MONTHLY NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2019
Woods Hole Research Center Warning signs on Alaskan tundra Dr. Sue Natali
Report: land use policy shifts needed to fight climate change by Miles Grant
When I look back on this year’s Polaris Project trip to the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, I’ll remember our incredible student and faculty participants, the world-class science they produced, and the local residents who shared their firsthand experiences with climate change impacts. I’ll also remember some unexpected glimpses into our climate-changed future—extreme heat, strong lightning storms, wildfire smoke, and huge slumps of rapidly thawing permafrost. Through the Polaris Project, WHRC scientists have been bringing students to the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta, investigating the impacts and implications of global climate change, permafrost thaw, and wildfires. Our journey took us through Anchorage to Bethel, and finally to the campsite, located about 50 miles from Bethel on the Alaskan tundra. The weather was cool and damp at the beginning of the expedition, but it soon turned hot, with temperatures hitting 90°F and continuing Bethel’s record-breaking year. Every month this year has been at least 5°F above the historic average. February was 17.3° above average (breaking the all-time record by 3.3°). On top of the heat, there was also a lot of smoke from nearby wildfires, which made for very difficult working conditions. We were fortunate the fires stayed clear of camp or we would have had to evacuate.
We saw signs of accelerating permafrost thaw, including massive ground collapse. In areas affected by a 2015 wildfire, thaw depths were a meter or more, which is roughly
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A major new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC), co-authored by WHRC’s Dr. Richard Houghton, calls for urgent improvements in land use, agriculture and forest management if the world is to contain climate change.
The IPCC’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land says 23 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions now come from agriculture, deforestation, and destruction of peatlands. Animals raised for meat and dairy (cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats) account for 41 percent of humancaused methane emissions. Poor land management is also hurting soil, now being lost 10 to 100 times faster than it can be naturally replaced. Burning fossil fuels remains the world’s largest source of human-caused emissions. “What this report makes clear is that as human populations grow, we must manage land deliberately if we want to increase or even maintain prosperity,” said WHRC President Dr. Philip Duffy. “With proper management, land areas that are now contributing to climate change can become part of the solution. Our continued research will show how to do this.”
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double what we've seen the last couple of years. It’s alarming because globally, permafrost stores more carbon than humans have ever emitted by burning fossil fuels, and that carbon is rapidly thawing, placing it at risk of decomposition and release into the atmosphere.
Just as important as the research we conducted during the trip is what we left behind. WHRC Research Assistant Sarah Ludwig put up a flux tower that will measure carbon dioxide and methane emissions from tundra, wetlands, and lakes. There’s a critical shortage of emissions data from thawing permafrost and this tower will be one step toward bridging the gap. We recently received funding from the Moore Foundation to install a second tower in an area that burned in 2015 so that we can better understand the long-term consequences of wildfire on permafrost carbon. We’re hoping to secure further funding to put up more towers in additional areas.
Alaska’s permafrost is a critical bellwether. Research shows much of the permafrost could be thawed by the end of the century—if not much sooner. But how much permafrost thaws depends on the choices we make now. If we act to get off of fossil fuels and simultaneously protect and restore natural carbon kept safely in forests and soils, we can avoid the worst harms of climate change. The fate of Alaska—and the world—is in our hands. Dr. Sue Natali is an Associate Scientist and Arctic Program Director at WHRC, and she is Director of the Polaris Project. Read student blog posts detailing this year’s expedition at ThePolarisProject.org.
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The report makes several key policy recommendations:
• Protect and restore sources of carbon storage like forests and coastal wetlands. Natural land and forests currently absorb one-third of emissions from fossil fuels and industry and could retain more with proper management. • Use policy to encourage climate-friendly farming and grazing practices that sequester carbon by rebuilding soil organic matter. • Reduce food waste and consume less meat.
“Human land uses like deforestation and agriculture have contributed significantly to climate change by emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,” Dr. Houghton said. “But we know that proper management of land can be a big part of the climate change solution.”
Climate Change and Land is part of a series of Special Reports being produced as part of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Cycle. It was prepared by 107 experts from 52 countries, and was the first IPCC report in which a majority of the authors (53 percent) are from developing countries. The report included over 7,000 cited references and considered a total of 28,275 expert and government review comments. The IPCC’s next Special Report will be on “Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,” examining how global warming is impacting ice sheets, glaciers, and permafrost. That report is set to be released in September 2019.
WHRC extends relationship with Brazilian university by Dave McGlinchey WHRC recently extended a longstanding agreement to collaborate with the Federal University of Acre, a Brazilian institution based in the city of Rio Branco.
The Memorandum of Understanding, signed by WHRC President Dr. Philip Duffy and the university’s rector Dr. Margarida de Aquino Cunha, has been in place since 1993. The relationship is underpinned by Dr. Foster Brown, one of WHRC’s longestserving scientists. “The agreement has served as a basis for studies on the impacts of land use and climate change,” Brown said. “Its most important product has been the dozens of young professionals who have participated in the Sector for Land Use and Global Change Studies of the Zoobotanical Park, an integrative center of the Federal University of Acre. Many of those have assumed roles as secretaries of environment at the state and municipal levels, heads of regional environmental organizations, university professors, and as high school teachers.”
WHRC scientists work in several locations across Brazil, with most field research conducted alongside scientists
from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute at the Tanguro research station in Mato Grasso state at the southern edge of the Amazon rainforest. Acre is a Brazilian state located in the northwest part of the country, bordering Peru and Bolivia. The federal university has about 10,000 students, including a “Forest Campus.”
Brazil is facing a deforestation crisis, with President Jair Bolsonaro undercutting protections for indigenous reserves and conservation areas. WHRC is working with partners in the country to supply science for policy makers and decision makers to explain the importance of the forests for regional and global climate stability.
WHRC Senior Scientist Dr. Foster Brown, back center, with Federal University of Acre students. The agreement with the Federal University of Acre recognizes “the importance of cooperation between the USA and Brazil in the fields of science and sustainable development, desiring to enhance this cooperation and promote exchanges.”
WHRC opposes woody biomass energy expansion proposals by Miles Grant Two recent proposals to promote burning wood for electricity are drawing opposition from Woods Hole Research Center. In Massachusetts, the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) is proposing to modify its definitions of clean energy to allow more forest bioenergy to receive subsidies from the Commonwealth. In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College has announced plans to replace its oilfired steam heating system with a $200 million wood-burning heating plant. Burning wood to generate energy puts more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than burning fossil fuels to create the same amount of energy, because wood has a lower energy density.
“Proponents of burning wood argue that the greenhouse gas emissions will be offset by future forest regrowth, but that takes decades—if it happens at all. That’s not good enough to control climate change,” said WHRC President Dr. Philip Duffy. “Instead of investing in solutions that we know aren’t good enough, we should be investing in truly clean energy infrastructure.”
Research has shown that burning wood for energy can harm the climate and natural systems in other ways as well. Clearing forests releases carbon from soils and that soil carbon storage may not recover for decades, according to a recent WHRC study. Natural hardwood forest are often replaced with fast-growing forest plantations that don’t store as much carbon. The United Nations’ IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land released this month warned that bioenergy needs to be carefully managed to avoid risks not only of rising temperatures but to food security, biodiversity and land degradation. Dr. Duffy, along with WHRC Chair Dr. William R. Moomaw and MIT professor Dr. John Sterman, submitted public comment to DOER opposing the plan to expand both the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS). “If the proposed regulations are implemented, they will undermine the goals of the Massachusetts Global Warm-
ing Solutions Act endorsed by Governor Baker because burning wood will increase climate change by adding additional heat trapping carbon dioxide to the atmosphere,” they wrote. “The state can create a regulation to incentivize the burning of wood, but nature will not change its laws to comply. One might as well pass a regulation to change the timing of the tides or the progression of the seasons as to pass these regulations that falsely claim that burning wood or wood waste will reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, WHRC Founder George Woodwell co-authored an op-ed in the Lebanon, NH Valley News, along with fellow Dartmouth alumni Sterman and William Schlesigner, calling on the college to abandon the biomass plant proposal and invest in clean energy and efficiency instead. “[S]hifting from heating oil to wood to supply that energy will increase the college’s carbon emissions substantially, worsening global warming and climatic disruption at a time when dramatic emissions reductions are urgently needed to limit climate change,” they wrote. “We urge the college to avoid making a heavy investment in a mistaken assumption that a wood-fired heating plant will benefit the college or the world.”
Study of Soviet Union quantifies carbon savings of land use policy changes by Miles Grant A new study found that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, greenhouse gas emissions from Russian agriculture decreased sharply. Between 1991 and 2011, the reduction in emissions was equivalent to about a quarter of the emissions from deforestation in Latin America, according to a study co-authored by WHRC Senior Scientist Dr. Richard Houghton. While the emissions reduction was a one-time event, it shows that policy prescriptions outlined in the recent IPCC special report on land use could have dramatic real-world effect. “This is a different kind of study in that it doesn't just look at a snapshot in time—it puts science in a sociopolitical context,” said WHRC Senior Scientist Dr. Richard Houghton, who co-authored both the Soviet Union study and the IPCC report. “This was potentially the biggest land use change
outside the tropics in recent decades. I’m greatly simplifying, but generations ago, Stalin insisted on expanding the area of croplands in the USSR regardless of the demands of the market. When the Soviet Union collapsed, suddenly many of those farms were abandoned.”
The key drivers of the emissions reductions were decreased beef consumption in the 1990s, increased beef imports after 2000 (mainly from South America) and increased carbon sequestration in soils on abandoned cropland. Changes in food production, consumption, and trade together resulted in a net emissions reduction of 7.61 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents from 1992 to 2011. The reductions may have been temporary as beef consumption and associated emissions are now on the rise.
“If you look around the world right now, many places are still clearing forests for farming and ranching, increasing emissions of carbon dioxide. This study shows that we can turn that around and cut emissions, if we want to,” Dr. Houghton said.
The Polaris Project class of 2019 by Emily Marshall natalie baillargeon is an environmental science and policy student from Smith College. Baillargeon is studying how tundra fire impacts vegetation and vegetation nutrients. “In the wet tundra of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta (YKD), fire has always been generally unusual. With climate change, there will likely be an increase in fire frequency and severity in the YKD, and in Alaskan tundra in general,” Baillargeon said. Baillargeon also interned this summer with the WHRC communications team.
gabe duran is a biology and geography/ environmental systems student from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Duran is investigating how fire might influence the rate at which water moves through soils and if this, in turn, affects the movement of nutrients in groundwater through the landscape. “I would love to continue with Arctic research and attend graduate school in water resources or civil engineering,” Duran said. “I want to focus my work more on integrative research and study where the sciences and social justice can cross.”
anneka williams is a biology and earth/oceanographic sciences student at Bowdoin College. Williams’ research explores what role plants play in methane emission in the Arctic, and what effect tundra fires have on plant-mediated methane transport. “Methane emissions contribute to climate change, so understanding the role plants play in total emissions is important,” Williams said. After Polaris, she hopes to earn her Ph.D. within the field of earth sciences and continue to do remote field work. lucy packer is a conservation biology and environmental studies student at Warren Wilson College. Packer is studying how wildfires affect aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. “Aquatic invertebrates can be indicators of water quality,” Packer said. “Changes in those communities can be used to determine if and how the ecosystem is changing.”
ellen bradley is a biology and environmental studies student from Gonzaga University. Bradley is investigating how tundra fires influence phytoplankton communities in the lakes of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta, 4 years after the 2015 burn. “If fire allows more nutrients to enter the lakes, likely increasing phytoplankton populations, this will have an influence on how the entire ecosystem functions, both trophically and in how biogeochemical processes occur,” Bradley said. In the future, she plans to conduct research aimed at understanding how climate change will influence indigenous people, in a way that will support these communities.
rhys macarthur is an ecology and environmental justice student at Hampshire College. She was also a member of last year’s group, and was eager to return to the field this year. MacArthur is studying the effect fire has on vegetation composition, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem function. “It’s absolutely crucial that we understand how fires change vegetation in order to accurately project the carbon emissions coming from this region,” MacArthur said. She also interned at WHRC this summer with Assistant Scientist Dr. Sue Natali. henry henson is a biology and environmental studies student at St. Olaf College. Henson’s research explores whether permafrost thaw will change the sediment of adjacent lakes and influence methane flux. “As the climate warms, more permafrost will thaw, and more fires will occur. This will likely result in the increase of ground destabilization and slumping of old and, until recently, unexposed organic material into water bodies,” Henson said. “Once this movement has occurred, more decomposition and methane ebullition may occur. This may further the greenhouse warming feedback by adding a large amount of methane to the atmosphere.”
aqua sanders is a marine science student from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research strives to answer the question “does permafrost thaw-driven ground collapse create a nitrous oxide source?” This research is significant to the greater climate change conversation because nitrous oxide is 300x more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, and could increase the warming rate. Sanders is pursuing a career as an Arctic scientist. mike moubarak is a biology and applied math student from Hamilton College. His research focuses on tundra wildfire. “I’m trying to create a field based method for calculating the amount of carbon released during a tundra fire,” he said. Moubarak’s work will help develop better methods of accounting for carbon release to the atmosphere. “I want to strengthen the connection between science and the public through research relevant to real world problems and practicing good communication.”
ellis lyles is an environmental science conservation and restoration student from Loyola University Chicago. Lyles is investigating how tundra wildfires are affecting leaf and berry production. He’s specifically interested in edible or medicinal plants that are important to Arctic Indigenous communities. “I want to work with black/African communities and get them more involved in STEM programs,” Lyles wrote.
WHRC earns higher ratings from charity evaluators by Miles Grant Citing a strong financial base and a deep commitment to transparency and accountability, two leading national charity evaluators have recently raised their ratings for Woods Hole Research Center. Charity Navigator recognized WHRC with four stars, its highest rating, and GuideStar awarded WHRC its 2019 Gold Seal of Transparency.
“WHRC relies on the generosity of our supporters, and it is critical that they trust we’re using their donations wisely to conduct pioneering science, understand our rapidly changing climate, and develop solutions. Our 4-star Charity Navigator rating and our GuideStar Gold Seal of Transparency demonstrate our good governance and financial accountability. I’m proud of the WHRC team for earning this recognition,” said WHRC President and Executive Director Dr. Phil Duffy.
Charity Navigator is the largest charity evaluator in America, helping guide intelligent giving by studying and ratting more than 8,000 charities.
“On behalf of Charity Navigator, I wish to congratulate Woods Hole Research Center on attaining the coveted 4-star rating for demonstrating strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency,” said Michael Thatcher, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, in a letter informing WHRC of the recognition. “This is our highest possible rating and indicates that your organization adheres to sector best practices and executes its mission in a financially efficient way. Attaining a 4-star rating verifies that WHRC exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in your area of work.”
GuideStar released the first-ever searchable electronic database of nonprofits in 1996, helping drive the nonprofit transparency revolution. Over the years, GuideStar expanded the database to include all taxexempt organizations registered with IRS; the database currently comprises profiles of 2.7 million organizations. To contribute to Woods Hole Research Center, visit whrc.org/donate. Other options include incorporating WHRC in your will or estate plans, contributing from your IRA tax-free, and gifts of securities or real estate. To discuss those or other options, contact Alison Smart, Vice President for Strategy & Advancement, at 508-444-1545 or asmart@whrc.org.
In the news : highlights 5 Takeaways For New England From U.N. Report On Climate Change And Land Use. WBUR quotes Skee Houghton. August 8 Mega-Trees Are the New Weapon Against Climate Change. The Daily Beast quotes Skee Houghton. August 8 Climate change: how the jet stream is changing your weather. Financial Times quotes Jennifer Francis. August 6
Climate change is coming for your travel plans. Here’s how to cope. Washington Post quotes Jennifer Francis. August 5 Arctic wildfires are releasing as much carbon as Belgium did last year. Grist quotes Carly Phillips. August 2 College holds biomass plant forum, responds to criticism. The Dartmouth mentions George Woodwell. August 2
3 tips for the doomsday investor. Investment News quotes Spencer Glendon. August 2 Heat, stagnation: Impact of climate change in Alabama. Alabama Political Reporter quotes Jennifer Francis. August 1
Melted Permafrost in Alaska a Sign of Accelerating Climate Change, WCAI’s Living Lab Radio interview with Sue Natali. July 29 Three Dartmouth alumni oppose $200 million biomass plant. NH Union Leader quotes George Woodwell. July 29
Volunteer Opportunity
To save ourselves, we must end the president’s war on science. James Neal column, CNHI Newspapers (chain of small papers in south central US), quotes Phil Duffy. July 26
Where 2020 Democrats stand on carbon tax, other climate change policies. PolitiFact quotes Jennifer Francis. July 25 It will feel much hotter in WA over the next century. We aren’t prepared, Cascade Public Media’s Crosscut quotes Zach Zobel. July 22 June 2019 was hottest month on record globally: NOAA. Reuters quotes Phil Duffy. July 18 Climate crisis: extremely hot days could double in US, study shows. The Guardian (UK) quotes Phil Duffy. July 18
Heat Wave Blankets Much Of The U.S. This Week. NPR quotes Jennifer Francis. July 18
‘A sublime experience’: Aitken’s mirrored hot air balloon spurs reflection about our future landscape. Berkshire Eagle mentions WHRC, Spencer Glendon & Chris Neill. July 18
Foster Brown interviewed with Acre (Brazil) State Representative Dr. Jenilson Leite on climate change & alternative energy sources. The interview was conducted live on Facebook and Instagram with the audio sent to local FM radio stations. June 29
WHRC seeks a volunteer to assist on our Siberian methane crater research project. The volunteer will search through high resolution imagery looking for crater patterns. The volunteer would be trained in how to use the appropriate software at WHRC's campus, but may be able to conduct work remotely after that. If you're interested in participating, email gfiske@whrc.org.
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On August 3, WHRC's Dr. Jen Francis was interviewed by Boston 25 News on the relationship between climate change and extreme weather. "The last time the Earth was as warm as it is today, the place where we're standing right now was under 30 feet of water," Francis told Boston 25 News correspondent Kevin Lemanowicz. "It's not a question of IF this is coming, it's how fast."