• Question: i read on one of your replies to a question that you think that there will be a calm period of solar flares over the next few years and that it will affect global warming do you think this will change your research

    Asked by goodjohn to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Christine Switzer

      Christine Switzer answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi goodjohn. My reply on that question was related to articles I saw recently about changes in sunspot activity. Here is one example: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-15/sun-s-magnetic-levels-ebb-as-scientists-note-missing-sunspot-activity.html Climate science is very complicated and I think the scientists who study it directly are worried that this calm period might hide effects of climate change in the short term. I think the fear beneath these articles is that scientists are worried that people will start to think that climate change is not real and there is nothing to worry about.

      Will this change my research? Not really. Contaminated land has been a problem since before people were really aware of climate change and it has not really been solved. I would love to retrain in another field, but in the meantime, I don’t think that my work is done at all.

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi goodjohn! 🙂

      Looks like Christine has the first part of this Q, so I’ll answer the second part!

      No, I don’t think a calm period of flares/masking global warming will have an effect on my work… non native species like crayfish will continue to be a problem (no matter what the temperature is!) and are a crucial topic for research!

      Global warming is,however, going to have a devastating impact on many species and it’s important the we do all we can to tackle it. In fact, global warming could make the problem of invasive non-native species worse… quite often, native species are less able to cope with extreme conditions (including temperature changes) than non-native ones. This might make it easier for non-native species to invade and take over!

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      A lot of my colleagues are working on areas related to global warming. One of the big problems associated with global warming is ocean acidification (because of too much CO2). If the oceans get (only very slightly) more acidic this could cause huge problems to many animals – particularly those that have shells (the acid dissolves the shell!)

      One of my colleagues (Steve Simpson) actually did some work recently on Nemos (the fish we study) that showed how their hearing was affected by acidification: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13605113

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