Arctic Insects' Disappearance Is Evidence Of Climate Change: University Of Colorado Study

Boulder Daily Camera:

When Yarrow Axford, a researcher at the University of Colorado, traveled to a remote lake on the east coast of Baffin Island -- which sits a few hundred miles west of Greenland -- the area seemed pristine and untouched by human hands.

But when Axford, who works at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, started examining the sediment layered beneath the 100-acre lake, she noticed that something was missing. Two species of tiny, cold-loving bugs that had made the lake their home for tens of thousands of year had disappeared, apparently the victims of rising global temperatures.

Read the whole story: Boulder Daily Camera

Comments

[sonofsamphm1c]

"Or maybe it was the DDT!!! ..."

When my father was on Guadalcanal, he's 90, he says they stirred the DDT, so the obvious thing here must have been that cold loving bugs are uncultured and will drink their DDT prepared any old way, and the warm loving bugs would only drink theirs shaken, not stirred.

[RomeoMD25]

Nobel prize winner and Savior of the Globe, Al Gore, is affiliated to the CCX CO2-through his firm, Generation, the chairman of which he is. So, Gore has a financial interest in his propaganda against CO2. Al Gores house in Tennessee consumes 20 times as much energy as an ordinary US house. According to his secretary he buys CO2-indulgence through his firm Generation
,which is a branch of the CCX

Besides, the CCX has an interesting board.
The Honorable Carole L. Brookins has had a lot of jobs for President Bush. She is a member of the American Council on Foreign Relations - called the invisible government of The USA. Sir Laurie Magnus is affiliated to the J.P Morgan Trust - a Rothschild partner. And the Chairman, Richard Sandor, is affiliated to the Chicago Board of Trade, which had John D. Rockefeller as co-founder

[sonofsamphm1c]

"The NASA GISS temperature data is an outlier when compared to the other temperature data sources. If another source was an outlier in the other direction, I would also put less emphasis on it than on the non-outlier sources. ..."

NASA includes the entire globe, and that makes it an outlier? Lol.

I would place emphasis on the series that is based upon the soundest assumptions, which is NASA. For people to get an idea as to how how far out this outlier lies, just look:

http://www.realclimate.org/images/2008_from1990.jpg

[sonofsamphm1c]

"The data from this station doesn't indicate any unusual global warming on Baffin Island. Further, this data would indicate that Baffin Island has not warmed since 1998. ..."

This has zero significance.

[sonofsamphm1c]

"Instead of cooling at a rate of minus 0.2C every 1,000 years – a trend that was expected to continue for another 4,000 years because of well-known changes to the Earth's solar orbit – Baffin Island, like the rest of the Arctic, has begun to get warmer, especially since 1950. The Arctic is now about 1.2C warmer than it was in 1900, confirming that the region is warming faster than most other parts of the world. ..."

[Richard2]

A scientific study has been published that indicates that Baffin Island has experienced significant warming in the past 50 years, based on the study of animals in lake sediment. Meanwhile, a lowly weather station on the island has been recording actual temperatures over the same period.

You read for yourself the temperature data from the station. You check to see if the station has been relocated during the period, or if it has other problems often found at U.S. weather stations.
If the station is clean, who are you going to believe, the scientific study of lake sediment, or your own lying eyes?

At a minimum, the results of the study need careful review.

[realpolitic]

The decline of the insect's is a result of global temperature increases which also affect the island. Besides it would be important to consider lake temperatures that likely warmed similar to ocean temps.

[sonofsamphm1c]

Whether or not the station is "clean" or not doesn't really matter. The regimen for determining arctic temperature is out there for any scientist who wants to rip to shreds, and they haven;t been making much headway.

I grew up in a town that got extremely cold as our winter was a continuous blast of fronts from the arctic. On the other side of the state, about 250 miles straight west, and a higher elevation, they had warmer temperatures in the wintertime - just plain balmy compared to us. Did my weather station nullify their reality?

How far away is the lake? What is its elevation versus the weather station. Are there significant factors that would account for a difference between the two locations?

Does the history of ice loss on Baffin Island support the notion that there has been no warming because of one weather station? I don't think so. How about all the other lines of evidence? The weather station is interesting; it does not determine reality. I'm certain competent scientists know how to handle the data from the weather station in a useful manner. Blog scientists? Uh, no.

[Rayme]

Great, another article for global warming propaganda.

[realpolitic]

The interesting question is what caused the steep change in temperature rise, whereby the decade of the 2000s is going to be the hottest decade in the temperature record, much warmer than the decade of the 1990s, which at the time was the hottest decade on record.

[Richard2]

There is a weather station located on Baffin Island near the lake where this study was developed, at Clyde in the Northwest Territories. It provides temperature data from 1943 to 2008.

The temperature data from this station indicates no significant upward or downward trend from 1943 to 2008. The highest recorded summer temperature was in the 1970s. The second highest was in 1998, and the third highest was from the late 1940s. The three most recent data points are considerably lower than the summer measurement in 1998.

The data from this station doesn't indicate any unusual global warming on Baffin Island. Further, this data would indicate that Baffin Island has not warmed since 1998.

[realpolitic]

Where do you get your information? Greenland has recently seen record high summer temperatures. "An international team of scientists, led by Dr Edward Hanna at the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated that recent warm summers have caused the most extreme Greenland ice melting in 50 years." Further, "The findings show how the Greenland Ice Sheet responded to more regional, rather than global, changes in climate between the 1960s and early 1990s. However the last fifteen years has seen an increase in ice melting and a striking correspondence of Greenland with global temperature variations, demonstrating Greenland´s recent response to global warming."


So global temperatures are influencing ice melt on Greenland and they are climbing.

For instance,

The hottest year on record is 2005, and 2009 is likely to be close to the second hottest years of 2007 and 1998.

All the years from 2000 to 2008 have been in the top 14 warmest years on record.

http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/13/the-bbc-hudson-what-happened-to-global-warming-hottest-decade-in-recorded-history/

The decade of the 2000s — 2000 to 2009 — will almost certainly be the hottest decade in at least 2000 years

http://climateprogress.org/2008/12/07/very-warm-2008-makes-this-hottest-decade-in-recorded-history-by-far/

According to NOAA, oceans reached their warmest temperatures in recorded history over the summer.

[Richard2]

NASA -GISS.

[realpolitic]

Good, so you agree with NASA global temperature data, including that 2005 was the warmest year on record and 2007 the second warmest, or do you just cherrypick the NASA data you will use?

[Kruddler]

A similar study by Rolland et al (2009) in the Journal Quaternary Research came to a different conclusion than that of the Axford study. It was based on Southampton Island directly to the west of Baffin island and its conclusions are backed up by the GISStemp surface records in the area.

[realpolitic]

The imaginings of the denier's never cease! Every day a new article that details science written in respected science journals. Every day the deniers deny! Does it ever just get boring for you guys? How do you know so much more than established scientists and then with so much knowledge why post anonymously on Huffington Post. It must be humility!

[Richard2]

Given the complexity of the earth's climate, it is not surprising that there should be conflicting data regarding climate trends.

What is surprising that some data appears to be surpressed, while other data, gets a disproportionate amount of attention.

[realpolitic]

Where is the conflcting data? All scientists agree with anthropogenic warming. When you say some data is suppressed it is a figment of your imagination? There is no one around who is suppressing data and wouldn't the people who just gathered such data clue us in? Deniers should spend more time on the real science and less on fantasy theories of Glenn Beck-level quality!

[sonofsamphm1c]

No data is being suppressed. That is unmitigated hogwash.

[Richard2]

The temperature data from Baffin Island's weather station is consistent with the observation in the New York Times, by Andrew Revkin, that the globe's temperature hasn't increased since 1998. It is also consistent with the tide station data along the California coast, which indicates the sea level peaked in 1998. All of these indicators indicate a temperature peak in 1998, with a marginal cooling since then. There are no signs in this data of CAGW.

[realpolitic]

The Revkin article has been thoroughly debunked and the fact that you keep bringing up a single tidal station shows how weak your overall case is. Temperature trends are rising as the graph on the link below shows. There is no argument among scientists.

As for the discredited Revkin article: "The top climate reporter for the NYT has published what is arguably the worst article of his career, replete with statements that simply are scientifically inaccurate or misleading beyond belief. That litany of misinformation and confusion is what you expect from the Swift boat smearer’s website, not the paper of record. "

"Revkin references “The recent spate of relatively cool years.” relative to what: Venus? As the Met Office explains, “over the past decade, most years have remained close to the global average temperature reached in 1998. All the years from 2000 to 2008 have been in the top 14 warmest years on record.”"


"The interesting question is what caused the steep change in temperature rise, whereby the decade of the 2000s is going to be the hottest decade in the temperature record, much warmer than the decade of the 1990s, which at the time was the hottest decade on record. Hint: Scientists call it global warming."


http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/22/new-york-times-andrew-revkin-suckered-by-deniers-to-push-global-cooling-myt/

[Richard2]

Or maybe it was the DDT!!!

[realpolitic]

Is it always necessary to try to turn each article on science into some kind of propaganda? What is the point? Why do you disdain science to such a degree?

From the longer artcie....­.

"One of Axford's co-authors in the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also examined the sediment for lake algae, and found that it bloomed around the same time that the bugs died, which could be a response to declining ice cover on Baffin Island lakes, the researchers said."

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13595913?source=most_viewed

[middleoftheroad]

Im trying to understand their study...th­e lake can look back 200,000 years. They say there has been a drop off in the last 50 years (has "global warming" been going on for 50 years? A one time we were looking at another ice age)...Did they see any other changes in temp within the 200,000 year history line, and were the bugs not in those shoots either? When was the last temp change that had an impact on these bugs and how long did it last? Could the stude tell what that temp change was??

Not link anyone here has those answers, but Im just wondering.

[realpolitic]

I think you are safely on the far right of the road and that is my answer to your questions!

[middleoftheroad]

way to answer the question, nice. I’m far right of YOU, not mainstream America...­if being pro-choice, anti DADT, pro-logical gun laws, voted for my Blue Dog Dem Rep twice makes me far right, then so be it. And Obama did not win because of Progressive BTW, he won because of moderate America that bought his pitch, and now fear he is spending this country into an abyss they will never come out of (notice the debt level)...A­gain, I’ll just ask when the last time there was a temp change in the lake, were the bugs not there either, and how long did that last....th­at’s all.

[fumes]

EOCC (evidence of climate change)..

is everywhere­..

since the climate is always changing..

and always will.

[realpolitic]

Yes, only know it is changing due to anthropogenic factors like co2 emissions. I think that is the point of most of these articles!

[fumes]

just curious rp..

what do you think the planet would be doing right now w/o us?

[realpolitic]

Cooling...­.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/nsf-tao090209.php

[fumes]

yo rp..

"The ability of such a slight wobble in the Earth's axis to cause a significant temperature change over the 1,900 year period preceding the onset of recent warming provides further evidence of the sensitivity of the Arctic's climate system," says Kaufman.

ahem.. slight wobble? precession trumps anything CO2 can deliver..

[Chic Bowdrie]

I liked where I thought you were going Fumes. What if they created a planet and nobody showed up?

[Kruddler]

Has any research been done into the effect of insecticides such as DDT (direct or accumulated) on insect populations in the area? Such agents have been in use since the 1950s, around the time that the researchers noted the decline in the insect populations. Blaming climate change is all fine and dandy as long as other explanations have been properly researched and discounted.

[realpolitic]

DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. The article states that Dr. Axford "tracked the rise and fall of midge populations by examining the bodies of bugs fossilized in the sediment layers. And when she got to the last 50 years of sediment, she noticed a rapid decline in the bugs, with two species disappearing altogether­." Thus, the bugs have increased in population and fallen with temperatures before. Why must denier's re-write articles?

The researchers also found that lake algae "bloomed around the same time that the bugs died, which could be a response to declining ice cover on Baffin Island lakes." Also, DDT? You guys should really spend less time on the propaganda campaign.

[Kruddler]

I haven't rewritten an article, I asked a question which is what people do. 22 years of DDT use is plenty of time for it to accumulate in the food chain and kill off susceptible organisms. Your reference to lake algae is interesting since the authors use the word "could". The increase in such algae could be due to warming, but equally could be due to any number of other reasons. One does not automatically have to accept the conclusions of a papers' authors as accepted fact.