Headline News Archive
December 4, 2017 - Much of the attention placed on climate change is at the global or national level, but in Florida, where climate has been and continues to be one of its most important assets, an in-depth look at the state-level effects of a changing and varying climate is long overdue. A new book published by the Florida Climate Institute focuses on Florida's climate, changing sea levels, the impacts of these changes, and how our societal and natural systems may adapt to anticipated changes. Florida's Climate: Changes, Variations, & Impacts provides a thorough review of the current state of research on Florida's climate, including physical climate benchmarks; climate prediction, projection, and attribution; and the impacts of climate and climate change on the people and natural resources in the state.
November 17, 2017 - Dr. Andrea Dutton, Assistant Professor of Geology at the University of Florida, has been named one of Rolling Stone Magazine's "25 People Shaping the Future in Tech, Science, Medicine, Activism and More." Dr. Dutton studies sea level reconstruction over glacial-interglacial timescales with an emphasis on establishing the behavior of sea level and ice sheets during interglacial periods to better inform us about future sea-level rise. "I think of myself as a detective," she says. "By understanding what happened in the past, we can get a better understanding of what might happen in the future."
November 9, 2017 (Source: FIU) - FIU deployed more than 100 citizen scientists to investigate whether flooding from the most recent King Tide in October was bringing saltwater or freshwater inland to urban areas. The findings could provide critical clues as to why such unusual flooding is occurring in South Florida, what areas are most at-risk and whether the frequency of these floods could be increasing. The community project was organized by the FIU Sea Level Solutions Center in the Institute of Water and Environment along with the School of Communication + Journalism as part of an annual Sea Level Solutions Day at Vizcaya Gardens Garage.
"We simply could not do this science without citizen engagement, to reach the number of sites we do all at the same time, nor do we have a better opportunity to share the latest science and engage members of our community in sea level solutions," said Tiffany Troxler, director of the FIU Sea Level Solutions Center. “With current technologies, flood modeling projections are not as precise nor accurate as “on-the-ground” measurements that our citizens work together to produce.”
November 8, 2017 - For once in our field, breaking records was a good thing. At least that is the case for one soon to be graduate student. After eight semesters of the maximum course-load, the effort has afforded Russell Anderson the highest number of graduate certificates obtained at both the University and State University System of Florida levels.
We interviewed Russell to get some insights into his accomplishments. He returned to pursue advanced education after leaving the professional organizing world in search of ‘bigger pictures and greater truths’. Now, he is leaving the University of Florida with a Masters in Sustainable Development Practice, a concentration in Climate Science and six graduate certificates (from four UF colleges) that include: Latin American Studies, Tropical Conservation and Development, Emergency Services - Disaster Preparedness, Agriculture Education Leadership, Natural Resource Policy Administration, and Ecological Restoration; In addition to performing extensive fieldwork across Belize and Florida coastal (terrestrial and marine) environments.
“My reasoning for sharing this personal accolade was not to brag or boast. Furthermore, I encourage those that may read this, to avoid such endeavors, if you value time, money and sanity. I wanted to share my story to encourage us all to think BIG, capitalize on your networks, and realize the (rapidly approaching) implications of today’s actions on tomorrow’s world. We all have a role in building solutions to our future challenges.“
“It has always been a knack of mine to find the webs of significance and limitations of our respective silos of experiences. Ultimately, that is what drove my desire to understand the natural world, society, and our collective realities to come.” It is only fitting that his next steps include the launch of a transnational sustainable development consortium, focused on impact planning for 2050. ‘We are currently in the process of transferring materials into 14 languages across 22 nations and planning on launching in January 2018,” said Russell.
“During my time at the University of Florida, it has been my privilege to learn from some of the most dynamic and informed educators in the country. The climate science concentration, under the direction of Carolyn Cox of the Florida Climate Institute, was instrumental in my success. I encourage my peers and colleagues to check out the Climate Science Concentration and some of the many graduate programs available.”
“It is a big and complex world out there and it’s only going to get weirder… The more we know the better off we are. More importantly, we are all in this together! So, don’t forget to look beyond your silos and keep your networks strong. When it comes down to it, our communities and experiences are the best resources we have to foster a better tomorrow.”
Have questions or want to connect? Contact Russell at Linkedin.com/in/russ-2050/
October 10, 2017 (Source: FSU) - Rising levels of carbon dioxide may have little effect on the smallest organisms that live in ocean sediment, according to a new study by a Florida State University researcher. FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory scientist Jeroen Ingels and a team of researchers found that communities of microscopic organisms called meiofauna don’t change much when faced with both rising carbon dioxide levels and higher temperatures. That’s in contrast to larger organisms, which have previously shown to be largely affected by changes in environment. Meiofauna are miniscule invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. They are the base of the food web, so researchers are eager to learn more about how climate change may affect them.
October 2017 (Source: UM) - Andrew C. Baker (UM) is big on the study of the ecology and conservation of coral reefs, with particular attention to the impact of climate change on these fragile environments. Corals in Cuba, considered to be some of most pristine in the Caribbean, may help determine how these ecosystems can survive climate change.
October 2, 2017 (Source: UCF) - It’s possible to produce hydrogen to power fuel cells by extracting the gas from seawater, but the electricity required to do it makes the process costly. UCF researcher Yang Yang has come up with a new hybrid nanomaterial that harnesses solar energy and uses it to generate hydrogen from seawater more cheaply and efficiently than current materials. The breakthrough could someday lead to a new source of the clean-burning fuel, ease demand for fossil fuels and boost the economy of Florida, where sunshine and seawater are abundant.
September 29, 2017 (Source: FSU) - New research from a team of Florida State University scientists and their collaborators is helping to explain the link between a changing global climate and a dramatic decline in bumble bee populations worldwide.
In a study published Friday, Sept. 29, in the journal Ecology Letters, researchers examining three subalpine bumble bee species in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains found that, for some bumble bees, a changing climate means there just aren’t enough good flowers to go around.
The team analyzed the bees’ responses to direct and indirect climate change effects.
“Knowing whether climate variation most affects bumble bees directly or indirectly will allow us to better predict how bumble bee populations will cope with continued climate change,” said FSU postdoctoral researcher Jane Ogilvie, the study’s lead investigator. “We found that the abundances of all three bumble bee species were mostly affected by indirect effects of climate on flower distribution through a season.”
September 28, 2017 (Source: University of Sydney/Science Daily) - Investigations to predict changes in sea levels and their impacts on coastal systems are a step closer, as a result of international collaboration between the University of Sydney and researchers from Japan, Spain, and the United States.
Scientists globally are investigating just how quickly sea-level rise can occur as a result of global warming and ice sheets melting.
Recent findings suggest that episodes of very rapid sea-level rise of about 20m in less than 500 years occurred in the last deglaciation, caused by periods of catastrophic ice-sheet collapse as Earth warmed after the last ice age about 20,000 years ago.
Lead author, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, Kelsey Sanborn, has shown this sea-level rise event was associated with "drowning" or death of coral reefs in Hawaii.
The research was a collaborative effort between the University of Sydney, the University of Tokyo, the University of Florida, the University of Granada, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the University of Hawaii, and the Association for Marine Exploration.
September 21, 2017 (Source: FIU) - A team of researchers headed by FIU College of Business professor Shahid Hamid, using the Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model, estimates that Hurricane Irma caused $19.4 billion in wind-related losses to Florida residents alone. The data doesn’t cover flood losses.
Of that total, $6.3 billion will be paid by insurance companies. As a result, roughly two-thirds of the losses will be borne by homeowners. The highest wind losses are in Lee County (Fort Myers and Cape Coral), followed by Collier County (Naples, Marco Island and Immokalee).
Hamid’s team includes specialists in meteorology, storm surge, hydrology, engineering, finance and actuarial science, computer science and statistics from FIU as well as the University of Florida, Florida State University, Florida Institute of Technology, University of Miami and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
September 11, 2017 (Source: University of Bonn) - The East Coast of the United States is threatened by more frequent flooding in the future. This is shown by a recent study by the Universities of Bonn, South Florida, and Rhode Island. According to this, the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are most at risk. Their coastal regions are being immersed by up to three millimeters per year – among other things, due to human intervention. The work is published in the journal Scientific Reports by the Nature Publishing Group.
Cities such as Miami on the East Coast of the USA are being affected by flooding more and more frequently. The causes are often not hurricanes with devastating rainfall such as Katrina, or the recent hurricanes Harvey or Irma. On the contrary: flooding even occurs on sunny, relatively calm days. It causes damage to houses and roads and disrupts traffic, yet does not cost any people their lives. It is thus also known as ‘nuisance flooding’.
And this nuisance is set to occur much more frequently in the future. At least researchers from the Universities of Bonn, South Florida, and Rhode Island are convinced of this. The international team evaluated data from the East Coast of America, including GPS and satellite measurements. These show that large parts of the coastal region are slowly yet steadily sinking into the Atlantic Ocean.
“There are primarily two reasons for this phenomenon,” explains Makan A. Karegar from the University of South Florida, currently a guest researcher at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation at the University of Bonn. “During the last ice age around 20,000 years ago, large parts of Canada were covered by an ice sheet. This tremendous mass pressed down on the continent.” Some areas of the earth’s mantle were thus pressed sideways under the ice, causing the coastal regions that were free of ice to be raised. “When the ice sheet then melted, this process was reversed,” explains Karegar. “The East Coast has thus been sinking back down for the last few thousand years.”
August 30, 2017 - Joseph Smoak (USF), Brad Rosenheim (USF College of Marine Science), Ryan Moyer and Kara Radabaugh (Florida Fish & Wildlife Research Institute), Lisa Chambers (University of Central Florida), and David Lagomasino (University of Maryland) have been award a $1.33 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to study “Blue Carbon” ecosystems along the South Florida coast. Blue Carbon is a term used to describe carbon captured in the ocean and coastal ecosystems. The goal of the project is to measure and map carbon stored in the coastal wetlands of South Florida and predict how these stores of carbon will change under the influence of climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The collection of the data involves field sampling in the wetlands, the use of NASA fixed wing aircraft and satellite imagery.
Grant title: Organic carbon biomass, burial, and biogeochemistry in blue carbon ecosystems along the South Florida coast: climate change and anthropogenic influences
August 17, 2017 (Source: UM/RSMAS) - Predicting the weather three to four weeks in advance is extremely challenging, yet many critical decisions affecting communities and economies must be made using this lead time. However, model forecasts available for the first time this week could help NOAA’s operational Climate Prediction Center (CPC) significantly improve its week 3-4 temperature and precipitation outlooks for the U.S.
The Subseasonal Experiment (SubX) is a two year project, led by University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science atmospheric scientist Ben Kirtman, that combines multiple global models from NOAA, NASA, Environment Canada, the Navy, and National Center for Atmospheric Research to produce once-a-week real-time experimental forecasts as well as a set of forecasts for past dates, called reforecasts, now available to both CPC and the research community.
“The multi-model reforecasts perfectly dovetail with the real-time forecasts so that you can perform a robust calibration and skill assessment,” said Ben Kirtman, lead of the SubX project team and University of Miami Rosenstiel School atmospheric scientist. “The research you do can immediately translate into potential improvements of an operational product, and that’s really exciting.”
FIU Marine Ecologist James Fourqurean Elected President of Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation
August 15, 2017 (Source: FIU) - FIU marine ecologist James Fourqurean has been elected president of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation. Fourqurean will lead the organization, which is comprised of people who study and manage estuaries, with a plan to educate public officials about coastal science and resilience in a changing climate.
“Distrust of scientists seems to be at an all-time high when scientific understanding is really important to help us face the coming challenges of a changing environment,” said Fourqurean, director of FIU’s Marine Education and Research Initiative. “I hope to ease the dialog between elected officials and scientists so we can share ideas to ensure a better future.”
August 11, 2017 (Source: FL DEP) - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and Nova Southeastern University (NSU), has modified the Port of Miami Anchorage Area in Miami Beach. Changes in design and configuration will protect more than 600 acres of coral reef from future impacts by keeping boats from protected reef areas. The anchorage area, where boats can safely maneuver and park, will now be divided into two separate areas, including an inner western anchorage for smaller vessels and an outer eastern anchorage for larger vessels totaling 1.5 square nautical miles.
"This outstanding conservation management achievement is a testament to how local stakeholders can effectively work together to protect Florida's ecologically and economically important coral reefs," said Joanna Walczak, Southeast regional administrator for DEP's Florida Coastal Office.
The new anchorages are the result of extensive collaboration between numerous stakeholder groups, agencies, universities and private citizens at federal, state and local levels. Studies conducted by DEP and NSU showed that anchorage modification was necessary to reduce reef damage to the ecologically and economically important northern portion of the Florida Reef Tract. This study led to the formation of a working group coordinated by USCG, DEP and NSU, where a group of varied stakeholders including federal and state agencies, port pilots, Port Miami administration, university scientists and other shipping interests worked together to design the new configuration.
August 9, 2015 (Source: UF) - Sea level rise hot spots -- bursts of accelerated sea rise that last three to five years -- happen along the U.S. East Coast thanks to a one-two punch from naturally occurring climate variations, a new University of Florida study shows.
After UF scientists identified a hot spot reaching from Cape Hatteras to Miami, they probed the causes by analyzing tidal and climate data for the U.S. eastern seaboard. The new study, published online today in Geophysical Research Letters, shows that seas rose in the southeastern U.S. between 2011 and 2015 by more than six times the global average sea level rise that is already happening due to human-induced global warming.
The study's findings suggest that future sea level rise resulting from global warming will also have these hot spot periods superimposed on top of steadily rising seas, said study co-author Andrea Dutton, assistant professor in UF's department of geological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
"The important point here is that smooth projections of sea level rise do not capture this variability, so adverse effects of sea level rise may occur before they are predicted to happen," Dutton said. "The entire U.S. Atlantic coastline is vulnerable to these hot spots that may amplify the severity of coastal flooding."
UF News Release
August 7, 2017 (Source: FIU) - Scientists are zeroing in on the seagrass meadows that could help slow down climate change. Seagrass meadows are great absorbers of carbon dioxide from the air. But the algae, animals, corals and plants that live among them release large amounts of carbon dioxide, according to newly released research. The scientists are now identifying seagrass locations with fewer emitters to target for conservation. Scientists at Florida International University examined seagrass meadows in Florida Bay, some of the largest on Earth, where waters are warm and plant and animal abundance is high. They compared these ecosystems to those in southeastern Brazil where meadows are smaller, waters are cooler, and plant and animal abundance is lower. They found that although Florida Bay’s seagrasses act as carbon sinks, the organisms living among them offset the benefits of seagrass carbon storage by releasing carbon dioxide.
“In seagrass meadows, these two processes happen simultaneously and have opposite effects on carbon sequestration,” said Jason Howard, researcher in FIU’s Marine Education Research Initiative and lead author of the study. “If we want to mitigate the most carbon dioxide emissions, we need to understand these competing processes and choose conservation sites accordingly.”
August 9, 2017 (Source: FSU) - A 94-million-year-old climate change event that severely imperiled marine organisms may provide some unnerving insights into long-term trends in our modern oceans, according to a Florida State University researcher.
In a study published today in the journal Science Advances, Assistant Professor of Geology Jeremy Owens traces a 50,000-year period of ocean deoxygenation preceding an ancient climate event that dramatically disturbed global ocean chemistry and led to the extinction of many marine organisms. He also draws parallels to similar rates of oxygen depletion observed in our contemporary oceans.
“We found that before this major shift in the climate, there was a stretch of oxygen depletion of about 50,000 years,” Owens said. “The rate of deoxygenation during that time is somewhat equivalent to the rate at which many scientists suggest we’re losing oxygen from our oceans today.”
August 1, 2017 (Source: FSU) - There could be some good news on the horizon as scientists try to understand the effects and processes related to climate change. A team of Florida State University scientists has discovered that chemical weathering, a process in which carbon dioxide breaks down rocks and then gets trapped in sediment, can happen at a much faster rate than scientists previously assumed and could potentially counteract some of the current and future climate change caused by humans. The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Scientists have generally thought that this process takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years to occur, helping to alleviate warming trends at an exceptionally slow rate. Rather than potentially millions of years, FSU researchers now suggest it can take several tens of thousands of years. It’s not a quick fix though. “Increased chemical weathering is one of Earth’s natural responses to carbon dioxide increases,” said Theodore Them, the lead researcher on the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at Florida State and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. “The good news is that this process can help balance the effects of fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and agricultural practices. The bad news is that it will not begin to counteract the excessive amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide that humans are emitting for at least several thousand years.”
The Florida Climate Institute (FCI) is a multi-disciplinary network of national and international research and public organizations, scientists, and individuals concerned with achieving a better understanding of climate variability and change.