Laboratory Equipment

Guidelines Help Forests Fight Climate Change

Univ. of Alberta researchers have developed guidelines that are being used by the timber industry and government foresters to get a jump on climate change when planting trees.

Maps developed by Laura Gray, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Renewable Resources at the U of A, provide projections of climatically suitable habitat for tree species based on climate predictions for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/guidelines-help-forests-fight-climate-change

Crowd-Sourcing Helps Map Global Emissions

Climate science researchers from Arizona State Univ. are launching a first-of-its-kind online “game” to better understand the sources of global warming gases. By engaging “citizen scientists,” the researchers hope to locate all the power plants around the world and quantify their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The game has officially begun and is housed on a website called “Ventus.” Ventus (the Latin word for wind) has a simple interface in which users enter basic information about the world’s power plants. By playing the game, people around the globe can help solve the climate change problem.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/videos/2013/05/crowd-sourcing-helps-map-global-emissions

Natural Disturbances Affect Climate Response Strategies

Fires and hurricanes are only two examples of natural disturbances that drastically affect millions of people worldwide. Now, scientists are considering how these events might limit opportunities for climate mitigation as well. A team of scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, working at the Joint Global Change Research Institute at Maryland, found that strategies to alleviate the impacts of climate change will need to account for future land and atmospheric disturbances that impact forests. This study is the first to quantify the effect of future natural disturbances on climate mitigation strategies.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/natural-disturbances-affect-climate-response-strategies

Sea Level Already a Threat in Caribbean

The old coastal road in a fishing village at the eastern edge of Grenada sits under a couple of feet of murky saltwater, which regularly surges past a hastily-erected breakwater of truck tires and bundles of driftwood intended to hold back the Atlantic Ocean.

For Desmond Augustin and other fishermen living along the shorelines of the southern Caribbean island, there’s nothing theoretical about the threat of rising sea levels.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/sea-level-already-threat-caribbean

Climate, Not Humans, Caused Megafauna Extinction

Most species of gigantic animals that once roamed Australia had disappeared by the time people arrived, a major review of the available evidence has concluded.

The research challenges the claim that humans were primarily responsible for the demise of the megafauna in a proposed “extinction window” between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, and points the finger instead at climate change.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/climate-not-humans-caused-megafauna-extinction

Cleaner Energy May Cause Warmer Climate

The growing global demand for energy, combined with a need to reduce emissions and lessen the effects of climate change, has increased focus on cleaner energy sources. But what unintended consequences could these cleaner sources have on the changing climate?

Researchers at MIT now have some answers to that question, using biofuels as a test case. Their study, released in Geophysical Research Letters, found that land-use changes caused by a major ramp-up in biofuel crops — enough to meet about 10 percent of the world’s energy needs — could make some regions even warmer.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/cleaner-energy-may-cause-warmer-climate

‘Eyes’ in Sky to Monitor China’s Air Pollution

Scientists will be able to better monitor haze and air pollution that chokes cities like Beijing after the launch of a high-resolution earth observation satellite.

China is stepping up its use of remote sensing technology and will analyze data from satellites sent into orbit to get more comprehensive and accurate information about its air pollution, according to scientists attending the ongoing 35th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment in Beijing.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/eyes-sky-monitor-chinas-air-pollution

Some Atmospheric Molecules Fight Climate Change

Scientists have discovered further evidence for the existence of new molecules in the atmosphere that have the potential to off-set global warming by reacting with airborne pollutants. Researchers from The Univ. of Manchester, Bristol Univ., Southampton Univ. and Sandia National Laboratories in California have detected the second simplest Criegee intermediate molecule – acetaldehyde oxide – and measured its reactivity.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/some-atmospheric-molecules-fight-climate-change

Asian Monsoon is Getting Predictable

For much of Asia, the pace of life is tuned to rhythms of monsoons.

The summer rainy season is especially important for securing the water and food supplies for more than a billion people. Its variations can mean the difference between drought and flood. Now a Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego-led study reports on a crucial connection that could drastically improve the ability of forecasters to reliably predict the monsoon a few months in advance.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/asian-monsoon-getting-predictable

Group Kicks Off Earth Day Planting Ancient Tree Clones

A team led by a nurseryman from northern Michigan and his sons has raced against time for two decades, snipping branches from some of the world’s biggest and most durable trees with plans to produce clones that could restore ancient forests and help fight climate change.

Now comes the most ambitious phase of the quest: getting the new trees into the ground. Ceremonial plantings of two dozen clones from California’s mighty coastal redwoods will take place today in seven nations: Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Germany and the U.S.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/group-kicks-earth-day-planting-ancient-tree-clones

Arctic Sea Ice Has Record-Small Footprint

Arctic sea ice has never looked so thin. In the past decade, melting has sped up, shrinking the area where ice floats above the Arctic Ocean to fractions of its previous size and leaving chunks of frozen seawater uncomfortably slender. Recent research confirmed that the extent of Arctic sea ice in September 2012 was the smallest on record.

Thick slabs of sea ice built up over time – called multiyear ice – were once a more common sight. Only decades ago, it covered up to 60 percent of the Arctic, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), in Boulder, Co. Now, due to a warming climate, much of that multiyear ice has thawed, leaving about 30 percent of the Arctic Ocean shielded by this old ice at the end of this past summer.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/arctic-sea-ice-has-record-small-footprint

Scientists Find New Materials to Capture Methane

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and UC Berkeley and have discovered new materials to capture methane, the second highest concentration greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere.

Methane is a substantial driver of global climate change, contributing 30 percent of current net climate warming. Concern over methane is mounting, due to leaks associated with rapidly expanding unconventional oil and gas extraction, and the potential for large-scale release of methane from the Arctic as ice cover continues to melt and decayed material releases methane to the atmosphere. At the same time, methane is a growing source of energy, and aggressive methane mitigation is key to avoiding dangerous levels of global warming.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/scientists-find-new-materials-capture-methane

Cuts Lead Meteorological Program to Seek Donations

The main source of online weather training for hundreds of thousands of forecasters, emergency managers and others in the U.S. and abroad is turning to donations from users in order to try to stay in service.

The COMET Program, managed by the Univ. Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), is taking this unprecedented step in the face of a funding shortfall of nearly $2 million. The deficit reflects this year’s government sequestration as well as further federal budget cuts anticipated in fiscal year 2014.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/cuts-lead-meteorological-program-seek-donations