#climate science

[thoughtportal]

DR ADAM LEVY ClimateAdam ROSEMARY MOSCO

[herpsandbirds]

New Published Research: Long-term Viability of Flatwoods Salamander Populations

This article highlights how long-term monitoring of Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma bishopi) populations on Eglin Air Force Base led to the development of population models that were applied to estimate viability under future climate changes. This work was part of my dissertation research and was conducted with collaborators at Virginia Tech...

Read more: https://www.oriannesociety.org/science-of-scales/long-term-viability-of-flatwoods-salamander-populations/

[jstor]

Our beloved mushrooms are so much more than just forest decorations, motifs in Gothic literature, or images we associate with Hozier's debut album.

Fungi act as "carbon conduits" and enable over 90% of plants to sustain themselves. In "The Fungi in the Carbon Jigsaw" from JSTOR Daily, ecologist and photographer Timo Mendez reveals how fungi helped early plants colonize land, and how their hidden carbon-trading systems today might be the key to fighting climate change.

And he took these beautiful photos to boot! Read the article and view some more photos on JSTOR Daily.

Photos: Amanita muscaria, russula, and ectomycorrhizal fungi. All taken by Timo Mendez.

[politijohn]

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[shamebats]

Inside big beef’s climate messaging machine: confuse, defend and downplay

A Masters of Beef Advocacy program teaches ‘scientific sounding’ arguments on cattle’s sustainability in an all-out public relations war

"The US beef industry is creating an army of influencers and citizen activists to help amplify a message that will be key to its future success: that you shouldn’t be too worried about the growing attention around the environmental impacts of its production.

In particular, it would like you not to be especially concerned about how meat consumption needs to be reduced if we are to avoid the most violently disruptive forms of planetary heating (even if all fossil fuel use ended tomorrow).

It definitely does not want you to read scientific papers showing wealthy nations must reduce meat consumption to keep below the average global temperature rise of 2C, a threshold to stop systems collapse, mass extinctions, fatal heat waves, drought and famine, water shortages and flooded cities.

I know about these industry priorities as I am one of more than 21,000 graduates of a free, by-admission-only, online training course created by the US beef industry called the Masters of Beef Advocacy (MBA) program."

"In 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published Livestock’s Long Shadow, a report that revealed animal agriculture’s significant role in the climate crisis.

By showing that livestock production makes up a significant proportion of global emissions – around 18%, though it would later revise that number downward slightly – as well as contributing to other environmental issues including land degradation and water pollution, the report generated headlines and started conversations, helping to make the toll of meat-overconsumption front-page news.

It was also a moment that terrified the meat industry. According to Jennifer Jacquet, associate professor in the department of environmental studies at New York University, Livestock’s Long Shadow helped to inspire meat multinationals and their allies to launch a counteroffensive, working overtime to defend the environmental reputation of meat, especially beef."

"[...] two high-profile culinary institutions dropped meat to protest livestock’s outsized role in the climate crisis: food media outlet Epicurious decided to stop featuring new recipes with beef, and Manhattan restaurant Eleven Madison Park took meat off its menu entirely. The news made headlines.

And when NCBA noted the trend in its monitoring tool, it sprang into action. NCBA started by defending beef’s sustainability in a slate of paid ad buys – which ran in outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post – but it didn’t stop there.

In the private video for Masters of Beef Advocacy students, Pooley described how NCBA worked with celebrity chef Lamar Moore to write a piece insisting on a central place for beef on the plate. That story – which ran with the subhead “Why cutting meat from the menu (or magazine) is misguided”, ran in LA Weekly – and was plugged repeatedly on Twitter by NCBA (and other industry accounts) as if it had no connection to the story.

In fact, none of the pieces NCBA privately admits it played a role in – in LA Weekly, Westword and the Denver Post – disclosed the trade group’s participation.

The industry sees these messaging efforts as part of an existential battle for survival. In the training video, NCBA leaders cited data that found 47% of Americans aren’t sure about the sustainability of beef.

That persuadable middle is a top priority for the industry, they said, as whoever reaches them best has the power to sway the balance of public opinion.

The industry must engage in a “defensive strategy”, Pooley told MBA students. Sustainability, she said, “has the potential to become a crisis if we don’t address it early”."

[v-i-s-u-a-l-o-a-s-i-s]

[nasa]

Confirmed: Summer 2023 Hottest in NASA’s Record

All three months of summer 2023 broke records. July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded, and the hottest July. June 2023 was the hottest June, and August 2023 was the hottest August.

NASA’s temperature record, GISTEMP, starts in 1880, when consistent, modern recordkeeping became possible. Our record uses millions of measurements of surface temperature from weather stations, ships and ocean buoys, and Antarctic research stations. Other agencies and organizations who keep similar global temperature records find the same pattern of long-term warming.

Global temperatures are rising from increased emissions of greenhouse gasses, like carbon dioxide and methane. Over the last 200 years, humans have raised atmospheric CO2 by nearly 50%, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels.

Drivers of climate change, both natural and human-caused, leave distinct fingerprints. Through observations and modeling, NASA researchers confirm that the current warming is the result of human activities, particularly increased greenhouse gas emissions.

[reasonsforhope]

Trees Reveal Climate Surprise: Bark Removes Methane from the Atmosphere

The methane absorption was strongest in the tropical forests, probably because microbes thrive in the warm wet conditions found there.

"A surprise discovery from the University of Birmingham shows that we may be significantly underestimating the potential of trees to regulate the variables of climate change.

That’s because they found microbes living inside trees’ bark absorb the greenhouse gas methane about as significantly as microbes living in the soil.

It’s long been thought that soil is the only effective terrestrial methane sink, as certain microorganisms use methane as a food source, but similar creatures live under a tree’s layer of bark, meaning that not only do our woody cousins withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their roots, but also remove methane as well, about as effectively or perhaps more so than soil.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas for the few short years it exists in the atmosphere before degrading.

Professor Vincent Gauci of U. Birmingham led the study, published in the journal Nature.

In the study, the researchers investigated upland tropical, temperate, and boreal forest trees. Specifically, they took measurements spanning tropical forests in the Amazon and Panama; temperate broadleaf trees in the UK; and boreal coniferous forests in Sweden.

The methane absorption was strongest in the tropical forests, probably because microbes thrive in the warm wet conditions found there. On average the newly discovered methane absorption adds around 10% to the climate benefit that temperate and tropical trees provide.

By studying methane exchange between the atmosphere and the tree bark at multiple heights, the researchers were able to show that while at soil level the trees were likely to emit a small amount of methane, from a couple of meters up the direction of exchange switches and methane from the atmosphere is consumed.

In addition, the team used laser scanning methods to quantify the overall global forest tree bark surface area, with preliminary calculations indicating that the total global contribution of trees is between 24.6-49.9 Tg (millions of tonnes) of methane. This fills a big gap in understanding the global sources and sinks of methane.

“Tree woody surfaces add a third dimension to the way life on Earth interacts with the atmosphere, and this third dimension is teeming with life, and with surprises,” said co-author Yadvinder Malhi of the University of Oxford."

-via Good News Network, July 31, 2024