As debates about climate change — does it exist and how serious is it? – rage on, many scientists continue to uncover more and more evidence that atmospheric pollution is having negative effects on Earth, right here and now, climate change or not.

Scientists studying the chemistry of lakes reported in a study published this week that atmospheric nitrogen released from the burning of fossil fuels and the widespread use of fertilizers in agriculture is altering the makeup of even remote bodies of water.

Green Lake 5 in Colorado (Photo: James Elser/ASU)

The study,  published in Science, found elevated nitrogen levels in alpine and subalpine lakes in Colorado, Sweden and Norway.

The added nitrogen changes the food composition of the aquatic environment, first by feeding the phytoplankton, and then other organisms as it moves up the food chain. With the lake’s plant life getting a disproportionate amount of nitrogen relative to other necessary minerals, like phosphorus, the “fundamental ecology,” of the lake is changed, according to the researchers.

This result of this new balance of minerals means that the phytoplankton, in essence, are eating differently (rather like when we hominids don’t get all our vitamins). The excess nitrogen restricts how much phosphorus they can absorb, and they become, in scientific lingo, “phosphorus limited.” And that’s not a good thing.

“We know that phosphorus-limited phytoplankton are poor food – basically ‘junk food’ for animal plankton, which in turn are food for fish,” said James Elser, a limnologist (people who study fresh water environments) in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, who lead the study of collaborating US and Scandinavian scientists.

“Such a shift could potentially affect biodiversity,” Elser said. “However, we don’t really know, because, unlike in terrestrial systems, the impacts of nitrogen deposition on aquatic systems have not been widely studied.”

In other words, it’s possible that the lake life will adapt. Or not.

Elser’s collaborators include researchers Tom Andersen and Dag Hessen from the University of Oslo; Jill Baron of the United States Geological Survey and Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University; Ann-Kristin Bergström and Mats Jansson with Umeå University, Sweden; and Koren Nydick of the Mountain Studies Institute in Colorado, in addition to members of his own group in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Marcia Kyle and Laura Steger

Elser and colleagues were supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Yesterday, somewhere near the top of the world, behind a futuristic portal, an effort commenced to protect Earth’s plants from global catastrophe. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located 1,000 km from the North Pole in Norway, takes an established idea — a “seed bank,” in which samples are warehoused away from where crops are grown as a hedge against natural disasters — and puts it on steroids: Here, plants aren’t simply being protected from a bad drought or a plague of locusts but from catastrophes that might threaten life on a global scale. It’s a vault so sheltered that other seed banks will use it, just in case.

The vault, funded by Norway’s government, can hold over two billion seeds, representing 4.5 million different samples (each plant sample contains hundreds of individual seeds) drawn from the approximately 1,400 gene banks around the world. “When in full use,” organizers say, “the Svalbard Global Seed Vault will represent the world’s largest collection of seeds.” Samples are stored in a deep-freeze at -18 Celsius, slowing the aging process to such an extent that, according to organizers, some species can live up to almost 20,000 years. Should refrigeration machines break down, permafrost surrounding the vault would maintain a temperature of 4 degrees below zero, allowing crews (assuming humans are still around) time to repair them.

“With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization,” Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the facility’s opening.

Opponents of “Frankenfoods” can take heart: Unless Norway’s laws regarding GMOs are changed or exempted to allow for them, genetically engineered crops can’t even get in the front door of this apocalypse-proof shelter.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media