SCIENTISTS STUDY CORAL REEFS AND OCEAN ACIDIFICATION

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Coral reefs defy ocean acidification odds in Palau
Palau reefs show few of the predicted responses

Will some coral reefs be able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions in Earth's oceans? If so, what will these reefs look like in the future?

As the ocean absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) released by the burning of fossil fuels, its chemistry is changing. The CO2 reacts with water molecules, lowering ocean pH (making it more acidic) in a process known as ocean acidification.

This process also removes carbonate, an essential ingredient needed by corals and other organisms to build their skeletons and shells.

Scientists are studying coral reefs in areas where low pH is naturally occurring to answer questions about ocean acidification, which threatens coral reef ecosystems worldwide.

Palau reefs dodge ocean acidification effects

One such place is Palau, an archipelago in the far western Pacific Ocean. The tropical, turquoise waters of Palau's Rock Islands are naturally more acidic due to a combination of biological activity and the long residence time of seawater in their maze of lagoons and inlets.

Seawater pH within the Rock Island lagoons is as low now as the open ocean is projected to reach as a result of ocean acidification near the end of this century.

A new study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found that coral reefs in Palau seem to be defying the odds, showing none of the predicted responses to low pH except for an increase in bio-erosion--the physical breakdown of coral skeletons by boring organisms such as mollusks and worms.

A paper reporting the results is published today in the journal Science Advances.

"This research illustrates the value of comprehensive field studies," says David Garrison, a program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research through NSF's Ocean Acidification (OA) Program. NSF OA is supported by the Directorates for Geosciences and for Biological Sciences.

"Contrary to laboratory findings," says Garrison, "it appears that the major effect of ocean acidification on Palau Rock Island corals is increased bio-erosion rather than direct effects on coral species."

Adds lead paper author Hannah Barkley of WHOI, "Based on lab experiments and studies of other naturally low pH reef systems, this is the opposite of what we expected."

Experiments measuring corals' responses to a variety of low pH conditions have shown a range of negative effects, such as fewer varieties of corals, more algae growth, lower rates of calcium carbonate production (growth), and juvenile corals that have difficulty constructing skeletons.

"Surprisingly, in Palau where the pH is lowest, we see a coral community that hosts more species and has greater coral cover than in the sites where pH is normal," says Anne Cohen, co-author of the paper.

"That's not to say the coral community is thriving because of the low pH, rather it is thriving despite the low pH, and we need to understand how."

When the researchers compared the communities found on Palau's reefs with those in other reefs where pH is naturally low, they found increased bio-erosion was the only common feature.

"Our study revealed increased bio-erosion to be the only consistent community response, as other signs of ecosystem health varied at different locations," Barkley says.

The riddle of resilience

How do Palau's low pH reefs thrive despite significantly higher levels of bio-erosion?

The researchers aren't certain yet, but hope to answer that question in future studies.

They also don't completely understand why conditions created by ocean acidification seem to favor bio-eroding organisms.

One theory--that skeletons grown under more acidic conditions are less dense, making them easier for bio-eroding organisms to penetrate--is not the case on Palau, Barkley says, "because we don't see a correlation between skeletal density and pH."

Though coral reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean, these diverse ecosystems are home to at least a quarter of all marine life. In addition to sustaining fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people around the world, coral reefs protect thousands of acres of coastlines from waves, storms and tsunamis.

"On the one hand, the results of this study are optimistic," Cohen says. "Even though many experiments and other studies of naturally low pH reefs show that ocean acidification negatively affects calcium carbonate production, as well as coral diversity and cover, we are not seeing that on Palau.

"That gives us hope that some coral reefs--even if it is a very small percentage--might be able to withstand future levels of ocean acidification."

Along with Barkley and Cohen, the team included Yimnang Golbuu of the Palau International Coral Reef Center, Thomas DeCarlo and Victoria Starczak of WHOI, and Kathryn Shamberger of Texas A&M University.

The Dalio Foundation, Inc., The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and the WHOI Access to the Sea Fund provided additional funding for this work.

-NSF-

SECRETARY KERRY'S STATEMENT ON WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
World Environment Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
June 4, 2015

Every person on Earth has a role to play in protecting the environment we share—on World Environment Day, June 5, and every day. Every one of us has a responsibility to ensure that future generations are able to enjoy the same safe and healthy planet that we inherited.

This is a pivotal moment when it comes to environmental protection, and how we respond—or don’t—may come to define our generation. Today, our ocean is overfished, polluted, and acidifying by the day. And the science is clear: we must take action on climate change, which poses a threat to the entire planet. We just lived through the hottest year on record. The Arctic is melting faster than previously predicted. Islands and coastal regions face the threat of catastrophic flooding. Countries around the world suffer from historic droughts. Unless we take immediate global action to lower the harmful emissions that are linked to climate change and transition to clean energy sources that also help to grow our economies, we can expect to see these threats multiply.

The good news is we still have time to slow or even reverse some of the troubling trends we’re seeing. And over the course of this year, we’ll have some important opportunities to do so. In October, Chile will host the second-ever Our Ocean conference in Valparaíso, building on the remarkable progress we made at the first Our Ocean conference in Washington last June. And this December, world leaders will come together in Paris to try and reach an ambitious and comprehensive global climate change agreement.

But this isn’t just about what world leaders can do. We can all commit to making changes, small and large. For example, we can choose energy efficient products. We can recycle more. And we can choose to buy our food from sustainable sources. As nations and as individuals, we need to unite to protect our planet. We know what needs to be done; now we need to take action.

EPA VIDEO: Science safeguards drinking water from harmful algal blooms

USDA ANNOUNCES 1 MILLION ACRES IN CONSERVATION PROGRAM

FROM:  USDA FARM SERVICE AGENCY
USDA Wildlife Habitat Conservation Program Reaches 1 Million Acres
Milestone achieved in North Dakota

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2015 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Val Dolcini today announced that a major national conservation program that restores high-priority wildlife habitat has now surpassed 1 million acres with the recent enrollment of land in La Moure County, North Dakota.


The initiative, known as State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE), is a part of the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federally-funded voluntary program that contracts with agricultural producers so that environmentally-sensitive land is not farmed or ranched, but instead used for conservation benefits. With SAFE, wildlife that may be endangered, suffering population declines, or that provide value to the local community, is identified by nonfederal partners. Agricultural producers within an approved SAFE area then can submit offers to voluntarily enroll acres in CRP contracts for 10-15 years. In exchange, these producers receive annual CRP rental payments, incentives and cost-share assistance focused on establishing, improving, or creating higher-quality wildlife habitat.


“We’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Conservation Reserve Program this year, so one million acres of new wildlife habitat is another a parallel milestone for the program,” said Dolcini. “SAFE began in 2007 as an offshoot to focus on establishing key plant species that help not just soil and water, but also are beneficial to selected rural wildlife habitat. And as it enhances the flora and fauna of the countryside, it can also create recreational opportunities for the sportsman, which is an investment in the rural economy as well.”


Four of the 98 SAFE projects nationwide can be found in North Dakota, covering more than 122,000 acres. The one millionth national SAFE acre was enrolled as part of the Coteau-Drift project, which creates waterfowl, shorebird and terrestrial bird habitat the Missouri Plateau and Drift Prairie region.


According to FSA State Executive Director for North Dakota, Aaron Krauter, “Since the Coteau-Drift project was established, we’ve worked with producers to enroll more than 69,000 acres in SAFE that have helped improve habitat and maintain excellent numbers of waterfowl, which in turn draws more hunters and nature enthusiasts that contribute to our local economies, so it’s altogether fitting that this milestone occurred in North Dakota.”


Producers can offer land for enrollment in SAFE and other CRP programs by contacting their local FSA county office at http://offices.usda.gov. To learn more about Farm Service Agency conservation programs, visit www.fsa.usda.gov/conservation.


The 2014 Farm Bill continues the Conservation Reserve Program. The Farm Bill builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past six years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for the taxpayer. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America.

EXAMINING ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP OF BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR REGION

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Scientists map sustainability challenges in Baja California Sur fisheries

Conduct review of ecological and social data for 12 regions around Baja
The waters surrounding Baja California Sur are teeming with fish. They're also favorite locales for fishers in pursuit of a living.

But like cross-currents in the ocean, the needs of humans and fish meet--and often clash--in this deep blue sea.

In results published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists assessed marine sustainability in the Baja California Sur region by applying a framework that accounts for both ecological and human dimensions of environmental stewardship.

The resulting maps, the researchers say, are mosaics of regional sustainability outlooks with the potential to guide environmental policy.

The maps, according to lead PNAS paper author Heather Leslie of Brown University in Providence, R.I., show regional strengths and weaknesses that can help guide fishers, conservationists and other decision-makers as they consider steps to preserve the peninsula's coastal marine ecosystems.

"This framework enabled us to integrate many different types of data related to coupled human-environment systems," says Leslie.

"We were able to be more comprehensive in our analysis than we would have otherwise--for example, if we had focused solely on the data closest to our individual disciplines."

Dozen regions near Baja California Sur profiled

Leslie and the team--which included anthropologists, economists, ecologists, fisheries scientists, geographers and other social scientists--gathered data on 13 ecological and social variables for each of 12 regions around Baja California Sur.

They developed a profile of sustainability potential for each region in four "dimensions": social governance systems and actors, and ecological resource units and resource systems.

What became clear, says Leslie, is that each region's profile is different, suggesting that the most effective policies to achieve sustainability will be those tailored to shore up each area's weaknesses without undermining its strengths.

"More than one billion people worldwide rely on fish and other seafood as their primary source of nutrition, yet coastal resources are often poorly understood and at risk of long-term decline," says Sarah Ruth, a program director for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program, which funded the research.

"Fisheries involve people and coastal ecosystems interacting with one another in myriad ways," says Ruth. "This work increases our understanding of these complex systems, and ultimately will help us manage marine resources in a more sustainable way."

Magdalena Bay and Todos Santos: A tale of two regions

Take, for example, stories the researchers' maps illustrate about the Pacific coast regions of Magadalena Bay and Todos Santos. If Baja California Sur is a leg, then Magdalena Bay would be the knee and Todos Santos the front of the ankle.

In Magdalena Bay, fisheries are diverse and productive. But the area is also crowded with fishers who use different kinds of gear and don't necessarily all follow the same locally developed rules, Leslie says.

While the ecological foundation there for sustainability looks good, the social dimensions are considerably less promising, the scientists found.

"Depending on which type of data one musters regarding the potential for sustainable fisheries, Magdalena Bay could be scored as either well-endowed or quite weak," write the paper authors, which also include Xavier Basurto of Duke University and Octavio Aburto-Ooropeza of the University of California, San Diego.

In Todos Santos, local-scale fisheries institutions are strong. There is cooperation and compliance among fishers, based on the social science surveys the researchers conducted.

But the nearshore ocean is less productive and yields fewer fish species than Magdalena Bay, just 150 miles to the north.

While not far geographically, the regions are opposites in their social and ecological profiles, says Leslie.

In Magdalena Bay, the most productive strategy might be to cultivate stronger local institutions, Leslie says. In Todos Santos, maintaining existing local institutional strength might make more sense.

Are there fundamental trade-offs?

The diversity of regional strengths and weaknesses shown in the maps is borne out statistically.

The researchers looked for correlations among the four dimensions across Baja California Sur, but found few.

"Does something like this represent fundamental trade-offs?" Leslie asks. "What we found suggests that it does. There's nowhere that does well in every dimension."

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Brown University's Environmental Change Initiative and Voss Environmental Fellowship Program, and other organizations also funded the research.

-- Cheryl Dybas, NSF
-- David Orenstein, Brown University
Investigators
Heather Leslie
Sriniketh Nagavarapu
Related Institutions/Organizations
Brown University

PLANKTON BLOOM FINDS WAY TO MOVE DOWN

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Spring plankton bloom hitches ride to sea's depths on ocean eddies

Eddies--whirlpools within currents--transport plankton downward from the ocean surface
Just as crocus and daffodil blossoms signal the start of a warmer season on land, a similar "greening" event--a massive bloom of microscopic plants, or phytoplankton--unfolds each spring in the North Atlantic Ocean from Bermuda to the Arctic.

Fertilized by nutrients that have built up during the winter, the cool waters of the North Atlantic come alive every spring and summer with a vivid display of color that stretches across hundreds and hundreds of miles.

North Atlantic Bloom turns ocean into sea of plankton

In what's known as the North Atlantic Bloom, millions of phytoplankton use sunlight and carbon dioxide (CO2) to grow and reproduce at the ocean's surface.

During photosynthesis, phytoplankton remove carbon dioxide from seawater and release oxygen as a by-product. That allows the oceans to absorb additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If there were fewer phytoplankton, atmospheric carbon dioxide would increase.

Flowers ultimately wither and fade, but what eventually happens to these tiny plants produced in the sea? When phytoplankton die, the carbon in their cells sinks to the deep ocean.

Plankton integral part of oceanic "biological pump"

This so-called biological pump makes the North Atlantic Ocean efficient at soaking up CO2 from the air.

"Much of this 'particulate organic carbon,' especially the larger, heavier particles, sinks," says scientist Melissa Omand of the University of Rhode Island, co-author of a paper on the North Atlantic Bloom published today in the journal Science.

"But we wanted to find out what's happening to the smaller, non-sinking phytoplankton cells from the bloom. Understanding the dynamics of the bloom and what happens to the carbon produced by it is important, especially for being able to predict how the oceans will affect atmospheric CO2 and ultimately climate."

In addition to Omand, other authors of the paper are Amala Mahadevan of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Eric D'Asaro and Craig Lee of the University of Washington, and Mary Jane Perry, Nathan Briggs and Ivona Cetinic of the University of Maine.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"It's been a challenge to estimate carbon export from the ocean's surface waters to its depths based on measurements of properties such as phytoplankton carbon," says David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences. "This paper describes a mechanism for doing that."

Tracking a bloom: Floats, gliders and other instruments

During fieldwork from the research vessels Bjarni Saemundsson and Knorr, the scientists used a float to follow a patch of seawater off Iceland. They observed the progression of the bloom by taking measurements from multiple platforms.

Autonomous gliders outfitted with sensors were used to gather data such as temperature, salinity and information about the chemistry and biology of the bloom--oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll and the optical signatures of the particulate matter.

At the onset of the bloom and over the next month, four teardrop-shaped seagliders gathered 774 profiles to depths of up to 1,000 meters (3,281 feet).

Analysis of the profiles showed that about 10 percent had unusually high concentrations of phytoplankton bloom properties, even in deep waters, as well as high oxygen concentrations usually found at the surface.

"These profiles were showing what we initially described as 'bumps' at depths much deeper than phytoplankton can grow," says Omand.

Staircases to the deep: Ocean eddies

Using information collected at sea by Perry, D'Asaro and Lee, Mahadevan modeled ocean currents and eddies ("whirlpools" within currents) and their effects on the spring bloom.

"What we were seeing was surface water, rich with phytoplankton carbon, being transported downward by currents on the edges of eddies," Mahadevan says.

"Eddies hadn't been thought of as a major way organic matter is moved into the deeper ocean. But this type of eddy-driven 'subduction' could account for a significant downward movement of phytoplankton from the bloom."

In related work published in Science in 2012, the researchers found that eddies act as early triggers of the North Atlantic Bloom.

Eddies help keep phytoplankton in shallower water where they can be exposed to sunlight to fuel photosynthesis and growth.

Next, the scientists hope to quantify the transport of organic matter from the ocean's surface to its depths in regions beyond the North Atlantic and at other times of year and relate that to phytoplankton productivity.

Learning more about eddies and their link with plankton blooms will allow for more accurate global models of the ocean's carbon cycle, the researchers say, and improve the models' predictive capabilities.

-NSF-
Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF

USFWS VIDEO: SAVE THE MONARCH - INITIATIVE ANNOUNCEMENT

SECRETARY KERRY ON THE CURRENT THREAT TO THE MEKONG

FROM:  THE STATE DEPARTMENT  
From a Swift Boat to a Sustainable Mekong
Op-Ed
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Foreign Policy
February 2, 2015

More than four decades ago, as a young lieutenant in the “brown-water Navy,” my crew and I journeyed down the Mekong River on an American gunboat. Even with the war all around us, in quiet moments we couldn’t help but be struck by the beauty and the power of the river — the water buffalo, the seafood we traded for with local fishermen, the mangrove on the sides of the river and inlets.

Long ago, those waterways of war became waters of peace and commerce — the United States and Vietnam are in the 20th year of a flourishing relationship.

Today, the Mekong faces a new and very different danger — one that threatens the livelihoods of tens of millions and symbolizes the risk climate change poses to the entire planet. Unsustainable growth and development along the full reach of the river are endangering its long-term health and the region’s prosperity.

From the deck of our swift boat in 1968 and 1969, we could see that the fertile Mekong was essential to the way of life and economy of the communities along its banks. In my many visits to the region since then as a senator and secretary of state, I’ve watched the United States and the countries of Southeast Asia work hand in hand to pursue development in a way that boosts local economies and sustains the environment.

Despite those efforts, the Mekong is under threat. All along its 2,700 miles, the growing demand for energy, food, and water is damaging the ecosystem and jeopardizing the livelihoods of 240 million people. Unsustainable development and the rapid pace of hydropower development are undermining the food and water needs of the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the river.

What’s at stake? In Cambodia, the Mekong supports the rich biodiversity of a watershed that provides more than 60 percent of the country’s protein. In Vietnam, it irrigates the country’s “rice bowl” that feeds the fast-growing economy. Throughout the region, the river is a vital artery for transportation, agriculture, and electricity generation.

The Mekong rivals the Amazon for biodiversity. Giant Mekong catfish and the Irrawaddy dolphin are unique to the river, and scientists are constantly identifying new species of animals and plants across the delta. Some of these newly discovered species could one day hold the promise of new lifesaving drugs.

The challenge is clear: The entire Mekong region must implement a broad strategy that makes sure future growth does not come at the expense of clean air, clean water, and a healthy ecosystem. Pulling off this essential task will show the world of what is possible.

The fate of this region will also have an impact on people living far beyond it. For instance, U.S. trade with the Mekong region increased by 40 percent from 2008 to 2014. This trend has meant more jobs for Americans and continued economic growth for countries across Southeast Asia.

Meeting this challenge requires that we work with these countries to address very real development needs even as we work to sustain the environment. This requires good data for proper analysis and planning, smart investments, strong leaders, and effective institutions to manage the Mekong’s riches for the benefit of everyone in the region.

To that end, we joined with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, to launch the Lower Mekong Initiative. Its goal is to create a shared vision of growth and opportunity that recognizes the river’s role as an economic engine and respects its place in the environment.

That is why this week (Feb. 2 and 3) the United States and the government of Laos are co-hosting a major meeting of senior officials from the five lower Mekong countries, the United States, and the European Union in Pakse, Laos, where the Mekong and Xe Don rivers meet. They will be joined by representatives of the private sector and donors like the Asian Development Bank to work on a blueprint for a sustainable future.

At the meeting, we will launch the Sustainable Mekong Energy Initiative, a plan to encourage the countries of the region to develop programs that will redirect their investments to innovations in renewable energy and other sources that do not harm the environment.

This is not a question of dictating the path of development in these countries. Rather, it is about the United States and other countries working alongside our partner nations to establish a consistent set of investment and development guidelines that ensure long-term environmental health and economic vitality all along the river’s path.

This partnership is an essential part of the broader effort by President Barack Obama and the entire administration to support the people of the Asia-Pacific region, and a further sign of our commitment to helping these vibrant economies and emerging democracies.

For Americans and Southeast Asians of my generation, the Mekong River was once a symbol of conflict. But today it can be a symbol of sustainable growth and good stewardship.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS ON NOAA STUDY SHOWING 2014 HOTTEST YEAR

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
NOAA Climate Study 2014 Reveals Hottest Year on Record
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
January 16, 2015

What’s surprising is that anyone is surprised that 2014 was the hottest year on record. The science has been screaming at us for a long, long time. We’ve seen thirteen of the warmest years on record since 2000. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are at an all-time high, which we know leads to a warming planet. We’re seeing higher than ever occurrences of extreme weather events like catastrophic droughts, storm surges and torrential rain. These events are having devastating economic, security and health impacts across the planet.

This report is just another sound in a steady drumbeat that is growing increasingly more urgent. So the question isn't the science. The question isn't the warning signs. The question is when and how the world will respond. Ambitious, concrete action is the only path forward that leads anywhere worth going.

SCIENTISTS WORK TO PRESERVE BIODIVERSITY

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Protecting biodiversity

In one of the world's richest biological hotspots, an international group of scientists works to preserve biodiversity amid climate change
The Congo Basin is an unruly ribbon of tropical forest: Over a million square miles spanning six countries in Central Africa, running inward along the equator from the continent's western coast. It is the second-largest contiguous tropical forest in the world. The basin is home to the classics of African wildlife--chimpanzees, elephants, gorillas--along with thousands of other less well-known species: pale, long-legged Golden Puddle Frogs, hook-beaked Olive Sunbirds, and squat Blue Duikers, which look like shrunken antelopes.

This wealth of flora and fauna, much of it native to the region, is enough to qualify the Congo Basin as a biodiversity hotspot: a biologically rich area threatened by outside forces. In Central Africa, those forces include deforestation, climate change, hunting and more.

The region is "so enriched with life," says Mary "Katy" Gonder, a Drexel University biologist and one of the lead researchers on the Central African Biodiversity Alliance (CABA). "And that life is precarious right now."

Funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Alliance is an international partnership of scientists, students and policy makers working to build a framework to conserve biodiversity in Central Africa. The partnership spans three continents, and includes researchers from the U.S., Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Germany and the United Kingdom.

NSF funding for CABA comes through the Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) program, which supports innovative, international research and education collaborations. PIRE projects stimulate scientific discovery and strengthen U.S. universities; the projects forge worldwide partnerships and help train a globally engaged scientific and engineering workforce.

CABA also receives funding from the Arcus Foundation and the Exxon Mobil Foundation.

To build a conservation framework, they are using genomic tools and environmental modeling to identify areas worth conserving: sweet spots that both maximize the pattern of biodiversity and the processes that produce and maintain it.

All research is rooted in the region's socioeconomic realities. From the start, CABA members have met with government officials in the region, to ensure that policy makers are both informed about the research and play a role shaping it. Training future scientists and engineers is also a big piece of the project. They've held professional development workshops for students and scientists--both American and African--to discuss everything from experiment design and statistics to grant writing and leadership. CABA members have also helped facilitate workshops for women in science, through COACh (Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists) International.

Exposing American students to globally focused research, partnerships and--for most of the them--a completely foreign part of the world is another "great benefit" of the project, says Nicola Anthony, a biologist at the University of New Orleans and another lead CABA scientist. "Even if they don't end up in science for a career, they'll be much better global citizens as a result of this."

CABA's "breadth and effectiveness are very impressive," says Lara Campbell, a program manager in NSF's International Science and Engineering section, which funds PIRE. "They are producing a strong cadre of American and African scientists prepared to address the many future challenges of climate change impacts on ecosystems."

-- Jessica Arriens
Investigators
Thomas Smith
Nicola Anthony
Mary Katherine Gonder
Related Institutions/Organizations
University of California-Los Angeles
University of New Orleans
Drexel University

GREENHOUSE GASES AND PREHISTORIC RAINS OVER AFRICA

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Increasing greenhouse gases linked to rains over Africa thousands of years ago
Past may be prologue for climate in Africa

An increase in greenhouse gas concentrations thousands of years ago was a key factor in higher amounts of rainfall in two major regions of Africa, scientists have discovered.

The finding provides new evidence that today's increase in greenhouse gases will have an important effect on Africa's future climate.

Results of the study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., are published today in a paper in the journal Science.

"The future effect of greenhouse gases on rainfall in Africa is a critical socioeconomic issue," said NCAR climate scientist Bette Otto-Bliesner, the paper's lead author. "Africa's climate seems destined to change, with far-reaching implications for water resources and agriculture."

The research drew on advanced computer simulations and analyses of sediments and other records of past climate. It was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR's sponsor, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Mysterious period of rain

Otto-Bliesner and colleagues set out to understand the reasons behind the dramatic climate shifts that took place in Africa thousands of years ago.

As ice sheets that had covered large parts of North America and northern Europe retreated from their maximum extent around 21,000 years ago, Africa's climate responded in a way that had puzzled scientists.

Following a long dry spell during the glacial maximum, the amount of rainfall in Africa abruptly increased, starting about 14,700 years ago and continuing until around 5,000 years ago.

So intense was the rainfall--turning desert into grassland and savanna--that scientists named the span the African Humid Period (AHP).

The puzzling part was why the same precipitation phenomenon occurred simultaneously in two well-separated regions, one north of the equator and one to the south.

Previous studies had suggested that, in northern Africa, the AHP was triggered by changes in Earth's orbit that resulted in more summertime heating. (Today the northern hemisphere is closest to the Sun in winter, due to a 20,000-year cycle of wobble in Earth's axis.)

But Otto-Bliesner said the orbital pattern alone would not explain the simultaneous onset of the AHP in southeastern equatorial Africa. Instead, the study revealed the role of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, along with changes in circulation patterns in the Atlantic Ocean.

As Earth emerged from the last Ice Age, greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide and methane, increased significantly--reaching almost pre-industrial levels by 11,000 years ago--for reasons that are not yet fully understood.

Most recent natural global warming and increased greenhouse gases

It was the most recent time during which natural global warming was associated with increases in greenhouse gas concentrations.

The influx of fresh water from melting ice sheets in North America and Scandinavia about 17,000 years ago began weakening a critical circulation pattern that transports heat and salinity in the Atlantic Ocean like a conveyer belt.

The weakened circulation had the effect of moving precipitation to southernmost Africa, suppressing rainfall in northern, equatorial and East Africa.

When the ice sheets stopped melting, the circulation became stronger again, bringing precipitation back north of the equator and to Southeast equatorial Africa.

That change, coupled with the orbital shift and the warming of the atmosphere and oceans by the increasing greenhouse gases, is what triggered the AHP, the scientists believe.

"This study is a step toward solving the puzzle of what triggered abrupt changes in rainfall over southeastern equatorial and northern Africa during early deglaciation," said Anjuli Bamzai, program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research.

"Through an analysis of proxy records and climate model simulations, the team demonstrated that the recovery of what's calledthe Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, played a role as an initial trigger to wetter conditions."

Putting together a puzzle

To piece together the puzzle, the researchers drew on fossil pollen, evidence of former lake levels and other proxy records indicating past moisture conditions.

They focused their work on northern Africa, which includes the present-day Sahel region encompassing Niger, Chad and northern Nigeria. They also focused on the largely forested area of today's eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and much of Tanzania and Kenya in southeastern equatorial Africa.

In addition to the proxy records, they simulated past climate with the NCAR-based Community Climate System Model, a powerful global climate model funded by NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy that uses supercomputers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

By comparing the proxy records with the computer simulations, the scientists demonstrated that the climate model had the AHP right.

This helps validate its role in predicting how rising greenhouse gas concentrations might change rainfall patterns in a highly populated and vulnerable part of the world.

"Normally climate simulations cover perhaps a century, or take a snapshot of past conditions," Otto-Bliesner said. "A study like this, dissecting why climate evolved as it did over this 10,000-year period, was more than I thought I would see in my career."

-NSF-
Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF

TECH AND NEW IDEAS SOUGHT BY DOD FOR RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PLAN

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
DoD Seeks Future Technology Via Development Plan
By Amaani Lyle
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2014 – The Defense Department seeks technology and innovative ideas as part of its Long Range Research Development Plan within the Defense Innovation Initiative, a broad effort that examines future capabilities, dominance and strategy, a senior DoD official said Nov. 24.

The newly-released LRRDP Request for Information will provide a way for DoD technology scouts to collaborate with industry, academia, and the general public to explore topics and ideas to better identify the “art of the possible,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering Stephen P. Welby.

“We’re interested in getting the broadest set of folks, the brightest minds we can find, to come help us on this effort,” Welby said. “We’re hoping that by casting this wide net, we’ll be able to harness the creativity and innovation going on in the broader ecosystem and help us think about the future department in a new way.”

Domains of Interest

Specific military domains of interest, he said, include space, undersea technologies, affordable protective systems against precision-guided munitions threats, air dominance and strike capability possibilities, ecologically and biologically inspired ideas and human-computer interaction.

“We expect the topics and ideas that come back will inform our science and technology planning and we’re mining that whole space,” Welby said.

He described a “small, agile team” of bright government officials who’ve been charged to engage industry, academia, not-for-profits, small businesses and the general public to help the department explore future possibilities. Inputs will also be accepted from allies and international partners who may have unique perspectives or contributions to the effort.

Officials expect the seven-month study to yield results in time to brief the defense secretary by mid-2015 and influence future budget and offset technology decisions, Welby said.

DoD’s Future

“The key opportunity out of this whole effort is to start a discussion,” he said. “We’re asking questions about people, business practices, but particularly … about technology, what we need to drive the future of the department.”
Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work will oversee the program as part of the overall effort to explore how technology can be incorporated with future DoD strategy and capabilities.

Pentagon officials noted a justified urgency in reviewing the future systems and architectures to maintain dominance over competing investments around the globe.

“There is no better time to look at the long-range strategy we’re taking to invest in technologies that will make a difference,” Welby said.
Capability Breakthrough in the 1980s

During the 1980s, Welby said, DoD found itself facing the Soviets and recognized there was a better way to confront the issue rather than a “tank-versus-tank” military buildup.

“The big breakthrough in that time period was introduction of precision weapons … and technology that allowed us to replace quantity with very precise technology-driven capabilities,” Welby said.

That, he said, has been the key driver in the way the nation has conducted itself in the national security environment for more than 40 years.

“People have understood our playbook,” Welby said. “Adversaries are now building systems that look to blunt particular United States’ advantages and we’d like to revisit that.”

Efforts in 1973 included the original Long-Range Research and Development Plan, which ushered in nascent digital technologies, early iterations of global positioning systems and the beginnings of the future Internet.

Today, he said, DoD faces challenges posed by globalization and technologies driven by both the military and commercial sectors.

“We’re now asking broader questions like, ‘How does the United States maintain its … lead against the entire path of technology and innovation going on globally?’” Welby said.

Maintaining a compelling U.S. advantage in technology is critical, he said.
DoD’s long-range plan, Welby said, will focus on “near-peer competitors,” state actors and a broader scope of conventional deterrence, namely key technologies that will enable the protection of U.S. interests and freedom of movement, and deter future aggression into the 2025 timeframe.

USFWS VIDEO: NINE WYOMING RANCHERS SIGN HISTORIC SAGE GROUSE AGREEMENT

NSF PRESENTS FINDINGS FROM PAPER ON LARGE ANIMALS AND EFFECTS ON TROPICAL FORESTS

FROM:  THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

  Fruits of the forest gone: Overhunting of large animals has catastrophic effects on trees

As the animals go, so go tropical forests

The elephant has long been an important spiritual, cultural and national symbol in Thailand. At the beginning of the 20th century, its numbers exceeded 100,000.

Today, those numbers have plunged to 2,000. Elephants, as well as other large, charismatic animals such as tigers, monkeys and civet cats, are under attack from hunters and poachers.

Overhunting of animals affects entire forest

While the loss of these animals is concerning for species conservation, now researchers at the University of Florida have shown that overhunting can have widespread effects on the forest itself.

Overhunting leads to the extinction of a dominant tree species, Miliusa horsfieldii, or the Miliusa beech, with likely cascading effects on other forest biota.

The scientists report their results in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Co-authors of the paper are Trevor Caughlin and Jeremy Lichstein of the University of Florida and Doug Levey, formerly of the University of Florida and now a program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology.

Other co-authors are researchers at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi in Thailand, Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the Royal Thai Forest Department.

Loss of one tree species has far-reaching implications

The ecologists show how vital large animals are to maintaining the biodiversity of tropical forests in Thailand.

The team looked at how these mammals contribute to moving seeds through the forest.

"It's not surprising that seed dispersers help trees get to new places," says Levey. "The effects of hunting can extend far beyond the hunted, threatening the overall health of the trees that make up the forest."

Adds Caughlin, "On the surface, it doesn't seem that seed dispersal would be important for tree populations. But seed dispersal has an effect over the whole life of a tree."

Animals critical to seed transport through the forest

The scientists looked at the growth and survival of trees that sprouted from parent trees and grew up in crowded environs, compared to trees from seeds that were widely transported across the forest by animals.

The information was supplemented with a dataset from the Thai Royal Forest Department that contains more than 15 years of data on trees.

The researchers then created a long-term simulation and ran it on the University of Florida's supercomputer, the HiPerGator.

"Having that computing power was very important," says Caughlin, "because we had to simulate the fate of millions of seeds."

The scientists discovered that trees that grow from seeds transported by now-overhunted animals are hardier and healthier.

"Our study is the first to quantify the decades-long effects of animal seed dispersal across the entire tree life cycle, from seeds to seedlings to adult trees," says Lichstein.

Probability of tree extinction increased tenfold

The results show that loss of animal seed-dispersers increases the probability of tree extinction by more than tenfold over a 100-year period.

"The entire ecosystem is at risk," says Caughlin.

"We hope the study will provide a boost for those trying to curb overhunting," he says, "and provide incentives to stop the wildlife trade."

-- Cheryl Dybas, NSF
-- Gigi Marino, University of Florida

THE FUTURE OF HYDROPONICS

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Soil-free farming prepares next generation for Green Energy future

In a cramped city, growing a garden is a luxury. For some Boston teens, two square feet of space is all they need to grow up to 40 plants--without any soil. Boston College, with funding from NSF, is teaching teens the power of hydroponics
When Boston College Professor Mike Barnett first got students involved in hydroponics, he couldn't get them to go home.

"We charged them with the task of building a hydroponic system to grow 50 plants that would fit in a closet, and they wouldn't leave the lab." Barnett said. "At that point, we knew we were on to something."

Hydroponics is the process of growing food with nutrient-rich water instead of soil and is the basis for a project that high school students have been working on at Boston College since 2012.

Boston College's Urban Hydrofarmers project is part of its College Bound program, which prepares high school students for college by teaching them valuable skills in business and science.

With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and in partnership with the STEM Garden Institute, Boston College chose to pursue hydroponics with teenagers because it involves all the basic disciplines students learn in high school.

The goal of the project is to motivate students to pursue science in higher education, according to NSF Program Director David Campbell.

"It addresses the ultimate goals of NSF by engaging young people in science and preparing the next generation of the scientific workforce," Campbell said.

About 60 high school students come to learn at Boston College's greenhouse every year. The program targets teens with average grades, Barnett said, and many of the students come from immigrant families. Some of these students would not reach college without the aid and skills the program provides, according to Campbell.

Students are a part of the growing process from start to finish, from designing the hydroponic systems to selling the produce they grew.

The greenhouse is 1200 square feet of growing space, Barnett said and can produce about 1,000 plants every two weeks. The produce is then sold at a farmers market.

Students run a stand at local farmers markets almost every Saturday, and have to step up to answer questions from customers who are skeptical about hydroponics, Barnett said.

For Stonehill College student Lori Phillips, these questions were both her favorite and most challenging experiences while in the program.

"The very first time the Hydroponics team went to sell at a farmers market, it was a hot, slow day, and we couldn't get any one to stop and hear us out," Phillips said. "I swallowed my fear and spoke out to an older woman about College Bound and the Hydroponic team's goal."

When the woman she spoke to that first day asked for Barnett's contact information to tell him how impressed she was, Phillips became more confident in her public speaking and now enjoys speaking up.

Students not only gain experience in public speaking by running the stand, but also business planning, according to Barnett.

The program lets the students decide how to spend the money made from the farmers markets. They learn how to run a business, according to Barnett, because they come to understand that they have to save up and invest in materials.

This business savvy, coupled with science learning, gives students a foot in the door in the green energy industry, Barnett said.

The project teaches the students how both wind and solar power can create a reliable source of energy for the hydroponics systems. Green energy also opens up the possibility to expand the hydroponics outside the greenhouse, Barnett said. Students have started five hydroponics systems on campus and a few more in the city, all powered by solar panels.

By combining green energy and hydroponics, students are taking part in an emerging market for locally grown produce.

Green energy, such as wind and solar, can heat greenhouses during off-seasons, so produce can be grown anywhere year-round, according to Barnett.

Barnett cited the increasing number of farmers markets and the farm-to-table movement as evidence of hydroponics' bright future.

"Now you can grow the produce for the same price as it's being shipped from California, but the difference it is it ends up being healthier, tasting better and being more nutritious," Barnett said. "It's not been picked and shipped for 3,000 miles. It's local."

With hydroponics, the space constraint and soil contamination found in urban areas is no longer a deterrent for growing local. According to Barnett, a person can grow 40 plants within a space of two square feet.

The project has given some young people the idea of starting hydroponics businesses of their own to bring local produce to their neighborhoods, according to Barnett.

For Phillips, the project has inspired her to get other students involved in hydroponics and even start a major for it at her college.

"I think that we've got the kids right at the cusp of what could be a really nice place for them to be," Barnett said, "in terms of capitalizing on an emerging market."

-- Kierstyn Schneck
-- Maria C. Zacharias, (703) 292-8454 mzachari@nsf.gov
Investigators
George Barnett
Eric Strauss
Elizabeth Bagnani
Catherine Wong
David Blustein
Related Institutions/Organizations
Boston College

BLUE MARBLE, EASTERN HEMISPHERE

A MEASURE OF OCEAN PROTEINS MAY REVEAL HOW OCEAN SYSTEMS OPERATE

FROM:  THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Scientists apply biomedical technique to reveal changes in body of the ocean
Researchers look at biochemical reactions happening inside ocean organisms
For decades, doctors have developed methods to diagnose how different types of cells and systems in the body are functioning. Now scientists have adapted an emerging biomedical technique to study the vast body of the ocean.

In a paper published in the journal Science, scientists demonstrate that they can identify and measure proteins in the ocean, revealing how single-celled marine organisms and ocean ecosystems operate.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funded the research.

"Proteins are the molecules that catalyze the biochemical reactions happening in organisms," says Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biogeochemist Mak Saito, the paper's lead author.

"Instead of just measuring what species are in the ocean, now we can look inside those organisms and see what biochemical reactions they're performing in the face of various ocean conditions.

"It's a potentially powerful tool we can use to reveal the inner biochemical workings of organisms in ocean ecosystems--and to start diagnosing how the oceans are responding to pollution, climate change and other shifts."

The emerging biomedical technique of measuring proteins--a field called proteomics--builds on the more familiar field of genomics that has allowed scientists to detect and identify genes in cells.

"Proteomics is an advanced diagnostic tool that allows us to take the pulse of, for example, phytoplankton cells while they respond to environmental cues," says paper co-author Anton Post, currently on leave from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and a program officer in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.

The new study is an initial demonstration that proteomic techniques can be applied to marine species not only to identify the presence of proteins, but for the first time, to precisely count their numbers.

"We're leveraging that biomedical technology and translating it for use in the oceans," Saito says.

"Just as you'd analyze proteins in a blood test to get information on what's happening inside your body, proteomics gives us a new way to learn what's happening in ocean ecosystems, especially under multiple stresses and over large regions.

"With that information, we can identify changes, assess their effects on society and devise strategies to adapt."

For their study, the scientists collected water samples during a research cruise along a 2,500-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to Samoa.

The transect cut across regions with widely different concentrations of nutrients, from areas rich in iron to the north to areas near the equator that are rich in phosphorus and nitrogen but devoid of iron.

Back in the lab, the scientists analyzed the samples, focusing on proteins produced by one of the ocean's most abundant microbes, Prochlorococcus.

They used mass spectrometers to separate individual proteins in the samples, identifying them by their peptide sequences.

In subsequent steps, the scientists demonstrated for the first time that they could precisely measure the amounts of specific proteins in individual species at various locations in the ocean.

The results painted a picture of what factors were controlling microbial photosynthesis and growth and how the microbes were responding to different conditions over a large geographic region of the sea.

For example, in areas where nitrogen was limited, the scientists found high levels of a protein that transports urea, a form of nitrogen, which the microbes used to maximize their ability to obtain the essential nutrient.

In areas where iron was deficient, they found an abundance of proteins that help grab and transport iron.

"The microbes have biochemical systems that are ready to turn on to deal with low-nutrient situations," Saito says.

In areas in-between, where the microbes were starved for both nutrients, proteins indicated which biochemical machinery the microbes used to negotiate multiple environmental stresses.

The protein measurements enabled the scientists to map when, where, and how ecosystem changes occurred over broad areas of the ocean.

"We measured about 20 biomarkers that indicate metabolism, but we can scale up that capacity to measure many more simultaneously," Saito says.

"We're building an oceanic proteomic capability, which includes sampling with ocean-going robots, to allow us to diagnose the inner workings of ocean ecosystems and understand how they respond to global change."

Along with Saito and Post, the research team included Matthew McIlvin, Dawn Moran, Tyler Goepfert and Carl Lamborg of WHOI and Giacomo DiTullio of the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

-NSF-

PLASTICS AND COCONUTS: MATERIALS FOR HOMES AND AUTOMOBILES

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Transforming waste in order to transform people's lives

Essentium Materials converts coconut husk fibers into materials for cars and homes

When Elisa Teipel, and her collaborators began their research several years ago, their goal was to take an agricultural waste product of little value--in this case, fibers extracted from coconut husks--and turn it into an environmentally-friendly, valuable commodity.

Equally important, Teipel, along with colleagues Ryan Vano, husband Blake Teipel, and Matt Kirby wanted the project to help the local economies where they obtained the raw materials.

Today their new company, the College Station, Texas-based Essentium Materials, is turning out automotive trunk liners, load floors (battery pack covers in electric cars), and living wall planters, among other things, with technology they developed that produces a composite material made of coconut husks combined with recycled plastics.

The result is greener and cost neutral, as well as stronger and stiffer, than the traditional all-synthetic plastic fibers, and with natural anti-microbial properties due to a high lignin content.

"The coolest part is seeing something that was once just waste become a new resource," Teipel says. "Also, it is benefitting both the environment and the communities in developing nations where the coconuts are grown."

The researchers estimate that replacing synthetic polyester fibers with coconut husk fibers, known as coir, will reduce petroleum consumption by 2-4 million barrels and carbon dioxide emissions by 450,000 tons annually.

Also, the improved performance and lower weight of these materials will lead to cost savings through increased fuel economy, saving up to 3 million gallons of gasoline per year in the United States, according to Teipel.

Ninety-five percent of the 50 billion coconuts grown worldwide are owned by 10 million coconut farmers whose average income is less than $2 a day, she says. Moreover, about 85 percent of the coconut husks currently create pollution when they are treated like trash. "The successful adoption of these new composite materials within North American markets would in many cases double the annual income for these farmers," she says.

Essentium's work is supported by a $1,018,475 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through its small business innovation research program (SBIR) in the directorate for engineering.

"Projects that use waste materials as a feedstock to create value-added products are a perfect fit for NSF SBIR because we look to support entrepreneurs who can 'do good by doing well,"' says Ben Schrag, the project's program director at NSF. "We believe that small businesses with innovative technology hold the key to solving many of the broader societal and environmental problems faced by the country and the world.

"New material concepts that incorporate waste materials are also becoming increasingly attractive to many consumers and businesses," he adds. "This is creating significant opportunities for shrewd and dedicated technologists and entrepreneurs."

The idea to use coconut husk material originated about seven years ago when Teipel was in graduate school.

"We were really interested in seeing how we could help people in other parts of the world with economic development work," she says. "Initially, we were looking in Papua New Guinea. A former professor of mine, Walter Bradley, who has since retired from Baylor University, suggested we look at available materials and what we could do with them, initially to produce electricity.

"Coconut was one of the most readily available materials that farmers and people in the community had access to," she adds. "So we took a look and wondered whether coconut was a viable engineering material, and what we could do with it."

At the time, farmers harvested coconuts only to produce coconut milk and coconut oil, while the husks and fiber were considered waste. Yet the students believed they could take the fibers and convert them into a usable product while "elevating both the dignity of the people and the dignity of the resources," she says.

It was a process of trial and error to develop the material in the lab, then try it in a production setting. "The initial phase of the research was to try to understand the inherent properties of these waste materials to determine viable applications," Teipel says. "We discovered that coconut fiber, for example, is a large, stiff fiber with a very high elongation (25-40 percent), making it a natural choice for molded automotive products."

The team then worked with several manufacturing companies to develop different material blends and densities, testing out material blends, such as experimenting with different binder fibers, and processing techniques. "During the commercial development phase, it was important to ensure that these materials with natural content could pass the strict automotive standards such as odor and flammability in order to be approved for use in vehicles," she says.

Today Essentium works in the Philippines with local community development groups to extract the fibers from the husks and shells, work conducted close to the plants where the coconut milk and meat processing occurs.

The fibers are separated from the husk then packed and shipped to the United States where they are combined with other fibers, often recycled and reclaimed fibers, and turned into a material that resembles felt. This nonwoven felt can then be molded or formed into parts that can go into a vehicle.

"The coconut fiber nonwoven material, the first product from the EssenTex™ line, was launched in the Ford Focus Electric vehicle in the load floor," Teipel says. "There are other parts that should be released in the next 12 months. Outside of automotive, the EssenTex™ line has found a home as a moisture mat absorber in the BrightGreen living wall planter available at Williams Sonoma and Home Depot nation-wide."

Essentium also has coconut waste products from the coconut shell in a bio-recycled part on the Ford F-250 Super Duty, and in a kitchen cutting board called "Coco-poly" available at Bed, Bath & Beyond, she adds.

"Our company was built from the idea that you can turn waste into resource," she says. "New materials provide opportunities for engineering applications worldwide and more importantly for farmers abroad waste can be new found treasure.

"As materials people, we understand the importance of selecting and developing the right materials for the job, and recognize that there are many waste streams that can be utilized to create new and better materials and products that have more benefits than just better performance," she adds. "Ultimately, our company is about transforming waste in order to transform people's lives. We want our engineering decisions to improve people's lives and make the world a better place."

-- Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation
Investigators
Elisa Teipel
David Greer
Frederik Karssenberg
Related Institutions/Organizations
Essentium Materials LLC

SECRETARY KERRY'S AT NEXT STEPS PANEL OF OUR OCEAN CONFERENCE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Closing the Next Steps Panel of Our Ocean Conference

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Loy Henderson Conference Room

Washington, DC

June 17, 2014

---

SECRETARY KERRY: This is our last meeting of the entire group in this room. There will be a breakout group meeting here later in the day, but this will be the last session in which everybody will be assembled in the same room at the same time. And I just want to observe that over the course of my career I’ve been to a lot of conferences, but I have to tell you I’ve never been to one where people stayed in their seats, sat as attentive and as focused as you have with as little movement and sort of breakup and large gaps in the seating. I personally am impressed by the way in which there has just been a sense of serious purpose and intent here, and I congratulate and thank all of you for that. You are the ones who have brought that sense of urgency to this effort here. I might say that by being so rigid and so firmly planted we can say with certainty that the oceans movement is a hard-ass group of folks. (Laughter and applause.)
What’s amazing, I sat there listening to the folks who felt inspired to contribute beyond what had been previously thought would occur. And so out of this conference has come more – a commitment to a combination of effort with respect to climate and oceans, but specifically focused on acidification and sea level rise and all the special efforts of these recent spontaneous announcements that you have made. And I’m particularly grateful to the minister from the Bahamas and the Bahamas initiative which is so critical, to Ted Waitt and the Waitt Foundation. I can remember meeting with Ted in San Diego a long time ago when he sort of focused and told me he was really going to put his energy and focus into the oceans, and he has done that tremendously and importantly.

The Cook Islands Prime Minister Puna, we thank you for a 50-mile zone, which just really moves people away from areas of greatest accessibility and will have a significant impact. Mark Spalding, The Ocean Foundation, and the Global Environment Facility, creating a platform for action, and Lynne Hale and Nature Conservancy, a 3.8 million investment in the Marine Initiative.

And finally are my friends from the UK, William Hague and his representative, special representative for climate change, and the effort to work on partnerships and recognize this is indeed an enormous diplomatic challenge to bring countries together in a multilateral forum. This has been as delightful a group of committed activists, scientists, academians, NGOs, civil society, and government representatives who have come together with a serious purpose, and I think everybody deserves their mutual congratulations.

Out of this, particularly with the remarkable contribution and seriousness of purpose expressed by the Government of Norway, we have today received commitments for action over $1,450,000,000, and that is all directed to ocean (inaudible). (Applause.)

In addition to that, with some new commitments we’re soon going to be halfway to the number of countries needed to ratify the Port State Measures Agreement so that it can enter into force. And I will personally engage in efforts, and I hope others here will join, particularly my minister colleagues, in the effort to push to get that done. When we achieve that, we get a few more countries on board, we’ll be able to take an enormous step forward in preventing illegally caught catches, illegal fish catch from making it to the market.

Finally, right now only a small fraction of the world’s ocean, as we have all talked about it, is currently protected. But with the announcements that have been made here today and over the course of this conference and additional announcements at lunch, including the announcement President Obama made this morning, we’re potentially on the verge of protecting more than 3 million square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. We need to do more elsewhere but that is a terrific start, and I congratulate everybody for their part in doing that. (Applause.)

We have a lot to do in a short time. There isn’t anybody here who hasn’t come here because they don’t understand the depth of this challenge. And I am so appreciative for all of you taking the time, making the commitment to be here. Our hope was and remains – and it’s something that I felt significantly in my travels both as a senator and as Secretary, I would talk to people. And you’d get a certain number of people who go to a conference in one place or another, but we haven’t often enough been able to convene all of the stakeholders that are necessary. We don’t have them all here either yet. We need to continue to push that. Because when people come together like this, there is a certainty of purpose, a certainty of understanding the challenge. And there’s a sense of unity and of breadth, scope if you will, of people taking actions ready to move that in itself is infectious, as we saw today with spontaneous combustion presenting these additional efforts. We have to continue that. And I said at the outset of this that is the purpose of this meeting.

So our team has been assembling a compilation of the best practices and of those suggestions made here for those things that need to be done in order to get this job done. And we will be putting this plan out immediately this afternoon after this conference. Everybody here can go to it immediately onstate.gov. It will be accessible. We will be working to promulgate it. We’ll be working to try to build a critical energy underneath it to take it to the United Nations, to take it to other international organizations that could have an impact. And we will try to build this so that this will become, in effect, the guide for the steps that we need to take in order to protect our ocean and in order to encourage other nations to sign on to do the same.

Eventually our goal is for this plan to translate into a unified global ocean policy. Now governments obviously have an important role to play. We all know that. But what is proven here by Ted and Nature Conservancy and other individual efforts here is that people, civil society, these young folks who are here who are going to be tweeting and pushing this out to social media and engaging, can begin to create a movement at colleges, universities, schools all across the world – this is something everybody can understand – and force political action by virtue of making this a voting issue where people feel that if they don’t do this they’re not going to be running a government, they’re not going to get elected. That’s how it works most effectively.

And lest any of you have any doubt about that, let me tell you something. When I first came back from Vietnam back in 1969-’70, I didn’t first begin to protest the war. I first began to be involved with something called Earth Day, Earth Day 1970. And we organized. Twenty million people came out of their homes and said we don’t want to drink toxic water, we don’t want to have cancer thrust on us, we don’t want to live next to a waste dump. And guess what? Those 20 million people then focused on 12 members of the United States Congress. They were labeled the “dirty dozen,” the worst votes on the environment in Congress. And in the next election, seven of them lost. (Applause.) That sent a message up and down the spines of the survivors, who then promptly voted for the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, and they created the EPA. (Applause.) We didn’t even have an Environmental Protection Agency until that happened. (Applause.)

So as we leave here, we need to remember the power of these facts and these ideas of this mission. And I just ask everybody here to think about one last thing. I will always remember the comments of President Kennedy in 1962 when he attended the World Cup – not World Cup, excuse me, the Americas Cup. (Laughter.) I have World Cup on the mind. And he talked about our connection to the sea and it’s a wonderful passage and you should all go be reminded, but I’d just remind you quickly. He talked about how each of us has this special connection to the sea because we come from the sea, and you just have to measure the amount of salt in water in the human body and in the veins in our blood, and you understand that connection. And so we leave here with a special sense of that connection, but most importantly, thanks to all of you, we leave here with a special mission, a special renewed vigor, a sense of commitment to what we have to achieve. I thank you all for being part of this effort.

We will convene again. It will be in Peru, and after that maybe back here. We will convene again.

PARTICIPANT: Chile.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it’ll be in Chile instead of Peru. (Laughter.) Thank you. Thank you
very much. (Applause.)

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT OUR OCEAN CONFERENCE RECEPTION

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Reception Remarks at Our Ocean Conference

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Sant Ocean Hall

Washington, DC

June 16, 2014

---

Thank you very much. I remind all of you that Winston Churchill said the only reason people give a standing ovation is they desperately need an excuse to shift their underwear. (Laughter.) He really – he said that, I promise you. But I know you had a much more noble cause in mind. (Laughter.)

Anyway, I was really baffled standing up here for a moment. I’m staring at this elephant. I kept looking around for the donkey. I can’t find the donkey in here. (Laughter.) Let’s rectify that, don’t you think? (Applause.) I’m an equal stuffed animal opportunity guy. (Laughter.)
I walked into the hold room back here where I had a chance to say hi to Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen and His Serene Highness and others, and at least they had the goodness to put us in a room where the sign above it said “mammals,” so I felt right at home.

Wayne, thank you very much for not just your kind introduction, but thank you for making this extraordinary national asset of ours, this museum, available to this group, which has come together to fight for the preservation, if not survival, of our oceans. And we are deeply, deeply grateful – very grateful to you, to Kirk Johnson, the director of the Natural History Museum, for hosting us here tonight in this remarkable place.

I also – thank you. (Applause.) I also want to say a special thank you in absentia to Roger and Vicki Sant. So many of you know Roger and Vicki. They have been truly our patrons of all of our initiatives with respect to the ocean. And they couldn’t be here tonight, but their daughter Shari is here, and I wish everybody would say thank you for what they have done to contribute so much to this museum’s ability to be able to give millions of visitors a year a better understanding of our relationship with the ocean. Shari, please take back to your parents our gratitude. I don’t know where she is, somewhere here. (Applause.) Thank you.

We’re in for a great treat tonight. I’m not going to give a speech about the oceans, et cetera, but we are going to do a few special things. And one of them is master chef Barton Seaver has developed a terrific menu of entirely sustainable seafood for all of us to devour. And I understand that he first became interested in sustainable seafood years ago when he spent time in a small village on the coast of Morocco. And he learned about generations-old fishing methods that the locals were using, and he saw firsthand how they linked the local economy of that entire region to the ocean. This is what made him realize that sustainability is not only an ecological imperative, but it’s a humanitarian one. And he will tell you a little bit more about that and the food that we will be eating tonight in a few moments.

We’re also going to hear from Ted Danson. Ted reminded me a few minutes ago we met 25 years ago, I think he said. I thought it was slightly less. (Laughter.) But that’s okay. I’ll accept it. And we were talking about the oceans way back then. It was when he was beginning his efforts on the oceans, and he’s a long-termer, long-timer at this effort.

We also got to know each other because Cheers was not too many blocks away from where I hung out in Boston. And on one occasion, I was walking by at night heading home. And the producers, they were shooting this scene outside, and I think Norm and someone were out there. I can’t remember who else – Cliff. I think Norm and Cliff were in the thing or something. But anyway, they stopped me on the way and they said, Senator, we got to put you in this thing. So we literally ad-libbed this thing on the spur of the moment. And they were hanging out outside and they had me walk up and they said, hey, can we get your autograph? And I started to sign the autograph very proud and peacocked because I was being asked for an autograph. And then they start talking to each other and say, God, we really liked that weather report you did the other day on the news. It was so terrific. (Laughter.) And then I said, who do you think I am? And they said, you’re so-and-so, the local weatherman. And I said, no, I’m Senator Kerry. And they both shrug and walk away. (Laughter.) So it was a great lesson in humility, and the residuals have gone to a charity for years. But thank you, Ted, for helping me to support the charity. I’m very appreciative. (Applause.)

Ted has had, as everybody here knows, an extraordinary career. And he started out with his work to create the Oceans Campaign in 1987, and has provided consistent leadership. He provides leadership in Oceana to this day, and his deep interest in what has brought all of us together has made an impact, and we’re grateful to him.

Right now, though, it’s my privilege – let me just say one quick word. I really want to thank again – I said it earlier, but I think Cathy Novelli and our team have done an absolutely superb job of putting this together. (Applause.) And tomorrow we will not only have more vibrant discussion and I think the kind of interactivity and visual presentations that have been made have really sort of excited people and given us a reminder of what this is all about, and I wish every person in the nation could stop cold and see and hear all of it. But our job is to continue to do that over the course of these next months and years. But tomorrow it’s important we really come together to do the action agenda. If we don’t leave here with a sense of a plan and direction, shame on us, and I think we can do that.

I want to welcome someone who has been a friend and partner in the State Department’s effort to champion ocean conservation at the international level, and that is the Foreign Minister of New Zealand Murray McCully. (Applause.) Murray and I have done a duet here in Washington before. We’ve had a chance to see each other along the way here and there, but I called him because I knew that as the steward of an island nation in the Pacific, he really has as good an understanding about this as anybody around. And like other island nations, New Zealand is obviously on the frontlines of climate change and the other challenges that are facing the marine world.

Murray has spent a career pushing for safeguards to preserve the ocean and to preserve the many species that are really unique to New Zealand’s waters. And he and I have worked closely on the environmental priorities that we share, including our efforts to move forward a proposal that would establish the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. And we will continue to do that. (Applause.) I am really delighted that he made the long trek here to Washington so he could be with us tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome with me my colleague, my counterpart, the Foreign Minister of New Zealand Murray McCully. (Applause.)