Ponds Found To Take Up Carbon Like World’s Oceans
Research led by Iowa State University limnologist, or lake scientist, John Downing finds that ponds around the globe could absorb as much carbon as the world’s oceans.
Professor Downing found that constructed ponds and lakes on farmland in the United States bury carbon at a much higher rate than expected; as much as 20-50 times the rate at which trees trap carbon. In addition, ponds were found to take up carbon at a higher rate than larger lakes.
“Aquatic ecosystems play a disproportionately large role in the global carbon budget,” Downing said. “Despite being overlooked in the past, it’s small bodies of water that are important because they take up carbon at a high rate and there are more of them than previously thought. The combined effect is that farm ponds could be burying as much carbon as the world’s oceans, each year.”
Ponds capture carbon in two main ways:
The research estimated there are 304 million natural lakes and ponds in the world, covering an area of 4.2 million square kilometers, twice the area previously thought. As many as 90 percent of these water bodies are one hectare (two acres) or less in area.
Downing’s research team published its most recent findings in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles in a paper titled, “Sediment organic carbon burial in agriculturally eutrophic impoundments over the last century.” The team included members from Europe, the United States and Canada. The work was sponsored by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Downing has presented invited seminars on this research to the International Society of Limnology, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, and at several major research institutions in North America and Europe. Most recently, he was invited to discuss his research by the Pond Conservation, a charity in the United Kingdom dedicated to creating and protecting ponds and the wildlife they support. He will spoke today at University College London. An upcoming presentation is scheduled for the annual meeting of the European Pond Conservation Network in Valencia, Spain.
Jeremy Biggs, Pond Conservation director of policy and research, said the research has exciting implications. “It may be that ponds will be the modern equivalent of the swamps that formed coal in the past. But before we all rush into making ponds to trap carbon we need to do some basic research here in the UK. If the rate of carbon uptake in ponds in Europe is the same as that found in the USA study, we may well have discovered an important new natural way of trapping carbon,” he said.
Downing’s ongoing research, partnering with the United States Geological Survey, and his contributions to the Iowa Lakes Survey will investigate the role of small Iowa lakes in the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other important gases such as methane.
[John Downing @ Iowa State University]
New Breed Of Supercomputers For Improving Global Climate Predictions Proposed
Three researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have proposed an innovative way to improve global climate change predictions by using a supercomputer with low-power embedded microprocessors, an approach that would overcome limitations posed by today’s conventional supercomputers.
Berkeley Lab has signed a collaboration agreement with Tensilica, Inc. to explore the use of Tensilica’s Xtensa processor cores as the basic building blocks in a massively parallel system design. Tensilica’s Xtensa processor is about 400 times more efficient in floating point operations per watt than the conventional server processor chip shown here.
In a paper published in the May issue of the International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, Michael Wehner and Lenny Oliker of Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division, and John Shalf of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) lay out the benefit of a new class of supercomputers for modeling climate conditions and understanding climate change. Using the embedded microprocessor technology used in cell phones, iPods, toaster ovens and most other modern day electronic conveniences, they propose designing a cost-effective machine for running these models and improving climate predictions.
In April, Berkeley Lab signed a collaboration agreement with Tensilica, Inc. to explore such new design concepts for energy-efficient high-performance scientific computer systems. The joint effort is focused on novel processor and systems architectures using large numbers of small processor cores, connected together with optimized links, and tuned to the requirements of highly-parallel applications such as climate modeling.
Understanding how human activity is changing global climate is one of the great scientific challenges of our time. Scientists have tackled this issue by developing climate models that use the historical data of factors that shape the earth’s climate, such as rainfall, hurricanes, sea surface temperatures and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One of the greatest challenges in creating these models, however, is to develop accurate cloud simulations.
Although cloud systems have been included in climate models in the past, they lack the details that could improve the accuracy of climate predictions. Wehner, Oliker and Shalf set out to establish a practical estimate for building a supercomputer capable of creating climate models at 1-kilometer (km) scale. A cloud system model at the 1-km scale would provide rich details that are not available from existing models.
To develop a 1-km cloud model, scientists would need a supercomputer that is 1,000 times more powerful than what is available today, the researchers say. But building a supercomputer powerful enough to tackle this problem is a huge challenge.
Historically, supercomputer makers build larger and more powerful systems by increasing the number of conventional microprocessors — usually the same kinds of microprocessors used to build personal computers. Although feasible for building computers large enough to solve many scientific problems, using this approach to build a system capable of modeling clouds at a 1-km scale would cost about $1 billion. The system also would require 200 megawatts of electricity to operate, enough energy to power a small city of 100,000 residents.
In their paper, Towards Ultra-High Resolution models of Climate and Weather, the researchers present a radical alternative that would cost less to build and require less electricity to operate. They conclude that a supercomputer using about 20 million embedded microprocessors would deliver the results and cost $75 million to construct. This “climate computer” would consume less than 4 megawatts of power and achieve a peak performance of 200 petaflops.
“Without such a paradigm shift, power will ultimately limit the scale and performance of future supercomputing systems, and therefore fail to meet the demanding computational needs of important scientific challenges like the climate modeling,” Shalf said.
The researchers arrive at their findings by extrapolating performance data from the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM). CAM, developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, is a series of global atmosphere models commonly used by weather and climate researchers.
The “climate computer” is not merely a concept. Wehner, Oliker and Shalf, along with researchers from UC Berkeley, are working with scientists from Colorado State University to build a prototype system in order to run a new global atmospheric model developed at Colorado State.
“What we have demonstrated is that in the exascale computing regime, it makes more sense to target machine design for specific applications,” Wehner said. “It will be impractical from a cost and power perspective to build general-purpose machines like today’s supercomputers.”
Under the agreement with Tensilica, the team will use Tensilica’s Xtensa LX extensible processor cores as the basic building blocks in a massively parallel system design. Each processor will dissipate a few hundred milliwatts of power, yet deliver billions of floating point operations per second and be programmable using standard programming languages and tools. This equates to an order-of-magnitude improvement in floating point operations per watt, compared to conventional desktop and server processor chips. The small size and low power of these processors allows tight integration at the chip, board and rack level and scaling to millions of processors within a power budget of a few megawatts.
Berkeley Lab is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory located in Berkeley, California. It conducts unclassified scientific research and is managed by the University of California. Visit our Website at www.lbl.gov.
[Ucilia Wang @ DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]
Shopping Coupons and Codes
This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes
A Digital Haven for Terrorists on Our Own Shores?
If you use one of America’s top Internet service providers, you may share server space with an organization that enables worldwide terrorism, says a new study by Tel Aviv University.
A workshop on terrorist organizations and the Internet was organized for the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) by the Netvision Institute for Internet Studies (NIIS) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Technology Analysis & Forecasting, both of Tel Aviv University. Berlin’s Institute for Cooperation Management and Interdisciplinary Research (NEXUS), affiliated with the Technical University of Berlin, also participated in the workshop.
The findings were presented in Berlin to a closed audience of high-ranking representatives from NATO in February 2008.
Organizing and Recruiting Online
Enlisted by NATO officials to study the web activity of terrorist organizations, researchers found that some of the world’s most dangerous organizations are operating on American turf. Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad, and al-Qaeda all have websites hosted by popular American Internet service providers — the same companies that most of us use every day.
“These websites hosted in America are targeting Muslim mothers in America, Canada, the U.K. and all over the world, convincing them that being ‘Shahid’ or a suicide bomber is particularly good and very important for their sons,” says Prof. Niv Ahituv of the NIIS.
Available in English, Arabic, Spanish and other languages, the websites also provide tutorials on bomb building and enlist impressionable American and British Muslim women and men into a life of terror activity.
Free-Speech for Terrorists
Prof. Ahituv acknowledges the dilemma that America’s First Amendment creates — free-speech protections may foster propaganda directed towards the U.S. “America’s First Amendment protects these websites from being shut down,” he says, recognizing the irony of waging a war on terror when some of the most dangerous propaganda is being created at home.
According to the study, the Islamic Jihad operates 15 websites in Arabic and English, hosted by both U.S. and Canadian companies. Hamas operates 20 websites in eight languages, a portion of which are based in the U.S and Canada, while Hezbollah operates 20 websites, also hosted by companies in the U.S. and Canada.
Limited Successes and American Law
The FBI has shut down a few websites, but American law prevents the closure of most, says Prof. Ahituv. Terrorists could coordinate a 9/11-scale attack via these websites, he warns. There are, however, some people who believe that leaving those websites intact is desired in order to monitor content, trends and policy. It is hard to tell which side is right, adds Prof. Ahituv.
An issue of great concern is that terrorist organizations are using the Internet to bypass the role of the established press, he notes. “Since those organizations do not possess TV stations, radio stations and printed press outlets, they use the Internet to impart their views and events to the public and to the media.”
More information about the Netvision Institute for Internet Studies here.
[George Hunka @ American Friends of Tel Aviv University]
Make Projects: Small Form Factor PCs
Chances are you love playing music on your computer. And if you’ve ever longed to build a dedicated digital audio jukebox, now you can by following the instructions in an exciting new book from Make Projects — Small Form Factor PCs — can show you how.
Developed by the creative team that brings you Make — the groundbreaking magazine devoted entirely to DIY technology — and authored by Matthew Weaver and Duane Wessels, this latest title presents clear, easy-to-follow instructions for making your own easily customizable geeky devices by learning how to build and customize small form factor PCs from scratch.
“We want to show you how they work, how they look (inside and outside), and how you can use them,” write Weaver and Wessels. “We’ve written this book for people who like to tinker with both computer hardware and software.”
The book is also written for those of us who think smaller is better when it comes to computers. As Wessels elaborates, “Nobody wants a large, noisy, 200-Watt computer sitting on their entertainment center. And why use a full-size computer for your network firewall when a much smaller computer gets the job done while using only 1/10th the power? We want people to see how easy and fun it is to turn a small form factor computer into something that you can use in your home or workplace.”
The projects devised by Weaver and Wessels include all the necessary details for building eight different systems, from the shoebox-sized Shuttle system down to the stick-of-gum sized gumstix.
Thorough illustrations and step-by-step instructions make creating these projects easy:
- Digital Jukebox. Play your music collection with this Mini-ITX system that will fit anywhere
- Digital Video Recorder. Record and watch live television using a Shuttle ST62k-based system
- Network Appliances. Create and configure your own router and network monitor using embedded computers from Soekris
- Wi-Fi Extender. Extend the range of your Wi-Fi network with the Access Cube
- Portable Firewall. Protect your computer from unknown networks with a USB-powered firewall based on the OpenBlockS
- Handheld Wi-Fi Console. Turn the ZipIt Wireless Messenger into a go-anywhere, text-only, wireless handheld
- Tiny Bluetooth gizmo. Use the Bluetooth-powered gumstix computer to talk to cell phones, PDAs, and more
Shoebox sized and smaller, small form factor PCs can pack as much computing muscle as everything from a PDA to a full-sized desktop computer. Even better, they consume less power, have few or no moving parts, and are very quiet. Whether you plan to use one as a standalone PC or want to embed it in your next hacking project, this new up-to-the-minute resource from Make Projects is a must.
Oxygen Depletion: A New Form Of Ocean Habitat Loss
An international team of physical oceanographers including a researcher from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live or enter in search of food.
The new study is led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, and is co-authored by Janet Sprintall, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography and others. The researchers found through analysis of a database of ocean oxygen measurements that levels in tropical oceans at a depth of 300 to 700 meters (985 to 2,300 feet) have declined during the past 50 years. The ecological impacts of this increase could have substantial biological and economical consequences.
“We found the largest reduction in a depth of 300 to 700 meters (985 to 2,300 feet) in the tropical northeast Atlantic, whereas the changes in the eastern Indian Ocean were much less pronounced,” said Stramma. “Whether or not these observed changes in oxygen can be attributed to global warming alone is still unresolved. The reduction in oxygen may also be caused by natural processes on shorter time scales.”
Sprintall said the oxygen-poor areas have the potential to move into coastal areas via currents that flow from the mid-depth tropical oceans, where the oxygen changes were observed, and along the west coast of continents.
“The width of the low-oxygen zone is expanding deeper but also shoaling toward the ocean surface,” said Sprintall, a specialist in observing changes of fluxes in ocean properties such as heat distribution.
Sprintall contributed data to the study gathered during recent cruises undertaken as part of the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) program, a long-running study operated by the World Climate Research Programme that seeks to understand climate through ocean-atmosphere interactions.
The study, “Expanding Oxygen-Minimum Zones in the Tropical Oceans,” appears in the May 2 edition of the journal Science. The research team includes Stramma, Sprintall, NOAA scientist Gregory Johnson, and Volker Mohrholz from the Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnem??nde, Germany.
The team selected ocean regions for which they could obtain the greatest amount of data to document the decline in oxygen. Some of the more recent data came from oxygen sensors which have been added to about 150 of the profiling floats used in Argo, a worldwide network of sensors that track basic ocean conditions such as temperature and salinity. There are more than 3,000 Argo floats operating in the world’s oceans, and Sprintall said the quality of the data gathered by the Argo floats suggests that more units in the network should be outfitted with oxygen sensors.
Lisa Levin, a biological oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography who studies oxygen-minimum zones that intercept the seafloor, said an expansion of oxygen-minimum zones in the oceans could lead to diminished biodiversity and to the expanded distributions of organisms that have adapted to live in hypoxic, or oxygen-poor waters.
“I think it’s uncharted territory,” said Levin, who was not affiliated with the study. “Thicker oxygen minimum zones could affect nutrient cycling, predator-prey relationships and plankton migrations. Where the expanding oxygen-minimum zones impinge on continental margins, we could see huge ecosystem changes.”
[Rob Monroe and Mario Aguilera @ UC San Diego]
