Extinction Risks

          In this article from Nature Publishing Group in 2004 they discuss how climate change affects the distribution and abundance of species throughout the world.  They even used models to see different projections of populations in the future.  They used climate-envelope modelling, climate scenarios, species, and species-area approaches. Terry Root and Stephen Schneider did research as well on how climate changes effects ecological aspects of our world.  They looked at things such as pollen samples from previous ice ages.  They understood the importance of past changes in order to reconstruct behaviors for future models of ecosystems.

Root, T.L. & Schneider, S.H. (2006) Conservation and climate change: the challenges ahead. Conservation Biology, 20, 706–708. <http://www.sfbayjv.org/global_warming/Climate%20Change%20and%20Conservation-%20Challenges%20Ahead%20T%20Root%20%20S%20Schneider%202006.pdf>.


Thomas, C.D., Cameron, A., Green, R.E., Bakkenes, M., Beaumont, L.J., Collingham, Y.C., Erasmus, B.F.N., de Siqueira, M.F., Grainger, A., Hannah, L., Hughes, L., Huntley, B., van Jaarsveld, A.S., Midgley, G.F., Miles, L., Ortega-Huerta, M.A., Peterson, A.T., Phillips, O.L., Williams, S.E., 2004. Extinction risk from climate change. Nature 427, 145–148. <http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/83/1/thomascd1.pdf>.

Personal Actions for the Future

           Along with the assignment for an immediate action plan during the semester, we were also supposed to come up with different things we could do throughout the years to combat climate change.  There are a few things that I looked into working on as time goes on.

Carpooling

         It may not seem like much but I try to carpool, and get other people to carpool, as often as possible.  I don’t drive so I usually have to find rides and end up figuring out a way for everyone to get to wherever we are going the easiest possibly way.  I think carpooling really helps with the reduction of greenhouse gases from cars, especially with the amount of driving that is done by everyone these days, whether it be for work or for fun.  I’ve been able to implement this at school too.

 

Beekeeping

          My dad has been beekeeping for a couple years now and I usually try and help him by going with him to pick up packages of bees, painting hives, and sometimes helping him check on the hives.  I’m not a huge fan of bees so helping him actually go in the hive makes me nervous and is not something I’m a huge fan of, but I’m hoping that once I’m out of school I’ll possibly be able to help him more with other processes like spinning and bottling the honey from the season.

Volunteering

          I’ve done some volunteering for different groups throughout the years and I think it would be nice to keep it up.  I’ll have to keep my eyes open for days that things like that are happening for cleanups around the town and surrounding towns.  Other things I could try and participate in could be Arbor Day or Earth Day.  Doing these activities I think will really help the communities to look better and clean up as well as make me feel like I’m doing a bigger part in the world.  I think that these will also give me a chance to be outside more and possibly make new friends and relationships with people.

Composting & Chickens

          Composting would be a way to greatly reduce the amount of waste that I would be potentially sending to the landfills.  I don’t think that it would be smelly, and if it was I’m sure I could figure out a place to put it where it wouldn’t smell.  Plus it would be a great source of fertilizer for the people I know who plant.  Chickens would also be a way to reduce my carbon footprint because I wouldn't be buying eggs that would otherwise have traveled possibly across country in large vans.  They would be fresh, free range chickens without any hormones in them, and they aren't very hard animals to take care of.  I have an aunt and uncle who do composting as well as have chickens and they never seem to have a problem other than the occasional hawk attack on their birds.  

Solar Panels

          My old house had a couple solar panels on the garage and supposedly helped to keep some prices down on our bills.  I think the solar panels would be a great thing to have and would definitely help in the long run.  The only real issues that I think would come with this would be the cost, or initial investment, of them and actually having a place where I could put them in.

Pollen

       One of the proxies that is used for paleoclimatology is pollen.  Pollen is a good proxy to utilize because it can be found in both ice core samples as well as lake sediments or mud cores.  This is due to the fact that pollen grains can be washed away by rainfall and blown around by wind sending it to various areas.  By doing so this allows there to be a record of the vegetation that was around during a certain time.
     

        Pollen counts can be used in order to see how much of a certain vegetation species was present during the specific year that the sample is taken from in a layer.  Knowing what plants are present will give paleoclimatologists knowledge about not only what species were present, but also predicted temperatures and precipitation for an area.  Certain plants will only grow under certain conditions which is what makes this kinda of proxy work.


      Pollen can be identified in a multitude of ways.  Such ways include shape, divets or cones/spikes, and color.  One such pollen grain that is easily identifiable is pine.  Pine pollen grains are also known as 'The Mickey Mouse Pollen".  This is due to its uncanny resemblance to a Mickey Mouse head.






NOAA. "Fossil and Surface Pollen Data."National Climate Data Center. N.p., 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 May 2013. <www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pollen.html>.

Wiki. "Paleoclimatology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 May 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology>.

Attack of the Pollen

     Elaine Thompson, for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, recently wrote an article about the recent and current onset of allergies that are present throughout the area.  She says that experts believe that the rising carbon dioxide levels and the warming temperatures, in part due to climate change, have cause there to be an early start in our growing season.  Due to this there will be a longer period of time that trees, flowers, and grasses are growing and producing pollen, as well as causing migraines and sneezing fits for others.  Some doctors in the Worcester area have said that there is a long wait for people to get in for allergy testing. 
     Dr. Leonard Bielory, an allergy specialist, said that a model developed around ragweed pollen counts revealed that the pollen season has been beginning increasingly early and lasting longer in the northern states.  Pollen is dependent on sunlight, moisture, and warm temperatures, each of which can be affected through climate change.
     With about 1 in 5 Americans suffer from some type of allergy, around 60 million, there are about 40 million who list allergies to pollen or plant materials to their primary allergy.  The closest cure that is available is immunotherapy, which is building up a tolerance to said allergy by increasing the dosage of the substance.


Original Source:  Pollen Pandemonium: Allergy Sufferers Face Intense Season

Thompson, Elaine. "Pollen Pandemonium: Allergy Sufferers Face Intense Season." Worcester Telegram $ Gazette 26 Apr. 2013, sec. News: n. pag. http://www.telegram.com/. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.

A Classroom Visit

       Last week Dr. Hanselman, a biology professor at Westfield State University, talked to my class about her research in paleoecology and palynology.  Looking at proxies, such as vegetation pollen, give insight to past climates in areas around the world.  The presence of pollen in core samples indicates what vegetation is, and was, around the lakes.  Pollens can be washed into lakes through rain runoff or blown into the area by means of wind movement.
       Pollen species have certain details such as pore spaces, textures, and grooves that can be used for identification.  Pollen from pine trees is in the shape of a mickey-mouse head.  Some species, such as polylepis, is used as an indicator plant because it can only grow in specific conditions.  It is also seen to grow during the beginning and ending of interglacial times, but isn’t present at the peak of interglacials.  Nowadays pollen samples of this species are lower due to harvesting by native peoples.
       Dr. Hanselman talked about a specific sample that she did at Lake Titicaca, which is between Bolivia and Peru.  Through analysis of the core samples that were taken from the lake she was able to see that most glacial taxa are the same and that most interglacial taxa are the same.  During the glacial times there is a decrease in both pollen and charcoal found in samples while during the interglacial times there is an increase in pollen and charcoal, which indicates a warmer and dryer time.  

More information about Dr. Hanselman can be found here: http://biology.westfield.ma.edu/faculty-and-staff/jenniferhanselman