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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 11, NUMBER 10, OCTOBER 1998

WEB-BASED INFORMATION

Item #d98oct41

Temperature Database: “The Effects of Temperature on Invertebrates and Fish: A Selected Bibliography” has been compiled by V. S. Kennedy (kennedy@hpel.cees.edu) and J. A. Mihursky of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and made available as a Web-based, searchable database at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/MDSG/Research/fishtemp.html/. The bibliography focuses on aquatic invertebrates and fish and includes information on cold- as well as warm-water temperature effects. The literature commenced in the 19th century. While most of the 3453 references included concern whole organisms, some involve molecular, cellular, or tissue studies. No references, however, relate to plants; and few refer to microorganisms, parasites, or insects. Nearly all the references have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, although a few reports are included. Theses and dissertations are excluded. This bibliography ends about 1993; commercial bibliographies are available that provide references since then.

Item #d98oct42

NARSTO Data Available: NARSTO (the North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone) is a consortium for research on the formation and transport of ozone and particulates in the lower atmosphere. The first data produced by this study are now available from the NARSTO data archive at http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov. These data are a subset of the measurements made during the NARSTO-Northeast 1995 intensive field campaign and are intended to be used to verify model predictions about how ambient ozone concentrations change in response to changes in VOC and NOx emissions. The data were collected from May through September. One-hour average O3, NO, and NOx measurement results are reported from widely distributed ground-surface monitoring stations operated by various agencies. At the home page, go to the search box at the bottom of the page, select “data sets,” and enter “NARSTO.” Those selections will start the prototype web-download system for access to the NARSTO-Northeast data. You will then be able to select the instrument, parameter, and time range that you wish to get data for.

Item #d98oct43

Essay on Forests as Carbon Sinks: “Carbon Sinks in the Post-Kyoto World,” Roger Sedjo, Brent Sohngen, and Pamela Jagger from Resources for the Future and Ohio State University have authored this essay, which appears at http://www.weathervane.rff.org/features/feature050.html. The three forestry experts review forest ecosystems as carbon sinks, their effects on global carbon balances, the use of forest carbon sequestration to meet emission-reduction targets, and the Kyoto Protocol’s relationships to carbon sinks and sink credits.

The four components of carbon storage in a forest ecosystem are trees, plants growing on the forest floor, detritus (such as leaf litter), and soils. Deforestation occurs when forest is cleared and reforestation does not take place. Reforestation usually refers to the practice of reestablishing a forest that has been cleared. Afforestation is the creation of a forest on land where a forest had not existed. While the tropical forest carbon stock has become smaller, the temperate/boreal forest has been expanding. Nevertheless, the global forest carbon stock appears to be declining, producing a net carbon source to the atmosphere.

The Kyoto Protocol provides for countries to gain credit toward their Protocol requirements through afforestation and reforestation undertaken after 1990. How commercial timber harvests are to be treated is unclear; they may simply be ignored, or they may be included in the definitions of forests, deforestation, and reforestation. Also, whether the Clean Development Mechanism will allow for broader sink activities is unclear. The Kyoto Protocol is almost silent on the role of other sinks, such as agricultural land. Although the on-the-ground logistics of carbon sequestration still need clarification (how to establish baselines, how to control for leakage, and how to verify effects), forest activities have considerable potential for carbon sequestration.