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Assessing Future Impacts of Energy Extraction in the Appalachian LCC
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4th Quarter 2013 Progress report
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Quarterly Reports Folder
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Q4 2013 Reporting Materials and Reviews
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Barking up the Wrong Tree? Forest Sustainability in the wake of Emerging Bioenergy Policies
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The spotted owl controversy revealed that federal forest management policies alone could not guarantee functioning forest ecosystems. At the same time as the owl’s listing, agreements made at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit highlighted the mounting pressures on natural systems, thus unofficially marking the advent of sustainable forestry management (SFM).2 While threats to forest ecosystems from traditional logging practices certainly remain,3 developed and developing countries have shifted generally toward more sustainable forest management, at least on paper, including codifying various sustainability indicators in public laws.4 Nevertheless, dark policy clouds are gathering on the forest management horizon. Scientific consensus has grown in recent years around a new and arguably more onerous threat to all of the world’s ecosystems—climate change. Governments’ responses have focused on bioenergy policies aimed
at curtailing anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and mandatesfor renewables in energy supplies now abound worldwide.
[Vol. 37:000
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Climate Science Documents
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Bats and Wind Energy Workshop
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Bat Conservation International (BCI), in partnership with the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), is proud to announce our upcoming Bats and Wind Energy Workshop in Portland, Maine. This event will combine science, conservation and education to provide participants with the latest research and monitoring techniques.
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Events
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Brownness of organics in aerosols from biomass burning linked to their black carbon content
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Atmospheric particulate matter plays an important role in the Earth’s radiative balance. Over the past two decades, it has been established that a portion of particulate matter, black carbon, absorbs significant amounts of light and exerts a warming effect rivalling that of anthropogenic carbon dioxide1,2. Most climate models treat black carbon as the sole light-absorbing carbonaceous particulate. However, some organic aerosols, dubbed brown carbon and mainly associated with biomass burning emissions3–6 , also absorbs light7 . Unlike black carbon, whose light absorption properties are well understood8, brown carbon comprises a wide range of poorly characterized compounds that exhibit highly variable absorptivities, with reported values spanning two orders of magnitude3–6,9,10. Here we present smog chamber experiments to characterize the effective absorptivity of organic aerosol from biomass burning under a range of conditions. We show that brown carbon in emissions from biomass burning is associated mostly with organic compounds of extremely low volatility11. In addition, we find that the effective absorptivity of organic aerosol in biomass burning emissions can be parameterized as a function of the ratio of black carbon to organic aerosol, indicating that aerosol absorptivity depends largely on burn conditions, not fuel type. We conclude that brown carbon from biomass burning can be an important factor in aerosol radiative forcing.
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Climate Science Documents
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Carbon debt and carbon sequestration parity in forest bioenergy production
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The capacity for forests to aid in climate change mitigation efforts is substantial but will ultimately depend on their management. If forests remain unharvested, they can further mitigate the increases in atmospheric CO2 that result from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation. Alternatively, they can be harvested for bioenergy production and serve as a substitute for fossil fuels, though such a practice could reduce terrestrial C storage and thereby increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the near-term. Here, we used an ecosystem simulation model to ascertain the effectiveness of using forest bioenergy as a substitute for fossil fuels, drawing from a broad range of land-use histories, harvesting regimes, ecosystem characteristics, and bioenergy conversion effi- ciencies. Results demonstrate that the times required for bioenergy substitutions to repay the C Debt incurred from biomass harvest are usually much shorter (< 100 years) than the time required for bioenergy production to substitute the amount of C that would be stored if the forest were left unharvested entirely, a point we refer to as C Sequestration Parity. The effectiveness of substituting woody bioenergy for fossil fuels is highly dependent on the factors that determine bioenergy conversion efficiency, such as the C emissions released during the har- vest, transport, and firing of woody biomass. Consideration of the frequency and intensity of biomass harvests should also be given; performing total harvests (clear-cutting) at high-frequency may produce more bioenergy than less intensive harvesting regimes but may decrease C storage and thereby prolong the time required to achieve C Sequestration Parity.
Keywords: bioenergy, biofuel, C cycle, C sequestration, forest management
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Central Appalachia Prosperity Project
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The Central Appalachia Prosperity Project is part of the Presidential Climate Action Project to develop policy recommendations on climate and energy security, with a focus on what the next President of the United States could accomplish using his or her executive authority. The Central Appalachian Project draws on the input of America's most innovative experts to produce policy and program recommendations that are sufficiently bold to expedite the region's transition to a clean energy economy. An important component of these recommendations has been better coordination of the efforts being made by all levels of government - federal, regional, state and local.
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Socioeconomics
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Climate: Sawyer predicted rate of warming in 1972
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Excerpt: "In four pages Sawyer summarized what was known about the role of carbon dioxide in enhancing the natural greenhouse effect, and made a remarkable prediction of the warming expected at the end of the twentieth century.He concluded that the 25% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide predicted to occur by 2000 corresponded to an increase of 0.6 °C in world temperature..... In fact the global surface temperature rose about 0.5 °C between the early 1970s and2000. Considering that global temperatures had, if anything, been falling in the decades leading up to the early 1970s, Sawyer’s prediction of a reversal of this trend, and of the correct magnitude of the warming, is perhaps the most remarkable long-range forecast ever made.
Despite huge efforts, and advances in the science, the scientific consensus on the amount of global warming
expected from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations has changed little from that in Sawyer’s time.
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Climate Science Documents
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Conservation Priorities Science Needs Workshop
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The Conservation Priorities Science Needs Workshop took place on November 29-30, 2011 in Blacksburg, VA. A group of over 150 invited researchers and managers representing a diverse cross-section of expertise and affiliations were assembled to identify the science information needs of Appalachia in order to effectively address the conservation challenges and opportunities across the landscape. The resulting “Portfolio” of science needs will serve as a critical guiding framework to help facilitate and support conservation planning, delivery, and applied research and monitoring efforts across the Appalachian LCC.
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Our Plan
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CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
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The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection advances the conservation, use, and appreciation of Connecticut’s wildlife resources.
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Development by Design
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The Central Appalachians harbor some of the most biologically diverse temperate broad‐leaf forests in the world. These forests provide large interior forest habitats, migratory pathways, and nested rare communities. But new energy development is clearing and fragmenting these precious forests. This presentation provides a briefing related to planning, monitoring, and evaluating environmental impacts of marcellus shale drilling.
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Theme: Planning and Foundational Tools to Aid in Landscape-level Partner Products and Regional Initiatives
