Climate Change Archives - The Sciku Project

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024

Dusty Shoulders by Jonathan Aylett

little honeybee
carrying all our futures
on dusty shoulders
by Jonathan Aylett

This haiku about the ecological importance of bees was displayed at COP 28 in Dubai.

Further reading:

‘Why are bees important? And how you can help them’, Charlotte Varela, 2023, Woodland Trust.

Author bio:

Jonathan has been writing and publishing poetry for several years. His work has featured in journals dedicated to haiku, and broader literary journals, and won competitions across both disciplines. His collection ‘Goldfish’ – a mix of haiku and long form poetry, will be published by Stairwell books in spring 2024. You can follow Jonathan on Instagram here: @jonathanaylettpoetry

Read other sciku by Jonathan here: ‘Light’, ‘String Theory’ and ‘Moss’.

March 16, 2023March 16, 2023

Heating by Thomas Klodowsky

blinding hot sun
a t-shirt in February
confused birdsongs
by Thomas Klodowsky

New Jersey, the state I’ve lived in all my life, just experienced the warmest January on record, and any accumulation of snow seems to be a distant hope. NJ is also one of the fastest warming states of the last 50 years. As nice as it’s felt outside (even reaching over 60 F) so far this year, it makes me nervous for what future winters might hold, confusing wildlife, vegetation, and people.

In fact, evidence is already increasing that early and false springs occurring as a result of climate change are detrimentally affecting bird populations in a number of ways, from disrupting migratory cycles to setting them out of sync with key food sources such as caterpillars.

Further reading:

‘NJ experienced a record warm January. What’s the outlook for the rest of winter?’, NorthJersey.com: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2023/02/10/nj-had-warmest-january-on-record-what-will-rest-of-winter-bring/69889744007/

‘False Springs: How Earlier Spring With Climate Change Wreaks Havoc on Birds’, Audubon.org: https://www.audubon.org/news/false-springs-how-earlier-spring-climate-change-wreaks-havoc-birds

‘Climate change leaves birds hungry as chicks hatch too late to eat caterpillars’, The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/climate-change-hungry-birds-chicks-late-caterpillars-spring-woodland-flycatchers-a8318366.html

‘Migrating birds can’t keep up with an earlier spring in a changing climate’, CarbonBrief.org: https://www.carbonbrief.org/migrating-birds-cant-keep-earlier-spring-changing-climate/

Author bio:

Thomas Klodowsky is a writer, writing instructor, and proud New Jersey native. You can see what he’s up to at www.thomask.space

February 2, 2023June 22, 2023

DNAncient by James Penha

Genetic freeze frame
shows Edenic genesis
in Arctic subsoil
By James Penha

“Two-million-year-old DNA from northern Greenland has revealed that the region was once home to mastodons, lemmings and geese, offering unprecedented insights into how climate change can shape ecosystems.”

Quote from The Guardian article ‘DNA from 2m years ago reveals lost Arctic world’ from 7th December 2022.

Further reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/dec/07/dna-from-2m-years-ago-reveals-lost-arctic-world?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05453-y

Author bio:

Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on Twitter @JamesPenha

Enjoyed James’ sciku? Check out more of his sciku here: ‘Quantumku‘, ‘If A Tree Talks in a Forest’, and ‘Air-Gen-Ku’.

December 16, 2022January 13, 2023

Civil Disobedience by Jerome Berglund

honeyed words profess
or letter wrapped around brick
different windows
By Jerome Berglund

From Minneapolis – where belligerent citizens have nearly achieved meaningful abolition of their existing law enforcement institutions, are presently excitingly experimenting with innovative alternate approaches to policing not rooted in ‘slave patrols’, and utilizing social workers who do not view citizens as enemy combatants rather than goons trained to react violently – one distinctly appreciates the power and potency of responsible, cautious exertion of civil disobedience in achieving critical goals.

Just as salty suffragettes employed outside the box solutions to win their votes, one wonders what sort of inspired disruptions, boycotts and protests will become obliged to convince venal, bought politicians who ‘vote with their wallets’ to finally act in their species’ interest to seriously address the devastating industrial destruction well on its way to making the planet uninhabitable, already having wiped out 70% of existing animal populations in the span of half a century.

Further reading: Conservative republicans highly skeptical of climate scientists

Author bio:

Jerome Berglund, recently nominated for the 2022 Touchstone awards, graduated from USC’s film program, worked in the entertainment industry before returning to the midwest where he has been employed as everything from dishwasher to paralegal, night watchman to assembler of heart valves. Jerome has exhibited many haiku, senryu and haiga online and in print, most recently in the Asahi Shimbun, Bear Creek Haiku, Bamboo Hut, Cold Moon Journal, Daily Haiga, Failed Haiku, Haiku Dialogue, Scarlet Dragonfly, Under the Basho, and the Zen Space. You can follow him on Twitter @BerglundJerome and find more of his poetry here: https://flowersunmedia.wixsite.com/jbphotography/post/haiku-senryu-and-haiga-publications

Check out more sciku from Jerome here: ‘Environmental Charlie Browns’, ‘Illusion’, ‘Vested Interests‘ and ‘Exploitation in Micro and Macro’.

December 9, 2022January 13, 2023

Climate Change by R. Suresh Babu

climatic changes
a swarm of bombay locusts
raid the butterfly garden
by R. Suresh Babu

My haiku are centered on my experiences as a teacher where I observe children’s behaviour in the classroom situations, science labs and school campus.

Our school is planning to create a butterfly garden. I had a small discussion in the class on the effects of global warming or climatic changes on butterflies, as butterflies are indicators of climate changes. This sciku was created after the discussion on the topic ‘The effect of climatic changes on the butterfly garden’.

Further reading:

Butterfly Gardening (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_gardening

How Climate Change Affects Butterflies by Astrid Caldas https://wisconsinpollinators.com/Articles/ClimateChange_7.aspx

Author bio:

R. Suresh Babu is a graduate teacher of English and a teacher counsellor in a Government Residential School in India. He is an alumnus of the Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru in India. His works have been published in Cattails, Failed Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal, Akitsu, Presence, Under the Basho, Poetry Pea Journal and Podcast, The Asahi Shimbun, World Haiku Series, The Mamba, Kontinuum, Haikuniverse, Cold Moon Journal, Chrysanthemum, tsuri-dōrō and The Mainichi. He is a contributing writer to the anthology, We Will Not Be Silenced of the Indie Blu(e) Publishing. He has done the art works for the Haiku anthology Bull-Headed, edited by Corine Timmer. You can follow him on Twitter @sureshniranam

Read more sciku by R. Suresh Babu: ‘Moonwalk’ and ‘Language’.

November 18, 2022January 13, 2023

Environmental Charlie Browns by Jerome Berglund

children’s ambitious
chalk drawings smudged by elements
December morning
By Jerome Berglund

After Democrats, during campaigning, vocally aligning themselves with Green New Deal initiatives, the imperatives of climate science and crucial regulatory, environmental and energy reforms, Joe Biden’s energy policy has been supportive of fracking, retains $20 billion in annual subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, continues to focus on expansion of nuclear infrastructure that (beyond being potentially catastrophic) are as much as three times as costly as wind or solar alternatives.

Progressive supporters begin to feel increasingly like betrayed Charlie Browns, as one supposedly leftist representative after another double-crosses their constituents, reneges on clear promises and continues supporting the very detrimental agendas and structures they purported their stances on were the meaningful thing which separated them from science-denying or ignoring conservative opponents.

The most perfunctory analysis of who is buttering bread of politicians on both sides of the aisle gives a telling indication of which interests they are representing, and what their terms of office’s legacies in policy will look like.

Further reading: Biden’s climate agenda stalls, and progressives fume

Author bio:

Check out Jerome’s other sciku here: ‘Illusion‘, ‘Civil Disobedience’, ‘Vested Interests‘ and ‘Exploitation in Micro and Macro’.

January 28, 2022January 28, 2022

The Burden of Bushfire Smoke in Contemporary Australia by Dr Michael J. Leach

summer wildfires taint
our air…hospital visits
and deaths exceed norms
by Dr Michael J. Leach

In contemporary Australia, the frequency and intensity of bushfire events have increased alongside the rate of global warming. This disastrous consequence of climate change is illustrated by the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season: the so-called ‘Black Summer’. Over the course of that bushfire season, hundreds of wildfires burned across 24 million hectares of land inhabited by diverse flora, fauna, and humans, primarily in the southeast of Australia. Bushfire events peaked during December 2019 and January 2020.

Bushfire smoke has multiple real-world impacts, including adverse effects on public health. In order to gain a preliminary understanding of the public health burden of bushfire smoke generated by the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season, Arriagada et al. (2020) undertook a quantitative analysis of publicly available air quality, demographic, and health data over the period 1/10/2019-10/2/2020. Population-level exposure to particulate matter below a known critical level of 2.5 micrometres in diameter (i.e. PM_2.5) was estimated for the four most bushfire-affected jurisdictions of Australia: New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Queensland, and Victoria. PM_2.5 concentrations were compared with past average values recorded by air quality stations. The authors also determined, for each jurisdiction, the incidence of several relevant health outcomes: hospital admission for respiratory or cardiovascular issues, asthma-related visits to emergency departments (EDs), and excess deaths. The PM_2.5 data and incidence rates were used to calculate a measure of exposure-response risk.

The authors’ analysis revealed that, across the four Australian jurisdictions under investigation, bushfire smoke led to an estimated 2,027 hospital admissions for respiratory issues, 1,305 asthma-related visits to EDs, 1,124 hospital admissions for cardiovascular issues, and 417 excess deaths. For each of these health outcomes, the public health burden was greatest for NSW followed by Victoria, Queensland, and then the ACT. It is important to note, however, that there are levels of uncertainty attached to these estimates: they may be underestimates or overestimates of the true values. The authors highlighted the importance of more detailed epidemiological analyses of the public health burden associated with bushfire smoke in Australia. While such studies would build the evidence base in this area, the preliminary statistics reported here are still substantial in magnitude and suggestive of the need for bushfire prevention and preparedness strategies in contemporary Australia.

The original research article described here is available open access online:

Arriagada NB, Palmer AJ, Bowman DMJS, Morgan GG, Jalaludin BB, Johnston FH. (2020). Unprecedented smoke-related health burden associated with the 2019-20 bushfires in eastern Australia. Medical Journal of Australia. 213(6): 282-283. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/213/6/unprecedented-smoke-related-health-burden-associated-2019-20-bushfires-eastern

Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) is an Australian epidemiologist, biostatistician, and poet who works at Monash University. His poetry collections include Chronicity (MPU, 2020) and Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, forthcoming).

Check out more sciku by Michael, including ‘The Core Correlate of COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance‘, ‘Drug-Induced Hip Fractures‘, ‘The Psychopharmacological Revolution‘, ‘Quality of Life at Seven Years Post-Stroke‘, ‘The Early Impacts of COVID-19 on Australian General Practice‘, and ‘Australian Science Poetry‘ with science communicator Rachel Rayner. Michael also has another Covid-19-related sciku published in Pulse which is well worth checking out: ‘flu shot announcement‘.

November 16, 2021November 16, 2021

Peat-based Haiku for COP26 by Abby McSherry and The CANN Project

The CANN project (Collaborative Action for the Natura Network) is a cross-border environment project which aims to improve the condition of protected bog and wetland habitats found within Northern Ireland, the Border Region of Ireland and Scotland, allowing the region to meet key EU biodiversity targets and ensuring the future of these internationally important habitats and species. The CANN project is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). It is led by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

The CANN project focuses on the conservation and restoration of seven habitat types which are protected as Special Areas of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive: Alkaline Fens, Blanket Bog, Active Raised Bog, Marl Lakes, Calcareous Fens, Transition Mire & Quaking Bogs. These habitats are identified as being important in ensuring the survival of at risk plants and wildlife, and for promoting and sustaining biodiversity from a local to an international scale.

The CANN project – led by Abby McSherry, the project’s Communications and Outreach Officer – decided to celebrate COP26 by tweeting a Haiku-a-day on the subject of peat’s role in combatting climate change in the run-up to the meeting in November 2021. Below is a small sample of these fantastic haiku. The entire collection has been compiled in a booklet freely available on the CANN project website here.

Day 5

Sphagnum naturally produces phenolic compounds that slow the decomposition of the plants that make up peat. Preventing peat decomposition will help keep the carbon it holds locked away.

Day 10

A raised bog often has a water table perched higher than the surrounding land, which can be hard to understand unless you visualise it as a water droplet perched on the land. It is delicately balanced, and that balance can shift.

Day 20

Carbon is locked up effectively in other habitats too. Lowland fens and mires are significant sinks too and are under even greater threat from damage as they are often surrounded by valuable arable land.

Day 25

Across the world, peat covers just 3% of the land’s surface, but stores one-third of the Earth’s soil carbon, not just a sticking plaster, but potentially a cure for what ails us. If we care for it, it will care for us.

Summarising the IPCC WGI SPM by Dr Andy Reisinger

This is an attempt to summarise some key messages from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers in haiku format.

Earth to politics:
Here’s what the science tells us.
Can we act now – please?

Relevant SPM headline, bullet(s), figure(s): Introduction

Earth is heating up,
The whole climate system:
Air, ocean, land, ice.

SPM A.1, Figure SPM.1a

We’ve passed 1 degree,
Which is warmer than we thought.
And rising further.

SPM A.1.2, Footnote 10, SPM B.1

Heat waves, heavy rain,
Droughts, cyclones: not abstract change,
But painfully real.

Figure SPM.3

State, scale, rate of change
In aspects and whole system:
“unprecedented”.

SPM A.2, A.2.1-A.2.4

Do we know why? Yes.
We’re the driving force behind
Climate system change.

SPM A.1, A.1.1, A.1.3-A.1.8, Figure SPM.1b, Figure SPM.2, SPM A.3

Human influence
on the climate system is
“unequivocal”.

SPM A.1, A1.1, A.1.3-A.1.8, Figure SPM.1b, Figure SPM.2, SPM A.3

Where are we headed?
Scenarios can show us
Alternate futures.

Box SPM.1, Figure SPM.4

We’ll reach 1.5
In roughly the mid-thirties.
Beyond that: our choice.

Table SPM.1, Figure SPM.8

Rapid and sustained
Emission cuts halt warming
Within three decades.

Box SPM.1, Table SPM.1, Figure SPM.8

Our best case reaches
1.5 degrees; exceeds;
Then drops down again.

SPM B.1.1, B.1.3, Footnotes 25, 27, Figure SPM.8

More than 1.5:
More heat than Homo Sapiens
Has ever lived through.

SPM A2.2

Air, land, and ocean.
A force-fed carbon cycle
May spew back at us.

SPM B.4, B.4.1-B.4.4, Figure SPM.7

Ice loss, rising seas:
1 metre is a given. But
When? That’s up to us.

SPM B.5, B.5.3, B.5.4, Figure SPM.8

We’re not prescriptive:
We’re just saying, the future
Still lies in our hands.

SPM Box.1

More heat, more extremes,
Driving climate impacts:
Half degrees matter.

SPM B.2, SPM B.3, SPM C.2, Figure SPM.5, Figure SPM.6

Don’t pin your planning
On means and likely ranges:
It’s the tail that stings.

SPM C.3, C.3.1-C.3.3

Covid lockdowns cut
Emissions, air pollution.
Warming? Not really.

SPM D.2.1

A stable climate
Needs net-zero CO₂:
That’s simple physics.

SPM D.1, D.1.1, Figure SPM.10

Removing carbon
Helps net-zero, but beware:
Side-effects abound.

SPM D.1.4, D.1.5

To limit warming,
Stick to a carbon budget,
Cut other gases.

SPM D.1, D.1.1, D.1.2, Table SPM.2

1.5 degrees
Needs strong, sustained methane cuts,
Not just CO₂.

SPM D.1, D.1.2, Table SPM.2, Figure SPM.4

Lower methane helps
Climate and air quality.
That’s called a win-win.

SPM D.2, D.2.2

We may not see it
For a decade, but climate
Will respond to us.

SPM D.2, D.2.3, D.2.4

Approved by Zoom, signed
Sealed, delivered: 9 August
2021.

The SPM was approved, and the underlying report accepted by all member governments. Global press conference held at 10am CEST, 9 August 2021.

Note: these haiku/sciku represent my own personal selection and perspective on the key findings presented in the SPM of the IPCC WGI, which was released on 9 August 2021. The haiku do not represent the full balance or carefully crafted wording of the original document, let alone underlying report. All credit for scientific substance is due to the authors of the report, led by co-chairs Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai and head of the Technical Support Unit Anna Pirani. Any blame for scientific inaccuracies, misinterpretations and undue poetic license rests with me. Thanks for reading!

Andy is currently a vice-chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He also served as coordinating lead author in two major IPCC climate change reports released in 2014. For more details on the IPCC and its reports, see https://ipcc.ch.

He has summarised two previous reports by the IPCC in haiku format, on Limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C and on Climate Change and Land. He was motivated to do so by New Zealand-based think tank Motu (https://motu.nz) that decided to provide a single haiku summary for each of its technical reports. He emphasizes that his haiku represent his personal interpretation of the IPCC reports and are not done as part of his official role.

During the day, Andy works as Principal Scientist, Climate Change, at the Ministry for the Environment in New Zealand, where his job is to provide a science-based perspective on the Ministry’s work. You can find him on Twitter here: @ReisingerAndy.

Andy’s scientific research interests focus on the role of agriculture in domestic and international climate change policy, and climate change impacts and adaptation, uncertainty and its implications for decision-making.

This haiku summary of the IPCC WGI SPM was originally published on the 14th August 2021 on Andy Reisinger’s Twitter account here, and is republished on The Sciku Project with the author’s kind permission. Copyright @ReisingerAndy, shared under a Global Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license.

May 7, 2021May 7, 2021

Violent Aftershocks

Gender violence.
The ripples of disaster,
exacerbating.

Natural disasters and hazards are increasing in frequency, severity and duration worldwide, with evidence suggesting that the cause is anthropogenic climate change. Whilst this means we need improved and increased disaster management policies and practices for the immediate impacts of disasters (e.g. the collapse of a building during an earthquake), it is just as important to understand the wider implications natural disasters.

Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters and hazards, including having higher mortality rates. The causes of this discrepancy include “discriminatory practices in relief efforts, lower access to information and resources, care responsibilities and gendered poverty”, with women’s perspectives in disaster management “not adequately considered and met”.

Yet new research by Thurston et al. (2021) also suggests that violence against women and girls also increases following natural disasters. Reviewing 37 previous studies the team found positive associations between disaster exposure and increased gender-based violence, with 12 of the 20 quantitative studies showing a positive association and all 17 of the qualitative and mixed methods studies describing post-disaster violence against women and girls.

The researchers suggest three reasons behind this increase, with natural disasters and hazards:

Increasing stressors that trigger gendered violence (e.g. trauma, mental health issues, financial insecurities).
Increasing enabling environments (e.g. the absence of police, health and support services, a breakdown of family structure, social isolation).
Exacerbating the underlying drivers of violence against women and girls (e.g. gender and social inequalities, lack of female representation and inclusion).

Whilst the researchers acknowledge their work has some limitations (due to the limitations of the studies they examined), their findings make it clear that disaster risk-reduction policies must be gender sensitive and women need to be included in all aspects of disaster management, from policy to practice.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004377

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021

Mapping Seagrass Loss

Quantifying our
marine meadows – past, present.
A threadbare carpet.

Everyone knows their own science interests, the areas of research that they find thought-provoking. Sometimes I think that there are also subjects that we don’t realise we find fascinating. I never knew I was interested in seagrasses but this is the third sciku I’ve published about them, the second that I’ve written myself. It’s curious that I wouldn’t have known this about myself before today when this research paper caught my eye.

Seagrasses are hugely important ecosystems. In the sciku ‘Forgotten value’ I wrote about how seagrass meadows provide a nursery habitat for over a fifth of the world’s largest 25 fisheries. And as Dr Phil Colarusso showed with his sciku ‘Blue Carbon’, seagrass meadows collect and sequester large amounts of carbon, removing it from the global carbon cycle. As a result seagrass meadows are referred to as blue carbon habitats, along with salt marshes and mangroves.

Today’s sciku is based on a study by Green et al (2021), which examines the historical loss of seagrasses from the waters around the United Kingdom. By scrutinising multiple accounts from as early as 1831 and using data collected from 1900 onwards the researchers were able to estimate the UK’s seagrass losses. It makes for sobering reading:

“At least 44% of United Kingdom’s seagrasses have been lost since 1936, 39% since the 1980’s. However, losses over longer time spans may be as high as 92%.”

The research shows that the UK currently has only 8,493 hectares of seagrass meadows remaining. That’s approximated 0.9 Mt (million tonnes) of carbon, equivalent to around £22 million in the current carbon market. Whilst that may seem a lot, it’s worth considering that historic seagrass meadows could have stored 11.5 Mt of carbon, supporting around 400 million fish.

These losses are catastrophic but the information from this study can be used to inform future monitoring and restoration efforts. What’s more, by quantifying the benefits we gain from seagrass meadows as well as what we’ve lost from their disappearance, the findings also provide an impetus for improved conservation efforts, beyond ‘softer’ arguments such improving biodiversity.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.629962

November 27, 2020July 23, 2021

Varves by Dr. Jon Hare

Little Ice Age
and global warming
layered in a lake
By Jon Hare

Varves are annually layered sediments. I first came across the word in a study of fish scales preserved in anoxic basins off Santa Barbara, California (Baumgartner et al. 1992). Sediment cores were taken and the number and species of fish scales in the varves (layers) were used to estimate the number of anchovies and sardines off California over the past 1,700 years. The conclusion was that populations of these fish varied greatly long before commercial fishing, indicating the importance of natural variability and commercial fishing in fish population abundance.

A recent use of varves to document the past comes from Lapointe et al. (2020). They examined layered sediments in South Sawtooth Lake, Nunavut, Canada. Previous analyses demonstrated that sediment grain size in each layer (aka year) was correlated with summer temperatures; finer grained sediments were associated with cooler summers. In addition, finer grained sediments have more titanium, so by measuring titanium through the varves of sediment cores, the authors were able to reconstruct a history of summer temperatures at the site. The concept is the same as that for scales and anchovies but in this case is titanium and temperature.

Nicholas Balascio and Francois Lapointe drilling the 3.5 meters ice cover of Sawtooth Lake to allow sediment coring. Photo courtesy of François Lapointe (https://www.geo.umass.edu/people/fran%C3%A7ois-lapointe).

The authors verified their proxy through comparison of titanium from the varves in South Sawtooth Lake to measurements of summertime North Atlantic sea surface temperature. Temperature measurements are available annually from 1854 to the present and Lapointe and team show that temperature record is significantly correlated with their titanium measurements. They then use this verified relationship to develop a 2,900 year reconstruction – one of the longest reconstructions of North Atlantic sea surface temperatures to date.

The reconstructed temperature record shows multidecadal and multicentury variability and recent change. Multidecadal variability has been observed in measurements of North Atlantic sea surface temperatures from 1854 to the present. The study by Lapointe and co-authors provides evidence that this multidecadal variability has been occurring for almost 3,000 years. Multicentuary variability was also evident; the warm and cold periods noted in history are seen in the reconstructed temperatures – the Roman Warm Period (250 BCE – 400 CE) and the Dark Ages Cold Period (400-800 CE). The coldest temperatures in the reconstruction are from the middle of the Little Ice Age (1400-1600 CE). The warmest temperatures in the 2,900 year reconstruction are from the past decade – the authors state that “the rate and magnitude of warming over the last few centuries are unprecedented in the entire record, leading to the last decade which was the warmest of the past ∼2,900 y.” Thus the authors provide strong evidence for natural variability in the climate system and evidence for rapid – unprecedented – change over the last 50 to 100 years.

Original research:

Francois Lapointe, Raymond S. Bradley, Pierre Francus, Nicholas L. Balascio, Mark B. Abbott, Joseph S. Stoner, Guillaume St-Onge, Arnaud De Coninck, and Thibault Labarre. Annually resolved Atlantic sea surface temperature variability over the past 2,900 y. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020; 202014166 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2014166117. https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2020/10/06/2014166117.full.pdf

Baumgartner, T. R. (1992). Reconstruction of the history of the Pacific sardine and northern anchovy populations over the past two millenia from sediments of the Santa Barbara basin, California. CalCOFI Rep, 33, 24-40. https://www.calcofi.org/publications/calcofireports/v33/Vol_33_Baumgartner_etal.pdf

Dr. Jon Hare is a scientist who works in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research background is fisheries oceanography and climate change impacts on marine fisheries. Check out Jon’s previous sciku ‘Owls of the Eastern Ice’, ‘Cobwebs to Foodwebs’, ‘Signs of Spring’ and ‘Glacier Mice‘.

June 7, 2020November 20, 2020

Blue Carbon by Dr. Phil Colarusso

Climate change buffer
Particles settle in grass
Seagrass meadows rule
By Phil Colarusso

Seagrass meadows collect and sequester large amounts of carbon in the sediments below the meadows. The carbon accumulates through 2 different pathways. First, through photosynthesis and tissue growth, seagrasses extract carbon from the water column and incorporate it into its own tissues. The root and rhizome structures and some cast leaf material end up being incorporated into the sediments. In most cases, this provides less than half of the carbon found in those sediments. The majority of the carbon in the sediments originates from outside of the meadow. The canopy of the meadow functions as a filter, facilitating the settlement of organic particles as the tide passes over the meadow going in and out.

As long as the meadow stays intact, the carbon in the sediments remains isolated and out of the global carbon cycle. Data shows that the age of carbon in meadows can be hundreds of years old. Seagrass meadows, salt marsh and mangroves all perform the same carbon sequestration function and collectively are referred to as blue carbon habitats. This is still a relatively young field of research.

In the above photo, you can see the seafloor in the foreground, which is primarily sandy cobble. The eelgrass meadow has a dark organic layer indicating the large carbon component that has accumulated due to the presence of the plants.

Further reading on seagrass blue carbon: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1477

Dr. Phil Colarusso is a marine biologist with US EPA Region I. He has been working on eelgrass restoration, conservation and research for 31 years. He and his team just recently had a paper on carbon sequestration rates in eelgrass in New England accepted for publication.

Interested in seagrass meadows? They’re also hugely important for the world’s fisheries. Find out more in the sciku Forgotten Value here. You can also check out Phil’s sciku Invasive Species and Diving for Science.

February 13, 2020February 13, 2020

Climate Masting

Seed production up,
surely that’s a good thing, no?
Benefits declined.

Whilst the world stirs slowly into action to limit climate change, general consensus is that there will be some winners amongst the losers as temperatures rise. All organisms have their niches and changing environments will benefit some just as much they cost others.

Or at least that’s the simplistic take on the matter…

New research into plant masting – synchronous seed production – suggests that all isn’t as clear cut as that. The phenomenon of masting is beneficial to plants as the synchronicity “increases the efficiency of pollination and satiates predators” – sure predators will eat lots of seeds but the overwhelming numbers of seeds mean that large numbers aren’t eaten. It’s a bit like the synchronous emergence of some cicada species, which only emerge on mass every 13 or 17 years, with the gaps between emergence ensuring that predators aren’t reliant on the cicadas as a stable food source.

Bogdziewicz et al. (2020) looked at a 39 year-long masting dataset for the European beech and found that whilst climate warming increased seed production, the trees are actually losing out for three reasons:

1) Increased temperatures result in more consistent numbers of seed produced year-on-year – preventing the traditional boom and bust nature of seed production that helps to limit predator numbers.

2) Increased temperatures reduce synchronicity, resulting in less effective pollination.

3) Reduced seed production synchronicity means that predators aren’t overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of seeds available and are able to eat more seeds over a longer period of time.

All of this means that whilst the simple story suggests climate warning leads to increased seed production, the truth is more complex and instead those that actually benefit are those that eat the seeds.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0592-8

July 25, 2019July 25, 2019

A corrupted source

Viewers, be aware!
YouTube: a corrupted source
for climate info.

How do you find out about scientific advances? The news? Internet sites? Social media? YouTube? Where you gather information from can have a huge impact on your opinions and the way you act.

Whilst there’s a broad scientific consensus around anthropogenic climate change and the need to address this global challenge, public opinion remains divided. Yet politicians and companies will only act in response to climate change if public consensus makes it in their best interests. And, of course, public opinion depends on what information is available…

Published research in scientific journals is rarely accessible and comes couched in technical language – a barrier to anyone without specific training in the relevant field. Instead most people rely on the news media and, increasingly, on the internet. Yet where traditional news media outlets have checks in place to ensure that the information they present is accurate, online it’s a whole other story.

Which makes research by Joachim Allgaier (2019) at Aachen University in Germany especially worrying. Using key climate search terms he analysed 200 videos about climate and climate modification. Only 89 of the videos supported the scientific consensus, whilst 4 were videos of climate scientists discussing climate topics with deniers. The remaining 107 videos contained views that opposed scientific consensus: 16 denying anthropogenic climate change and 91 videos propagating climate conspiracy theories.

More worryingly still, many of these videos use genuine scientific terms (such as geoengineering) to bolster the credibility of their output, whilst twisting the meaning and usage of those terms to meet the arguments being made. It’s a strategy to help the output avoid being considered as conspiracy theories but it further confuses the issue and can hoodwink the unwary. Viewers beware!

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00036

April 18, 2019April 18, 2019

Carbon negative

Save planet and lives –
carbon negative power.
Economic too.

Whilst parts of the world move slowly towards carbon-neutral energy sources, others lag behind, heavily reliant on coal power stations and other power sources that release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and have negative impacts upon air quality. Yet increasingly it seems that carbon-neutral isn’t enough: in order to limit global temperature increases carbon-negative technologies are required.

One route for carbon-negative power generation is to convert biomass into energy and then capture and store the waste carbon dioxide. By removing the carbon in the biomass from the environment this is a carbon-negative process. Yet currently this isn’t efficient and requires too much land to grow the plants, land that is then unavailable for much needed food production.

Research by Lu et al (2019) has used China as a case study to address this issue since China is heavily dependent on coal power stations. Instead of relying exclusively on biomass, the researchers propose using a combination of biomass and coal to develop a pure source of hydrogen fuel. They found that a minimum of 35% biomass could result in carbon-negative power generation. Not only that but the biomass used in the process could be plant material leftover after harvesting, plant material which is currently burnt in the fields and is a major source of air pollution. What’s more the researchers suggest that the process would be as cost effective, and thus competitive, with the current coal fired power stations.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812239116

November 7, 2018November 7, 2018

Domino effect

Domino effect.

Ocean-behaviour-hookworms

lead to seal pup deaths.

The web of life, food chains, ecological balance – there are a lot of terms that indicate how interlinked ecosystems are. A recent, tragic example of this is how a rise in ocean temperatures can indirectly result in increased seal pup death from hookworm infection.

Seguel et al (2018) found that sea temperatures influenced the survival of South American fur seal pups. Sea temperatures effect wind patterns and ocean currents, changing the abundance of nutrients and as a result fishes. Higher sea temperatures resulted in lower fish abundance, meaning that fur seal mothers needed to spend more time at sea feeding, consequentially spending less time with their pups. The reduced maternal care led to lower pup growth rates and a less effective immune system, making the fur seal pups more susceptible and less likely to successfully fight off hookworm infection.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38432

February 6, 2018February 6, 2018

On a knife edge

Life on a knife edge:

The metabolic demands

facing polar bears.

Polar bears rely on marine mammals such as seals which are high-fat prey. Despite the richness of their diet however, new research suggests that a reduction in the prey availability can have severe consequences on polar bear survival.

Pagano et al (2018) monitored nine free-ranging female polar bears over 2 years, measuring their metabolic rates, daily activity patterns, body condition and foraging success. They found that more than half of the bears had an energy deficit resulting from a high metabolic rate (1.6 times higher than previously assumed) and a low intake of the high-fat prey. As fragmentation of sea ice continues and seals become harder to catch the high metabolic requirements of polar bears is likely to become increasingly catastrophic for the species.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan8677

May 27, 2017October 18, 2017

Immigrant crabs

Immigrant tree crabs

Move from mangrove to salt marsh

…but it’s not the same.

Mangrove tree crabs have responded to climate change by moving northwards into a novel habitat: salt marsh. The crabs used to show site fidelity in their historic habitat but the faecal cues they used for this are now often washed away in the salt marsh which is regularly flooded. Climate change may therefore be indirectly affecting foraging behaviour and predation risk. Cannizzo & Griffen, 2016.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.08.025

Tag: Climate Change

Dusty Shoulders by Jonathan Aylett

Heating by Thomas Klodowsky

DNAncient by James Penha

Climate Change by R. Suresh Babu

The Burden of Bushfire Smoke in Contemporary Australia by Dr Michael J. Leach

Peat-based Haiku for COP26 by Abby McSherry and The CANN Project

Day 5

Day 10

Day 20

Day 25

Further Reading:

Summarising the IPCC WGI SPM by Dr Andy Reisinger

Mapping Seagrass Loss

Varves by Dr. Jon Hare

Blue Carbon by Dr. Phil Colarusso

Climate Masting

Carbon negative

Domino effect

On a knife edge

Immigrant crabs