High Latitude Cluster Hire at Oregon State University‏

Assistant Professor – High Latitude Studies

As part of the Provost’s Faculty Investment Initiative, the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS) at Oregon State University invites applications for up to three full-time (1.0 FTE), 12-month, tenure-track Assistant Professor positions with focus on high latitude studies.

We seek scholars who will develop and maintain a vigorous, externally funded research program. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions, permafrost/frozen ground processes and land-atmosphere exchange, biogeochemical cycles, trophic ecology, climate history from sediments, sea-ice processes, glaciology, and the use of remote sensing methods for high-latitude research.

The successful candidates will design and teach courses specific to the fields relevant to high latitude studies and will participate in the CEOAS undergraduate and graduate teaching program. Advising and mentoring graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are also expected from the candidates.

The College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences is internationally recognized as a leader in the study of the Earth as an integrated system. It operates numerous state-of-the art laboratories and two oceanographic research vessels, the 185-foot ocean-going Wecoma and the Elakha, a 54-foot coastal research vessel. The College has an annual budget of more than $50 million, with much of the research support coming from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other federal agencies. It has approximately 104 faculty, 220 graduate students and 613 undergraduate students. Graduate programs include a Master’s degree in Marine Resource Management, and Master’s and PhD degrees in Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Geology; and Geography. The new undergraduate program in Earth Science, together with the Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Program, provide educational and research opportunities for the best undergraduate students, a national honors college for the Earth.

OSU has an institution-wide commitment to diversity, multiculturalism and community. We actively engage in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and student body that include members of historically underrepresented groups. We strive to build and sustain a welcoming and supportive campus environment. OSU provides outstanding leadership opportunities for people interested in promoting and enhancing diversity, nurturing creativity and building community.

Appointment: Incumbent appointed to 12-month appointment is expected to secure other sources of funding to support 7.5 months of his/her full-time salary. Salary is competitive and will be commensurate with experience. CEOAS policy is to confer indefinite tenure when promoted to full Professor. Should indefinite tenure be granted, the appointment will be on a 9-month basis, as are all CEOAS indefinite tenure agreements. Reappointment is at the discretion of the Dean.

The OSU benefit package includes several options for health/dental/life insurance, retirement, as well as a program for reduced tuition for qualified dependent. http://oregonstate.edu/admin/hr/benefits/potentialhireacademic.pdf

Responsibilities:

70% Research/Scholarship: Establish and maintain an externally funded program of scholarly research in the area of emphasis. Work towards distinction in research as evidenced by national and international recognition through significant contributions to the field of high latitude studies. Publish scholarly work in peer-reviewed, top-ranked journals, conference proceedings and books appropriate for the areas of interest. Disseminate research results by participation at national and international professional conferences and symposia.

25% Teaching: High-quality teaching of graduate courses in the field of expertise. Participation in teaching undergraduate courses offered in the two CEOAS undergraduate degrees, Earth Science and the Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Program. All faculty are expected to mentor and advise graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

5% Service: Provide service to the college and/or university to sustain and promote the research and educational missions. This position is also expected to participate in service to their research discipline through journal and grant review processes.

Minimum/Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in oceanography, atmospheric sciences, geology, glaciology or a closely related field.

• ·  A record of significant and innovative research in high latitude study corresponding to the aforementioned areas of interest.

• ·   A strong scholarly potential demonstrated by a record of peer-reviewed publications and a clearly defined research agenda commensurate with academic rank.

• ·       Demonstrated ability or significant potential for establishing a research program supported by extramural funding.

• ·       A strong potential for teaching excellence in the graduate and undergraduate programs of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. 

• ·       A strong potential for mentoring graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

• ·       Proficiency in oral and written English.

•        A commitment to educational equity in a multicultural setting and to advancing the participation of diverse groups and supporting diverse perspectives.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Two years of professional experience.

• Demonstrated record of successful interdisciplinary collaborations.

• ·       Experience in writing proposals and teaching experience at the university level are preferred.

• ·       A demonstrable commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity.

Scholarly Outcomes: Scholarly outcomes for the position are expected to result from 100% of the research duties (70% of total duties) and should be published in peer-reviewed, top-ranked journals, conference proceedings and books appropriate for the areas of interest. Research results should be disseminated by participation at national and international professional conferences and symposia.

Decision Making Guideline: Decisions made on a day-to-day basis regarding research, teaching, mentoring and service. Reports to the Dean when necessary and/or appropriate committee as needed.

Application Closing: For full consideration, applications must be received by January 31, 2012. Position closing date is February 29, 2012.

To Apply: go to jobs.oregonstate.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=59689  For information regarding the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences please visit http://www.coas.oregonstate.edu/ and http://www.geo.oregonstate.edu/

When applying you will be required to attach the following electronic documents:

1.     A detailed curriculum vita that includes a list of publications, and three professional references, their email addresses and contact numbers (Upload as 'Other Document' if not included with your vita).

2.     A cover letter of application addressing the required and preferred qualifications, statement of current and proposed research interests and a statement of teaching experience and interest (Upload as 'Cover Letter').

 Inquiries about the position may be directed to Dr. Yvette Spitz by email (yvette@coas.oregonstate.edu), 541-737-3227 (phone) or 541-737-2064 (FAX).

University and Community: Oregon State University has always been a place with a purpose – making a positive difference on quality of life and the natural world in Oregon and beyond. Through teaching, applied research, innovation and service, OSU turns ideals into reality with a unique approach characterized by collaboration and strategic focus.

Founded in 1868, OSU is one of only two American universities designated as a Land-, Sea-, Sun- and Space-Grant designations and is the only one in Oregon recognized for its “very high research activity” (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. OSU is Oregon’s largest public research university, conducting more than 60 percent of the research funded throughout the state’s university system and bringing in a record $250 million in scientific grants and contracts this year.

OSU is located in Corvallis, a community of 53,000 people situated in the Willamette Valley between Portland and Eugene. Ocean beaches, lakes, rivers, forests, high desert, the rugged Cascade and Coast Ranges, and the urban amenities of the Portland metropolitan area are all within a 100-mile drive of Corvallis. Approximately 18,000 undergraduate and 3,800 graduate students are enrolled at OSU, including 3,500 U.S. students of color and nearly 1,100 international students. Students come from all 50 states and nearly 100 countries worldwide.
 

Oregon State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Svalbard REU Project Arctic Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students for Summer 2012

Ocean Acidification: Declining Reef Health (AGU Fall Conference, Dec 05-09, 2011 in San Francisco, CA)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utQ41I6tkZ8&feature=uploademail

Modeling Our Future Climate

Courtesy of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

New Study: Climate Change Threatens Global Fisheries

By Matt Huelsenbeck*

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Agreement to create biggest marine reserve at Antarctica

Canberra, Nov 4 (IANS) Delegates from 25 nations at a Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meeting in the Tasmanian capital Hobart Friday agreed to a plan to create the world’s largest marine reserve in the waters around Antarctica.

The meeting accepted a framework for protected areas in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean, reported Xinhua.

While key countries fishing there at the moment includes Russia, Norway, South Korea, New Zealand, Britain and Spain, the proposal will prohibit industrial fishing in the reserves.

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA), a coalition of environmental groups including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, said the agreement was a positive step.

“(The commission’s) member countries now have all the tools to create a circumpolar network of marine reserves,” Greenpeace spokesman Richard Page said in a statement released Friday.

“(They) must act now to protect the penguins, seals, seabirds and other vulnerable marine life inhabiting the icy waters around Antarctica and so lead the way in protecting the high seas.”

CCAMLR is set to make a decision by the end of next year on exactly what areas will be protected in the Southern Ocean.

Signatory parties to the convention include Australia, China, Japan, Britain and the US.

Huge Crack Discovered in Antarctic Glacier

A huge, emerging crack has been discovered in one of Antarctica's glaciers, with a NASA plane mission providing the first-ever detailed airborne measurements of a major iceberg breakup in progress. 

NASA's Operation Ice Bridge, the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown, is in the midst of its third field campaign from Punta Arenas, Chile. The six-year mission will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. The glaciers of the Antarctic, and Greenland, Ice Sheets, commonly birth icebergs that break off from the main ice streams where they flow in to the sea, a process called calving.

The crack was found in c, which last calved a significant iceberg in 2001; some scientists have speculated recently that it was primed to calve again. But until an Oct. 14 IceBridge flight, no one had seen any evidence of the ice shelf beginning to break apart. Since then, a more detailed look back at satellite imagery seems to show the first signs of the crack in early October.

"We are actually now witnessing how it happens and it's very exciting for us," said IceBridge project scientist 

Michael Studinger of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It's part of a natural process, but it’s pretty exciting to be here and actually observe it while it happens."

Gravity pulls the ice in the glacier westward along Antarctica's Hudson Mountains toward the Amundsen Sea. A floating tongue of ice reaches out 30 miles (48 kilometers) into the Amundsen beyond the grounding line, the below-sea-level point where the ice shelf locks onto the continental bedrock. As ice pushes toward the sea from the interior, inevitably the ice shelf will crack and send a large iceberg free. [Photo Album: Antarctica, Iceberg Maker]

Pine Island Glacier is of particular interest to scientists because it is big and unstable and so is one of the 

largest sources of uncertainty in global sea level rise projections.

A primary goal of Operation IceBridge is to put the same instruments over the exact same flight lines and satellite tracks, year after year, to gather meaningful and accurate data of how ice sheets and glaciers are changing over time. But discovering a developing rift in one of the most significant science targets in the world of glaciology offered a brief change in agenda for the Oct. 26 flight, if only for a 30-minute diversion from the day's prescribed flight lines.

The IceBridge team observed the rift running across the ice shelf for about 18 miles (29 km), using an instrument called the Airborne Topographic Mapper, which uses a technology called lidar (light detection and ranging) that sends out a laser beam that bounces off a surface and back to the device. The lidar instrument measured the rift's shoulders about 820 feet (250 meters) apart at its widest, although the rift stretched about 260 feet (79 meters) wide along most of the crack. The deepest points from the ice shelf surface ranged from 165 to 195 feet (50 to 60 meters).

When the iceberg breaks free, it will cover about 340 square miles (880 square kilometers) of surface area. Radar measurements suggested the ice shelf in the region of the rift is about 1,640 feet (500 meters) feet thick, with only about 160 feet of the shelf floating above water and the rest submerged.

It is likely that once the iceberg floats away, the leading edge of the ice shelf will have receded farther than at any time since its location was first recorded in the 1940s.

 

This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet.com, a sister site of SPACE.com. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Melting Norwegian ice spawns massive surge in cod stocks

Helped by a warming climate, Norway’s near monopoly on the stuff of fish’n chips looks set to grow. 

Fishermen and scientists here agree they’ve never seen as many cod as they’re catching now, and they say melting Arctic ice is the reason. 

Researchers have said the receding ice has opened up larger areas of shallower Arctic water in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea into which young fish are fleeing predators. They confirm their test catches from a globally warmed Atlantic Current have turned up record numbers -- about 120 billion -- of yearlings destined to become commercial fish. 

Fishermen are mostly pleased with the development: “On behalf of future generations, I’m truly glad for the cod count,” fisherman Kaare Ludvigsen told broadcaster NRK. 

In contrast to Atlantic Canada, where the cod fishery collapsed in the 1980’s due to overfishing, Norway’s commercial cod banks are still the richest in the world. Coastal waters stretching into the arctic from the Lofoten Islands to the Spitsbergen archipelago are the spawning sites for three types of migrating cod schools.

That migration now runs farther north than ever, and Russian and Norwegian researchers have found birthing fish in latitudes beyond 82 degrees north. 

Such is the cod’s new clout that Norwegian fishermen are worried the seabed where the fish dine will be stripped clean for future generations of cod, just as they worried the Kamchatka crab, or king crab, had been bulldozing the cod’s ecosystem. They asked for and received larger catch quotas to make room for other commercial fish, as their three-species winter fishing season starts to roll.

Mr. Ludvigsen’s fishermen colleagues met in Trondheim this week to discuss whether there were “too many” fish in the sea and agreed to more than double their catch in 2012 to 751,000 tons.

Norway exported a record 1.12 billion kroner ($201.7-million) worth of wild cod in September, but not since the frugal years just after the Second World War have there been such abundant catches.

In the Arctic, meanwhile, seasonal ice flows have shrunken to their smallest covering in 8,000 years, according to a recent German study.

Norway, meanwhile, has pressed its commercial maritime rights nearly to the North Pole and won recognition for its claims at the United Nations in New York.

Scientists call for end to deep-sea fishing

By Juliet Eilperin

Industrial fishing in the deep sea should be banned because it has depleted fish stocks that take longer to recover than other species, according to a paper to be released this week by an international team of marine scientists.

The article, published in the scientific journal Marine Policy, describes fishing operations that have in recent decades targeted the unregulated high seas after stocks near shore were overfished.

Describing the open ocean as “more akin to a watery desert,” the scientists argue that vessels have targeted patches of productive areas sequentially, depleting the fish there and destroying deep-sea corals before moving on to new areas. 

Certain deep-sea species have gained widespread popularity — including orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish, otherwise known as Chilean sea bass — only to crash within a matter of years. 

Elliott Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Institute and the paper’s lead author, said the world has turned to deep-sea fishing “out of desperation” without realizing fish stocks there take much longer to recover.

“We’re now fishing in the worst places to fish,” Norse said in an interview. “These things don’t come back.”

As vessels use Global Positioning System devices and trawlers, which scrape massive metal plates across the sea bottom, the catch of deep-water species has increased sevenfold between 1960 and 2004, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. 

“What they’re doing out there is more like mining than fishing,” said Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

The estimated mean depth of fishing has more than tripled since the 1950s, from 492 feet to 1,706 feet in 2004, according to Telmo Morato, a marine biologist with the department of oceanography and fisheries at the University of the Azores in Portugal and one of the paper’s authors.

Fishing subsidies help sustain this practice, according to Rashid Sumaila, the paper’s other author, who directs the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre. He said high-seas trawlers around the world receive roughly $162 million each year in government handouts, which amounts to a quarter of the value of the fleets’ catch.

“That is what is keeping most of them in business,” Sumaila said.

Bottom-trawling can crush deep-sea corals, which can live for as long as 4,000 years, the scientists noted. Some fish species of the deep live for more than a century, and while they can spawn many eggs, there can be several years in which juveniles fail to make it into adulthood.

Orange roughy, which Australia declared a threatened species in 2006, take 30 years to reach sexual maturity and live up to 149 years. The leafscale gulper shark, one of several deep-water sharks targeted for its liver oil, “matures late, has only 5-8 pups per year and lives to be 70 years old,” the authors write.

 

Ray Hilborn, a University of Washington professor of aquatic and fisheries science, questioned the paper on the grounds that several long-lived species off the Pacific Coast, such as geoduck clams, have been harvested sustainably at very low levels. In many cases, fishing operations take just 1 percent of the population, he said, and this keeps the stocks from collapsing.

“There’s no question [a ban] can be done,” Hilborn said in an interview, adding that the international regulatory regimes may not be up for the task. “The question is, is it worth it?”

Hilborn said that while deep-sea corals might be sacrificed in the pursuit of fishing, humans had accepted similar trade-offs when clearing old-growth forests for farmland. “Some of these habitats will probably be changed by fishing. Some of those corals will be gone,” he said. “From a conservation perspective, maybe we shouldn’t fish at all, and the ocean should be left pristine. Where is the food going to come from?”

But Daniel Pauly, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, said the costs of deep-sea fishing far outweigh the benefits.

“It’s a waste of resources, it’s a waste of biodiversity, it’s a waste of everything,” Pauly said. “In the end, there is nothing left.”

Maria Damanaki, the European Union’s commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, said in an interview that she would like to reduce fishing on the high seas and cut subsidies for deep-sea trawlers.

“I’ll try. I really agree there’s a danger there, so we have to be prudent,” said Damanaki, adding that nations such as France, Denmark, Portugal and Spain resist such efforts. “We have to try to persuade them to stop this.”

Increased production of smelly sulfur compound in Southern Ocean tied to climate change

Anne M Stark, LLNL, (925) 422-9799, stark8@llnl.gov

  The cold and windy Southern Ocean favors the exchange of CO2 with the atmosphere. At high latitudes (photo), a recent and persistent increase in winds has produced a saturation of the Southern Ocean sink for CO2. Photo courtesy of N.Metzl, August 2000, oceanographic cruise OISO-5.

LIVERMORE, Calif. -- An organic compound that smells like cabbage and has been called the "smell of the sea" could be more sensitive to global climate change than commonly believed.

In a recent report, a Livermore researcher, along with colleagues from Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, found through computer modeling that dimethyl sulfide (DMS) will increase significantly in certain parts of the ocean and decrease in others if the world continues with a business-as-usual fossil fuel dependency.

DMS, a sulfur-containing compound that affects the heat balance of the Earth, is one of the major precursors for aerosols and cloud condensation in the marine boundary layer over much of the remote ocean. DMS is produced by marine plankton and represents the largest source of natural sulfur emissions. Upon reaching the atmosphere, DMS is converted into sulfate aerosols, which reflect sunlight and can stimulate cloud formation.

"We found that DMS is locally much more sensitive to climate change than in previous modeling studies," said LLNL's Philip Cameron-Smith. "The shift in emissions will change the heating patterns."

The Southern Ocean is a locale where the effects of global climate change are noticeable. In this region, there is substantial biological production, carbon drawdown and convective return of nutrients.

Using climate simulations with a global ocean biogeochemical model, scientists looked at the impact of present-day (355 parts per million) and future (970 parts per million) concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on DMS levels and emissions in the Southern Hemisphere.

What they found was quite a surprise: In the future scenario, the average DMS emission to the atmosphere was 150 percent more than current levels in the Southern Ocean. Team members found that sea ice changes and ocean ecosystem composition shifts caused by changes in temperature, mixing, nutrient and light regimes caused the increase in DMS in their simulation.

"DMS emissions in the Southern Ocean are significantly more sensitive to climate change than previously thought," Cameron-Smith said. "The melting of the southern sea-ice has a large impact on DMS flux in the model, because it opens up a lot of cold open water in which the DMS-producing plankton thrive (particularly a species called Phaeocystis). This compensates for the warming of the ocean in other areas where Phaeocystis stops growing so well."

In the future, scientists may have to consider how ocean acidification, which is tied directly to climate warming, could affect the plankton community, and therefore DMS production.

The research appears in a recent issue of the journal, Geophysical Research Letters.

Oceans Are at Dire Risk, Team of Scientists Warns

By David Jolly

The state of the oceans is declining far more rapidly than most pessimists had expected, an international team of experts has concluded increasing the risk that many marine species — including those that make coral reefs — could be extinct within a generation.

 

The scientists, who gathered in April at the University of Oxford, cited the cumulative impact of the stresses on the oceans, which include ocean acidification related to growing carbon dioxide emissions, a global warming trend that is reducing the polar ice caps, pollution and overfishing. 

‘‘This examination of synergistic threats leads to the conclusion that we have underestimated the overall risks and that the whole of marine degradation is greater than the sum of its parts, and that degradation is now happening at a faster rate than predicted,’’ they wrote in the report, released on Monday.

The April workshop, organized by the International Program on the State of the Ocean in concert with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, brought scientists from a broad range of disciplines together to talk about the problems in the marine environment and what steps can be taken to arrest the collapse of ocean ecosystems.

Chris Reid, a professor of oceanography at the Marine Institute of Plymouth University who took part in the workshop, described the report as ‘‘a synthesis of existing work.’’ ‘‘When we added it all up, it was clear that we are in a situation that could lead to major extinctions of organisms in the oceans,’’ he said by telephone. 

The scientists said that studies of the earth’s past have indicated that global warming, ocean acidification and hypoxia, or reduced oxygen content in the seas, are three symptoms of a disturbance in the carbon dioxide cycle that have been ‘‘associated with each of the previous five mass extinctions on Earth.’’ 

While speaking in the measured language of science, the report calls for a complete rethinking of humans’ relationship with the oceans. ‘‘It is clear that the traditional economic and consumer values that formerly served society well, when coupled with current rates of population increase, are not sustainable,’’ it said. 

“Deferring action will increase costs in the future leading to even greater losses of benefits,” the scientists added. 

They warned that in addition to steep declines in the populations of many commercially important commercial species, the oceans are at risk for ‘‘an unparalleled rate of regional extinctions of habitat types,’’ including mangroves and seagrass meadows. ‘‘We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation,’’ the report said.

Mr. Reid said corals were particularly at risk because they were suffering both from the bleaching effect caused by rising sea temperatures and from acidification, which deprive the tiny organisms of the calcium carbonate they need to build their homes.

The authors call for immediate action to take the pressure off ocean ecosystems, including measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and ‘‘coordinated and concerted action’’ by governments in national waters and on the high seas to enact sustainable fisheries polices and reduce pollution. 

They also called on the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to create a global body that would have the power to ensure compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other statutes and treaties and to establish new rules and procedures for acting in “a precautionary manner.’’ Mr. Reid said that action by the United Nations was vital because there was effectively no protection at all for most of the ocean.

‘‘Once you’re outside the 200-mile limits of the nation states, it’s an open field,’’ he said. ‘‘So we’re calling for the U.N. and national governments to come up with some kind of agreement to protect the open oceans. At the moment, we’re not doing anything in the oceans sustainably.’’

 Fastest Sea-Level Rise in Two Millennia Linked to Increasing Global Temperatures

Rate is greater now than at any time during past 2,100 years

The rate of sea level rise along the U.S. Atlantic coast is greater now than at any time in the past 2,000 years--and has shown a consistent link between changes in global mean surface temperature and sea level. The findings are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), was conducted by Andrew Kemp, Yale University; Benjamin Horton, University of Pennsylvania; Jeffrey Donnelly, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University; Martin Vermeer, Aalto University School of Engineering, Finland; and Stefan Rahmstorf, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.

"Having a detailed picture of rates of sea level change over the past two millennia provides an important context for understanding current and potential future changes," says Paul Cutler, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

"It's especially valuable for anticipating the evolution of coastal systems," he says, "in which more than half the world's population now lives."

Adds Kemp, "Scenarios of future rise are dependent on understanding the response of sea level to climate changes. Accurate estimates of past sea-level variability provide a context for such projections."

Kemp and colleagues developed the first continuous sea-level reconstruction for the past 2,000 years, and compared variations in global temperature to changes in sea level over that time period.

The team found that sea level was relatively stable from 200 BC to 1,000 AD. Then in the 11th century, sea level rose by about half a millimeter each year for 400 years, linked with a warm climate period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly.

Then there was a second period of stable sea level during a cooler period called the Little Ice Age. It persisted until the late 19th century. Since the late 19th century, sea level has risen by more than 2 millimeters per year on average, the steepest rate for more than 2,100 years.

"Sea-level rise is a potentially disastrous outcome of climate change," says Horton, "as rising temperatures melt land-based ice, and warm ocean waters."

To reconstruct sea level, the scientists used microfossils called foraminifera preserved in sediment cores extracted from coastal salt marshes in North Carolina. The age of the cores was estimated using radiocarbon dating and other techniques.

To test the validity of their approach, the team compared its reconstructions with tide-gauge measurements from North Carolina for the past 80 years, and global tide-gauge records for the past 300 years.

A second reconstruction from Massachusetts confirmed their findings.

The records were corrected for contributions to sea-level rise made by vertical land movements.

The reconstructed changes in sea level over the past millennium are consistent with past global temperatures, the researchers say, and can be determined using a model relating the rate of sea level rise to global temperature.

"Data from the past helped calibrate our model, and will improve sea level rise projections under scenarios of future temperature increases," says Rahmstorf.

Support for the research also was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey, the Academy of Finland, the European Science Foundation through European Cooperation in Science and Technology and the University of Pennsylvania.

New Map Reveals Giant Fjords Beneath East Antarctic Ice Sheet

 

ScienceDaily (June 1, 2011) — Scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia have used ice-penetrating radar to create the first high- resolution topographic map of one of the last uncharted regions of Earth, the Aurora Subglacial Basin, an immense ice-buried lowland in East Antarctica larger than Texas.

The map reveals some of the largest fjords or ice cut channels on Earth, providing important insights into the history of ice in Antarctica. The data will also help computer modelers improve their simulations of the past and future Antarctic ice sheet and its potential impact on global sea level.

"We knew almost nothing about what was going on, or could go on, under this part of the ice sheet and now we've opened it up and made it real," said Duncan Young, research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics and lead author on the study, which appears in the journal Nature.

"We chose to focus on the Aurora Subglacial Basin because it may represent the weak underbelly of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the largest remaining body of ice and potential source of sea-level rise on Earth," said Donald Blankenship, principal investigator for the ICECAP project, a multinational collaboration using airborne geophysical instruments to study the ice sheet.

Because the basin lies kilometers below sea level, seawater could penetrate beneath the ice, causing portions of the ice sheet to collapse and float off to sea. Indeed, this work shows that the ice sheet has been significantly smaller in the past.

Previous work based on ocean sediments and computer models indicates the East Antarctic Ice Sheet grew and shrank widely and frequently, from about 34 to 14 million years ago, causing sea level to fluctuate by 200 feet . Since then, it has been comparatively stable, causing sea-level fluctuations of less that 50 feet. The new map reveals vast channels cut through mountain ranges by ancient glaciers that mark the edge of the ice sheet at different times in the past, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from its current edge.

"We're seeing what the ice sheet looked like at a time when Earth was much warmer than today," said Young. "Back then it was very dynamic, with significant surface melting. Recently, the ice sheet has been better behaved."

However, recent lowering of major glaciers near the edge detected by satellites has raised concerns about this sector of Antarctica.

Young said past configurations of the ice sheet give a sense of how it might look in the future, although he doesn't foresee it shrinking as dramatically in the next 100 years. Still, even a small change in this massive ice sheet could have a significant effect on sea level. Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, and at Australia's Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC are developing models that will use the new map to forecast how the ice sheet will evolve in the future and how it might affect sea level.

This research is part of ICECAP (Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate), a joint project of The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences, the University of Edinburgh and the Australian Antarctic Division. For three field seasons, the team flew an upgraded World War II-era DC-3 aircraft with a suite of geophysical instruments to study the ice and underlying rock in East Antarctica.

Funding for this research is provided by the National Science Foundation (U.S.), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (U.S.), the Natural Environment Research Council (U.K.), the Australian Antarctic Division, the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation (U.S.), the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (Aus.), and the University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences (U.S.).

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Journal Reference:

1. Duncan A. Young, Andrew P. Wright, Jason L. Roberts, Roland C. Warner, Neal W. Young, Jamin S. Greenbaum, Dustin M. Schroeder, John W. Holt, David E. Sugden, Donald D. Blankenship, Tas D. van Ommen, Martin J. Siegert. A dynamic early East Antarctic Ice Sheet suggested by ice-covered fjord landscapes. Nature, 2011; 474 (7349): 72 DOI: 10.1038/nature10114

Farm Runoff in Mississippi River Floodwater Fuels Dead Zone in Gulf

By: Jenny Marder

A dead zone -- already the size of the state of New Jersey -- is growing in the Gulf of Mexico, fueled by nutrient runoff from the swollen Mississippi River.

This year, with floodwaters from the Birds Point levee breach and the Morganza and Bonnet Carret spillways spreading over farmland and other residential areas, the river is collecting tremendous amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. This is contributing to what scientists say may become the largest dead zone ever, and posing a serious threat to already taxed marine life.

During the rainy season, fertilizer, animal waste, sewage and car exhaust wash into the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya rivers, flow south and empty into the mouth of the Gulf.

Nitrogen and phosphorous from farm runoff and animal waste are especially toxic to ocean life. They act as natural fertilizers, feeding harmful algae and causing it to bloom wildly. As bacteria consume these blooms, they suck oxygen from the water, depleting the ocean's oxygen reserves. Scientists call this oxygen depletion hypoxia.

"We're expecting probably the largest-ever amount of hypoxia," said Nancy Rabalais, a marine scientist and executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. "That's the the prediction based on the amount of nitrogen coming down the river."

A surge of fresh water creates a layering effect in the seawater, which compounds the problem. The freshwater sits above the heavier saltwater, acting as a cap that prevents oxygen from reaching the deeper water levels.

"The bottom layer of the ocean gets so low in oxygen that sea life has to swim away and vacate the area, and if they can't get away, they suffocate," said Matt Rota, science and water policy director for the Gulf Restoration Network.

Flooding could cause further injury to fisheries in the northern Gulf of Mexico, already reeling from last year's oil spill, Rabalais said. Dead zones alter the habitat for crab, shrimp, fish and lobster, often forcing them to shallow areas. This includes catchable seafood, like shrimp and snapper, which are vital to the area's fisheries. "A lot of the Louisiana shrimp fisheries use smaller vessels," Rabalais said. "With the price of fuel and the distance they have to go, they might opt not to go offshore."

Possibly the largest source of nutrients comes from farms in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and southwest Minnesota, where drainage tiles -- plastic pipes that crisscross underground - - drain the once-wet soil, making it arable, and dry enough for corn and soybean crops. But these pipes also flush nitrogen fertilizer into tributaries, which lead to rivers and eventually the Gulf.

In fact, research shows that the most heavily tile-drained areas of North America also contribute the largest source of nitrates to the Gulf of Mexico, which add to the dead zone, according to Mark David, a professor of biogeochemistry from the University of Illinois.

David is researching options for reducing nitrate levels. They include valves and beds of woodchips inside the tiles, as well as restoring wetlands, which filter pollution naturally.

It's not the farmers' fault, David said, but there's little incentive for farmers to reduce their nitrate output. 

"There's a fundamental problem in the whole system if we really want to reduce nitrate and phosphorous loss from the system. Everything's been voluntary up to this point, and that hasn't gotten us anywhere."

Competition for krill links a rebounding ecosystem to penguin declines

By  Emmett Duffy 

 

At the far bottom of the earth, at the bitter end of the Pacific Ocean, lies the Ross Sea, home to a large proportion of the world’s penguins. Although it’s often considered the last intact marine ecosystem on earth, it appears there is no escape here, nor anywhere else, from the invisible miasma of CO2 produced by modern society. But, as a new study in PNAS shows, the impacts of changing climate are not simple — they interact through a complex network of food-web interactions with legacies of fishing and whaling, ultimately rippling out to the region’s penguins. And a key link — the one ring to rule them all — is krill.

The recent story of two penguin species in the region has posed a puzzle: Adelies hang out on the pack ice in winter, whereas chinstraps forage in the open water, meaning that they should show opposite responses to the declining ice cover caused by climate warming.

 

And in the late 70s and early 80s they did as expected: Adelies declined with melting ice whereas chinstraps prospered in the opening water. But since then both species have declined steadily. What’s up?

The paradoxical history of penguins over the last century appear to result from a complex interplay between the twin horsemen of climate change and human harvesting — in this case fishing and whaling (see the figure).  It’s long been suspected that the relentless human pressure on every other vertebrate in the southern ocean proved a boon for penguins as competition for krill was reduced. First there was the hunting of the Antarctic fur seal in the 19th century, then the decimation of whales during the wild-west days of the early 20th century, and finally the fishery for icefishes over recent decades. Indeed, penguin numbers climbed during much of the 20th century.

But as conservation measures have kicked in, the whales and seals have  begun to rebound and the region’s fisheries have come under more conservative management. On top of this a trawl fishery for krill was established, all of which leads to more mouths going after the central resource of the Southern Ocean — krill. And the penguins find themselves caught between the pincers of declining sea-ice habitat and declining food.

And there is another issue. As the New York Times summarizes:

“The Ross Sea is projected to be the last place on Earth where sea ice will endure. But as the annual winter sea ice boundary retreats farther south, pack ice penguins may ultimately find themselves trapped behind a curtain of polar night for which they have no hardwired strategy.

Indeed, Dr. Ainley speculates, Adélie penguins face possible extinction not merely by a loss of habitat — but by an unshakable fear of darkness.”

Original source (open access): Wayne Z. Trivelpiecea, Jefferson T. Hinkea, Aileen K. Millera, Christian S. Reissa, Susan G. Trivelpiecea, and George M. Watters. 2011. Variability in krill biomass links harvesting and climate warming to penguin population changes in Antarctica. PNAS 108(18):7625-7628.

West Antarctic Warming Triggered by Warmer Sea Surface in Tropical Pacific

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2011) — The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed rapidly for the last half-century or more, and recent studies have shown that an adjacent area, continental West Antarctica, has steadily warmed for at least 30 years, but scientists haven't been sure why.

New University of Washington research shows that rising sea surface temperatures in the area of the Pacific Ocean along the equator and near the International Date Line drive atmospheric circulation that has caused some of the largest shifts in Antarctic climate in recent decades.

The warmer water generates rising air that creates a large wave structure in the atmosphere called a Rossby wave train, which brings warmer temperatures to West Antarctica during winter and spring.

Antarctica is somewhat isolated by the vast Southern Ocean, but the new results "show that it is still affected by climate changes elsewhere on the planet," said Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the UW Quaternary Research Center.

Steig is the corresponding author of a paper documenting the findings that is being published April 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience. The lead author is Qinghua Ding, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW Quaternary Research Center. Co-authors are David Battisti, a UW atmospheric sciences professor, and Marcel Küttel, a former UW postdoctoral researcher now working in Switzerland.

The scientists used surface and satellite temperature observations to show a strong statistical connection between warmer temperatures in Antarctica, largely brought by westerly winds associated with high pressure over the Amundsen Sea adjacent to West Antarctica, and sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific Ocean.

They found a strong relationship between central Pacific sea-surface readings and Antarctic temperatures during winter months, June through August. Though not as pronounced, the effect also appeared in the spring months of September through November.

The observed circulation changes are in the form of a series of high- and low-pressure cells that follow an arcing path from the tropical Pacific to West Antarctica. That is characteristic of a textbook Rossby wave train pattern, Ding said, and the same pattern is consistently produced in climate models, at least during winter.

Using observed changes in tropical sea surface temperatures, the researchers found they could account for half to all of the observed winter temperature changes in West Antarctica, depending on which observations are used for comparison.

"This is distinct from El Niño," Steig said. That climate phenomenon, which affects weather patterns worldwide, primarily influences sea-surface temperatures farther east in the Pacific, nearer to South America. It can be, but isn't always, associated with strong warming in the central Pacific.

Steig noted that the influence of Rossby waves on West Antarctic climate is not a new idea, but this is the first time such waves have been shown to be associated with long-term changes in Antarctic temperature.

The findings also could have implications for understanding the causes behind the thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which contains about 10 percent of all the ice in Antarctica.

Steig noted that the westerly winds created by the high pressure over the Amundsen Sea pushes cold water away from the edge of the ice sheet and out into the open ocean. It is then replaced by warmer water from deeper in the ocean, which is melting the seaward edge of the ice sheet from below.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Journal Reference:

1. Qinghua Ding, Eric J. Steig, David S. Battisti, Marcel Küttel. Winter warming in West Antarctica caused by central tropical Pacific warming. Nature Geoscience, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1129

Climate Change Poses Major Risks for Unprepared Cities

 

Fast-growing urban areas most likely to feel the heat

People in urban areas like Mexico City are especially at risk from the effects of climate change.

April 7, 2011

Cities worldwide are failing to take necessary steps to protect residents from the likely impacts of climate change, even though billions of urban dwellers are vulnerable to heat waves, sea level rise and other changes associated with warming temperatures.

A new examination of urban policies by Patricia Romero Lankao at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., in conjunction with an international research project on cities and climate change, warns that many of the world's fast-growing urban areas, especially in developing countries, will likely suffer disproportionately from the impacts of changing climate.

Her work also concludes that most cities are failing to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that affect the atmosphere. "Climate change is a deeply local issue and poses profound threats to the growing cities of the world," says Romero Lankao. "But too few cities are developing effective strategies to safeguard their residents."

Romero Lankao's studies appear this month in a special issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability and in a synthesis article in an upcoming issue of European Planning Studies. The research was conducted in association with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR's sponsor.

"Cities are major sources of greenhouse gases, yet at the same time urban populations are likely to be among those most severely affected by future climate change," says Sarah Ruth, program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funds NCAR.

"The findings highlight ways in which city-dwellers are particularly vulnerable, and suggest policy interventions that could offer immediate and longer-term benefits."

Romero Lankao, a sociologist specializing in climate change and urban development, surveyed policies in cities worldwide while drawing on a number of recent studies of climate change and cities.

She concluded that cities are falling short in two areas: preparing for the likely impacts of climate change and cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fossil fuel use.

With more than half the world's population living in cities, scientists are increasingly focusing on the potential impacts of climate change on these areas.

The locations and dense construction patterns of cities often place their populations at greater risk for natural disasters, including those expected to worsen with climate change.

Potential threats associated with climate include storm surges that can inundate coastal areas and prolonged hot weather that can heat heavily paved cities more than surrounding areas.

The impacts of such natural events can be magnified in an urban environment. For example, a prolonged heat wave can exacerbate existing levels of air pollution, causing widespread health problems.

Poorer neighborhoods that may lack basic facilities such as reliable sanitation, drinking water or a dependable network of roads, are especially vulnerable to natural disasters.

Moreover, populations are increasing most quickly in small- and medium-sized urban areas, which often lack the services and infrastructure to manage the rapid influx, according to Romero Lankao.

The number of urban residents worldwide has quadrupled since 1950, and cities are continuing to grow rapidly, especially in developing nations.

Romero Lankao cites projections that, by 2020, there will be more than 500 urban areas with 1 million or more residents. Many residents in poorer countries live in substandard housing without access to reliable drinking water, roads and basic services. Neighborhoods sometimes spring up on steep hillsides or floodplains, leaving them vulnerable to storms.

But even on the heels of deadly catastrophes that scientists say will become more common with climate change, such as flash floods in Rio de Janeiro or heat waves in Europe, leaders are often failing to reinforce their defenses against natural disasters.

Romero Lankao cites three reasons for the failure to prepare: fast-growing cities are overwhelmed with other needs, city leaders are often under pressure to downplay the need for health and safety standards in order to foster economic growth and climate projections are rarely fine-scale enough to predict impacts on individual cities.

"Local authorities tend to move towards rhetoric rather than meaningful responses," Romero Lankao writes. "What is at stake, of course, is the very existence of many human institutions, and the safety and well-being of masses of humans."

Cities are also failing in many cases to curb their own emissions of greenhouse gases, the study finds. Instead of imposing construction standards that could reduce heating and air conditioning needs or guiding development to emphasize mass transit and reduce automobile use, many local governments are taking a hands-off approach.

"Cities can have an enormous influence on emissions by focusing on mass transit systems and energy efficient structures," Romero Lankao says. "But local leaders face pressures to build more roads and relax regulations that could reduce energy use."

The study also cites efforts in some cities to reduce emissions as part of a larger strategy to ease traffic and other problems.

For example, central London's Congestion Charging Zone is intended to encourage more use of mass transit. And several Latin American cities, such as Curitiba, Brazil, and Bogota, Colombia, are integrating new development with mass transit systems.

As cities attempt to meet the needs of their low-income residents, some strategies-including moving residents away from risk-prone areas and improving housing and services-may also improve their readiness for a changing climate.

"As hubs of development, cities have shown that they can become sources of innovation," Romero Lankao says.

"The good news is that policymakers can discover ways to improve sanitation, health and safety as they try to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts."