Plants // Current TV

Climate change may bring big ecosystem changes

By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth's land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type - such as forest, grassland or tundra - toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., investigated how Earth's plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as Earth's climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse gases. Study results are published in the journal Climatic Change.

The model projections paint a portrait of increasing ecological change and stress in Earth's biosphere, with many plant and animal species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant species turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species.

Most of Earth's land that is not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover - changes that will require humans and animals to adapt and often relocate.

In addition to altering plant communities, the study predicts climate change will disrupt the ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species, reduce biodiversity and adversely affect Earth's water, energy, carbon and other element cycles.

"For more than 25 years, scientists have warned of the dangers of human-induced climate change," said Jon Bergengren, a scientist who led the study while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech.

"Our study introduces a new view of climate change, exploring the ecological implications of a few degrees of global warming. While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other environmental changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it's the ecological consequences that matter most."

When faced with climate change, plant species often must "migrate" over multiple generations, as they can only survive, compete and reproduce within the range of climates to which they are evolutionarily and physiologically adapted.

While Earth's plants and animals have evolved to migrate in response to seasonal environmental changes and to even larger transitions, such as the end of the last ice age, they often are not equipped to keep up with the rapidity of modern climate changes that are currently taking place.

Human activities, such as agriculture and urbanization, are increasingly destroying Earth's natural habitats, and frequently block plants and animals from successfully migrating.

More at the linkBy 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of... more

JanforGore
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Figs In Boston: New Plant Hardiness Zones Reflect Dramatic Global Warming

By Brad Johnson

The Department of Agriculture’s plant hardiness maps are finally reflecting a fact that gardeners have already realized — the United States is changing dramatically with global warming pollution. The USDA released a new plant hardiness zone map to replace the 1990 map, reflecting twenty years of rapid global warming:

“The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation’s average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.”

The new map is generally one half-zone warmer than the previous map throughout much of the United States. Cities as varied as Boston, Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones. Almost all of Ohio, Nebraska and Texas are in warmer zones.

The Washington Post quoted several experts who noted the new map, whose changes in hardiness zones are based on rising minimum temperatures across the nation, isn’t news to gardeners.

Boston University biology professor Richard Primack: “People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime.”

George Ball, chairman and CEO of the seed company W. Atlee Burpee: “Climate change, which has been in the air for a long time, is not big news to gardeners.”

Stanford University biology professor Terry Root: “It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals).”

Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, appear ten miles north of their traditional limit in recent years. Our nation’s forests are dying with the changes. Lodgepole pines, aspens, walnut trees, and other dominant species adapted to a climate without greenhouse pollution are already suffering in our hotter planet.

In coming decades, the rate of global warming will increase significantly, a result of the rapid rise in fossil fuel pollution, making it ever more difficult for plants to adapt, and destabilizing all of our nation’s ecosystems.

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/01/25/411937/figs-in-boston-new-plant-hardiness-zones-reflect-dramatic-global-warming/By Brad Johnson The Department of Agriculture’s plant hardiness maps are... more

coolplanet
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17 days ago
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Climate extremists thrive on bad news

Extreme weather is often said to be one of the main reasons for taking firm action on... more

Scott_Pert
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25 days ago
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More than 100 scientists rebuke Obama as 'simply incorrect' on global warming

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Scott_Pert
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1 month ago
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Worldwide Hippies News Briefs Thursday

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joeeddy
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WHACKO-TV THE RISKY GARDENER

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dwightdouglas
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6 months ago
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Symbiogenics to feed a drought stricken world

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JanforGore
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7 months ago
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Fracking fluids poison a national forest

A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry. These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality. She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest. More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008. The following effects were reported in the study:

•Within two days all ground plants were dead;

•Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown. Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and

•“Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…” These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site. The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.

“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that land disposal of fracking fluids is common and in the case of the Fernow was done pursuant to a state permit. “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste.”

For the past twenty-five years, the Forest Service has not applied any environmental restrictions on private extraction efforts, even in wilderness areas. As a result, forests, like the Monongahela, which sits astride the huge Marcellus Shale gas formation, have struggled with many adverse impacts of widespread drilling. By contrast, the nearby George Washington National Forest (NF) has recently proposed to ban horizontal drilling, a practice associated with hydrofracking, due to concern about both the ecosystem damage and also the huge amount of water required for the fracking process. Two subcommittees of the House of Representatives will hold a joint hearing this Friday to examine the George Washington NF’s singular pro-conservation stance.

“Unfortunately, the Forest Service has drilled its head deeply into the sand on oil and gas operations harming forest assets,” Ruch added, noting the National Wildlife Refuges also lack regulations to minimize drilling impacts. “The Forest Service needs to develop a broader approach than asking each forest supervisor to cast a lone profile in courage or cowardice.”A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West... more

JanforGore
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7 months ago
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Tritium Leaks at 48 US Nuclear Sites

Folks, it's just plain time to put an end to this farce called nuclear energy.... more

TheAmbivalante
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8 months ago
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Canna Facts and Canna Plants

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BobWalshPlumerias
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8 months ago
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Osama bin Laden enjoyed cannabis in his mansion

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worrg
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9 months ago
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7 comments

Genome Duplication Encourages Rapid Adaptation of Plants

Plants adapt to the local weather and soil conditions in which they grow, and these... more

suzane
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9 months ago
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World's smelliest flower opens for the first time in 75 YEARS

For botanists, it doesn't get more exciting than this - after 75 years, the Titan... more

worrg
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10 months ago
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Plumeria Plants, Terms And Definitions For Plumerias And Other Tropical Plants, Part One

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BobWalshPlumerias
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10 months ago
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Like Products, Plants Wait for Optimal Configuration Before Market Success

An international research team led by Brown University has amassed the largest... more

AngelAlina
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11 months ago
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Plants In Nuked Soil: Less Talking, More Growing

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Kristena
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12 months ago
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Creepy plants that shouldn't exist

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sbacker
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1 year ago
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Plumeria Plants – How To Grow Plumeria Cuttings

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BobWalshPlumerias
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1 year ago
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Grow Your Own Security: Prof Breeds Bomb-Spotting Plants

Newest weapon in security?

ebdotkom
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1 year ago
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The latest weapon in the fight against terrorism: How scientists have developed plants that can detect bombs

They provide us with food and are pretty to look at, and now they may even save out... more

GoldenHeart
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1 year ago
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