Laboratory Equipment

Local Opinion, Not Money, is True Value of Wetlands

A new way of valuing ecosystem services — incorporating the local perspective — is the driving force behind a project assessing aquatic ecosystems in highland areas of Asia.

We know when something is valuable to our everyday lives. We do not need a price tag. This is precisely what the HighARCS project attempts to do: to measure the socio-economic value of ecosystem services, but without counting in euros, renminbi or dollars. Instead, local opinions take precedence. “One of the first activities undertaken at each site was a situation analysis which identified the stakeholders at all levels associated with site wetlands,” explains Kevin Smith, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), an ecologist involved in the EU-funded project who is based in Cambridge, UK.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/local-opinion-not-money-true-value-wetlands

Volunteers Help Protect Native Trees

A major survey into the health of native trees in the Yorkshire and Humberside region has been launched this week at a York nature reserve.

Volunteers joined Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) community scientists at the St. Nicholas Fields Nature Reserve this week to learn how to monitor trees for pests and diseases. The regional launch event organized by OPAL scientists based in the Stockholm Environment Institute at the Univ. of York, is part of a national Tree Health Survey.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/volunteers-help-protect-native-trees

Cotton is Eco-Friendly Way to Clean Up Oil Spills

With the Deepwater Horizon disaster emphasizing the need for better ways of cleaning up oil spills, scientists are reporting that unprocessed, raw cotton may be an ideal, ecologically friendly answer, with an amazing ability to sop up oil. Their report, which includes some of the first scientific data on unprocessed, raw cotton’s use in crude oil spills, appears in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/cotton-eco-friendly-way-clean-oil-spills

Great Lakes Still Have Big Problems Despite Years of Aid

A decades-old effort to nurse the battered Great Lakes to health has made progress toward reducing toxic pollution and slamming the door on invasive species, but the freshwater seas continue to face serious threats, a U.S.-Canadian agency says.

The International Joint Commission, which advises both nations on issues affecting shared waterways, says their governments had compiled a mixed record in restoring the Great Lakes, which for much of the 20th Century were fouled by industrial and household sewage and overrun with exotic fish and mussels.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/great-lakes-still-have-big-problems-despite-years-aid

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

Sequester Cuts Impact Volcano Monitoring

Scientists monitoring Alaska’s volcanoes have been forced to shut down stations that provide real-time tracking of eruptions and forgo repairs of seismic equipment amid ongoing federal budget cuts — moves that could mean delays in getting vital information to airline pilots and emergency planners.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory can no longer seismically monitor five volcanoes with real-time equipment to detect imminent eruptions. Such equipment is especially important in helping pilots receive up-to-the-minute warnings about spewing ash that can cause engine failures and other problems.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/sequester-cuts-impact-volcano-monitoring

Google’s New Project Shows Land Time Lapse

Google released more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space compiled into an interactive time-lapse experience. Working with data from the Landsat Program managed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the images display an historical perspective on changes to Earth’s surface over time.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/google%E2%80%99s-new-project-shows-land-time-lapse

Doom of Coral Reefs is Not Inevitable

Coral reefs are in decline, but their collapse can still be avoided with local and global action. That’s according to findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology based on an analysis that combines the latest science on reef dynamics with the latest climate models.

“People benefit by reefs’ having a complex structure — a little like a Manhattan skyline, but underwater,” says Peter Mumby of The Univ. of Queensland and Univ. of Exeter. “Structurally complex reefs provide nooks and crannies for thousands of species and provide the habitat needed to sustain productive reef fisheries. They’re also great fun to visit as a snorkeler or diver. If we carry on the way we have been, the ability of reefs to provide benefits to people will seriously decline.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/doom-coral-reefs-not-inevitable

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

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