terra central

Multi-Year Sea Ice Thins in the Arctic

Professor David Barber of the University of Manitoba Center for Earth Observation Science recently spoke at the International Polar Year conference in Oslo. An excerpt from his talk refers to the sea ice cover satellite data produced by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which describes areal extent only:

“Scientists spend a lot of energy discussing the ‘squiggly line’ generated by satellite data on sea ice extent,” Dr. Barber told the audience, showing a graph from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “But extent alone does not reflect the real condition of the sea ice. I think we are all looking forward to getting reliable data on thickness from CryoSat. Because what really matters is the condition and thickness of the multiyear ice.”

“We are losing 70 000 square kilometres of sea ice (the size of Lake Superior) every year. That adds up to 2.5 million square kilometres over the last 30 years. The reality is even worse,” continued Dr Barber. “Even though the extent of the sea ice – both the winter maximum and the summer minimum – increased in 2008 and 2009, the amount of multiyear ice continued to decline rapidly.”

Barber’s observations came from over-wintering in the Arctic aboard a research ice-breaker. Expecting to be stopped by thick multi-year ice up to 12-meters thick, the icebreaker cut through ice only a couple inches thick at 13-knots.

The entire talk is available here.

A Tragic Ignorance of Mineral Weathering

Rainwater harvesting offers a safe alternative to arsenic-tainted groundwater.

Following up on a report from the British journal Lancet, global news agency AFP reports:

“Up to 77 million Bangladeshis have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic from contaminated drinking water, and even low-level exposure to the poison is not risk-free, The Lancet medical journal reported.

By some estimates, between 35 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water as a result of a catastrophically misguided campaign in the 1970s.”

The “misguided campaign” had the good intention of providing safe water to millions of people living on the vast, low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta. The delta receives drainage and sediment from the Himalayan mountains and, due to the wet tropical climate and relative solubility of arsenic-containing soil minerals, the groundwater is contaminated.

Rainwater harvesting is an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to using tainted groundwater for drinking. Expanded use of rainwater harvesting with simple technological enhancements to improve on an ancient practice is showing good results. The problem seems to be difficulty expanding the program fast enough.

Bangladesh, squeezed between the mountains and the sea, and most of which is less than 40-feet above sea level, has the coastal problem of saltwater intrusion into surface freshwater sources. Here is an interesting video on that topic and efforts to build more rainwater harvesting systems.

Further information on Rainwater Harvesting

Luna Pier Beach Ordered Closed

UPDATE
As of June 25, 2010 at 4:30 pm, the Total Body Direct Contact Advisory for Luna Pier has been lifted. There is no longer an advisory against using the waters at City of Luna Pier beach.

Qi Gong class on the beach at Luna Pier, Michigan. Source: Mayor Mary Liske.

High coliform bacteria (Escherichia coli) counts close Lake Erie beach.

According to the Monroe County Health Department, fecal coliform bacteria levels found in water samples collected at Luna Pier Beach exceeded the limit for full body contact. From the County’s website:

“Streams and creeks, connected to county and private drain systems, have carried the heavy burden of draining the landscape to allow us to develop the land that predominately was a low-lying marsh landscape. The rivers shuttle vast amounts of water from the inland landscape and form an entire river “water shed”. The River Raisin Watershed encompasses over 100 square miles. Rivers are community resources because contamination or unhealthy alteration above stream can dramatically alter the waterside experience of those downstream.”

There was a time, back in the day, when folks rode a street car up the shore from downtown Toledo, north to a boardwalk and bandstand, and good summer times, and Luna Pier was “considered the best spot for dancing under the stars.” The more adventurous and uninhibited might still find that (bring your own music), but they’d best stay out of the water.

Sharp Decrease in May Arctic Sea Ice Cover

May saw a sharp decrease in Arctic sea ice cover, based on satellite observations. The average ice cover for the month was about 13 million square kilometers, 500,000 square kilometers less than the 30-year average. The rate of icemelt averaged 46,000 kilometers per day, the fastest rate recorded. The graph above indicates the area of Arctic sea ice is now below two standard deviations of the mean ice coverage observed since 1979. Two standard deviations make up about 95 percent of the data, placing the May data in the skinny “tail” of the bell curve.

Temperatures were 2 to 5 degrees Celsius higher than average over the Arctic while central North America saw colder than average temperatures.

Source: June 8, 2010 Update, National Snow and Ice Data Center

Wetland Scientists Wade into Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Wetland Scintists call for inspection of all offshore oil operations, moratorium on new drilling and extraction.

In response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the following is a statement released by the Society of Wetland Scientists.

Statement from the Environmental Concerns Committee
Society of Wetland Scientists
Dennis F. Whigham, Chair
Stephen W. Broome
Curtis J. Richardson
Robert L. Simpson
Loren M. Smith
May 18, 2010

Coastal wetlands are essential components of healthy and productive coastal fisheries, and nowhere within the lower 48 states has the critical linkage between wetlands and fisheries resources been more clearly demonstrated than in the Gulf Mexico (e.g., Chesney et al. 2000, Crain et al. 1979). Louisiana alone, for example, generates 30% of the nation’s seafood production (Day et. al., 2005) and accounts for 40% of the total wetlands in the conterminous United States (Richardson and Pahl 2006). The ongoing loss of wetland resources in the Gulf of Mexico and the potential economic and environmental costs, especially in Louisiana and Florida, is an issue of international concern. The impacts of the current oil spill are unknown but the potential for direct and indirect environmental damage to coastal ecosystem services are extraordinary. Both the oil and the activities used in the cleanup have the potential to adversely affect wetland flora and fauna.

Thus far, most of the oil has remained offshore but reports of oil reaching the coast have been geographically extensive ranging from Florida to Louisiana. The potential geographic extent of the spill could result in the exposure of many types of coastal wetlands to oil, ranging from mangroves in Florida, Texas, Mexico and islands in the Caribbean basin to tidal freshwater wetlands along the Gulf Coast.

Most wetlands that will potentially be exposed to oil are saline and brackish tidal wetlands, which are nursery grounds for economically important coastal fish and shellfish. Seagrass beds are also at risk.
Experimental and monitoring studies around the world have found that oil commonly has a negative impact on emergent wetlands and the biota that reside in them (e.g., Lin et al. 2002). However, the degrees of impacts are variable and complex (Pezeshki et al. 2000), depending on the species composition of the wetland vegetation (e.g., Lin and Mendelssohn 1996), the amount and characteristics of the oil, the extent of weathering, and the geographic location of the wetland. Tropical and subtropical mangroves seem especially vulnerable to oil spills (e.g., Garrity and Levings 1993, Proffittt et al. 1995), as was demonstrated along the Persian Gulf following the Gulf War and in Panama following a major spill in 1986. Coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico are also sensitive to oil as are species-rich tidal freshwater wetlands, although long term impacts span the gamut from rapid recovery within a growing season to delayed recovery for several years (Hester and Mendelssohn 2000).

In addition to direct impacts on emergent plants, oil that reaches wetlands also impacts animals that utilize the wetlands, especially benthic organisms that reside in the substrate.

Studies of impacted wetlands have demonstrated that wetlands can recover from the impacts of oil spills but the recovery process varies from extremely slow in mangroves swamps (e.g., Burns et al. 1993, 1994) to relatively rapid in grass-dominated marshes (Pahl et al. 2003). The recovery of coastal wetlands from the current oil spill will be further complicated due to current stress on wetland plant productivity from the ongoing 1 cm yr-1 relative sea level rise (Stumpf and Haines 1998) and land subsidence due to natural and human-related factors within the Louisiana coastal zone (Richardson and Pahl 2006).

The current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has also focused discussion on where offshore drilling should be allowed. The disaster at the Deepwater Horizon platform demonstrates that the placement of oil wells in deep offshore waters has the potential to have far-reaching geographic impact. The disaster has also demonstrated that current technologies are not adequate to assure that an accident of this magnitude in deep ocean areas can be effectively managed without enormous economic and environmental costs.

While the short- and long-term impacts of the current oil spill on ecosystem services unfold, the Society of Wetlands Scientists supports (1) the immediate inspection of all offshore oil facilities and remediation, if required, to ensure that an accident of this type does not happen again and (2) a moratorium on all new deep-water oil exploration and extraction until further technological advances are available and tested to assure that the impacts of accidents of this sort can be managed efficiently to assure minimal negative impacts to coastal resources.

References
Burns, K.A., S.D. Garrity, and S.C. Levings. 1993. How many years until mangrove ecosystems recover from catastrophic oil spills? Marine Pollution Bulletin 26: 239-248.
Burns, K.A., S.D. Garrity, D. Jorissen, J. MacPherson, M. Stoelting, J. Tierney, and L. Yelle-Simmons. 1994. The Galeta Oil Spill. II. Unexpected persistence of oil trapped in mangrove sediments. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 38: 349-364.
Chesney, E.J., D.M. Baltz, and R. G. Thomas. 2000. Louisiana estuarine and coastal fisheries and habitats: perspectives from a fishse eye view. Ecological Applications 10: 350-366.
Craig, N.J. R.E. Turner, and J.W. Day Jr. 1979. Land loss in coastal Louisiana (U.S.A.) Environmental Management 3: 133-144.
Day, J.W., Jr., J. Barras, E. Clairain, J. Johnston, D. Justic, G.P. Kemp, J. Ko, R. Lane, W.J. Mitsch, G. Steyer, P. Templet, and A. Yañez-Arancibia. 2005. Implications of global climatic change and energy cost and availability for the restoration of the Mississippi delta. Ecological Engineering 24: 253-265.
Garrity, S.D. and S.C. Levings. 1993. Effecs of an oil spill on some organisms living on mangrove (Rhizophora mangle L.) roots in Caribbean Panama. Marine Environmental Research 35: 251-271.
Hester, M. W. and I. A. Mendelssohn. 2000. Long-term recovery of a Louisiana brackish marsh plant community from oil-spill impact: vegetation response and mitigating effects of marsh surface elevation. Marine Environmental Research 49:233-254.
Lin, Q. and I.A. Mendelssohn, 1996. A comparative investigation of the effects of South Louisiana crude oil on the vegetation of fresh, brackish, and salt marshes. Marine Pollution Bulletin 32: 202-209.
Lin, Q., I.A. Mendelssohn, M.T. Suidan, K. Lee, and A.D. Venosa. 2002. The dose-response relationship between No. 2 fuel oil and the growth of the salt marsh grass, Spartina alterniflora. Marine Pollution Bulletin 44. 897-902.
Pahl, J. W., I. A. Mendelssohn, C. B. Henry, and T. J. Hess. 2003. Recovery trajectories after in-situ burning of an oiled wetland in coastal Louisiana, USA. Environmental Management 31:236-251.
Pezeshki, S.R., M.W. Hester, Q. Lin, and J.A. Nyman. 2000. The effects of oil spill and clean-up on dominant US Gulf coast marsh macrophytes: a review. Environmental Pollution 108: 129-139.
Proffitt, C.E., D.J. Devlin, and M. Lindsey. 1995. Effects of oil on mangrove seedlings grown under different environmental conditions. Marine Pollution Bulletin 30: 788-793.
Richardson, C. J. and J. W. Pahl. 2006. Katrina consequences assessment and projection Report. Chapter 23, in FEMA Report on Impacts of Hurricane Katrina. February 2006. Washington, D. C.
Stumpf, R. P. and J. W. Haines. 1998. Variations in tidal level in the Gulf of Mexico and implications for tidal wetlands. Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Science 46:165–173.
Society of Wetland Scientists Mission
The mission of the Society of Wetland Scientists is to promote understanding, scientifically based management, and sustainable use of wetlands. The current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has the potential to impact coastal wetlands and cause enormous short- and long-term damage to ecosystem services they provide. The potential short- and long-term economic costs are therefore massive and unprecedented.

No Wetlands, No Seafood

Oyster bed on Florida Gulf Coast. Base photo credit: USGS

Any Questions?

April 14 Fireball

Last Wednesday’s fireball, meteorite, or space junk, whatever it was, lit up the sky over Iowa. At the time, I was standing in front of the AmercInn in downtown Ottumwa talking to a collegue who was outside chain-smoking in anticipation of spending the night in a non-smoking hotel.

The fireball’s leading edge was red-rimmed grading to orange, then yellow. The tail was green with yellowish white “sparks” at the very end. It was beautiful, lasting around four or five seconds – much bigger and slower-moving than other meteorites I’ve seen. When I first saw it, I didn’t say anything to Keith, figuring it would be gone by the time he looked up. Then I pointed to the sky. It flew behind a gothic church steeple, then reappeared on the other side brighter than ever. Keith saw it, too.

Coast of Alaska: Accelerated Erosion 2002-2007

Alaskan coastal erosion (USGS).

A five-year study in Alaska led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that shoreline erosion along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea has been accelerating from about 20-feet per year fifty years ago, to 45-feet per year by 2007. The research makes obvious the importance of considering the specific properties of the earthen materials exposed to erosive forces. In this case, the land contains permafrost, a consituent of the soil order called Gelisol.

An excerpt:

The authors proposed that these recent shifts in the rate and pattern of land loss along this coastline segment are potentially a result of changing arctic conditions, including declining sea ice extent, increasing summertime sea-surface temperature, rising sea level, and increases in storm power and corresponding wave action.

“Taken together, these factors may be leading to a new era in ocean-land interactions that seem to be repositioning and reshaping the Arctic coastline,” wrote (Benjamin) Jones and his colleagues. “And any increases in the current rates of coastal retreat will have further ramifications on Arctic landscapes – including losses in freshwater and terrestrial wildlife habitats, and in disappearing cultural sites, as well as adversely impacting coastal villages and towns. In addition, oil test wells are threatened.”

Alaskan permafrost erosion (USGS)

For most of us who live on the relative “terra firma” of the mid-latitude continents, global warming may seem like a fairly benign process, one that might result in better weather to play golf. The Arctic and Antarctic environments, by contrast, are very different, very fragile worlds. The authors are careful with their words, using the standard qualifiers, but it’s pretty clear they think climate change is a factor as the waves pound that coast.

Research Paper:
Jones, B.M., Arp, C.D., Jorgenson, M.T., Hinkel, K.M., Schmutz, J.A., and Flint, P.L. Increase in the rate and uniformity of coastline erosion in arctic Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters, February 14, 2009. http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0903/2008GL036205/.

Photos source: USGS

A Look at Rivers from Space

The above photo is a false-color image taken from the Landsat 7 satellite in 2000. The Lena River Delta is frozen most of the year but, during the summer, thaws into an enormous wetland complex of about 11,000 square miles. It’s a wildlife refuge.

The Lena River flows into the Laptev Sea, on the north coast of Russia.

Here’s a view of the Lena River Delta taken near the ground.

Photo source: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Wired Science has a gallery of other rivers observed from satellites and the International Space Station. Just click on the thumbnails or some impressive views.

Tip: Ike Union and his grandpa.

Red River Crests and Falls

They’re getting really good at it, fighting floods, that is. The National Weather Service predicted a crest of 38 feet and that’s the wall height the dike crews built. The River crested at 37-feet.

The dike building crews, thousands of them, mostly high school and college kids, did it for free, or for coffee and donuts, a ham and cheese sandwich, something like that. Where’s their bailout? I say give it to them.

And a pound of ground beef for the dog, too.