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LAND COVER CHANGES AFFECT U.S. SUMMER CLIMATE Recently, a study of the United States summer climate, using data and computer models from NASA and other organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), reported that changes in land cover, particularly vegetation, over the past 300 years have impacted regional temperatures and precipitation. 'The largest human impacts on nature have occurred since the Industrial Revolution,' said Somnath Baidya Roy, a research scientist at Princeton University and lead author of the study that appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. Co-authors include George Hurtt, University of New Hampshire, Christopher Weaver, Rutgers University, and Stephen Pacala of Princeton University. Related Link: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0223landsummer.html

July 13, 2006: Centuries of Land-use Practices Profoundly Impact Earth System, UNH Scientists Report DURHAM, NH. In a paper published in the July 2006 issue of Global Change Biology, University of New Hampshire scientists George Hurtt, Steve Frolking, and coauthors show that land-use activities over the last 300 years have substantially altered the land surface in ways that are likely to have had profound effects on the Earth system. Land-use changes have impacted some 42-68 percent of the global land surface, according to the study, which used historical records, satellite data, and computer modeling to reconstruct 216 different global land-use reconstructions to derive the most comprehensive picture to-date. ?This is the first global land-use history description that?s designed specifically to allow global carbon and climate models to assess the impacts of land-use history both on the past and current sources and sinks of carbon and climate,? says Hurtt, assistant professor of natural resources at the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) and Department of Natural Resources. Related Link: http://www.eos.unh.edu/news/indiv_news.shtml?NEWS_ID=877

January 30, 2006: Director of UNH Research Institute Awarded Prestigious Lectureship Dr. Berrien Moore III, University Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) at the Univerity of New Hampshire, has been awarded the 2007 Dryden Lectureship in Research by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The lecture, which Moore will deliver next January on the first evening of the AIAA annual meeting in Reno, Nevada, will be entitled "Challenges of a Changing Planet." Professor Moore, a mathematician by training, has authored more than 150 papers on the carbon cycle, global biogeochemical cycles, and planetary change as well as numerous policy documents in the area of the global environment. In addition, he has chaired and served on numerous international scientific committees on global change issues. Currently he is co-chairing the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey in Earth Science, which charts the priorities for the next 10 to 15 years in Earth science from space. He serves on the Board of Directors of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the Advisory Council of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Science Advisory Board of the Max-Planck-Institut for Meteorologie in Hamburg Germany, among others. He has been the director of EOS since 1987. A full list of Professor Moore's professional affiliations and publications can be found at http://www.eos.sr.unh.edu/Faculty/Moore. When informed of the award, Professor Moore said, " I am honored to be chosen by the AIAA for the Dryden Lectureship since I hold past recipients in the highest regard. I am also challenged to discuss the future of Earth among many who will shape the science and technologies that are needed to understand our planet." Related Link: http://www.unh.edu/news/news_releases/2006/january/ds_060130AIAA.html

September 25, 2005: Human Impact on Global Land Surface Extensive Since 1700, UNH Scientist Reports DURHAM, N.H., September 23, 2005 In a study led by University of New Hampshire scientist George Hurtt, new global land-use history reconstructions suggest that between 42 and 68 percent of the land surface has been impacted by human land-use activity since the year 1700. These new estimates are substantially larger and more comprehensive than previous estimates. Moreover, because these estimates includes all ice-free land surfaces, the estimated percent of land area impacted would be much higher if nonproductive lands such as deserts were excluded. "Humans have a big impact on a lot of different aspects of the Earth system," says Hurtt, assistant professor of natural resources at the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space and the Department of Natural Resources. Hurtt continues, "One type of impact is through our atmospheric emissions while another is how we're altering the land surface through land-use activities, the focus of this study. Land-use activities affect many different things such as the structure of ecosystems, distribution of species, the carbon cycle, water cycle, and even the planet's energy balance." UNH co-authors of the study include Berrien Moore, Stephen Frolking, and Matthew Fearon. The study was also co-authored by Steve Pacala, Elena Shevliakova, and Sergey Malysev of Princeton University, and Richard Houghton of the Woods Hole Research Center. Related Link: http://www.eos.unh.edu/news/indiv_news.shtml?NEWS_ID=851

April 1, 2005: EOS Scientists Help Author UN Global Ecosystem Assessment Preliminary findings from a massive, four-year undertaking to assess the consequences of ecosystem change on human well-being were presented to the public for the first time at events held around the world March 30. In the Synthesis Report of the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), it was revealed that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth, such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests, are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years, according to the summary report. Among the 1,300-plus experts from 95 countries involved as authors of the assessment reports are UNH professors George Hurtt and Charles Vorosmarty of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS), and recent UNH Ph.D. graduate Manoel Cardoso, who is now a research scientist in his native Brazil. Related Link: http://www.eos.unh.edu/news/indiv_news.shtml?NEWS_ID=840

September 28, 2004 - October 28, 2004: NASA Earth System Science for the 21st Century Environmental Science Seminar Series, sponsored by UNH (Departments of Earth Sciences, Natural Resources and EOS) and NASA Special Opening Lecture: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 12:30-2pm, MUB Theatre II Michael King, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. "ELECTRONIC THEATER 2004: Visions of our Planet's Atmosphere, Land & Oceans" Thursday, September 30, 2004 3:30-5pm, James Hall David Adamec, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. "Why Predicting El Nino is so Hard" Seminar series runs through October 2004. For more info... Related Link: http://eos-image-archive/archive/cd166/NASA_ESS_poster/NASA_ESSE_poster.pdf

NASA Awards More Than $2.85 Million to UNH Scientists DURHAM, N.H. - Scientists at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) recently were awarded more than $2.85 million in National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) funds under the agency's Earth Science Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) program. NASA selected 59 proposals from a field of 348 and awarded grants to researchers from 23 states conducting multi-institution, interdisciplinary scientific investigations. UNH is the lead institution for one project and a collaborating institution for two additional projects. The IDS research will use the vast wealth of new data from Earth-observing satellites and new computer models to expand the understanding of a variety of aspects of Earth system science. Berrien Moore, director of EOS and lead scientist for an ambitious three-year, $2.35 million IDS project titled, "Understanding the Changing Carbon, Nitrogen, and Water Cycles in the Earth System," says the research will not only expand understanding of these critical systems and their role in climate change and global warming, but also will directly benefit UNH students. "They will be able to participate in cutting-edge research and be exposed to state-of-the-art technologies," Moore says. Related Link: http://www.eos.unh.edu/news/indiv_news.shtml?NEWS_ID=799

UNH Research Shows Land Cover Changes Affect Summer Climate While climate may be impacted by carbon dioxide emissions, aerosols, and other factors, a new study co-authored by University of New Hampshire scientist George Hurtt offers further evidence that land surface changes may also play a significant role. Using data and computer models from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies, the study of summer climate in the United States reported that changes in land cover, particularly vegetation, over the past 300 years may have impacted regional temperatures and precipitation. "Independent studies have suggested that the U.S. has warmed on average since the Industrial Revolution. Our research suggests that this warming might have been even greater had certain land cover changes not occurred," said Hurtt of UNH's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space and the Department of Natural Resources. Somnath Baidya Roy, a research scientist at Princeton University, was lead author of the study that appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. Co-authors include Hurtt, Christopher Weaver of Rutgers University, and Stephen Pacala, also of Princeton. Related Link: http://www.unh.edu/news/news_releases/2004/march/ds_20040325eos_hurtt.html

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