TL;DR
- A new transparency-friendly solar cell design could marry high efficiencies with 30-year estimated lifetimes, new research has shown. It may pave the way for windows that also provide solar power.
- Researchers have imaged the atoms at the surface of the light-absorbing layer in a new type of next-generation solar cells, made from a crystal material called metal-halide perovskite. Their findings have solved a long-standing mystery in the field of solar power technology, showing how power-boosting and stability-enhancing chlorine is incorporated into the perovskite material.
- Plastic pollution clogs river systems for considerably longer than previously thought, new research shows.
- New research aims to ease the process of chemical recycling — an emerging industry that could turn waste products back into natural resources by physically breaking plastic down into the smaller molecules it was originally produced from.
- Researchers have demonstrated how a detailed ‘cradle to grave’ evaluation at the outset of new metal mining explorations can greatly mitigate against negative environmental impacts.
- Implementing advance wind energy scenarios could achieve a reduction in global warming atmospheric average temperatures of 0.3 to 0.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to new research.
- The cold polar oceans give rise to some of the largest food webs on Earth. And at their base are microscopic, photosynthetic algae. But human-induced climate change, a new study suggests, is displacing these important cold-water communities of algae with warm-adapted ones, a trend that threatens to destabilize the delicate marine food web and change the oceans as we know them.
- Scientists have assembled a quantitative assessment for agriculture sustainability for countries around the world based not only on environmental impacts, but economic and social impacts, as well. The Sustainable Agriculture Matrix, or SAM, provides independent and transparent measurements of agricultural sustainability at a national level.
- Real satellite water vapor isotope data were assimilated in a general circulation model to determine whether including these data could improve forecast accuracy at both the global and local scales. Overall, forecast accuracy was improved by several percentage points. The effect was especially notable for variables closely related to water vapor isotope fractionation, such as air temperature and specific humidity.
- Restoring the world’s depleted peatlands would have massive economic benefits to society, according to new research. A new study has for the first time calculated the monetary costs of delaying restoration of a natural resource that plays a huge environmental role globally, including in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
- And more!
Green Technology Market
Green technology is an applicable combination of advanced tools and solutions to conserve natural resources and environment, minimize or mitigate negative impacts from human activities on the environment, and ensure sustainability development. Green technology is also referred to as clean technology or environmental technology which includes technologies, such as IoT, AI, analytics, blockchain, digital twin, security, and cloud, which collect, integrate, and analyze data from various real-time data sources, such as sensors, cameras, and Global Positioning System (GPS).
Green technology, also known as sustainable technology, protects the environment by using various forms of sustainable energy. Some of the best examples of green technologies include solar panels, LED lighting, wind energy, electric vehicles, vertical farming, and composting.
The global Green Technology and Sustainability market size to grow from USD 11.2 billion in 2020 to USD 36.6 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.6% during the forecast period. The growing consumer and industrial interest for the use of clean energy resources to conserve environment and increasing use of Radio Frequency Identification sensors across industries are driving the adoption of green technology and sustainability solutions and services in the market.
The blockchain segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR: Energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining has caused a spike in carbon emission, and hence blockchain is capable of driving innovation in the field of green technology.
Latest News
- UN Chief Says World Facing ‘Dead End’ Over Climate, Covid: Antonio Guterres warns the world is hurtling toward ecological destruction.
- EU Pledges $4.7 Billion In Climate Finance Ahead Of COP26: The Union’s plan to tackle climate change by 2050 was a key feature of EU Commission President outlined in second annual address at the European Parliament.
- UK Launches $13.6 Billion Green Gilt, With Retail Savings Bond To Follow: The UK’s first green sovereign bond has been issued, raising £10 billion ($13.6 billion) to fund the transition to a greener economy.
- Biden Doubles Climate Pledge in Test to Spur Global Action: Biden’s pledge to double the money the U.S. will spend helping poorer nations fight climate change is drawing a mixed response from environmentalists.
- China to Stop Building New Coal-Fired Power Projects Abroad: China plans to stop building new coal-fired power plants in other nations, potentially ending one of the last sources of international funding for the dirtiest fossil fuel.
- Fukushima plant failed to probe cause of faulty filters: Officials at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant have acknowledged they neglected to investigate the cause of faulty exhaust filters that are key to preventing radioactive pollution, after being forced to replace them twice.
- Pew Reports Widespread Support For Low-Emission Lifestyles. Will Individuals Then Cut Down On Air Travel? Pew survey suggests 80% of respondents support low-emission lifestyles. COVID shows that the world survives with flying less.
- EVs to increase Britain’s electricity demand by 31 times by 2040: As a result of an increase in EV use across Britain, electricity demand from the transport sector will increase by 31 times by 2040 from the current levels.
- Single-Use Plastic Used To Make Longer-Lasting Asphalt In Missouri: While asphalt mixtures are usually created using stone, sand or gravel, it turns out that plastic waste is a good substitute for aggregate.
- NASA innovations will help US meet sustainable aviation goals: NASA Administrator joined federal government and industry leaders at a White House event highlighting sustainable aviation and the administration’s focus on medium- and long-term goals to combat climate change.
- Ford Invests Another $250 Million To Double Electric F-150 Lightning Pickup Production: Ford’s new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is slowly building pre-production F-150 Lightnings.
- Tesla Cofounder’s Recycling Startup Plans To Become EV Battery Material Powerhouse: Redwood Materials plans to open a $1 billion U.S. plant to make cathode and anode materials that will be needed for EV batteries by 2025.
- PepsiCo Centers Sustainability With Its Pep+ Strategy: With its climate action strategy centred on the reduction of GHG emission combined with resilience, PepsciCo appears to be centring sustainability in its development strategy.
- The benefits of high-efficiency, flexible-fuel engines for heavy-duty trucking: The California Air Resources Board has adopted a regulation that requires truck and engine manufacturers to reduce the nitrogen oxide emissions from new heavy-duty trucks by 90 percent starting in 2027.
- New processing and cooking technology helps food manufacturers reduce carbon and energy consumption: Scientists have uncovered new ways for food industry manufacturers to help tackle climate change by altering their cooking techniques to reduce energy consumption.
- Salesforce To Drive Net Zero Action Through The Value Chain: Salesforce has launched a platform to enable business to track and manage supply chain emissions, while announcing its own Net Zero status.
- Bezos Pledges To Spend $1 Billion On Land And Ocean Conservation: It’s part of the $10 billion Jeff Bezos committed to spend on climate change.
- Gates Raises Over $1 Billion For Green Technologies As Part Of Climate Change Pledge: Bill Gates has secured more than $1 billion from corporations to reduce the cost of clean technologies in four sectors.
- Qualcomm’s Study Highlights 5G As Sustainability Enabler: The newly published report looks at 5G as a sustainability driver.
- LanzaTech’s Paradigm-Shifting Plan To Create Carbon-Negative Industrial Chemicals: LanzaTech’s business model shifts commercial paradigms as much as personal computers did during the Internet Revolution.
- In Climate Milestone, China’s Xi Pledges End To Overseas Coal Power. But Is It Enough? China just pledged to end support for overseas coal power plants.
- Can We Stop The Greenwash Wave? With new attempts to curb misleading claims, we may have hit the point where greenwash will harm your brand far more than it could ever help it.
Latest Research
Non-fullerene acceptor organic photovoltaics with intrinsic operational lifetimes over 30 years
by Yongxi Li, Xiaheng Huang, Kan Ding, Hafiz K. M. Sheriff, Long Ye, Haoran Liu, Chang-Zhi Li, Harald Ade, Stephen R. Forrest in Nature Communications
A new transparency-friendly solar cell design could marry high efficiencies with 30-year estimated lifetimes, research led by the University of Michigan has shown. It may pave the way for windows that also provide solar power.
“Solar energy is about the cheapest form of energy that humankind has ever produced since the industrial revolution,” said Stephen Forrest, the Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering, who led the research. “With these devices used on windows, your building becomes a power plant.”
While silicon remains king for solar panel efficiency, it isn’t transparent. For window-friendly solar panels, researchers have been exploring organic — or carbon-based — materials. The challenge for Forrest’s team was how to prevent very efficient organic light-converting materials from degrading quickly during use.
The strength and the weakness of these materials lie in the molecules that transfer the photogenerated electrons to the electrodes, the entrance points to the circuit that either uses or stores the solar power. These materials are known generally as “non-fullerene acceptors” to set them apart from the more robust but less efficient “fullerene acceptors” made of nanoscale carbon mesh. Solar cells made with non-fullerene acceptors that incorporate sulfur can achieve silicon-rivaling efficiencies of 18%, but they do not last as long.
The team, including researchers at North Carolina State University and Tianjin University and Zhejiang University in China, set out to change that. In their experiments, they showed that without protecting the sunlight-converting material, the efficiency fell to less than 40% of its initial value within 12 weeks under the equivalent of 1 sun’s illumination.
“Non-fullerene acceptors cause very high efficiency, but contain weak bonds that easily dissociate under high energy photons, especially the UV [ultraviolet] photons common in sunlight,” said Yongxi Li, U-M assistant research scientist in electrical engineering and computer science and first author of the paper.
By studying the nature of the degradation in those unprotected solar cells, the team recognized that they only needed shoring up in a few places. First, they’d need to block out that UV light. For that, they added a layer of zinc oxide — a common sunscreen ingredient — on the sun-facing side of the glass.
A thinner zinc oxide layer next to the light absorbing region helps conduct the solar-generated electrons to the electrode. Unfortunately, it also breaks down the fragile light absorber, so the team added a layer of a carbon-based material called IC-SAM as a buffer.
In addition, the electrode that draws positively-charged “holes” — essentially spaces vacated by electrons — into the circuit can also react with the light absorber. To protect that flank, they added another buffer layer, this one a fullerene shaped like a soccer ball.
The team then tested their new defenses under different intensities of simulated sunlight, from the typical 1 sun up to the light of 27 suns, and temperatures up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. By studying how the performance degraded under these conditions, the team extrapolated that the solar cells would still be running at 80% efficiency after 30 years.
Forrest sees a future of these devices “coming to a window near you.” His team has already increased the transparency of the module to 40%. They believe they can approach 60% transparency.
They’re also working on bumping up the efficiency from the 10% achieved in the reported semitransparent modules, closer to the 15% believed to be possible at high transparency. Because the materials can be prepared as liquids, the manufacturing costs are expected to be relatively low.
Atomic-scale insight into the enhanced surface stability of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite by controlled deposition of lead chloride
by Afshan Jamshaid, Zhendong Guo, Jeremy Hieulle, Collin Stecker, Robin Ohmann, Luis K. Ono, Longbin Qiu, Guoqing Tong, Wanjian Yin, Yabing Qi in Energy & Environmental Science
A team of researchers led by Professor Yabing Qi in the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan have imaged the atoms at the surface of the light-absorbing layer in a new type of next-generation solar cells, made from a crystal material called metal-halide perovskite. Their findings have solved a long-standing mystery in the field of solar power technology, showing how power-boosting and stability-enhancing chlorine is incorporated into the perovskite material.
In a world now fueled by a need for clean, green energy, solar power is a vital route forward out of the climate crisis. And metal-halide perovskites are the up-and-coming material that many researchers hope one day will eclipse or complement the silicon solar cells currently dominating the market.
“Perovskites have the potential to be cheaper, more efficient and more versatile than silicon,” said first author Dr. Afshan Jamshaid, a former PhD student in the OIST Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit.
But currently, perovskite solar cells suffer from issues with efficiency, up-scaling and stability, holding them back from commercialization. High temperatures, humidity and UV light can degrade the perovskite material, reducing how well it can convert light energy to power, Dr. Jamshaid explained.
Over the last decade, researchers have been intensely focused on tackling these issues. One way of improving perovskite solar cells has been through using dopants — small traces of another chemical that are added during the process of making the perovskite crystal layer. Dopants change the physical and chemical properties of the material, boosting the stability and efficiency of the solar device.
One such dopant is chlorine, which has been shown to increase the lifespan of perovskite solar cells and enhance their power conversion efficiency. But until now, how this dopant worked was a puzzle.
“The research community had no idea why they were seeing these improvements. Once added, the researchers couldn’t track the chlorine — they couldn’t tell whether the chlorine was incorporated deep into the perovskite material, stayed at the surface or even left the material during the manufacturing process,” said Dr. Jamshaid. “Around 50% of the community believed the chlorine was present, but the other 50% of the community didn’t.”
In the study, the research group finally settled the debate by creating thin films of the metal-halide perovskite, methylammonium lead iodide, which were doped with chlorine. They used cutting-edge scanning tunneling microscopy to image the surface of the perovskite layer.
“It was only through zooming in down to the atomic level that we were finally able to detect that the chlorine really was there, just at a very low concentration,” said Dr. Jamshaid.
The team found that there were dark depressions on the surface that weren’t seen in the pure methylammonium lead iodide perovskite films. Through theoretical calculations performed by the collaborators Professor Wanjian Yin and Dr. Zhendong Guo at Soochow University in China, the researchers concluded that these dark depressions signify where chlorine, which is smaller in size, has replaced the loosely-bound iodine within the perovskite crystal structure. The research group also noticed that more of these dark indentations occurred around grain boundaries in the perovskite film.
The perovskite layer isn’t a uniform crystal lattice, but instead is made up of many different crystal grains. It is due to these cracks between grains, called grain boundaries, that perovskite is inherently so unstable.
“Most degradation from UV light, temperature or moisture occurs at these grain-boundaries, as the ions here are much more loosely-bound,” said Dr. Jamshaid.
The team suspect that the increased presence of chlorine around these grain boundaries may account for the added stability and efficiency of the material, by reducing the number of defects on the surface. Importantly, the researchers found that when they varied the concentration of chlorine within the perovskite film by altering the length of time that the chlorine was deposited, the surface structure and electronic properties of the material also changed.
At the shortest deposition time, the team couldn’t detect any chlorine on the surface of the perovskite material. And at the longest deposition time, the chlorine formed an additional layer of ions on top of the perovskite that drastically changed the electronic properties.
The researchers were able to work out an intermediate deposition time that hit the sweet spot — delivering an optimal concentration of chlorine — around 14.8% — on the surface. This concentration gave the perovskite material high stability.
The next step for the research team is to manufacture a complete solar cell that contains a perovskite layer doped with this optimal concentration of chlorine.
“That’s why fundamental studies like these are so important — they help device engineers pin down the most optimal manufacturing process without as much trial and error,” said Dr. Jamshaid. “By understanding how the dopants improve the material, it can also guide us towards new chemical mixes that might work even better.”
Macroplastic Debris Transfer in Rivers: A Travel Distance Approach
by Robert A. Newbould, D. Mark Powell, Michael J. Whelan in Frontiers in Water
Plastic pollution clogs river systems for considerably longer than previously thought, new research from the University of Leicester shows.
Macroplastics — or plastic litter more than 5mm in size — travel much slower through river systems than previously believed, at an average speed of less than 0.01 km per hour, and can remain in place for significant periods of time.
If not removed, not only may this pollution eventually emerge in the ocean, but it is also likely to negatively impact marine wildlife and human uses of river systems. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common material for single-use plastic bottles, requires UV light to break down over more than 450 years.
Processes controlling the fate of macroplastic debris in rivers, including: the sources, transport, degradation, and storage of macroplastic debris in river channels.
A proof of concept study, believed to be one of the first studies of its kind, was led by Robert Newbould, a PhD researcher within the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at Leicester, alongside Dr Mark Powell and Professor Mick Whelan. The study involved tracking 90 PET sample plastic bottle ‘tracers’ released into a tributary of the River Soar near Wistow, Leicester. The average travel distance for each tracer was 231m in 24 hours, with the furthest distance recorded at just under 1.1km.
Robert said: “We were surprised at how easily the plastic bottles were trapped and their relatively low travel distances. “Our work supports other research that existing estimates of riverine plastic flux to the ocean may have been overestimated, but more research is needed to confirm this.”
Researchers recovered 96% of plastic tracers from the river system at the conclusion of the experiment, and also retrieved other litter to ensure a net reduction in macroplastic pollution.
Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Wind Energy
by Rebecca J. Barthelmie, Sara C. Pryor in Climate
Implementing advance wind energy scenarios could achieve a reduction in global warming atmospheric average temperatures of 0.3 to 0.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to new research from Cornell University.
“Early action will reap dividends,” said Rebecca Barthelmie, professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “In terms of averting the worst of climate change, our work confirms that accelerating wind-energy technology deployment is a logical and a cost-effective part of the required strategy. Waiting longer will mean more drastic action will be needed.” Barthelmie and Sara C. Pryor, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, authored the research. To avert environmental disaster, other greenhouse gas reduction strategies will also need to be implemented, they said.
In early August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I Sixth Assessment Report said that climate change is rapid and intensifying, and that Earth’s atmosphere could add 1.5 degrees C of average warming by 2040. To avoid further warming, the IPCC report said there must be transformational change.
“Our work shows that it is feasible for the United States to accelerate its deployment of wind energy,” Barthelmie said, “to substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions and that will make a real difference to the kind of warming that the world endures.”
Global wind resources exceed current electricity demand, Pryor said, and the cost of energy from wind turbines has declined sharply. “It makes perfect sense to rapidly deploy wind energy as a key part of decarbonizing the electricity supply,” she said.
The global wind energy industry has been growing. Since 2005, the total installed capacity of global wind energy shows a 14% annualized growth rate for Asia, Europe and North America. Global wind energy electricity production expanded from 104 terawatt-hours (one trillion watts for one hour) in 2005 to 1,273 terawatt-hours in 2018, the paper said.
In 2019, wind energy generated approximately 6.5% of 26,600 terawatt-hours of global electricity demand. Six countries are generating more than 20% of their demand, while the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain are close to achieving 20% of electricity demand with wind energy. China has reported about 5% of its electricity supply from wind energy.
The United States generates 8.4% of its electricity from wind, as of 2020, with six states (Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, California, Kansas and Illinois) containing more than half of wind energy capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Wind turbines are now deployed in 90 countries, Barthelmie said, generating about 7% of global electricity, and the expansion of installed capacity of wind energy continues.
Sectors like solar and wind have become less expensive than fossil fuels. “So there really aren’t any arguments anymore for not making this kind of change,” Barthelmie said. “Both technically and economically, advanced deployment scenarios are feasible. It needs more political will.”
Towards sustainable extraction of technology materials through integrated approaches
by Robert Pell, Laurens Tijsseling, Kathryn Goodenough, Frances Wall, Quentin Dehaine, Alex Grant, David Deak, Xiaoyu Yan, Phoebe Whattoff in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
Researchers have demonstrated how a detailed ‘cradle to grave’ evaluation at the outset of new metal mining explorations can greatly mitigate against negative environmental impacts.
A team of researchers from the University of Exeter, Minviro, the British Geological Survey, and the Circular Economy Solutions Unit has shown the benefits of utilising a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the quest to enhance ‘green’ mining techniques.
LCAs are used to assess the environmental impacts associated with the life-cycle of commercial products, from extracting the raw materials to the use and, ultimately, their disposal.
With the growing demand for a transition to renewable energy sources, the need to source sustainable, environmentally friendly raw materials and technology metals has risen. As a result, the quest to source and unearth rare earth minerals, lithium, colbalt and graphite, amongst others, for electric car batteries, turbines and solar panels — with minimal impact on the natural environment — has magnified.
In the new scientific review, the research team outline how an LCA that integrates considerations around the geology, mineralogy and ‘geometallurgy’ can help identify potential ‘hot-spots’ before new extraction operations are begun.
This new approach will allow geologists to help select potential exploration targets that naturally lend themselves to lower environmental impacts — resulting in finding the best metal deposits with the lowest potential natural disturbance.
Professor Frances Wall, from the University of Exeter’s Camborne School of Mines said, “There is a huge opportunity for countries to use their natural mineral resources to help decarbonisation but it is important that this is done in the right way so that it produces sustainable development and not disaster.”
Robert Pell, from Minviro and University of Exeter, and lead author on the paper added: “Writing this review was an excellent opportunity to bring together results of recent academic research and the experience from our Minviro consultancy business.”
Dr Xiaoyu Yan of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter said, “Understanding the environmental impacts of emerging technologies over their entire life cycle, particularly the raw materials supply stage in the case of clean energy technologies, is key to ensure that they are truly sustainable.”
Consequential Life Cycle Assessment and Optimization of High-Density Polyethylene Plastic Waste Chemical Recycling
by Xiang Zhao, Fengqi You in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
New research from Cornell University aims to ease the process of chemical recycling — an emerging industry that could turn waste products back into natural resources by physically breaking plastic down into the smaller molecules it was originally produced from.
In a new paper, Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering and doctoral student Xiang Zhao detail a framework incorporating several mathematical models and methodologies that factor everything from chemical recycling equipment, processes and energy sources, to environmental effects and the market for end products.
The framework is the first comprehensive analysis of its kind that quantifies the life-cycle environmental impacts of plastic waste chemical recycling, such as climate change and human toxicity.
Billions of tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, yet most of it — 91%, according to one often cited study — has not been recycled. While growing landfills and contaminated natural areas are among the concerns, the failure to reduce and reuse plastic is also seen by some as a missed economic opportunity. That’s why the emerging industry of chemical recycling is capturing the attention of the waste industry and researchers like You, who is helping to identify optimal technologies for chemical recycling and providing a roadmap for the future of the industry.
Not only does chemical recycling create a ‘circular economy,’ in which a waste product can be turned back into a natural resource, but it opens the door for plastics such as high-density polyethylene — used to produce items such as rigid bottles, toys, underground pipes, and mail package envelopes — to be recycled more commonly.
You’s framework can quantify the environmental consequences of market dynamics that typical life-cycle sustainability assessments would overlook. It’s also the first to combine superstructure optimization — a computational technique for searching over a large combinatorial space of technology pathways for minimizing cost — with life-cycle analysis, market information and economic equilibrium.
The paper highlights the benefits of consequential life-cycle optimization when compared with more traditional analytical tools. In one scenario, to maximize economic outcomes while minimizing environmental impacts, life-cycle optimization produced a more than 14% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and a more than 60% reduction of photochemical air pollution when compared with the attributional life-cycle assessment approach typically used in environmental assessment studies.
While the analysis gives industry experts and policy makers a general pathway for advancing chemical recycling and a circular economy for plastics, a myriad of choices and variables along the technological path must be considered. For instance, if the market demand for basic chemicals like ethylene and propylene is strong enough, the framework recommends a specific type of chemical separation technology, while if butane or isobutene are desired, another type technology is optimal.
“It’s a chemical process and there are so many possibilities,” You said. “If we want to invest in chemical recycling, what technology would we use? That really depends on the composition of our waste, the variants of polyethylene plastic, and it depends on current market prices for end products like fuels and hydrocarbons.”
Environmental consequences of chemical recycling depend on variables such as supplier process of chemical feedstocks and products. For instance, the framework found that producing butene onsite as opposed to having it supplied can reduce photochemical air pollution from recycling plants by nearly 20%, while onsite use of natural gas increases more than 37% of potentially harmful ionizing radiation.
“There’s always something we can twist and adjust in the technology and process, and that’s the tricky part,” said You, who added that as new chemical recycling techniques emerge and markets change, consequential life-cycle optimization will remain a powerful tool for guiding the emerging industry.
The biogeographic differentiation of algal microbiomes in the upper ocean from pole to pole
by Kara Martin, Katrin Schmidt, Andrew Toseland, Chris A. Boulton, Kerrie Barry, Bánk Beszteri, Corina P. D. Brussaard, Alicia Clum, Chris G. Daum, Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Allison Fong, Brian Foster, et al. in Nature Communications
The cold polar oceans give rise to some of the largest food webs on Earth. And at their base are microscopic, photosynthetic algae. But human-induced climate change, a new study suggests, is displacing these important cold-water communities of algae with warm-adapted ones, a trend that threatens to destabilize the delicate marine food web and change the oceans as we know them.
At the base of marine food webs are microscopic photosynthesizing organisms called phytoplankton (from the Greek phyto for ‘plant’ and planktos for ‘wanderer’). But they vary across the global ocean. Phytoplankton communities in warmer waters, including the tropics, tend to be dominated by prokaryotes (microorganisms without a defined nucleus).
Colder waters nearer the poles, however, tend to favor eukaryotes (microorganisms with a nucleus). These photosynthesizing eukaryotes, or algae, form the basis of productive food webs in cold, but fecund polar waters.
“A lot of our food comes from the North Atlantic, North Pacific and South Pacific fisheries, because of eukaryotic phytoplankton — not prokaryotes,” said Thomas Mock, marine microbiologist at the University of East Anglia (UEA, UK) and senior author of the study. “Prokaryotes are not capable of producing all the juicy proteins and lipids that eukaryotes are.”
But according to a new study, warmer waters and communities dominated by prokaryotes could replace those of eukaryotes much more easily than previously suspected.
“That would cause significant consequences on the entire food web, and therefore ecosystem services that we all depend on,” said Mock.
Mock and the other lead scientists had embarked on the study — a collaboration of eight institutions led by UEA and including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — with a desire to understand the nuance and gradation of how eukaryotic phytoplankton communities change with latitude.
The team set out on a Lewis-and-Clark-like expedition to explore, collect and catalog samples, and look for patterns in algal communities, including the algae-associated microbiomes that influence algal diversity and gene expression. Sailing from pole to pole on four research cruises, they dipped their self-closing containers into sea water to sample algal communities along transects in the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean.
After isolating the algal communities on filters, they sequenced DNA ‘marker’ gene sequences to identify the microbes. And in order to determine what genes the algae were expressing, the team sequenced their RNA transcripts. All sequencing was done through the JGI Community Science Program.
Using an ecology metric called beta diversity, the team observed that algal communities didn’t change gradually across the global ocean. Instead, they sharply delineated into two big geographical groups: those in colder, polar waters, and those in warmer, non-polar waters.
“We can think about the ocean, naively, as a sort of homogeneous medium. In reality, it’s not — there is variation of nutrients, temperatures, and other physico-chemical properties,” said study coauthor Igor Grigoriev, JGI Fungal & Algal Program Head. “But still, there are no boundaries in the ocean. Yet, what was found here is that there is this invisible partitioning of algal communities.”
The team found that the boundary, or biodiversity ‘break point,’ between these algal communities occurs in moderate waters that have an average surface temperature of about 58 degrees Fahrenheit — a cool intermediate to the ocean’s extremes of about 28 and 97 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The study authors point to this fundamental observation of cold and warm microbial networks, and just how clear and stark the biogeographic boundary is between them. The data is somewhat beautiful in that regard,” said Andy Allen, biological oceanographer at the University of California, San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who was not affiliated with the study. “But the findings also suggest a certain level of vulnerability we might not have been aware of,” he added. “If the system is perturbed, it could be very hard to return to baseline.”
Climate change is in fact gravely affecting the sea ice and water temperature in polar climes, throwing these polar communities into jeopardy.
“We know so little about these algal communities; they could have beneficial findings, like antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, and novel enzymes that function at low temperature.” said Katrin Schmidt, co-lead author of the study with Kara Martin. “But these ecosystems are literally melting away.”
The team used a model from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report to predict where and how fast the 14 degrees Celsius boundary is moving.
“It’s driven by climate: warm water is replacing cold water communities. And this changes everything,” said Mock.
The steady march of warmer waters polewards could have dire consequences for marine organisms in these food webs, said Schmidt. Several whale species, including gray whales and humpbacks, migrate to feed in the polar regions. And shrimp dine on the algae that cling to the underside of sea ice.
One important algae-eater that could be affected by warming waters and shifting algal communities is krill — an organism that thrives in the Southern Ocean, looks like shrimp, and is food for larger organisms such as whales, penguins, and seals. “The biomass of krill at least equals the biomass of all humans on the planet,” said Mock. “This gives you an idea of how significant these organisms are. And now, imagine the base of the ecosystem is changing from cold water, eukaryotic phytoplankton communities to warm water, prokaryotic phytoplankton communities.”
A change in the base would reverberate throughout the food web, like taking a jackhammer to the foundation of a cathedral. What’s more, because phytoplankton (eukaryotic and prokaryotic combined) contribute to an estimated 50 percent of the world’s fixed carbon, altering the balance of eukaryotic and prokaryotic communities could alter the global carbon cycle, the rates at which carbon globally is fixed and metabolized. Not only that, these changes — brought about by climate change — could threaten marine food industries and other ecosystem services, such as tourism and recreation, on which coastal and island nations, like the UK, depend, said Mock.
“I think that this paper is going to be used to advise policymakers to mitigate the effects of climate change on ecosystems, because we now have a new angle on how warming is impacting these marine communities,” said Mock. The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), produced from the burning of fossil fuels, is what’s causing the ocean surface temperature to rise. “What needs to be done is reducing the production of CO2 — this is the first and foremost important thing we need to do.”
Improving weather forecasting by assimilation of water vapor isotopes
by Masataka Tada, Kei Yoshimura, Kinya Toride in Scientific Reports
As the global climate continues to change and extreme weather events increasingly threaten regions all over the world, accurate weather forecasting is becoming more important than ever.
The research team led by Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo reports that weather forecast accuracy can be improved by several percentage points if satellite observations of water vapor isotope compositions are incorporated into a general circulation model.
Different isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen make individual water molecules heavier or lighter, and weather processes like evaporation and precipitation influence the distributions of these isotopes. These isotopes have potential to reveal the weather system, but have generally been neglected in meteorological models because of the relative scarcity of isotope data compared with conventional weather measurements like temperature and wind speed. However, advances in satellite technology have made it possible to fill this gap and improve forecasting ability.
For this study, the researchers used water vapor isotope data from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), a satellite-based spectrometer that observes water vapor data in the mid-troposphere between 60°S to 60°N twice a day. Measurements from an altitude of 4.5 km were used because this altitude was where the isotope measurements were most reliable.
“A local ensemble transform Kalman filter was used to assimilate the IASI data into the forecasting model,” study first author Masataka Tada explains. “Almost 230,000 data points measured during April 2013 were used in the assimilation experiments. We used the Isotope-incorporated Global Spectral Model (IsoGSM) as the forecasting model.”
Experiments were conducted to determine how incorporating these isotope data affected the modeling of other weather variables at both the global and local scales. The global experiment showed improved model skill, especially in the mid-latitudes and in the Northern Hemisphere. Most weather variables showed improved modeling, especially air temperature and specific humidity.
To test the model in a local setting, the researchers investigated a low-pressure event over Japan that occurred in April, 2013. With the water vapor isotope data included, the model was better able to simulate the overall pressure pattern of this event.
According to study senior and corresponding author Kei Yoshimura, “Ours is the first study to assimilate real satellite observations of water vapor isotopes with a general circulation model and examine the effects on the modeling of both global and local dynamics. With the improvements we observed, and with the increasing availability of satellite isotope measurements, we expect further improvements to weather forecasting in the future based on isotope data.”
Quantitative assessment of agricultural sustainability reveals divergent priorities among nations
by Xin Zhang, Guolin Yao, Srishti Vishwakarma, Carole Dalin, Adam M. Komarek, David R. Kanter, Kyle Frankel Davis, Kimberly Pfeifer, Jing Zhao, Tan Zou, Paolo D’Odorico, Christian Folberth, Fernando Galeana Rodriguez, Jessica Fanzo, Lorenzo Rosa, William Dennison, Mark Musumba, Amy Heyman, Eric A. Davidson in One Earth
For the first time, scientists have assembled a quantitative assessment for agriculture sustainability for countries around the world based not only on environmental impacts, but economic and social impacts, as well. The Sustainable Agriculture Matrix, or SAM, provides independent and transparent measurements of agricultural sustainability at a national level that can help governments and organizations to evaluate progress, encourage accountability, identify priorities for improvement, and inform national policies and actions towards sustainable agriculture around the globe.
“This Sustainable Agriculture Matrix is an effort to promote accountability for nations’ commitments towards sustainable agriculture,” said project leader Xin Zhang of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “We hope this can serve as a tool to bring the stakeholders together. Agriculture production is not only about farmers. It’s about everyone.”
Agriculture is fundamental to sustainability. However, the definition of “sustainable agriculture” and the ability to measure it have been difficult to quantify. The project to create the Sustainable Agriculture Matrix began in 2017 by bringing together about 30 stakeholders and experts from around the world — including Oxfam, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, as well as academic partners such as University College London, University of Queensland, University of California Berkeley and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science — to assess the impacts of agricultural production on a national scale around a diverse range of environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability.
“Sustainable agriculture is a very complex concept and it means different things for different people, making it hard to assess,” said Zhang. “To make the commitment to sustainable agriculture accountable, independent and transparent measurements of countries’ sustainability are essential.”
“The assessment of sustainability is not easy, especially given the dearth of social data across all countries. We hope with this matrix we can demonstrate the value of greater investment in social data to assess how agriculture affects and contributes to social equity as a critical dimension of agricultural sustainability,” said co-author Kimberly Pfeifer from Oxfam America.
Globally, agriculture faces the challenge of increasing productivity to meet growing population demands for food, materials, and energy. Nations are tasked with developing a sustainable agriculture sector that is not only productive, but also nutritionally adequate, compatible with ecosystem health and biodiversity, and resilient. As a result, sustainable agriculture has been included as part of the Sustainable Development Goals ratified by all member countries of the United Nations in 2015.
The first edition of the matrix is composed of 18 indicators that measure the direct impacts of agricultural production on the environment and economy, and broader impacts on the whole society, recognizing that agriculture is deeply interconnected with other sectors. An emphasis in this first edition is on identifying trade-offs between performance indicators, such as between improved economic performance and reduced environmental performance, and also some less common examples of trade-offs such as increased agricultural subsidies did not necessarily improve human nutrition.
“There haven’t been efforts that provide a comprehensive look at all three dimensions of agricultural impacts for countries around the world,” said co-author Eric Davidson from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “The underlying concept of this matrix is a recognition that the agricultural system may have multiple impacts on sustainability.”
For instance, while agricultural production may provide vibrant economic benefits to the farming community and national economic development, it might also add stress on the environment in terms of water use, nutrient pollution, and biodiversity loss. How and if the national agricultural sector provides a healthy and sufficient diet for its own population may influence social equality.
“The comprehensive assessment for the sustainability of a country’s agriculture provides a great opportunity to reveal the full range of potential tradeoffs, as well as synergies, among multiple sustainability goals, and allows informed choices in view of local or policy priorities,” said co-author Amy Heyman of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
“While most countries have demonstrated strong tradeoffs between environmental and economic dimensions of agricultural sustainability, there are countries, such as the United States, showing some promising signs of achieving synergies between enhancing agricultural productivity and reducing environmental impacts,” said co-author Guolin Yao from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
“The green revolution made it possible for humanity to feed huge population growth in past decades, but this came at the price of large impacts to the environment and a neglect of human nutrition and overall well-being,” said co-author Kyle Davis of the University of Delaware. “Our SAM approach provides a promising step beyond the shortcomings of the green revolution while trying to build on the past successes of global agriculture.”
As a next step, the SAM consortium, a project funded by the Belmont Forum, is launching with six pilot countries and regions, including USA, Austria, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa. The consortium will use the first edition of SAM indicators as a starting point to engage conversations and coordination among stakeholders, and to co-develop country cases to identify strategies towards sustainable agriculture.
“Having the assessment is an important first step toward agricultural sustainability, especially in marginal production areas in Africa,” said SAM consortium partner Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
“This is a useful starting point for not only evaluating progress, but also identifying priorities for improvement, and informing national policies and actions towards sustainable agriculture,” said co-author and SAM consortium partner Christian Folberth from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
The opportunity cost of delaying climate action: Peatland restoration and resilience to climate change
by Klaus Glenk, Michela Faccioli, Julia Martin-Ortega, Christoph Schulze, Jacqueline Potts in Global Environmental Change
Restoring the world’s depleted peatlands now rather than later would have massive economic benefits to society, according to new research. A new study has for the first time calculated the monetary costs of delaying restoration of a natural resource that plays a huge environmental role globally, including in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Researchers investigated how improvements to peatlands that have suffered from drainage, erosion or burning would be beneficial to society. They put a monetary value on the societal benefits of restoration, which includes reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, increased water quality, and improved wildlife habitat.
Focusing on Scotland, where 20% of the surface is peatland, the research concluded that restoration would provide £191m annually of societal benefits for the country if it took place by 2027, rather than between 2039–2050. Alternatively, if restoration work took place between 2028–2038 rather than 2039–2050, benefits would be reduced, but were still significant, at £116m.
Professor Julia Martin-Ortega, from the University of Leeds’ School of Earth and Environment, is a co-author of the paper. She said: “We should be restoring peatlands now, rather than postponing it.
“As the climate crisis gathers pace, policy makers are deciding on when and how to invest in ecosystem restoration. “Peatland restoration should be a priority. The more we delay it, the more we lose, not just in terms of the benefits to the environment, but in monetary terms to society as a whole.”
Peatlands, also known as bogs, quags or mires, cover over 400 million hectares globally — 3% of the Earth’s surface. They store a third of the world’s soil carbon, making them the largest and the most space-effective carbon store of all terrestrial ecosystems. Apart from carbon storage, peatlands provide multiple benefits such as clean water and support for wildlife.
Peatlands have been historically used for fuel, and peatland landscapes have been affected by burning, drainage and forest plantation. This has resulted in very large parts of peatlands being damaged and their benefits being undermined or threatened.
It is thought that by as early as 2050, the majority of carbon currently stored in UK peatlands will be at risk of loss, and that this risk is aggravated considerably by 2080.
An earlier study showed that restoring peatland generates social benefits, and that these benefits are larger than the costs of the restoration. This new research shows that a very significant amount of those social benefits would be lost if restoration is postponed.
The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Leeds, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), University of Exeter, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany, and Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS). Research paper lead author Dr Klaus Glenk, who leads the Sustainable Ecosystems Team at SRUC, said: “Delaying restoration action may not only result in further ecosystem degradation, but also negatively impact on ecosystem resilience.
“Peatlands with a healthy cover of peat moss are expected to be less susceptible to future climate change. “This also implies that substantial additional greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate global warming in the long term might be avoided by restoring peatlands earlier rather than later. “Our study indicates that the enhanced robustness of peatlands against future climate change is an important factor for greater benefits of early, rather than delayed, restoration action. “Our research shows that the annual allocation of investments within the multi-annual programme has significant consequences for overall benefits.”
Peatlands are being degraded to levels that means they could release more carbon rather than they currently store. But halting this process would have both environmental and financial benefits, according to the study.
The research ream analysed the benefits of peatlands restoration by 2050, and also by 2080, assuming a hypothetical peatland restoration programme in Scotland. Restoring now (before 2027) rather than later (2039–2050) would gain an estimated average of £77.76 per household per year in Scotland. The researchers found that peatland restoration in Scotland in the near future rather than postponing it would lead to a societal benefit of £191 million per year.
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