Posts Tagged ‘ osu ’

Who Are The Strongest Supporters Of Wave Energy? Some Surprising Answers.

December 1, 2009
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An OSU wave energy prototype being tested in 2007. Photo from OSU.

An OSU wave energy prototype being tested in 2007. Photo from OSU.

I love stories that challenge conventional wisdom. This is one of them.

Take a guess at what kind of Oregonians are most likely to support wave energy. If you think it’s people who hold strong pro-environment views and love nature, you’d be wrong.

New research from Oregon State University paints a very different picture. The most reliable supporters of wave energy are older, conservative, white males. Generally speaking, they don’t concern themselves too much with the environment and are opposed to government regulations to protect it.

The results were very surprising to Maria Stefanovich, an OSU graduate student in Environmental Science. Stefanovich was part of a team that studied the attitudes of Oregonians towards wave energy.

See our earlier story: Oregonians Unsure About Wave Energy

She says conservatives are lining up behind wave energy because they believe it will help drive economic growth and create jobs for the state. They see wave energy as a way to harness nature to serve the needs of people, but don’t care that it reduces carbon and helps in the fight against global warming.

There’s a lesson here for policy makers, according to Stefanovich. She says if they really want to convince people about the need to switch to renewable energy, they need to stress the economic benefits as well as the environmental ones.

In a recent editorial for Sea Technology Magazine she writes:

“These findings have important policy implications, because they suggest that our current methods of conveying the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy are off base. This survey indicates that policymakers may be more effective in getting the public to adopt renewable energy more quickly if they leverage the public’s economic bias and stress the socioeconomic benefits that wave energy could provide, rather than issues like climate change and the depletion of traditional energy sources.”

Treading Water And Playing Hooky

November 25, 2009
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Ever have one of those days? You make a lot of phone calls and nobody is calling you back? That’s what I get for slacking off yesterday and trying to do some news gathering the day before a long Holiday weekend.

When they do call back, I’ll have some interesting stuff to report. But in the meantime, a few things to pass along that I should have already posted.

The climate change study was conducted in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Photo by Mike Gooseff, OSU.

The climate change study was conducted in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Photo by Mike Gooseff, OSU.

The Impact Of Climate Change On Western Oregon

Research by Oregon State University shows that snowpack in the Cascades is about half of what it was 77 years ago. It’s not that we’re getting less precipitation. It’s that we’re getting less snow and what we do get is melting faster.

Since 1958, temperatures in January, March and April have increased an average of four degrees. Spring is arriving earlier. But the study also shows little change in average temperatures the other times of the year.

“What we’ve seen the most already, and will probably see even more in the future, is declining snowpacks and related effects on stream flows,” says Julia Jones, a professor of geosciences at OSU and coordinator of the report.

But what’s not so clear is how this will impact trees and vegetation. Jones says they have some ability to adapt to changing climate. Older Douglas Fir, for example, can survive droughts by shutting down their photosynthesis, she says. “Some of them are 500 years old and have already lived through a lot of climate variability, they get knocked around all the time.”

Waldo Lake Gas Motor Ban Supported At Public Hearing

The overwhelming number of people who testified at this week’s hearing on the Waldo Lake motor ban were in favor of the idea. The Eugene Register Guard estimated that about 75% of those who testified were in favor while 25% were against.

See Story: Many Favor Ban On Motors At Waldo Lake

The Oregon State Marine Board is looking at banning all gas boat motors and float planes from Waldo Lake, but allowing electric motors. Waldo Lake is more than a mile high in the Cascades in far eastern Lane County. If the ban is approved, it would be the largest “no gas motor” lake in the state.

Interior Announces Oil and Gas Lease Auctions For Oregon

The energy industry will have four chances next year to bid on oil and natural gas leases on federal lands in Oregon. The auctions are scheduled for March, June, September and December. The Bureau of Land Management says there are more than 500 leases available representing about 775,000 acres in Oregon and Washington.

But in Oregon, auctions are frequently canceled for lack of interest. Last year, only one auction was held and no bids were offered.

Oregonians Unsure About Wave Energy

November 20, 2009
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An OSU wave energy prototype being tested in 2007. Photo from OSU.

An OSU wave energy prototype being tested in 2007. Photo from OSU.

The drive to develop wave energy off the Oregon coast may be moving too quickly for many people in the state.

A new survey by Oregon State University shows that while a lot of Oregonians like the idea of wave energy, they’re also concerned about impacts on the coastal environment and commercial fishing.

One of the authors of the study is OSU sociology professor Flaxen Conway. Conway has been working for years with coastal residents, helping them try to understand the effects of wave energy and other demands being placed on the coast.

“Some state officials are pushing this pretty hard, maybe too hard for some people’s taste.” she says. “Many coastal residents and others want to be heard, like all of us they are often skeptical of change, and in some pretty crowded community meetings it’s clear they want answers to their questions before going to commercial scale. They recognize the value of space and place in the ocean. And there are a lot of concerned people in the fishing industry who don’t want this to be just one more thing working against them.”

How quickly are things moving along? As Conway notes, wave energy wasn’t an issue only a decade ago. But with Oregon trying to meet state goals to get 25% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025, the pressure is building.

One of the recommendations from the study is for government, industry and academic leaders to work closely with coastal residents and listen to their concerns before choosing wave energy sites. The study predicts some of the biggest battles will take place over where wave projects are located. Listening and collaboration should help avoid some of those fights.

Conway says leaders need to pay attention to the “human dimension” of wave energy.

“It’s not just a case of developing technologies that work and finding industrial partners who want to develop them,” says Conway. “People care about the environment, they care about existing uses of the ocean, they care about their concerns being addressed, they care about the ocean view from their porch. All of these things matter.”

Other findings include:

  • Strong support exists for both technological and environmental research to be completed before large scale commercial projects are allowed.
  • The biggest supporters of wave energy are conservative, better-educated males, but the general level of knowledge about energy issues in the state is fairly high across the board.
  • Truly sustainable energy sources have to consider all economic, environmental and social dimensions.
  • Significant work is needed in mapping the ocean floor. This will help avoid conflicts over wave energy farms and other uses, such as commercial fishing grounds.

Flooded Farm Land Helps Fish

November 13, 2009
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Flooded farm fields provide sanctuary for native fish species. Photo by Guillermo Giannico, OSU.

Flooded farm fields provide sanctuary for native fish species. Photo by Guillermo Giannico, OSU.

There’s no question that winter and spring floods in the Willamette Valley cause considerable problems for homes, businesses and farms. But they’re good for at least one species… fish.

Research done at Oregon State University shows that flooded farm land helps fish in several ways. It gives them a sanctuary from fast moving flood waters and safe places for breeding. It also provides access to new sources of food.

Historically speaking, farms are relatively new to the valley. Until white settlers arrived the valley floor was mostly prairie. Yet in the last 200 years or so, native fish have evolved along with the change from prairie to farmland.

“Floods have always been a dynamic part of the system, much the same way that snow is for elk in Yellowstone,” says Guillermo Giannico, a freshwater fish ecologist at Oregon State University. “Over time, animals will adapt to get the most out of their habitat. We have found that native fish have adjusted their behavior to use these floodplains, mostly in agricultural lands, to great benefit.”

OSU Researchers Guillermo Giannico (left) and Randall Colvin (right) at work. Photo by Lynn Ketchum, OSU.

OSU Researchers Guillermo Giannico (left) and Randall Colvin (right) at work. Photo by Lynn Ketchum, OSU.

Giannico and the other researchers found 13 types of fish using flooded fields from December through May. Most of them are redside shiners and threespine sticklebacks, but they also found tiny Chinook salmon and cutthroat trout.

Just because some of these fish aren’t exactly household names, Giannico says they’re still important.

“The fish that are caught in the Northwest for sport or commercial reasons do not thrive in isolation,” he says. “All of these species are part of an interconnected food web. Some are prey for salmon and steelhead; others compete with them for resources and habitat. Most consume insects and other invertebrates that are surprisingly diverse and abundant in the waters, grasses and shrubs of the floodplain.”

The research may affect how we manage farm land. For starters, Giannico says grass seed and other farmers may not be having quite the negative impact on fish as we once believed. In some ways what they do helps fish.

But not all farm land is created equal, as far as the fish are concerned. Flood waters withdraw faster from farms with deep drainage ditches, giving the fish less time in their temporary homes in the field. Many of the fish studied do better with meandering, shallow ditches that run through woods and shrubs.

Giannico says many farmers are just beginning to understand this, and are willing to look at making changes that might help.

“Now we’re working with farmers to see if we can have the best of both worlds – a system that allows farmers to maintain productive fields while at the same time encouraging optimum habitat for aquatic species.”

OSU Scientist Trying To Save The Snow Leopard

October 29, 2009
By
Photo by Bernard Landgraf.

Photo by Bernard Landgraf.

At his laboratory in Corvallis, molecular biologist Todd Mocklar is thousands of miles away from the mountainous Asian region that’s home to the snow leopard. But the work he and others are doing may some day help this beautiful cat step away from the brink of extinction.

According to the Snow Leopard Trust of Seattle, there are between 3,500 and 7,000 of these cats left in the wild. Solid numbers are hard to get. Threats include loss of habitat, poaching, and a decline in the population of species it prays upon.

But as leopard numbers shrink, there’s another problem, what scientists call a genetic “bottleneck”. If there are too few animals left then a lack of genetic diversity becomes an issue. The species is more vulnerable to the problems of inbreeding.

In the case of the snow leopard it’s believed a lack of genetic diversity is making it susceptible to diseases such pneumonia, hip dysplasia, plus certain types of viruses and cancers.

(A study published earlier this year shows the northern spotted owl may be suffering from the same kind of bottleneck.  Read more here.)

How This Research Might Help

Working with researchers at Western University of Health Sciences, and the Miller Park Zoo in Illinois, Mocklar will sequence almost the entire genome of the snow leopard.

When the sequencing is done and the data is analyzed, “We’ll be able to look for a gene that might be involved in disease resistance, for instance, or find sequences that are associated with various diseases,” says Mocklar. “This will give us a chance to target breeding programs and other efforts much more rapidly and accurately.”

In the U.S., there are an estimated 100 snow leopards in captivity. The sequencing data will also be used to determine which animals are closely related and which ones are not. That gives breeders better information on which pairs to mate, helping the captive population to grow and become more diverse. If successful, Mocklar says, captive snow leopards might be reintroduced into the wild.  ”That’s the ultimate goal,” he says.

The snow leopard may not be the only animal to benefit from the research.  OSU says this could help in the recovery of other endangered wild cats such at the cheetah, the sand cat and Asiatic lions.

Scientists Solve The Mysterious Earthquake Swarms Of 2008

October 26, 2009
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Beginning in late March of 2008, a series of earthquakes shook the ocean floor off the Oregon coast.  Over the next two months, researchers would observe some 1600 quakes.  The first intense period, or swarm, lasted about ten days.  That was followed by three more clusters. Most of the quakes were measured between magnitude 3.0 and 4.0.  Some topped magnitude 5.0.

Had you been onshore at the time, you wouldn’t have noticed a thing.  The quakes were too deep and too far away to be felt on land.  But even though they were harmless to people, the quakes were strange enough to make international news.

Scientists at Oregon State University now think they’ve figure out what happened.

Earthquake swarms off the Oregon coast are not that unusual by themselves.  There have been eight recorded swarms over the past dozen years. But the first swarm of last Spring was different because it happened inside the Juan de Fuca plate.  Most quake activity in this area happens along the plate boundary.

The Earthquake Detectives

When the first swarm was detected, OSU dispatched the research vessel Wecoma to the quake area to take water samples and look for signs of volcanic activity on the ocean floor.  Swarms are often caused by volcanic activity, so in a sense the scientists were looking for the “usual suspect”.

Then in September of that year, other scientists returned on the research vessel Melville.  Using a multi-beam sonar, they remapped the ocean bottom.  And that’s when they discovered a new system of earthquake faults.  OSU researcher Susan Merle was aboard the trip and recalls seeing a 20-meter (or about 60 feet) displacement of the seafloor.

“That’s a pretty big fault,” says OSU Marine Geologist Bob Dziak. He says it shows that the Juan de Fuca plate is “being squeezed” by the Pacific plate to the west and the continental plate to the east.  “It isn’t clear if the swarms that occurred in 2008 represent normal stress release within the plate, or if they are from deformation related to the Cascadia Subduction Zone. We simply don’t yet know.”

As For Those Other Swarms

The following swarms occured along plate boundaries, areas that are more likely to see quake activity.  This follow up activity was, in some ways, even more intense than the first swarm.  In an area called the Gorda Ridge, scientists recorded more than 1000 quakes in just five days.

One of the questions the scientists are trying to answer is, are the two events related?

Dziak seems to think they are.  ”But,” he says, “we don’t yet completely understand how they are related and what triggers the sequence. But it is interesting that the stress release within the plate could trigger swarms of earthquakes on the plate boundaries.”

Looking For Something To Do This Summer? Check Out This Online Map From OSU.

June 19, 2009
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Want to go hiking through an old growth forest? There’s a trail for that about 45 miles east of Springfield.

Interested in learning more about gardening with native plants? Check out a demonstration garden near Hood River.

The Lookout Creek Trail in the H. J. Andrews Forest gives hikers a look at an old growth forest. Courtesy OSU.

The Lookout Creek Trail in the H. J. Andrews Forest gives hikers a look at an old growth forest. Courtesy OSU.

These are just two of the things-to-do you’ll find on a new interactive Google map produced by Oregon State University. The map will lead you to about 30 locations across the state for hiking, archaeological study, gardening and science. Some are open to the public all summer long, others are only open on certain days. All of the sites have some kind of connection to OSU science research.

This is an especially handy tool for gardeners. Most of the sites are demonstration gardens run through OSU’s Master Gardener program. There’s an English style garden on the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, and a Bog Garden on the Washington County Fairplex.

While anyone who’s familiar with Google maps won’t have any problems trying to figure out how to use this service, it’s not exactly flawless. OSU says it doesn’t work well Internet Explorer. My experience with Firefox didn’t turn out so well, too. After opening the map, it took me to Kansas. So I had to scroll over to Oregon. In all fairness, my Firefox browser has never done well with Google maps. On the other hand, my Safari browser worked perfectly.

To start using the map, go here: Oregon State University Summer of Science.

OSU Researchers Discover “Extinct” Whales

May 20, 2009
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It’s a good news/bad news kind of story for the North Atlantic Right Whale.

First the good news. Researchers at Oregon State University, working with NOAA, have discovered a population of right whales they thought were extinct. They found them off the southern coast of Greenland, in an area known as Cape Farewell Ground. This was a major whale hunting area in the early 1900s.

North Atlantic Right Whales. Courtesy NOAA.

North Atlantic Right Whales. Courtesy NOAA.

Scientists believe they are only a few hundred right whales left in the North Atlantic. Most of them live off the coasts of the U.S. and Canada. They’re listed as an endangered species. Right whales used to be found off Northern Europe too, but whalers killed off that population decades ago and they haven’t been seen since.

Until now that is. This new finding raises the possibility that a small group of “European” right whales has survived.

“The technology has enabled us to identify an important unstudied habitat for endangered right whales and raises the possibility that – contrary to general belief – a remnant of a central or eastern Atlantic stock of right whales still exists and might be viable,” says David Mellinger, an assistant professor at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and chief scientist of the project.

Scientists including Matt Fowler, who works for both Oregon State University and NOAA, deploy a hydrophone in the North Atlantic aboard the Icelandic Coast Guard cutter Aegir that will record sounds emitted by endangered whales and other species. Courtesy Dave Mellinger, Oregon State University.

Scientists including Matt Fowler, who works for both Oregon State University and NOAA, deploy a hydrophone in the North Atlantic aboard the Icelandic Coast Guard cutter Aegir that will record sounds emitted by endangered whales and other species. Courtesy Dave Mellinger, Oregon State University.

The technology Mellinger refers to is called a hydrophone, or an underwater listening device. These devices can pick up sounds from hundreds of miles away. OSU and NOAA deployed a small number of them off southern Greenland starting in 2007. Since then, they’re recorded more than 2000 right whale vocalizations.

“We don’t know how many right whales there were in the area,” Mellinger says. “They aren’t individually distinctive in their vocalizations. But we did hear right whales at three widely space sites on the same day, so the absolute minimum is three. Even that number is significant because the entire population is estimated to be only 300 to 400 whales.”

And now the not-so-good news.

The whales may be the indirect victims of global warming. With the Arctic ice cap slowly melting away, there’s growing pressure to allow shipping through the area. Scientists are worried about collisions between ships and right whales.

“Newly available shipping lanes through the Northwest Passage would greatly shorten the trip between Europe and East Asia, but would likely cross the migratory route of any right whales that occupy the region,” says Phillip Clapham, a right whale expert with NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory, who participated in the study. “It’s vital that we know about right whales in this area in order to effectively avoid ship strikes on what could be a quite fragile population.”

NOAA says ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear are the biggest threats to right whales.  The long term outlook is uncertain.  According to NOAA, there’s not enough information to know if the population is rising, falling or stable.  But a recent computer model suggests that under current conditions, the North Atlantic right whale will be extinct in less than 200 years.

Seal Pups Showing Up On Oregon Coast

May 7, 2009
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They’re cute, but not exactly cuddly. And for goodness sake, don’t try to “rescue” one of them.

The harbor seal pups are showing up again along the Oregon coast.

That’s a good thing of course, but wildlife biologists are concerned about what might happen when people interact with the pups.  For starters, the pups are often found alone, looking completely “helpless” to well meaning humans.  But according to Jim Rice with the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, that’s perfectly normal and the pups are doing just fine.  Trying to help will only make things worse.

A newborn harbor seal pup. Courtesy Oregon State University

A newborn harbor seal pup. Courtesy Jim Rice of Oregon State University.

“Adult female seals spend most of their time in the water, hunting for food, and only come ashore periodically to nurse their pups,” says Rice. “But the mothers are wary of people and unlikely to rejoin a pup if there is activity nearby.

Sometimes people will remove the pup from the beach, thinking it’s been abandoned.  Or the just the sight of the pup will draw a crowd.

Rice says, “It’s tempting for some people to attempt to ‘rescue’ these hapless appearing pups.  But a pup’s best chance for survival is to be left alone. A dependent pup that’s taken away from its mother will certainly die.”

His advice?  Stay at least 50 feet away and keep your dogs on a leash.

Harbor seal pupping season generally runs March through June, but peaks around mid-May.  They’re protected by federal law and disturbing one, even with the best of intentions, can lead to a fine.  If you see a stranded marine mammal call the Oregon State Police at 800-452-788.