Photo: Dusan Smetena

A series of videos explore the effects of climate change in several Western states.

A five-minute introductory video highlights three phenomena altering present Western ecosystems: mountain pine beetle damage in the Rocky Mountains, saltwater intrusion in coastal Washington, and exotic cheatgrass invasion in Oregon. Each phenomena is linked to climatic changes.

Longer videos examining climate change in individual states are also available. The video discussing the impacts of climate change in Montana is presented in two parts: Part I presents evidence of climate change in the state’s diverse ecosystems and its implications for fish and wildlife. Part II discusses management strategies to assist fish and wildlife adapting to change. The Washington state  video examines the effects of climate change in the state’s ecosystems of the seashore, the mountains and the forests. The Colorado video will be released soon.

Photo: Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources

Researchers recorded air and water temperatures over the course of 11 summers and correlated readings to spawning activity. A rise of 1.8 degree Fahrenheit delayed spawning by approximately one week and reduced the number of nests. Late spawning is likely to delay the emergence of fry, which could uncouple synchronicity with the emergence of prey.

Water temperatures near 70 degrees Fahrenheit stress the fish, which do not have sufficient energy to feed. Consequently the growth of their reproductive organs slowed. High temperatures effectively caused the trout to shut down in the middle of the summer, the paper’s authors said.

However, hot summers presently pose less of a threat to brook trout than non-native species and habitat loss, says co-author Cliff Kraft, a professor of natural resources at Cornell University. But if temperatures continue to climb, at some point there will be no brook trout. Without quick and dramatic curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, climatologists currently estimate that Earth will warm by more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century.

The study was conducted on Rock Lake in the southwestern Adirondacks between 1999 and 2010. The paper was published in an online edition of the scientific journal Global Change Biology (subscription required) in March.

Photo: Alaska Fish & Wildlife Service

A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters (subscription required) links rising temperatures in the Far North to changes in the behavior of the jet stream, resulting in prolonged, extreme weather events such as the 2011 Texas drought and heavy snows in Europe in recent years.

In an analysis of the scientific paper, Climate Central writer Andrew Freedman discusses how Arctic amplification, a phenomenon involving feedbacks between sea ice, snow, water vapor and clouds, contributes to the rapid warming of the region, how that warming causes the jet stream to slow, and how a slowed jet stream affects weather patterns around the world.

Watch how the jet stream moves across the globe.

In a paper published in Nature  (subscription required), researchers propose that the cause of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 million years ago was the release of stored soil carbon from melting permafrost. As the Earth’s orbit shifted, the overall temperature warmed, leading to thawing in Arctic and Antarctic regions.

“Similar dynamics are at play today” says the paper’s lead author, Rob DeConto,  professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Global warming is degrading permafrost in the north polar regions, thawing frozen organic matter, which will decay to release CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. This will only exacerbate future warming in a positive feedback loop.”

The researchers point out that melting permafrost will release about as much carbon as deforestation, if current deforestation rates continue. But permafrost releases methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, which could more than double the overall effect on climate. Whereas ecosystems had thousands of years to adjust to changes during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, current global warming is occurring so speedily that natural adaptation could be severely limited.

The paper contributes to the scientific examination of the consequences of warming polar regions, as reviewed by Climate Progress.

NOAA reports that 15,272 warm-temperature records were broken. In some places, nighttime temperatures exceeded previous record daytime highs. Average March temperatures were 8.6 degrees F above the 20th century average for the month. Only one month, January 2006, has recorded a greater deviation from average temperatures in the 1,400 months or so of record-keeping.

The warm weather set up conditions for severe thunderstorms. In early March a tornado outbreak swept across  the Ohio Valley and the Southeast and became the year’s first disaster to exceed one billion dollars in damages and loss. Hawaii experienced a rare tornado, during which fell the state’s record hailstone, measuring 4½-inches in diameter.

Nationally, overall precipitation was slightly above average. However, the interior West, Northeast and Florida were drier than average, while the Pacific Northwest and the Southern Plains were much wetter. By the end of the month drought conditions in the contiguous United States had lessened slightly, dropping from 38.7 percent to 36.8 percent.

Temperature trends of the first quarter of 2012 culminated in March. The three-month average was 6 degrees F above the long-term average in the continental U.S. However, Alaska experienced its ninth-coolest first quarter, with temperatures 5.2 degrees below average. Average precipitation for January-March was down by 0.29 inches, with several regions of the country experiencing unusually dry winter conditions.

Globally, March’s remarkable warmth spread across most of Canada as well as the contiguous United States, through Mexico, Argentina, Peru and eastern Brazil; across Europe and parts of northern and central Russia; India and China. Cooler-than-average conditions were recorded in Alaska, Australia, eastern and western Russia and parts of New Zealand. While the month was the 16th warmest March since record-keeping began in 1880, globally the average temperature in March was the coolest since 1999. Although the extent of arctic sea ice continues to be below its historic average, it was greater than any measured since 2008.

April continued the pattern of unusual weather, with a late snowstorm hitting the Northeast the week before May.

While many climatologists are reluctant to declare that any single weather event is the direct consequence of global warming, such anomalous weather is consistent with predictions of how warming temperatures will affect climate. As scientists examine such events as the March heat wave, they increasingly comprehend the myriad complex interactions of the planet’s climate system. Recent studies of a decade of severe weather events demonstrate growing evidence that global climate change, the result of greenhouse gas emissions, is driving the unusually frequent and intense disasters.

Measuring sea ice. Photo: NOAA

Water temperatures in summer 2011 were well above the 1982-2006 temperature average. In a self-perpetuating cycle, sea ice melted and converted to open water. Compared to ice, open water reflects less heat back into the atmosphere and absorbs more. The warming waters abet the melting of sea ice and the thawing of permafrost on adjacent coastlines.  Globally, changes in sea ice affect atmospheric wind patterns and the Earth’s heat balance.

More open water leads to more biological activity at the base of the food chain, while adversely affecting habitat of larger animals dependent on ice, such as polar bears and walruses. Melting glaciers and ice sheets freshen the top layers of the ocean and increase sea level.

The increased expanse of open water absorbs more  carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, raising the acidity level of sea water. Suppressing calcium carbonate, more acidic sea water will affect the ability of some organisms to form shells, a consequence that will work its way through the food chain and add stress to the Arctic ecosystem.

In 2011 ice coverage was 15 to 20 percent below the 1979-2000 average. Loss of old, slow-melting ice has increased, leaving new, thin ice that allows solar radiation to penetrate into the upper ocean more easily, warming water both at the surface and at depth.

As temperatures in Yosemite National Park have warmed more than five degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years, alpine chipmunks have shifted their habitat from 7,800-foot elevations to more than 9,400 feet.  The upslope migration to the cooler climes has fragmented populations of the small mammal, leading to isolated pockets of chipmunks that have become more genetically homogenous when compared to their historic counterparts. 

Conducted by researchers at the University of California Berkeley, the study suggests that “genetically impoverished populations” are more vulnerable to the effects of inbreeding, disease and other problems that threaten species survival. “Under continued warming, the alpine chipmunk could be on the trajectory towards becoming threatened or even extinct,” says the study’s lead author, Emily Rubidge. 

As noted  February 19 in the journal Nature Climate Change (subscription required), the chipmunk study is hailed as the first to empirically link a climate-driven geographic shift in habitat to a species’ loss of genetic diversity. 

Study relates genetic diversity to extinction vulnerability

Looking at genetic composition within plant species, authors of a paper published on line in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences (available at no charge),  demonstrates the importance of genetic diversity in plants’ adaptive capacity and consequent survivability under changing habitat conditions.  

Species, the scientists say, respond to climate change through local adaptation, range shift, range reduction, or a combination of these actions. Range shift could increase genetic diversity within a species, while range reduction would reduce diversity and diminish the species’ adaptive capacity.   

A species’ method of seed dispersal and its growth form are traits that influence distribution of genetic diversity within and among populations. Considering these factors increases the accuracy of predicting a species’ genetic vulnerability due to climate change.   

Butterfly exhibits evolutionary adaptation to a changing climate

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British scientists studying the expanded distribution of the Brown Argus butterfly propose that variations in habitat preference exhibited among different populations of the insect improve the species’ adaptive capacity and promotes successful expansion of its range as climate conditions change.

The study (available free of charge) was conducted by scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Sheffield and published in Molecular Ecology. The authors undertook to “understand the role of evolution in helping a species to successfully track ongoing climate change.” Genetic variation in ecological traits throughout a specie’s distribution, the study posits, bolsters the speed and success of potential adaptation.

As temperatures increase, shrubs will overtake alpine meadows. Photo: USFS

Describing the process as thermophilization, European scientists have documented the transformation of mountain plant communities as the more cold-adapted species decline and the more warm-adapted species increase. Analyzing vegetation from 60 summits throughout Europe’s major mountain ranges at a seven-year interval, biologists determined that similar changes in mountain plant communities were occurring independent of altitude and latitude. Changes were most rapid, however, in areas where temperatures have increased the fastest. The study, published in Molecular Ecology and available at no charge, indicates that, across the continent, cold-loving plants indigenous to alpine regions are being pushed out by more heat-tolerant plants. Considering the projections of future climate change, the authors suggest their observations point to a progressive decline of cold mountain habitats and their biota.

Citing climate change as the most important issue that hunters and anglers have ever had to face, Conservation Hawks is an organization devoted to protecting America’s sporting heritage for future generations. The non-profit organization proposes to accomplish its goal through research, education, training, advocacy and public outreach.

Hunters and anglers may be first to notice fish and wildlife responses to climate change. Photo: AFWA

Seeking to establish a nation-wide framework  for conserving fish, wildlife and ecosystem functions in a changing climate, the draft document

• summarizes the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on various ecosystems
• sets seven goals for immediate and future actions to protect natural resources
• suggests ways that government, conservation organizations and private stakeholders can integrate and implement the strategy

Public workshops will be held at several locations around the country as well as on line to promote discussion of the draft strategy. Comments may be submitted on line.