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EARTH DAY, 2000The National Science Foundation supports environmental research through
funding programs in every field of the sciences, engineering, and science
education. Below are three examples. For more information on NSF and
the environment, see: http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/tfe/start.htm Contents of this News Tip:
Recovery from Mass Extinctions: Longer Than Life Span of Human SpeciesThe earth needs, on average, about 10 million years to recover from a mass extinction of the planet's species, far longer than most scientists thought, according to results of a new study by National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported scientists at the University of California at Berkeley and Duke University in North Carolina. Moreover, the recovery time is the same whether the global die-off involves the loss of most life on earth or wipes out far fewer species. This unexpected finding has major implications for the earth's fate as human activity threatens species around the globe, the researchers believe. "People have argued that we only have to worry about human caused extinctions if we do something that causes the loss of 80 or 90 percent of species on the planet," says UC-Berkeley environmental scientist James Kirchner. "But our analysis shows that even if the human impact is much smaller than that--20 or 30 or even 50 percent of species--it's still going to take 10 million years for the earth to recover. That is well past the expected life span of the human species, or even of the genus Homo." During the past half-billion years, life on Earth has blossomed and crashed many times--some die-offs the result of geologic cataclysm, but most of unknown cause. [Cheryl Dybas] Desktop Software Enables Real-Time Monitoring of California's Coastal EnvironmentNSF’s National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) is using software developed at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) as the data engine for an array of regional oceanographic and atmospheric sensors. The system lets researchers monitor and forecast complex changes in the coastal environment of California. With REINAS (Real-time Environmental Information Network and Analysis System), scientists can analyze oceanographic and meteorological phenomena from their desktops. REINAS uses relational databases to manage data collected by sensors dispersed along the California coast. Located in San Diego, NPACI is part of the NSF Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program (PACI), which makes supercomputing resources available nationwide to scientists and engineers. Weather forecasters use REINAS to monitor and react to conditions in real time. Environmental modelers use it to analyze current and historical data for better understanding of past, present and future conditions. The public can even access REINAS measurements for coastal recreation or business. [Tom Garritano] For more information about REINAS, see: http://csl.cse.ucsc.edu/projects/reinas/. Modeling Plant Growth Gives Better Look at Short- and Long-Term ClimateResearchers modeling agricultural ecosystems have found that as a crop grows, its effects on its surroundings change. Incorporating these changes into a regional climate model, they have discovered, leads to a more realistic simulation of that area's climate. "We wanted to test the effect of having an interactive, growing canopy, as opposed to a static canopy, in a climate model," explains scientist Elena Tsvetsinskaya of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. NSF is NCAR's primary sponsor, and co-funded the research of Tsvetsinskaya and her colleagues. In the Great Plains, for example, the drought of 1988 stunted crop growth, leading to plants with decreased leaf area. The scientists simulated the 1988 growing season, and found that by including the wilted plants, they obtained a more realistic result-with more heat, less water vapor, and less precipitation over the region. "This is yet further evidence that agricultural ecosystems have a considerable effect on the warm-season climate of, in this case, the Great Plains. The results suggest that a warmer climate could develop over the central U.S. than is currently simulated by climate models without interactive vegetation," says Tsvetsinkaya. [Cheryl Dybas]
**NSF is an independent federal agency which supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of about $4 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states, through grants to about 1,600 universities and institutions nationwide. Each year, NSF receives about 30,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 10,000 new funding awards. For instant information about NSF, sign up for the Custom News Service. From the toolbar on NSF's home page, (http://www.nsf.gov), sign up to receive electronic versions of NSF news, studies, publications and reports. Follow the simple sign-on procedures that guide you to your choices. Also see NSF news products at: http://www.nsf.gov:80/od/lpa/start.htm, http://www.eurekalert.org/, and http://www.ari.net/newswise
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