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-Currently, divers have to make visual inspections to spot invading plants such as western waterweed that flourishes due to changing temperatures
-Scientists of Technische Universität München have written software than can spot invading plants from space
-The German researchers measure reflectance of various plant species that reflect light in different ways to glean information about climate change
At first glance, this psychedelic satellite image looks like an alien landscape - but scientists say it and others like it could actually hold the key to accurately measuring the effect of climate change.
German researchers have developed a new technique using bright colours to show the spread of aquatic plants in lakes, and say it reveals a key indicator of the effect of climate change - and can be used to quickly analyse satellite images from around the globe.
Currently, divers have to make visual inspections to spot invading plants which flourish due to changing temperatures.
The researchers said their findings show that the distribution of marine life is being re-arranged as the oceans get warmer. The research team includes 19 scientists from Australia, the United States, Canada, Britain, Europe and South Africa. According to the scientists, marine species are escaping the warming waters by heading toward the Earth’s polar regions at a rate of up to 72 kilometers per decade. That compares to land-based species that are moving toward the poles at an average of six kilometers per decade. “We found that, on average, marine organisms are moving three to 10 times faster than land-based organisms,” said David Schoeman, a member of the research team from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. “They are moving at a rate of 30-72 kilometers per decade, compared with estimates of 6-16 kilometers per decade for land-based species.”
Many fish and other marine life are migrating toward cooler waters because of climate change.
One of the study‘s two leaders, Dr. Elvira Poloczanska from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, said that winter and spring temperatures, over both the ocean and land, are warming fastest and that this could alter the rhythm of events such as feeding and the timing of marine life reproduction and migration. She also points out that the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide produced by humans is changing the chemistry of seawater, which can impact some marine organisms. "Given these findings, we expect marine organisms to have responded to recent climate change with magnitudes similar to or greater than those found for terrestrial species," Poloczanska said.
Even breeding cycles affected
Anthony Richardson, the study’s other leader, explained that the timing of marine life breeding is taking place, on average, 4.4 days earlier each decade, which is also much faster than land based species that are breeding around 2.3 to 2.8 days earlier each decade. Among the marine species that have been showing the greatest reaction to the warming ocean environment, according to the researchers, are phytoplankton, zooplankton, and bony fish. To reach their findings, the researchers built a large database that noted 1,735 changes in marine life. The information for the database was taken from peer-reviewed literature from around the world that was based on observations made over an average of 40 years.
The researchers said their work is different from similar studies that were done in the past because those studies relied on terrestrial data to estimate the impact of on marine life. "This is the first comprehensive documentation of what is happening in our marine systems in relation to climate change," said Camille Parmesan, a member of the research team who is with the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in California. "What it reveals is that the changes occurring on land are being matched by the oceans. And far from being a buffer and displaying more minor changes, what we're seeing is a far stronger response from the oceans."
Marine Life Reacting Faster to Climate Change
Various germs and parasites may find the coming years a time to live longer and prosper. Rising temperatures are changing environments and removing some of their natural impediments. Sonia Altizer is an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology and lead author of the study. She said it’s a review of research done over the past 10 years to see what trends and new information on climate change have emerged. “One of the big themes that has emerged is that there’s a lot of diseases, especially in natural systems, where there as a pretty clear signal that either the prevalence or severity of those diseases has increased in response to climate change.” She said some of those natural systems where the signal is strongest are in the arctic and in warmer oceans. “So in the arctic there are parasitic worms that affect muskox and reindeer, for example, that are developing faster and becoming more prevalent and expanding their ranges.
And then in tropical oceans, like Caribbean coral reefs, there’s a large amount of evidence that has mounted that shows that warming interferes with the symbiosis of corals – makes them more vulnerable to disease and at the same time increases the growth rate of some lethal bacteria,” she said. But a second theme emerged indicating that sometimes climate change may have no effect at all. “The other main point that we focused on is that knowing why different pathogens respond differently to climate change is what’s needed to help us predict and ultimately manage disease outbreaks in people and animals and plants,” she said.
Undated file photo provided by the U.S. Forest Service shows egg masses of the hemlock woolly adelgid. Scientists say climate change is a contributing factor.
Some countries will be much better prepared to handle the disease threat than others, like those in Europe and North America. “Surveillance, vector control, modern sanitation, drugs, vaccines can be deployed to prevent outbreaks of a lot of diseases, especially vector borne disease or diarrheal disease that are much more problematic in the developing world. And so these can counter the effects of climate change and make it hard to detect increases in those pathogens,” said Altizer. Controlling vectors means controlling such things as mosquitos and ticks, which can carry malaria or dengue fever. In developing countries, pathogens affecting agriculture and wildlife could adversely affect food security and the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.
So how concerned should health officials be? Altizer said there’s no simple answer. “I think that the answer to it really depends on the location. So where, when and what pathogen? So I think we’re at a stage now where in the next five to ten years scientists will be able to move towards a predictive framework that will be able to answer questions about where in the world and what pathogens are responding and will continue to respond most strongly to climate change.” Altizer says the effects of climate change will unfold over decades. So it’s vital to follow long-term standardized data for many diseases and pathogens. She said crop management may be a good example to follow. It has a long history of tracking disease outbreaks, forecasting potential threats and responding to those threats early.
http://www.voanews.com/content/climate-disease-2aug13/1722616.html
