Drivers of Change National Conservation Training Center Shepherdstown
- Slides: 33
Drivers of Change National Conservation Training Center Shepherdstown, WV 10 August 2004 Anthony C. Janetos Vice President The Heinz Center
Drivers of Change • Four main drivers to address: – Climate change – Water quantity and quality – Invasive species – Impacts of biotech/bioengineering • I will add two more to think about: – Land-use change – Population pressure
So What? • Why should we care? • Ethical concerns for conservation and preservation of natural heritage • Practical concerns for delivery of ecosystem services: fiber, food, water, soil fertility, atmospheric composition and climate, biological diversity • Both priced and unpriced services
Drivers • Overall goal: Conserving biodiversity by sustaining ecological functioning • What are the main scientific issues for each driver? • What are potential consequences for biodiversity/ecosystem functioning? • Personal view for each
Climate Change • Major challenge over next several decades • Changes in atmosphere welldocumented • Changes in ecology beginning to be documented • What can we adapt to?
Global CO 2 Concentration CO 2 concentration (ppm) 360 340 320 300 280 260 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Storage in Atmosphere: 3. 3 ± 0. 2 Fossil Fuel Plus Cement Production: 6. 3 ± 0. 6 Terrestrial Uptake Inferred Sink: 2. 3 ± 1. 3 Net Emissions from Tropical Land-Use Change: 1. 6 ± 0. 8 Ocean Uptake: 2. 3 ± 0. 8 Decade of the 1990’s
General Comparisons with IPCC • Agriculture more vulnerable in developing world • As much as a third of forested ecosystems vulnerable to some degree • Health risks also appear asymmetrical • Developing countries appear to be more vulnerable to the same degree of atmospheric change • Even developed countries have significant vulnerabilities
Challenges • Ecosystem response to multiple stresses, climate change in a broader context • Degree to which CO 2 fertilization operates • Dependencies of impacts on particular CO 2 concentrations • Costs and effectiveness of adaptation strategies • Interaction of domestic and international effects • Linkages to other issues, especially losses of biological diversity
Water Quantity and Quality • Concerns over water issues differ from region to region • Some indication in precipitation data of increase in extreme events • Anthropogenic water use not as well understood as we might like • Monitoring for quality not as comprehensive as we need • Conflicts between human use and use in/by ecosystems
Invasive Species • Already an important management issue within US • Annual economic impacts measured in hundreds of $$ billions • Now understand that invasives rank second only to habitat loss as driver of extinction trends • Monitoring, prevention, control
Biotechnology/Bioengineering • Most of the public focus has been on GMO foods • But understand relatively little about potential for gene exchange from released organisms (plants or animals) • Focus on what the traits are, not so much how they were produced
Land-Use Change • Biggest changes over past 40 -50 years • Acknowledged to be the biggest contributor to losses of biological diversity • What sort of changes can we document over the past few decades? • What changes might be in store for US?
Main areas of deforestation and forest degradation over the last twenty years (1980 -2000) - World
Main areas of degraded land over the last twenty years (1980 -2000) - World
Main areas of change in cropland extent - World
Population Pressure • In excess of 6 billion people globally • Projections of population today have two characteristics: – Top out around 8 -9 billion in next 50 years – Stay fairly steady • Most growth in developing world, BUT • US has shown 2 -3% growth per year
Population density in 1995 and most populated and changing cities in 1990 -2000 - world
Energy in Today’s World Fossil fuels drove most of the growth & were almost 80% of supply in 2000.
Some Closing Thoughts • These drivers clearly have potential to influence ability to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem function • Need to document and understand the drivers themselves • Need to develop both adaptive and mitigative strategies based on best science
Closing Thoughts 2 • Development of indicators of change necessary • Periodic reporting on state of diversity and ecosystem functioning/characteristics • Periodic assessment of state of knowledge and understanding
- Shepherdstown fire department
- Toolbox talks for drivers
- Gsa fleet drive thru
- Farm production and conservation
- Painting the wall physical change or chemical change
- Chemical chnages
- Absolute change and relative change formula
- What is an integer
- Difference in physical and chemical changes
- A change in supply vs a change in quantity supplied
- Supply and demand curve shifts
- Enagic comp plan
- Proactive and reactive change
- Which is an example of a physical change
- Spare change physical versus chemical change
- Rocks change due to temperature and pressure change
- Whats the difference between physical and chemical change
- How does a physical change differ from a chemical change? *
- Baking chemical change
- First order vs second order change
- Is chopping wood physical or chemical change
- Climate change 2014 mitigation of climate change
- Climate change national security threat
- National unification and the national state
- Center for change in transition
- Tfolio
- Center for change in transition services
- Bruce agins
- National center for credibility assessment
- National integration center
- National infrastructure simulation and analysis center
- National geophysical data center
- National centre for case study teaching in science
- National center for response to intervention