Don't Leaf Me Behind!
in Diversity of Organisms and Biological Populations Change Over Time
An Instant Classic: Hey, Aesop, what if I told you Mr. Hare won the race?
Courtesy Milo Winter
You’re probably familiar with Aesop’s classic fable The Tortoise and the Hare: Mr. Hare challenges Mr. Tortoise to a foot race. Mr. Tortoise accepts. Mr. Hare dashes from the start line, but stops just before the finish line to take a nap. In the meantime, Mr. Tortoise plods along to win the race!! The moral of the story? University of Minnesota professor and Institute on the Environment resident fellow, Dr. Peter Reich’s award-winning take on the fable may surprise you.
Dr. Peter Reich: This guy studies leaves for a living.
Courtesy Regents of the University of Minnesota
Dr. Reich studies leaves. In particular, Dr. Reich has discovered three characteristics of leaves that allow researchers to identify where and how plants live: longevity, productivity, and nitrogen content. Longevity measures how old a leaf lives. Did you know leaves in the tropics live only 5-6 weeks whereas Canadian spruce leaves can live up to 18 years old? Productivity measures how much sugar the leaf makes (yes, leaves make sugar called “glucose,” which nearly every animal uses to fuel their body – that’s why your momma tells you to eat your vegetables!). Finally, nitrogen is like a vitamin for plants: they need it to grow big and strong. How much nitrogen a leaf has is important because it determines how much energy a plant can make.
Canadian Spruce: If these leaves were human, they could be legal adults!
Courtesy Steven J. Baskauf
Tropical Leaves: These guys may look BIG, but they are not going to be around for long.
Courtesy Flickr
What about the moral of The Tortoise and the Hare? Dr. Reich’s research says there are basically two types of leaves: ones that are like Mr. Tortoise and ones like Mr. Hare. Tortoise-like leaves work slowly, but steadily. They’re the marathon runners of the leaf world. Hare-like leaves work really fast! But they can’t keep it up for long. They’re sprinters. Could you run a marathon at your top sprinting speed? Probably not, and neither can leaves be both ultra-fast and long-lasting at the same time. Instead, leaves “tradeoff” speed for endurance. Like human runners, leaves don’t have to be all fast and short-lived or all slow and long-lived; they can fall somewhere inbetween and be medium speed and medium-lived.
So who cares about marathon and sprinting leaves anyway? Lots of people! Dr. Reich just won the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in recognition of this important research. Being able to group the thousands of plants out in the world into a handful of groups is allowing scientists to do incredible research that can be used around the world.
For example, Dr. Reich’s newest research is looking at the different responses of tortoise-leaves versus hare-leaves to changing environments, such as higher levels of carbon dioxide in the air caused by climate change. As each generation of leaves reproduces, new genetic combinations are created. New genetic traits that are helpful to the plant’s survival are passed on to the next generation. The more genetic combinations created, the better chance a species has of “finding” the right traits in a changing environment. This is where Dr. Reich’s interpretation of the moral of The Tortoise and the Hare may surprise you: because hare-leaves have fast, short lives, they reproduce more genetic combinations and are better able to deal with change. Tortoise-leaves will struggle more to adapt. That is, for leaves, slow and steady does not always win the race!
Want to know more?? Dr. Reich recently gave a lecture as part of the Institute on the Environment’s Frontiers on the Environment series. You can hear it here.
Tags : Like imaginary detectives Carmen San Diego and Inspector Gadget, Will Steger travels the Earth in search of clues that point towards a changing climate.
Not many of us imagine spending our vacation in some of the coldest and most remote regions of the world, but Arctic explorer Will Steger (see http://www.willstegerfoundation.org/index.php/our-founder) has spent the last 45 years doing just that. Using his passion for extreme exploring and background in science and education, Steger’s chilly trips to Greenland, Antarctica, and the North Pole have taken him into the middle of the global climate change debate.
Will Steger, Climate Change Detective and Arctic Explorer
Courtesy Will Steger
The Earth’s icy poles are among the first and most dramatically affected areas of global climate change (see "What's the big deal about polar climate change?" below). Few humans have set foot in these important ecological systems and witnessed the changing landscapes as Steger has. Small wonder when you consider what makes his explorations “extreme.” Can you imagine waking up to -38°F temperatures in a tent buried under last night’s snowfall only to have trouble starting your camp stove because of the low-oxygen level? After you warm up enough to tunnel yourself out of your igloo, you still have to pack up your gear, wake up the dogsled team, and travel miles over huge snowdrifts (see http://www.willsteger.com/content/view/107/95/). That's intense!
“What’s the big deal about polar climate change?”
(see http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/polarregions.html)
Albedo: Land and Ocean vs. Ice Surfaces
Courtesy The M Factory, Inc.
Ice acts like a mirror by reflecting sunlight. On the other hand, ocean and land surfaces act like sponges by absorbing sunlight. Surfaces that reflect sunlight, like ice, stay cool, but surfaces that absorb sunlight, like ocean and land surfaces, get warm. How much a surface reflects or absorbs sunlight is called its “albedo.”
The Earth’s icy poles are among the first and most dramatically affected areas of global climate change because rising temperatures melt ice and expose land and ocean surfaces. Can you guess what happens next? Remember that land and ocean surfaces absorb sunlight and get warm. This means that these newly exposed surfaces further absorb sunlight, get warmer, and melt more ice. This process is an example of what scientists call “positive feedback systems,” which is a fancy way of saying, “once the process starts, it creates more and more of the same results.”
Finally, want a chance to see and hear Will Steger, climate change detective and Arctic explorer, in person? You're in luck! On February 24th from noon to 1pm, Steger will be speaking at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Student Center as part of the Institute on the Environment’s lecture series, Frontiers in the Environment. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please see the lecture series’ homepage http://environment.umn.edu/news_events/events/frontiers.html
Swiss parish switches prayers about glacier in light of global climate change
How much more controversial can a story get? This news item combines global climate change with the age-old controversies involving science vs. religion. I supposed some international conglomerate could be killing endangered species in the area.
Getting stoned: Here's an array of shapes and sizes of kidney stones. Researchers say global warming will lead to an increase in the production of the little buggers in our bodies.
Courtesy Trevor BlakeIt’s going after polar bears and ice sheets. It’s threatening glaciers and coastal cities. Now, global warming has is setting it’s evil intentions against your kidneys.
That’s the conclusion a group of scientists announced yesterday. Increases in global temperatures could lead to an increase in kidney stones.
Having had more than my share of bouts with those pesky stones, that alone is scaring me straight to reduce my carbon footprint and do my part to reduce global climate change.
A kidney stone forms from salts that crystallize inside the kidney. That process speeds up when bodies become dehydrated. As the stones grow and move through the urinary tract, they can cause enormous (and I mean enormous) pain until it passes out through urination. The bigger the stone gets, the greater the discomfort. About 12 percent of men and seven percent of women in the U.S. will experience a bout of kidney stones in their life.
What the scientists announced this week is that warm states in the southeastern U.S. have a 50 percent higher rate of kidney stone cases than in the northeast.
Warm weather and dehydration are two factors that can accelerate kidney stone production, the researchers said. They’re seeing an unusually high rate of kidney stones among soldiers serving in the heat of Iraq.
On the flip side, drinking lots of water and staying cool can help reduce kidney stone risks, the scientists added. Kidney stone rates have been on the rise in the U.S. since 1976
So what do you think? Is there a connection between hot weather and kidney stones? Do you have a great kidney stone story to share? Ever see the Seinfeld episode where Kramer passes a kidney stone at the circus? Share your thoughts about kidney stones and/or global warming here with other Buzzers.
Tusk, tusk: A pair of narwhals surface in the Arctic waters. A new study says that the sea creatures are the most at risk to changes from global warming
Courtesy Glenn WilliamsIs there a more overlooked creature of the animal kingdom than the narwhal? Granted, it lives in the frosty waters of the Arctic Ocean and has a twisted, mean-looking tusk, but why don’t we give the narwhal more love?
Global climate change researchers are taking note of the odd sea beast. They’ve categorized the narwhal as being the sea creature most at risk from global warming changes. The pronouncement was made following in-depth analysis of how potential environmental problems that could affect the 11 marine animals that live year-round in the Artic region.
Polar bears, which have been generally considered the most “at-risk” animals from global warming, came in second place in the rankings.
Right now there are actually a lot more narwhals in the Arctic region (50,000 to 80,000) than polar bears (20,000). But researchers feel the overall impacts of global warming could have a quicker, more devastating impact on narwhals.
What’s the difference? Adaptability. Polar bears are able to gather food either by swimming or roaming land. As ice sheets diminish, they can forage for food on land.
Narwhals, on the other hand, are highly specialized creatures. A main feeding practice is diving to depths of 6,000 feet to feed on halibut. They live in areas with 99-percent ice cover. If that ice area diminishes, predators like orcas and polar bears will have easier access to getting to narwhals. And warming waters could send the narwhal’s favorite food of halibut to non-icy areas as well.
Following narwhals and polar bears as the most at-risk Arctic animals were the hooded seal, bowhead whale and walrus. Least at-risk are ringed seals and bearded seals according to the study.
Aerial view: A group of narwhals can be seen swimming together from an aerial view.
Courtesy narwhal.infoBTW: Here’s a little more general information about narwhals:
• They don’t use their tusks for hunting. Males do have “duels” with each other using the tusks to establish dominance. Male tusks can grow up to be 10 feet long. Females grow a much smaller tusk. The tusks are also twisted in a corkscrew fashion.
• An adult narwhal can measure to around 25 feet in length. Males can weigh up to 3,500 pounds while females are about 2,200 pounds.
• The animals also exclusively hunt under thick ice sheets.
• Inuit legends has it that the narwhal was created when a woman holding onto a harpoon had been pulled into the ocean and twisted around the harpoon. The submerged woman was wrapped around a beluga whale on the other end of the harpoon, and that is how the narwhal was created.
A matter of immense gravity: After receiving his Nobel Peace Prize this past December, Al Gore has turned his attention to raising awareness about the global gravity loss problem.
Courtesy Kjetil BjørnsrudI think this got lost in all the hoopla about the NCAA basketball tournament, but Al Gore was on 60 Minutes last Sunday to unveil his latest crusade, one that could be more devastating to life on Earth than the global climate change crisis he’s been raising awareness of in recent years.
The former vice president used the highly-rated TV show to be the inaugural event of his effort to raise public awareness of the growing gravity crisis on the planet. Three independent studies conducted in the U.S., Great Britain and South Africa have confirmed a strange but deep side effect to global warming. Increased temperatures on Earth are diminishing its gravitational fields. Projections foresee that at the current pace, Earth could have 25 percent less gravity in the next 10 years.
Click here for the full report.
The new studies confirm that increases in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are causing chemical reaction with heavy metals in the top layer of Earth’s crust that are shielding gravity’s pull from deeper in Earth’s core. And the real scary fact is that these chemical reactions are progressing at a geometric rate. While they’re still negligible today, each year they increase by a factor of 10.
If the current pace continues over the next 50 years, researchers calculate that gravity will become extinct, just like many forms of animal and plant life of the past. Along with his continued efforts to reduce the growing carbon dioxide emissions that are contributing to global warming, Gore is offering some other gravity loss solutions.
“If everyone digs five or six 12-foot deep holes in their backyard, we might be able to create easier paths for gravity to get back to Earth’s surface and counteract the impacts of these devastating chemical reactions,” he said.
Click here to learn other things you can do to stop global gravity loss.
“Stop and really think about the gravity of this situation for a second,” Gore implored viewers on 60 Minutes. “Even with just 25 percent less gravity on our planet, our everyday lifestyles will be hugely impacted. We predict that all small animals under 10 pounds will be drifting through the air with little control. Mothers will have to tie down their infants in their cribs at night to keep them from floating around the house.”
Other significant problems that could arise if global gravity loss is not reversed, Gore added. They include prolonged autumns due to a slower release of leaves from trees, decreased income for the sky-diving and bungee-jumping businesses and a rapid increase in world records for sporting events involving jumping, leaping or throwing.
Current Vice President Dick Cheney, contacted by 60 Minutes for the administration’s reaction to global gravity loss, was much more optimistic. “Right off the top of my head, I can see a couple upsides to gravity loss,” Cheney said. “First off, less gravity will make everything weigh less. That should take care of the U.S. obesity problem. Second, this should be welcome news for the ailing airline industry, as it will be able to save a lot of money on fuel costs as planes will be able to take off a lot easier.”
Commenting at the end of the 60 Minutes episode, columnist Andy Rooney was all laughs on the topic. “Don’t you just hate it when you’ve made it this far through a blog entry and haven’t realized it is an April Fool’s Day trick?” he asked. “But here are some great links about the history of April Fool’s Day, 100 of the greatest April Fool’s pranks ever pulled off and some of the worst ever conceived.”
Ice capade: Aerial views of the ice sheet breaking at the Wilkins Ice Sheet in Antarctica show the massive amount of ice that's come free in the past month.
Courtesy National Snow and Ice Data Center/NASASo we’ve been grumbling the past few days about the latest round of snow and ice that’s descended upon us in the early days of spring. At least we’re a long way from Antarctica.
The National Snow and Ice Center today reported, and released photos, of a huge ice sheet collapse from the cold continent. About 160-square miles of ice have broken free from the Wilkins ice sheet since Feb. 28 in some major league size pieces. While the Wilkins ice sheet is about the size of Connecticut, one large portion of broken ice sheet is seven times larger than the Manhattan district of New York City.
While that’s a big chuck of ice to break free, larger ice collapses have happened two other times since scientists have been monitoring the site: in 1995 and 2002. Yet, the experts are saying that this latest ice break is another sign of global climate change.
Other portions of the ice shelf are hanging on by thin margins and one expert predicts that the entire shelf could be gone in 15 years. Cracks in the thin ice fill with water, which accelerates the melting, and leads to more major ice breaks.
Here's a link to some great video of the fragile ice sheet area from National Geographic.
Is it the changing climate, nasty bugs, a virus or some other mysterious cause? That's what researchers are asking right now in northern Minnesota as they investigate the dramatic decline in moose numbers. The Star-Tribune has excellent coverage of the situation and what's being done to figure out this problem.
Drawing down: The white banks show the one-time high water mark of Lake Meade in Arizona. One group of researchers say there's a 50 percent chance the lake could dry up by the year 2021
Courtesy amyshHave you ever been to Hoover Dam? It’s a popular day trip destination for those looking for a break from the gambling in Las Vegas.
One of the impressive sights is the huge body of water stopped up behind the dam: Lake Meade. The water stretches and snakes for miles and miles upstream on the Colorado River, which cuts its way through the Grand Canyon. That reservoir of water is also the main drinking supply for much of the southwest U.S.
But analysts from San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography that there’s a 50 percent chance that water will dry up by 2021. In a shorter time span, they say that there’s a 10 percent chance water in the lake will not be usable for drinking by 2013, just five years away.
The dire predictions are based on global climate change factors along with a growing demand for water in southern Nevada and southern California.
Due to current drought conditions, Lake Meade and its sister reservoir, Lake Powell upstream from the Grand Canyon, are only currently half full. Combined, they provide water to 27 million people spread over seven states.
But an official from the Central Arizona Project said that the predictions are alarmist and absurd and that the reservoirs are in no danger of drying up.
And I remember just a couple weeks ago we posted a story here on the Buzz that Rocky Mountain areas have seen wondrous amounts of snowfall this winter. A lot of that snow runoff finds its way into the Colorado River.
Do you have any deep thoughts to share on the southwest water situation? Post them here and let other Science Buzz readers know how you feel.
Fighting for survival?: Delays by the Department of Interior on putting polar bears on the endangered list have made some congressional leaders upset. What do you think about this?
Courtesy wikipediaCongressional environmentalists were getting cranky last week as deadlines are coming and going on giving polar bears endangered species protection. At the same time, deadlines are coming to open up some prime polar bear locations to oil exploration.
The Chukchi Sea, home to about a fifth of the world’s polar bears, could be opened to oil and natural gas expeditions next week through the action of one Interior Department division.
Congressional environmentalists, who want to see polar bears be added to the endangered list, claim they were promised that action would happen earlier this month. Now, they claim, the delay is being made to keep the Chukchi open to energy discoveries.
Proponents of global climate change say that melting ice caps in the Arctic are threatening the polar bear population. One study completed this fall predicts that up to two thirds of the polar bear population could be gone by the middle of this century if current warming trends continue.
Interior officials testifying at Congress yesterday said that the delay on adding polar bears to the endangered list is due to a desire to assure that Congress and the public will understand the decision when it is made public.
What do you think of all of this? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.
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