Salmon may lose the ability to smell danger as carbon emissions rise

December 18, 2018, University of Washington

The ability to smell is critical for salmon. They depend on scent to avoid predators, sniff out prey and find their way home at the end of their lives when they return to the streams where they hatched to spawn and die.

New research from the University of Washington and NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center shows this powerful sense of smell might be in trouble as carbon emissions continue to be absorbed by our ocean. Ocean acidification is changing the water's chemistry and lowering its pH. Specifically, higher levels of carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the water can affect the ways in which coho salmon process and respond to smells.

"Salmon famously use their nose for so many important aspects of their life, from navigation and finding food to detecting predators and reproducing. So it was important for us to know if salmon would be impacted by future carbon dioxide conditions in the marine environment," said lead author Chase Williams, a postdoctoral researcher in Evan Gallagher's lab at the UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.

The study, appearing online Dec. 18 in the journal Global Change Biology, is the first to show that ocean acidification affects coho salmons' sense of smell. The study also takes a more comprehensive approach than earlier work with marine fish by looking at where in the sensory-neural system the ability to smell erodes for fish, and how that loss of smell changes their behavior.

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Eating Less Red Meat, Reducing Food Waste Would Reduce Agricultural CO2 Emissions

April 27, 2014

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Reducing global red meat consumption and reducing food waste could drastically reduce the annual amount of carbon emissions from the worldwide agriculture industry, according to a new report released Friday by Climate Focus and California Environmental Associates.

The report, entitled Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change in Agriculture, entailed the review and synthesis of a vast array of different literature on agriculture and climate change (including some unpublished data). The result of that analysis was the development of 12 key strategies intended to eliminate agriculture’s climate footprint, the organizations behind the study said in a statement.

According to the report’s findings, changes to procedures in Brazil, China, the European Union and the US could have the greatest impact on global emission levels. The authors stress that the role consumption plays in producing food-related emissions is often overlooked, and that by changing diets and cutting back on food waste levels in key nations could eliminate over three gigatons of CO2 production each year.

“By reducing the climate impact of the food we eat, we can improve our health and the health of the planet,” explained study co-author and Climate Focus Director Dr. Charlotte Streck. “By making the way we produce food more efficient, farmers can reap the benefits of increased production while decreasing the environmental impacts of farming.”

“The energy and transport sectors have seen a significant growth in innovation needed to ensure the long term sustainability of the sectors. It is time that agriculture followed,” she added. “There are so many ways in which policymakers can help farmers boost productivity while mitigating climate change. We need to dispel the notion, once and for all, that productivity and sustainability can’t work hand in hand.”

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