Sustainable Insights          

Recently, my company sold 37 sets of H21 environmental temperature and humidity monitoring system along the railway line in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau fuelwood, delhi, Shule completed the installation of the deployment, the system for monitoring the status of wood to the stability of the railway embankment monitoring and two other land permafrost studies provide scientific data to support a favorable, in order to reflect the study of global warming, permafrost has played a good supporting role.

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a high-latitude permafrost is very sensitive to the temperature and humidity of the soil medium, rich in underground ice. Therefore, the permafrost has a rheology, far below its long-term strength characteristics of the instantaneous intensity. Precisely because of these characteristics, construction engineering structures in permafrost areas is facing two dangers: frost heave and thawing. Therefore, frozen soil areas of soil and environmental monitoring is necessary. And permafrost is sensitive to climate change factor, permafrost monitoring of global climate change research is a very important significance.

For several years, loss of live coral habitat due to coral bleaching has become a global concern prompting researchers and scientists to study the health of coral reefs around the world. One location affected by this phenomenon is the southern Seychelles Islands, in the central-western Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar.

Coral bleaching has been linked to rising ocean temperatures causing 40 to 50 percent of the coral in this region to become colorless and vulnerable to a variety of environmental stresses. To better understand the effects of rising water temperature on the coral’s ecosystem, researchers are using HOBO® water temperature data loggers as part of a long term monitoring program.

“Coral reefs are one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet – equal in many respects to tropical rainforests and they are a very important component of the ocean’s ecosystem,” explains Ray Buckley, a Principal Investigator with the Aldabra Marine Programme (AMP). “So when you have a coral bleaching impact, it has a major effect on local and regional ecosystems.”

“The main focus of our research is Aldabra Atoll because it’s a large remote coral reef ecosystem which has received little impact from human habitation. It is one of the last natural laboratories on the planet. What happens there is how nature really responds to an environmental impact.”

To monitor water temperature, Buckley and the AMP team have strategically placed HOBO Water Temp Pro data loggers in several locations at Aldabra Atoll, and Assomption, Astove and St Pierre Islands to the east. Each data logger is deployed using cable ties and stakes, and water temperature measurements were taken every 30 minutes to an hour.

“The data loggers have become encrusted with bioaccumulation of coralline algae after two years on the reef and are still able to collect accurate temperature data,” says Buckley.

The data logger provides ±0.2°C accuracy over a wide temperature range and offers a 42,000 measurement storage capacity, making it suitable for long-term deployments.

Data from the loggers can be quickly offloaded directly to a laptop via a USB-based optical interface, which provides high-speed, reliable data offload in wet environments. Its optical design eliminates the need for failure-prone mechanical connectors found in many traditional underwater data logger products.

The data was analyzed using HOBOware® Pro graphing and analysis software, which easily converts the collected data into easy-to-read graphs that reveal spikes and drops in water temperature over a 12-month period.

“Most coral bleaching studies take place in locations where there are major impacts to the corals due to human development,” explains Buckley. “While those studies are critical in better understanding coral reef health, they are unable to provide a good baseline for how an ecosystem responds when there is no human impact. Aldabra Atoll is as close to pristine as we have and allows us to see how the coral and fish respond to the rising temperatures without outside interference.”

Researchers have found that, in coral reef ecosystems impacted by human development, there is usually a shift in the dominant component of the ecosystem from live coral to algae.

“The fish populations then switch to mainly herbivorous species and the algae covering the dead coral makes it harder for the coral to recover. This causes a major shift in reef ecosystem,” says Buckley.

According to Buckley, for the past 10 years, there were no substantial changes to the fish populations at Aldabra Atoll where there was essentially no human habitat.

“The coral bleaching event did not result in an algae dominated ecosystem and it wasn’t catastrophic for the fish in this area. Fish were able to adapt to the rapid major loss of live coral habitat and development of a new coral habitat. We found that if there were no other variables affecting the ecosystem, fish can respond positively to these habitat changes, even though the matrix of the system changed.”

UNH Ph.D. candidate Jason Goldstein holds a lobster with a temperature logger, an ultrasonic transmitter and a return tag. These items are secured to the lobster like a lightweight backpack to help UNH researchers learn about their migration patterns. Credit: Rebecca Zeiber, N.H. Sea Grant

Jason Goldstein checks his lobster traps in New Hampshire’s Great Bay Estuary once a week, but not for tasty crustaceans to sell. Instead, the University of New Hampshire Ph.D. candidate is fitting these lobsters with transmitters and tracking their migrations year-round.

Goldstein has tracked lobsters along the New Hampshire coastline and into Great Bay throughout the past two years. This research, funded by N.H. Sea Grant, will provide more accurate information about the sources of juvenile lobsters and interactions between the population stocks in New England. The information could improve the management of this economically valuable fishery, thus allowing lobster to remain front-and-center among the New England menu choices.

Goldstein and UNH professor of zoology Win Watson are particularly interested in the movements of “berried” females, those carrying eggs. This year, they are comparing the berried females’ movements with those of the large- and small-sized males and females without eggs. Where the berried females go, so go their eggs, and those movements likely have implications for New England lobster populations.

“We often go diving one day and there are a lot of lobsters around, and the next day they’re all gone and have moved offshore,” Watson says. “There’s a dramatic shift that takes place in late autumn and causes them to move out into deeper water.”

Watson and other researchers believe this drive to migrate is primarily due to water temperatures. The deep offshore waters are consistently warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than shallower water close to the shore, Watson explains. Lobster migrations might also be driven by turbulence in the water, particularly during autumnal storms.

“They are very mobile animals and move around to avoid bad conditions,” Watson says. He notes that the average lobster can walk from the Isles of Shoals to the New Hampshire shore — up to 10 miles — in just a few days.

Along with other students and technicians, Goldstein has spent numerous hours tracking the lobsters using ultrasonic and handheld hydrophone tracking equipment to locate them and determine their movements. Commercial lobstermen are assisting Goldstein by helping to tag some of the creatures they find in their traps. In many cases, lobstermen who capture tagged lobsters will call Goldstein to report the tag number and location.

In addition, 15 “lobster listening stations” moored throughout Great Bay and the coastal waters allow researchers to more accurately pinpoint where the lobsters go. These stations hold special ultrasonic receivers that can identify and record tagged lobsters moving within a 400-meter radius of the equipment. For example, receivers are currently located at the Great Bay Marina, the Shafmaster dock, the Public Service of New Hampshire power stations, and the Weathervane dock in Portsmouth.

The various tracking efforts have led to a wealth of knowledge. Watson originally hypothesized that berried females would be more likely to move offshore to protect the eggs during the winter months. However, he was surprised to find out that most lobsters, regardless of size, gender or maturity, followed the same migration patterns.

The researchers also learned that relatively few berried females are located in the estuary, while male lobsters are often found there. Goldstein and Watson theorize that the estuary is too extreme an environment for most females carrying eggs, so they migrate toward the ocean when they reach sexual maturity.

In addition to studying the migrations of the adult lobsters, Watson and Goldstein are using oceanic drifters — submerged box-like structures that mimic the movements of lobster larvae — to learn how the movements of berried females could impact where larvae are released and the path they travel when carried by ocean currents during the three weeks they are in the water column prior to settlement. They’ve found the drifters, which are fitted with satellite transmitters so they can monitor them remotely, travel as far away as Cape Cod and Georges Bank. However, those released in Great Bay estuary tend to remain there, likely to the detriment of the lobster populations.

“The estuary is not the best place for lobster larvae because of the warmer temperatures, higher turbulence and lower salinity,” says Watson. “That might explain why there are few mature females there.”

Putting all these data into perspective will be Watson’s next step. He hopes to apply what he has learned to improving management practices for the species. In particular, Watson wants to know if New Hampshire lobsters can be managed in isolation or if the management unit needs to be larger.

“If our lobsters are leaving for Massachusetts or elsewhere, then we need to work together to better manage the population,” he says.

Steven Rice, Hydrologist, Grand Canyon National Park

We use a number of Onset rain gauges in Grand Canyon National Park. We’re investigating the rates and timing of precipitation which recharge the aquifer systems below the canyon rim. We’ve set up a network of rain gauges on the rim as well as at different elevations that correlate with changes in vegetation type below the rim. This allows us to look at how precipitation rates vary along the rim and all the way down to the Colorado River.

We also have rain gauges at three springflow gauge sites to see how much rain is falling at those locations and look at the intensity and timing of storms and the relation to spring discharge and flash floods.

Some of the rain gauges are in very remote and harsh locations, and it can take a full day just to get to them. Some of them have been working reliably since 2001.

We offload the data four or five times a year using a data shuttle. We then use HOBOware to take the data in and export into Excel. Then I plot it up and compare the data to other information like spring discharge and temperature.

We’ve run trend analyses on the discharge at the three springflow gauges because the area has been in drought and have seen decreases in spring discharge at some of these sites. We’re using the collected data to help understand if this is a result of groundwater pumping that is occurring just outside the Park boundary, the drought conditions, or a combination of the two.

Because the equipment is deployed in the National Park, we want to keep it out of the way and inconspicuous. At a few locations, we surround the rain gauge with rocks so it remains open to the sky but is not visible. There are also some attached to existing structures in the Park so they’re out of the way. We plan to expand the rain gauge network in 2009.

(Follow-up to Monitoring the arctic ice shelves and ecosystems posted on July 1st, 2008)

The University of Ottawa and the Onset weather station on the Serson Ice shelf captured the break up of the Serson Ice shelf. The Onset station measured temperatures unheard of at the North Coast of Ellesmere Island with a maximum of 17.46 C in early August . The Onset station also captured the wind event when the ice shelf broke away. The station is being moved to the Milne Ice shelf next spring.

Excerpt from: BethelCitizen.com
By: Alison Aloisio
August 15, 2008

Located in Hanover, Maine, Howard Pond has joined a growing list of lakes that will be monitored for the possible effects of global warming.

Dr. Dan Buckley from the University of Maine at Farmington is collaborating with other scientists and organizations. They hope to place several HOBO® Pendant loggers in 100 lakes across Maine over the next two years. The loggers are going to be used to measure and record temperature and light intensity at various depths.

Buckley recently described details of the monitoring project to Howard Pond residents. “While melting polar ice caps and glaciers get more of the attention in the global warming discussion,” explained Buckley, “climate change can have a dramatic effect on the ecology of lakes.” According to Buckley, projections show that in 50 years, this region will have the overall climate of southern Connecticut. “The scary thing is the lakes are changing faster than the air,” says Buckley.

A study of Lake Superior showed that since the 1980s, the average surface water temperature of the lake has risen about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. “In the same period”, said Buckley, “the atmospheric temperature has gone up 1 degree Fahrenheit.” “In this region, “ice out” dates are 10 to 15 days earlier than they were in the 19th century and early 20th centuries,” explained Buckley. For example, in the 1880s ice in the Rangeley lakes typically went out in mid-May; however, since the 1960s there has been a dramatic change – ice out has been happening earlier. “Some researchers,” said Buckley, “have suggested earlier ice out is the reason that lake temperatures are climbing at an accelerated rate.” This warming trend could result in the loss of cold-water fish, such as trout and salmon, from some lakes

“As for Howard Pond,” Buckley said, “The prediction will likely not be as dire.” According to Buckley, the pond is 118 feet deep which is unusually deep relative to its surface area. That characteristic will help protect it from the effects of global warming.

Howard Pond residents are not taking anything for granted. The pond’s Preservation Association will finance the placement of two pendant loggers. The loggers will record and measure temperature and light at 15-minute intervals and remain in the pond for up to 208 days. Buckley will then use the data to compare it to the data from other lakes in Maine.

The Howard Pond project will likely start next year.

Onset’s TidbiT® temperature data loggers are helping researchers understand the effects of water temperature conditions on the fish population in Colorado’s Bear Creek.

Karen Christopherson, a volunteer researcher for Evergreen Trout Unlimited, has been using TidbiT loggers for the past several years to monitor rising water temperature conditions. “We are monitoring the stream temperatures in order to show that temperatures vary significantly,” explains Christopherson. “At times, temperatures exceeded the EPA mandated temperature limits for cold-water fisheries. We had noticed a fish die-off in 2000 and 2002, during high water temperatures.”

In order to prove their case that water temperatures were rising, and prompt action by the EPA, state, and the local agencies, Christopherson and her team placed the loggers in various stream locations to monitor temperature conditions at an hourly rate.

“So far, we have succeeded in getting cooperation of state and local agencies to help the stream. This benefits not just the trout, but all other wildlife, as well as the community. It all started with our Trout Unlimited group gathering temperature data with the TidbiTs in order to prove our point – that stream temps were too high,” concludes Christopherson.

Onset’s HOBO® water temperature data loggers are helping U.S. National Park Service researchers understand the effects of water temperature on coral reef health at the service’s field station in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. More specifically, researchers are using the data loggers to establish a link between elevated water temperature over time and coral bleaching, or the whitening of coral due to the loss of life- supporting algae. Coral bleaching – a phenomenon that has been linked to global warming in recent years – causes coral to become colorless, weak, and vulnerable to a variety of environmental stresses.  [Read More]

Related links:

: Coral reefs in trouble, scientists warn http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/08/decliningreefs.ap/index.html

This past April, a team of polar ice scientists trekked to the Canadian high Arctic for a two-week expedition near Ellesmere Island to study the condition of the ice shelves and related ecosystems in this barren region.

Three scientists — Derek Mueller of Trent University, Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa and Andrew Hamilton of Laval University — traveled to this remote territory to continue an ongoing International Polar Year study.

Due to warmer climate conditions in the last 20 years, ice shelves along Ellesmere’s northern coast that have been attached to the shore for thousands of years have been breaking apart affecting this ecosystem.

To help shed light on why large chunks of the Arctic ice have been breaking-up; the team chose a HOBO® weather station with Iridium satellite interface to gather real-time environmental data. The system was deployed on the Serson Ice shelf and is the most northerly automated real-time weather station in the world.

As the arctic landscape continues to change, volumes of freshwater from deep sea inlets previously dammed by the ice shelves are being pumped into the ocean. These physical changes are affecting the habitat of aquatic microbial communities existing below the ice that play a significant role in the Arctic ecosystem.

It is not clear how these ecosystems will adapt to current and projected climate change as this region is difficult to access and has not been well studied. However, scientists are confident that the collected data will provide them with insight on how environmental conditions are affecting the Arctic’s ecosystem.

Related links:

: Ice sheet breaks loose off Canada http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/30/canada.arctic.ice.ap/index.html