It was once the undisputed king of its clan, but most believe the imperial woodpecker faded unseen into the pages of history sometime in the late 20th century in the high mountains of Mexico.
But now, thanks to some keen detective work, the largest woodpecker that ever lived can be seen by the world once more – and this 85-second flight through time offers us a lesson about its behavior, and ours.
"It is stunning to look back through time with this film and see the magnificent imperial woodpecker moving through its old-growth forest environment, said research associate Martjan Lammertink, lead author of the paper along with four Cornell Lab of Ornithology staff members and two Mexican biologists. "And it is heartbreaking to know that both the bird and the forest are gone."
The imperial woodpecker was thought to have gone extinct without anyone ever capturing photos or film of the 2-foot-tall, flamboyantly crested bird. That was until a biologist from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology tracked down a 16-mm film shot in 1956 by a dentist from Pennsylvania. The footage, which captures the last confirmed sighting of an imperial woodpecker in the wild, is available for viewing below:
In the color film, a female imperial woodpecker hitches up and forages on the trunks of large Durango pines and then launches into flight.
The film was shot by William Rhein with a hand-held camera from the back of a mule while camping in a remote location in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango state. In March 2010, Lammertink and Tim Gallagher of the Cornell Lab launched an expedition with members of the conservation group Pronatura Noroeste to identify and survey the film site. The expedition turned up no evidence that imperial woodpeckers are still alive.
The entire range of the imperial woodpecker lay in the high country of the Sierra Madre Occidental – a rugged mountain range stretching some 900 miles south from the U.S.-Mexico border – and the Transvolcanic mountains of central Mexico. The species largely vanished in the late 1940s and 1950s as logging destroyed their old-growth pine forest habitat. Imperial woodpeckers were also frequently shot for food, to use in folk remedies or out of curiosity.
The imperial woodpecker was the closest relative of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which suffered a similar decline from habitat loss in the southeastern United States and Cuba. A 2005 study by the Cornell Lab reported the rediscovery of an ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas, but subsequent region-wide surveys did not find evidence of a surviving population.
The research appears in the October 2011 issue of The Auk, the journal of the American Ornithologists' Union. In addition to Lammertink and Gallagher, authors of the article include Kenneth V. Rosenberg, John Fitzpatrick and Eric Liner of the Cornell Lab, and Jorge Rojas-Tomé of Organización Vida Silvestre and Patricia Escalante of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. To read the paper please visit this page.
Study identifies underwater ridge critical to future flow
New seafloor topography off Antarctica's Thwaites Glaciers leads scientists to predict accelerated melting in the next 20 years. Credit: Frank Nitsche, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The retreat of Antarctica's fast-flowing Thwaites Glacier is expected to speed up within 20 years, once the glacier detaches from an underwater ridge that is currently holding it back, says a new study in Geophysical Research Letters.
Thwaites Glacier, which drains into west Antarctica's Amundsen Sea, is being closely watched for its potential to raise global sea levels as the planet warms. Neighboring glaciers in the Amundsen region are also thinning rapidly, including Pine Island Glacier and the much larger Getz Ice Shelf. The study is the latest to confirm the importance of seafloor topography in predicting how these glaciers will behave in the near future.
Scientists had previously identified a rock feature off west Antarctica that appeared to be slowing the glacier's slide into the sea. But this study is the first to connect it to a larger ridge, using geophysical data collected during flights over Thwaites Glacier in 2009 under NASA's Ice Bridge campaign. The newly discovered ridge is 700 meters tall, with two peaks—one that currently anchors the glacier and another farther off shore that held the glacier in place between 55 and 150 years ago, according to the authors.
"We didn't know what the sea floor looked like there because the floating ice prevented ships from going into the area," said the study's lead author, Kirsty Tinto, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The new data, she said, allows scientists to understand what is happening at the glacier's grounding line—where the glacier leaves land and floats into the sea, exposing the ice to warm ocean currents.
The goal of NASA's Ice Bridge campaign is to map the topography of vulnerable regions like this in Antarctica and Greenland by flying over the ice sheets with ice-penetrating radar and other instruments. The discovery that Thwaites is losing its grip on a previously unknown ridge has helped scientists understand why the glacier seems to be moving faster than it used to.
Thwaites Glacier is currently pinned on the peak of a newly discovered underwater ridge. Credit: Kirsty Tinto, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
"In the past, when Thwaites was thicker, the glacier must have been anchored more solidly on that ridge. Now it is not," said Eric Rignot, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has studied the glacier extensively and was not involved in the study. "Now it is retreating farther inland where we can see other ridges in the ice sounding radar data. Those ridges will determine what will happen next."
As scientists map the contours of the seafloor in the Amundsen Sea region, they are forming a clearer picture of what the glaciers are doing. In 2009, researchers sent a robot submarine beneath Pine Island Glacier's floating ice tongue and discovered a ridge about half the size of the one off Thwaites Glacier. Researchers estimate that Pine Island Glacier lifted off that ridge in the 1970s, allowing warm ocean currents to melt the glacier from below. The glacier's ice shelf is now moving 50 percent faster than it was in the early 1990s, Lamont-Doherty oceanographer Stan Jacobs and colleagues detailed in a study in Nature Geoscience earlier this year. Pine Island Glacier is moving into the sea at the rate of 4 kilometers a year—four times faster than the fastest-moving section of Thwaites.
Lamont-Doherty geophysicist Robin Bell, study co-author, compares the ridge in front of Thwaites to a person standing in a doorway, holding back a crowd. "Knowing the ridge is there lets us understand why the wide ice tongue that used to be in front of the glacier has broken up," she said. "We can now predict when the last bit of floating ice will lift off the ridge. We expect more ice will come streaming out of the Thwaites Glacier when this happens."
"The bathymetry is the roadmap for how warm ocean water reaches the edges of the ice sheet," she added. "Ridges like this one and the one discovered in front of Pine Island Glacier stabilize ice sheets, but can also be a critical part of the destabilizing process."
This map shows the locations of critical habitat designated for black abalone. Credit: NOAA's Fisheries Service
NOAA's Fisheries Service today filed with the Federal Register a final rule that identifies black abalone critical habitat along the California coast. In February 2009, black abalone was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and the Act requires critical habitat be designated, to the maximum extent prudent and determinable, whenever a species is listed for protection.
Once areas are designated as critical habitat, federal projects or permits and projects with federal funding are required to ensure their actions do not adversely modify the animal's habitat. Designating critical habitat does not affect citizens engaged in activities on private land that do not involve a federal agency.
Since the 1980s, the black abalone population has plummeted primarily from a bacterial disease known as withering syndrome. The impacts of withering syndrome may have been worsened by the warming of coastal waters from long-and-short-term changes in climate or from power plants' discharge of warm water. Other causes that likely contributed to the decline in black abalone populations are historical overfishing and poaching.
Black abalone once existed in intertidal waters from the northernmost reaches of California to the southern tip of the Baja peninsula in Mexico. The edible marine snail was harvested from the mid-1800s, and peaked in the 1970s as a commercial fishery in California. Today, the species is rarely found north of San Francisco or much farther south than the California-Mexico border.
A black abalone seen in the intertidal zone of San Nicolas Island, California. Credit: Susan Wang/NOAA Fisheries Service
Using agency data and information provided by the public, NOAA's Fisheries Service designated critical habitat for black abalone along the California coast to include rocky habitats, and the coastal marine waters above the benthos from the mean higher high water (MHHW) line, or average high tide, to a depth of six meters (approximately 20 feet) in the following areas (see attached map):
From Del Mar Landing Ecological Reserve to Point Bonita.
From the southern point at the mouth of San Francisco Bay to Natural Bridges State Beach.
From Pacific Grove to Cayucos.
From Montaña de Oro State Park to just south of Government Point.
Palos Verdes Peninsula from the Palos Verdes/Torrance border to Los Angeles Harbor.
The circumference of: the Farallon Islands; Año Nuevo Island; San Miguel Island; Santa Rosa Island; Santa Cruz Island; Anacapa Island; Santa Barbara Island; and Santa Catalina Island.
NOAA's Fisheries Service excluded the area of rocky habitat from Corona Del Mar State Beach to Dana Point from the designation, because the economic benefits of exclusion outweigh the benefits of inclusion, and the exclusion will not result in the extinction of the species. It was also determined that San Clemente Island and San Nicolas Island were no longer eligible for designation due to the development of integrated natural resources management plans that provide benefits to black abalone.
Iowa State engineers, left to right, John Jackman, Vinay Dayal and Frank Peters use the Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory to find better ways to make components for wind turbines. Credit: Photo by Bob Elbert/Iowa State University
A laser in Iowa State University's Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory scanned layer after layer of the flexible fiberglass fabric used to make wind turbine blades.
A computer took the laser readings and calculated how dozens of the layers would fit and flow over the curves of a mold used to manufacture a blade. And if there was a wrinkle or wave in the fabric – any defect at all – the technology was designed to find it.
That's because the last thing you want is a defect in a 40-meter wind turbine blade when it's spinning in the wind.
"Waves in the fabric are bad because they can't take the load," said Vinay Dayal, an Iowa State associate professor of aerospace engineering.
"And if a blade can't take the load, bad things happen to the turbine," said John Jackman, an Iowa State associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering.
The two are working with Frank Peters and Matt Frank, associate professors of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, to operate and develop Iowa State's Wind Energy Manufacturing Lab.
The lab has been open for about a year and was built as part of a three-year, $6.3 million research project. The study is a joint effort of researchers from TPI Composites, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that operates a turbine blade factory in Newton, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. The researchers' goal is to develop new, low-cost manufacturing systems that could improve the productivity of turbine blade factories by as much as 35 percent.
The lab in Iowa State's Sweeney Hall provides researchers the facilities and equipment they need to:
study how lasers can analyze the fiberglass fabric that's used to manufacture turbine blades
develop technology for the nondestructive evaluation of turbine blades
analyze and improve wind blade edges
make precise 3-D laser measurements of 40-meter wind turbine blades
and develop new fabric manipulation techniques for automated blade construction.
Dayal said one example of the lab's capabilities is the ultrasound equipment that allows researchers to measure whether there's enough glue to hold the two halves of a turbine blade together – all without cutting into the blades.
The ultimate goal of the lab research is to make wind energy a more cost competitive energy option, Peters said. To make his point, he pulls out a U.S. Department of Energy bar graph that shows the 2010 cost of wind energy was 8.2 cents per kilowatt hour. The department's goal is to reduce the cost to 6 cents per kilowatt hour by 2020.
Peters said the lab can help meet that goal by developing better, more efficient manufacturing methods. The result could be bigger, longer-lasting wind turbine blades. And that could mean more power at less cost.
"Manufacturing in this industry is done largely by hand," Peters said. "Our goal is to find ways to automate the manufacturing."
And that, said Dayal, also improves quality control in manufacturing plants.
Working with the four faculty researchers are Wade Johanns, Luke Schlangen, Huiyi Zhang and Siqi Zhu, graduate students in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering; and Sunil Chakrapani, a graduate student in aerospace engineering. Funding for the lab has been provided by TPI, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Iowa Office of Energy Independence. Other lab partners include the Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation and Novel Development and Iowa State's Center for Industrial Research and Service.
Researchers say the lab has already advanced their understanding of turbine blade manufacturing and is helping to develop automation technologies that could one day be used in manufacturing plants.
"In the early stages of the research there were a lot of investigations to understand all the problems we're addressing," Frank said. "But now we're at that phase where real intellectual property is coming out of the lab."
It's part of my job to make sure President Obama gets to hear the voices and perspectives of people outside Washington – and lately, that's not been difficult.
Everywhere the President goes, he gets the same message: Americans just want folks in Washington to work together to build an economy that works for the middle class, not just the wealthiest – and is based on rewarding responsibility, hard work and fairness.
That's why the President has proposed the American Jobs Act, a set of bold but common-sense measures that will put up to 2 million Americans back to work and more money in the pockets of working Americans.
Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress keep blocking this bipartisan proposal, putting their party before our country.
We can't wait for Congress to act, so President Obama is moving ahead with executive actions to strengthen the economy, help middle class families and move this country forward.
On Monday, he was in Nevada to discuss concrete steps we're taking, like removing caps for deeply underwater borrowers and eliminating fees, so that homeowners can refinance their mortgages and save money. On Tuesday, he announced new initiatives that will help put veterans to work in community health centers. And today, he's proposing to offer immediate relief to college students by making it easier to manage their debt while they get on their feet.
These policies aren't a substitute for the American Jobs Act, but they will make a difference. And we don't intend to stop there.
The best ideas for growing this economy won't come from Washington – they'll come from Americans like you. So let me tell you about a new way to make your voice heard in our government.
More than 750,000 people have already used a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov called We the People to create and sign petitions calling on the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues. Learn more about We the People here:
The President's changes to the student loan program will make it easier for graduates to make their payments and avoid default.
It's also a great example of We the People at work.
In the past month, thousands of citizens signed a petition about student loans. These individuals rightly pointed out that the weight of this debt is preventing graduates all over the country from achieving their dreams.
It's a message received loud and clear and one that President Obama – who spent almost a decade paying off his own student loans – understands.
A new report shows that our investments in student financial aid have made a big difference for families, but too many students still struggle with debt. Today, the President announced clear actions to help young people who are doing everything right and living up to their responsibilities, but having a hard time making loan payments while the economy continues to recover.
So what else do you have? What's the next issue you think needs attention? Make sure your voice is heard in our government: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/YourIdeas
The Coca-Cola Company and World Wildlife Fund Partner to Protect the Polar Bear’s Home
Beginning next month, white will be the new red. Coca-Cola and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are joining forces in a bold new campaign to help protect the polar bear’s Arctic home. For the first time ever, Coca-Cola is turning its iconic red cans white in celebration of the polar bear and committing up to $3 million to WWF’s polar bear conservation efforts. The Company is also asking fans in the U.S. to join the “Arctic Home” campaign by texting donations.
“We want to help the polar bear—a beloved Coca-Cola icon since 1922—by helping conserve its Arctic habitat,” said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. “That’s why we’re using one of our greatest assets—our flagship brand, Coca-Cola—to raise awareness for this important cause. And by partnering with WWF, we can truly make a positive difference for these majestic animals.”
First Ever White Packaging Encourages $1 Text Donation to WWF
This holiday season, more than 1.4 billion white Coke cans will help raise awareness and funds to protect the polar bear’s home. White bottle caps also will be on bottles of Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Nestea, Minute Maid and more. Coca-Cola has never before changed the color of the red can to support a cause.
Beginning November 1, 2011, the familiar red can background will be replaced with an all-white panorama, highlighted by the iconic Coca-Cola script printed in red. The eye-catching cans will feature the image of a mother bear and her two cubs making their way across the Arctic. White packaging will be on store shelves through February 2012.
Coca-Cola is making an initial donation of $2 million to WWF and inviting others to join the effort. Anyone who wants to help the polar bears can text the package code to 357357 to donate $1 to WWF. They also can donate online at ArcticHome.com, starting November 1. Coca-Cola will match all donations made with a package code by March 15, 2012, up to a total of $1 million.
“Arctic Home” Funds to Support WWF’s Polar Bear Conservation Efforts
Funds raised will go toward WWF’s conservation efforts to protect polar bear habitats—for their survival today and in the future.
"Polar bears inspire the imagination. They're massive, powerful, beautiful and they live nowhere else except the Arctic. Their lives are intimately bound up with sea ice, which is now melting at an alarming rate,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund. “By working with Coca-Cola, we can raise the profile of polar bears and what they're facing, and most importantly, engage people to work with us, to help protect their home."
WWF has a vision to help protect the polar bear’s Arctic home. This includes working with local residents to manage an area high in the Arctic where the summer sea ice will likely persist the longest. This area—potentially covering 500,000 square miles—could provide a home for the polar bear while protecting the cultural and economic needs of local people.
Coca-Cola Ads with Arctic IMAX®Film Footage Inspire Action
Coca-Cola and WWF also have partnered with Academy Award® nominated filmmakers MacGillivray Freeman Films, which is working with Warner Bros. Pictures and IMAX Corporation to co-produce the new IMAX® film To The Arctic 3D, scheduled for release in 2012. Coca-Cola’s “Arctic Home” television commercials and content on the website, feature sneak preview footage from the film.
Producer Shaun MacGillivray said the film brings the polar bear story to life: “Filming To The Arctic 3D was an extraordinary journey. It makes perfect sense for our footage to be a part of ‘Arctic Home,’ inspiring action to protect the bears.”
On ArcticHome.com visitors can explore, experience and learn about the polar bear and its Arctic habitat. They can conduct live video chats with WWF scientists, track virtual polar bear sightings and make donations. Supporters of “Arctic Home” also can help spread the word to their friends and families by sharing content using the hashtag #ArcticHome.
“Arctic Home” extends Coca-Cola’s support of WWF’s polar bear conservation efforts and builds upon the organizations’ global partnership focused on freshwater conservation. Together, Coca-Cola and WWF are working to conserve freshwater resources around the world, use water more efficiently, and hold down carbon emissions in Coca-Cola’s manufacturing operations. Additionally, they are working to promote sustainable agriculture in the Company’s supply chain. By combining strengths and resources,
Coca-Cola and WWF are able to go beyond what each organization could achieve on its own.
“Arctic Home” is another expression of Coca-Cola’s Live Positively philosophy, to make a positive difference in the world through sustainable business practices.
About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, the world’s most valuable brand, the Company’s portfolio features 15 billion dollar brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply and Georgia. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, juices and juice drinks and ready-to-drink teas and coffees. Through the world’s largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company’s beverages at a rate of 1.7 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate.
AboutMacGillivray Freeman Films
MacGillivray Freeman Films is the world’s best-selling independent filmmaker of films for IMAX and other giant-screen theatres with more than 35 giant-screen films to its credit. Throughout the company’s 40-year history, its films have won numerous international awards including two Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary Short Subject. The company’s blockbuster film Everest remains the top-grossing giant-screen film in history. To The Arctic 3D follows in the company’s long tradition of producing films that call attention to important issues in the natural world. It is the first film presentation of One World One Ocean, a multi-year, multi-platform non-profit campaign established by company founder Greg MacGillivray to spark a global movement to protect the world’s oceans.
The Second National Vulture Festival, which was held in 14 October, 2011 in Sliven, Bulgaria, was another huge success. Organised by ‘the Vultures Return in Bulgaria’ EU LIFE project, the event has become an essential part of the campaign to raise awareness about the need to safeguard this endangered bird of prey.
The festival attracted students from six schools and kindergartens from Sliven and neighbouring towns, such as Roza and Drazhevo, as well as many parents, passers-by and vulture lovers from all over the country. The children drew vultures from realistic dummies, and sang and danced to celebrate the return of these magnificent birds to Sliven. (The birds are returning to sites where they haven’t been seen for more than 50 years!)
In attendance, too, were the deputy head of mission of the Dutch Embassy, the deputy head of mission of the German Embassy and the director of Zoo Zlin, Czech Republic. Guests of honour, however, were four griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus), released after the very first Vulture Festival (2010), which soared over the main square during the festival.
Another pleasing outcome was the adoption of two vultures, one by a private family and the other by a corporate company. These birds were fitted them with GPS/GSM transmitters and also released during the festival.
Glacial melt cycle could become self-amplifying, making it difficult to halt
The Greenland ice sheet can experience extreme melting even when temperatures don't hit record highs, according to a new analysis by Dr. Marco Tedesco, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York. His findings suggest that glaciers could undergo a self-amplifying cycle of melting and warming that would be difficult to halt.
"We are finding that even if you don't have record-breaking highs, as long as warm temperatures persist you can get record-breaking melting because of positive feedback mechanisms," said Professor Tedesco, who directs CCNY's Cryospheric Processes Laboratory and also serves on CUNY Graduate Center doctoral faculty.
Professor Tedesco and his team collected data for the analysis this past summer during a four-week expedition to the Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier in western Greenland. Their arrival preceded the onset of the melt season.
Combining data gathered on the ground with microwave satellite recordings and the output from a model of the ice sheet, he and graduate student Patrick Alexander found a near-record loss of snow and ice this year. The extensive melting continued even without last year's record highs.
The team recorded data on air temperatures, wind speed, exposed ice and its movement, the emergence of streams and lakes of melt water on the surface, and the water's eventual draining away beneath the glacier. This lost melt water can accelerate the ice sheet's slide toward the sea where it calves new icebergs. Eventually, melt water reaches the ocean, contributing to the rising sea levels associated with long-term climate change.
The model showed that melting between June and August was well above the average for 1979 to 2010. In fact, melting in 2011 was the third most extensive since 1979, lagging behind only 2010 and 2007. The "mass balance", or amount of snow gained minus the snow and ice that melted away, ended up tying last year's record values.
Temperatures and an albedo feedback mechanism accounted for the record losses, Professor Tedesco explained. "Albedo" describes the amount of solar energy absorbed by the surface (e.g. snow, slush, or patches of exposed ice). A white blanket of snow reflects much of the sun's energy and thus has a high albedo. Bare ice – being darker and absorbing more light and energy – has a lower albedo.
But absorbing more energy from the sun also means that darker patches warm up faster, just like the blacktop of a road in the summer. The more they warm, the faster they melt.
And a year that follows one with record high temperatures can have more dark ice just below the surface, ready to warm and melt as soon as temperatures begin to rise. This also explains why more ice sheet melting can occur even though temperatures did not break records.
Professor Tedesco likens the melting process to a speeding steam locomotive. Higher temperatures act like coal shoveled into the boiler, increasing the pace of melting. In this scenario, "lower albedo is a downhill slope," he says. The darker surfaces collect more heat. In this situation, even without more coal shoveled into the boiler, as a train heads downhill, it gains speed. In other words, melting accelerates.
Only new falling snow puts the brakes on the process, covering the darker ice in a reflective blanket, Professor Tedesco says. The model showed that this year's snowfall couldn't compensate for melting in previous years. "The process never slowed down as much as it had in the past," he explained. "The brakes engaged only every now and again."
The team's observations indicate that the process was not limited to the glacier they visited; it is a large-scale effect. "It's a sign that not only do albedo and other variables play a role in acceleration of melting, but that this acceleration is happening in many places all over Greenland," he cautioned. "We are currently trying to understand if this is a trend or will become one. This will help us to improve models projecting future melting scenarios and predict how they might evolve."
Additional expedition team members included Christine Foreman of Montana State University, and Ian Willis and Alison Banwell of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK.
Professor Tedesco and his team provide their preliminary results on the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory webpage. They will will be presenting further results at the American Geophysical Union Society (AGU) meeting in San Francisco on December 5 at 9 a.m. and December 6 at 11:35 a.m.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the NASA Cryosphere Program. The World Wildlife Fund is acknowledged for supporting fieldwork activities.
Research in which scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) are participating analyzes the causes and characteristics of fires that have occurred in the Mediterranean basin in recent decades, and determines that rural exodus and changes in land use have increased the number and size of these fires. Credit: Julio Álvarez
The study, recently published in the journal Climatic Change, is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between two researchers: one is UC3M Professor Santiago Fernández Muñoz, who has worked in the area of geographic history under the direction of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Professor Josefina Gómez Mendoza; the other is Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC – Spanish National Research Council) ecologist Juli Pausas. Specifically, the authors constructed a complete database of historical fires in the province of Valencia in order to relate them to the evolution of the climate and societal and territorial transformations in the region. The research that was carried out provides the most complete series of data on the evolution of fires in the Mediterranean basin to date.
The conclusion they have reached is that a significant change in the number and, especially, size of forest fires took place during the decade of the seventies. This change can be directly related to the rural exodus and transformation of land use that took place during that decade. "The depopulation of rural areas resulted in the abandonment of agricultural spaces that had historically been interspersed among the forests. Because of this, in the space of a few years, spaces where there had previously been grain fields were invaded by highly flammable vegetation in a series of steps leading toward the Mediterranean forests", explains Professor Fernández Muñoz.
The key: 0.6 inhabitants per square kilometer
At the same time, the extraction of firewood decreased drastically as a consequence of the incorporation of other sources of energy, and the country witnessed a very relevant transformation in its rural landscapes, which became "less populated and with fewer patchworks of land for agricultural use, with more continuous forest masses and more highly flammable vegetation", clarifies the expert. In spite of the fact that depopulation and the changes in land use were gradual, this research has detected a number of thresholds after which a very significant increase in the number of fires took place; these numbers fall around a population density of 0.6 inhabitants per square kilometer.
To carry out this study, the scientists first did basic research on the incidence of forest fires in the province of Valencia beginning in 1875. To do this, they reviewed the forest administration's archives and identified every news item regarding fires that had appeared in the local newspapers. Thanks to this work, they were able to elaborate a database with thousands of records of fires identified by date, location and the surface area that had burned. Finally, they related all of this information to socioeconomic variables (evolution of the population, land use, etc.) and climatic variables (precipitation, temperature), by applying complex statistical methods to find the connection among the different variables.
To sum up, what they have found is that the change in the occurrence of fires that are recorded in the historical research cannot be explained by the gradual change in climate, but rather that it corresponds to changes in the availability of fuel, the use of sources of energy and the continuity of the landscape. This research, which attempts to explain the evolution of fires, may be very useful for the management of forest areas prone to fires in the middle and long term, according to the authors.
Source: Fire regime changes in the Western Mediterranean Basin: from fuel-limited to drought-driven fire regime Authors: Juli G. Pausas, Santiago Fernández Muñoz. Source: Climatic Change. Publish on line: 21/03/2011 DOI: 10.1007/s10584-011-0060-6
The reclusive American marten is getting even harder to find in the Sierra Nevada, according to a study by a team of researchers from the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon State University. A new study at the Sagehen Experimental Forest found that marten detections have dropped 60 percent since the 1980s—a decrease that may be caused by a degradation of the wooded areas in which they live, researchers say. Their findings appeared in the current issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management.
"Previous work had revealed that marten populations in the northern Sierra and southern Cascades in California have become more fragmented since the early 1900s, but the current work at Sagehen may help explain the mechanism for this pattern," says co-author Bill Zielinski, research ecologist for the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station in Arcata, Calif.
In the early 1900s, American marten could be found in many continuous areas in the higher elevations of the northern Sierra Nevada. Today, populations of the small mammal, which is related to the weasel family and looks like a cross between a mink and a fox, are isolated and discontinuous. Causes for this phenomenon are unclear, but researchers believe that timber harvesting and thinning—the removal of downed woody material on the forest floor—may play a part in the population decline.
The Sagehen Experimental Forest is located in the Tahoe National Forest about 30 miles north of Lake Tahoe and is managed by the Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of California, Berkeley. Researchers recorded marten detections using track plates—long, baited rectangular boxes which martens enter and leave their tracks on contact paper. The data, which was collected in 2007 and 2008, was then compared to survey results from 1980 to 1993.
"We've estimated that there has been about a 25 percent loss in suitable habitat for martens since the 1980s," says lead author and Oregon State University researcher Katie Moriarty. In their journal article, the authors cite the loss of prime marten habitat in the Sagehen Experimental Forest of more than 270 hectares, or nearly 700 acres.
Based on the results of their findings, the research team suggests the following land management strategies for preserving marten habitat:
Retain the remaining patches of old-growth forest habitat, especially near streams and retain patches of fir in the upper elevations.
Retain corridors of dense, old forest between areas where fire considerations make it is necessary to reduce the forest density (i.e., "thin" the forest).
Strive for an approach to forest management that retains old, dead and malformed trees and logs because of their important value as refuges for martens and as habitat for their prey.
Headquartered in Albany, Calif., the Pacific Southwest Research develops and communicates science needed to sustain forest ecosystems and other benefits to society. It has laboratories and research centers in California, Hawaii and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands.
