ERE
Energy, Resources and the Environment

Energy, Resources and the Environment

I’m a Geoscientist: Chris Juhlin – President

It’s I’m a Geoscientist week! Or more exactly: weeks. From March 9 until March 20, the EGU supports I’m a Geoscientist to help students engage with scientists about real science. The Energy, Resources and Environment Division of the European Geosciences Union encompasses a broad range of different ERE-related topics, from surface to subsurface, spanning all aspects of geosciences. In order to demonstrate how broad the Division actually is, and what you can do as a geoscientist to be involved with energy, resources or the environment, we asked the members of the ERE committee to introduce themselves and explain how their day-to-day work relates back to ERE.

We will kick off with our President Chris Juhlin, Professor in Geophysics at Uppsala University.

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Chris JuhlinPeople have mixed feelings concerning large meetings such as the EGU in Vienna or the AGU in San Francisco. It is true that it can be more difficult to get immersed in the science at large meetings compared to small focused meetings and it may also be more difficult to make new contacts with other researchers. However, large meetings offer a wide variety scientific topics and the opportunity for the participant to get acquainted with new fields of research. They are also able to attract leading speakers that can give presentations that leave a lasting impact. I had this experience listening to Jeffery Sachs at the AGU in December 2014. He emphasized many issues that are directly related to research within the ERE division. We need to find solutions that will make the planet sustainable and comfortable for 10 billion people in the near future. This will involve using all our ingenuity in reducing the carbon footprint and management of resources. Although the program is not yet set for the 2015 EGU, I am sure that there will be speakers there that will also inspire us to work for solutions dealing with Energy, Resources and the Environment!

My research related to ERE involves the fields of mining geophysics, carbon dioxide storage and storage of spent nuclear fuel. In addition, I have research interests in scientific drilling and larger scale crustal geophysics.

If the world’s population is to live at an European comfort level then we will need to find numerous new ore deposits. We should not expect that all these deposits should be found outside of Europe. In fact, both from a social standpoint and an economic one, it is in our interest to ensure that we find ore deposits in our own backyard and not rely on the rest of the world to supply us with metals. Currently Europe consumes about 20% of the world’s metals, but only produces about 4% of them. My research in mining geophysics is related to the development of geophysical methods for building of more accurate geological models of the subsurface. This increased accuracy allows ore to be found and extracted with less impact on the environment.

Diagram from the IEA, illustrating the energy consumption in Europe, per energy source.

Diagram from the IEA, illustrating the energy consumption in Europe, per energy source.

The world is still heavily dependent upon on fossil fuels for electricity production, heating and transport. In addition, many industrial processes generate large amounts of carbon dioxide that are released into the atmosphere, for example steel production. Although there is an accelerating trend to increased use of non-fossil fuels for electricity production, heating and transport we will most likely remain highly dependent on fossil fuels for the rest of the century. If Europe is to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050 then geological storage of carbon dioxide is necessary. My research involves development of seismic methods for monitoring the carbon dioxide in the sub-surface to ensure that it remains there after injection. I am also involved in initiating a pilot project for testing various aspects of carbon dioxide storage in Sweden.

Nuclear energy is a near-zero carbon emission technology that accounts for about 18% of the electricity generated within the OECD (see the Figure). It has many advantages over fossil fuel energy, but there are also challenges in using it as most recently evidenced by Fukushima in 2011. In addition, the spent fuel rods need to be stored safely for on the order of 100 000 years. My research involves using seismic methods to locate rock that has the potential to store the spent fuel safely. My own country, Sweden, along with Finland are furthest along in the world in building permanent storage facilities. These facilities will also require the use of geophysics to monitor the sites in the initial stages of storage.

Words on Wednesday: A multi-model analysis of change in potential yield of major crops in China under climate change

Words on Wednesday aims at promoting interesting/fun/exciting publications on topics related to Energy, Resources and the Environment. If you would like to be featured on WoW, please send us a link of the paper, or your own post, at ERE.Matters@gmail.com.

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Yin, Y., Tang, Q., and Liu, X.: A multi-model analysis of change in potential yield of major crops in China under climate change, Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 45-59, doi:10.5194/esd-6-45-2015, 2015

Abstract:

Climate change may affect crop growth and yield, which consequently casts a shadow of doubt over China’s food self-sufficiency efforts. In this study, we used the projections derived from four global gridded crop models (GGCropMs) to assess the effects of future climate change on the yields of the major crops (i.e., maize, rice, soybean and wheat) in China. The GGCropMs were forced with the bias-corrected climate data from five global climate models (GCMs) under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5, which were made available through the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP). The results show that the potential yields of the crops would decrease in the 21st century without carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization effect. With the CO2 effect, the potential yields of rice and soybean would increase, while the potential yields of maize and wheat would decrease. The uncertainty in yields resulting from the GGCropMs is larger than the uncertainty derived from GCMs in the greater part of China. Climate change may benefit rice and soybean yields in high-altitude and cold regions which are not in the current main agricultural area. However, the potential yields of maize, soybean and wheat may decrease in the major food production area. Development of new agronomic management strategies may be useful for coping with climate change in the areas with a high risk of yield reduction.

The MM of the relative change in the simulated yield of maize (a), rice (b), soybean (c) and wheat (d) with the CO2 effect at the end of the 21st century (2070–2099) compared with the simulated yield in the historical period (1981–2010).

The MM of the relative change in the simulated yield of maize (a), rice (b), soybean (c) and wheat (d) with the CO2 effect at the end of the 21st century (2070–2099) compared with the simulated yield in the historical period (1981–2010).

Words on Wednesday: Environmental soil quality index and indicators for a coal mining soil

Words on Wednesday aims at promoting interesting/fun/exciting publications on topics related to Energy, Resources and the Environment. If you would like to be featured on WoW, please send us a link of the paper, or your own post, at ERE.Matters@gmail.com.

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Masto, R. E., Sheik, S., Nehru, G., Selvi, V. A., George, J., and Ram, L. C.: Environmental soil quality index and indicators for a coal mining soil, Solid Earth Discuss., 7, 617-638, doi:10.5194/sed-7-617-2015, 2015

Abstract:

Assessment of soil quality is one of the key parameters for evaluation of environmental contamination in the mining ecosystem. To investigate the effect of coal mining on soil quality, opencast and underground mining sites were selected in the Raniganj Coafield area, India. The physical, chemical, biological parameters, heavy metals, and PAHs contents of the soils were evaluated. Soil dehydrogenase (+79%) and fluorescein (+32%) activities were significantly higher in underground mine (UGM) soil, whereas peroxidase activity (+57%) was higher in opencast mine (OCM) soil. Content of As, Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Pb was significantly higher in OCM soil, whereas, Cd was higher in UGM. In general, the PAHs contents were higher in UGM soils probably due to the natural coal burning in these sites. The observed values for the above properties were converted into a unit less score (0–1.00) and the scores were integrated into environmental soil quality index (ESQI). In the unscreened index (ESQI-1) all the soil parameters were included and the results showed that the quality of the soil was better for UGM (0.539) than the OCM (0.511) soils. Principal component analysis was employed to derive ESQI-2 and accordingly, total PAHs, loss on ignition, bulk density, Be, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb, and microbial quotient (respiration: microbial biomass ratio) were found to be the most critical properties. The ESQI-2 was also higher for soils near UGM (+10.1%). The proposed ESQI may be employed to monitor soil quality changes due to anthropogenic interventions.

Environmental soil quality index of opencast and underground mine soils by (a) unscreened transformations, and (b) principal component analysis based index

Environmental soil quality index of opencast and underground mine soils by (a)
unscreened transformations, and (b) principal component analysis based index

Geomorphology Re-blog: Our EGU session died, what went wrong?

The EGU General Assembly 2015 is approaching, and with that a whole bunch of interesting new talks, posters and sessions! Or not!? What do you do when your proposed session has died because it simply did not attract enough submissions? Sabine Kraushaar did some session soul-searching and shared her advice on the Geomorphology Division Blog. Here’s what happened…

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“Have you ever had this experience? You develop a session which you think could be such a great platform or a subject that definitely interests a lot of people and then only a few people register…this happened to Jan, me, and several others this year and our proposed sessions (GM1.2 Emerging research fields in geomorphology and GM 1.4 Data wealth versus data poverty – new strategies for geomorphic research in a disparate world) died before they really came to life.

Andreas Lang (EGU Geomorphology President) offered advice when he told us the news and we wanted to share his ideas and comments with you and sincerely hope that they will help everyone to kick off his or her session ideas in the future! THANK you Andreas for the interview!!!”

'Borrowed' from the Geomorphology Blog

‘Borrowed’ from the Geomorphology Blog

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Curious? Read the whole post here! 🙂