greenhouse archives - planet forward - 克罗地亚vs加拿大让球 //www.getitdoneaz.com/tag/greenhouse/ inspiring stories to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 tue, 07 mar 2023 19:39:28 +0000 en-us hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 an ecosystem under the snow: how climate change threatens an important, yet understudied habitat //www.getitdoneaz.com/story/subnivium-climate-change/ tue, 23 feb 2021 19:41:44 +0000 http://dpetrov.2create.studio/planet/wordpress/an-ecosystem-under-the-snow-how-climate-change-threatens-an-important-yet-understudied-habitat/ underneath the snow lies an ecosystem of tunnels where many rodents, insects, microbes, and hibernators live over the cold winter months. it’s called the subnivium, and it's threatened by climate change.

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if you live somewhere with cold and snowy winters, you’re probably no stranger to the stark white blanket that takes over the landscape after a fresh snowfall, the terrain beautiful and sparkling, the air crisp and chilly. but have you ever thought about what it looks like underneath the snow? probably not. 

but to a small selection of researchers, that’s where all the action happens. underneath the snow lies a whole other world, an ecosystem of tunnels where many rodents, insects, microbes, and hibernators live over the cold winter months. it’s called the subnivium, and as global temperatures rise, climate change threatens this little haven and the organisms that rely on it. 

the subnivium forms under very specific conditions — conditions which can vary depending on the type of vegetation and climate of the area. in much of the northern midwest, where university of wisconsin wildlife ecologist jonathon pauli conducts fieldwork, the subnivium forms after a snowfall of around 15 centimeters (nearly 6 inches) and at temperatures at freezing or below.

according to pauli, the snow has to reach a certain thickness before it’s able to provide any insulation for the animals that live down there — too thin, and it’s just going to melt, or the cold will get through. usually, the subnivium temperature hovers around the freezing mark, pauli says, much warmer than the sub-freezing temperatures above and the perfect conditions for the organisms that call the subnivium home to thrive. 

“the way it forms is that you get enough snow that solar radiation will go through the snow and heat the ground. and so you’ll get a heat differential — the soil will be slightly warmer than the snow, just above freezing,” pauli says. “and when that happens, then you get melt. and warm air carrying that evaporated snow then moves up from the ground into the snow column, and it creates this pocket right at the interface of the soil and the snow.”

the subnivium can be as small as a little pocket of air beneath the snow in some areas, to as large as a network of tunnels navigable by small animals in others, pauli said. the size and breadth of the subnivium depends on the conditions allowing it to form, and researchers still aren’t sure what its scale is in many places, since it’s so difficult to study. 

many of the organisms that live in the subnivium depend on it to survive the long winter. but as temperatures increase across the globe, the creation of the subnivium, its geographic distribution, and the length that it lasts could come under fire. 

“the winter season is shortened because of warmer temperatures,” pauli said. “warmer temperatures mean that precipitation still falls, obviously, but rather than falling as snow, it’s increasingly falling as rain. and so we’re not getting the snowpacks that we used to see. that means the snowpack is getting lighter and that’s not good for the subnivium. and then you get rain on snow events and that can lead to the compression of the subnivium.”

recently, pauli’s lab and fellow uw-madison wildlife ecologist benjamin zuckerberg’s lab investigated the potential implications of climate change on the subnivium with a joint study using tiny greenhouses. 

kimberly thompson, a graduate student in zuckerberg’s lab, helped set up the study using greenhouses at nine different “warming sites” spread throughout the midwest — six in wisconsin, one in minnesota, and two in the upper peninsula of michigan — and in three different cover types — open areas, conifer forests, and deciduous forests. according to thompson, the greenhouses were about eight feet square by 10 feet tall, which is smaller than a normal greenhouse, but still large enough to make setting up in natural forests difficult. 

each site had three greenhouses — one for control, with the inside temperature the same as the outside, one to simulate temperatures three degrees celsius warmer, and one to simulate temperatures five degrees celsius warmer. united nations emissions experts estimate climate warming between 3 to 5 degrees centigrade by 2050, so thompson said they wanted to simulate these temperature changes. the greenhouses had retractable roofs to incorporate the natural rain and snow patterns. 

over the course of the experiment, the team found that at three degrees above, the subnivium didn’t experience too much change. but, in the five degrees above greenhouses, the subnivium area and duration went way down, demonstrating a clear reaction to the increased temperature. 

to thompson, the subnivium persisting at three degrees above current temperature was a positive surprise. but, thompson said it’s important to act now against climate change to prevent dangerous implications down the line. 

“i was happily surprised to see that contrary to my expectations, subnivia can still generally persist throughout the great lakes region with warming of 3 degrees celsius,” thompson said. “while we still hope that more sweeping, global interventions can prevent this level of warming, this resiliency could potentially buffer the subnivium from being completely eradicated and provide land managers with time to manage habitats in a way that promotes a longer lasting subnivium.”

to pauli, protecting the subnivium for years into the future could mean a variety of wildlife management tactics. for one, managing the landscape to support snow persistence — for example, planting certain kinds of vegetation that might take longer for snow to melt off of. or buffering landscapes to minimize the negative effects from snow loss — which could mean creating habitat features for these smaller animals that could take the place of snow. or, as a last resort, setting up wildlife refuges in northern areas where the snowpack will continue to be high for years and years into the future, at least until we can start to mitigate climate change. 

“there are a few different routes we can go to solve climate change, other than just thinking about carbon emission, other than just thinking about how we can attenuate climate change itself,” pauli said. “we can also think about the downstream — what can we manage to promote these species?” 

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the greenhouse effect: a new approach to tackling food deserts //www.getitdoneaz.com/story/the-greenhouse-effect-a-new-approach-to-tackling-food-deserts/ fri, 07 mar 2014 10:46:31 +0000 http://dpetrov.2create.studio/planet/wordpress/the-greenhouse-effect-a-new-approach-to-tackling-food-deserts/ imagine if it took three hours to go grocery shopping just so you could make a healthy meal for your family. that's the reality in anacostia, and brightfarms is trying to do something about it.

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imagine if it took three hours to go grocery shopping just so you could make a healthy meal for your family.

this is a reality for 23.5 million americans, and that’s what a resident in the nation’s capital told us when we asked her about how she gets fresh produce.

stan jackson explains the health impacts of living in a food desert.

a food desert is an area that has poor access to healthy food because a lack of supermarkets, farmer’s markets and grocery stores.

typically, food deserts are found in cities and the options surrounding residents are limited to fast food chains and small corner stores that do not supply healthy, nutritious options, perpetuating a cycle of chronic illness and obesity.

but what if a food desert area started growing its own food? that’s the solution stan jackson, president of the anacostia economic development corporation (aedc), was on the search for when he came across an opportunity to partner with brightfarms.

how can i learn more?

  1. find out if you’re living in a food desert, or how close you live to one. 
  2. be part of the solution, and try your hand at urban farming, all for less than the cost of a new iphone. 
  3. find out how one man is using his food truck to feed the inner city, then come up with your own solution to the nation’s food deserts.  

– jenny rabago

brightfarms will build an urban farm in ward 8 and partner with retail stores around the city (like giant) to sell produce. about two to five percent of the one million pounds of produce will go back to the residents of ward 8.

tackling the food desert problem in dc will not be easy – check out our infographic for more on what food deserts are and a map of how bad the problem is in dc – but this upcoming urban farm, which will use less water and produce higher and more stable yields, could be part of the solution.

do you or someone you know live in a food desert? are there food deserts in your community? join the conversation and let us know how long it takes you to get healthy food.

asthaa chaturvedi is a senior majoring in international affairs at the george washington university. jenny rabago is a senior majoring in journalism and biological anthropology at the george washington university.

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water, water everywhere. or is it? //www.getitdoneaz.com/story/water-water-everywhere-or-is-it/ thu, 13 oct 2011 14:43:14 +0000 http://dpetrov.2create.studio/planet/wordpress/water-water-everywhere-or-is-it/ water: it’s everywhere…or is it? from the clothes we wear, to the energy we use, to the goods and services we consume daily, water is the hidden resource we constantly depend on to maintain and enhance our lives. we are currently consuming too much water, too quickly for this natural resource to continue to adequately supply our needs. americans use more than 400 billion gallons of water in a single day, that’s more than our total oil consumption in a year. we need to introduce new ideas and technological innovations to teach the next generation how to curb and better manage our water consumption. we need to move beyond conserving and start reusing our water. think about it, “is the storm water, rainwater and sanitary water that leaves our homes, office buildings or campuses a waste or an untapped resource?”

the bluehouse offers an innovative solution to reduce our water demand. the bluehouse can intercept what is today considered a waste and use what tomorrow will be considered a valuable resource. the bluehouse treats water through a natural process for onsite reuse in boilers and cooling towers, machining and industrial processes, irrigation and even toilet flushing. treating and reusing water with a system that is co-located on-site, significantly reduces the amount of time and cost compared to adding massive infrastructure to existing municipal systems to complete the same function. the bluehouse’s innovative design features an odorless, lush, greenhouse that uses the world’s first systematic application of reactor-based, complex adaptive ecosystems. this breakthrough technology has enabled sustainable water to change the look and feel of water treatment and reuse altogether. our patented design allows for turn-key installations in less than 4 months, allowing for the rapid realization of the benefits of reclamation and reuse. as an aesthetically-pleasing greenhouse the bluehouse can be sited in nearly any environment: urban or rural without adding any modification to the current plumbing and storm water infrastructure.

while, the bluehouse was initially designed for municipal and industrial applications, our modular design can also be universally applied at nearly any college or university, airport, resort, military base or any place where large volumes of water can be safely and reliably reclaimed and reused. the applicability options of our facility are virtually endless, allowing for you to continue living your life the way you have been, while reducing your water footprint. by reusing water, you will lower your water intake and output, reduce your overall water costs, lower the stress on our current water infrastructure and minimize the amount of harmful discharge the may be re-entering our environment.

population growth and climate change are altering the planet at a faster rate than expected. water is the most important substance for life, so it is imperative that we begin taking action. the bluehouse is not a lifestyle change, but it is a change in how we use water. by taking the demand off of potable water supplies, we can create a reliable resource; minimize our stress on the natural environment and lower costs at the same time.

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forest service sustainable operations //www.getitdoneaz.com/story/forest-service-sustainable-operations/ thu, 21 oct 2010 17:19:41 +0000 http://dpetrov.2create.studio/planet/wordpress/forest-service-sustainable-operations/ lighten your load events: forest service employees were asked to unplug and properly surplus unused government equipment in an effort to reduce the agency’s footprint.

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