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"Science 25 November 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6059 pp. 1052-1053 DOI: 10.1126/science.334.6059.1052 * News Focus Adaptation to Climate Change Adaptation to Climate Change Time to Adapt to a Warming World, But Where's the Science? 1. Richard A. Kerr With dangerous global warming seemingly inevitable, users of climate information-from water utilities to international aid workers-are turning to climate scientists for guidance. But usable knowledge is in short supply. Figure View larger version: * In this page * In a new window Adapt to that. Climate will change, but decision-makers want to know how, where, and when. "CREDIT: KOOS VAN DER LENDE/NEWSCOM" DENVER, COLORADO-The people who brought us the bad news about climate change are making an effort to help us figure out what to do about it. As climate scientists have shown, continuing to spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will surely bring sweeping changes to the world-changes that humans will find it difficult or impossible to adapt to. But beyond general warnings, there is another sort of vital climate research to be done, speakers told 1800 attendees at a meeting here last month. And so far, they warned, researchers have delivered precious little of the essential new science. At the meeting, subtitled "Climate Research in Service to Society,"* the new buzzword was "actionable": actionable science, actionable information, actionable knowledge. "There's an urgent need for actionable climate information based on sound science," said Ghassem Asrar, director of the World Climate Research Programme, the meeting's organizer based in Geneva, Switzerland. What's needed is not simply data but processed information that an engineer sizing a storm-water pipe to serve for the next 50 years or a farmer in Uganda considering irrigating his fields can use to make better decisions in a warming world. Researchers preparing for the next international climate assessment, due in 2013, delive

Dear Teacher or Parent & The Local Marine Environment Working Waterfronts Oil Development Mariculture Commercial Fishing Recreational Fisheries Ecotourism and Recreational Activities Coastal Arts Careers Ocean Stewardship

perspective "The distribution of species on Earth and the interactions among them are tightly linked to historical and contemporary climate, so that global climate change will transform the world in which we live. Biological models can now credibly link recent decadal trends in field data to climate change, but predicting future impacts on biological communities is a major challenge. Attempts to move beyond general macroecological predictions of climate change impact on one hand, and observations from specific, local-scale cases, small-scale experiments, or studies of a few species on the other, raise a plethora of unanswered questions. On page 1124 of this issue, Harley (1) reports results that cast new light on how biodiversity, across different trophic levels, responds to climate change. "

"Abstract Climate change can affect organisms both directly via physiological stress and indirectly via changing relationships among species. However, we do not fully understand how changing interspecific relationships contribute to community- and ecosystem-level responses to environmental forcing. I used experiments and spatial and temporal comparisons to demonstrate that warming substantially reduces predator-free space on rocky shores. The vertical extent of mussel beds decreased by 51% in 52 years, and reproductive populations of mussels disappeared at several sites. Prey species were able to occupy a hot, extralimital site if predation pressure was experimentally reduced, and local species richness more than doubled as a result. These results suggest that anthropogenic climate change can alter interspecific interactions and produce unexpected changes in species distributions, community structure, and diversity. "

Academy researcher John McCosker talks about local sharks and efforts to save them.

"Multilingualism-the ability to understand and speak several languages-is exceptional in the United States but common elsewhere, especially in small-scale traditional societies. For instance, once while I was camped with some New Guinea Highlanders conversing simultaneously in several local languages, I asked each man to name each language in which he could converse. It turned out that everyone present spoke at least 5 languages, and the champion was a man who spoke 15. What are the cognitive effects of such multilingualism? Recent studies (1-5) show that children raised bilingually develop a specific type of cognitive benefit during infancy, and that bilingualism offers some protection against symptoms of Alzheimer's dementia in old people. "

"USC researcher experiments with changing ocean chemistry Jan. 19, 2011 | Molly Peterson | KPCC In his lab, USC's Dave Hutchins is simulating possible future atmospheres and temperatures for the Earth. He says he's trying to figure out how tiny organisms that form the base of the food web will react to a more carbon-intense ocean. Burning fossil fuels doesn't just put more carbon into the atmosphere and help warm the climate. It's also changing the chemistry of sea water. KPCC's Molly Peterson visits a University of Southern California researcher who studies the consequences of a more corrosive ocean. Tailpipes and refineries and smokestacks as far as the eye can see in Los Angeles symbolize the way people change the planet's climate. They remind Dave Hutchins that the ocean's changing too. Hutchins teaches marine biology at USC. He says about a third of all the carbon, or CO2, that people have pushed into earth's atmosphere ends up in sea water - "which is a good thing for us because if the ocean hadn't taken up that CO2 the greenhouse effect would be far more advanced than it is." He smiles. Hutchins says that carbon is probably not so good for the ocean. "The more carbon dioxide that enters the ocean the more acidic the ocean gets." On the pH scale, smaller numbers represent more acidity. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute estimates we've pumped 500 million tons of carbon into the world's oceans. Dave Hutchins at USC says that carbon has already lowered the pH value for sea water. "By the end of this century we are going to have increased the amount of acid in the ocean by maybe 200 percent over natural pre-industrial levels," he says. "So we are driving the chemistry of the ocean into new territory - into areas that it has never seen." Hutchins is one of dozens of scientists who study the ripples of that new chemistry into the marine ecosystem. Now for an aside. I make bubbly water at home with a soda machine, and to do that, I pump ca

Webcast: 'We Sea Change,' a Climate Change Education Video 0 What is climate change, and how is it affecting coastal Carolina? That is the question that a group of teens from Isaac Bear Early College High School set out to answer for their Third National Student Summit on the Ocean & Coasts project. Representing the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, four teens spent months researching climate change issues such as salt water intrusion in rivers, changes to barrier islands, disappearing beaches, and habitat loss in longleaf pine forests in the Wilmington, N.C., region. The students presented a video documenting this research during the National Student Summit on February 15, 2011 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. After the Summit, the team broadened the project's scope to include climate change education through the production of a second video. This film, We Sea Change, aims to give their local community in Wilmington an understanding of climate change, impacts on the coastal Carolina region, and how people can be part of the climate change solution. We Sea Change will be broadcast live to the Ocean Portal from the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 7pm. There will be a panel discussion on climate change immediately following the 7pm screening. Meet the team! The Cape Fear Beach Bears: Sandy Paws for a Cause team members include students Jessica Lama, Keela Sweeney, Evan Lucas, and Dustin Chambers. They have conducted research and produced their videos under the guidance of teachers Bryan Bishop from Isaac Bear Early College High School and Megan Ennes from the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

Produced by: Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Project Algalita and California Coastal Commission Funding provided by the State Water Resources Control Board June 2006 pdf document, 91 pages Introduction - The California Marine Debris Action Plan of 1990 - A State Mandate to Eliminate Marine Debris is Necessary - The Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Project - The Action Plan - The Actions Recommended in this Plan - Process and Prioritization Part I: Marine Debris - Sources, Composition, and Quantities - What is Marine Debris? - Land versus Ocean Sources - Abundance of Plastic in the Marine Environment - Quantities of Plastic Debris Increasing Significantly in Oceans - Sources and Composition of Debris Found on Beaches - Trash and Debris in Stormwater and Urban Runoff - Other Research Characterizing Trash in Urban Runoff - Distribution and Composition of Marine Debris on California's Coast Part II: Marine Debris - Impacts - Ingestion and Entanglement - Ecosystem Impacts - Debris as a Transport Mechanism for Toxics and Invasive Species - Economic Impacts Part III: Current Efforts to Address Land-Based Discharges of Marine Debris - Federal Programs and Initiatives - State Programs and Initiatives - Regional Programs and Initiatives - Local Government Programs and Initiatives - National Public Interest Groups - California Public Interest Groups and Associations - Industry Initiatives

The Ocean Conservancy pdf document, 35 pages, 2005 20th anniversary International Coastal Cleanup The Ocean Conservancy promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and opposes practices that threaten ocean life and human life. Through research, education, and science-based advocacy, The Ocean Conservancy informs, inspires, and empowers people to speak and act on behalf of the oceans. In all its work, The Ocean Conservancy strives to be the world's foremost advocate for the oceans. The International Coastal Cleanup engages people to remove trash and debris from the world's beaches and waterways, to identify the sources of debris, and to change the behaviors that cause pollution. Introduction How to Use This Book Quick Tips - Shoreline Cleanup - Underwater Cleanup Estimating Weights and Distances The World of Marine Debris Activities That Produce Debris Sample Data Card Items Listed on the Data Card Debris Items of Local Concern Potentially Hazardous Items Stranded or Entangled Animals Natural Items Peculiar Items Other Volunteer Opportunities - National Marine Debris Monitoring Program - RECON - Storm Drain Sentries - Ocean Action Network - Ocean Wilderness More Information

Science 8 July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6039 pp. 173-175 Galaxy Zoo Volunteers Share Pain and Glory of Research 1. Daniel Clery A project to "crowdsource" galactic classifications has paid off in ways the astronomers who started it never expected. Figure View larger version: * In this page * In a new window Space oddity. Greenish "voorwerp" spotted by a Dutch volunteer still intrigues scientists. "CREDIT: NASA, ESA, W. KEEL (UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA), AND THE GALAXY ZOO TEAM" The automated surveys that are becoming increasingly common in astronomy are producing an embarrassment of riches for researchers. Projects such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are generating so much data that, in some cases, astronomers don't know what to do with them all. SDSS has compiled a list of more than 1 million galaxies. To glean information about galaxy evolution, however, astronomers need to know what type of galaxy each one is: spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, or something else. At present, the only reliable way to classify galaxies is to look at each one. But the SDSS list is so long that all the world's astronomers working together couldn't muster enough eyeballs for the task. Enter the "wisdom of crowds." An online effort called Galaxy Zoo, launched in 2007, set a standard for citizen-scientist participation projects. Zealous volunteers astonished the project's organizers by classifying the entire catalog years ahead of schedule. The results have brought real statistical rigor to a field used to samples too small to support firm conclusions. But that's not all. Buoyed by the curiosity and dedication of the volunteers, the Galaxy Zoo team went on to ask more-complicated classification questions that led to studies they hadn't thought possible. And in an online discussion forum on the Galaxy Zoo Web site, volunteers have pointed to anomalies that on closer inspection have turned out to be genuinely new astronomical objects. "I'm incredibly impres