News from the polar regions during December 2008 included studies of methane and its role in climate change, new information about the role of polar bears and snowy owls in the Arctic ecosystem, trouble for the Wilkins Ice Shelf and an Antarctic cruise ship, and an astonishing fact about Antarctica’s biological diversity. Missed these stories the first time? Read on!

Methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, is thought to be an important factor in global climate change. Two new reports this month point to the growing understanding of methane in the global ecosystem.

Scientists monitoring methane emissions from the tundra in northeast Greenland have discovered that much more of the greenhouse gas is being emitted into the atmosphere than previously believed. In addition, the researchers have found that the onset of freezing during autumn forces large amounts of methane out of the tundra. Scientists previously thought that the tundra emitted most of methane gas into the atmosphere during the warmer summer months.

Methane emissions are happening underwater as well. A separate study found that the summertime levels of dissolved methane in the surface water from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf were the highest ever measured. The increase is attributed to thawing of permafrost beneath the Arctic Ocean.

An interdisciplinary study has “strongly linked” Arctic sea ice decline to changes in land temperatures and greening of the tundra. As the Arctic warms, increased vegetation will affect permafrost, snow patterns, hydrological cycles, and wildlife. Also significant are climate feedbacks through changes in Earth’s albedo and carbon balance.

In the discussion of climate change, scientists often refer to the effects on the atmosphere and oceans. But the soil may also be impacted by a warming world. New findings suggest that warming temperatures may speed up the rate at which carbon is released into the atmosphere from soil’s organic matter. Over time, that increased process would diminish the carbon pool and actually alter soil’s molecular composition. This could change soil fertility and enhance erosion, as well as accelerate warming due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Greenland’s glaciers are losing ice quickly, and 2008 was no exception. The amount of ice lost this past summer was more than three times what was lost just one year ago. More is to come. According to Jason Box, a researcher with Ohio State’s Byrd Polar Research Center, says that “we now know that the climate doesn’t have to warm any more for Greenland to continue losing ice…but that doesn’t mean that Greenland’s ice will all disappear. It’s likely that it will probably adjust to a new ‘equilibrium’ but before it reaches the equilibrium, it will shed a lot more ice.”  

Loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica is the major reason for sea level rise between 2003 and 2008, according to a new study. Satellite and buoy data showed that unlike past decades, the expansion of warming ocean water only contributed 0.4 mm/year out of a 2.5 mm/year total increase. In past decades, more than half of sea level rise was attributed to thermal expansion of sea water.

As we previously reported, the warming Arctic spells trouble for polar bears that depend on the sea ice for hunting and breeding. New calculations show that the changes in timing of sea ice breakup and snow goose nesting might provide a new food source: snow goose eggs. Polar bears have been observed eating duck and goose eggs in the Hudson Bay area as well as in Svalbard, Norway.

Are snowy owls part of the marine ecosystem? In wildlife satellite studies, the top Arctic bird predators have been observed to spend a great deal of time far out on the sea ice during the winter. Scientists hypothesize that they may have been preying on seabirds. Biologists are curious to know if Inuit seal hunters have ever encountered the birds on the ice as well.

A convoy of bulldozers and trucks has departed from a remote airport in Siberia, traveling to a frozen lake 62 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The convoy is delivering core-drilling equipment that will allow scientists to retrieve core samples more than 3 million years old and answer questions about Earth’s ancient climate. This area was never covered by ice sheets or glaciers, meaning that it has a continuous sediment record unlike anywhere else in the world. Scientists plan to begin drilling in February of 2009.

In Antarctica, new rifts have developed on the Wilkins Ice Shelf that may lead to disintegration of the ice bridge that connects the shelf to the Antarctic Peninsula. Breakup of the bridge has been a steady occurrence during 2008, with major events in February, May, and June.

While the polar regions (and particularly Antarctica) have been long considered to be poor in biodiversity, a new ‘inventory’ of marine and land animals around a group of Antarctic islands show that the area has more species than the Galapagos. Part of the Census of Marine Life, the study will provide a benchmark for monitoring the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

As ice melts on the Antarctic continent, parts of the continental bedrock are responding by rising. Other parts are sinking. These findings come from data obtained from GPS sensors on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, part of the POLENET project. POLENET is a collaborative project run by the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University and several other partners. In addition to scientific data, the project provides educational resources as part of the International Polar Year.

A cruise ship ran aground along the Antarctic Peninsula in early December. Though the ship was freed by Chilean tug boat, some fuel was spilled. A similar ship sank one year ago. These incidents have raised questions about the growing polar tourism movement, its safety, and its ecological impact.

As we previously reported, the world’s largest neutrino telescope is being constructed below the ice of Antarctica. The IceCube is a series of strings of optical detectors frozen more than a mile deep in the Antarctic ice. Surface detectors will measure cascades of particles generated by high-energy cosmic rays, while the detectors in the ice will monitor particles that pass through the planet from below. Scientists will be able to reconstruct the path of the particle and determine its origin, such as an exploding star or a black hole. The IceCube is set for completion in 2011.

Know of another significant news story from December that you’d like to share? Reactions to one of the stories discussed here?  Post a comment-we’d love to hear from you!

The “hope” that developing countries would install technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as they became wealthier is not backed up by evidence so far. A study by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado warns that continuing economic and technological disparities will make it more difficult than anticipated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it underscores the challenges that poorer nations face in trying to adapt to global warming. 

“There is simply no evidence that developing countries will somehow become wealthier and be in a position to install more environmentally friendly technologies,” says Patricia Romero Lankao, a sociologist and lead author of the study. “We always knew that reducing greenhouse gas emissions was going to be a challenge, but now it looks like we underestimated the magnitude of this problem.”

The study shows that most industrialized and developing countries are increasing their emissions of carbon dioxide due to the demand for consumer goods. The goods often come from developing countries that are not gaining the wealth needed to adopt cleaner technology.

To determine whether developing countries are likely to become significantly more efficient, Romero Lankao and her coauthors divided 72 of the world’s more populous countries into three groups:

technologically advanced nations such as the United States (haves), emerging nations such as Thailand (have-somes), and poorer nations like Tanzania (have-nots). Using World Bank data, they based their classifications on three criteria that can influence carbon dioxide emissions: gross domestic product per capita, urban population, and population in the 15 to 65 age range. They then analyzed the economic trajectories of the selected nations from 1960 to 2006.

The team found that the economic disparity between industrialized countries and most developing ones, as measured by gross domestic product per capita, has increased since 1960 rather than converging. Furthermore, the study projects that, if present trends continue, that disparity will continue to grow for at least the next two decades.

The study also highlights the disparities in per capita emissions of carbon dioxide. Of the 72 countries analyzed, the team found that the advanced countries have a tiny share of the world’s population, yet emit 52.2 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, one-third of the global population lives in the have-not countries, but accounts for just 2.8 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions.

When the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its assessment in 2007, it based some projections on the idea that many developing countries would close the economic gap and adopt efficient technologies. However, the NCAR researchers believe the poorer nations will continue to trail in economic growth longer than IPCC predicted even as they produce goods for the wealthier countries. As the income disparity grows and extends for a longer period, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions would lead to higher global temperatures.

The study is published in the journal Climate Research.

The forecasts of continuing climate change have not prompted public or private organizations to adapt to the dangers posed by higher temperatures, says Robert Repetto, author of The Climate Crisis and the Adaptation Myth and formerly a professor in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

The reasons for failure to adapt can be attributed to many different factors, such as uncertainty over climate events, lack of clear mandates to take action, and political resistance. Even so, organizations that have the most at risk and also have the capacity to adapt have not yet done so, according to Repetto.

Among the examples he cites are:

–New York City’s building codes and flood maps. Both are out of date with changes in the climate that are bringing about intense hurricane winds and increases in sea levels and surges. Kennedy Airport and lower Manhattan could be inundated by rising sea levels and surges from severe storms.

–Water management in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. Climate change has not been factored in to water supply plans.

–Federal planning guidelines for transportation funding do not require consideration of climate change in the design and siting of highways and rail lines.

“To say that the United States has the technological, economic and human capacity to adapt to climate change does not imply that the United States will adapt,” said Repetto. “Without national leadership and concerted efforts to remove these barriers and obstacles, adaptation to climate change is likely to continue to lag.”

On January 15 and 16, the International Year of Astronomy will be launched with an opening ceremony at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Headquarters in Paris, France.

One of the goals of the year-long program is to “increase scientific awareness among the general public through the communication of scientific results in astronomy and related fields, as well as the process of research and critical thinking that leads to these results.” It is sponsored by the UN, UNESCO, and international organizations and institutions. The official slogan is “The Universe, Yours to Discover.”

About 400 people will be invited to the opening ceremony, including at least 150 young people (18-21 years old) from participating countries, members of royal families, government ministers, Nobel Prize winners and other eminent scientists.

The world’s largest neutrino telescope is being constructed on and under Antarctica ice. Known as IceCube, the telescope consists of strings of 60 optical detectors, each string more than half a mile long and frozen in the ice. Atop each string is a pair of 600 gallon tanks filled with clear ice and containing two optical detectors

When it is completed in 2011, IceCube will provide “new information about some of the most violent and far-away astrophysical events in the cosmos,” says Thomas Gaisser, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, and one of the project’s lead scientists. The team’s recent work is reported in a news release from the university, one of 33 institutions in the National Science Foundation project.

The surface detectors will measure cascades of neutrino particles generated by high-energy cosmic rays. The under-the-ice detectors will monitor neutrinos passing up through the planet.

 The neutrino telescope uses the glacier ice as the detector mass. This has meant that crews work three shifts in the Antarctic summer’s 24-hour days of sunlight to drill holes more than a mile deep.  

The crews also post reader-friendly reports with many photos and graphics to help the rest of the world understand more about the telescope and life at the South Pole at Dispatches from a Frozen Frontier.

 IceCube is an upgraded version of the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) operated from 1996 to 2004.

Until now, images of polar bears have not brought to mind a bear snacking on goose eggs. That may change with the reporting of Robert Rockwell, a research associate in ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and graduate student Linda Gormezano in the magazine Polar Biology and other researchers’ observations.

While the polar bear is generally pictured on sea ice waiting for his favorite food, a seal, to appear, this hunting platform is melting away. Sea ice is breaking up earlier in the Arctic summer and not reforming as it did in the past decades. The polar bear is forced to move further north to pack ice and sometimes onto land. Young male bears between 2 and 5 years old, called subadult males, are especially at risk in the changing habitat. Adults drive the subadults from the best hunting territory, forcing them to live off stored fat reserves for months at a time.

According to an AMNH science news story, when bears move to the tundra, they may enter the nesting grounds of snow geese. “Over 40 years, six subadult male bears were seen among snow goose nests, and four of them were sighted after the year 2000,” Rockwell says. “I’ve seen a subadult male eat eider duck eggs whole or press its nose against the shell, break it, and eat the contents. This is similar to a different research group’s observations of polar bears eating Barnacle Goose eggs on Svalbard, an island near Norway.”

The goose eggs and embryos are a highly nutritious source of food for foragers. The good news for the hungry young bears is the increase in the goose population. Both bears and geese are coming to the Hudson Bay earlier in the year.

Rockwell and Gormezano calculated that the ice breakup and the hatching time will occur earlier each year, resulting in an overlap in over three years. This means that eggs could become a reliable food source for the bears.

How many eggs will the bear need to eat? The researchers say a bear would need to consume the eggs of 43 nests to replace the energy gained from the average day of hunting seals. Within a decade, because timing changes would put bears in contact with even more nests with younger, more nutritious embryos, a bear would only need to consume the eggs of 34 nests to get the same amount of energy.

Rockwell and Gormezano’s research article is currently available in the online version of Polar Biology.

Look for more about mammals in the polar regions in the January 2009 issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears. You’ll find dozens of online resources, book lists, lesson plans, and science and literacy content knowledge for K-5 teachers.

Tonight at 7pm EST we’re having an online chat in the TappedIn online learning community - http://tappedin.org. We’ll be working our way through the December 2008 issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears online magazine. If you can’t join us, you can still take “our tour” below. We meet the first Thursday of each month - hope you can join us in January when we discuss the Polar Mammals issue.

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TappedIn Tour: Earth’s Changing Surface

Beyond Penguins Room

December 11, 2008 – 7pm EST

Earth’s surface is always changing, and the polar regions are no exception. Glaciers slowly scour the landscape, while the fierce katabatic winds of Antarctica create unusual rock sculptures. Just off the coast of Antarctica, Mt. Erebus erupts almost daily. In this issue, we highlight lessons in which students model the forces that shape and change Earth.

Let’s go to the December issue - http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/index.php?date=December2008. You’ll see that we have five departments and then columns within each department. By the way – all issues are laid out the same way.

Let’s go to the department – Professional Learning – and click on the Science Content Knowledge link – you’ll get to the article “The Forces that Change the Face of Earth” (http://tinyurl.com/5dzwoj).

Even though the hot magma and lava of volcanoes and the ice of the polar regions seem incompatible, there’s quite a bit volcanic activity in the Arctic and Antarctica. Scroll down to the Volcanoes section of the article – look at the last two images in this section. What do you see - anything amazing?

Go back to the issue page (http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/index.php?date=December2008) and look at the other columns we have under Professional Learning. We’ll come back to the Literacy Content Knowledge column in a few minutes.

Now let’s click on the column “Lessons and Activities” in the department Science and Literacy (http://tinyurl.com/6ph7ow). Spend a few minutes looking at the breadth of activities – then report back on one that you find interesting.

We also have a bookshelf in the Science and Literacy department - http://tinyurl.com/6j5hyv - with activity books and teacher’s guides in case you need more ideas. Are you familiar with any of these titles?

We also write our own informational texts for K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 students that go along with the theme of each issue of the magazine. They come in text, illustrated, and electronic versions. When you click on the Feature Story link - http://tinyurl.com/5lch9f - and scroll through the document, you’ll see the text of the feature story, illustrated and printable versions, and then electronic versions of the story.

Our Feature Story, “The Heart of Erebus,” teaches students about Antarctica’s active volcano while the associated templates provide support as they identify facts, ask questions, and make connections with nonfiction text. The entire article on the literacy strategies is under the Professional Learning – Literacy Content Knowledge - http://tinyurl.com/5b4mv6.

All the informational texts can be found by clicking on the Stories for Students link in the header - http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/information.php?topic=stories. Click on the link and look a few of the stories. Which ones do you think your students would like?

Go back to the December issue page - http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/index.php?date=December2008 - and spend a few minutes looking at the other columns that we didn’t go to.

You can see that there are quite a few items we didn’t cover! Hope you enjoy exploring the rest of the issue.

Jessica Fries-Gaither will present “Integrating Informational Text and Science Through the Polar Regions” on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at the International Reading Association’s Regional Conference in Nashville, TN. The presentation be be held at 9 a.m. in room 102 of the Nashville Convention Center. We hope you’ll be able to attend!

If you can’t attend the presentation or would like more information, you can download the presentation or resource list (both pdf files).

What was the climate like when the earth was warmer than it is today? To find the answer, researchers in a group called Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) are trying to reconstruct a warm period that existed 3 million years ago.

Led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), scientists are examining fossils from the Pliocene Epoch when temperatures were 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than today and within the range projected for the 21st century by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The fossils indicate the temperatures of the sea surface and the deepwater ocean.

The researchers will also be looking at carbon dioxide (CO2) levels then and now. According to a press release from the USGS, they believe that levels were “only slightly higher than today’s levels.” Their data suggests that warmth in the Pliocene period was a combination of several factors, including increased heat transport from equatorial regions to the poles and increased greenhouse gases.  

 The primary goal of the PRISM project is to create three-dimensional global data sets of Pliocene conditions, which will form the most comprehensive global reconstruction for any warm period prior to the recent past.  

The European Space Agency reports new rifts on the Wilkins Ice Sheet, which is connected to two islands by a strip of ice. The rifts could cause the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula to destroy the strip, or bridge, of ice that has been preventing the shelf from breaking away.  

Wilkins Ice Sheet, a broad plate of floating ice the size of Connecticut, is located is the northernmost part of Antarctica, which stretches toward South America. The peninsula has warmed more than any other place on Earth over the past 50 years.

Three ice shelves have collapsed in the past three decades. Wilkins had been stable for most of the past century until it began retreating in the 1990s. 

The rifts in Wilkins were first spotted in a satellite image in late February 2008, and scientists saw further deterioration the following week. The latest rifts were identified in November. Meanwhile, the ice bridge has lost about 772 square miles this year.

If the ice shelf breaks away from the peninsula, it will not cause a rise in sea level because it is already floating, scientists say.