The talk with present the key results of the IPCC Working Group III 5th assessment report. Concluding four years of intense scientific collaboration by hundreds of authors from around the world, the report responds to the request of the world's governments for a comprehensive, objective and policy neutral assessment of the current scientific knowledge on mitigating climate change. The report has been extensively reviewed by experts and governments to ensure quality and comprehensiveness.

Climate change 2014 - Mitigation of climate change

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in soils plays an important role in the biogeochemistry of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, in pedogenesis, and in the transport of pollutants in soils. The aim of this review is to summarize the recent literature about controls on DOM concentrations and fluxes in soi

Controls on the dynamics of dissolved organic matter in soils: a review.

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain recent, widespread increases in concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the surface waters of glaciated landscapes across eastern North America and northern and central Europe. Some invoke anthropogenic forcing through mechanisms related to climate change, nitrogen deposition or changes in land use, and by implication suggest that current concentrations and fluxes are without precedent. All of these hypotheses imply that DOC levels will continue to rise, with unpredictable consequences for the global carbon cycle. Alternatively, it has been proposed that DOC concentrations are returning toward pre-industrial levels as a result of a gradual decline in the sulphate content of atmospheric deposition. Here we show, through the assessment of time series data from 522 remote lakes and streams in North America and northern Europe, that rising trends in DOC between 1990 and 2004 can be concisely explained by a simple model based solely on changes in deposition chemistry and catchment acid-sensitivity. We demonstrate that DOC concentrations have increased in proportion to the rates at which atmospherically deposited anthropogenic sulphur and sea salt have declined. We conclude that acid deposition to these ecosystems has been partially buffered by changes in organic acidity and that the rise in DOC is integral to recovery from acidification. Over recent decades, deposition-driven increases in organic matter solubility may have increased the export of DOC to the oceans, a potentially important component of regional carbon balances. The increase in DOC concentrations in these regions appears unrelated to other climatic factors.

Dissolved organic carbon trends resulting from changes in atmospheric deposition chemistry.

A positive temperature coefficient is the term which has been used to indicate that an increase in solubility occurs as the temperature is raised, whereas a negative coefficient indicates a decrease in solubility with rise in temperature.

Effect of Temperature

More than 600,000 hectares of mostly forested land in the Appalachian region were surface mined for coal under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Today, these lands are largely unmanaged and covered with persistent herbaceous species, such as fescue and serecia lespedeza, and a mix of invasive and native woody species with little commercial or ecological value. Some landowners and surrounding residents would like to restore native forests on some of these lands for the valuable products and services they provided prior to mining. For these lands to become productive forests, intervention is needed to loosen compacted mine soils, correct chemical or nutrient deficiencies, and replace the current vegetation. Reforestation guidelines to restore native forests on mined lands that are unoccupied, unmanaged, and unproductive were developed. Practices include land clearing, mine soil tillage, fertilization, tree planting, weed control and monitoring. The recommended practices were tested on a 35-ha mine site, originally reclaimed to grassland and bond-released in 1997. After the second growing season mean stocking of 885 ha -1 was achieved. Five of the six primary planted species (black, white, and red oak, tulip poplar, black cherry) had statistically equivalent stocking, but tulip poplar and black cherry had the highest mean height and biomass. Volunteer trees occurred on most measurement plots; most volunteer trees were native but invasive shrubs were also present. The pre-existing vegetation proved to be persistent and competitive, demonstrating the importance of vegetation control and strategic nutrient application to reforestation success. Under leadership provided by the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative, a group formed by the Office of Surface Mining and seven state regulatory authorities, these procedures have been adopted and applied by watershed improvement groups, forestry and fish/wildlife agencies, coal companies, environmental groups, and an electrical generating company pursuing carbon credits.

Reforestation guidelines for unused surface mined lands: development, application and adoption 1

Combined effects of copper, nickel, and zinc on growth of a freshwater mussel (Villosa iris) in an environmentally relevant context

Coal is produced in Appalachia via both surface and underground mining. Mining methods have changed and advanced over nearly two centuries, improving worker safety and environmental performance. Reclamation was not practiced in the early days of mining, but laws to regulate mining were enacted and performance standards have been developed since the 1960s. Today, mining operations are heavily regulated and the mining and reclamation processes are fully integrated. Mine planning and design, as well as reclamation procedures to establish a suitable post-mining land use, are now required. Reclamation includes landscape reconstruction, mine-site revegetation, and associated activities intended to avoid or mitigate environmental impacts. Today’s coal miners manage mine spoils to limit water contamination by acid mine drainage or other dissolved constituents. Reclamation of coal surface mines is intended to prepare the land for post-mining land use, usually hayland-pasture, forest, or wildlife habitat. Coal mining in Appalachia has had extensive impacts on the landscape and those impacts continue today despite federal and state reclamation regulatory requirements, but at far-reduced levels relative to early mining.

Coal Mining and Reclamation in Appalachia

An economic profile of the Appalachian coalfield counties is presented including trends in population, income, employment, labor force participation and unemployment, educational attainment, and poverty. Appalachian coalfield counties with relatively low populations (less than 100,000) are categorized into county types based on historical coal production. Economic characteristics of these county types are compared with those of other Appalachian counties, with counties outside Appalachia, and with high-population counties in Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Results show declining populations and labor forces, and slower rates of income growth for rural high-coal-production Appalachian counties; these same county types have lower income levels, higher unemployment, and higher poverty rates compared to the non-Appalachian counties in the seven states. These differences have been evident for decades. As the coal-mining industry has experienced declining production and employment in recent years, economic conditions in rural high-coal-production counties have declined. Formal educational attainment rates in rural coal-production counties are lower than in the more prosperous non-Appalachian and high-population counties of the seven states.

Economic Trends in Appalachian Coalfield Counties

Lands mined for coal and reclaimed under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) can be used to produce woody biomass. This study evaluates woody biomass production on SMCRA-reclaimed lands after ripping to reduce soil compaction. Four species treatments were established at two planting densities on three Wise County, Virginia, mine sites. Here, we review experimental treatment effects on biomass production after three years, and we compare results to those of two other current studies that are also evaluating biomass production on post-SMCRA mined lands. After three growing seasons, black locust produced more volume and biomass than other planted species. High-density plantings produced greater per-hectare biomass than low-density plantings. For black locust, sycamore, and a hybrid poplar clone (Populus trichocarpa x P. deltoides, clone 52-225), per-tree volume growth increments were nominally greater in year three than in year two, and fertilizers applied after year two nominally increased growth. A low-density red oak planting and a mix of red oak and eastern cottonwood planted at high density produced low amounts of biomass compared to other species. The Wise County study's hybrid poplars are growing less rapidly than hybrid poplars of the same clonal variety growing on VA, WV, and OH mine sites in a multi-state study, and its black locust biomass production is comparable to the best performing of the multi-state study's hybrid poplars. In a third study, ninety-eight hybrid poplar genotypes of three taxons (P. deltoides x P. trichocarpa (DT and reciprocal), P. deltoides x P. nigra (DN), and P. deltoides x P. maximowiczii (DM)) completed two years of growth on a VA mine site. Average biomass production by the DM clones exceeded production on the multi-state trial's best performing site and is comparable to the Wise County study's black locust production over comparable time periods. Within each taxon including DM, growth by the fastest growing genotypes is exceeding taxon means by factors of >2x. In both the Wise County and the multi-state study, significant effects by site and other non-species factors on biomass production are apparent, but which factors are driving performance differences is not clear. In order for biomass production on post-SMCRA mine sites to achieve commercial potential, factors causing the major growth differences observed in these studies must be understood and managed.

http://www.prp.cses.vt.edu/Research_Results/ASMR_2011/0768-Zipper-VA.pdf

Carl E. Zipper

Papers

Reforestation guidelines for unused surface mined lands: development, application and adoption 1

Combined effects of copper, nickel, and zinc on growth of a freshwater mussel (Villosa iris) in an environmentally relevant context

Coal Mining and Reclamation in Appalachia

Economic Trends in Appalachian Coalfield Counties

Woody biomass production on post-smcra mined lands over three years and comparisons with other studies 1