CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

People still eat sugar in a recession

Last week I went for my annual trip to the London Docklands for the International Sugar Organization seminar about the economics of the sugar industry. Despite the world's economic problems, the sugar industry doesn't seem too gloomy. Although Michael Whitehead of Rabobank said that the capital-intensive nature of the sugar industry would cause problems -- you need to borrow a lot of money to build or upgrade a sugar factory (and to use it intensively to recover what you've spent), and farmers often need to borrow to invest in crop production -- he expected things to improve by 2010; and the evidence from previous recessions indicates that people still keep eating sugar when times are hard. Other speakers argued that continued growth in developing economies, resulting in rapid expansion of the middle classes in historically poor countries, would ensure that demand for sugar continued to increase.

Underground invasion threatens North American forests

An underground invasion of European earthworms in glaciated forests in North America has compounding impacts on the capacity of the soil to provide nutrients and sequester carbon.

Kyungsoo Yoo, University of Delaware, and colleagues Anthony Aufdenkampe of the Stroud Water Research Center and Cindy Hale, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth, were recently awarded a three-year, $397,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Research Initiative (USDA-NRI) to study the quantitative coupling of the ecology of European earthworm invasion - specifically in Canada, New England and the Great Lakes region - with mineral chemical weathering and carbon cycling.

According to Yoo, 10 to 20 years ago, hikers in Minnesota’s forests noticed that the leaf litter layer was rapidly disappearing. Hale’s doctoral research (see references) showed that non-native earthworms were slowly eating their way into the forest, mixing the litter layer into the mineral soils in the process.
“Soil scientists and agriculturalists recognize the benefits of mixing organic matter with the mineral soil in production agriculture,” Yoo says. “However, in native forests the leaf litter is essential to the survival of native trees’ seedlings. The litter layer provides protection for temperature changes and deer browse. As earthworms invade and consume the leaves, the layer and therefore the success of seedlings, is compromised.”
He adds, “This relationship has been singled out as one of the most important factors impacting the future sustainability of forests in the glaciated areas in the U.S.”

Bringing the mammoth back from the dead

In a very interesting news feature in Nature, Henry Nicholls discusses the real possibilities of inverting the course of evolution by bringing the mammoth back to life.
During the last decades, hundreds of animal genomes have been published and the genome of the charismatic extinct Mamuthus primignenius has very recently joined the list.
Henry Nicholls’s paper summarizes the steps required to build up a mammoth from the genome to a living beast. He states that the whole process would involve: (1) “knowing exactly the sequences needed, (2) synthesizing a full set of chromosomes with the sequences, (3) transferring the nucleus into an egg and finally (4) transferring the egg into a womb…”
He says, none of the steps is currently possible.

Science and technology mitigating the impact of tropical cyclones

When intense winds blow over large surfaces of water, such as the sea, the seawater piles up against the coast causing flooding that threatens lives and crops, as well as infrastructure and property. This happens especially where water is bounded by shallow basins. Storm surges are serious hazards along the east coast of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The cyclone which hit Bangladesh in November 1970 killed around 300 000 people and the recent cyclone Nargis caused 100 000 deaths in Myanmar, Burma. Whereas in New Orleans, which was recently hit by hurricane Katrina, the loss of lives was significantly
smaller (around1800). Read on to find out why.

The eye of a cyclone (Lanci Daniele/Flickr)

High risk of increase in pollutant mobilisation through water erosion due to climatic change

It is currently estimated that 2.2 million tons of topsoil are eroded in the UK annually. When contaminated sites are eroded away by water erosion it is the off-site impacts which are a problem because the sediment produced is transported to water courses, lakes, estuaries and coastal zones. A recent survey by DEFRA showed that 20% of all UK watercourses were at risk of failing EC Water Framework Directive because of sediment movement due to water erosion. Read on to find out how this will get worse under a changed climate.

Making tourism sustainable - there is no plan B

The World Travel Market (WTM) is being held in London this week, and yesterday I was able to attend as editor of Leisuretourism.com. Two issues appear to be centre-stage at this years event. One is the impact of the economic downturn on the travel industry. The other is the need for tourism to be sustainable and responsible. [Actually, a third topic was also high on the agenda after the difficulties everyone has had getting to the exhibition venue this week: the state of the London transport system, and how on earth it will cope with hosting the Olympics. But that's another story].

Will Barack Obama’s victory bring about changes to the US environmental policy?

A change in leadership usually results in changes in policies or at least in some policies; it’s only natural as a new leader will surely aspire to improve on his/her predecessor’s achievements and try to succeed where he/she failed. According to an article in the Guardian, Obama is no different; his advisors told the Guardian that he will ‘shred the Bush administration’s energy policies and introduce a major climate change bill in an attempt to bring the US back into the international environment’. Read on to find out about some of his plans with regard to the environment and his expected cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Beekeepers March on Whitehall

Wallingford is not only where our community of bloggers resides, but it is also home to Rowse Honey, the ‘UK’s leading honey company’. For honey-lovers everywhere, attention will have been drawn to a BBC news bulletin yesterday announcing that English honey supplies could run out by Christmas (BBC, 2008).

Carbon-neutral online conference - Climate 2008 / Klima 2008

I have been participating on this since yesterday and thought it was worth a mention. Yesterday (3rd November 2008) the online climate conference CLIMATE 2008 / KLIMA 2008 opened its virtual doors. If you want to join the conference, go to www.climate2008.net - from now until 7 November 2008. Once you have  registered (for free) you can check out more than 80 scientific peer-reviewed papers from all over the world, on different aspects of climate change, a showcase of selected climate projects, and discover the many interactive features of ‘Climate 2008’. For example, over the course of the event, interested participants may be able to read the papers and exchange ideas with the authors and participant experts. There is also a climate change studies library and you can participate in live chats with experts or watch video podcasts from the conference patrons.