors of which species of mycorrhizal fungi would be present and their abundances.

Minerals like nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for life, but in high enough concentrations can be damaging, acting as pollutants rather than nutrients. The new study discovered 'thresholds' of these elements -- concentrations above which the community of mycorrhizae changes.

Some mycorrhizal fungi are outcompeted by those that are more tolerant of pollution, such as species that can take advantage of the excess nitrogen from air pollution.

These ecosystem changes can negatively affect tree health. For example, the team proposes that some community changes result in more 'parasitic' mycorrhizae: those that take carbon but give little back in the way of nutrients.

The researchers say these first large-scale results should be used to design new in-depth studies into the link between pollution, soil, mycorrhizae, tree growth and tree health.

First author Dr Sietse van der Linde who worked at Imperial and Kew Gardens during this research said: "The study throws up many new questions in tree health and mycorrhizal diversity. For example, we found that while mycorrhizae are more specialised than expected -- i.e. the majority of species will only associate with certain types of trees -- specialist fungi were also less adaptable to changing conditions."

Dr Laura M Suz, mycology research leader at Kew Gardens said: "The thresholds uncovered in this study should impact how we manage our forests. From now on, with this wealth of new information we can take a broader view of fungi and forests across the continent, and also design new fungal monitoring systems, using this study as the first ever underground baseline to test directly for large-scale drivers of change."

Dr Bidartondo added: "We can also now investigate new questions in depth. For example, we did not expect that the levels of potassium would affect mycorrhizae as strongly as they did, but we can now try to determine why that is, and what impact potassium levels are having on our forests."

Journal Reference:

Sietse van der Linde, Laura M. Suz, C. David L. Orme, Filipa Cox, Henning Andreae, Endla Asi, Bonnie Atkinson, Sue Benham, Christopher Carroll, Nathalie Cools, Bruno De Vos, Hans-Peter Dietrich, Johannes Eichhorn, Joachim Gehrmann, Tine Grebenc, Hyun S. Gweon, Karin Hansen, Frank Jacob, Ferdinand Kristöfel, Paweł Lech, Miklós Manninger, Jan Martin, Henning Meesenburg, Päivi Merilä, Manuel Nicolas, Pavel Pavlenda, Pasi Rautio, Marcus Schaub, Hans-Werner Schröck, Walter Seidling, Vít Šrámek, Anne Thimonier, Iben Margrete Thomsen, Hugues Titeux, Elena Vanguelova, Arne Verstraeten, Lars Vesterdal, Peter Waldner, Sture Wijk, Yuxin Zhang, Daniel Žlindra, Martin I. Bidartondo. Environment and host as large-scale controls of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Nature, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0189-9

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fungus; trees; organic; soil types; forest; acid rain; air quality; air pollution

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Pollution hits the fungi that nourish European trees

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Pollution is changing the fungi that provide mineral nutrients to tree roots, which could explain malnutrition trends in Europe's trees. A huge study of 13,000 soil samples across 20 European countries has revealed that many tree fungi communities are stressed by pollution, indicating that current pollution limits may not be strict enough.

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According to recent reports, the amount of overfishing in the United States has decreased quite a lot in recent years.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2017 Status of Stocks report, released on 17 May, indicates that the number of stocks facing overfishing or that are overfished is at an all-time-low since reports began in 2000.

Just 30 of the 317 stocks with known overfishing status were subject to overfishing, representing nine percent of the total stocks. Of the 235 stocks with known overfished status, just 35, or 15 percent, were considered overfished.

"Over 90 percent of our stocks are not subject to overfishing," said Alan Risenhoover, director of NOAA"s Office of Sustainable Fisheries during a press conference. "This progress, outlined in the report, is the result of shared efforts of many partners."

NOAA considered the report to also show a boon for the economy. Nationwide, the seafood industry represented USD 208 billion (EUR 176 billion) in value for the U.S. economy, and accounted for roughly 1.6 million jobs.

Risenhoover reported three previously overfished stocks are now considered to have been rebuilt: bocaccio, darkblotched rockfish, and Pacific ocean perch. All three were rebuilt ahead of schedule. The addition of those three species now makes 44 stocks that have been rebuilt since 2000. NOAA tracks 474 stocks in total, in 46 different fishery management plans.

Conservation organizations welcomed the news that stocks that are overfished or subject to overfishing has reached new lows.

"That is good news indeed, as overfishing remains a serious problem globally. We celebrate this progress with all those who fought so hard for the regulations that got us here," Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaigner John Hocevar said in a statement sent to SeafoodSource.

Six fish species were removed from the overfishing list: sailfish in the western Atlantic, blue king crab in the Pribilof Islands, Puerto Rico wrasses complex, coho salmon in the Hood Canal in Pugent Sound, winter flounder in Georges Banks, and witch flounder on the Northwestern Atlantic coast.

Six species were also added to the overfishing list: Greater amberjack in the Gulf of Mexico, red grouper in the Southern Atlantic coast, coho salmon in the Stillaguamish River area in Pugent Sound, shortfin mako in the North Atlantic, red hake in the Southern Georges Banks/Mid-Atlantic, and gray triggerfish in the Gulf of Mexico.

Six species were removed from the overfished list: yelloweye rockfish on the Pacific Coast, winter flounder in Georges Bank, gray triggerfish in the Gulf of Mexico, red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific ocean perch on the Pacific Coast, and bluefin tuna in the Western Atlantic.

Three species were added to the overfished list: red grouper on the Southern Atlantic Coast, shortfin mako in the North Atlantic, and red hake in the Southern Georges Banks/Mid-Atlantic.

A further three species were given first time status determinations, which were neither overfished or subject to overfishing. Spiny dogfish, on the Pacific coast, and the St. Croix wrasses complex, were both found to not be subject to overfishing. Golden king crab, in the Aleutian Islands, was found to not be overfished.

Risenhoover noted during the press conference that changing environmental factors and changing stocks will likely continue to see species added and removed from the overfished and overfishing lists on into the future.

"There's going to continue to be some overfished stock on our report," he said. "I think it's going to evolve over time with different stocks coming on and off, and that's part of our management program, to be able to react to those when we see new issues arise."

Hocevar, in his statement, said that Greenpeace believes further efforts are still needed to address issues within the fishing industry, aside from just overfishing.

"We need to do more to prevent fishing gear from damaging seafloor habitats and to reduce bycatch, especially for threatened species. We need to broaden our understanding of what is overfished to include time and place - localized depletion can be deadly for whales, seals, and seabirds who are unable to find food where they expect it."

Risenhoover said addressing the challenges NOAA and other regulatory bodies will face as climate change, warming waters, and moving fish stocks make determining the way stocks are allocated more difficult is a key part of the organization's future mission.

"I think in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic, fish stocks are probably doing three things: they may be expanding their range; they may be heading to deeper, cooler waters; or they be moving along the coast north," he said. "All of those create issues for our scientists."

Evolving quotas for fisheries, as well as determining stocks, will require diligence from NOAA and other management agencies.

"How do we adapt or evolve these quotas over time," Risenhoover posited, "So it's still fair to those who have been dependent on these fisheries for years?"

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US fisheries report reveals all-time-low numbers of overfishing, overfished stocks

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2017 Status of Stocks report, released on 17 May, indicates that the number of stocks facing overfishing or that are overfished is at an all-time-low since reports began in 2000. Just 30 of the 317 stocks with known overfishing status were subject to overfishing, representing nine percent of the total stocks.

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The European Union has threatened Spain with court action over the hunting of protected song birds.

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Students from Kristin School in Albany worked together to improve the ecology of Unsworth Reserve.

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students step up to improve ecology at unsworth reserve

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Students step up to improve ecology at Unsworth Reserve

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Around 40 students from Kristin School in Albany worked to improve the ecology of Unsworth Reserve.

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The study of rat bones on an island in Polynesia is helping scientists analyze the island's ecology in the past.

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Rat Study Offers Clues to Island Ecology - Archaeology Magazine

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A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America

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While conserving the lives of marsupials on a predator-free island, scientists have discovered that this isolation weakens their predator-avoidance behaviors. This would make the reintroduction of these marsupials to mainland Australia much more difficult.

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Scientists can analyze the DNA that is found within leeches' blood meals in order to gain a better understanding of different ecosystems.