Constantine Alexander's Journal

Reef-builders with a sense of harmony

Cold-water corals are able to fuse skeletons of different individuals

Cusk in a cold water coral reef. © JAGO-Team, GEOMAR.

They live in the cold, dark depths of the oceans, are often exposed to strong currents and provide a stable base for diverse and colourful ecosystems: Stony corals of the species Lophelia pertusa are considered excellent reef-builders. According to the latest findings of researchers from the Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the University of Glasgow and the United States Geological Survey, even genetically different individuals are able to fuse their skeletons. On an expedition with the German submersible JAGO and the research vessel POSEIDON, the scientists observed this for the first time ever at two reefs off the coast of central Norway in September 2011. Their results are now published in the "Scientific Reports".

"Normally it is very hard to see where one coral ends and another begins. But on our dives with JAGO, we were able to find reefs where orange and white types of the coral fused together", says Dr. Sebastian Hennige of the Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh. "Coming from a tropical coral research background, seeing coral fusing like this instantly grabbed my attention, so we were able to successfully sample some corals for genetic and skeletal tests to prove that fusion happens between different individuals." Because of his observations and analyses, Hennige thinks that Lophelia pertusa is able to recognise 'self' at a species level.

It had previously been assumed that these massive reefs were made by siblings joining together, but they are in fact fusing between genetically distinct individuals, as though two people sitting closely together were able to fuse their skeletons. This ability clearly distinguishes Lophelia pertusa from tropical corals. Tropical reefs are held together by calcareous algae that grow on the crust of dead branches. These algae depend on sunlight. "Cold-water corals build their reefs in the dark and are not supported like this. But they seem to have found another way to attain stability", explains Dr. Armin Form, a marine biologist at GEOMAR and co-author of the publication. "Either the corals actually fuse and form a joint stock, or a branch grows over another one without interference." Tropical stony corals usually behave much more aggressive: They release chemicals to prevent contacts with other corals or rely on physical aggression. "This defensive behaviour uses up a lot of energy, which is then no longer available for other functions."

"This discovery highlights not only how much we have to learn about deep-sea ecosystems but how important advanced technologies are in deep-sea exploration", Murray Roberts, professor at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, points out. "The chance to explore these deep coral reefs with the submersible JAGO allowed us to observe the corals fusing and get the all-important samples back to the ship and into our labs."

Lophelia pertusa has evolved ways to save energy and strengthen the stability of the reef. Dr. Armin Form: „Given this plasticity, we hope that the coral will be able to cope with future climate changes. But we are not sure if they can keep track with the rapid environmental changes we are already experiencing."

Citation: Hennige, S.J., Morrison, C. L., Form, A. U., Büscher, J., Kamenos, N. A. and Roberts, J.M., 2014: Self-recognition in corals facilitates deep-sea habitat engineering. Sci. Rep. 4, 6782, doi:10.1038/srep06782.

Contact: Maike Nicolai
49-431-600-2807
Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)

New study finds oceans arrived early to Earth

In this illustration of the early solar system, the dashed white line represents the snow line -- the transition from the hotter inner solar system, where water ice is not stable (brown) to the outer Solar system, where water ice is stable (blue). Two possible ways that the inner solar system received water are: water molecules sticking to dust grains inside the "snow line" (as shown in the inset) and carbonaceous chondrite material flung into the inner solar system by the effect of gravity from protoJupiter. With either scenario, water must accrete to the inner planets within the first ca. 10 million years of solar system formation. Credit: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-oceans-early-earth.html#jCp

In this illustration of the early solar system, the dashed white line represents the snow line -- the transition from the hotter inner solar system, where water ice is not stable (brown) to the outer Solar system, where water ice is stable (blue). Two possible ways that the inner solar system received water are: water molecules sticking to dust grains inside the "snow line" (as shown in the inset) and carbonaceous chondrite material flung into the inner solar system by the effect of gravity from protoJupiter. With either scenario, water must accrete to the inner planets within the first ca. 10 million years of solar system formation. Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Earth is known as the Blue Planet because of its oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the planet's surface and are home to the world's greatest diversity of life. While water is essential for life on the planet, the answers to two key questions have eluded us: where did Earth's water come from and when?

While some hypothesize that water came late to Earth, well after the planet had formed, findings from a new study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) significantly move back the clock for the first evidence of water on Earth and in the inner solar system.

"The answer to one of the basic questions is that our oceans were always here. We didn't get them from a late process, as was previously thought," said Adam Sarafian, the lead author of the paper published Oct. 31, 2014, in the journal Science and a MIT/WHOI Joint Program student in the Geology and Geophysics Department.

One school of thought was that planets originally formed dry, due to the high-energy, high-impact process of planet formation, and that the water came later from sources such as comets or "wet" asteroids, which are largely composed of ices and gases.

"With giant asteroids and meteors colliding, there's a lot of destruction," said Horst Marschall, a geologist at WHOI and coauthor of the paper. "Some people have argued that any water molecules that were present as the planets were forming would have evaporated or been blown off into space, and that surface water as it exists on our planet today, must have come much, much later—hundreds of millions of years later."

The study's authors turned to another potential source of Earth's water— carbonaceous chondrites. The most primitive known meteorites, carbonaceous chondrites, were formed in the same swirl of dust, grit, ice and gasses that gave rise to the sun some 4.6 billion years ago, well before the planets were formed.

"These primitive meteorites resemble the bulk solar system composition," said WHOI geologist and coauthor Sune Nielsen. "They have quite a lot of water in them, and have been thought of before as candidates for the origin of Earth's water."

In order to determine the source of water in planetary bodies, scientists measure the ratio between the two stable isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium and hydrogen. Different regions of the solar system are characterized by highly variable ratios of these isotopes. The study's authors knew the ratio for carbonaceous chondrites and reasoned that if they could compare that to an object that was known to crystallize while Earth was actively accreting then they could gauge when water appeared on Earth.

To test this hypothesis, the research team, which also includes Francis McCubbin from the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico and Brian Monteleone of WHOI, utilized meteorite samples provided by NASA from the asteroid 4-Vesta. The asteroid 4-Vesta, which formed in the same region of the solar system as Earth, has a surface of basaltic rock—frozen lava. These basaltic meteorites from 4-Vesta are known as eucrites and carry a unique signature of one of the oldest hydrogen reservoirs in the solar system. Their age—approximately 14 million years after the solar system formed—makes them ideal for determining the source of water in the inner solar system at a time when Earth was in its main building phase. The researchers analyzed five different samples at the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility—a state-of-the-art national facility housed at WHOI that utilizes secondary ion mass spectrometers. This is the first time hydrogen isotopes have been measured in eucrite meteorites.

The measurements show that 4-Vesta contains the same hydrogen isotopic composition as carbonaceous chondrites, which is also that of Earth. That, combined with nitrogen isotope data, points to carbonaceous chondrites as the most likely common source of water.

"The study shows that Earth's water most likely accreted at the same time as the rock. The planet formed as a wet planet with water on the surface," Marschall said.

While the findings don't preclude a late addition of water on Earth, it shows that it wasn't necessary since the right amount and composition of water was present at a very early stage.

"An implication of that is that life on our planet could have started to begin very early," added Nielsen. "Knowing that water came early to the inner solar system also means that the other inner planets could have been wet early and evolved life before they became the harsh environments they are today."

Citation: A.R. Sarafian, Sune G. Nielsen, Horst R. Marschall, Francis M. McCubbin and Brian D. Monteleone; Early accretion of water in the inner solar system from a carbonaceous chondrite-like source; Science 2014; DOI: 10.1126/science.125617.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment.

 

Glacier song

Gorner and Grenz glaciers. In the foreground on the bottom right Monte Rosa Hut (2795 metres). Summits in the background from the left to the right: Dent d'Hérens (4171m), Matterhorn (4478m), Dent Blanche (4357m), Obergabelhorn (4062m) and Wellenkuppe (3903m), Zinalrothorn (4221m) and Weisshorn (4506m). Photo by Paweł Kuźniar (CC).

Mountain glaciers represent one of the largest repositories of fresh water in alpine regions. However, little is known about the processes by which water moves through these systems. In this study published in Geology on 24 Oct. 2014, David S. Heeszel and colleagues use seismic recordings collected near Lake Gornersee in the Swiss Alps to look for signs of water moving through fractures near the glacier bed. Analysis of these recordings reveals, for the first time, that harmonic tremor occurs within mountain glaciers and that individual icequakes at the glacier base can exhibit harmonic properties.

These observations suggest that there is a complex network of fluid-induced fracture processes at the glacier base. Because glacial lake drainage events can occur with little or no warning, there is the potential for damaging floods in valleys below the glacier. Unfortunately, because the water moves under and through the glacier, surface observations alone cannot predict lake drainage events.

Modeling changes in the observed harmonic frequencies indicates that the spectral characteristics of seismic data can provide important information about hydraulic fracture geometry and fluid pressure at depth, leading to important insights into subglacial hydrologic processes. Future modeling of these processes may lead to improved glacial outburst flood hazard predictions.

Citation: David S. Heeszel, Fabian Walter and Deborah L. Kild; Humming Glaciers; Geology, October 24, 2014; DOI: 10.1130/G35994.1.

Contact: Kea Giles
Geological Society of America

Where did all the oil go?

A UCSB professor's analysis traces oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon event to its resting place on the Gulf of Mexico's deep floor.

Controlled burning of surface oil slicks during the Deepwater Horizon event.

Photo Credit:

DAVID VALENTINE

- See more at: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014454/where-did-all-oil-go#sthash.jlIVGC5i.dpuf

Controlled burning of surface oil slicks during the Deepwater Horizon event.

Photo Credit:

DAVID VALENTINE

- See more at: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/014454/where-did-all-oil-go#sthash.jlIVGC5i.dpufControlled burning of surface oil slicks during the Deepwater Horizon event. Photo by David Valentine.

Controlled burning of surface oil slicks during the Deepwater Horizon event. Photo by David Valentine.

Due to its unprecedented scope, the damage assessment caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been a challenge. One unsolved puzzle is the location of 2 million barrels of submerged oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean.

UC Santa Barbara's David Valentine and colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) and UC Irvine have been able to describe the path the oil followed to create a footprint on the deep ocean floor. The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For this study, the scientists used data from the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The United States government estimates the Macondo well's total discharge — from the spill in April 2010 until the well was capped that July — to be 5 million barrels.

By analyzing data from more than 3,000 samples collected at 534 locations over 12 expeditions, they identified a 1,250-square-mile patch of the deep sea floor upon which 2 to 16 percent of the discharged oil was deposited. The fallout of oil to the sea floor created thin deposits most intensive to the southwest of the Macondo well. The oil was most concentrated within the top half inch of the sea floor and was patchy even at the scale of a few feet.

Hydrocarbon contamination from Deepwater Horizon overlaid on sea floor bathymetry, highlighting the 1,250 square mile area identified in the study. Credit: G. Burch Fisher

The investigation focused primarily on hopane, a nonreactive hydrocarbon that served as a proxy for the discharged oil. Researchers analyzed the spatial distribution of hopane in the northern Gulf of Mexico and found it was most concentrated in a thin layer at the sea floor within 25 miles of the ruptured well, clearly implicating Deepwater Horizon as the source.

"Based on the evidence, our findings suggest that these deposits come from Macondo oil that was first suspended in the deep ocean and then settled to the sea floor without ever reaching the ocean surface," said Valentine, a professor of earth science and biology at UCSB. "The pattern is like a shadow of the tiny oil droplets that were initially trapped at ocean depths around 3,500 feet and pushed around by the deep currents. Some combination of chemistry, biology and physics ultimately caused those droplets to rain down another 1,000 feet to rest on the sea floor."

Valentine and his colleagues were able to identify hotspots of oil fallout in close proximity to damaged deep-sea corals. According to the researchers, this data supports the previously disputed finding that these corals were damaged by the Deepwater Horizon spill.

"The evidence is becoming clear that oily particles were raining down around these deep sea corals, which provides a compelling explanation for the injury they suffered," said Valentine. "The pattern of contamination we observe is fully consistent with the Deepwater Horizon event but not with natural seeps — the suggested alternative."

While the study examined a specified area, the scientists argue that the observed oil represents a minimum value. They purport that oil deposition likely occurred outside the study area but so far has largely evaded detection because of its patchiness.

Map of study sampling sites identified as small circles with hotter colors indicating higher levels of contamination. Credit: G. Burch Fisher.

"This analysis provides us with, for the first time, some closure on the question 'Where did the oil go and how?' " said Don Rice, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences. "It also alerts us that this knowledge remains largely provisional until we can fully account for the remaining 70 percent."

"These findings should be useful for assessing the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon spill as well as planning future studies to further define the extent and nature of the contamination," Valentine concluded. "Our work can also help to assess the fate of reactive hydrocarbons, test models of oil's behavior in the ocean and plan for future spills."

Citation: David L/ Valentine, G. Burch Fisher, Sarah C. Bagby, Robert K. Nelson, Christopher M. Reddy, Sean P. Sylva and Mary A. Woo; Fallout plume of submerged oil from Deepwater Horizon; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2014, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1414873111.

Contact: Julie Cohen
805-893-7220
University of California - Santa Barbara

 

New study finds options for climate change policy are well characterized

As a public and policy issue, climate change boils down to four overarching issues:

1. climate is changing;
2. people are causing climate to change;
3. the societal consequences of climate change are highly uncertain but include the potential for serious impacts; and
4. there are numerous policy options for climate change risk management, most of which are well characterized (i.e., have known strengths and weaknesses).

These four conclusions are based on comprehensive assessment of scientific understanding and each is the result of multiple independent lines of evidence. 

Climate change risk management approaches generally fall into four broad categories:

1. mitigation—efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
2. adaptation—increasing society’s capacity to cope with changes in climate;
3. geoengineering or climate engineering—additional, deliberate manipulation of the earth system that is intended to counteract at least some of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions; and
4. knowledge-base expansion—efforts to learn and understand more about the climate system, which can help support proactive risk management. 

By reducing emissions, mitigation reduces society’s future contributions to greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Ultimately, this can help reduce the amount that climate will change and thereby increase the potential that societal impacts will remain manageable. Approaches to reducing emissions fall into several categories. These include 1) regulation; 2) research, development, and deployment of new technologies; 3) conservation; 4) efforts to increase public awareness; 5) positive incentives to encourage choices that lower emissions; and 6) adding a price to greenhouse gas emissions, which creates incentives to reduce emissions broadly.

Adding a price to greenhouse gas emissions is a particularly noteworthy policy option because it would be expected to have a broad-reaching impact on emissions; it has received a great deal of attention from the research community; and it has been a focus of policy discussions since climate change emerged as a public issue. 

Adaptation involves planning for climate impacts, building resilience to those impacts, and improving society’s capacity to respond and recover. This can help reduce damages and disruptions associated with climate change. Adaptation policy can include regulation to decrease vulnerability (e.g., through land-use planning and building codes); response planning; disaster recovery; impact assessment for critical systems and resources (e.g., water, health, biological systems, agriculture, and infrastructure); observations and monitoring; and efforts to minimize compounding stresses such as traditional air pollution, habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, and nitrogen deposition.

Geoengineering refers to deliberate, often global-scale, manipulations of the climate system. Two categories of geoengineering are most prevalent within scientific and policy discussions: solar radiation management (offsetting human-caused warming due to greenhouse gas emissions by reflecting incoming sunlight back to space) and carbon removal and sequestration (extracting carbon dioxide from the air and storing it deep in the ground or ocean).

Geoengineering could potentially help lower greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, counteract the warming influence of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, address specific climate change impacts, or offer desperation strategies in the event that abrupt, catastrophic, or otherwise unacceptable climate change impacts become evident. Geoengineering could also create new sources of risk because attempts to engineer the earth system on a large scale could lead to unintended and adverse consequences. 

Research, observations, scientific assessments, and technology development can help reveal risks and opportunities associated with the climate system and support decision-making with respect to climate change risk management. Expanding the knowledge base allows policy makers to understand, select, and refine specific risk management strategies and to thereby increase the effectiveness of risk management efforts. Knowledge-base expansion can, in some cases, also reveal entirely new opportunities for protecting the climate system or reducing the risks of climate change impacts. As a result, policies to expand the knowledge base can underpin and support the proactive risk management strategies described above (mitigation, adaptation, and geoengineering).

None of the risk management options is mutually exclusive. Indeed, comprehensive climate change risk management almost certainly includes a combination of policy responses. However, policy choices necessarily integrate both objective information about the climate system and our relationship with it, and subjective value judgments such as whether we are more averse to the risks of changes in climate or the policy responses, the ways we assess issues of fairness among nations and peoples, and the consideration we give to cultural heritage or nonhuman species. This creates a complex and often contentious risk management challenge.

You can download the study here.

Contact: Yael Seid-Green
202-355-9821
American Meteorological Society

 

The American Meteorological Society's Policy Program advances information and services relating to weather, water, and climate for the benefit of all people everywhere. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is a leading voice in promoting and advancing the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. It is committed to supporting and strengthening the weather, water, and climate community to ensure society fully benefits from scientific education, research, and understanding. Headquartered in Boston, with an office in Washington DC, AMS has more than 13,000 members, including researchers, scientists, broadcasters, educators, and other professionals, as well as students and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes books, textbooks, and monographs as well as more than 2,000 articles annually across eleven peer-reviewed scientific journals. AMS set the standard for broadcast meteorologist certification in 1957, and today more than 1,500 broadcasters and consultants are AMS certified. Each year, AMS holds 8 to 12 specialty meetings and an Annual Meeting that draws more than 3,500 attendees. AMS helps educate Congress through letters and Capitol Hill briefings and also promotes Earth Science literacy through initiatives for K-12 teachers and undergraduate institutions across the country.

Effort to protect Antarctic life launched

Scientists and policy makers meet in Australia to work out how to combat over-fishing in Antarctica.

Tidewater glacier on the Antarctic coast. Credit: Jason Auch (CC 2.0)

Scientists and policy makers from around the world are meeting in Australia to try and stop over-fishing in Antarctica. They want to create two of the largest marine reserves in the world. However, there are fears that geopolitics may get in the way. Al Jazeera's environment editor Nick Clark reports.

If the video below does not work properly, watch the report here.

Law of the Sea authorizes animal tagging research without nations' consent

Requiring scientists to seek advance consent to remotely track tagged animals in a nation's waters undermines the conservation goals of marine law, researchers say. Photo by Ari Friedlaender.

Many marine animals are world travelers, and scientists who study and track them can rarely predict through which nations' territorial waters their paths will lead.

In a new paper in the journal Marine Policy, Duke University Marine Lab researchers argue that coastal nations along these migratory routes do not have precedent under the law of the sea to require scientists to seek advance permission to remotely track tagged animals in territorial waters.

Requiring scientists to gain advance consent to track these animals' unpredictable movements is impossible, the Duke scholars say. More importantly, it undermines the goals of the law, which are meant to encourage scientific research for conservation of marine animals.

Their paper aims to establish the legality of using various tagging technologies known as bio-logging to track migratory marine animals under an international law that was written before these technologies were widely used.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, requires in some circumstances that researchers obtain consent from coastal nations to conduct research within 200 nautical miles of their shores. The authors argue that this rule was established for research conducted from boat or aircraft, and makes little sense for research using tagged animals that swim or fly into that range.

Tracking animals through bio-logging techniques allows researchers to learn about the movement, behavior and abundance of a variety of marine animals including turtles, fish, mammals and birds. This knowledge is essential to marine animal conservation, an important goal of the UNCLOS, said David Johnston, assistant professor of the practice of marine conservation ecology at Duke. Johnston uses bio-logging in research that supports the conservation of marine vertebrates nationally and internationally.

The power of bio-logging stems from its ability to collect data remotely, but it provides no certainty about where animals will actually go. "It's essentially unknowable where tagged animals are going to go before you start tracking them," said Johnston. "You put tags on turtles in a single location in the Indian Ocean and one swims to South Africa while the other swims to Yemen. How would you predict that?"

Even if it were possible to predict where the tagged animals would go, waiting for consent from some coastal nations before collecting data in their waters via tagging would take too long, said Johnston. "A researcher could spend years trying to gain consent from some nations. And we would lose the moment -- we would lose our ability to do some really important things. And one of the most important things under the law of the sea is to work toward conserving marine resources."

The authors argue that, under UNCLOS, nations have the right to regulate traditional marine scientific research in their coastal waters, but research using bio-logging techniques can be regulated only by the nation with jurisdiction over the water where the tagging occurs. Nations whose water the animal traverses after being tagged do not enjoy this right, they said.

James Kraska, the Mary Derrickson McCurdy Visiting Scholar at the Duke University Marine Lab and an expert on the international law of the sea, said he hopes this paper will instill confidence in researchers who use bio-logging technologies and provide guidance for policy makers.

The goal, said Kraska, lead author of the paper, is to serve as reference point for dealing with any conflicts that may arise between researchers and coastal nations. "Regulators can see that people have thought about this, that we understand what the logistical issues are, what the legalities are, and that any attempts to restrict bio-logging through new interpretations of the law of the sea run counter to its overarching goals."

Citation: James Kraska, Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, and David W. Johnston; Bio-logging of Marine Migratory Species in the Law of the Sea; Marine Policy, Oct. 23, 2014; DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2014.08.016.

Contact: Tim Lucas
919-613-8084
Duke University

 

Climate change caused by ocean, not just atmosphere

The study published in Science provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of climate change today

The ocean conveyor transports water and heat through the deep ocean basins. Credit: NASA

Most of the concerns about climate change have focused on the amount of greenhouse gases that have been released into the atmosphere.

But in a new study published in Science, a group of Rutgers researchers have found that circulation of the ocean plays an equally important role in regulating the earth's climate.

In their study, the researchers say the major cooling of Earth and continental ice build-up in the Northern Hemisphere 2.7 million years ago coincided with a shift in the circulation of the ocean – which pulls in heat and carbon dioxide in the Atlantic and moves them through the deep ocean from north to south until it's released in the Pacific.

The ocean conveyor system, Rutgers scientists believe, changed at the same time as a major expansion in the volume of the glaciers in the northern hemisphere as well as a substantial fall in sea levels. It was the Antarctic ice, they argue, that cut off heat exchange at the ocean's surface and forced it into deep water. They believe this caused global climate change at that time, not carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"We argue that it was the establishment of the modern deep ocean circulation – the ocean conveyor – about 2.7 million years ago, and not a major change in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere that triggered an expansion of the ice sheets in the northern hemisphere," says Stella Woodard, lead author and a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Their findings, based on ocean sediment core samples between 2.5 million to 3.3 million years old, provide scientists with a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of climate change today.

 

 

The study shows that changes in heat distribution between the ocean basins is important for understanding future climate change. However, scientists can't predict precisely what effect the carbon dioxide currently being pulled into the ocean from the atmosphere will have on climate. Still, they argue that since more carbon dioxide has been released in the past 200 years than any recent period in geological history, interactions between carbon dioxide, temperature changes and precipitation, and ocean circulation will result in profound changes.

Scientists believe that the different pattern of deep ocean circulation was responsible for the elevated temperatures 3 million years ago when the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was arguably what it is now and the temperature was 4 degree Fahrenheit higher. They say the formation of the ocean conveyor cooled the earth and created the climate we live in now.

"Our study suggests that changes in the storage of heat in the deep ocean could be as important to climate change as other hypotheses – tectonic activity or a drop in the carbon dioxide level – and likely led to one of the major climate transitions of the past 30 million years," says Yair Rosenthal, co-author and professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers.

Citation: Stella C. Woodard, Yair Rosenthal, Kenneth G. Miller, James D. Wright, Beverly K. Chiu and Kira T. Lawrence; Antarctic role in Northern Hemisphere glaciation; Science; DOI: 10.1126/science.1255586.

Contact: Ken Branson
848-932-0580
Rutgers University

Related articles

Past climate change and continental ice melt linked to varying CO2 levels

Climate change impacts countered by stricter fisheries management

WCS study finds strong management can protect fisheries -- and local fishing-based economies -- otherwise affected by climate disturbances.

A basket full of paddle-tail snappers. A newly published 17-year study by the Wildlife Conservation Society has found that implementing stricter fisheries management overcame the expected detrimental effects of climate change disturbances in coral reef fisheries badly impacted by the 1997/98 El Nino. Credit: Tim McClanahan

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-climate-impacts-countered-stricter-fisheries.html#jCp

A basket full of paddle-tail snappers. Photo by Tim McClanahan.

A new study has found that implementing stricter fisheries management overcame the expected detrimental effects of climate change disturbances in coral reef fisheries badly impacted by the 1997/98 El Niño, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The 17-year study led by WCS fisheries scientists found that rapid implementation of fisheries restrictions countered adverse climate effects and actually increased fisheries catches, counter to predictions and findings in other studies without stricter management. This is good news for the millions of people who depend on coral reefs fisheries, as it provides a management solution for fisheries predicted to decline with global warming.

The authors examined the environment and fisheries catches before and after the severe El Niño event of 1997−1998, an unprecedented climate disturbance that killed half of the corals in the Indian Ocean. A comparison of catch rates in southern Kenya found a preliminary decline in catches that was followed by an increase of catches. This increase was closely associated with improved fisheries restrictions that were implemented shortly after the disturbance.

The study titled appears in the current edition of the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The study's authors are Tim McClanahan and Caroline Abunge of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The authors concluded that reducing fishing intensity and restricting fishing gear known to be destructive to corals and fish populations were the likely causes for the rise in catch rates and fishers' revenues. The authors note that this positive response may not occur in all coral reef fisheries but, because the fishery was composed of fast-growing, generalist species with broad diet and habitat needs, they may be less sensitive to reef conditions than to direct fishing mortality. These findings indicate that coral reefs management restrictions can override the detrimental effects of climate disturbances in heavily fished reefs.

"The response suggests we can do something about countering lost fisheries production even in poor countries," said lead author Tim McClanahan of WCS. "Common sense fisheries restrictions can increase the capacity to adapt to climate change and should be accelerated to mitigate losses arising from inaction."

Citation: McClanahan, T. R., J. E. Cinner, C. Abunge, A. Rabearisoa, P. Mahatante, F. Ramahatratra, and N. Andrianarivelo. 2014. Perceived benefits of fisheries management restrictions in Madagascar. Ecology and Society 19(1): 5. DOI: .10.5751/ES-06080-190105.

Contact: John Delaney
718-220-3275
Wildlife Conservation Society

Nation's 'personality' influences its environmental stewardship, shows new study

This image shows the sustainability of the metropolis of Melbourne (2011) across the four domains of sustainability - economics, ecology, politics and culture - as developed by the UN Global Compact, Cities Programme. sustainability sustainable development circles of sustainability The image was developed by Paul James using Adobe Illustrator, based on the Cities Programme template. (CC)

Countries with higher levels of compassion and openness score better when it comes to environmental sustainability, says research from the University of Toronto.

A new study by Jacob Hirsh, an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto Mississauga's Institute for Management & Innovation, who is cross-appointed to UofT's Rotman School of Management, demonstrates that a country's personality profile can predict its environmental sustainability records.

While Prof. Hirsh's previous work has looked at how personality traits predict an individual's attitudes about the environment, this latest study takes the research to another level, examining how those traits play out across whole nations.

"We used to think that personality only mattered for individual outcomes," says Prof. Hirsh, "but we're finding that population differences in personality characteristics have many large-scale consequences".

The new study examined nation-level personality traits from a database of over 12,000 people in 51 countries. National personality differences, reflecting average trait profiles of a country's citizens, were used to predict scores on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The EPI, developed at Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks countries across 22 environmental indicators, including Co2 emission levels, use of renewable energy, and ecosystem management.

Higher scores on the EPI, reflecting more environmentally sustainable practices, were positively correlated with national levels of two personality traits: Agreeableness, which reflects empathy and compassion, and Openness, which reflects cognitive flexibility and aesthetic appreciation. The same relationships were observed even when controlling for national differences in wealth, education, and population size.

These results highlight the psychological factors that can shape a nation's environmental policies, says Prof. Hirsh. "Not only can a person's attitudes about the environment be predicted from his or her personality traits, but the environmental practices of entire nations can be predicted from the personality profiles of their citizens".

Citation: Jacob B. Hirsh; Environmental sustainability and national personality; Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 38, June 2014, Pages 233–240, DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.02.005.

The paper was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Contact: Ken McGuffin
University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management