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Climate study: Forests regulate stress on continental water resources

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Guanica Biosphere Preserve, Puerto Rico
The view from Guanica Biosphere Preserve, Puerto Rico. Photo: Kevin Krajick/Earth Institute

Anticipating how rising atmospheric carbon dioxide will affect the water cycle, including extreme weather forecasts, is critical to preparing for and predicting the future of the planet.

It is widely thought that changes to the water cycle are sparked by precipitation and radiation shifts produced by climate change and counterbalanced by land surface adjustments that make the planet drier.

But a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that vegetation plays a key role in Earth’s water cycle and that plants will regulate and control the mounting stress placed on continental water resources in the future. [Read more…]

Climate change: Mangrove forests expand range northward as regions warm

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Mangroves in the Florida Everglades. Photo: Alan Sandercock, CC BY

With the help of technology, humans can traverse virtually every part of our planet’s surface. But animals and plants are less mobile. Most species can only live in zones where temperature and rain fall within specific ranges.

As regions become warmer due to climate change, plants and animals in those areas will either move to more appropriate climates or be replaced by newcomers who are well-suited to the new conditions. These changes are already occurring. For example, many plants, animals and birds in the Northern Hemisphere have shifted their ranges northward.

My research team studies mangroves – salt-tolerant trees with branches that intertwine like dense jungle gyms. Mangroves line the world’s coastlines and prefer warm temperatures, so they have traditionally been restricted to subtropical and tropical environments. But they have many features that have enabled them to survive major climate shifts in the past. Now, in a harbinger of climate change, mangroves are expanding from tropical zones into temperate areas. Scientists are finding them at higher and higher latitudes in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America.  [Read more…]

Report: Forest restoration, protection a key strategy for slowing climate change

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As nations across the world scramble to identify and implement strategies for stifling climate change, a new study finds improved land stewardship presents an undervalued avenue for both storing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A team of scientists finds that updated land management practices could bolster international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also meeting the global demand for food and fiber, the researchers report Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The team’s findings suggest that natural climate solutions, as outlined by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, can be expanded significantly by programs that focus on the large-scale protection and restoration of forests, farmland and grasslands.

Accounting for financial constraints, the researchers calculate that natural climate change mitigation pathways could reduce emissions by 11.3 billion tons a year by 2030, or 37 percent of the reductions needed to keep global warming below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit – the central objective of the Paris climate agreement. [Read more…]

EPA chief pushes carbon neutral designation for wood-fired energy

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EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, left, talks with industry representatives during a private tour of Central Paper Products in Manchester Tuesday. Photo: EPA, via Twitter.

Editor’s note: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has started the process required to designate wood-fired energy, or biomass, as carbon neutral under “appropriate circumstances.”

In a letter to New Hampshire’s governor and a visit to the state, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said his agency is poised to add biomass, including wood and other plant-based fuels, to the nation’s “all of the above” energy portfolio.

That was particularly good news for New Hampshire, where a half-dozen biomass power plants produce heat and electricity and provide a significant market for low-grade timber products. [Read more…]

U.S. pellet exports boom as Europe mixes wood with coal to reduce carbon footprint

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Leftovers from timber harvest in Southeastern pine stands provide raw materials for wood pellets. Photo: Enviva

Worse than coal. Exploits a carbon loophole. Creates a carbon deficit.

No, we are not talking about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Rather, these are a few of the complaints critics level against burning wood pellets in place of coal to reduce Europe’s carbon footprint.

You might assume that exporting a renewable and sustainable product to help wean Europe off coal-fired electricity would bring accolades from environmentalists on both sides of The Pond. But such is not the case. Wood energy has its share of critics. And the scientific community is at odds. [Read more…]