Preface for Integrated Ecosystem Assessment of Western China

Human well-being is dependent on ecosystems. Earth＇s mosaic of ecosystems - forests, grasslands, wetlands, streams, estuaries, and oceans - when functioning naturally, provide materials, conditions, and processes that sustain all life on this planet, including human life. The benefits that all living things obtain from ecosystems are called ＂ecosystem services.＂ Some are very familiar to us, such as materials like food and timber that are essential for our lives and important parts of the global economy. What are equally important, but certainly less well recognized, are the array of services delivered by ecosystems that do not have easily assigned monetary values, but that make our lives possible. These include the purification of air and water, the decomposition of wastes, the recycling of nutrients on land and in the oceans, the pollination of crops, and the regulation of climate.

Interaction between pollution and climate change augments ecological risk to a coastal ecosystem

Pollution and climate change are among the most challenging issues for countries with developing economies,but we know little about the ecological risks that result when these pressures occur together.We explored direct effects of,and interactions between,environmental pollution and climate change on ecosystem health in the Bohai Sea region of Northern China.We developed an integrated approach to assess ecological risks to this region under four scenarios of climate change.Although ecological risks to the system from pollution alone have been declining,interactions between pollution and climate change have enhanced ecological risks to this coastal/marine ecosystem.Our results suggest that current policies focused strictly on pollution control alone should be changed to take into account the interactive effects of climate change so as to better forecast and manage potential ecological risks.

The Role of Synthetic Biology in Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Reduction: Prospects and Challenges

The long atmospheric residence time of CO2 creates an urgent need to add atmospheric carbon drawdown to CO2 regulatory strategies.Synthetic and systems biology(SSB),which enables manipulation of cellular phenotypes,offers a powerful approach to amplifying and adding new possibilities to current land management practices aimed at reducing atmospheric carbon.The participants(in attendance:Christina Agapakis,George Annas,Adam Arkin,George Church,Robert Cook-Deegan,Charles DeLisi,Dan Drell,Sheldon Glashow,Steve Hamburg,Henry Jacoby,Henry Kelly,Mark Kon,Todd Kuiken,Mary Lidstrom,Mike MacCracken,June Medford,Jerry Melillo,Ron Milo,Pilar Ossorio,Ari Patrinos,Keith Paustian,Kristala Jones Prather,Kent Redford,David Resnik,John Reilly,Richard J.Roberts,Daniel Segre,Susan Solomon,Elizabeth Strychalski,Chris Voigt,Dominic Woolf,Stan Wullschleger,and Xiaohan Yang)identified a range of possibilities by which SSB might help reduce greenhouse gas concentrations and which might also contribute to environmental sustainability and adaptation.These include,among other possibilities,engineering plants to convert CO2 produced by respiration into a stable carbonate,designing plants with an increased root-to-shoot ratio,and creating plants with the ability to self-fertilize.A number of serious ecological and societal challenges must,however,be confronted and resolved before any such application can be fully assessed,realized,and deployed.

Climate change,Risky Business,and a call to action for ecologists

At the invitation of UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon,world leaders from government,finance,business,and civil society gathered at the Climate Summit 2014 in New York on 23 September to catalyze responses to climate change.In the context of a catalogue of current major world challenges.