Human Traces group launches

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Published: Monday, 18 January 2021 15:24

PAGES welcomes the new Human Traces working group to the fold.

Human Traces will focus on the long legacy of pre-Anthropocene human impacts and aims to address the knowledge gap about spatial and temporal variations in early human impacts.

Leader Nathalie Dubois said the group will start with a paleolimnological approach and will continue the work started by PAGES' former working group Aquatic Transitions.

"Human activities in the Paleoanthropocene had regionally asynchronous impacts that manifested differently in various parts of the world," Nathalie said.

"Our new working group aims to create a global synthesis of human traces in geologic archives, to place the Anthropocene within a longer temporal context.

"We welcome scientists from any discipline working with or searching for human traces in the stratigraphic records. To encourage participation from all over the world, we will rely on online meetings and workshops at larger international conferences such as the PAGES OSM."

Follow the group on social media and join its mailing list to be involved. All details.

Future Earth-WCRP statement

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Published: Tuesday, 22 December 2020 12:14

Future Earth and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) have announced a joint statement to address major societal challenges.

WCRP and Future Earth are initiatives that are driven by visions of creating a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient world. Future Earth is the parent organization of PAGES, and WCRP is our scientific partner (find out more here).

WCRP coordinates international climate science to address key research areas that are either too large or too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency, or scientific discipline. Future Earth develops the knowledge and tools that government, communities, and companies need to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

There have long been areas of synergy between the two initiatives on many levels, but this has largely taken place organically and on an ad hoc basis.

Read more ...

New DiverseK group launch

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Published: Thursday, 17 December 2020 14:35

PAGES is pleased to announce the launch of the new working group DiverseK. It is a network of environmental and social scientists working to develop recommendations for the most pressing environmental and social justice issues.

Worldwide, the loss of biodiversity through increased land-conversion, regional climate changes and catastrophic wildfires are causing irreversible consequences for habitats and livelihoods. This calls for a reassessment of environmental policies in many areas under protection, particularly where conservation plans lack the full knowledge base to solve existing conflicts between restoration targets, local livelihood/traditions, and ecological processes in the context of their long-term variability.

DiverseK working group leader Daniele Colombaroli believes the time is right to tackle the group's goals and objectives.

"There is an urgent need to integrate diverse knowledge coming from (paleo)ecological and socio/cultural disciplines to tackle complex sustainability challenges in the future," he said.
 
"We welcome people interested in bridging disciplines (paleoecology, traditional ecological knowledge, dendroecology) and contributing to our group discussion with case studies from their study regions related to biodiversity conservation, fire impacts, ecosystem management and restoration."

Find out more about DiverseK and sign up to its mailing list here.

The groundwork for DiverseK was established in the last years of the PAGES Global Paleofire Working Group 2 (GPWG2) and they released a Policy Brief in 2019.

SISAL leader's data award

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Published: Thursday, 10 December 2020 12:52

PAGES congratulates SISAL working group leader Laia Comas-Bru on receiving the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)/Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) International Data Award.

Laia, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Reading, UK, and Lijing Cheng, associate professor with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were announced as joint winners for 2020. Part of the award involves presenting their work at a conference, when possible.

Laia has been leading PAGES' Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and AnaLysis (SISAL) working group since it launched in 2017. The group is now in its second phase.

"I am honoured to be the joint recipient of this award," she said. "I am grateful to the brilliant early-career researchers in SISAL, who jumped into whatever boat I was suggesting with their eyes closed, and to the senior researchers who supported my leading endeavors and provided sound advice in the background.

"Spearheading SISAL has been 'a joyful challenge with many bumps', and I am truly humbled to see all the efforts recognized in this award. Thanks to the colleagues who surprised me with this nomination!"

> SISAL recently released a second version of its speleothem isotope database

> Find out more about the work of SISAL and join

> Read the official announcement on the WCRP website

Read the latest e-news

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Published: Wednesday, 09 December 2020 17:10

Read about the latest PAGES' news, meetings, and opportunities from around the world in this month's e-news.

Highlights include Scientific Steering Committee announcements and call for applications; the reopening of the call for PAGES memories for our 30th anniversary magazine; AGU announcements; submit an abstract by 13 January for one of the PAGES working group sessions at the EGU in 2021 (vEGU21: Gather Online); IPCC AR6 updates; take the PAGES Survey; application deadlines to propose new working groups or apply for workshop support; extensive working group news, products, webinar recordings, and rescheduled meeting information; ECN news; and other paleo announcements.

Peatland carbon-stocks paper

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Published: Wednesday, 09 December 2020 11:21

A new Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (C-PEAT) working group paper reviews the main agents of change of peatland carbon stocks and fluxes.

The carbon balance of peatlands is predicted to shift from a sink to a source this century. However, peatland ecosystems are still omitted from the main Earth system models that are used for future climate change projections, and they are not considered in integrated assessment models that are used in impact and mitigation studies.

Led by working group leaders Julie Loisel and Angela Gallego-Sala, authors use evidence synthesized from the literature and an expert elicitation to define and quantify the leading drivers of change that have impacted peatland carbon stocks during the Holocene and predict their effect during this century and in the far future.

These drivers include those that induce rapid peatland carbon losses (peat fire, land-use change, and permafrost thaw) and gradual drivers that can lead to rapid, nonlinear responses in peatland ecosystems (temperature increase, water table drawdown, sea-level rise, and nutrient addition).

Authors also identify uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the scientific community and provide insight towards better integration of peatlands into modeling frameworks.

Access the Nature Climate Change paper "Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink" here.

Find out more about the C-PEAT working group here.