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Climate News from the science press

Ocean geo-engineering produces toxic blooms of plankton

http://pda.physorg.com/addingiron-iron-carbon_news187896509.html

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research led by The University of Western Ontario warns of the potential for ecological harm caused by the fertilization of oceanic waters with the trace element iron. This fertilization method is being proposed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it into the ocean depths.

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Giant Sequoias Yield Longest Fire History from Tree Rings

http://pda.physorg.com/fire-giant-firehistory_news188069508.html

California's western Sierra Nevada had more frequent fires between 800 and 1300 than at any time in the past 3,000 years, according to a new study led by Thomas W. Swetnam, director of UA's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

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Increasingly, researchers all over the world are using charcoal to reconstruct fire histories, Swetnam said. Many scientists are analyzing the global record of charcoal to study relationships between climate, fire and the resulting addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
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Even soil feels the heat: Soils release more carbon dioxide as globe warms

http://pda.physorg.com/carbondioxide-carbon-soilrespiration_news188655169.html

Twenty years of field studies reveal that as the Earth has gotten warmer, plants and microbes in the soil have given off more carbon dioxide. So-called soil respiration has increased about one-tenth of 1 percent per year since 1989, according to an analysis of past studies in today's issue of Nature.

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Pollution from Asia circles globe at stratospheric heights

http://pda.physorg.com/hydrogencyanide-stratosphere-monsoon_news188745631.html

The economic growth across much of Asia comes with a troubling side effect: pollutants from the region are being wafted up to the stratosphere during monsoon season. The new finding, in a study led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, provides additional evidence of the global nature of air pollution and its effects far above Earth's surface.

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Randel says more research is needed into the possible effects of the pollutants. When sulfur rises into the stratosphere, it can lead to the creation of small particles called aerosols that are known to influence the ozone layer. The monsoon transport pathway may also have effects on other gases in the stratosphere, such as water vapor, that affect global climate by influencing the amount of solar heat that reaches Earth.

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Not a paper but related perhaps:

http://www.jhuapl.edu/ClimateAndEnergy/

Climate and energy issues as they relate to the U.S. Navy/DoD/U.S. in general, how they affect national security, warfighting capability, etc...

The talks reflected a lot of what I see elsewhere in this thread. I'll keep an eye out and see if they post proceedings.

One of the things discussed, bio-fuel FA-18 "Green" Hornet:

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/10/14/navy-launches-green-hornet/

Oh I see an article about the keynote speaker has just been posted:

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=98
 
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'Evil twin' threatens world oceans, scientists warn

http://pda.physorg.com/globalwarming-oceanacidification-millionyears_news189066777.html

The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world’s oceans, international marine scientists warned today
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The scientists say there is now persuasive evidence that mass extinctions in past Earth history, like the “Great Dying” of 251 million years ago and another wipeout 55 million years ago, were accompanied by ocean acidification, which may have delivered the deathblow to many species that were unable to adapt.
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“Future acidification depends on how much CO2 humans emit from here on - but by the year 2100 various projections indicate that the oceans will have acidified by a further 0.3 to 0.4 pH units, which is more than many organisms like corals can stand”, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.

“This will create conditions not seen on Earth for at least 40 million years.
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I like this mitigation approach////
Could Tiny Bubbles Cool the Planet?
by Eli Kintisch on March 26, 2010 11:33 AM | Permanent Link | 32 Comments

PACIFIC GROVE, CALIFORNIA—In an effort to curb global warming, scientists have proposed everything from launching sunlight-blocking dust into the stratosphere to boosting the number of carbon-sucking algae in the oceans. Now, a Harvard University physicist has come up with a new way to cool parts of the planet: pump vast swarms of tiny bubbles into the sea to increase its reflectivity and lower water temperatures. “Since water covers most of the earth, don’t dim the sun,” says the scientist, Russell Seitz, speaking from an international meeting on geoengineering research here. “Brighten the water.”
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http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/03/could-tiny-bubbles-cool-the-plan.html
 
Another warmer than normal winter reported

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032603171.html

WASHINGTON -- It will probably come as a surprise to most Americans, but the winter just finished was the fifth warmest on record, worldwide.

Oh, sure, nearly two-thirds of the country can dispute that from personal experience of a colder-than-normal season.

But while much of the United States was colder than usual, December-February - climatological winter - continued the long string of unusual warmth on a global basis.

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Buried shells in Houston are no treasure

http://pda.physorg.com/buffalobayou-springcreek-shells_news189438468.html

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"The shell roads built in the early 20th century are buried under the surface, and they're slowly decomposing," Masiello said. "Urban acid rain falls on the shells and dissolves them, releasing a pool of CO2 that moves into the groundwater. On a rainy day, that CO2 gets swept out of the soil and pushed into the river. So when we date CO2 in Buffalo Bayou, it's extremely old because it's carrying the age of these fossil shells."

Masiello and Zeng, a native of China who expects to finish her doctorate this year, set out to fill a gap in the data about how much CO2 is released to the atmosphere by rivers planetwide. The current estimate is 1 gigaton (a billion tons) per year, about the same amount those rivers deliver to the ocean (where oysters and others put it to good use).

That balancing act is good for the planet, because plant growth naturally compensates for rivers' release of CO2, Masiello said. On the other hand, there is no natural balance for the CO2 released by fossil fuel combustion, which puts about 10 times the amount released by rivers into the atmosphere.
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Energy Crops Impact Environmental Quality, Review Finds

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100404203119.htm

ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2010) — Crop residues, perennial warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops are potential biomass sources for cellulosic ethanol production. While most research is focused on the conversion of cellulosic feeedstocks into ethanol and increasing production of biomass, the impacts of growing energy crops and the removal of crop residue on soil and environmental quality have received less attention. Moreover, effects of crop residue removal on soil and environmental quality have not been compared against those of dedicated energy crops.

In the March-April 2010 issue of Agronomy Journal, published by the American Society of Agronomy, Dr. Humberto Blanco reviewed the impacts of crop residue removal, warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops on critical soil properties, carbon sequestration, and water quality as well as the performance of energy crops in marginal lands. The review found that crop residue removal from corn, wheat,and grain sorghumcan adversely impact soil and environmental quality. Removal of more than 50% of crop residue can have negative consequences for soil structure, reduce soil organic carbon sequestration, increase water erosion, and reduce nutrient cycling and crop production, particularly in erodible and sloping soils.

"Crop residue removal can make no-till soils a source rather than a sink of atmospheric carbon," says Blanco, even at rates lower than 50%. Residue removal at rates of less than 25% can cause loss of sediment in runoff relative to soils without residue removal. To avoid the negative impacts on soil, perhaps only a small fraction of residue might be available for removal. This small amount of crop residues is not economically feasible nor logistically possible. Blanco recomends developing other alternative biomass feedstock sources for cellulosic ethanol production.

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Arctic thaw frees overlooked greenhouse gas: study

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100404/sc_nm/us_climate_nitrous

OSLO (Reuters) – Thawing permafrost can release nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, a contributor to climate change that has been largely overlooked in the Arctic, a study showed on Sunday.

The report in the journal Nature Geoscience indicated that emissions of the gas surged under certain conditions from melting permafrost that underlies about 25 percent of land in the Northern Hemisphere.

Emissions of the gas measured from thawing wetlands in Zackenberg in eastern Greenland leapt 20 times to levels found in tropical forests, which are among the main natural sources of the heat-trapping gas.

"Measurements of nitrous oxide production permafrost samples from five additional wetland sites in the high Arctic indicate that the rates of nitrous oxide production observed in the Zackenberg soils may be in the low range," the study said.

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