climate change

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop on Climate and Forests in Flagstaff, AZ. The field trip before the start of the workshop took us to areas of aspen decline, pinyon mortality, and other landscapes devastated by recent fires. On the second day, speakers from the forest industry gave interesting presentations about what they saw was the future of their trade: Carbon credits for growing young trees and revenue from wood sold as a renewable source of energy.

Last week scientists from Russia, Sandinavia, Canada and Alaska, as well as falconers from United Arab Emirates are getting together in Boise to discuss the probable impacts of climate change on gyrfalcons and their main prey, ptarmigans (conference web site). The conference brought together experts from around the world who will share results of their research to better understand changing population viability throughout their circumpolar distribution.  These experts discussed both challenges (interspecific competition, changes in prey phenology such as bird migration and land-mammal cycles) and opportunities (longer summers may increase prey base, allow interbreeding with other falcons; captive breeding can help replenish declining populations).Such international collaboration and sharing of resources is essential to begin developing global strategies and international policies addressing climate change issues (see new Nature article on the subject).

 On behalf of the Southern Sierra Partnership, I am delighted to post our recently completed Framework for Cooperative Conservation and Climate Adaptation for the Southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains and associated datasets.

The theme of the annual Ecological Society of America meetings this year was climate change. One talk I listened to really stands out in my mind. Tom Stohlgren (USGS Fort Collins) gave a thought provoking talk about the role of invasives  species (harmful plants, animals and diseases from other countries) in shaping the world we live in.

I'm a new subscriber to Data Basin working on climate adaptation for The Nature Conservancy's California field program. Part of my position supports a cooperative conservation planning process in the southern Sierra by forecasting potential vegetation responses to future changes in climate. My goal is to help put a face on what climate change may mean for the species and places our group cares most about.

A great deal of focus is given to CO2 emissions and their role in the greenhouse effect, however the public is less aware of other powerful greenhouse gases.  Atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) concentrations have been rising since the Industrial Revolution due to anthropogenic activities. It is estimated that N2O accounts for 6% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Due to its atmospheric lifetime of approximately 120 years combined with its heat-trapping effects,  N2O has approximately 310 times more warming power than CO2 on a per molecule basis.

Stephen Schneider, a Stanford University scientist who served on the international research panel on global warming that shared the 2007 Nobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore, has died. He was 65.

Dr. Ben Santer has said, "We honor the memory of Steve Schneider by continuing to fight for the things he fought for – by continuing to seek clear understanding of the causes and impacts of climate change. We honor Steve by recognizing that communication is a vital part of our job. We honor Steve by taking the time to explain our research findings in plain English. By telling others what we do, why we do it, and why they should care about it. We honor Steve by raising our voices, and by speaking out when powerful “forces of unreason” seek to misrepresent our science. We honor Steve Schneider by caring about the strange and beautiful planet on which we live, by protecting its climate, and by ensuring that our policymakers do not fall asleep at the wheel."

When our plane dipped below the solid cloud layer over Shannon, I had my first glimpse of the Irish landscape and was struck by the intensity and pervasiveness of the green I saw below. That was 17 years ago. This time, in late May 2010 my purpose was to hike the Dingle Peninsula, Inn-to-Inn fashion, and see the landscape up close. I cannot understand why the landscape did not strike me as equally verdant.  Was it that we had 9 days of brilliant sunshine?

The science of climate change adaptation was created before its practitioners existed. International bodies working to identify the effects of climate change and to create legal frameworks for solutions deemed it to exist. Today, there is no time for a methodical evolution of the field as the count-down for the world as we know it has started. Of course the planet is not going to blow-up when it reaches zero but there will be an increasing number of changes with fewer and fewer opportunities to choose ways to adapt to them.

I just came back from a week of backpacking in the Gila Wilderness. I hiked from the hot New Mexico desert into cool moist canyons lush with blooming yellow Columbines and omnipresent poison ivy all the way to cool dry peaks where firs, pines and aspen formed healthy green forests. In places, wildfires have killed trees whose boles will retain the stored carbon for years to come providing great drumming opportunities for the local woodpeckers and flickers. We discover these while pitching our tent under a patch of remnant green trees in a large burn area.