Delta Wetlands wallpaper, Drought may threaten globe within decades, Save the whale poop

Delta Wetlands wallpaper

Climate change: Drought may threaten much of globe within decades

The United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades, according to a new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai. The detailed analysis concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much of the globe in the next 30 years, possibly reaching a scale in some regions by the end of the century that has rarely, if ever, been observed in modern times.

Other countries and continents that could face significant drying include:

* Much of Latin America, including large sections of Mexico and Brazil
* Regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea, which could become especially dry
* Large parts of Southwest Asia
* Most of Africa and Australia, with particularly dry conditions in regions of Africa
* Southeast Asia, including parts of China and neighboring countries

The study also finds that drought risk can be expected to decrease this century across much of Northern Europe, Russia, Canada, and Alaska, as well as some areas in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the globe’s land areas should be drier overall.

“The increased wetness over the northern, sparsely populated high latitudes can’t match the drying over the more densely populated temperate and tropical areas,” Dai says.

World warming trends 2030 to 2039

Researchers did caution that the glass is kind of half empty. While the U.S. continues not to have a climate policy as such many nations do. In the U.S. some states like California have taken the lead with both cutting emissions and increasing greener energy. So the most dire projections might not be as bad as predicted if the world can move away from the use of fossil fuels in combination with emitting less greenhouse gases. I tend to expect the worse because of the amount of money special interests are pouring into creating junk science studies, disseminating that false information in the media and special interests influence on enough officials at the federal level to stop any sane climate policy measures. One of things we cannot do much about is natural changes in climate. For its own reasons the earth may have El Niños more years in a row thus exacerbating droughts and odd weather for those years.

Those familiar with environmental history may already know one of the few great victories of the environmental movement was saving America’s Falcons. Between pesticide use, expanding suburbs and loss of habitat many were on the verge of extinct – or at least only being found in zoo cages. With legislation and regulation of pesticides falcons made a come back. Thanks to BP birds of prey are struggling once again. Peregrine Falcons Checked For Gulf Oil Taint

The falcons, along with bald eagles and brown pelicans, nearly vanished from the wild before the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972. Since predatory birds are at the top of the food chain, smaller amounts of DDT that tainted their prey built up to higher dosages in their bodies and caused egg shells to thin, threatening reproduction.

All three species have since been removed from the federal endangered list, but scientists are concerned that some migrating Peregrine falcons passing through the Gulf from their nesting grounds in Alaska and Greenland may be affected by remnants of the oil spill.

“They look for a prey species that’s handicapped in some way, and they’ll go after that bird, so if they would see a shore bird that has oil on it, that’s not flying quite right, as a predator, they’ll key in on that bird, and kill it first,” said Bill Heinrich, a biologist with The Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit group based in Boise, Idaho, that helped restore the birds in the wild through its captive breeding program.

Heinrich worries toxins from the oil spill may wind up contaminating falcon prey and could accumulate in their systems and cause reproductive problems when they return home. He also says if any toxins are found while collecting blood samples from the birds currently migrating across the Gulf, it could be an indicator that other species aren’t faring well.

“Being at the top of the food chain, they’re an environmental barometer … You know if something happens to the Peregrine, you know that things further down the food chain, things aren’t right,” Heinrich said.

Save the Whales, Save the Poop

The ocean needs whale poop.

It wasn’t long ago that researchers first confirmed that whales contributed to ocean ecology even after death, their carcasses landing on the seabed and forming the basis for unique communities known as “whale falls”. Now, two whale scientists have found that, as well as seeding the seabed, whales also stimulate biological production at the ocean’s surface, thanks to their nutrient-rich feces. Joe Roman of the University of Vermont and James McCarthy of Harvard University note that, because whale feces are expelled in the form of light plumes, they do not sink, but float (if at the surface) or disperse laterally or upwardly (if below).

As a consequence, whales increase primary productivity — that is, they create conditions that allow the growth of greater amounts of phytoplankton, the basis of the marine food web, which feed on the nutrients in cetacean fecal matter.

Great illustration at the link of the whale poop cycle. It is not unlike the nitrogen cycle. The same researchers who published this study on whale feces and urea also put to rest the argument by some of the world’s fishing fleets that whales have to be thinned out to preserve fisheries. The opposite is true. Without whales the fisheries on which those fishermen depend would be devastated.

No promises but if I ever get time I’ll use that illustration as a guide to make one for the blog.