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Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #50 on: July 17, 2017, 09:25:14 PM »
Tasmania's fisheries cooked by record-breaking marine heatwave
Quote
Climate change was almost certainly responsible for a marine heatwave off Tasmania's east coast in 2015/16 that lasted 251 days and at its greatest extent had an area of impact seven times the size of Tasmania, according to a new study published today in Nature Communications.

The marine heat wave reduced the productivity of Tasmanian salmon fisheries, led to a rise in Blacklip abalone mortality, sparked an outbreak of Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome and saw new fish species move into Tasmanian waters....
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-tasmania-fisheries-cooked-record-breaking-marine.html
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Archimid

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #51 on: August 01, 2017, 04:00:22 AM »
What City Ants Can Teach Us About Species Evolution And Climate Change

https://undark.org/article/urban-ants-evolution-climate-change/

Quote
Is the rapid evolution of a certain ant species to urban environments a preview of life on a warming planet? Some researchers are trying to find out.

I'm positive that in 20 generations humanity would have completely adapted to climate change.
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

Forest Dweller

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #52 on: August 01, 2017, 07:15:11 AM »
Beckwith has some new videos discussing the book "Scale" and several related papers.



"For every 18 F (10 C) rise in temperature the metabolic rate doubles & thus the rate of living (pace of life) doubles.

The Paris agreement aims for a maximum 2 C (3.6 F) temperature rise, yet this change leads to a 20% to 30% increase in metabolic rate, and thus also growth & mortality rates. This is mind-boggling. The pace of almost all biological life across all size scales increases 20 to 30% from just a 2 C temperature rise.

This will wreak havoc on ecosystems; in fact the entire planetary ecology. Including global food supply."

Interesting stuff, i'm sure there will be controversy...

Andre

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #53 on: August 02, 2017, 05:08:07 AM »
Previous mass extinctions might help us to understand more about our current situation:

Underground magma triggered Earth’s worst mass extinction with greenhouse gases
There are parallels between today’s and past greenhouse gas-driven climate changes

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/aug/01/underground-magma-triggered-earths-worst-mass-extinction-with-greenhouse-gases?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Abstract:

Coincidence doesn’t prove causality, as they say, but when the same two things happen together over and over again through the vast span of geological time, there must be a causal link. Of some 18 major and minor mass extinctions since the dawn of complex life, most happened at the same time as a rare, epic volcanic phenomenon called a Large Igneous Province (LIP). Many of those extinctions were also accompanied by abrupt climate warming, expansion of ocean dead zones and acidification, like today.

[...]

The more science learns of these past greenhouse gas-driven events, the more uncomfortable the parallels to today become. I asked Burgess if it was ridiculous to make the comparison.

"No, I don’t think the comparison is ridiculous at all, and I think that the timescales over which the environment changes associated with mass extinctions are frighteningly similar to the timescales over which our current climate is changing. The cause might be different but the hallmarks are similar."

Geologically fast build-up of greenhouse gas linked to warming, rising sea-levels, widespread oxygen-starved ocean dead zones and ocean acidification are fairly consistent across the mass extinction events, and those same symptoms are happening today as a result of human-driven climate change. Even though the duration of those past events was longer, and the volume of emissions was larger than we will produce, we are emitting greenhouse gases around 10 times faster than the most recent, mildest example – the PETM. The rapidity of today’s emissions prompted scientists Richard Zeebe and James Zachos to observe in a 2013 paper:

"The Anthropocene will more likely resemble the end-Permian and end-Cretaceous disasters, rather than the PETM."




sidd

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #54 on: August 02, 2017, 09:09:47 PM »
Whitebark pines disappearing. I recently saw massive decline of these and lodgepole and ponderosa in that region. The article gives a detailed analysis

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/01/the-late-great-whitebark-pine/

AbruptSLR

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #55 on: September 07, 2017, 07:21:22 PM »
The Earth's ecosystems are likely more sensitive to climate change impacts than previously appreciated:

Title: "As many as one in three parasites could become extinct as a result of climate change by 2070, new research suggests."

https://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-drive-third-parasites-extinction-2070

Extract: "The destabilisation of ecosystems as a result of parasite loss could lead to waves of species extinction, he adds, affecting every level of the ecosystem, from plants to top-level predators. 

“It means extinctions might keep happening downstream, but more broadly it means ecosystems might change in pretty unexpected ways.”"

See also:

Carlson, C. J. et al. (2017), "Parasite biodiversity faces extinction and redistribution in a changing climate", Science Advances, http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/9/e1602422
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pileus

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #56 on: November 26, 2017, 08:59:47 PM »
This seemed like an appropriate thread for this turd (excuse my French).  Dr Mann and others have been piling on about what an irresponsible and terrible think piece the writer has laid out.  Sad to see this in my hometown paper, and doubly irritating as the author teaches as my post grad alma mater.  Bits of logic and affirmation of climate change mixed in with a horrible human centric coldness towards the animal kingdom and biodiversity.

We don’t need to save endangered species. Extinction is part of evolution.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/we-dont-need-to-save-endangered-species-extinction-is-part-of-evolution/2017/11/21/57fc5658-cdb4-11e7-a1a3-0d1e45a6de3d_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.1770742a04a8

“There is no such thing as an “endangered species,” except for all species. The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings. Yes, we have altered the environment and, in doing so, hurt other species. This seems artificial because we, unlike other life forms, use sentience and agriculture and industry. But we are a part of the biosphere just like every other creature, and our actions are just as volitional, their consequences just as natural. Conserving a species we have helped to kill off, but on which we are not directly dependent, serves to discharge our own guilt, but little else.”
—————-
“Humans should feel less shame about molding their environment to suit their survival needs. When beavers make a dam, they cause the local extinction of numerous riverine species that cannot survive in the new lake. But that new lake supports a set of species that is just as diverse. Studies have shown that when humans introduce invasive plant species, native diversity sometimes suffers, but productivity — the cycling of nutrients through the ecosystem — frequently increases. Invasives can bring other benefits, too: Plants such as the Phragmites reed have been shown to perform better at reducing coastal erosion and storing carbon than native vegetation in some areas, like the Chesapeake.”
—————
“There is no return to a pre-human Eden; the goals of species conservation have to be aligned with the acceptance that large numbers of animals will go extinct. Thirty to 40 percent of species may be threatened with extinction in the near future, and their loss may be inevitable. But both the planet and humanity can probably survive or even thrive in a world with fewer species. We don’t depend on polar bears for our survival, and even if their eradication has a domino effect that eventually affects us, we will find a way to adapt. The species that we rely on for food and shelter are a tiny proportion of total biodiversity, and most humans live in — and rely on — areas of only moderate biodiversity, not the Amazon or the Congo Basin.”
—————
“We should do this to create a stable, equitable future for the coming billions of people, not for the vanishing northern river shark. Conservation is needed for ourselves and only ourselves. All those future people deserve a happy, safe life on an ecologically robust planet, regardless of the state of the natural world compared with its pre-human condition. We cannot thrive without crops or pollinators, or along coastlines as sea levels rise and as storms and flooding intensify.”


TerryM

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #57 on: November 27, 2017, 03:28:17 PM »
A cringeworthy philosophy indeed!


Taken just a little bit further, should we ask why Americans need the Congo to be populated? Do the very rich require the services of the very poor?


I wouldn't want this gentleman as a neighbor, he'd soon discover that the hood could do without my kind.


Terry

Archimid

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #58 on: November 27, 2017, 07:25:14 PM »
"we are a part of the biosphere just like every other creature, and our actions are just as volitional, their consequences just as natural.

This is only marginally true. Yes we are part of nature and everything we do is natural but because of our mastery of energy we can create disruption on the scale of supervolcanos and metorite strikes. We are natural biological entities with with the disruptive power of massive geological entities.

More to follow:
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Archimid

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #59 on: November 27, 2017, 08:03:00 PM »
Quote
Conserving a species we have helped to kill off, but on which we are not directly dependent, serves to discharge our own guilt, but little else.”

This absolute foolishness. For all we know our fate was sealed when the Dodo went extinct.  With every change we make we move towards a different state of the world. We should be extremely careful of what we break because we could be dependent on it.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2017, 02:35:31 AM by Archimid »
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Archimid

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #60 on: November 27, 2017, 08:23:55 PM »
Quote
But both the planet and humanity can probably survive or even thrive in a world with fewer species. We don’t depend on polar bears for our survival, and even if their eradication has a domino effect that eventually affects us, we will find a way to adapt.

Trivially true. If 99.9% of humanity was wiped out there still be 7,000,000 people and  you can accurately say humans adapted to climate change. Even without taking it to the extreme, "we" does not include the people that do depend on Polar bears. Sure it is a small minority but you can say the same thing about many extinctions. They all affect small parts of humanity. This aggregation of harm is ignored in the argument. To assume that the agreggation of failures to adapt will not have consequences is foolish.

Through the whole article the author uses adaptation and evolution as invisible process. Successful adaptation is usually costly . Unsuccessful adaptation is deadly. That's the part of natural selection that the author completely ignores.

He writes as if he he is conviced that he will sucesfully adapt. Poor fool. He wholeheartedly believes that his current position of strength wil give him the evolutionary advantage needed to  sucesfully adapt.
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

Alexander555

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #61 on: November 27, 2017, 09:09:23 PM »
Probably funded by a lobby like the guys that grow these palm trees to produce palm oil. What els can you say after you wiped out already so many, and you know it's only going to get worse. Than you say "ohh , it's not that bad"

wili

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #62 on: November 27, 2017, 09:26:15 PM »
If 99.9% of humanity passenger pigeons was wiped out there still be 7,000,000 people pigeons and  you can accurately say humans pigeons adapted..."

Fixed that for ya!  ;D

Actually, that is probably wildly conservative.

"One flock in 1866 in southern Ontario was described as being 1.5 km (0.93 mi) wide and 500 km (310 mi) long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3.5 billion birds" (wiki)

Large numbers of members in a species is no guarantee that it will not go extinct, even very quickly.
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

Archimid

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #63 on: November 27, 2017, 10:17:55 PM »
Probably funded by a lobby like the guys that grow these palm trees to produce palm oil. What els can you say after you wiped out already so many, and you know it's only going to get worse. Than you say "ohh , it's not that bad"
.

Not necessarily if their motive was profit, then climate change prevention would be a priority. the argument is backwards. Capitalists should be spending every resource available to preserve the current climate. it will make most of them lose everything. OTOH environmentalists should be rooting for no action and letting nature take its course. it will wipe out the modern humanity and it’s dominance over the world. In a few thousand years biodiversity will be back to normal levels.

Nah. Profits is not the reason, although I’m sure they very much believe that. ignorance induced fear and fear induced ignorance is the only reason they wear blinders.
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

gerontocrat

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #64 on: December 05, 2017, 02:27:24 PM »
The Guardian newspaper really cheered me up today (black humour):-

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/05/oceans-under-greatest-threat-in-history-warns-sir-david-attenborough

If you can find a way of seeing the last episode of Blue Planet 2 please do. There is an i-player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04tjbtx

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/05/red-list-thousands-of-species-at-risk-of-extinction-due-to-human-activity

Updates extinction list - also discusses threat to food crops and increasing effect of global warming.

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"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #65 on: December 05, 2017, 04:58:32 PM »
Since people are part of the biosphere, I am posting the following sad news here:

Adam Isen et al. (2017), "Relationship between season of birth, temperature exposure, and later life wellbeing", PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702436114

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/11/28/1702436114.abstract

Abstract: "We study how exposure to extreme temperatures in early periods of child development is related to adult economic outcomes measured 30 y later. Our analysis uses administrative earnings records for over 12 million individuals born in the United States between 1969 and 1977, linked to fine-scale, daily weather data and location and date of birth. We calculate the length of time each individual is exposed to different temperatures in utero and in early childhood, and we estimate flexible regression models that allow for nonlinearities in the relationship between temperature and long-run outcomes. We find that an extra day with mean temperatures above 32 °C in utero and in the first year after birth is associated with a 0.1% reduction in adult annual earnings at age 30. Temperature sensitivity is evident in multiple periods of early development, ranging from the first trimester of gestation to age 6–12 mo. We observe that household air-conditioning adoption, which increased dramatically over the time period studied, mitigates nearly all of the estimated temperature sensitivity."

See also the related article:

Title: "Climate Change Might Lower Salaries"

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/hot-weather-fetuses/547406/

Extract: "The more 90-degree days a fetus or infant endured, the lower his or her earnings in adulthood."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
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magnamentis

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #66 on: December 05, 2017, 06:30:59 PM »
Since people are part of the biosphere, I am posting the following sad news here:

Adam Isen et al. (2017), "Relationship between season of birth, temperature exposure, and later life wellbeing", PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702436114

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/11/28/1702436114.abstract

Abstract: "We study how exposure to extreme temperatures in early periods of child development is related to adult economic outcomes measured 30 y later. Our analysis uses administrative earnings records for over 12 million individuals born in the United States between 1969 and 1977, linked to fine-scale, daily weather data and location and date of birth. We calculate the length of time each individual is exposed to different temperatures in utero and in early childhood, and we estimate flexible regression models that allow for nonlinearities in the relationship between temperature and long-run outcomes. We find that an extra day with mean temperatures above 32 °C in utero and in the first year after birth is associated with a 0.1% reduction in adult annual earnings at age 30. Temperature sensitivity is evident in multiple periods of early development, ranging from the first trimester of gestation to age 6–12 mo. We observe that household air-conditioning adoption, which increased dramatically over the time period studied, mitigates nearly all of the estimated temperature sensitivity."

See also the related article:

Title: "Climate Change Might Lower Salaries"

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/hot-weather-fetuses/547406/

Extract: "The more 90-degree days a fetus or infant endured, the lower his or her earnings in adulthood."

a vast amount of differences in so many fields like mentality, sun-hours, economic conditions, availability  of water etc etc. is so huge that even though the fact my be a fact indeed, it's totally unclear whether:

- one of the many other factors present in warm climate places ( with more hot days logically)
. is/are responsible for the said outcome.

- higher temps reduce the overall economical conditions due to more "siesta" like time etc.
.  less need for winter storage etc. that would make excessive work less necessary to survive etc.

- general conditions present in warm places is responsible for the smaller average income or if
.  what the article suggests is responsible for the general economical and environmental conditions.

what's the cause and what's the result, not that sure while either way the fact remains that people from warmer places who then as a result are exposed to more high temperature exposure as a fetus and/or early childhood earn less the warmer the climate is.

i'm a swiss citizen grown up and working in CH D, PRC, U.S., CND and many other countries in different climate zones before retirement and now living in souther spain and can easily tell that there indeed exists an at times huge difference of income and life style between the people living in countries situated up north and down south where temps are cooler, where winters are colder and longer etc. and i believe that it's the influence of natural conditions, clothing, hours spent outside houses, chances of having a good life without spending money or too much of it, vegetation and it's fruits etc. rather than the exposer to temps themselves. that may as well be a logical coincidence with all other factores, menionend or not mentioned above.

life conditions in parat help form the personality and that again plays a big role n eagerness and need to work and make (more) money.

further there are very cold places where the income drops significantly against people living in places with moderate temps and temp extremes due to other factors like difficulty to move ouside in winter, trouble to be highly productive (efficient) lack of light and reduced vegetation (growth)

i'm quite certain that the same study for temps below -30C exposure as fetus and early chilldhood would procude a simiilar or even worse result.

hence, fact remains but the sugggested cause is not the or at least not the only and or main cause.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2017, 06:53:15 PM by magnamentis »

TerryM

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #67 on: December 05, 2017, 08:01:50 PM »
Since people are part of the biosphere, I am posting the following sad news here:

Adam Isen et al. (2017), "Relationship between season of birth, temperature exposure, and later life wellbeing", PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702436114

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/11/28/1702436114.abstract

Abstract: "We study how exposure to extreme temperatures in early periods of child development is related to adult economic outcomes measured 30 y later. Our analysis uses administrative earnings records for over 12 million individuals born in the United States between 1969 and 1977, linked to fine-scale, daily weather data and location and date of birth. We calculate the length of time each individual is exposed to different temperatures in utero and in early childhood, and we estimate flexible regression models that allow for nonlinearities in the relationship between temperature and long-run outcomes. We find that an extra day with mean temperatures above 32 °C in utero and in the first year after birth is associated with a 0.1% reduction in adult annual earnings at age 30. Temperature sensitivity is evident in multiple periods of early development, ranging from the first trimester of gestation to age 6–12 mo. We observe that household air-conditioning adoption, which increased dramatically over the time period studied, mitigates nearly all of the estimated temperature sensitivity."

See also the related article:

Title: "Climate Change Might Lower Salaries"

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/hot-weather-fetuses/547406/

Extract: "The more 90-degree days a fetus or infant endured, the lower his or her earnings in adulthood."


As a Canadian I fully endorse and approve of this article. ;D
Terry

Archimid

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #68 on: December 06, 2017, 02:51:35 AM »
Magnamentis. IMHO it's mostly due to 2 factors:

1. Thermodynamics. The human body is simply much less efficient at higher temperatures. Less work can be done and more water is needed. Less work translates into less goods and services created for the same energy spent.

2. Winter. This one is two fold. First society must prepare for winter or die. That entails planning and saving. Those two are key to monetary sucess. Second, during winter people tend to stay inside, were it's warm. This leads to time to read, plan, think and cultivate the mind.

I'm sure that there are many other factors, but I believe those are the most influential. At least they were the most influential but modern technologies like climate control and modern workforce may somewhat reduce the effects.

I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #69 on: January 21, 2018, 03:31:07 PM »
What’s new here (to me, anyway) is using birdsong to track the affected populations.

Birds Are Changing Their Tune
Scientists are listening to the love songs of birds for clues about climate change.
Quote
On mountains, temperature and precipitation interact in complex ways, making them especially sensitive to climate change, a fact that has avian researchers worried. The fear is that rising temperatures already are prompting birds to migrate and breed earlier, a change that could make it difficult for them to find food for their babies. If, when spring arrives, they head north too soon, there may not be enough insects available to nourish their young.
https://nexusmedianews.com/birds-are-changing-their-tune-f83efddd6c56
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Shared Humanity

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #70 on: January 22, 2018, 03:56:43 AM »
The birds are singing the Blues.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #71 on: February 15, 2018, 04:48:04 PM »
Bat Swarms Tracked by Weather Radar Reveal Earlier Migration as Planet Warms
Quote
...
The Bat's Critical Role in Texas: Pest Control

Bats and the insects they eat are linked in a complex seasonal and evolutionary cycle that the state's agriculture areas rely on. If climate change disrupts the cycle, this natural pest control might fail, causing costly crop damage and an increased need for pesticides.

In a worst-case scenario, the timing could be so disrupted that it might threaten the bats' ability to reproduce. Females produce just one pup each, and during the feeding phase, the bats are heavily reliant on one main species of insect—the corn-earworm moth.

"The cycle of the moths showing up right when the bats need them is likely to get disrupted because of climate change," said University of Tennessee ecologist Jennifer Krauel. ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14022018/bat-migration-climate-change-texas-agriculture-weather-radar-global-warming-animal-impact
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Sebastian Jones

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #72 on: February 15, 2018, 07:40:42 PM »
 
Quote
...
"The cycle of the moths showing up right when the bats need them is likely to get disrupted because of climate change," said University of Tennessee ecologist Jennifer Krauel. ...

 And the phenological effects will ripple out and positive feedbacks emerge: As bat numbers drop because they do not time their pupping with corn ear borer emergence, corn yields will drop as moth numbers rise, thus farmers will probably use more pesticides, further reducing the available food for mother bats until....a new normal arises with, once again, reduced biodiversity and resilience.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #73 on: February 19, 2018, 09:37:27 PM »
Animals Have Stopped Turning White for Winter in Alarming Climate Change Trend
Quote
Snowshoe hares, like ermines and arctic foxes, famously have two coats. To blend in with the ground in the warmer months, snowshoe hares sport brown fur. In the winter, they turn white to camouflage with the snow. It’s harder for predators to spot an animal that matches the background in all seasons.

This technique is a wonder of evolution, but climate change is interrupting this process. With warming temperatures, there’s less snow in the winter, and white hares on unusually snow-less ground stick out to predators, like tasty marshmallows on mud.

Research recently published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology explained the new phenomenon. Biologists studying in Pennsylvania and in the colder Yukon compared the habits of their respective snowshoe hare populations, and found the distinct populations act and look very differently. Pennsylvania hares have thinner coats and don’t seek out warmer areas. Three of the 70 Pennsylvania hares captured didn’t even grow out their winter coats, staying the same color all year long. ...
http://www.newsweek.com/animals-stopped-turning-white-winter-climate-change-trend-811719


Image: A snowshoe hare growing out its winter coat. Eric Bégin / Flickr
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #74 on: May 14, 2018, 06:01:24 PM »
Japan’s cherry blossoms: In 14 Japanese cities, the dates logged for full bloom were the earliest ever or tied the record, with blooming occurring 7 to 11 days earlier than average”
https://twitter.com/AssaadRazzouk/status/995823784480399360
Image below.

Early peaking of Japan’s cherry blossoms laid to warmer March, climate change
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/05/13/national/early-peaking-japans-cherry-blossoms-laid-warmer-march-climate-change/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #75 on: June 16, 2018, 09:06:47 PM »
Unusually Hot Spring Threw Plants, Pollinators Out of Sync in Europe
Butterflies hatched early with the heat, but their flowers hadn’t opened yet. Bees are under pressure, too. 'You can see the climate change.'
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15062018/climate-change-impacts-pollen-pollination-flowers-bees-butterflies-europe-heat-wave-global-warming-research
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #76 on: June 19, 2018, 05:15:04 PM »
“The soft-shell clam was discovered following the recent storm and flood event, which exposed tidal mudflats in the Prosser River.”

Soft-shelled clam found in Tasmanian river, sparking biosecurity alert
http://amp.abc.net.au/article/9882052
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #77 on: June 29, 2018, 10:04:04 PM »
U.S. east coast:

Warming waters off the coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks are proving to be an attractive breeding ground for bull sharks.

Juvenile bull shark numbers are growing along North Carolina's Outer Banks The population boom seems to be related to rising water temperatures.
Quote
With its wide-open, shallow waters and pristine views, North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound is a haven for people who love the shore. But humans are not the only ones enjoying this part of the Outer Banks.

As the world warms and water temperatures rise, bull sharks are starting to use Pamlico Sound as a nursery.

Bangley: “Rather than just kind of wandering in, chasing schools of fish, or foraging in the sound, it now seems that they’re actually reproducing inside the Sound as well.” ...
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/06/juvenile-shark-numbers-grow-along-outer-banks/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #78 on: June 29, 2018, 11:20:32 PM »
ECOSTRESS is a new NASA Earth science mission to study how effectively plants use water by measuring their temperature from space. ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) was launched today in the Dragon spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and will be affixed to the outside of the International Space Station where it will make its temperature measurements.

Watching Plants' Water Use Is No Sweat for ECOSTRESS
Quote
[Like] people, plants respond differently to hot and dry weather. Some naturally close their pores every hot afternoon to conserve water -- even though closing their pores shuts down photosynthesis. Others don't close their pores, or close them infrequently. Some plants use more water in hot weather; others don't. Scientists have seen these differences in transpiration during laboratory and local field studies, but they don't know the water-use efficiency of every plant or global ecosystem.

As Earth's climate changes, some global regions are undergoing longer and more frequent droughts and heat waves, with more extreme conditions expected in the future. If plants in these regions can't keep their pores open long enough to take in carbon dioxide and feed themselves, some will die of carbon starvation. Other plants will thrive in their changing environment. But which plants will do which?

Finding Plants That Cope Well

To answer that question, along with other urgent questions like how best to manage agricultural irrigation, we need to understand plants' daily patterns of transpiration. That's where ECOSTRESS comes in.

No satellite currently in orbit measures transpiration globally throughout the day with enough detail to make out differences on the scale of a single farmer's field. Most Earth-observing satellites are in a sun-synchronous orbit that passes over every region of Earth at the same times of day – for example, always crossing North America around 10 a.m. local time. A single daytime snapshot, especially one from the morning when most plants are busily at "work," provides limited information on how they perform during the rest of the day. Satellites in a geostationary orbit always look at the same Earth area, but at 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth, they are too far away for any existing instrument to identify differences in transpiration at the field scale.

"The space station opens the door to do new science," said ECOSTRESS Principal Investigator Simon Hook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "You're in low Earth orbit, so you can produce detailed images, but at different times of day, so you can look at the diurnal cycle." The orbit of the space station passes over every Earth area between about 50 degrees North and South latitudes every few days, at different times of day for each overpass. ...
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/watching-plants-water-use-is-no-sweat-for-ecostress
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gerontocrat

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #79 on: July 20, 2018, 12:49:15 PM »
Bloomberg.com have a section entitled "climate changed". Mind you, usually one has to type that into the website's search facility to find it. Well worth an occasional look. Today I found -

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-20/climate-change-is-disrupting-the-planet-s-seasons
Climate Change Is Disrupting the Planet’s Seasons

Four decades of temperature observations show what many suspected: Human activity is disrupting the behavior of plants, animals, and the march of the seasons.
Quote
Pouring through four decades of satellite data, climate scientists have concluded for the first time that humans are pushing seasonal temperatures out of balance—shifting what one researcher called the very “march of the seasons themselves.”

Ever-mindful of calculable uncertainty and climate deniers, the authors give “odds of roughly 5 in 1 million” of these changes occurring naturally, without human influence.

Like homicide detectives, climate scientists are continually sifting through evidence looking for what they also call “fingerprints.” Over the years, they’ve teased out the human signal from Earthly noise in annual and decade-spanning temperature records, marine chemistry, rapid Arctic change and more.

What they discovered is an uneven pace of seasonal change in the atmosphere above the Northern and Southern Hemispheres’ temperate zones. While warming is famously global, summers in the troposphere are heating faster than winters, in a way physics would dictate if greenhouse gases were the culprit. The satellite data and computer models for seasonal temperature change used by the study agree with each other even more closely than they do when gauging average annual temperature.

Link to "science" article http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6399/eaas8806
Quote
Structured Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Fingerprint studies use pattern information to separate human and natural influences on climate. Most fingerprint research relies on patterns of climate change that are averaged over years or decades. Few studies probe shorter time scales. We consider here whether human influences are identifiable in the changing seasonal cycle. We focus on Earth’s troposphere, which extends from the surface to roughly 16 km at the tropics and 13 km at the poles. Our interest is in TAC, the geographical pattern of the amplitude of the annual cycle of tropospheric temperature. Information on how TAC has changed over time is available from satellite retrievals and from large multimodel ensembles of simulations.

RATIONALE
At least three lines of evidence suggest that human activities have affected the seasonal cycle. First, there are seasonal signals in certain human-caused external forcings, such as stratospheric ozone depletion and particulate pollution. Second, there is seasonality in some of the climate feedbacks triggered by external forcings. Third, there are widespread signals of seasonal changes in the distributions and abundances of plant and animal species. These biological signals are in part mediated by seasonal climate changes arising from global warming. All three lines of evidence provide scientific justification for performing fingerprint studies with the seasonal cycle.

RESULTS
The simulated response of the seasonal cycle to historical changes in human and natural factors has prominent mid-latitude increases in the amplitude of TAC. These features arise from larger mid-latitude warming in the summer hemisphere, which appears to be partly attributable to continental drying. Because of land-ocean differences in heat capacity and hemispheric asymmetry in land fraction, mid-latitude increases in TAC are greater in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. Qualitatively similar large-scale patterns of annual cycle change occur in satellite tropospheric temperature data.

We applied a standard fingerprint method to determine (i) whether the pattern similarity between the model “human influence” fingerprint and satellite temperature data increases with time, and (ii) whether such an increase is significant relative to random changes in similarity between the fingerprint and patterns of natural internal variability. This method yields signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios as a function of increasing satellite record length. Fingerprint detection occurs when S/N exceeds and remains above the 1% significance threshold.

We find that the model fingerprint of externally forced seasonal cycle changes is identifiable with high statistical confidence in five out of six satellite temperature datasets. In these five datasets, S/N ratios for the 38-year satellite record vary from 2.7 to 5.8. Our positive fingerprint detection results are unaffected by the removal of all global mean information and by the exclusion of sea ice regions. On time scales for which meaningful tests are possible (one to two decades), there is no evidence that S/N ratios are spuriously inflated by a systematic model underestimate of the amplitude of observed tropospheric temperature variability.

CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that attribution studies with the seasonal cycle of tropospheric temperature provide powerful and novel evidence for a statistically significant human effect on Earth’s climate. We hope that this finding will stimulate more detailed exploration of the seasonal signals caused by anthropogenic forcing.

Explanation of attached image (click to view)
Trends in the amplitude of the annual cycle of tropospheric temperature.
Trends are calculated over 1979 to 2016 and are averages from a large multimodel ensemble of historical simulations. The most prominent features are pronounced mid-latitude increases in annual cycle amplitude (shown in red) in both hemispheres. Similar mid-latitude increases occur in satellite temperature data. Trends are superimposed on NASA’s “blue marble” image.
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gerontocrat

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #80 on: July 23, 2018, 01:48:07 PM »
If I was having a really bad day, I would post this on "near-term human extinction". Also tempted to do a Buddy with huge fonts etc. But I must remember I am English - hyperbole doesn't fit. "in-ever-greater-destructive-volumes" does.

It is the multiplier effect of CO2 emissions x soil degradation/desertification x forest destruction x water resource over-use x wildlife population (especially pollinating insect life) decimation that is really scary.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/23/earths-resources-consumed-in-ever-greater-destructive-volumes

Earth Overshoot Day falls on 1 August this year - marking the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate

Quote
The day of reckoning is moving nearer, according to Mathis Wackernagel, chief executive and co-founder of Global Footprint Network.

“Our current economies are running a Ponzi scheme with our planet,” he said. “We are borrowing the Earth’s future resources to operate our economies in the present. Like any Ponzi scheme, this works for some time. But as nations, companies, or households dig themselves deeper and deeper into debt, they eventually fall apart.”

....the overall trend is of costs increasingly being paid by planetary support systems.

Separate scientific studies over the past year has revealed a third of land is now acutely degraded, while tropical forests have become a source rather than a sink of carbon. Scientists have also raised the alarm about increasingly erratic weather, particularly in the Arctic, and worrying declines in populations of bees and other insect pollinators, which are essential for crops.

"You can deny environmental calamity – until you check the facts"
George Monbiot
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oren

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #81 on: July 23, 2018, 02:43:44 PM »
This as a lot of other stuff on the ASIF also belongs in the Human Stupidity thread...

gerontocrat

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #82 on: August 07, 2018, 10:16:39 AM »
Alarmist or a timely warning ?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/06/domino-effect-of-climate-events-could-push-earth-into-a-hothouse-state

Domino-effect of climate events could move Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state
Leading scientists warn that passing such a point would make efforts to reduce emissions increasingly futile


http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/07/31/1810141115

Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene
Abstract

Quote
We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent stabilization of the climate at intermediate temperature rises and cause continued warming on a “Hothouse Earth” pathway even as human emissions are reduced. Crossing the threshold would lead to a much higher global average temperature than any interglacial in the past 1.2 million years and to sea levels significantly higher than at any time in the Holocene. We examine the evidence that such a threshold might exist and where it might be. If the threshold is crossed, the resulting trajectory would likely cause serious disruptions to ecosystems, society, and economies. Collective human action is required to steer the Earth System away from a potential threshold and stabilize it in a habitable interglacial-like state. Such action entails stewardship of the entire Earth System—biosphere, climate, and societies—and could include decarbonization of the global economy, enhancement of biosphere carbon sinks, behavioral changes, technological innovations, new governance arrangements, and transformed social values.

Requires a subscription to view. So much for getting it to the attention of the wider public. How dumb can you get.
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gerontocrat

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #83 on: September 27, 2018, 03:37:52 PM »
Here is an "Effect of Climate Change on the biosphere" - The tundra is gradually becoming something else. Really good science based on long term observations. I like the bit about snow - if snowfall up north increases as well it could be a double whammy for increasing climate change and promoting plant growth.

Taller plants moving into warmer Arctic
Quote
The low-lying shrubs, grasses and other plants growing in the Arctic are getting taller. The finding comes from scientists who have analysed three decades of measurements.

This data, gathered across Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia, indicates that a warming climate is driving the change. The team of 180 researchers says the increase in height could ultimately work to push up temperatures further.

The international group reports its work in the journal Nature.

Co-lead author Isla Myers-Smith, from the University of Edinburgh, UK, predicted that, on their current trajectory, the centimetres-tall Arctic flora could double in size by the end of the century.

It is not simply that existing plants have increased their stature, although that is the case; it is more that taller species are now invading areas they never used to grow in large numbers.

As an example vernal sweetgrass, which is common in lowland Europe, has now moved into the research plots in Iceland and Sweden where long-term monitoring is undertaken.

Why does height matter?
The re-profiling of plant communities is important because it could alter the way the tundra ecosystem functions.

Taller Arctic plants will trap more snow around them, insulating the ground from very cold air and preventing it from freezing quite so hard. This makes it easier for usually rock-solid soils to thaw out in summer months and release their carbon into the atmosphere. This would add to the warming.

Taller plants could also effect the same outcome because, by sticking their heads above the snow, they would present a darker surface, and that allows the ecosystem to trap more heat from the Sun.

"Although there are still many uncertainties, taller tundra plants could fuel climate change, both in the Arctic and for the planet as a whole," said the study's other co-lead investigator, Anne Bjorkman, from the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Germany.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45652152

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0563-7.epdf?referrer_access_token=Pirx0EZrlQLolpEFYq59QNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Nc2YzFTBsG_maaWCknnl3pbgH9VhZMd3Sa1tKKYk7s4fw1FTIRf2MXBxzJS29eFGGv1XoO2hLVGnSHC52mYQ0z699vJufwDNSWjyAEMVStE3BkAkJ8rOdh26XX2nuPK1Zywhpwr7CCCllKrhX6IVGpN4gB0Yraoh_C-BRTG2p5Kncua0eKFw2GYThx2kkCNxU%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk

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Tom_Mazanec

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« Last Edit: June 11, 2019, 08:05:41 PM by Tom_Mazanec »

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #85 on: June 20, 2019, 06:35:38 PM »

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #86 on: July 04, 2019, 01:54:29 PM »

dbarce

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #87 on: July 05, 2019, 02:45:18 PM »
Very interesting paper in Science on the MASSIVE sargassum blooms that have appeared in the Atlantic Ocean yearly since the start of this decade. The authors point to several culprits, including deforestation of the Amazon, agriculture fertilizer run-off, and a tinge of climate-change...

The publication is not free access but you can sci hub it. It's worth the read.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/83

morganism

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #88 on: July 06, 2019, 08:32:49 PM »
Deserts 'greening' from rising CO2

https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2013/Deserts-greening-from-rising-CO2

"Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world’s arid regions over the past 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilisation, according to CSIRO research."

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #89 on: July 07, 2019, 12:14:45 AM »
Very sad things being seen in the Bering this year. 

kassy

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #90 on: July 07, 2019, 07:50:29 PM »
And it probably won´t be better next year, or the year after that.

We will lose most of them. We destroyed their world. I wonder what the birds would think flying over the ocean and finding no food. The whales returning to bulk up...  :'(

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ArcticMelt2

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #91 on: July 07, 2019, 08:02:29 PM »
Probably, this year will be the first in Kotzebue with an average annual temperature above zero. I now considered that the average annual temperature between July and June in the last 12 months for the first time exceeded the freezing point.

Probably, the mass death of animals that have adapted to life at a minus average annual temperature is connected with this. Or kills them too sharply warming.

In any case, soon there will be similar warming all over the planet. In the Bering Strait, we can now study the consequences of the death of the biosphere with too much warming.

ArcticMelt2

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #92 on: July 07, 2019, 08:40:57 PM »
I found these terrible reports of a catastrophe in the Bering Strait. Soon this will happen all over the planet - down to the tropics.

https://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2019/07/05/from-krill-to-whales-marine-life-is-washing-up-dead-in-the-bering-strait/

Quote
From Krill to Whales, Marine Life Is Washing Up Dead in the Bering Strait
By Davis Hovey | July 5, 2019 | 0
A dead murre lies on the sand where it washed ashore in Nome in June 2018.
THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF JUNE, dead marine life was being reported on a weekly basis in the Bering Strait region.

First it was a dead walrus in St. Michael, then a large group of blue mussels near Port Clarence, and more recently, it was several types of seabirds and fish near Shishmaref.

“People in Shishmaref reported some birds washing up: sounds like mostly thick-billed murres, and people in Savoonga also had a murre die-off earlier in May.”

That’s Kathy Kuletz, the seabird coordinator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. She’s been working with local observers like Andrew Kakoona and Ken Stenek as well as other scientists. During the last three weeks of June, Stenek reported over 30 dead birds on a stretch of Shishmaref’s east beach, under a mile and a half long.

Gay Sheffield, with Alaska Sea Grant, confirmed she returned from her travels in the Bering Strait region this week to take samples and report on some of those die-offs. However, Sheffield said she could not provide more details until her reports are finished.

While Sheffield is tending to that, Kuletz’s role involves coordinating shipments of samples and carcasses of the dead seabirds, so they can be sent to the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin.

“We will be getting some carcasses from Shishmaref of sick or dying birds that had washed up sick and then died. In that case, there were also reports of mounds of krill that was dead and mixing with some fish. So that’s a concern; that indicates something else is going on in the system.”

According to Kuletz, the numbers reported are relatively small: there have not been any big die-offs so far this season. And she says there are usually some dead birds found on the coast every year.

“But in concentrated numbers, where you get 20, 30, 50 or more birds at a time, that’s unusual. And it’s also very unusual up in the far north, in the Bering Strait Region.”

Something else unusual happening in the region that some scientists say could be related, is ocean waters getting drastically warmer. Climatologist Rick Thoman, with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, says by the end of June, sea surface temperatures in the Norton Sound were anywhere from six to 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

“In the Sound, temperatures at this point are mostly in the 50s to the east of Nome, and those warm temperatures are spreading westward, and nearshore temperatures are up around 60 degrees again. (This is) far above normal for this time of year.”

In addition, Thoman says the Northern Bering Sea this year, from the Pribilofs northward, featured the warmest sea surface temperatures ever recorded for May and June. The average temperature is five degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

Dean Stockwell, a biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Science Program, says when there are warm sea surface temperatures like this, “Alexandrium cysts can hatch and create algal blooms.”

According to Stockwell, there was also a dead bowhead whale reported, floating near Shishmaref.

All of this is happening at a time when unusually high numbers of ice seal deaths are occurring in the region, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is investigating. Scientists don’t yet know what has caused any of these creatures to die, but they emphasize the importance of reporting these events and collecting samples while they search for answers.

Kuletz says necropsy results could come back from the lab in Wisconsin within a few weeks of whenever the lab receives their latest samples. However, it could take months before toxicology reports are ready.

If you observe unusual, dead, or dying wildlife in your community, please contact the Alaska LEO Network or your local Bering Strait Marine Advisory Program hotline: 907-434-1149.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2019, 08:47:25 PM by ArcticMelt2 »

ArcticMelt2

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #93 on: July 07, 2019, 09:00:00 PM »
There is even more terrible news from there.

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-05-30-puffins-dead-starved-bering-sea
Quote
Mass Die-Off of Thousands of Seabirds in the Bering Sea Explained in New Research

By Jan Wesner ChildsMay 30 2019 01:59 PM EDTweather.com

Climate Change Linked to Mass Puffin Die-Off in Bering Sea

The birds are dying by the thousands in the Bering Sea region, and a new study claims climate change could be the cause.
At a Glance

Dead seabirds, mostly tufted puffins, started washing up on Alaska's St. Paul Island in 2016.
Data shows that their deaths could be related to climate change.

"It's kind of terrifying," one researcher says.

The first dead puffin washed up on the shores of St. Paul Island, a tiny outpost in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, on October 17, 2016.

Then there was another, and another and another. Over the next four months a group surveying the beaches of St. Paul counted 359 dead seabirds, most of them tufted puffins.

Now, researchers say, as many as 7,600 tufted puffins and 8,800 seabirds in all may have died in that part of the Bering Sea during a "massive mortality event," according to a paper published this week in the journal Plos One.

The numbers were startling - only six dead puffins had washed up on St. Paul in the previous decade.

“It was very apparent that something strange was happening. They just keep washing in and washing in,” Lauren Divine, director of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Ecosystem Conservation Office and of the study's authors, told the Washington Post. “Every person in our community knew something was wrong.”

Divine and other volunteers collected, counted and tagged the dead sea birds that washed up on St. Paul from October 2016 to February 2017. Researchers then used a mathematical formula that took into account weather data and other factors to calculate that thousands of birds had likely died.

Some of the carcuses were sent for necroscopies, which showed they had unusually low levels of body fat and weak pectoral muscles. That led researchers to conclude the birds had starved.

“They literally didn’t have enough to eat and became weak to the point of death,” Julia Parrish, an ecologist at the University of Washington and one of the study's researchers, told the Atlantic.

When the birds first started washing up, Parrish and others theorized that the puffins' diet was lacking in energy-rich food sources. The new research supports that claim. Typically, the birds feed on fish which in turn rely on plankton as their main nutritional source.

But both those food sources are becoming more scarce due to increased sea and atmospheric temperatures, as well as declining winter sea ice in the Bering Sea. Those factors are driving the puffins' food sources to find colder waters farther north.

Compounding the problem, the birds died during their annual molt, which zaps them of strength, and their weak pectoral muscles likely made it difficult for them to fly or catch fish underwater, the study said.

A similar die-off, also blamed on starvation, happened among puffin chicks in Maine.

Massive seabird die offs, known as "wrecks," also happened in Alaska in 2017 and 2018, according to the National Park Service. Those events were also blamed on starvation.

Experts say the dying seabirds are an indication of a massive ecosystem shift in the Bering Sea, caused by climate change.

“We are now just bracing for what is going to wash in next,” Divine told the Post. “It’s kind of terrifying.”

kassy

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #94 on: July 07, 2019, 09:13:02 PM »
In any case, soon there will be similar warming all over the planet.

That is not the way it works. The Arctic is a special place prone to warming beyond the planets average. Check out polar amplification.

BTW the problem is occurring all over the world but that is because prey is migrating poleward not because the temperatures are the same because they are not. The problem everywhere is a range shift. The animals always went back to the usual places because the prey would be there but if the situation year round changes they might not be there. The prey shift location but also in time.
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ArcticMelt2

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #95 on: July 08, 2019, 08:09:40 PM »
In any case, soon there will be similar warming all over the planet.

That is not the way it works. The Arctic is a special place prone to warming beyond the planets average. Check out polar amplification.

BTW the problem is occurring all over the world but that is because prey is migrating poleward not because the temperatures are the same because they are not. The problem everywhere is a range shift. The animals always went back to the usual places because the prey would be there but if the situation year round changes they might not be there. The prey shift location but also in time.

Naturally arctic animals are more vulnerable than tropical ones.

For comparison, 10 thousand years ago, about the same number of mammoths and elephants lived on Earth - in the region of several millions.

Mammoths could not survive the harsh climatic changes and the hunt of people, and completely died out. But the elephants managed to survive in a minimal amount:



But this does not mean that tropical species can be saved. By the end of the century, Africa’s warming will reach almost 5 degrees:



This will be a real catastrophe for tropical ecosystems, as they are designed for minimal temperature changes. Check out this map:



From this map it is obvious that even weak warming will kill tropical systems.

Tunnelforce9

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #96 on: July 15, 2019, 06:00:58 AM »
The Chinese are after mamut ivory from Russia's thwaing permafrost to make "medicine".
I hope they don't dig up some anthrax.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/14/permafrost-thaw-sparks-fear-of-mammoth-ivory-gold-rush-in-russia

gerontocrat

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #97 on: July 24, 2019, 12:21:41 AM »
Climate change is happening too fast...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/23/animals-failing-to-adapt-to-speed-of-climate-crisis-study-finds
Animals failing to adapt to speed of climate crisis, study finds
Scientists warn of ‘alarming’ lag between human-driven seasons shift and animals’ behavioural changes

Quote
The speed of climate disruption is outstripping many animals’ capacity to adapt, according to a study that warns of a growing threat to even common species such as sparrows, magpies and deer.

Scientists behind the research described the results as alarming because they showed a dangerous lag between a human-driven shift in the seasons and behavioural changes in the natural world.

Previous academic work has shown that species respond to warming temperatures by earlier timing of biological events, for example egg-laying by birds, budding of plants and flying of insects. The new metastudy, published in Nature Research, examines how effective this is in terms of reproduction and survival.

Based on 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 published studies, it found a clear lag in the majority of species studied and none could be considered safe. “The probability that none of the study species is at risk is virtually zero,” the paper notes.

The authors said hundreds of thousands of species were not covered by their study, which was weighted heavily towards birds in the northern hemisphere, but they said the problems of adaptation to climate change were likely to be even greater for other animals already deemed at risk of extinction.

Viktoriia Radchuk of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, said: “Personally I find the results alarming. Species attempt to adapt to changing environment, but they cannot do it at a sufficient pace to ensure that populations are viable. Climate change has caused irreversible damage to our biodiversity already, as evidenced by the findings of this study. The fact that species struggle to adapt to the current rate of climate change means we have to take action immediately in order to at least halt or decrease the rate.”
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DrTskoul

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Re: Effects of Climate Change on the biosphere
« Reply #98 on: July 24, 2019, 12:40:34 AM »
The biggest problem is that in cooperative networks ( insects, plants, animals that depend on plants or insects for food ), those relationships have developed and  have reached a steady cooperative state slowly. Now each part of the system responds at a different rate to temperature change so that the whole system is getting out of whack.

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