Adaptation Literature Review: February 2012

Here's the latest summary of literature.  Enjoy!

There are many factors that can affect how organisms and ecosystems will respond to climate change. In a study of a pollinator/plant interaction Hoover et al. (2012) found that nitrogen deposition, climate warming and CO2 enrichment altered flower attractiveness and plant chemistry which lead to a reduction in pollinator survival. 

Sih et al. (2012) related animal behavior to population ecology and how it might affect species’ distribution and abundance, species interactions, population dynamics, response to rapid environmental change, and ecological invasions.

Eisenhauer et al. (2012) studied soil food webs and ecosystems in response to changes in CO2, Nitrogen deposition, and drought and found that multiple changes in abiotic factors simplified soil ecosystems and caused a loss of biodiversity.

In an outdoor freshwater mesocosm experiment Greig et al. (2012) investigated the interactive effects of warming, eutrophication, and changes in top predators on the flux of biomass between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They found that predatory fish caused a decrease in the emergence of aquatic organisms and a decline in decline in the decomposition of plant detritus, but warming and nutrients had the opposite effect.                                                                               

Several papers discuss factors that may affect carbon emissions in natural systems including the thawing of permafrost under aerobic and anaerobic conditions (Lee et al., 2012); changes in albedo and radiative forcing in disturbed forests (O’Halloran et al., 2012); and transition to a disturbance-dominated regime in the Amazon basin (Davidson et al., 2012). 

Ecological Restoration: 2 recent papers analyzed ecosystems that have been managed for restoration and use by humans. Lu et al. (2012) analyzed changes in ecosystem services (water regulation, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, grain production) from 2000-2008 in the Loess Plateau area of China in an area of ecological rehabilitation.  Leisher et al. (2012) discuss a TNC project of grassland management in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.

A recent paper by Jacobson and Hoeve (2012) estimated the contribution of the urban heat island effect to global warming and the changes to this effect by white roofs.  

Jaisner et al. (2012) found that changes in Arctic sea ice cover are affecting atmospheric winter circulation in the Northern hemisphere.

Marine/coastal: Iles et al. (2012) studied the effects of climate change on upwelling along the coast of the western US. They found that changes in coastal upwelling are happening and this is altering the recruitmet of barnacles and mussels with potential ramifications for ecosystem structure and functioning.  A news article in the February 2012 issue of Nature by Schrope discusses the possible incresase in jellyfish in reponse to climate change.  Incardona et al. (2012) Found in field and lab conditions that weathered oil from the Cosco Busan oil spill caused mortality of herring embryos when also exposed to UV light.  Kleiven et al. (2012) estimated the total catch of European lobster in southeast Norway and found that the total estimated catch (reported catch plus illegal and recreational) was about 14 times higher than the officially reported catch.  DiFranco et al. (2012) looked at the dispersal of larval and post-settlement stages of a fish in a Mediterranean rocky reef and discussed dispersal in relation to the design of marine protected areas.