Golden Eagles Fly Far and Wide in the Mojave plus 1 more |
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Golden Eagles Fly Far and Wide in the Mojave Posted: 08 Apr 2015 12:00 PM PDT
Summary: Golden eagles in the Mojave Desert travel farther, to different areas, and at different times of the year than previously understood, according to research by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners from other federal agencies, academia and the private sector
Contact Information: Susan Kemp ( Phone: 541-750-1047 ); Paul Laustsen ( Phone: 650-329-4046 );
BOISE, Idaho. — Golden eagles in the Mojave Desert travel farther, to different areas, and at different times of the year than previously understood, according to research by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners from other federal agencies, academia and the private sector. Conservation plans, such as the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, or DRECP, are being developed for the Mojave Desert, which stretches over the borders of California, Nevada and Arizona. The goal of the plan is to protect species like the golden eagle while allowing for renewable energy development, a sector that is seeing substantial growth. “Renewable energy projects have affected large numbers of eagles elsewhere, either directly through fatal encounters with energy infrastructure, or indirectly through loss of habitat,” said Melissa Braham, West Virginia University biologist and lead author of a new article published in the journal Biological Conservation. “This new study provides land managers with a better understanding of how the small population of golden eagles breeding in the Mojave Desert may be exposed to risk from renewable energy development in the area.” Telemetry data were used to determine the overall size of each eagle’s home range, what habitat types were included in the eagle’s home range, and the timing of eagle movements within that home range. The telemetry data documents golden eagle movement with a higher level of accuracy than ever before. The timing in golden eagle movements is likely linked to their breeding ecology and the seasonal variation in weather and prey availability. Researchers found that eagles did not expand their home ranges equally in all directions. Instead as home ranges enlarged, the eagles favored movement uphill, from the desert to the mountains. “Conservation measures outlined in the DRECP focus on protecting golden eagle nests by creating a narrow buffer around the nest,” said USGS wildlife biologist Todd Katzner. “This study shows eagle habitat use is complex and often extends to areas beyond the DRECP conservation buffer. Managers planning for DRECP’s adaptive approaches to habitat conservation may wish to consider the desert golden eagles’ seasonal changes in behavior and reliance on habitat outside the DRECP boundary.” “This study along with another recent article provide important baseline information on movement and distributions of protected raptor species within the DRECP,” said Katzner. “They also provide a framework to evaluate the risk that wildlife populations face from development in general, and of renewable energy, across these biologically important desert habitats.” The study was funded by the Bureau of Land Management and led by a team of scientists from West Virginia University, Cellular Tracking Technologies, the BLM, the American Eagle Research Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, and the USGS. |
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Scientists Predict Gradual, Prolonged Permafrost Greenhouse Gas Emissions Posted: 08 Apr 2015 10:15 AM PDT
Summary: A new scientific synthesis suggests a gradual, prolonged release of greenhouse gases from permafrost soils in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, which may afford society more time to adapt to environmental changes, say scientists in a paper published in Nature today
Contact Information: Ryan McClymont, USGS ( Phone: 503-251-3237 ); Marie Thoms, UAF ( Phone: 907-474-7412 ); FAIRBANKS, AK— A new scientific synthesis suggests a gradual, prolonged release of greenhouse gases from permafrost soils in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, which may afford society more time to adapt to environmental changes, say scientists in a paper published in Nature today. “Twenty years ago there was very little research about the possible rate of permafrost carbon release,” said co-author A. David McGuire, a senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and a climate modeling expert with the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “In 2011, we assembled an international team of scientists into the Permafrost Carbon Network to synthesize existing research and answer the questions of how much permafrost carbon is out there, how vulnerable to decomposition it is once it’s thawed, and what are the forms in which it’s released into the atmosphere.” Permafrost soils contain twice as much carbon as there is currently in the atmosphere. As the climate warms and permafrost thaws, microbial breakdown of organic carbon increases and can accelerate the release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere creating even more warming. In high-latitude regions of the Earth, temperatures have risen 0.6 C (1.1 F) per decade during the last thirty years – twice as fast as the global average. Permafrost has warmed nearly 11 degrees F in the past 30 years, according to co-author Vladimir Romanovsky, a permafrost expert with the UAF Geophysical Institute. In the 1980s, the temperature of permafrost in Alaska, Russia and other Arctic regions averaged to be almost 18 F. Now the average is just over 28 F. Two decades ago, scientists thought that as permafrost thawed, carbon would be released in a big “bomb” and significantly accelerate climate warming. “The data from our team’s syntheses don’t support the permafrost carbon bomb view,” said McGuire. “What our syntheses do show is that permafrost carbon is likely to be released in a gradual and prolonged manner, and that the rate of release through 2100 is likely to be of the same order as the current rate of tropical deforestation in terms of its effects on the carbon cycle.” Most climate modelers want to incorporate the permafrost carbon feedback into their models, say these scientists, but whether they do or do not is a matter of their priorities given the multitude of issues that such models must consider. McGuire, Romanovsky and their co-authors consider the synthesis very important information for climate modeling groups in setting their priorities. “If society’s goal is to try to keep the rise in global temperatures under 2 degrees C (3.6 F) and we haven’t taken permafrost carbon release into account in terms of mitigation efforts, then we might underestimate that amount of mitigation effort required to reach that goal,” McGuire said. Scientists in the Permafrost Carbon Network plan to continue to help the modeling community make refinement to improve representation of permafrost carbon and its fate in a warming world. They recommend improved observation networks, including remote sensing capabilities to quantify real-time carbon dioxide and methane emissions from permafrost regions. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Interior Department’s Alaska Climate Science Center, and the Climate and Land-Use Program at USGS. The Alaska Climate Science Center provides scientific information to help natural resource managers and policy makers respond effectively to climate change. |
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