Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Alexander Trofimov
International Scientific Research Institute of Cosmoplanetary Anthropoecology, Russia
Keynote: SCIENTIFIC DECLARATION ABOUT THE URGENCY OF GLOBAL GEOECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS FOR HUMANITY SURVIVAL AT THE EPOCH OF COSMOPLANETARY AND CLIMATE CHANGES
Time : 9:00- 9:30 AM
Biography:
Alexander Trofimov has completed his MD (Doctor of Medicine) in 1998 from Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. During many years he was (until 2010) Chief of laboratory of Helio-climatopathology of Scientific Centre of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (SB RAMS, Novosibirsk). From 1994 and now he is the Director of International Scientific-Research Institute of Cosmic Anthropoecology (Russia, Novosibirsk). He has 7 patents, published 6 monographs and more than 60 papers in reputed journals such as Arctic Medicine, Journal of Circumpolar Health, Journal of Earth Science and Climatic Change, Journal of US-China Medical Science, Clinical Medicine Research, Open Access Scientific Reports and many others. His biography was published by “WHO is WHO” in Russia at 2013 year.
Abstract:
Strengthening of the world's technocratic tendencies, depleting the energy resources of the Earth, combined with heliogeophysical and climatic transformations that include changes in space-time coordinates of the solar system are influencing on the biosphere and will have significant evolutional consequences for humanity. rn Participants of the Pre Conference Workshop, Novosibirsk, support the Solutions of "climate summit", held in Paris in November-December 2015, and calls for an expansion of scientific research of natural systems and processes, the strict implementation of the decisions adopted at the summit, to the development of scientific and technological control under emissions of "greenhouse gases" and to the development of the complex of the programs and means, having adaptive and protective properties for a man.rn In conditions of cosmoplanetary and climate change, threatening the growth of morbidity and mortality and even the existence of mankind, it is necessary to create a Global system of geoecological life-support, international, interdisciplinary program that provides monitoring of technogeophysical and heliophysical environment, long-term forecast of "cosmic weather", the development of non-medicinal protective technologies, and the creation of new research institutes of bio-helio-geoecology.rn Water, as an indicator of the state of cosmic-aqua-sphere should become an essential element of the Global System of geoecological life support that is capable to protect the biosphere and humanity from extreme technogenic and heliophysical impacts in conditions of natural geomagnetic deprivation and climatic collisions. rn . Long-term cycle of ISRICA scientific research, directed to modeling of psycho-biotropic effects of the weakened geomagnetic field and condensed flows of "energy-time", allowed to develop and test in Russia and Bulgaria the effective light-water-holographic helioprotective means, patented by ISRICA, ready to wide industrial production and use throughout the world. rn It is necessary to accelerate the scientific development and introduction of helio-geno-gero-protective technologies, computer diagnostics systems such as a "Helios" (Ltd "Biokvant", Novosibirsk, Russia), and other complex methods, designating new horizons of conservation of gene pool of humanity, human adaptation to changing climatic-helio- geophysical conditions and the improvement of people health on the basis of the development of principles of noosphere- preventive medicine and spiritual harmonization of the person. rn This Declaration was adopted at the Pre Conference Workshop of OMICS GROUP conference «Earth Science and Climate Change» unanimously by 32 participants (speakers and guests of the discussion table, figures of science, culture and business) from 4 countries (Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Italy), including from 7 cities in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yakutsk, Voronezh, Saratov and Tomsk) December 25, 2015 in Russia, Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, ISRICA named after Academician VP Kaznacheev.rn
Keynote Forum
Venkatachalam Ramaswamy
Princeton University, USA
Keynote: Earth’s climate change in the 20th and 21st Centuries: The phenomenon of global warming and its impacts
Time : 08:00-08:45
Biography:
V Ramaswamy is the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA, located in Princeton (New Jersey), USA. He has published more than 150rnpeer-reviewed papers, won prestigious awards, and has been a Coordinating Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group Irnreports, and has been a Vice-Chair of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Reserach Program. He is also a Lecturer with the rank of Professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University (USA), and teaches a popular graduate course in Atmospheric Physics.
Abstract:
The emissions of greenhouse gases due to human influences has caused perturbations in the Earth system, initiating majorrnchanges in the greenhouse effect and leading to global warming. Other factors such as aerosol emissions and land-usernchange also due to human activity, along with changes in solar radiation and volcanic eruptions causing aerosol increases,rnhave also affected the planetary heat balance. In this presentation, we discuss how each of the natural and anthropogenicrnfactors has contributed to alteration of the Earth system from global to continental to regional scales. The climate variablesrnof particular interest for societal impacts are temperature, precipitation, and weather extremes. For this investigation, we usernstate-of-the-art numerical models of the climate system that were employed in the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on ClimaternChange Assessment (2013), together with observations drawn from multiple platforms (surface, satellite, aircraft). We analyzernthe key drivers over the 20th Century, the impacts they have generated, and the unresolved issues. We then explore the impactsrnthat are expected in the 21st Century. In the context of both the 20th and 21st Centuries, we discuss the impacts expected due tornglobal warming and the significance of the resulting climate change for extremes in weather, e.g., heat waves, tropical storms,rnsea-level rise, forest fires, droughts, excess rainfall. This brings to the fore the connection between the scientific understandingrnof global warming based on rigor and the manner in which climate change impacts society, including that arising due to thernnonstationary behavior of the changes.
- Climate Change
Session Introduction
Venkatachalam Ramaswamy
NOAA/Princeton University, USA
Title: Earth’s Climate Change in the 20th and 21st Centuries: The Phenomenon of Global Warming and its Impacts
Biography:
Dr. V. Ramaswamy is the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/ NOAA, located in Princeton (New Jersey), USA. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, won prestigious awards, and has been a Coordinating Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I reports, and has been a Vice-Chair of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Reserach Program. He is also a Lecturer with the rank of Professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University (USA), and teaches a popular graduate course in Atmospheric Physics.
Abstract:
The emissions of greenhouse gases due to human influences has caused perturbations in the Earth system, initiating major changes in the greenhouse effect and leading to global warming. Other factors such as aerosol emissions and land-use change also due to human activity, along with changes in solar radiation and volcanic eruptions causing aerosol increases, have also affected the planetary heat balance. In this presentation, we discuss how each of the natural and anthropogenic factors has contributed to alteration of the Earth system from global to continental to regional scales. The climate variables of particular interest for societal impacts are temperature, precipitation, and weather extremes. For this investigation, we use state-of-the-art numerical models of the climate system that were employed in the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment (2013), together with observations drawn from multiple platforms (surface, satellite, aircraft). We analyze the key drivers over the 20th Century, the impacts they have generated, and the unresolved issues. We then explore the impacts that are expected in the 21st Century. In the context of both the 20th and 21st Centuries, we discuss the impacts expected due to global warming and the significance of the resulting climate change for extremes in weather, e.g., heat waves, tropical storms, sea-level rise, forest fires, droughts, excess rainfall. This brings to the fore the connection between the scientific understanding of global warming based on rigor and the manner in which climate change impacts society, including that arising due to the nonstationary behavior of the changes.
Yuri Yevdokimov
University of New Brunswick, Canada
Title: Economic consequences of climate change impacts on road transportation network in Atlantic Canada
Biography:
Dr. Yevdokimov is Professor at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, Canada). Having completed degrees in both economics and engineering, he holds a joint appointment in the departments of economics and civil engineering. Dr. Yevdokimov acquired his degrees in three different countries: former Soviet Union (MSc equivalent in engineering and PhD equivalent in economics), USA (MSc in economics) and Canada (PhD in economics). Dr. Yevdokimov’ research interests lie in the field of sustainable development particularly sustainable transportation and sustainable energy. His work has been published in academic journals and conference proceedings in USA, Canada, Spain, Croatia, Indonesia, France, Greece, Germany, India and former USSR, particularly in Russia and Ukraine. To date Dr. Yevdokimov has more than 20 publications. One monograph, thirteen refereed journal articles, and nine chapters in books are among these publications. Since 1999 Dr. Yevdokimov has taught energy economics and transportation economics for graduate and undergraduate students at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.
Abstract:
Climate change impacts such as an increase in mean temperature, change in precipitation patterns and sea level rise are affecting regional road transportation network in Atlantic Canada. Those impacts cause direct and indirect economic consequences for the network and regional economy. In our study, we constructed a dynamic computable general equilibrium model (CGEM) to trace these consequences over time. Basic principles of the designed CGEM are discussed, and the model’s architecture is presented. The model’s elements are estimated, and the obtained CGEM is tested with exogenously imposed shocks. Dynamics of regional temperature, precipitation and sea level is analyzed on the basis of comprehensive time series analysis. This dynamics is imposed on the designed CGEM as external productivity shocks. Some preliminary cumulative economic consequences are evaluated in monetary terms to obtain benchmarks for the mitigation measures associated with future development of the regional road transportation network.
Dr. Ioannis Michaloudis
Charles Darwin University, Australia
Title: Uranocatharsis project, space debris as cloud-sculptures shading our planet
Biography:
Ioannis MICHALOUdiS had received his Ph.D in Visual Arts at the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne in 1998. Hisaer( )sculpture project was started in 2001 while he was realised his Art&Science research at MIT. The creation of sculptures using silica aerogel, this NASA's nanomaterial having the appearance of a fragment of sky, is the aim of MICHALOUdiS.
Abstract:
Our title Uranocatharsis is an invented word from Uranos (“skyâ€) and catharsis (“cleansingâ€, “purgationâ€). This paper and our in situ installation will present our concept of clearing the sky from orbital debris, not by reentering them into our atmosphere, but by using them as clouds for shading our overheated planet. The idea of this paper derives from the famous dialogue between Alexander the Great and Diogénis the Cynic. "What favor would you want me to do for you?†asks the conqueror. And the philosopher give him the legendary reply: "aposkótisón me" “move a little bit aside because you hide me the sunâ€. Already, as we read this abstract, space debris is hiding part of the sunlight from us: two main debris fields are in space: first the ring of objects in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) then the cloud of objects in low earth orbit (LEO). If the removal of the debris is exorbitant and nobody wants to collect the junk left by others, then we risk completely hiding the sun from Earth… Nevertheless, what if instead of blaming others for the space debris, we collect this waste and we form some giant space sculptures having the forms of enormous clouds/parasols? Then we could place them over the most exposed to the sunlight areas of our planet. This discussion will be developed based on one of our artworks titled hEartHcreated by using the space technology nanomaterial silica aerogel, the lightest solid on the world and the best known heat insulator.
Biography:
Dr. Paul A. Comet has degrees in in Geology, Micropaleontology from London University (QMC) & a PhD in Organic Geochemistry from the School of Chemistry, Bristol University, UK. His postdoctoral work at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne was concerned with hydrous pyrolysis of kerogen analysis using Ocean Drilling Project samples, specifically oriented to terpenoid stereochemical pressure/ temperature transformations. He has worked in the oil service industry as a petroleum geochemist at Core Labs. Singapore & Indonesia & as an inorganic geochemist at Halliburton recently, working on the mineralogy of unconventional reservoirs. He also worked at Texas A & M (GERG) as an associate research scientist mapping the oils of the Gulf of Mexico. He has more than 40 publications & has been working for more than 10 years on solutions for ameliorating climate change.
Abstract:
The observation of the NASA “ecosphere†allows one to mentally model a carbon – neutral, sustainable society, that uses all its waste as a source of stored energy (where city & state replace the algae & shrimps!) as well as sunlight, wind etc. The creation of an alternative energy – based currency “photonic dollar†is suggested that would gradually outcompete the petrodollar as domestic waste to energy, & other alternative energy devices are attached to a communal electric grid (that also functions as a bank) that gradually replace fossil fuel energy. “Superorganism†theory is advocated as a way of distributing resources in an effective manner & as a way of understanding the complexities of how human society functions in a holistic manner. Societal ills then become diagnosable in terms of a malfunction of the entire social & economic system. The interposing of a separate economic “tier†specifically for alternative resources & energy is suggested as a non – revolutionary way of creating sustainable employment, if successful. These ideas are proposed because neither the theories of Adam Smith nor Karl Marx address the waste problem, nor clearly identify the “energy nature†of capital. If this new combination of models is successful in solving climate change problems, then economic philosophical differences between competing nation states might prove to be resolvable.
Shane Fudge
University of Exeter, United Kingdom
Title: Internationalism, interdiscipliniarity, and methodological individualism: understanding and reflecting on the emergence of local and community governance of energy
Biography:
Shane Fudge completed his PhD at the age of 41 at the University of Glamorgan, South Wales, UK. He has since worked at the University of Surrey as postdoctoral researcher on ‘Energy Governance and Policy’ and he currently teaches energy policy, governance of sustainability, and Key Skills in Geography at the University of Exeter. He has published more than 30 papers, books and book chapters and his interests include: ‘community and local governance of energy’; ‘sustainable lifestyles and behaviour change’; and ‘the politics of sustainable governance and low carbon transitions’.
Abstract:
Whilst the idea of community energy and local forms of decision making has gained increasing traction in both policy and academic circles as a driver for low carbon transitions, there remains significant ambiguity in relation to both how we might conceptualise ideas such as ‘community’ and ‘localism’, and subsequently how we might understand these concepts in terms of their normative influence on social, political and economic change. Community and local governance of energy has emerged in different ways within different national contexts where this diversity ranges from the spectacular increase in decentralized, locally driven wind energy in Denmark, to the less influential and more low-key approach in the UK . The paper will draw from a current international research project which has brought together researchers, institutes, and programmes that are currently engaged in research on local and community energy projects. The paper will utilize this research in order to explore both the ideas and the practical applications of locally led energy transitions through an international and interdisciplinary understanding of different theoretical, disciplinary and methodological approaches. The paper will engage with comparative knowledge and expertise on country-specific responses to energy and environmental issues which have emerged specifically from the local or community level. This approach will promote: an understanding of country-specific approaches to energy policy; an exploration of how different national approaches 'accommodate' community based projects; an understanding of issues around the role of public engagement and acceptability; and an exploration of the challenges and opportunities presented by different ownership and operational models.
Kwok L. Shum
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Title: A systems apparoch to geo-engineering technologies – the case of Carbon Capture and Storage CCS
Biography:
BiographyKwok L Shum is a teaching faculty in the Interdisciplinary Programs Office at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He completed his PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology and his master of science degree from Stanford Univeristy. His reasearch interests are in innovation models for emerging clean technology as Complex Products Systems.
Abstract:
Geo-engineering is the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth's natural systems to counteract climate change. Foremost technologies are: carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management (Royal Society 2009). Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) from fossil fuels refers to sequestering of large quantities of CO2 from point sources of GHG emissions, mainly fossil fuel combustion. CCS would therefore reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere while allowing fossil fuel use to continue and migitaging anthropogenic climate changes. This paper presents several pre-requsites for the large scale deployment of CCS. We reviewed several technologies analogous to CCS such as Flue Gas Desulpurization FGD and hypothesized the notion of Community of Practice as an enabler of deployment. Several types of member in the COP are critical; they are the technology suppliers, the end users and the government authority. Due to the emerging nature of CCS, technology suppliers need continuinal dialogues and inputs from the users sides. In addition, due to the lack of a regulatory structure (Bracmort et al. 2013) of the implementation of CCS such as identifying who owns the sequestered CO2, where to sequester the CO2, defining what constitutes leakage, identifying who will be held liable if the sequestered CO2 leaks, government authority’s participation in the COP is critical. COP is however only one side of the deployment equation; we also proposed an architectural view of CCS technology and recommended a modular-based development strategy which could faciliate interaction in the COP. Such a modular- based strategy could also render economical customization of CCS technology and minimize disruption in implementation.
M. Mehdi M. Shamsi
University of Southern California, USA
Title: A model on the effect of petroleum production on Earth’s temperature
Biography:
Mohammad Mehdi Mollanouri Shamsi, received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering in University of Tehran, Iran. He also received another M.Sc. degree in Petroleum Engineering at USC and currently is a PhD student at the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at USC.
Abstract:
The following adiabatic model is used to relate the global temperature to the atmospheric pressure. The temperature distribution in Earth’s troposphere at pressure more than 0.2 atm under greenhouse effect theory can be determined using the following equation: http://earthscience.conferenceseries.com/upload-images/earthscience2016-96452.png Where S is the solar constant; is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant; A is the planet’s reflectivity; b is a scaling factor; is the adiabatic exponent; and is the precession angle of the revolving planet. The proposed model considers the global temperature changes due to variations in mass and chemical composition of the atmosphere. Based on our model, releasing of anthropogenic CO2 and methane into the atmosphere does not have any appreciable effect on the average parameters of the Earth’s heat regime. Furthermore, they have no essential effect on the Earth’s climate. By considering different factors in the model, authors believe that all petroleum production and other anthropogenic activities resulting in accumulation of additional amounts of methane and CO2 in the atmosphere does not increase the Earth’s temperature but instead decreases the temperature. The authors also have shown that in many cases, peaks in the sun irradiation precede peaks in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The authors predict slow temperature decline by 2016-2020, with stronger cooling by around 2040. The earth is about 20 years away from “little ice ageâ€.
- Environmental Issues
Session Introduction
Ji Whan Ahn
Korea Institute of Geosceinces and Mineral Resources, South Korea
Title: The Grand Challenges of Emerging Environmental Issues
Biography:
Ahn Ji Whan received a B.S, M.S and Ph.D degree in Mining and Minerals Engineering during the years 1986 ~ 1997 from Inha University and she has another master’s degree in Resources Environmental Economics from Yonsei University. Now Dr. Ahn is working as a Principal Researcher in Korea Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources, Director for Resources, Environment and Materials R&D Center, KIGAM, President for Korea Institute of Limestone & Advanced Materials (KILAM), Chairperson, Japan/Korea International Symposium on Resources Recycling and Materials Science, Vice President of Korean Society for Geosystem Engineering and Vice President of Korea Institute of Resources and Recycling. Dr. Ahn is an Advisory Member for Ministry of Environment - consulting committee of waste treatment technology (ME-CCWTT) and she is Representative for ISO 102 (Iron Ore) from South Korea. In KIGAM, she has 20 years research experience and she started the multidisciplinary research areas and developed new novel technologies. Dr. Ji Whan Ahn has published more than 154 papers, 716 proceedings papers/Conference presentations and 71 patents. She received many awards, National Science Merit (Presidential Citation Award), The Excellent Research award from Ministry of Knowledge Economy and The First Women Ceramist award etc., for her research excellence
Abstract:
Over the several years, population growth, water pollution, air pollution, climate change, and global warming are the most discussing and emerging environmental issues. Greenhouse gas emissions are caused to global warming and it was a serious problem that should be one of the primary challenge for governments. The above mentioned issues are all interrelated to each one. Prevention of CO2 emissions from all sectors is the primary solution of the global warming issue and simultaneously we can control the climate change. In the 21st century, water scacity, water quality and pollution are expected to become more acute as population growth. Currently 600 million people face water scarcity and nearly 3.2 billion people may be living in either water scarce or water stressed conditions by 2025. In developing countries, in many areas are serious contaminated of natural resources and serious effects on human health. The transmission of pathogens through tap water and drinking water remains a significant problem. Worldwide, nearly 10 to 20 million deaths occur a year due to the water borne bacterial pathogens diseases. The other biggest issue is air pollution. Particulate matter is released from various industrial processes via stack emissions to air. Particulate matter can cause long term effects on people’s health and reduce life expectancy, particularly those are suffering with pre-existing heart and lung disease. PM 2.5 is an emerging priority pollutant in global. The solution of this major problems are i. CO2 emissions prevention, ii. CO2 utilization. Accelerated carbonation is a multipurpose technique for water purification, heavy metals stablization which are presented in water, and improving the CO2 capture capacity. CO2 capture, utilization (CCU) is a promising technology where in CO2 is captured and stored in solid form for further utilization instead of being released into the atmosphere. The new advanced process called accelerated carbonation has been widely researched and developed.
Pululu Mahasa
University of the Free State, South Africa
Title: Water demand management in the upper orange river basin, South Africa
Biography:
Pululu Sexton Mahasa is currently enrolled for his PhD at the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the Faculty of Agriculture, Science and Technology, North West University (Mahikeng Campus) – Mahikeng, South Africa. He has published 4 papers so far in reputed journals and another four has been submitted. He has been serving as an editorial board member of reputed Water Resources Management Journal. He is a lecturer at the University of the Free State (Qwaqwa Campus) and has until so far supervised 2 Masters and 1 Honors student. He offers the following courses: Geosciences (i.e. Geology, Physical Geography and Geomorphology), GIS (Geographic Information Systems), Theoretical Foundations in Geography, Environmental Policy & Practice, Integrated Environmental Management and Tourism at the various levels in the university.
Abstract:
Sustainable environmental use and management are now regarded as a cornerstone of economic and social development and the protection and wise use of ecosystems and biomes should become the parameters of social and economic development. The ultimate causes of pressures on ecological and human receptors are often hard to attribute. Apart from water demand, freshwater ecological systems are driven by water quality, by hydrology, morphology and other physical factors. It is further mentioned that these complex interactions can confound efforts to understand the causes of ecological decline in a given catchment, to predict the likely effectiveness of a set of policies, or the likely timeframes within which they may be effective. There is a growing body of evidence on the cost-effectiveness of measures to tackle water scarcity. Although hydrology and the science of managing water resources have played key roles in human and economic development throughout history; yet these roles have often been marginalised or obscured. Knowledge of hydrology and water resources engineering and management transformed the landscape, and thus also the very hydrology operating within catchments itself. It is only fairly recent that water experts have become conscious of such mechanisms, exemplified by several concepts that try to incorporate them - integrated water resources management, socio-hydrology, eco-hydrology. Recent developments in the last 20 years have reached a stage at which a more systemic understanding of scale interdependencies can inform the sustainable governance of water systems, using new concepts like virtual water transfers, water footprints, precipitation sheds, and water value flow. A major evidence gap, therefore, faces policy-makers at the catchment scale to design well targeted and effective interventions. In combination with water demand, this may include a combination of source apportionment techniques, iterative modelling studies and tracer experiments. The purpose of the study is to develop a suitable model based on the water demand management practices in the study area given that water resources in the mountain areas are increasingly under pressure, with serious implications for both mountain and lowland areas. It is in this light that this study will be carried out.
- Atmospheric Chemistry
Session Introduction
Arndt Schimmelmann
Indiana University, USA
Title: Vietnam’s tropical karst is a sink for atmospheric methane greenhouse gas
Biography:
Arndt Schimmelmann completed his PhDin Geochemistry in 1985 at the University of California at Los Angeles, was a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, USA, and is now a Senior Scientist in the Department of Geological Sciences at Indiana University in Indiana, USA. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers.
Abstract:
The atmospheric concentration of the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH4) is globally rising mainly due to anthropogenic activities. Forecasting of global climate change by models requires knowledge of sources and sinks of greenhouse gas species. A mostly overlooked sink of CH4 is the microbial oxidation in subterranean environmentsfollowing air exchange with the atmosphere. Northern Vietnam’s vast carbonate province with deeply incised tower karst valleys offers exposure of abundant air-filled voids (i.e. caves and other porosity). Air exchangeis enhanced by steep topography (hence large surface area of carbonate exposure) and limited soil cover. Our international team used portable methane detectors (SARAD® RTM 2200, SARAD® GmbH, Germany, with Axetris methane module; Gasmet DX-4030 FTIR, Gasmet Technologies Oy, Finland) and mesocosm experiments in caves to confirm strong methanotrophic depletion of CH4over 12 hours in contact with moist cave rocks. The warm and moist climate should maintain strong methanotrophic activity throughout the year. The methanotrophic capacity of a cave depends on its air exchange rate and the abundance of suitable microbial habitats. The exchange of cave air with outside air is enhanced by thermal gradients and outside wind. ‘Warm season’ measurements along transects in numerous caves in May 2012 produced distinct CH4 concentration profiles. Complementary ‘cold season’ measurements in November/December 2015 will complete the basis to estimate the year-round methanotrophic activities in surveyed caves, and by extrapolation will arrive at a regional estimate of the rate of methanotrophy in northern Vietnamese karst.
Biography:
M. Reda has completed his PhD from University of Iowa. He worked as an associate professor at the Chemical Engineering Dept. Kuwait University from 1982 till 2006.
Abstract:
There is a tremendous effort by various scientific groups to study the fate of carbon dioxides in the atmosphere. Two important methods for the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere are scavenging during rain events and photosynthesis by plants to oxygen and sugar. Here we show that atmospheric acidity due to sulfur (IV) and nitrogen oxides which are present in the range of few parts per million can lower the pH of the rain droplets and decrease the solubility of CO2 and thus scavenging rate. CO2(gas) + H2O ⇔ CO2(aq) ⇔ HCO3-1 + H+ Although the amount of acidic gases in the atmosphere is only in the ppm range, the pH for small droplet can reach as low as 4 [1-3]. As more acidic the water becomes due to the presence of trace of S(IV) and nitrogen oxide, reaction 1 above will shift to the left and less CO2 will dissolve. Furthermore, it is well known that the first step during photosynthesis of CO2 to oxygen by plant leaves is the dissolution of gases CO2 into the moist surface of the plant leaves. The atmospheric acidity will lower the rate of the first step and thus acts as an inhibitor for the process of photosynthesis of CO2 to oxygen. A simple mathematical models based on the interaction of aqueous CO2, S(IV) and NOx chemistry will be presented to support the above conclusion, namely that atmospheric acidity has a critical effects on the CO2 resident time in the atmosphere.
- Remote Sensing and GIS
Session Introduction
Prasad Thenkabail
U. S. Geological Survey, USA
Title: Remote sensing for global food security
Biography:
Prasad S. Thenkabail is currently a Research Geographer with U. S. Geological Survey. He has over 100+ papers, and 5 books to his credit. He is a recognized expert on hyperspectral remote sensing and global cropland mapping using remote sensing. His books include: three volume Remote Sensing Handbook, Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, and Remote Sensing of Global Croplands for Food Security. He was remote sensing head at the International Water Management Institute. He was a past member of the Landsat Science Team. He has PhD from the Ohio State University and did his post-doctoral in Yale University.
Abstract:
Monitoring of global croplands (GCs) is imperative for ensuring sustainable water and food security for the people of the world in the Twenty-first Century. However, the currently available cropland products suffer from major limitations such as: (1) Absence of precise spatial location of the cropped areas; (b) Coarse resolution nature of the map products and their significant uncertainties in areas, locations, and detail; (b) Uncertainties in differentiating irrigated areas from rainfed areas; and (c) Absence of crop types and cropping intensities. This research aims overcome the above mentioned limitations through development of a set of GFSAD30products using multi-resolution time-series remotely sensed data and a suite of automated cropland mapping algorithms (ACMAs). The products include: 1. Cropland extent/area, 2. Crop types with focus on the 8 types that occupy 70% of the global cropland areas, 3. Irrigated versus rainfed croplands, and 4. Cropping intensities: single, double, triple, and continuous cropping. The project is funded by NASA MEaSUREs and makes significant contributions to Earth System Data Records (ESDRs), Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Agriculture and Water Societal Beneficial Areas, and GEO Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM). The project products are released through a single window link: http://geography.wr.usgs.gov/science/croplands/as well as over: https://croplands.org/
Prasad Thenkabail
U. S. Geological Survey, USA
Title: Hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation: Knowledge gain and knowledge gap after 40 years of research
Biography:
Prasad S. Thenkabail is currently a Research Geographer with U. S. Geological Survey. He has over 100+ papers, and 5 books to his credit. He is a recognized expert on hyperspectral remote sensing and global cropland mapping using remote sensing. His books include: three volume Remote Sensing Handbook, Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation, and Remote Sensing of Global Croplands for Food Security. He was remote sensing head at the International Water Management Institute. He was a past member of the Landsat Science Team. He has PhD from the Ohio State University and did his post-doctoral in Yale University.
Abstract:
This presentation summarizes the advances made over 40+ years in understanding, modeling, and mapping terrestrial vegetation as reported in the new book on “Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Vegetation†(Publisher:Taylor and Francis inc.). The advent of spaceborne hyperspectral sensors or imaging spectroscopy (e.g., NASA’s Hyperion, ESA’s PROBA, and upcoming Italy’s ASI’s Prisma, Germany’s DLR’s EnMAP, Japanese HIUSI, NASA’s HyspIRI) as well as the advances made in processing when handling large volumes of hyperspectral data have generated tremendous interest in advancing the hyperspectral applications’ knowledge base to large areas. Advances made in using hyperspectral data, relative to broadband data, include: (a) significantly improved characterization and modeling of a wide array of biophysical and biochemical properties of vegetation, (b) ability to discriminate plant species and vegetation types with high degree of accuracy, (c) reducing uncertainties in determining net primary productivity or carbon assessments from terrestrial vegetation, (d) improved crop productivity and water productivity models, (e) ability to assess stress resulting from causes such as management practices, pests and disease, water deficit or water excess, and (f) establishing more sensitive wavebands and indices to study vegetation characteristics. The presentation will discuss topics such as: (1) hyperspectral sensors and their characteristics, (2) methods of overcoming the Hughes phenomenon, (3) characterizing biophysical and biochemical properties, (4) advances made in using hyperspectral data in modeling evapotranspiration or actual water use by plants, (5) study of phenology, light use efficiency, and gross primary productivity, (5) improved accuracies in species identification, and (6) applications in precision farming.
Prabhat Koner
University of Maryland, USA
Title: A comparative study of remote sensing retrievals using deterministic and stochastic method
Biography:
Author earned his PhD degree in Solar Photvoltaics Engineering from IIT, Delhi. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the EU Joint research Centre, Italy, and research scientists at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia on data analysis and quality issues of Electrical grid systems. Later he became interested in more science-focused field of satellite remote sensing retrievalsapplying physically deterministic methods. For a decade, he carried his research work in different countries at reputed academic institutes i.e. University of Toronto, University of Bonn and Dalhousie University. He reviewed articles for IEEE journals and has given invited talks different reputed organizations including IEEE society.
Abstract:
There are two distinct different schools of thoughts in parameter estimation: deterministic and stochastic. Deterministic inverse method assumes that there are true values of parameters, as opposed to all parameters in stochastic method are remaining as random variables. However, stochastic methods are dominating for operational satellite remote sensing retrievals for a long time, where many ambiguities are persistingin the reliability and quality of retrieved products. One of major drawbacks in prevalent stochastic inverse method is that errors are treated as definite information and use these as the input parameters. This is not the case for the deterministic method, thus ambiguities are inevitably low. First I will present the classical difference between two inverse methods in this talk. Later I will demonstrate a successful implementation of deterministic method in operational environment for near real time geophysical parameters estimation from satellite measurements. The various advantages using deterministic method over the stochastic method will be discussed subsequently.
- Soil Science
Session Introduction
Donald Gabriels
UNESCO Chair on Eremology,Ghent University, Belgium
Title: Combating Desertification through Management of Drylands: lessons learned
Biography:
Donald Gabriels is an agricultural engineer and Emeritus Professor of the Department of Soil Management of Ghent University, Belgium. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences and a MSc in Soil Physics of Iowa State University, USA. He was a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University, USA where he spent a sabbatical year at the National Soil Erosion Laboratory. He holds the UNESCO Chair on Eremology for the study and control of desertification and land degradation.
Abstract:
Drylands have between 35% and 95% of deficit of water in their soils. If a permanent pluviometric deficit occurs, this phenomenon is called ‘aridity’, while ‘drought’ is related to a temporary deficit. Drylands are also affected by several types of irregular droughts. As ‘desertification’ is more related to drought than to aridity, combating desertification is managing drylands in view of their preservation or restoration. The SUMAMAD (Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands) project was implemented by UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme together with the United Nations University - Institute for Water, Environment & Health (UNU-INWEH), and funded by Flanders, Belgium (2008-2014). The management of drylands was mainly done in sites of UNESCO-MAB Reserves. A solar desalinization plant was built in the Omayed Biosphere Reserve in Egypt. Chicken farming in compacted grassland was carried out in the Hunshandake sand area of China. Deficit irrigation for quinoa production was applied in the southern Bolivian Altiplano. Community based grazing was managed in the drylands of the Dana Biosphere Reserve in Jordan. Arabic gum was produced and composting techniques were applied in the arid western plain zone of the Thar Desert in India. Agroforestry and organic manure was used in the Mare aux Hippopotames Biosphere Reserve of Burkina Faso. Degraded dryland ranges were restored in the Lal Suhanra Biosphere of Pakistan. Flood water spreading was applied in the Gareh Bygone Plain of Iran. Reforestation with Acacia trees was done in the Bou Hedma Reserve of Tunisia. The projects and successful but also less successful results are described and discussed.
- Geosciences
Session Introduction
Vasco Vieira
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal
Title: Coupling the atmospheric to the coastal ocean components of the Earth-System (I): estimating the solubility of greenhouse gases and aerosols.
Biography:
Vasco Vieira has terminated his PhD in Marine, Land and Environmental Sciences in the University of Algarve in 2011, at the age of 37. Until 2011 he worked at the ALGAE – Marine Plant Ecology Research Group of University of Algarve, and since then in Maretec – Marine Technology Group of Instituto Superior Técnico. He has 17 published articles on the subject of marine ecology, environment and technology.
Abstract:
The Global Ocean is perceived as climate change mitigator by acting as sink for greenhouse gases and as source of aerosols that increase the albedo in the upper atmosphere. More recently, the coastal ocean was determined as fundamental for the atmosphere-ocean interactions and atmospheric budget of its constituents, although its precise role is yet poorly understood due to its heterogenic environmental conditions and multitude of ecosystems. Solubility is one of the two fundamental factors setting the atmosphere-ocean balance and flux of gases. It basically changes with water temperature and salinity, which are highly variable at the coastal ocean. We tested the two most used approaches to model solubility with data from the European coastal ocean. The traditional method used by Earth-System modellers corrects the ideal gas law for the effects of moisture and fugacity of non-ideal gases, while the solubility coefficients are provided by the virial equations. Its alternative estimates solubility from the the molecular structures, thermodynamic properties and concentrations of pure water, its dissolved salts and of the gases. Both formulations generally agreed remarkably well and only diverged by up to 4.5% in extreme situations of temperature and salinity. However, these situations occur in critical components of the Earth-System, namely the warmer and less saline coastal oceans and the cooler polar oceans. These mismatches led to a bias of 3.86×106 ton of CO2, 880.7 ton of CH4 and 401 ton of N2O dissolved in the first meter depth of the European coastal ocean.
Vasco Vieira
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal
Title: Coupling the atmospheric to the coastal ocean components of the Earth-System (II): estimating transfer velocities of greenhouse gases and aerosols.
Biography:
Vasco Vieira has terminated his PhD in Marine, Land and Environmental Sciences in the University of Algarve in 2011, at the age of 37. Until 2011 he worked at the ALGAE – Marine Plant Ecology Research Group of University of Algarve, and since then in Maretec – Marine Technology Group of Instituto Superior Técnico. He has 17 published articles on the subject of marine ecology, environment and technology.
Abstract:
The Global Ocean is an expected climate change mitigator by acting as sink for greenhouse gases and as source of aerosols that increase the albedo in the upper atmosphere. Given the calculus constrains of Earth-System Models (ESM), areused simpler formulations relying on wind speedas sole driver of the turbulence at the sea-surface that mediates the transfer velocities of gases. This is sufficient for the coarse resolution of ESM with cells roughly 1000km wide dominated by the Open Ocean. Meanwhile, the Coastal Ocean was considered fundamental for the atmosphere-ocean gas exchanges and atmospheric budget of its constituents. Although its precise role is yet poorly understood due to its heterogenic environmental conditions and multitude of ecosystems, it has been proposed as responsible for half the atmosphere-ocean greenhouse gas exchanges worldwide. At the Coastal Oceans, other factors become important mediators of turbulence and gas transfer velocities, namely sea-surface roughness, atmospheric stability, currents, surfactants and rain. We propose a numerical framework to couple the atmospheric WRF to the oceanographic WW3-NEMO models, customizable to integrate the desired factors and respective formulations. We compared the application of alternative formulations with data from the European Coastal Ocean at 11km and 1h resolutions during 6 days in May 2014. More comprehensive formulations estimated 50% less transfers of greenhouse gases than the generalization currently in use by ESM. Therefore, increasing the accuracy of ESM requires finer resolutions for space and time, but also for the better description of the processes involved.
- Soil Science | Geoethics | Environmental Issues | Remote Sensing and GIS
Location: Busarakam Ballroom 1
Biography:
Judith M Tisdall is experienced in basic and applied research in soils. She was awarded JK Taylor Medal for excellence in research and communication (2012). Her 52 papers have been cited 3487 times in the scientific literature (HI =18). She was the first to recognize the mycorrhizal effect on soil aggregation. She led a project on soil management for crops in Indonesia that enabled farmers to double their incomes. She contributed to new soil management for fruit trees on Tatura Trellis. She is Editor-in- Chief of Soil & Tillage Research, and is a member of Editorial Board of Agronomy.
Abstract:
Models are used to predict climate change, and its effect on soil, water and plants. These models depend heavily on their inputs. Some models predict that rainfall will be more variable, but higher and more intense, and temperatures, solar radiation and concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide will be higher. These may increase the length of the growing season of plants, plant growth, concentration of organic matter in soil, and protective cover on the soil, with fewer nutrients lost in runoff and erosion. However, increased microbial activity in the wetter and warmer soils will decompose more organic matter, and the soil will become structurally unstable. Such soils will become denser and more susceptible to erosion, with increased runoff removing water and nutrients. The water-holding capacity of the soil will decrease, with the soil more easily waterlogged, and poorly aerated, and the soil will set hard when dry. Waterlogged seals of low permeability will restrict emergence of seedlings, less organic matter added to the soil. New land-use by farmers in the new climate will probably also increase erosion. On the other hand, increased concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide may decrease stomatal aperture, photosynthesis and transpiration and all the benefits of increased plant growth. Higher rainfall may increase the number of cloudy days, and decrease light interception by plants and photosynthesis. Lower rainfall may lead to more irrigation, subsequent saline water-tables and soil, and decreased plant growth. Soil pH will decrease when basic cations are removed in harvested crops, or are leached deeper into the profile. The lower pH will make some nutrients, e.g. manganese, more available and toxic to plants, whereas other nutrients e.g. phosphorus, will be less available.
Shovonlal Roy
University of Reading, UK
Title: Remote sensing for marine autotrophic dynamics and diversity: Recent advances and opportunities
Biography:
Shovonlal Roy is a Lecturer in Remote Sensing in Ecosystem Sciences, at the Department of Geography and Environmental Science & Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, UK. He did a Master’s in Mathematics and PhD in Mathematical Biology. He worked as a researcher at the University of Manchester, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, the University of Oxford, and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. He has published more than 20 research articles and an edited book. He is a regular reviewer of more than 10 index journals. He is a Review Editor of Frontiers in Marine Science and Associate Editor of Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation.
Abstract:
Recent advances in ocean remote sensing have made it possible to study various aspects of ocean biogeochemistry from satellite data. This presentation will deal with the applications of remote sensing for understanding the biomass and dynamics of the marine autotrophs, which are responsible for almost half of the annual global carbon fixation, and is fundamental to the global carbon cycle. The presentation will include recent results on developing ocean-colour algorithms, and implementation of data assimilation using biogeochemical models towards accurate estimation of autotrophic biomass stocks, and for better understanding of the autotrophic dynamics on a global scale. Limitations of the current approaches and opportunities for future development will be discussed in the context of minimising uncertainties in satellite-derived estimates, through algorithms and marine ecosystem models.
Biography:
Dr Shadung Moja is currently serving as a chief scientist in air quality within the Sustainable Resources and Environment Competency at the Council for Geoscience in South Africa. His master’s and doctoral degrees are in Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Management respectively. He has served the academia for more than 16 years. He also has 4 years of industrial chemistry experience and more than 3 years of consulting in air quality. He has published more than 15 peer reviewed articles
Abstract:
Asbestos mining was banned in South Africa because of the health effects that are linked to the inhalation of asbestos dust / fibres. Most of asbestos mine tailingsin Mpumalanga Province are not rehabilitated and dust / fibres could easily be lifted and transported by wind, and then settle in sensitive areas like human settlements. Surface and trapped dust samples were collected around human settlements thatare in the vicinity of five abandoned and ownerless asbestos mine tailingsin October 2015. After collection, surface dust samples weresieved with a 100 µm pore size stainless steel sieve to remove large dust particles. Trapped dust material was collected around the window panesin houses, surfaces of furniture and on windscreens of old cars. Surface and trapped dust samples were treated in the laboratory in preparation of Scanning Electron Microscope – Energy Dispersive X- ray (SEM – EDX), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD)and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)analyses. Both, the amphibole and serpentine asbestos mineral groups were detected in most indoor and outdoor dust samples. Other dominant minerals detected include the quartz, chlorites, plagioclase, calcite, talc, pyroxene, dolomite, mica, feldspar, clay and iron oxide. Industrial and biological materials that include fly ash particles, organic fibre and fibre glass were detected. The morphological and elemental composition results will also be covered in the paper. But, the continued presence of the dangerous asbestos minerals where humans live is of concern.
Seung-Chang Hong
National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Korea
Title: Carbon and nitrogen changes affected by elevated temperature and CO2 under the open top chamber environment in rice paddy
Biography:
Seung-Chang Hong has completed his PhD from Chungbuk National University of South Korea. He has been serving as an Agricultural Researcher at National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA, Republic of Korea. He works in response to climate change and agricultural environment.
Abstract:
Elevated temperature and CO2 concentration of atmosphere can change the cycle of carbon and nitrogen in rice paddy. To understand the changes of carbon and nitrogen, as an agricultural resource, forced by climate change are important to develop the adapting technology in agricultural sector. The change of carbon and nitrogen were evaluated by elevated temperature and CO2 concentration in rice paddy of South Korea. In order to control the elevated temperature and elevated CO2 concentration, we set up the open top chamber (OTC) facility of 2m(W)×2.5m(H) with three replication and rice seedlings were transplanted inside its plot. The treatments consisted of elevated temperature (ambient+1~3°), elevated temperature plus elevated CO2, and open paddy as a control. Concentrations of TOC, COD and the COD/TOC ratio of flooded surface water (oxidation layer) increased by elevated temperature. On the other hand, the concentrations of TOC, COD, and the COD/TOC ratio of percolating water of soil depth of 50 cm (reduction layer) showed decreasing trend. Furthermore, elevated temperature and CO2 treatment increased the concentration of TOC in surface water. The content of soil T-N and TOC were higher than those of the control. Elevated temperature significantly increased the culm length, culm weight of rice plant but the panicle number, panicle weight of rice did not show significant differences. These results imply that elevated temperature and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration can increase carbon and nitrogen export from rice paddy. Therefore, the carbon and nitrogen cycle of rice paddy could be changed under future climate change environment.
Pennan Chinnasamy
International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka
Title: Incorporating remote sensing data for high spatiotemporal groundwater management in data limited regions: A case study in India
Biography:
Pennan Chinnasamy is a Researcher in Hydrology and Remote Sensing at the International Water Management Institution, which is water based think tank/NGO under the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR). After obtaining Master’s in Physics from Wesleyan University, CT, USA in 2009, he got his PhD from University of Missouri, USA, in 2012. His current work focuses on water availability, water risk and water futures for Asia, Africa, Australia and USA regions. He has published more than 25 papers in international journals.
Abstract:
Groundwater is a common-pool resource with no ownership, hence taken for granted and depleted recklessly by human societies across continents over millennia. India is one among the highest consumer of groundwater in the world with an estimated annual withdrawal exceeding over 230 km3. Besides, agriculture sector consumes over 60% of the groundwater, however methods to assess and regulate groundwater are limited. The government agencies monitor only shallow groundwater levels, while the extraction is mostly from the deep aquifer. In this data limited regions in India, use of remote sensing methods (e.g. Landsat imagery, GRACE, MODIS) to aid groundwater assessment and develop new methods to regulate groundwater use for a sustainable future are warranted. In this talk, the author will showcase groundwater assessment studies conducted in four distinct states in India, in which agricultural groundwater use is of paramount importance. The author will also discuss, with the aid of results from remote sensing analysis, sustainable methods to engage Village Level Groundwater Co-operatives that can operate with limited external guidance, but still provide sustainable groundwater use plans. In addition, groundwater recharge methods that were successful in one region (e.g. Gujarat) have failed in another region (e.g. Rajasthan, which is a neighboring state to Gujarat). The underlying hydrological regime will be analyzed using remote sensing methods and available observation data, and recommendations provided to the central government agencies. In one study in Tamil Nadu (southern State of India), the results show groundwater depletion at the rate of 21.4 km3yr−1, this is 8% more than the annual recharge rate (19.81 km3yr−1) owing to the total rainfall of 1016 mm km3yr−1. More results will be discussed that can increase confidence in remote sensing methods for India, as currently there is no observation data for large scale analysis of groundwater depletion for the nation.
Nonilona Daquiado
Central Mindanao University, Philippines
Title: Controlling methane emissions in a vermicompost-applied maapag paddy soil during rice cultivation
Biography:
Nonilona P Daquiado has completed her MS in Soil Science at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, College, Los Baños, Laguna, Phillippines and her PhD in Soil Science at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and is currently, a Professor of the Department of Soil Science, Central Mindanao University.
Abstract:
Vermicompost application is important for increasing rice productivity and minimizing methane (CH4) emissions in paddy soil. However, its effect on CH4 emissions in the Philippines have not been thoroughly evaluated. This study aimed to assess the effect of vermicompost at rate of 2 tons ha-1 applied alone or in combination with recommended rate of inorganic fertilizers (RRIF) at 80-40-60 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha-1 on CH4 emission and productivity in a typical mono-rice Maapag clay in Northern Mindanao. The treatments included: Control (no fertilizer), full RRIF, vermicompost alone, ½ RRIF, ½ RRIF + vermicompost and RRIF + vermicompost. Rice productivity increased significantly with inorganic NPK fertilizer application and more with combined inorganic NPK and vermicompost. Methane emission rates, which were measured by closed-chamber method, increased significantly with vermicompost applications but the total CH4 flux per grain yield did not significantly differ between inorganic NPK fertilization alone and inorganic fertilization + vermicompost. Similarly, total CH4 flux per grain yield was the highest in the full recommended rate of inorganic fertilizers + vermicompost but did not significantly differ with ½ RRIF + vermicompost and 2 tons vermicompost alone treatments. Our findings revealed that vermicompost application can be an effective organic amendment to increase rice productivity without significantly increasing CH4 emission, which is comparable to the CH4 flux per grain yield of inorganic fertilization alone in a Philippine mono-rice cultivation systems.
Chavalit Ratanatamskul
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Title: Converting of rubber-latex processing wastewater to biogas production using the Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR)
Biography:
Chavalit Ratanatamskul is the Director of Research Unit on Waste Treatment, Faculty of Engineering and the Vice Director of Technopreneurship and Innovation Management Program, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. He received PhD and Master’s degree of Engineering in Environmental Engineering from The University of Tokyo, Japan in 1996 and 1993, respectively, and BEng degree in Environmental Engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand in 1991. Moreover, he is presently the Chairman of Project Committee and the Vice Chairman of Environmental Engineering Committee at The Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) under the King’s Patronage.
Abstract:
Rubber-latex processing industry is recognized to cause significant environmental problems and can pose public health risk, leading to water pollution and consequently affects global environmental eco-system. Rubber-latex processing wastewater containing high organic and sulphate was studied in order to know the feasibility of organic and sulfate removal using anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) system. The ABR configuration was adjusted with different compartment of baffles (3, 5, 7 baffles). The ABR system was operated at the same HRT 5 days with varying organic loading rate to 1, 2 and 3 kgCOD/m3-day. It was found that high efficiency of sulfate reduction of more than 98%, suspended solid removal efficiency nearly 90% could be achieved with all ABR configurations with different organic loading rates from 1 to 3 kgCOD/m3-day and baffle number of 3, 5 and 7. However, COD conversion performance is declined significantly to approximately 78% when increasing OLR up to 3 kgCOD/m3-day. An increase in number of baffles resulted in a slight improvement of system performance in terms of COD and suspended solid removal. This was due to the fact that more biomass could be maintained inside the ABR system with more baffle plates. Furthermore, methane contents in biogas produced from the ABR systems at OLR 2-3 kgCOD/m3-day with 5 and 7 baffles were found higher than 60%, which is in suitable range for biogas utilization.
Hailong Yin
Tongji Univeresity, China
Title: Characteristics of the overflow pollution of storm drains with inappropriate sewage entry
Biography:
Zuxin Xu has completed her PhD from Hohai University and Post-doctoral studies from Tongji University. She is Vice Chairman of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. Her main research interests are integrated catchment management and rehabilitation, urban drainage pollution control, ecological wastewater treatment, hydrodynamics and water quality modeling. She was the Director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau from 2003 to 2007. She has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences. Also, she has been serving as an Executive Editorial Board Member of Journal of Hydrodynamics.
Abstract:
As compared to the overflow pollution of a combined sewer system, little attention has been paid to the overflow pollution of separate storm drains, especially a storm drainage system with inappropriate sewage entry. With one separate storm drainage system in the Shanghai downtown area as the study site (374 ha), the monitoring activities for inappropriate dry-weather sewage outflow and storm pumping discharge on dry-weather and wet-weather days were conducted, according to which the overflow pollution characteristics of storm drains with inappropriate sewage entry were probed. The following findings were obtained. (1) Whether for storm pumping discharge on dry-weather days or on wet-weather days, the induced overflow concentrations were high, exhibiting 8.2–15.5 times the receiving water use objective on dry-weather days and 7.3–10.4 times the level on wet-weather days for the pollutants considered, including suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), five-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). (2) Till the end of the storm pumping discharge, the overflow concentrations of SS, COD, BOD5 and TP could still be higher than the concentration of inappropriate dryweather sewage outflow, especially for the pumping discharge under dry-weather and medium rain scenarios. This means that the first flush effect was insignificant, and the flush effect occurs consistently throughout the pumping discharge event. (3) Under the wet-weather pumping discharge, the event-mean concentrations of SS, COD and BOD5 of separate storm drains were close to those of combined sewers in the old downtown areas of Shanghai, and the event-mean concentrations of NH3-N from the separate storm drains were significantly higher. Such phenomena are related to serious sewage connections in the storm drains, resulting in dryweather sediment deposition within the storm pipes and the following sediment flush when the storm pumps start, and to a low in-line storm water storage capacity. Therefore, the measures to abate the overflow pollution of the storm drainage system include correcting the inappropriate sewage entries into the storm drains, strengthening the maintenance of the pipe network (e.g., dredging the in-pipe sediments regularly) and employing on-line treatment-type units like continuous water detention tank-enhanced sedimentation tanks and vortex separators.
Wu Da-fang
Guangzhou University, China
Title: Evaluation and grade partition of urban village fire risk: A case study of NanTing village, Guangzhou
Biography:
Wu Da-fang has completed his PhD in Physical Geography from Sun Yat-sen University in Centre of Land Use Research, Geography Science and Planning School and now is a Senior Research Assistant at City University of Hong Kong, Department of Public Policy. He is the Associate Department Chairman of School of Geographical Sciences. He has published more than 20 papers in Chinese core journals, now his research area of interest is protection and utilization of land resources and application of GIS.
Abstract:
With the rapid development of Chinese economy, the process of industrialization and urbanization is gradually accelerated. Meanwhile, the fire accidents happening in city, especially in city villages have been raising, which result in the loss with over billion Yuan, and pose severe threats to personal safety as well as property safety. Taking the example of NanTing village located in Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center. This paper carries out field investigation about different aspects-fire hydrant, fire road, housing structure and usage, fire water supply, and then establishes assessment model about the ability of urban village fire protection by GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process to evaluate level of the ability of fire protection ability. Fire protection ability of NanTing village is divided into four levels. More specifically, the areas of four different types of fire protection ability (that are bad, weak, fine and best) are 823.52 m2, 13458.92 m2, 60318.27 m2 and 196972.99 m2 respectively. The total area of the bad and the weak are 14282.44 m2, accounting for 5.263% of NanTing village’s total land area, out of which the fire danger area with serious and dangerous level are altogether 18.18% of total construction area. Finally, we analyze the reason why part of NanTing village is weak in stopping fire.This proposed method can be used to analyze fire risk and to make up reconstruction planning for City Village, and the conclusions are also of value for the safety management for NanTing village.
Maphuti Kwata
Council for Geosciences, South Africa
Title: A geochemical study of settleable dust samples collected near some old and abandoned asbestos mine dumps in Limpopo province, South Africa
Biography:
Maphuti Kwata has completed her MSc at the age 33 years from University of Pretoria and she is currently studying for her PhD in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of South Africa. She is a Junior Scientist in the field of Air Quality Management at the Council for Geosciences. Maphuti has publised three peer reviewed articles and has also presented at both national and international conferences.
Abstract:
Old and abandoned asbestos mine dumps have left major health problems to nearby communities. Since these asbestos mine dumps are not rehabilitated, it is now the government’s priority to urgently rehabilitate these dumps to avoid major liability from the local communities. Wind may blow the dust away from the dumps towards the nearby communities and cause respiratory diseases when inhaled. The aim of this research is to monitor measure and characterize settleable dust samples collected around human settlements in the vicinity of abandoned and ownerless asbestos mine dumps. The standard method for collection and analysis of settleable dust advocated by the National Dust Control Regulations (NDC R 827, 2013), South Africa National Standards (SANS 1929, 2011) and American Standard Test Method (ASTM D-1739, 1970) is used in this research. Settleable dust samples were collected from November 2015 till May 2016 in Limpopo Province at the following five sampling sites: Cork, Baviaankop, Kromellenboog, Penge 1 and Streatham 1. Samples were prepared for analysis with X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) techniques. The preliminary data confirm presence of amphibole group (amosite) and serpentine group (chrysotile) in Limpopo Province. Settleable dust rates and the mineralogy results will also be presented during the conference.
Pranomkorn Choosri
Silpakorn University, Thailand
Title: The model for estimating diffuse fraction of global solar erythemal ultraviolet radiation in Thailand
Biography:
Pranomkorn Choosri is currently pursuing her PhD from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University in Thailand, supervised by Associate Professor Dr. Serm Janjai. Her study is focused on the estimation of diffuse solar radiation in different wavelength bands using satellite data.
Abstract:
The surface solar erythemal ultraviolet (EUV) radiation which affects human skin consists of direct and diffuse components. The sum of both components is called global EUV radiation. As Thailand is located in the tropics with a lot of cloudy days and clouds effectively create diffuse EUV, information on diffuse EUV is very important for protecting human skin from harmful effects of EUV. Due to the lack of the routine measurements of diffuse EUV, a model for estimating EUV diffuse fraction of global EUV daily dose was developed in this work. In developing the model, diffuse EUV and global EUV was simultaneously measured at two solar radiation monitoring stations in Thailand, namely Ubon Ratchathani (15.25oN, 104.87oE) and Nakhon Pathom (13.82oN, 100.04oE). A three year period (April, 2011-March, 2014) of EUV data from these stations was used for formulating the model. This model expresses the EUV diffuse fraction as an empirical function of EUV clearness index (kt,EUV) and aerosol optical depth (AOD340). To investigate its performance, the model was used to calculate diffuse EUV daily dose at these stations for the period: April, 2014-March, 2015. It was found that diffuse EUV calculated from the model and that obtained from the measurement are in good agreement, with the root mean square difference of 8.2%.
Ammar M G Gaber
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Title: Simulation of PM10concentrations over Upper Northern Thailand during dry season using CMAQ model
Biography:
Ammar M G Gaber is a Senior Meteorologist at Sudan Meteorological Authority, with more than 10 years of experience in weather forecast, climate perdition and climate services. He completed his MBA in 2011 and now he is doing his MSc in Environmental Science in Chiang Mai University. His area of interest is air pollution modeling using both statistical and numerical methods.
Abstract:
Daily PM10 concentrations were simulated over Upper Northern Thailand during the dry season (January-April, 2015) with high resolution (4 km) using CMAQ model. Meteorological and emission data were prepared using WRF and SMOKE models, respectively. Emission Inventory (EI), especially developed for this study, includes four criteria pollutants (PM10, CO, SO2, NO2) from three types of biomass (Rice Straw, Maize Residue and Leaf Litter). Temporal variations of PM10 concentrations showed that the peaks occurred in April with concentrations exceed AQI, because of increased biomass open burning activities and the effect of prevailing meteorological conditions that support pollutants’ suspension for several days. Daily fluctuations of PM10 concentrations were captured by the model and the daily maximum concentrations were identified. The spatial variations of PM10 concentrations were found to be mainly due to the topographical influences although the other parameters have their own effects. CMAQ model performance evaluation showed some discrepancies with observations. Mean bias, mean errors, normalized mean bias and correlation coefficient showed good agreement between the model and the observations in some stations. While the model tended to underestimate the PM10 concentration levels in some parts of the simulating domain, this can be attributed to the topography influence, EI quality, uncertainty in meteorological data, and trans-boundaries pollution effects. Improving the model performance can be achieved by including more pollutants in EI and expanding the simulating domain. Forecasting air quality in this region using this model is one of the potential applications of this study besides providing reliable and near-time information to aid decision-making process for better air quality management.
Yuting Liang
Institute of Soil Science - CAS, China
Title: Soil microbial succession and changes of functional genes in response to climate change with latitude simulated by long-term soil transplant
Biography:
Yuting Liang has completed her PhD from Tsinghua University, China and Post-doctoral research from University of Oklahoma, USA. Focusing on the research area of the stabilizing mechanism of soil microbial diversity, she has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals, and has been authorized 3 invention patents. She has been selected as the member of Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and “333 High Level Talent Training Project” in Jiangsu Province.
Abstract:
To understand soil microbial community stability and temporal turnover in response to climate change, a long-term soil transplant experiment was conducted in three agricultural experiment stations over large transects from a warm temperate zone (Fengqiu station in Central China) to a subtropical zone (Yingtan station in southern China) and a cold temperate zone (Hailun station in northern China). Annual soil samples were collected from these three stations from 2005 to 2011, and microbial communities were analyzed by sequencing microbial 16S rRNA gene amplicons using Illumina MiSeq technology. Our results revealed a distinctly differential pattern of microbial communities in both northward and southward transplantations, along with an increase in microbial richness with climate cooling and a corresponding decrease with climate warming. The microbial succession rate was estimated by the slopes (w values) of linear regression of a log-transformed microbial community similarity with time (time–decay relationship). Compared with the low turnover rate of microbial communities in situ (w=0.046, p < 0.001), the succession rate at the community level was significantly higher in the northward transplant (w=0.058, p < 0.001) and highest in the southward transplant (w=0.094, p < 0.001). Climate warming leads to a faster succession rate of microbial communities as well as lower species richness, and compositional changes compared to in situ and climate cooling, which may be related to the high metabolic rates and intense competition under higher temperature. This study provides new insights into the impacts of climate change on the fundamental temporal scaling of soil microbial communities and microbial phylogenetic biodiversity.
Biography:
Yufu Jia is currently pursuing his PhD at China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. He focuses on climate and environment changes using stable carbon isotope and radiocarbon isotope in plants and soil. He is working in Guoan Wang’s team now.
Abstract:
Carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of bulk organic matter in sediments has been widely used to reconstruct past climate changes. However, the influence of temperature on soil organic carbon isotope has been poorly constrained; this impedes the reconstructions of paleoclimate and paleoecology using δ13C records derived from sediments. With a considerable temperature gradient along the 400 mm isoline of mean annual precipitation (MAP) in China, the isoline provides ideal experimental sites for studying the influence of temperature on soil organic carbon isotope. In this study, the effect of temperature on surface soil δ13C was assessed by a comprehensive investigation from 27 sites across a temperature gradient along the isoline. No significant relationships are found between surface soil δ13C and mean annual temperature (MAT) and summer mean temperature (SMT) across the gradient; this suggests that temperature did not play a role in soil δ13C. Although latitude and longitude are related to soil δ13C, environmental factors including temperature, precipitation, altitude, latitude, longitude in total account for only 9% variability in soil δ13C. Based on the finding obtained in this present study, we evaluated 2 samples of the previous paleoprecipitation reconstructions, and conducted a sample reconstruction of paleoprecipitation at the western Chinese Loess Plateau during the Last Glaciation.
- Climate Change | Global Warming | Earthquakes and Other Natural Hazards
Location: Busarakam Ballroom 1
Session Introduction
Yuri Yevdokimov
University of New Brunswick, Canada
Title: Economic consequences of climate change impacts on road transportation network in Atlantic Canada
Biography:
Yuri Yevdokimov is a Professor at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, Canada). He has completed his both degrees in Economics and Engineering. He holds a joint appointment in the Departments of Economics and Civil Engineering. He has acquired his degrees in three different countries: Former Soviet Union (MSc equivalent in Engineering and PhD equivalent in Economics), USA (MSc in Economics) and Canada (PhD in Economics). His research interests lie in the field of sustainable development particularly sustainable transportation and sustainable energy. His work has been published in academic journals and conference proceedings in USA, Canada, Spain, Croatia, Indonesia, France, Greece, Germany, India and former USSR, particularly in Russia and Ukraine. He has more than 20 publications to his credit; one monograph, thirteen refereed journal articles and nine chapters in books are among these publications. Since 1999, he has taught energy economics and transportation economics for graduate and undergraduate students at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.
Abstract:
Climate change impacts such as an increase in mean temperature, change in precipitation patterns and sea level rise are affecting regional road transportation network in Atlantic Canada. Those impacts cause direct and indirect economic consequences for the network and regional economy. In our study, we constructed a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGEM) to trace these consequences over time. Basic principles of the designed CGEM are discussed and the model’s architecture is presented. The model’s elements are estimated and the obtained CGEM is tested with exogenously imposed shocks. Dynamics of regional temperature, precipitation and sea level is analyzed on the basis of comprehensive time series analysis. This dynamics is imposed on the designed CGEM as external productivity shocks. Some preliminary cumulative economic consequences are evaluated in monetary terms to obtain benchmarks for the mitigation measures associated with future development of the regional road transportation network.
Biography:
Dr. Paul A. Comet has degrees in in Geology, Micropaleontology from London University (QMC) & a PhD in Organic Geochemistry from the School of Chemistry, Bristol University, UK. His postdoctoral work at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne was concerned with hydrous pyrolysis of kerogen analysis using Ocean Drilling Project samples, specifically oriented to terpenoid stereochemical pressure/ temperature transformations. He has worked in the oil service industry as a petroleum geochemist at Core Labs. Singapore & Indonesia & as an inorganic geochemist at Halliburton recently, working on the mineralogy of unconventional reservoirs. He also worked at Texas A & M (GERG) as an associate research scientist mapping the oils of the Gulf of Mexico. He has more than 40 publications & has been working for more than 10 years on solutions for ameliorating climate change.
Abstract:
The observation of the NASA “ecosphere” allows one to mentally model a carbon – neutral, sustainable society, that uses all its waste as a source of stored energy (where city & state replace the shrimps!) as well as sunlight, wind etc. The creation of an alternative energy – based currency “photonic dollar” is suggested that would gradually outcompete the petrodollar as domestic waste to energy & other alternative energy devices are attached to a communal electric grid (that also functions as a bank) that gradually replace fossil fuel energy. “Superorganism” theory is advocated as a way of distributing resources in an effective manner and as a way of understanding the complexities of how human society functions in a holistic manner. Societal ills then become diagnosable in terms of a malfunction of the entire social and economic system. The interposing of a separate economic “tier” specifically for alternative resources and energy is suggested as a non-revolutionary way of creating sustainable employment. These ideas are proposed because neither the theories of Adam Smith nor Karl Marx address the waste problem, nor clearly identify the “energy nature” of capital. If this new combination of models is successful in solving climate change problems, then economic philosophical differences between competing nation states might prove to be resolvable.
Posada R Enrique
INDISA S.A, Colombia
Title: Lowering of CO2 emissions based on higher consciousness and good human habits
Biography:
Posada R Enrique is a Mechanical Engineer. He has completed his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine, USA. He is currently a Project Director and Technical and Innovation Advisor for INDISA S.A., an engineering project company from Medellín, Colombia. He has been involved in environmental research for more than 40 years, at the university, community and industrial level. He has written several books on creativity, environmental ethics and energy managing.
Abstract:
The CO2 emissions generated by the human body are large but most people are not aware of this. They are not aware enough of the indirect CO2 emissions generated by activities directly related to human habits. We have estimated the direct CO2 emissions and examined some of the indirect effects. We postulate that when people see themselves as producers of CO2 emissions coming from their metabolic activities and are aware that through simple good practices and habits, those emissions could diminish, there is going to be a real lowering of them. We believe that many social mechanisms are going to be triggered if people develop good and conscious practices in the following major aspects: Listening, feeling, good communications, writing and reading, gentle exercise, appreciation and recognition of people, of self and nature, slow and conscious eating, meditation, chanting, conversation, friendship and sharing. All these habits will help regulate metabolic oxygen use, decrease human body CO2 emissions, diminish food use and help avoiding waste. If these changes occur synchronized with conscious behavior and high quality attention, the effect is going to be permanent and is going to be associated with states of happiness, personal and group pride and satisfaction.
Siqiong Luo
Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, China
Title: Frozen ground temperature trends associated with climate change in the Tibetan Plateau three river source region from 1980 to 2014
Biography:
Siqiong Luo is a associate professor in Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science. Her current research focuses on land surface processes and interactions with the atmosphere, frozen-thaw features of frozen soil in the Tibetan Plateau, freeze-thaw processes and impact on regional climate.
Abstract:
The long-term trend in soil temperatures at depths of 0 cm to 320 cm, collected in the Three River Source Region (TRSR) of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) from 1981 to 2014, was used to examine the relationship between regional climate change and soil temperature. In addition, air temperature, precipitation, maximum depth of frozen ground and maximum depth of snow were analysed for trends, and for correlations with soil temperatures. During these 35 years, there was a warming trend in the TRSR. Significant soil warming was detected. The increasing rates of increase was 0.706℃ decade-1 for surface soil (0 cm), 0.477℃ decade-1 for shallow layer soil (5 to 20 cm) and 0.417℃ decade-1 for deep layer soil (40 to 320 cm) in the TRSR of the TP. There was a clear effect of air temperature on soil temperature, as evident from the concurrent significant increases in the air and soil temperature trends and the strong correlation between them. The relationship between precipitation and soil temperatures was very complicated. More precipitation on the ground also resulted higher soil temperatures in summer in the frozen soil. The process of freezing and thawing had an inhibitory effect on the increase in soil temperature. The warming trends of soil temperature will continue to rise with the degradation of frozen soil.
Ali Arman
National Nuclear Energy Agency, Indonesia
Title: Linear extension rates of massive corals from Nusa Penida, Bali (Coral Triangle Initiatiave region) in relation to climate change
Biography:
Ali Arman has completed his PhD on Marine Science from Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia. He is a Senior Researcher in the Application of Nuclear Technology in Marine and Environment. He is working at Center for Isotopes and Radiation Application, National Nuclear Energy Agency, Indonesia since 1993. His research in last 5 years has focused on climate change and sclerochronology.
Abstract:
Massive reef-building scleractinian corals which are roughly limited to shallow tropical seas, have the potential for providing detailed information about past climate change and the response to environmental change. The coral skeletons are composed of calcium carbonate in the form of the mineral aragonite. These corals are long-lived (multi century), and their skeletons exhibit distinct annual banding. A couplet of high and low density bands provides an annual chronology that can be used to restrospectively measure the age and coral growth rates. In this study, we analyzed two coral Porites spp (P1 and P2) and one coral Diploastrea Heliopora (D1) from Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia (Coral Triangle Initiative area) to evaluate annual linear extension rates. Coral samples were collected using pneumatic drill and it was obtained that the length of corals of P1, P2 and D1 is 1.5 m, 0.86 m and 1 m, respectively. Samples were then sliced along the coral length and x-ray radiographed. The linear extension rate was determined using Coral-XDS software. The result shows that the age of P1, P2 and D1 is 96 years, 85 years and 116 years, and the average of linear extension rate is 1.19 ± 0.29 cm/y, 1.05 ± 0.32 cm/y, and 0.74 ± 0.27 cm/y respectively. All corals have the trend of decreasing in linear extension rates as the sea surface temperature increased. Moreover, significant decrease was identified during the El-nino in 1997- 1998, 1992-1993, 1986-1987, 1982-1983, 1972-1973 and 1957-1958.
Xianhong Meng
Chinese Academy of Science, China
Title: Analysis of spatial distribution and temporal trend of soil moisture over the Tibetan Plateau from 1978 to 2013
Biography:
Xianhong Meng has completed her PhD from Chinese Academy of Science and Post-doctoral studies from University of New South Wales, Australia. She has published more than 29 papers and was PI of more than 7 research fundings in land-atmosphere interactions in China.
Abstract:
A purely multi-decadal satellite-based soil moisture product that spans over 35 years (from November 1978 to December 2013) on a daily basis and at a spatial resolution of 0.25° globally was generated as part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA)Water Cycle Multi-mission Observation Strategy (WACMOS) and Soil Moisture Climate Change Initiative (CCI) projects. In this work, we firstly evaluate this new product against observations of a soil moisture network on the central Tibetan Plateau. It shows that the soil moisture product agrees well with the observations. Then trend over 35 years of soil moisture was analyzed. It was found that the spatial pattern of the changing trend of soil moisture coincides with the precipitation overall on the Tibetan Plateau.
Desell Suanburi
Kasetsart University, Thailand
Title: Integrated geophysical and bioengineering techniques to protect landslide hazards at the South and North of Thailand
Biography:
Desell Suanburi has graduated Maters in Geophysics in 1994 from the Flinders University of South Australia. He is presently working as an Assistant Professor at Department of Earth Science, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University. He is an Expert in applied Geophysics in groundwater and mineral resources, engineering foundation including geohazards. He is also working as a Committee of Research and Development for landslide protection on highland slopes project under the King’s Royally Iniative landslide (the Chaipattana Foundation).
Abstract:
Geophysical and bioengineering approaches were applied at two landslide risk sites i.e., Ban Natham, Suratthani province and Ban Phamub, Uttaradit province operating under the Chaipattana Foundation. The collapse of only one access road to Ban Natham community was happened on March 2011 while Ban Phamub area was damaged on May 2006. 2D resistivity imaging and seismic refraction surveys were introduced to investigate subsurface feature e.g., depth of top soil, fracture in bedrock and moisture zone, at the current access road at Ban Natham site and at highland mountain behind Ban Phamub community. Risk position can be identified as 20 m thick top soil (lose rock fragment) as low resistivity (≈20 Ωm) and velocity of 400 m/s. Slope stability management was attempted with flapped soil bag wall then infiltrating with native plant and vetiver grass. Various high risk places appears on highland mountain range behind Phamub community were recommended for warning system. Flapped soil bag wall and infiltrating with native plant and vetiver grass were created at downstream to conserve threat stream bank. Extended procedures were performed at Ban Phadeh School, Tak province where school buildings were damaged on 27 July 1912 by ground movement due to shallow thin clay seam saturated with water from heavy rain. Damaged zone have been improved by construction and vetiver grass planting. 2D resistivity and IP imaging and mapping techniques can locate clay seam portion (low resistivity <10 Ωm and IP >10 mv/v) inside the school area which will help in future land use management.
Rahul Verma
Pachhunga University College, India
Title: Failure mechanism of Rangwamual Landslide, Aizawl, Mizoram, India
Biography:
Rahul Verma has completed his PhD from Banaras Hindu University, India and possesses more than 15 years of teaching and research experience along with 4 years of industrial experience. He is a senior faculty member of Department of Geology, Mizoram University, India. He has published 25 papers in reputed journals/edited volumes and is author of 2 books. Recently, he has received a national award for excellence in science. Also, he has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of few journals of repute.
Abstract:
Mizoram is one of the most landslide prone states of India. Majority of the landslides in the state, are triggered by the natural factors like climate, physiography and geoenvironment. The prime causes of the landslides in the state can be listed as rugged topography, Tertiary sedimentary geology, steeper slopes, heavy rainfall and location in Seismic zone–V. The rock types of the region consist of sandstones and shales of Bhuban Formation of Surma Group (Middle Miocene), and are very prone to weathering & erosion and subsequent failure under external factors. The present case study pertains to the analyses of the “failure mechanism” of “Rangwamual Landslide” of Aizawl District of Mizoram, India which falls on the very strategic National Highway No.44 A, connecting Aizawl town to the state’s only airport at Lengpui. The slide location lies between latitudes 23º44´57.8”N and 23º45’02.8’’N and longitudes 92º41’40.76” and 92º41’42.51” E. The slide occurred in the first week of November; 2014. The failure mechanism of the present slide has been revealed on the basis of integrated analyses of field database using Survey of India Toposheet No.84 A/9 at 1:20000 scale and GIS database (Satellite Data IRS P6/ LISS4 -5.8 Mts. Resolution) using ARCGIS 9.3. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) show a variation of elevation from lowest 593 to highest 1153 in the slide section. Both, TIN & DEM models clearly indicate that, from the central ridge, the maximum decline in elevation is in west south west and west direction. Beds also dip due west in general and the dip direction also coincides with the slope trend. The “rose diagram” plotted for the beds of the slide section, show a “mean direction of 272.8°. The slope generated with CARTOSAT digital elevation model with the help of Arc Map tools, also reveals maximum steepness of the slope from the central ridge, in the same mean direction. Intercalation of shale and sandstone as the prominent lithology, is found to dip due westward where the highway lies. The heavy monsoonal rainfall of more than 500 mm, between June to October, 2014, had triggered the slope disequilibrium and weakening of the slope material. The rain water seeped into the shale – sandstone contacts following the dip direction and it led to the reduction in cohesive strength by adding weight to the slope material and thereby reducing the angle of repose. The weakened slope material slided down under the conjugate factorial effect of dip, slope, lithological interface and rainfall.
Biography:
Shahnaz Jamil obtained her PhD degree in the year 1998 from Lalit Narayan Mithila University. She has guided 2 research scholars for their PhD degree and five research scholars are registered. She has attended several seminars, symposia and conferences at the national level. She has published 12 papers in reputed journals. She is a life member of “Indian Science Congress” and “Indian Botanical Society”.
Abstract:
Climatic change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. Global warming refers to the recent and ongoing rise in global average temperature near Earth’s surface. It is caused mostly by increasing concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere. Global warming is causing climate pattern to change. The probable net result of global warming and changes in atmospheric chemistry though air pollution and other natural sources would be climate changes at local, regional and global levels including both short term and long changes in weather and climate. With rapid climate change one fourth of Earth’s species could head for extinction by 2050. Climate change is already beginning to transform life on earth. Natural events and human activities are believed to be contributing to an increase in average global temperature. This is caused primarily by an increase in “green house” gases such as CO2. The climate changes caused by green house effect due to higher concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere are primarily related to the pattern of energy transfer and its uses of world over. These changes result in the increase of temperature of the surface of the earth and the lower atmosphere. The trend of increasing atmospheric CO2 enhances the green house effect which raises the temperature of the earth’s surface. The net result of all the variation is the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere which causes changes in the climatic condition at local through regional to global level. The long term challenge of stabilizing the atmospheric concentration of the green house effect requires that global emission be significantly lowered than what they are today. If we do not act now, climate change will rapidly alter the lands and waters we all depend upon for survival, leaving our children and grand children with a very different world.
Isadora Sau Lan Mack
Charles Darwin University, Australia
Title: Uranocatharsis project, space debris as cloud-sculptures shading our planet
Biography:
Ioannis MICHALOUdiS had received his PhD in Visual Arts at the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne in 1998. His aer( )sculpture project was started in 2001 while he realised his Art&Science research at MIT. The creation of sculptures using silica aerogel, this NASA’s nanomaterial having the appearance of a fragment of sky, is the aim of MICHALOUdiS.
Abstract:
Our title Uranocatharsis is an invented word from Uranos (“sky”) and catharsis (“cleansing”, “purgation”). This paper and our in situ installation will present our concept of clearing the sky from orbital debris, not by reentering them into our atmosphere, but by using them as clouds for shading our overheated planet. The idea of this paper derives from the famous dialogue between Alexander the Great and Diogénis the Cynic. “What favor would you want me to do for you?” asks the conqueror. And the philosopher gives him the legendary reply: “aposkótisón me” “move a little bit aside because you hide me the sun”. Already, as we read this abstract, space debris is hiding part of the sunlight from us: two main debris fields are in space: first the ring of objects in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) then the cloud of objects in low earth orbit (LEO). If the removal of the debris is exorbitant and nobody wants to collect the junk left by others, then we risk completely hiding the sun from Earth… Nevertheless, what if instead of blaming others for the space debris, we collect this waste and we form some giant space sculptures having the forms of enormous clouds/parasols? Then we could place them over the most exposed to the sunlight areas of our planet. This discussion will be developed based on one of our artworks titled hEartH created by using the space technology nanomaterial silica aerogel, the lightest solid on the world and the best known heat insulator.
K M P Perera
University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka
Title: Estimation of carbon fluxes for the South Asian region using maximum likelihood ensemble filter (MLEF)
Biography:
K M P Perera has completed her BSc with a special degree in Statitics from University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka and MSc from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. She is a Lecturer in Statistics in the Department of Statistics of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.
Abstract:
Climate change is a critical environmental issue closely linked with the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Among those, CO2 plays the main role in greenhouse effect. During past two decades, greenhouse gas emissions from Asian countries have been increasing rapidly particularly due to industrialization and population growth. Therefore, it is vital to estimate the CO2 fluxes with high precision for Asian region which still remains poorly quantified due to lack of observations. In this study, we introduce a pseudodata experiment to test the performance of a global assimilation system, Maximum Likelihood Ensemble Filter (MLEF), on estimating the carbon fluxes by assimilating CONTRAIL (Comprehensive Observation Network for Trace gases by Airliner) measurements, which mainly cover the Asian region, in addition to existing flasks and continuous measurements. The experimet is carried out with the artificilly generated biases for the CO2 fluxes. Hourly land fluxes (Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE)) derived from Simple Bioshere-version 3 (SiB3) model, Takahashi ocean fluxes and Brenkert fossil fuel emissions are the fluxes used. Slowly varying biases defined in monthly scale are recoved by estimating those for one year using MLEF coupled with Parametric Chemistry Transport Model (PCTM). The transport model is run at 2.5o longitude and 2o latitude spatial resolution with 25 vertical levels. Results of the pseudo data experiment show better agreement in between the recovered and the true mean annual fluxes. In the future, this model will be used with real observations to identify carbon sinks and sources globally.
Shuling Lin
Guangzhou University, China
Title: Phenological characteristics of Ficus microcarpa under climate range
Biography:
Shuling Lin has completed her PhD in 2008 from South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Now she is a teacher of Geography Science, Guangzhou University. She has already published more than 10 first-author papers. Her research focuses on the relationship between plant phenology and climate change; comprehensive evaluation of human settlement quality.
Abstract:
Relationship between plant phenology and climate change has become an important topic under global climate warming. Phenology is a plant growth progress that is largely driven by meteorological conditions. Phenological changes are vital indicators for changes in climate and other enviromental conditions. Ficus microcarpa is widely distributed throughout the tropic and subtropics. We recorded the flowering phenology and resource allocation of female flowers of F. microcarpa over a period of 12 months at the two edges of its range, Guangzhou, China and Townsville, Australia, and the results showed F. microcarpa exhibited different phenological patterns under different climate pattern. There were 1-4 crops in the year at the northern edge, Guangzhou, and most individual trees exhibited intra-tree asynchronous flowering, and typically bore many synconia at different developmental phases, especially during particularly cool dry months from November to March and hot wet months from August to September. On the contrary, F. microcarpa produced 1-3 crops per year, usually two at the southern edge, Townsville, and intra-tree asynchronous flowering rarely occurred. Phenological patterns of F. microcarpa in different environments were summarized according to previous studies and local climate characteristic, and Janzen’s hypotheses of adaptations to seasonality was tested and criticized. Then a supplementary hypothesis was presented: within-tree asynchronous flowering was adaptation to adverse conditions, including low temperature, violent rain, gale etc.
Eko Budi Lelono
LEMIGAS, Indonesia
Title: Cooling event in the boundary of Middle/Late Eocene of Java
Biography:
Eko Budi Lelono has completed his PhD in the year 2000 from Royal Holloway, University of London. He is now a Senior Researcher in the Exploration Division of R&D Center for Oil and Gas Technology “LEMIGAS”, a government research institution under the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.
Abstract:
The indication of Eocene climatic changes is defined based on the change of abundance and diversity of palynomorphs occurring in the Nanggulan Formation, especially those representing lowland/rain forest elements and climate indicators. This is possible because this formation has been found to yield the richest and most diverse palynomorph assemblages of Eocene age in Southeast Asia. Middle Eocene is characterized by high abundance and diversity of lowland/rain forest elements suggesting the expansion of forest in warm and wet conditions which include Palmaepollenites kutchensis, Sapotaceoidaepollenites spp., Retitricolporites equatorialis, Campnosperma sp., Marginipollis concinus and Dicolpopollis malesianus. On the other hand, Late Eocene is marked by regular appearance of grass pollen in significant reduction of rain forest elements indicating the development of savanna in cool and dry climate condition. This situation is also recorded in the Toraja Formation (South Sulawesi) and the Late Eocene succession of the Makassar Strait. The first occurrence of hinterland pollen of Podocarpidites spp. marking Middle/Late Eocene boundary confirms the cooling event within this boundary.
Alexander Trofimov
International Scientific Research Institute of Cosmic Anthropoecology, Russia
Title: Global geoecological system of human life-support in the epoch of cosmoplanetary and climatic changes
Biography:
Alexander Trofimov has completed his MD (Doctor of Medicine) in 1998 from Siberian Department of Russian Academy of Medical Science. For many years, he was (until 2010) Chief of Laboratory of Helio-climatopathology of Scientific Center of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. From 1994 till now, he is the General Director and, from 2015, Chairman of Scientific Board of International Scientific Research Institute of Cosmoplanetary Anthropoecology, named after (from 2015) academician V P Kaznacheev. He has 7 patents, published 7 monographs and more than 70 papers in reputed journals. From 2012, he is the Academician of the American Biographical Institute (ABI).
Abstract:
The ongoing geomagnetic deprivation (weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field induction) increases the risk of deep penetration into the atmosphere and the biosphere secondary solar-galactic corpuscular streams (A. Dmitriev, 2015), that can cause genetic mutations with serious evolutionary consequences. There is need for the urgent development, testing and implementation of a global system of geoecological life-support of humanity as a multi-billion “crew of a spaceship”, entering the zone of cosmoplanetary danger for human health and life. The global life-support system should have some important elements tested by ISRICA during many years: 1) Creating a global network of Centers of Geoecological Security (CGS) on all continents; 2) Satellite monitoring of intensity of solar-galactic corpuscular streams with presenting the data in CGE; 3) Providing of CGS with modernized computer programs such as “Helios” (Russian Federation) and the tests to determine the individual-populational heliosensitivity of population of different countries; 4) Production of drinking helioprotective water by technology, developed by scientists of ISRICA (patent no. 2342149) on all continents; 5) Production of different food products (vegetables, fruits, honey, milk, etc.) with helioprotective properties on the basis of helioprotective water; 6) Creating a system of geoecological education (training personnel) and enlightenment of population; 7) Organization on the basis of university and other scientific centers laboratories, evaluating the effectiveness of the use of helioprotective drinking water and other food products by population; 8) Periodic reporting to international ecological organizations and joint reports at conferences of OMICS Group. Humanity, using “aqua diving suits”, that is, the means of geoecological life-support will be safe for evolution and existence, continue its “flow” in the epoch of such a considerable cosmoplanetary changes.
- Atmospheric Chemistry | Geology | Geosciences
Location: Busarakam Ballroom 1
Session Introduction
Arndt Schimmelmann
Indiana University, USA
Title: Vietnam’s tropical karst is a sink for atmospheric methane greenhouse gas
Biography:
Arndt Schimmelmann completed his PhD in Geochemistry in 1985 at the University of California at Los Angeles, was a Post-doctoral researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, USA, and is now a Senior Scientist in the Department of Geological Sciences at Indiana University in Indiana, USA. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers.
Abstract:
The atmospheric concentration of the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH4) is globally rising mainly due to anthropogenic activities. Forecasting of global climate change by models requires knowledge of sources and sinks of greenhouse gas species. A mostly overlooked sink of CH4 is the microbial oxidation in subterranean environments following air exchange with the atmosphere. Northern Vietnam’s vast carbonate province with deeply incised tower karst valleys offers exposure of abundant air-filled voids (i.e. caves and other porosity). Air exchange is enhanced by steep topography (hence large surface area of carbonate exposure) and limited soil cover. Our international team used portable methane detectors (SARAD® RTM 2200, SARAD® GmbH, Germany, with Axetris methane module; Gasmet DX-4030 FTIR, Gasmet Technologies Oy, Finland) and mesocosm experiments in caves to confirm strong methanotrophic depletion of CH4 over 12 hours in contact with moist cave rocks. The warm and moist climate should maintain strong methanotrophic activity throughout the year. The methanotrophic capacity of a cave depends on its air exchange rate and the abundance of suitable microbial habitats. The exchange of cave air with outside air is enhanced by thermal gradients and outside wind. ‘Warm season’ measurements along transects in numerous caves in May 2012 produced distinct CH4 concentration profiles. Complementary ‘cold season’ measurements in November/December 2015 will complete the basis to estimate the year-round methanotrophic activities in surveyed caves, and by extrapolation will arrive at a regional estimate of the rate of methanotrophy in northern Vietnamese karst.
Vasco M N C S Vieira
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa Técnico, Portugal
Title: Coupling the atmospheric to the coastal ocean components of the Earth-System (I): Estimating the solubility of greenhouse gases and aerosols
Biography:
Vasco M N C S Vieira has terminated his PhD in Marine, Land and Environmental Sciences in the University of Algarve in 2011. Until 2011, he worked at the ALGAE – Marine Plant Ecology Research Group of University of Algarve, and since then in Maretec – Marine Technology Group of Instituto Superior Técnico. He has 17 published articles on the subject of marine ecology, environment and technology.
Abstract:
The Global Ocean is perceived as climate change mitigator by acting as sink for greenhouse gases and as source of aerosols that increase the albedo in the upper atmosphere. More recently, the coastal ocean was determined as fundamental for the atmosphereocean interactions and atmospheric budget of its constituents, although its precise role is yet poorly understood due to its heterogenic environmental conditions and multitude of ecosystems. Solubility is one of the two fundamental factors setting the atmosphere-ocean balance and flux of gases. It basically changes with water temperature and salinity, which are highly variable at the coastal ocean. We tested the two most used approaches to model solubility with data from the European coastal ocean. The traditional method used by Earth-System modellers corrects the ideal gas law for the effects of moisture and fugacity of non-ideal gases, while the solubility coefficients are provided by the virial equations. Its alternative estimates solubility from the molecular structures, thermodynamic properties and concentrations of pure water, its dissolved salts and of the gases. Both formulations generally agreed remarkably well and only diverged by up to 4.5% in extreme situations of temperature and salinity. However, these situations occur in critical components of the Earth-System, namely the warmer and less saline coastal oceans and the cooler polar oceans. These mismatches led to a bias of 3.86×106 ton of CO2, 880.7 ton of CH4 and 401 ton of N2O dissolved in the first meter depth of the European coastal ocean.
Vasco M N C S Vieira
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa Técnico, Portugal
Title: Coupling the atmospheric to the coastal ocean components of the Earth-System (II): Estimating transfer velocities of greenhouse gases and aerosols
Biography:
Vasco M N C S Vieira has terminated his PhD in Marine, Land and Environmental Sciences in the University of Algarve in 2011. Until 2011, he worked at the ALGAE – Marine Plant Ecology Research Group of University of Algarve, and since then in Maretec – Marine Technology Group of Instituto Superior Técnico. He has 17 published articles on the subject of marine ecology, environment and technology.
Abstract:
The Global Ocean is an expected climate change mitigator by acting as sink for greenhouse gases and as source of aerosols that increase the albedo in the upper atmosphere. Given the calculus constrains of Earth-System Models (ESM), are used simpler formulations relying on wind speed as sole driver of the turbulence at the sea-surface that mediates the transfer velocities of gases. This is sufficient for the coarse resolution of ESM with cells roughly 1000 km wide dominated by the Open Ocean. Meanwhile, the Coastal Ocean was considered fundamental for the atmosphere-ocean gas exchanges and atmospheric budget of its constituents. Although its precise role is yet poorly understood due to its heterogenic environmental conditions and multitude of ecosystems, it has been proposed as responsible for half the atmosphere-ocean greenhouse gas exchanges worldwide. At the Coastal Oceans, other factors become important mediators of turbulence and gas transfer velocities, namely sea-surface roughness, atmospheric stability, currents, surfactants and rain. We propose a numerical framework to couple the atmospheric WRF to the oceanographic WW3-NEMO models, customizable to integrate the desired factors and respective formulations. We compared the application of alternative formulations with data from the European Coastal Ocean at 11 km and 1h resolutions during 6 days in May 2014. More comprehensive formulations estimated 50% less transfers of greenhouse gases than the generalization currently in use by ESM. Therefore, increasing the accuracy of ESM requires finer resolutions for space and time, but also for the better description of the processes involved.
Adichat Surinkum
CCOP - Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia, Thailand
Title: Trans-boundary geosciences and climate change adaptation in East and Southeast Asia – Role of CCOP
Biography:
Adichat Surinkum is Director of CCOP TS. He is also Member of Chaipattana Foundation on Landslide Mitigation Committee, Member of Thailand Environment Impact Assessment Committee on Infrastructure Development and Member of Thailand Research Institute on the Andaman Tsunami Mitigation Program. Previously, he was Department spokesman/Director, Bureau of Environment Geology and Geohazard and Expert Advisor on Geological Resources Management of the Department of Mineral Resources, Thailand, (2008–2012) and Director of Geotechnique Division and Director of Environmental Geology and Geoharzard Division, DMR, Thailand, (2003–2008). He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy from Chiang Mai University, Thailand in the year of 2002. He has 32 years of experience in geophysics, geothermal, geo-environment and mineral exploration and management.
Abstract:
The ongoing globalization of economic activities in Southeast Asia and climate change has led to heightened awareness of and concerns about the challenges it poses to the international environment. With increased access to information on a timely basis, effects of transboundary issues on utilization of georesource and management of geohazards have become ever more apparent. These transboundary challenges highlight the need for decision-making processes that go beyond the borders of individual nation-states. Strategy to deal with transboundary issues in georesources utilization, geohazards mitigation, environment protection and climate change adaptation is to foster collaboration by the member countries, based on regional network to influence national networks, and enhance capacity for building database, harmonized maps and monitoring system. As a unique intergovernmental organization on geosciences, the Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia (CCOP) promotes capacity building, technology transfer, exchange of information and institutional linkages for geosciences. Based on the long-term friendship and network of geoscientists and government officers from 14 member countries, CCOP have been conducting programme of activities that addressed the new areas of concern, with more focus on exchanging knowledge/best practices and collaboration in transboundary assessment and management of georesources, geohazard mitigation, climate change adaptation and geological information database. At present, the harmonized 1:2 M geological map of CCOP and the 1:1 M geological maps of some member countries are accessible from the 1G Portal, (http://portal.onegeology.org). So far, CCOP has published 1:2 million digital seamless geology in CCOP region and now cooperating with ASEAN Secretariat and GSJ/AIST to implement the Harmonized Geology Project. Besides, building resilience and adapting to Climate Change is also increasingly a high priority for CCOP communities, with capacity building and networking as the keys to develop long term policies and plans with a view to achieving sustainable development of each nation and the whole East and Southeast Asia region. Some CCOP projects are on-going, for example: CO2 Storage Mapping Program (CCS-M), VIETADAPT,Korean CCUS Technology for Climate Change and multiple international/regional climate change workshops. CCOP has made solid and steady growth since its establishment in 1966 and still has room for further progress in facilitating the collaboration by member countries in solving transboundary issues based on geosciences. Towards attaining its four strategic goals of 2016-2020: Outreach, Cooperation & Partnership, Knowledge Enhancement & Sharing, and Data & Information, CCOP will continue to expand its scope of activities in areas of energy, resources, environment, natural disaster mitigation, web-GIS database and other emerging topics, to become a regional data-knowledge center of geoscience and lead to a better life for all.
George Chilingar
University of Southern California, USA
Title: A model on the effect of petroleum production on Earth’s temperature
Biography:
George Chilingar is an American-Armenian Professor of Civil and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Petroleum Engineering and a PhD in Geology, all at USC. He has published 72 books and over 500 of articles on geology, petroleum engineering and environmental engineering.
Abstract:
The following adiabatic model is used to relate the atmospheric temperature to the atmospheric pressure. The temperature distribution in planet’s troposphere (including the Earth’s troposphere) at pressure more than 0.2 atmospheres under greenhouse effect theory can be determined using the following equation: Where S is the solar constant; σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant; A is the planet’s reflectivity; b is a scaling factor; α is the adiabatic exponent; and ψ is the precession angle of the revolving planet. Model allows one to analyze the temperature changes due to variation in mass and chemical composition of the atmosphere. The proposed model considers the global temperature changes due to variations in mass and chemical composition of the atmosphere. Based on our model, releasing of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere does not have any appreciable effect on the average parameters of the Earth’s heat regime. Furthermore, they have no essential effect on the Earth’s climate. By considering different factors in the model, authors believe that all petroleum production and other anthropogenic activities resulting in accumulation of additional amounts of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not increase the Earth’s temperature but instead decreases the temperature. The authors also have shown that in many cases, peaks in the sun radiation precede peaks in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The authors predict slow temperature decline by 2016-2020, with stronger cooling by around 2040. The earth is about 20 years away from “little ice age”.
Duong Nguyen-Thuy
VNU University of Science, Vietnam
Title: Radon and carbon dioxide in northern Vietnamese limestone caves
Biography:
Duong Nguyen-Thuy has completed her PhD in Mineralogy-Geochemistry at Vietnam National University and she currently serves as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Geology, VNU University of Science in Ha Noi, Vietnam. She has participated in more than 10 national research projects and published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers in Vietnamese and International journals.
Abstract:
Concentrations of radon and carbon dioxide were measured inthe air of three limestone caves in the Dong Van Karst Plateau in northern Vietnam in May 2015 via α-spectroscopy (SARAD® RTM 2200, SARAD®GmbH, Germany) and FTIR (GasmetDX-4030, Gasmet Technologies Oy, Finland), respectively. Rong Cave holds a local freshwater reservoir and featured 930 Bqm-3 of α-radiation from radon near the cave’s entrance and up to 10,853 Bqm-3 deeper in the cave. Pai Lung Cave seasonally stores water for agriculture and had radon activities from 310 Bqm-3 near the entrance to 5271 Bqm-3 in the interior. The touristically developed section of Na Luong Cave reached 1240 Bqm-3. Radon abundances were roughly proportional to carbon dioxide concentrations in air in the three caves at 534-1437 ppm, 497-1060 ppm and 509-735 ppm, respectively.The small ‘warm season’ thermal gradient in May between cave air (25-31oC) and outside air (25-37oC) limited convective air exchange. Carbon dioxide is likely the carrier gas transporting radon from deeper geological strata (possibly shales) along sub-vertical faults into subterranean karst voids.The observed radon levels in the three caves are considerably higher than, for example, the United Kingdom’s recommended threshold Action Levels in the workplace (400 Bqm-3) and for domestic properties (200 Bqm-3). Workers in Rong and Pai Lung caves as well as visitors in Na Luong Cave may be exposed to harmful radiation. ‘Cold season’ complementary measurements are planned for December 2015.
Guoan Wang
China Agricultural University, China
Title: Effects of environmental and biotic factors on carbon isotopic fractionation during decomposition of soil organic matter
Biography:
Guoan Wang has completed his PhD from Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS and Post-doctoral studies from Peking University. He is currently a Professor at China Agricultural University, Beijing, China. His team research focuses on climate and environmental changes using carbon and nitrogen isotopes in plants and soils. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of repute.
Abstract:
Decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) plays an important role in the global carbon cycle because the CO2 emitted from soil respiration is an important source of atmospheric CO2. Carbon isotopic fractionation occurs during SOM decomposition, which leads to 12C to enrich in the released CO2 while 13C to enrich in the residual SOM. Understanding the isotope fractionation has been demonstrated to be helpful for studying the global carbon cycle. Soil and litter samples were collected from soil profiles at 27 different sites located along a vertical transect from 1200 to 4500 m above sea level (a.s.l.) in the south-eastern side of the Tibetan Plateau. Their carbon isotope ratios, C and N concentrations were measured. In addition, fiber and lignin in litter samples were also analyzed. Carbon isotope fractionation factor (α) during SOM decomposition was estimated indirectly as the slope of the relationship between carbon isotope ratios of SOM and soil C concentrations. This study shows that litter quality and soil water play a significant role in isotope fractionation during SOM decomposition, and the carbon isotope fractionation factor, α, increases with litter quality and soil water content. However, we found that temperature had no significant impact on the α variance.