UNDERSTANDING MULTIPLE Environmental STRESSES
REPORT OF A WORKSHOP
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. ATM-0135923, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Contract No. 52-DGNA-1-90024, and the Environmental Protection Agency under Purchase Order No. 2W-0373-NANX. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the agencies that provided support for this project.
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Cover: Satellite photo of smoke emanating from large wildfires along the Alaska-Canada border and spreading across Alaska and into Siberia and the Arctic. Courtesy of NASA.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
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COMMITTEE ON EARTH-ATMOSPHERE INTERACTIONS: UNDERSTANDING AND RESPONDING TO MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES
ROSINA M. BIERBAUM (Co-chair),
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
MARY ANNE CARROLL (Co-chair),
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
CHRISTOPHER B. FIELD,
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, California
EDWARD L. MILES,
University of Washington, Seattle
DONALD A. WILHITE,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
NRC Staff
CHRIS ELFRING, Study Director
MATTHEW M. RUSSELL, Associate Program Officer (until 9/2006)
DIANE GUSTAFSON, Administrative Coordinator
BOARD ON ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES AND CLIMATE
ROBERT J. SERAFIN (Chair),
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
M. JOAN ALEXANDER,
NorthWest Research Associates/CORA, Boulder, Colorado
FREDERICK R. ANDERSON,
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, Washington, D.C.
MICHAEL L. BENDER,
Princeton University, New Jersey
ROSINA M. BIERBAUM,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
MARY ANNE CARROLL,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
CAROL ANNE CLAYSON,
Florida State University, Tallahassee
WALTER F. DABBERDT,
Vaisala Inc., Boulder, Colorado
KERRY A. EMANUEL,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
DENNIS L. HARTMANN,
University of Washington, Seattle
PETER R. LEAVITT,
Weather Information Inc., Newton, Massachusetts
JENNIFER A. LOGAN,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
VERNON R. MORRIS,
Howard University, Washington, D.C.
F. SHERWOOD ROWLAND,
University of California, Irvine
THOMAS H. VONDER HAAR,
Colorado State University/CIRA, Fort Collins
ROGER M. WAKIMOTO,
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
Ex Officio Members
ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI, JR.,
University of Maryland, College Park
NRC Staff
CHRIS ELFRING, Director
AMANDA STAUDT, Senior Program Officer
CURTIS MARSHALL, Program Officer
IAN KRAUCUNAS, Associate Program Officer
CLAUDIA MENGELT, Associate Program Officer
ELIZABETH A. GALINIS, Research Associate
LEAH PROBST, Research Associate
ROB GREENWAY, Senior Program Assistant
KATHERINE WELLER, Program Assistant
DIANE GUSTAFSON, Administrative Coordinator
ANDREAS SOHRE, Financial Associate
Preface
Periodically the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) works with its federal agency partners to select a topic for a special workshop, sometimes called our “summer study.” The purpose of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for scientists, industry, and agency staff to explore current issues in an interactive format. Sometimes these workshops address practical problems, such as communicating uncertainties in weather forecasts (NRC, 2003), and other times specialized technical issues, such as improving the physical parameterizations in coupled atmosphere-ocean-land models (NRC, 2005a). Often, such as in this report, an issue is selected that might otherwise go unstudied due to the scale, scope, or tractability of the problem.
The 2005 BASC workshop focused on multiple environmental stresses in the earth-atmosphere system (see Appendix A for Statement of Task). Historically, environmental problems have been studied one at a time and sector by sector (e.g., the impacts of air pollution on human health or the impacts of invasive species on fisheries). Although this approach has enabled researchers to make good progress in many areas in characterizing cause-effect environmental relationships that are linear in nature and limited in scale, it does not consider the composite effects of simultaneous environmental changes. Unless we consider robust options that solve multiple problems and prevent new ones, we may be ineffective and inefficient in our environmental efforts. Some of these issues are addressed in other National Research Council reports (e.g., NRC, 1999, 2002).
This workshop1 was intended as a step in identifying the types of near-term and long-term research needed to understand multiple environmental stresses and explore integrated strategies to address them. It was planned and facilitated by a five-person steering committee and was held September 29-30, 2005, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies in Irvine, California. More than 25 experts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives, including both the natural and social sciences, attended, as well as managers and stakeholders in various sectors and regions (see Appendix B for the workshop agenda and Appendix C for the participant list). The participants were charged to explore current understanding of multiple environmental stresses in the earth-atmosphere system and to discuss the types of research needed to improve integrated understanding and response strategies for these kinds of complex, nonlinear problems. To focus the discussions, two case studies were selected and participants were assigned to come prepared with short talks on aspects of these cases; other participants were assigned to lead discussion sessions to explore the issues and generate ideas about research needs. This report is the steering committee’s summary of these presentations and the associated discussions; abstracts of the participants’ talks are included as Appendix D. The workshop was funded using support provided from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency.
On behalf of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and the National Academies, I would like to express great thanks to the steering committee for its leadership and to all the workshop speakers and participants for their time and thoughtful comments. Although a workshop by definition can only explore issues and not provide truly detailed or deliberative recommendations, this workshop report should prove useful to researchers and agency program managers looking for opportunities to address these complex issues.
Chris Elfring, Director
Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
Acknowledgments
This workshop report was written by the workshop steering committee based on the presentations and discussions at the workshop, and we appreciate the input from all the participants. In addition, this report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
M. Joan Alexander, NorthWest Research Associates/CORA, Boulder, Colorado
Eric J. Barron, University of Texas at Austin
Julio Betancourt, University of Arizona, Tucson
Scott C. Doney, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
Kelly T. Redmond, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada
William H. Schlesinger, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Elbert W. Friday, Jr., University of
Oklahoma. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.