A large number of researchers from countries around the Baltic Sea have been collaborating on an interdisciplinary project to study the effects of global climate change on the environment in the Baltic Sea. They have combined today’s best climate models with models of additional factors that affect the environment in the Baltic Sea.

“There are plenty of studies showing the environmental impact of individual factors, or models showing global changes in the climate, but this is the first time that anyone has taken a detailed look at how these factors combine to affect a specific region. This makes this project unique,” says Jonathan Havenhand from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.

Researchers have studied how well the models work by entering data from 1850 until 2006, and then comparing the models’ predictions with what actually happened during that period.

The models proved to be reasonably accurate, and were therefore used to predict what will happen in the Baltic Sea between now and 2098. The models show that the salt content in the Baltic Sea will fall and that the temperature will rise as a consequence of increases in air temperature and precipitation.

The increase in temperature will cause the oxygen content of the water to fall, making the effects of eutrophication more pronounced. The change in salt content may result in species that are currently at the edge of their dispersion area disappearing, leading to a decline in the diversity of species.

“One such example is the blue mussel, which cannot survive if the salt content is lower than it is at present in the Northern Baltic Sea. It feeds on algae and purifies large volumes of water. This makes it an important species. We can also expect cod stocks to fall, even if we restrict fishing, as the oxygen content, temperature and salt content will change so much that reproduction will become difficult,” says Jonathan Havenhand.

In their study, the researchers showed that despite these changes it may be possible to counteract the effects of global climate change on the environment in the Baltic Sea, for example by reducing the run-off of nutrients from land. One special feature of the study is that it quantifies the effects of such measures.

“We aren’t making any judgement about what should be done, we’re simply providing a tool to allow decision-makers to assess what needs to be done in order to achieve a given desired effect,” says Jonathan Havenhand.

But according to a questionnaire-based survey conducted among decision-makers in the countries around the Baltic Sea, those in power would prefer to wait. The results showed that while they might view climate change as a problem, it is perceived to be something relatively remote in terms of time.

This led researchers to the conclusion that more information is needed about the importance and urgency of measures to counteract the effects of climate change.

The results of the study will contribute to the Helsinki Commission’s (HELCOM) proposed action plan for the Baltic Sea.

This project was a three-year BONUS project as part of the EU’s initiative for the Baltic region. The results were published recently in Environmental Research Letters (Meier et al. Environ Res Lett. 7 (2012).

Forests and agricultural fields on drained previous wetlands make up between five and ten percent of Sweden’s surface area. When these wetlands are drained, they become a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.

“We note that drained wetlands which have been forested or used for agricultural purposes are a significant potential source of greenhouse gases of a magnitude that is at least comparable with the industrial sector’s greenhouse gas emissions in Sweden.”

Emissions from these drained wetlands can be reduced, but that involves rewetting the land – resulting in a negative impact on forestry production. According to the researchers, compromises may be necessary.

“As long as wetlands remain wet, only methane is given off,” says Åsa Kasimir Klemedtsson from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. “However, for more than a hundred years land has been drained for agriculture and forestry, producing large quantities both carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.”

Together with researcher Örjan Berglund from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dr Kasimir Klemedtsson was commissioned by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency during the summer and autumn of 2012 to compile information about greenhouse gases from drained wetlands.

New rules were introduced at last year’s Durban Climate Change Conference with the second Kyoto Protocol phase. These rules include the possibility of reporting wetland drainage or rewetting of drained wetlands. Sweden now faces the choice of whether to include these ahead of the second Kyoto Protocol phase.

Catalysis is an incredibly valuable tool in the field of chemistry, with the Haber-Bosch process being one of the most important catalytic processes in the world. It is used to manufacture fertilizer, and calculations show that without it the world’s population would be just half of what it is today.

Precious metals expensive and harmful to the environment
Precious metals are often used as catalysts in organic chemistry as they enable the production of many organic molecules with applications in areas such as pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. As recently as 2010 Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on palladium catalysis.

“A problem with precious metals like palladium is that they are both expensive and harmful to the environment,” says Per-Fredrik Larsson at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology.

Non-precious metals instead
Recent years have seen researchers evaluating several different non-precious metals – primarily iron and copper – as cheap and environmentally friendly alternatives to precious metals.

“Iron catalysts have proven to be a competitive alternative to precious metals for a number of reactions,” says Per-Fredrik Larsson. “An in-depth understanding of how these reactions work is incredibly important if we are to take this further. The results from our studies with iron led to several important insights into just how complex the chemistry can be.”

Larsson’s research group works not only with experimental methods but also with calculation models to understand how the chemistry works.

Iron or copper?
The trend for swapping precious metals for non-precious alternatives also has a flipside. It was discovered during experiments with iron catalysis in conjunction with professor Carsten Bolm of RWTH Aachen University in Germany that some reactions thought to be catalysed by iron had actually been catalysed by traces of copper in the commercially available iron source.

The fact that traces of copper could catalyse a number of different reactions was surprising as copper had previously been thought to be an ineffective catalyst requiring large quantities and high reaction temperatures.

“Our results show that copper has been given an undeservedly bad name as a catalyst,” says Per-Fredrik Larsson. “Given that copper chemistry is over a century old, it’s surprising that nobody’s realised this before.”

Low quantities
It is important in the pharmaceutical industry to limit the use of catalysts as the quantity of metal in the end-product is strictly regulated and the recovery process can be both difficult and expensive. As such, the finding that small quantities of copper can be used is an important discovery.

“We’ve developed and studied reactions with small quantities of copper and tried to understand how and why they work,” says Per-Fredrik Larsson.

The results and conclusions for iron and copper catalysts are a major contribution to this field of research and are important for its continued development.

Link to thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/29147

A reduction in the inland ice in the Antarctic and on Greenland will affect the water levels of the world’s oceans.

The ice mass in West Antarctica is shrinking
It is therefore problematic that we currently have insufficient knowledge about the ocean circulation near large glaciers in West Antarctica. This means that researchers cannot predict how water levels will change in future with any degree of certainty.

“There is a clear reduction in the ice mass in West Antarctica, especially around the glaciers leading into the Amundsen Sea,” says researcher Lars Arneborg from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.

Together with his research colleagues Anna Wåhlin, Göran Björk and Bengt Liljebladh, he has studied the ocean circulation in the Amundsen Sea.

Warm water is melting the glaciers from underneath
One reason why West Antarctica is particularly sensitive is that the majority of the ice rests on areas that are below sea level. Warm sea water penetrates beneath the ice, causing increased melting from underneath.

“It is therefore probably a change in the ocean circulation in the Amundsen Sea that has caused this increased melting,” continues Arneborg.

Winter data has been lacking until now
Until now, researchers have been referred to studies that use high-resolution computer models.

“But there have been very few oceanographic measurements from the Amundsen Sea to confirm or contradict the results from the computer models. Nor has there been any winter data. Sea ice and icebergs have made it impossible to get there in the winter, and it isn’t easy to have instruments in place all year round.”

However, since 2010 the researchers from Gothenburg have managed to have instruments positioned in the Amundsen Sea, enabling them to measure the inward flow of warm sea water against the glaciers.

Reality differs from the models
The observations show that the warm sea water flows in against the glaciers in an even stream all year round, in contrast to the model results which suggested a strong annual cycle.

“This shows just how important observations are for investigating whether the models we use describe something that resembles reality. Warm ocean currents have caused much more melting than any model has predicted, both in West Antarctica and around Greenland.

Better models for better understanding
The researchers want more and longer time series of observations in order to improve the models and achieve a better understanding.

“Only then will we be able to say anything about how the ice masses of the Antarctic and Greenland will change in the future.”

Vanliga granar sätter kottar först vid 20–25 års ålder, men nu har forskare från SLU, Skogforsk och KTH tagit fram en gran som kan fås att sätta kottar redan inom ett år efter frösådd. Den nya granen härstammar från en muterad gran som upptäcktes i Uppsalatrakten för över 100 år sedan. Med hjälp av storskalig sekvensanalys har forskarna även identifierat en gen som tros bidra till att granen sätter kottar så tidigt. Granens egenskaper kan komma till nytta i förädlingsarbete.

Barrträd genomgår en lång ungdomstid innan de börjar sätta kottar; för granar är denna period 20–25 år. Traditionell granförädling är alltså en mycket långsam process, med minst 20 år mellan varje förädlingssteg. En möjlighet att kunna styra ”kottsättningsåldern” hos granar skulle därför underlätta förädlingen av ett av våra viktigaste barrträd, och detta har också varit syftet med ett samarbete mellan forskare vid SLU och Skogforsk i Uppsala och kollegor vid Science for Life Laboratory i Stockholm.

Studien har utgått från en naturligt förekommande gran-varietet som fascinerat botaniker och skogsforskare under de senaste 150 åren. Redan i slutet av 1800-talet beskrev den dåvarande professorn i botanik vid Uppsala universitet, Theodor Fries, en gran som i motsats vanlig gran producerar kottar på toppskottet. Granen, som fick namnet acrocona*, sätter även kottar under år då övriga granar i Sverige vilar från kottsättning. Det forskarna nu har gjort är att producera inavelskorsningar av acroconagranen. Bland avkomman från en sådan korsning finns det plantor som har fått en förstärkning av sina kottsättande egenskaper. När forskarna sedan odlar dessa plantor i odlingskammare, där de kan styra temperatur och ljus, kan de få småplantor att sätta kottar inom ett år efter frösådd.

Vid Science for Life Laboratory i Stockholm finns expertis på storskaliga sekvensstudier av arvsmassan i olika organismer. Vid storskalig sekvensanalys studerar man inte generna en och en utan samtliga gener i en organism analyseras samtidigt. Att studera granar med denna metod är en extra utmaning, eftersom granens arvsmassa är mycket stor och än så länge inte helt kartlagd. Genom att analysera vilka gener som är särskilt aktiva i just tidigt kottsättande plantor av acrocona har forskarna kunnat identifiera tidigare helt okända kandidatgener, dvs. gener som sannolikt påverkar kottsättning. Dessa gener är dessutom unika för barrträd. En av dessa kandidatgener kodar för ett reglerande protein som kan vara direkt involverat i den tidiga kottsättningen.

Resultaten, som publiceras i det kommande numret av den vetenskapliga tidskriften Plant Physiology, innebär att forskarna i Uppsala och Stockholm nu har möjlighet att påbörja funktionella studier av gener som är aktiva under kottsättningen i gran. I och med att arbetet bedrivs i nära samarbete med Skogforsk kommer den grundläggande kunskapen att komma till direkt nytta. Förhoppningen är att kloner av acroconagranen ska kunna användas som grundstammar i granfröplantager. Projektets långsiktiga mål är att nyttja acroconagranens tidigt kottsättande egenskaper för att säkerställa en jämn tillgång till förädlat frömaterial för skogsbruket.

INFORMATION OCH KONTAKT
*Acrocona kallas även ”kottegran”, och ”ättlingar” till moderträdet i Uppsala finns i dag i trädgårdar runt om i Europa.

Läs mer
Länk till förhandsvisning av publikationen: http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/short/pp.112.207746?keytype=ref&ijkey=f3g63QX5dbl7Nj8

Kontaktpersoner
Daniel Uddenberg (018-67 33 31, daniel.uddenberg@slu.se) eller
Jens Sundström (018-67 32 47, 072-573 72 17, jens.sundstrom@slu.se)
Institutionen för växtbiologi och skogsgenetik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), och Linnécentrum för växtbiologi i Uppsala

Olof Emanuelsson ( 08-524 814 58, 0703-22 37 94, olofem@kth.se)
Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH), Science for Life Laboratory

Curt Almkqist (018-18 85 57, curt.almqvist@skogforsk.se)
Stiftelsen skogsbrukets forskningsinstitut, Skogforsk