MONTHLY NEWSLETTER MAY 2019
Woods Hole Research Center A new reason to value WHRC’s work Dr. Philip B. Duffy President & Executive Director Climate science and policy discussions are so focused on what we need to do (but are not doing) in the next several decades, that very little attention is paid to “the end game,” maintaining a stable and safe climate into perpetuity.
That requires levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases which are steady or decreasing and are low enough that the climate is livable in most places where people are now. To get there we need to cease all direct human emissions of greenhouse gases (from fossil fuel burning, land use change, agriculture etc.) That’s difficult enough, goodness knows, but it’s only the beginning. Biogenic feedbacks, such as thawing permafrost, add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This means that even if direct human emissions of greenhouse gases are completely shut off, these feedbacks will continue to push us into a warmer climate. That of course would strengthen the feedback emissions, and it would only get worse from there.
In other words, greenhouse gas emissions from biogenic feedbacks threaten to undo all of the hard work it would take to stop human emissions of greenhouse gases, work which so many of us are so fervently engaged in. As discussed in a recent paper published by the National Academy of Sciences, these feedback emissions tend to push us into a “hothouse Earth” through uncontrolled climate warming. This is a situation we want to avoid, to put it mildly. What does this have to do with WHRC’s work? Everything, as it turns out. The paper lists five biogenic feedback mechanisms which tend to destabilize Earth’s climate,
Value continued on next page
Grant sustains landmark Plum Island estuary study in new phase by Miles Grant Woods Hole Research Center and partners are launching the next phase of a long-term collaborative study in the salt marsh ecosystems in the Plum Island Estuary, to learn how long it takes for salt marshes to recover from long-term nutrient pollution. The first-of-its-kind study will examine what happens when the flow of nutrients stops, and what we can do to help speed recovery. The study is part of The TIDE Project, a collaboration launched in 2002, and is supported by a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Nutrient runoff pollution from agriculture, septic tanks and sewage systems, lawns, and the burning of fossil fuels has increased dramatically worldwide over the last century, damaging coastal ecosystems. Previous WHRC research, led by Senior Scientist Linda Deegan, has shown excessive nutrient pollution causes changes in marsh microbes, algae and plant life that causes marsh edges to collapse, compromising the salt marsh’s ability to keep up with rising ocean water. Researchers have also seen declining populations of a small fish called the mummichog, which travels into the marsh to feed and reproduce, and then themselves become an important food source for larger fish and seabirds.
Plum Island continued on next page
WHRC is an independent research organization where scientists study climate change and how to solve it, from the Amazon to the Arctic. Learn more at www.whrc.org.