Climate and Fisheries: Costs and Benefits of Change

Many records provide the bases for a clearer understanding of the roles of climate regime shifts and short-term perturbations in ecosystem dynamics, hence fisheries responses. Too few have taken the long view of the role of humans in this "Grand Fugue". As one of many predators, it is imperative that humans begin to understand that our various activities are subject to basic ecological principles, such as the concepts of growth limitations imposed by scarcities and habitat debilitations. Most of human history (evolution, growth, colonizations, displacements, resource scarcity, competition for resources) are direct consequences of normal, natural climate fluctuations, and local, regional and global ecological responses. Early fisheries were subsistence levels, with some situations where fishing communities bartered or traded for goods from adjacent highlands or forest cultures. We have also become extremely vulnerable to any persistent climate changes. Following the Medieval Warm period (~900-1180), the onset of the Little Ice Age (LIA) brought changes in regional productivity, disease, and death that began the global transition from Feudal society to the "pay as you go" economics that now dominate the world's major economies. Over the recent two to three centuries humans have swarmed over the remaining terrain, and spread out onto the seas. Modern history relates the continuous growth, expansion and generalized superposition of industrial fisheries onto older coastal subsistence communities, initiating extensive competition, overexploitation, and with resultant dwindling resources and habitat destruction. I have started a Timeline of Fisheries Development that provides a framework of information upon which these facts are derived: I will continue to develop the Timeline, so that others might learn how humans resolve the issues of complex aquatic ecosystems, limited resource sharing, or not.KEYWORDS: Climate, Fisheries, History, Cultures, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment

Evidences for a quasi 60-year North Atlantic Oscillation since 1700 and its meaning for global climate change

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) obtained using instrumental and documentary proxy predictors from Eurasia is found to be characterized by a quasi 60-year dominant oscillation since 1650. This pattern emerges clearly once the NAO record is time integrated to stress its comparison with the temperature record. The integrated NAO (INAO) is found to well correlate with the length of the day (since 1650) and the global surface sea temperature record HadSST2 and HadSST3 (since 1850). These findings suggest that INAO can be used as a good proxy for global climate change, and that a 60-year cycle exists in the global climate since at least 1700. Finally, the INAO ~60-year oscillation well correlates with the ~60- year oscillations found in the historical European aurora record since 1700, which suggests that this 60-year dominant climatic cycle has a solar-astronomical origin

A shared frequency set between the historical mid-latitude aurora records and the global surface temperature

Herein we show that the historical records of mid-latitude auroras from 1700 to 1966 present oscillations with periods of about 9, 10-11, 20-21, 30 and 60 years. The same frequencies are found in proxy and instrumental global surface temperature records since 1650 and 1850, respectively and in several planetary and solar records. Thus, the aurora records reveal a physical link between climate change and astronomical oscillations. Likely, there exists a modulation of the cosmic ray flux reaching the Earth and/or of the electric properties of the ionosphere. The latter, in turn, have the potentiality of modulating the global cloud cover that ultimately drives the climate oscillations through albedo oscillations. In particular, a quasi 60-year large cycle is quite evident since 1650 in all climate and astronomical records herein studied, which also include an historical record of meteorite fall in China from 619 to 1943. These findings support the thesis that climate oscillations have an astronomical origin. We show that a harmonic constituent model based on the major astronomical frequencies revealed in the aurora records is able to forecast with a reasonable accuracy the decadal and multidecadal temperature oscillations from 1950 to 2010 using the temperature data before 1950, and vice versa. The existence of a natural 60-year modulation of the global surface temperature induced by astronomical mechanisms, by alone, would imply that at least 60-70% of the warming observed since 1970 has been naturally induced. Moreover, the climate may stay approximately stable during the next decades because the 60-year cycle has entered in its cooling phase.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figure

THE MIGRATION OF THE TECHNOGENOUS RADIONUCLIDES IN THE FOREST SOILS OF THE UKRAINIAN WOODED DISTRICT

For the first time, the laws of migration of the radionuclides in the soils of the forest biogeocenoses of the Ukrainian wooded district have been considered in details, and the main factors, influencing on the speed of redistribution of the radionuclides in the system solid-liquid phase of the soils under the natural conditions, have been shown. The role of the different processes in the migration of the radionuclides by the soil profile has been revealed, and some elements of balance of the radiocesium in the forest ecosystems have been determined. The obtained results widen the representations about the laws of migration of the radionuclides in the biosphere and serve as the base for the development of the mathematical models of the radionuclides behaviour in the ambient mediumAvailable from VNTIC / VNTIC - Scientific & Technical Information Centre of RussiaSIGLERURussian Federatio

Greenhouse trials on use of biochar versus peat for land reclamation purposes

Experimental testing has been conducted to determine the effect of amendment of soil with mineral fertilizer, biochar, and peat on emergence, survival, establishment, and productivity of northern boreal plant species grown on poor substrates in a controlled environment (in greenhouse). Four species (slender wheatgrass, rocky mountain fescue, American vetch, and common yarrow) were grown in pots containing poor sandy soil amended with mineral fertilizer and/or organic amendments (peat or biochar). The greenhouse temperature, lighting and pot watering regimes simulated the conditions of vegetation growing season in northern boreal forest. The trials showed that mineral fertilizer had a limited ability to promote plant growth compared to peat and biochar. Both types of organic amendments had similar positive effects on the establishment of two test species (American vetch and common yarrow) and on the growth of three test species (slender wheatgrass, rocky mountain fescue and American vetch). Peat had a stronger positive effect on emergence of slender wheatgrass and establishment of rocky mountain, while biochar promoted the common yarrow growth better than peat.Non UBCUnreviewedOthe

Field trials on use of biochar versus peat for land reclamation purposes

Biochar application for revegetation purposes in northern Saskatchewan was studied to determine its effectiveness as a soil amendment in establishing sustainable vegetative soil covers. The abandoned Gunnar Mine Site, located on the northern shore of Lake Athabasca, served as a study area to test the effectiveness of biochar as a soil amendment. Field trials were carried out to compare the effect of biochar and peat application on the growth and establishment of native plant species. The field trials showed that peat promotes vegetation cover establishment better than biochar. Biochar also had a positive effect on vegetation recovery through both establishment of seeded plants and self-establishment of natural invaders (plant species not seeded during the experiment). Peat and biochar had different effects as soil amendments, depending on the plant species. It was shown that both peat and biochar can be used to promote plant establishment and growth, but biochar effectiveness may vary depending on its properties.Non UBCUnreviewedOthe