Woods Hole Research Center Woods Hole Research Center JULY 2018 JULY 2018 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER MONTHLY NEWSLETTER WHRC is an independent research institute where scientists investigate the causes and effects of climate change to identify and implement opportunities for conservation, restoration and economic development around the world. WHRC has been ranked as the top independent climate change think tank in the world for four years in a row. Learn more at www.whrc.org. Under Pruitt, EPA’s Science Advisory Board was first purged of scientists receiving EPA grants, on the grounds of eliminating conflicts of interest, and then larded with representatives of regulated industries, who of course have massive conflicts. And now the board has not met in six months. All of this suggests a lack of interest in getting the best scientific advice. Where will things go from here? Pruitt’s destructive, not-based- on-science policies will no doubt continue under his successor, Andrew Wheeler, a former EPA staffer turned coal industry lobbyist. If anything, Wheeler’s understanding of EPA will allow him to be more efficient at implementing Trump’s science-defying agenda. I would expect EPA to pay lip-service to regulating greenhouse gases, taking as much time as possible to implement the weakest possible regulations. The Supreme Court has ruled that EPA not only may but must regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, if it finds that those gases endanger the public health and welfare. EPA’s 2009 “Endangerment Finding” found exactly that, and gave Obama’s EPA wide latitude to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately that same wide latitude will now allow the Trump administration to do next to nothing while upholding the letter of the law. As Wheeler told the Washington Post, "As we move forward on a potential replacement for the Clean Power Plan, you're going to see us taking a hard look at what the [Clean Air Act] says and the authorities the act gives us, and we'll put something forward that follows the law.” EPA regulation of greenhouse gases, even if very weak, may also give fossil fuel companies some immunity against tort lawsuits. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is gone, brought down by persistent and credible allegations of personal corruption and misuse of taxpayer money. These transgressions, although inexcusable, are relatively inconsequential in the panorama of human affairs—garden-variety political corruption. It’s ironic, therefore, that these improprieties caused Pruitt’s demise, while his career was advanced by the policies he promoted, whose harm is vastly more far-reaching and long-lasting. Under Pruitt, for example, EPA moved to repeal the Clean Power Plan (a cornerstone Obama climate policy), to weaken fuel economy standards for motor vehicles, to block regulation curbing methane emissions from new oil and gas wells, and to reduce the “social cost of carbon,” a measure used in rule- making of the economic cost associated with greenhouse gas emissions. In Pruitt's EPA, the science of climate change was not only systematically ignored, but actively obscured. In addition, information about the public-health benefits of climate policies like the Clean Power Plan were deliberately hidden, apparently at the personal direction of Pruitt. All of this directly violates EPA’s mission “to protect human health and the environment,” and its commitment to “work to ensure that…national efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information.” It is perhaps not surprising that science-defying policies should co-mingle with personal corruption, since under Pruitt those policies seem to have been a result of close ties to the fossil fuel industry. It’s not wrong or illegal, of course, to have industry contacts, but Pruitt’s secret meetings with industry representatives while EPA administrator were wrong and possibly illegal, and certainly raise questions about whose interests he sought to serve. A transition at EPA Dr. Philip B. Duffy President & Executive Director CHANGES continued on next page
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Woods Hole Research CenterWoods Hole Research CenterJULY 2018JULY 2018
MONTHLY NEWSLETTERMONTHLY NEWSLETTER
WHRC is an independent research institute where scientists investigate the causes and effects of climate change to identify and implement opportunities for conservation, restoration and economic development around the world. WHRC has been ranked as the top independent climate change think tank in the world for four years in a row. Learn more at www.whrc.org.
Under Pruitt, EPA’s Science Advisory Board was first purged of scientists receiving EPA grants, on the grounds of eliminating conflicts of interest, and then larded with representatives of regulated industries, who of course have massive conflicts. And now the board has not met in six months. All of this suggests a lack of interest in getting the best scientific advice.
Where will things go from here? Pruitt’s destructive, not-based-on-science policies will no doubt continue under his successor, Andrew Wheeler, a former EPA staffer turned coal industry
lobbyist. If anything, Wheeler’s understanding of EPA will allow him to be more efficient
at implementing Trump’s science-defying agenda.
I would expect EPA to pay lip-service to regulating greenhouse gases, taking as much time as possible to implement the
weakest possible regulations. The Supreme Court has ruled that EPA not only may but
must regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, if it finds that those gases endanger the public health and welfare. EPA’s 2009 “Endangerment Finding” found exactly that, and gave Obama’s EPA wide latitude to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately that same wide latitude will now allow the Trump administration to do next to nothing while upholding the letter of the law. As Wheeler told the Washington Post, "As we move forward on a potential replacement for the Clean Power Plan, you're going to see us taking a hard look at what the [Clean Air Act] says and the authorities the act gives us, and we'll put something forward that follows the law.” EPA regulation of greenhouse gases, even if very weak, may also give fossil fuel companies some immunity against tort lawsuits.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is gone, brought down by persistent and credible allegations of personal corruption and misuse of taxpayer money. These transgressions, although inexcusable, are relatively inconsequential in the panorama of human affairs—garden-variety political corruption. It’s ironic, therefore, that these improprieties caused Pruitt’s demise, while his career was advanced by the policies he promoted, whose harm is vastly more far-reaching and long-lasting.
Under Pruitt, for example, EPA moved to repeal the Clean Power Plan (a cornerstone Obama climate policy), to weaken fuel economy standards for motor vehicles, to block regulation curbing methane emissions from new oil and gas wells, and to reduce the “social cost of carbon,” a measure used in rule-making of the economic cost associated with greenhouse gas emissions.
In Pruitt's EPA, the science of climate change was not only systematically ignored, but actively obscured. In addition, information about the public-health benefits of climate policies like the Clean Power Plan were deliberately hidden, apparently at the personal direction of Pruitt. All of this directly violates EPA’s mission “to protect human health and the environment,” and its commitment to “work to ensure that…national efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information.”
It is perhaps not surprising that science-defying policies should co-mingle with personal corruption, since under Pruitt those policies seem to have been a result of close ties to the fossil fuel industry. It’s not wrong or illegal, of course, to have industry contacts, but Pruitt’s secret meetings with industry representatives while EPA administrator were wrong and possibly illegal, and certainly raise questions about whose interests he sought to serve.
A transition at EPADr. Philip B. DuffyPresident & Executive Director
CHANGES continued on next page
Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito visited Woods Hole Research Center this month to host a roundtable discussion with local officials on climate resiliency.
“We understand that climate is changing, and it’s having real effects here in our Commonwealth,” said Polito, a Republican from Shrewsbury, MA.
Polito attended the July 12 roundtable with Massachusetts Assistant Secre-tary for Climate Change Kathleen Theoharides. They spoke with local and regional officials from Cape Cod and
Massachusetts Lt. Governor visits WHRC to discuss climate resiliency with local officialsby Dave McGlinchey
Studying Arctic climate impacts, Polaris Project team completes field seasonby Dave McGlinchey
southern Massachusetts representing towns and cities from New Bedford to Barnstable.
The roundtable was a chance for community leaders to discuss the climate change impacts that they face, from coastal erosion and sea-level rise to droughts and shifting vegetation.
Polito and Theoharides also discussed the state’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program (bit.ly/2uUgdwd), which provides grants for communities to improve their climate resiliency. The state has allocated $5 million toward the MVP program in 2018, a tenfold increase over 2017 funding. Of that, $3 million is slated to be awarded through a grants process which identifies urgent climate resiliency needs.
In a May press release, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker called the MVP program the “cornerstone” of the
administration’s climate change work, and said that “municipalities are on the front lines of climate change, so we are proud to provide our communities the resources, data and planning tools they need to build resiliency to severe weather and other impacts.”
Polito encouraged the group to continue sharing their climate change experiences, and investigating ways to collaborate with the state.
“We are interested in coming up with innovative approaches to this and investing in partnerships with you,” Polito said.
WHRC President Dr. Phil Duffy welcomed the group, and thanked them for their work on climate resiliency. WHRC scientists Dr. Linda Deegan and Dr. Chris Neill, whose work includes regional resiliency projects, also attended the roundtable.
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, and scientists are racing to understand the global impacts of thawing permafrost.
Permafrost contains an enormous amount of carbon, locked up in long-frozen organic matter. As temperatures warm, that organic matter thaws and decomposes, sending carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. The 2018 edition of WHRC’s Polaris Project spent two weeks camped on the Alaskan tundra this month, studying these climate change impacts.
The project is designed to advance research on thawing permafrost—and related climate change issues—while also developing the next generation of Arctic scientists.
The 2018 team included 12 students, six faculty, two support staff, and a physician. The students came from colleges and universities in eight different states, from Oregon State University to Harvard. The project also has one student each from the University of Puerto Rico and Northumbria University in England.
“We had a really productive time in the field,” said WHRC’s Dr. Sue Natali, the expedition leader. “Research in remote conditions can be challenging, but we had an impressive group of smart and motivated student scientists. They developed some exciting questions focused on microbes, shrubs, fire, wetlands, draining lakes, and, of course, greenhouse gases.”
In late June, the team traveled by float plane from Bethel, Alaska, to the camp situated on a lake about 45 minutes inland. Natali, visiting faculty member Seeta Sistla, and returning student Darcy Peters were the last three out of Bethel, giving an interview to the local morning radio show as they waited for the final float plane trip.
The students developed their own research topics, and collected the necessary data in the field. The group then returned to Woods Hole Research Center to analyze the data and their results.
The team is scheduled to complete scientific posters detailing their research by July 27.
The Administration could alternatively choose to challenge the Endangerment Finding or try to alter or repeal the Clean Air Act, but either of those would trigger an epic battle which even if successful might not be much more (in)effective than a “slow-walk” approach.
In the final analysis, then, the removal of Scott Pruitt probably changes little of substance at EPA or in Trump’s climate policies. The federal government will continue to deny the existence of humanity’s greatest environmental challenge and to undo previously-implemented measures to address it. It’s going to be up to the rest of us to speak truth to power about climate change, to do the research needed to understand the problem and devise solutions, and to work with willing policymakers to implement cost-effective solutions.
Thanks as always for your interest and support.
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800,000 km² – that’s the total amount of deforestation, so far, in the Amazon. It’s more land area than all of Germany, Portugal, Ireland, and the United Kingdom combined.
This year, Woods Hole Research Center hosted a series of climate science workshops for land managers, indigenous leaders, and government officials in the Amazon Basin, with the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. More than 125 people attended the meetings, which were designed to improve forest management by providing access the latest information on forest biomass and climate models.
“My goal for the Amazon is to end deforestation,” said WHRC scientist Dr. Michael Coe to attendees. “That it will be an extremely well-managed landscape. One that balances environmental needs with economic needs.”
The path to Coe’s vision is through forest monitoring systems. WHRC scientists designed the Climate Source, which is a website that allows users access to regional data and satellite imagery showing the length of dry seasons, precipitation, and temperature, among other factors. Using data from the past and climate models for the future, the people tasked with managing land in the Amazon can access a complete picture of the changes happening around them.
Identifying and managing at-risk tropical forests in the Amazon Basin is critical to effectively managing global warming. According to a 2017 study on carbon sequestration, 37 percent of emissions reductions necessary to keep global temperature change below 2° C by 2030 can be produced by forests, soils, and wetlands.
Not every country, however, has the same technological capacity for conservation efforts, leaving the less fortunate without important data. The Climate Source is designed to fill in data gaps that individual countries might have, according to WHRC scientist Dr. Marcia Macedo.
“Over the last decade, we’ve spent a lot of energy creating datasets on biomass and climate in the Amazonian region,” Macedo said. “Too much of that information has stayed in the realm of scientific publications. The value of this climate
Amazon leaders fight deforestation with new data toolby Connor Murphy
data portal that we have created is that it condenses the latest science for the user in an accessible way.”
“Even if local authorities don’t have infrastructure, they do have mobile phones,” said a Bolivian official who attended the workshop. “Municipal authorities can use messaging groups to disperse warnings after hot spot detection.”
It also enables these authorities to work with farmers. The agricultural industry is a large source of deforestation in the Amazon, but informational tools like the Climate Source can help develop land use strategies with farmers in a visual way that shows how reducing emissions and agricultural goals do not directly conflict with one another.
“We realized when we got into this 15 years ago that we weren’t getting where we wanted without working with agriculture - it wasn’t going to happen,” Coe said. “What we were not going to do is say to farmers that you can’t grow your crops.”
According to Coe, forests can boost the productivity of nearby cropland by keeping the surrounding area wetter and cooler, which serves agricultural interests by ensuring stable crop yields and promotes intensified land use over slash-and-burn methods that are more destructive to primary forests.
Still, the portal will likely encounter challenges as it reaches wide levels of adoption.
“In my country, the government doesn’t work with NGOs. If the information comes from another organization, it has particular difficulty being implemented at the government level,” said Ariel Reinaga, a spatial analyst from Bolivia.
Reinaga said this is especially the case with data from the United States. “My president doesn’t like anything from a capitalist, because he considers himself a socialist,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s a big problem that has caused a lot of issues in my country.”
Others, however, see the Climate Source as a potential vehicle for enabling climate action.
“I now see the need for using this information to convince the Brazilian government that the vast amount of public, undesignated lands in the Amazon are a forest asset that is particularly at risk,” said Brazilian geographer Diego Menezes, who has dealt with pushback at the government level as well.
“I have a feeling of hope,” said Menezes. “I have a hope to see the end of deforestation.”
Research Associate Andréa Castanho leads a group session at the workshop.
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News BriefsIn late June, WHRC Senior Scientist Foster Brown participated as a member of the Science Review Panel of the Climate Science for Service Partnership - Brazil. The CSSP-Brazil is organized by the Met Office/Hadley Centre and held its first annual meeting from June 23 to 25 in Exeter, England. Dr. Brown also participated as a member of the Scientific-Technical Committee (CTC) of the National Institute for Amazon Research in a semi-annual meeting in Manaus, Brazil on July 5.
On July 12, Dr. Ben Olken, an economics professor from MIT, spoke at WHRC about "The Political Economy of Deforestation in the Tropics." He discussed the challenges posed by corruption in developing nations, and how that can increase rates of deforestation.
WHRC President Dr. Phil Duffy and WHRC Founder Dr. George Woodwell held a conversation about climate change and climate action at Highfield Hall in Falmouth, MA, on July 23. The discussion was hosted by the Dome at Woods Hole, a group that is seeking to restore Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome.
Thanks to a long-running research project in Plum Island, Massachusetts, scientists understand how increased nutrients (from fertilizers, or septic systems) can flow toward the ocean and damage a salt marsh. Research at the collaborative TIDE project in Plum Island has now moved to a new phase – studying how saltwater marshes can recover from that pollution.
Started in 2003, the ecological experiment introduced large quantities of fertilizer to the ecosystem in order to understand the effects of and natural recovery from large-scale nutrient pollution. The researchers have now stopped adding the artificial pollution, and are monitoring the marshes’ progress toward recovery.
Saltwater marshes are effective carbon sinks. They can remove 10 times more carbon dioxide per hectare from the atmosphere than forests, and can store carbon for centuries in their soils. Degradation of these soils, however, can release that stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
WHRC scientist Hillary Sullivan observes the biogeochemistry of the Plum Island ecosystem. In each month of the marsh’s growing season, from May to September, she and her team collect water samples from the estuary’s six stations to identify trends of the marsh’s recovery.
“Our goal is to provide a data set that shows lawmakers that these marshes can be recovered,” Sullivan said. “Our growing understanding of the recovery
is applicable beyond Plum Island – it can allow us to know about similarly affected ecosystems.”
The water samples, collected from sites with varying levels of exposure to the experimental pollution, are used to study the nutrients, algae, and microbes carried in by the marsh’s rising and falling tides.
One of the changes that scientists saw after exposing the marsh to nutrient pollution was a shift in biomass distribution in the marsh’s grasses from below ground to above. This biomass shift has expanded a phenomenon scientists refer to as ‘cracking’ of marsh channels. With smaller and weaker roots, the rising and falling tide has carved cracks into the marsh that grow over time.
Katie Armstrong is a student from Mt. Holyoke College who has worked with researchers for two summers at the TIDE project. According to Armstrong, there have been noticeable expansions of these cracks in just the last year.
“We put a small flag on a crack when we see them,” said Armstrong. “That way we can keep an eye on their growth.”
The cracks can grow to be several meters long, at which point they can become obstacles for one of the ecosystem’s most common predators, a fish called the mummichog, which travels up the marsh to feed.
WHRC scientist Dr. Linda Deegan, who specializes in ecosystem dynamics and leads the TIDE project, is tracking
mummichog movements of throughout the saltwater marsh.
She says that fewer have been traveling up the marsh.
“What we don’t know yet,” Deegan said, “is where they end up going instead.”
It is one of many research questions that project scientists across a number of institutions are currently investigating. As the TIDE project enters its 15th year, scientists continue to build upon an expansive store of data which decision makers can use to inform policy.
TIDE Project continues data collection in second year of recovery phaseby Connor Murphy
WHRC in the newsDr. Paulo Brando was quoted in Inquisitr on June 18, Mongabay on June 25, and Pacific Standard on June 26, on the forestry-related effects of El Niño Droughts in the Amazon. bit.ly/2LjSOi2, bit.ly/2tvwE2d, bit.ly/2zIOLai
The Age of Climate Change Begins To mark the 30th anniversary of landmark congressional hearings, the Associated Press republished a 1988 story recounting a Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing, in which WHRC founder George Woodwell and WHRC Board Chair William Moomaw spoke to lawmakers on greenhouse gas emissions. June 18. bit.ly/2NYZKzl
Soil Carbon Map Aids Conservation Dr. Jonathan Sanderman was featured in a PhysicsWorld article on the use of remote sensing technology to measure the soil carbon of mangrove forests. June 21. bit.ly/2NWdGdy
The Boston Globe quoted WHRC President Phil Duffy in an article about measuring carbon emissions. Duffy said that without transparency and accurate monitoring, international climate action could be ineffective. July 7. bit.ly/2L3RPmT
Experts: Climate Change Coming Home To Cape Cod Dr. Christopher Neill was quoted in The Mashpee Enterprise story on the effects of climate change on Cape Cod and on the future of local climate resiliency. July 8. bit.ly/2Lgnm49
How Conservation Became Colonialism This Foreign Policy story on the protection of indigenous lands in the Amazon cites a WHRC study finding sig-nificantly less deforestation in designated indigenous lands. July 16. bit.ly/2JsC5UE
ABC News 5 Dr. Christopher Neill was featured in this ABC News 5 segment on the dangers of the Southern Pine Beetle, and what its appearance on Cape Cod could mean for the area. July 23. bit.ly/2Of1AfF
Summer research programs at WHRC enables growth for young scientistsby Connor Murphy
For some, a summer internship could put a college student behind a desk, or in front of a copier. For interns in climate research, it puts them in marshes, rivers, and on the Arctic tundra.
This summer, the Woods Hole Research Center is hosting more than 25 students in a variety of scientific and policy focused programs.
The Partnership in Education Program (PEP), one of the student programs, involves the six institutions of the Woods Hole scientific community. Students visit the campuses of each institution to learn about their work before conducting research with an assigned scientist.
At their visit to WHRC, PEP students attended a lecture on climate change and forestry, taught by Dr. Wayne Walker. Students then conducted fieldwork, setting tree plots and taking soil samples with WHRC scientists Jonathan Sanderman and Kathleen Savage.
“I like that we are out collecting data, and that we bring it back to the classroom,” said Anna Knocher, a senior PEP student from Rice University. “I think hands-on learning is important for those of us who want to be scientists.”
Ellis Lyles, an environmental science major at Loyola University in Chicago, is a PEP student working with WHRC scientist Justin Fleming on the Cape Cod Rivers Observatory. In a series of river expeditions, Lyles and Fleming collect a series of water samples from rivers on Cape Cod to study water chemistry at various points along a river.
For one expedition to the Quashnet for sample collection, the duo enlisted a
team from WHRC to traverse the length of the Quashnet River in one day. The mission, once completed, would allow Fleming and Lyles to identify points on the river at which excess nutrients from fertilizer, along with other chemicals, were introduced to the river.
Aqua Sanders, a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, was a part of the WHRC Quashnet expedition.
“It’s an entirely different view than from a classroom,” said Sanders. “It’s easy to understand concepts when you can see them in front of you.”
Sanders, who is interested primarily in marine biology, said working in other disciplines has broadened her interests. Her experiences working with WHRC scientists has helped her develop a curiosity in river chemistry, as well as the policy side of climate science.
“When you get out there,” said Sanders, about fieldwork, ”you can fall in love with the work and the science.”
Students are also involved with WHRC outside of Cape Cod. On Plum Island, MA, north of Boston, they are conducting fieldwork as part of the collaborative TIDE Project. Students are helping scientists understand how increased nutrients from fertilizer pollution can damage a saltwater marsh.
The team travels by boat across the marsh at high tide to a series of sampling sites to program pumps that collect samples of the water every half hour. The students then take the samples back to a lab, where they analyze its content to
observe the water’s nutrient, algae, and microbial content.
“It’s important that we continue to monitor the recovery of the marsh,” said WHRC scientist Hillary Sullivan. “The students are here to help us build on our data.”
Even farther from Cape Cod, students travel with WHRC scientists to conduct research as part of the Polaris Project in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska. The two-week program gives the young researchers the chance to study trends in the fastest-warming region of the globe.
It’s not an easy place to work. These students live in tents in the tundra, forgoing luxuries like beds and showers, as they develop their own research projects about the impact of climate change on the Arctic.
“Researchers go to great lengths in the name of science, disregarding the discomfort of the elements, to gather samples and extract data from the environment,” wrote Polaris Project student Derris Funmaker, of Sisseton Wahpeton College
The work that these students do ties directly into one of the most urgent questions in climate science. Below their feet lies dense stores of underground permafrost that is thawing as temperatures rise.
Through these programs, WHRC enables students to gain experience in fieldwork and foster academic self-development, while engaging with promising young scientists on what will be the scientific challenge of their generation.
PEP students laying out an aboveground tree biomass sampling plot in the forest behind WHRC, under the guidance of Research Associate Kathleen Savage (far right).
Arrival day for Polaris Project students in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska, with anticipation of an intensive two weeks conducting research.
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