LSU G&A Research Highlights

“Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” Report

A new, major scientific report that details the impacts of climate change on the United States was released on the 16th June. The nonpartisan report, commissioned in 2007, is an authoritative assessment of the most up-to-date climate change science available.

The report was authored by a team of 31 leading climate scientists from the U.S. Global Change Research Program including Dr. Lynne Carter, Associate Director of the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) in the Department of Geography and Anthropology, and Associate Director of the Coastal Sustainability Agenda at LSU.

Reviewed by hundreds of scientists, “Climate Change Impacts” will provide policy makers and citizens with the science-based evidence they need to inform their climate policy decisions. It also provides a window into the actions being taken or that could be taken to respond to climate change.

Findings from the 190-page “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” report confirm what scientists have long suspected: climate change due to heat-trapping pollution is already occurring and is visible throughout the United States, and the choices we make now will determine the severity of its impacts in the future.

The report, which underwent extensive public and peer review, outlines climate-related trends and projections for the nation, as well as for specific regions and sectors of the United States.
Here are a few key highlights from the report:

Global warming is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping pollution mainly from the burning of fossil fuels as well as from forest clearing and agricultural activities. Earlier reductions in emissions will have a greater effect in reducing climate change than comparable reductions made later.
In the United States, climate change is causing increases in temperatures, more heavy downpours, sea-level rise, less snow and ice cover, and other impacts.
Unless polluting emissions are reduced significantly, heat waves will become more frequent; heavy downpours will cause more severe flooding; and agriculture will be increasingly challenged by insects, diseases and drought.
Reduced summer water availability will create greater demand for water in some regions, especially in the West.
Rising water temperatures and ocean acidification threaten coral reefs and diverse ecosystems with major implications for our fish supply, our fishing industry and our coastal communities.
Local sea-level rise of 3 to 4 feet on top of storm surges will increasingly threaten homes and coastal infrastructure; more of our coastal lands will be lost to rising seas.

The full “Climate Change Impacts” report, including a highlights brochure and region-specific fact sheets, is available at: http://www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts.

(Edited and extracted by P. Hesp, Chair of G&A from a news release by Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator) 2009

Climatologists awarded NOAA grant

Barry Keim, Kevin Robbins, and David Brown, along with colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, are the principal investigators on a new 5- year, $3.8 million grant to study climate science and local-level climate hazard planning processes in the south-central United States. The NOAA-sponsored project, entitled "Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program" (SCIPP), is part of NOAA's Regional Sciences and Integrated Assessments (RISA) program that seeks to bring together physical and social scientists with public and private stakeholders to identify, study, and address climate-related vulnerability. Focusing on the six-state region of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, the SCIPP team will investigate major climate hazards of the region and actively engage community-level decision makers to determine hazard planning and climate data gaps, develop a web-based all-hazards assessment tool, and provide climatological education and outreach.

The SCIPP project has already made a major impact in G&A. Dr. Lynne Carter arrived at LSU in April 2009 to serve as the SCIPP program manager. Lynne brings a wealth of climate policy experience to the project through her previous work at NOAA and in the non-profit sector. Additionally, five graduate students are currently working on SCIPP-related thesis and dissertation research, ranging from tropical storm impacts along the Gulf Coast to urban drought planning, with the majority being funded with full-time graduate assistantships. In collaboration with SCIPP, David Brown, along with colleagues in Communication Studies and the Manship School, has also received funding of $137,774 from NOAA SeaGrant to examine information processing between government, media, and public user groups in Louisiana during hurricane events. Future SCIPP collaborations with other physical and social scientists across the LSU campus are likely as the program matures in the coming years. 2009

City-Dwellers Have Higher Risk
of Late-Stage Cancer than Rural Residents
according to research by Fahui Wang and Sara McLafferty

People who live in urban areas are more likely to develop late-stage cancer than those who live in the country. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the June 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study’s results indicate a need for more effective urban-based cancer screening and awareness programs.

Diagnosing cancer at an early stage can improve outcomes. Studies show certain groups, such as low income populations, are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at later stages. While some studies have also found that geography can affect the timing of cancer diagnoses, research on rural-urban disparities has produced mixed and conflicting findings.

To investigate the rural and urban differences in late-stage cancer diagnoses, Sara L. McLafferty, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois and Fahui Wang, Ph.D., of Louisiana Sate University analyzed data from the Illinois State Cancer Registry from 1998 to 2002. The investigators noted that Illinois is an appropriate area to study because it encompasses a diverse range of geographic regions from the densely populated Chicago metropolitan area to low-density, remote rural areas. They assessed late-stage cancer diagnoses of the four major types of cancer (breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate) throughout the state, comparing data from cities with those from less-populated regions.

The researchers found that for all four cancers, risk was highest in the most highly urbanized area (Chicago) and decreased as areas became more rural. However, in the most isolated rural areas, risk was also high. Risks were considerably low among patients living in large towns in rural areas.

For colorectal and prostate cancers, and to a lesser extent breast cancer, these disparities stemmed mainly from differences in the ages and races of individuals in the various geographic areas. A high concentration of vulnerable populations and economically disadvantaged areas in Chicago and its suburbs accounted for the high rates of late-stage diagnosis found in these highly urban areas. Among the different races, the black population was particularly vulnerable to late diagnosis. In contrast, the lower rates of late-stage diagnosis in rural areas reflected the greater presence of elderly patients who have a lower risk of late-stage diagnosis, likely because of frequent doctors’ visits and age-related cancer screenings.

Differences in age and race did not explain the geographic disparities seen for lung cancer, indicating that other factors—such as cancer awareness or diagnostic differences—account for the rural-urban differences in late-stage lung cancer diagnosis.

The authors conclude that their study found a reversal of the commonly held view that late-stage cancer risks are highest for rural residents. “The concentration of health disadvantage in highly urbanized places emphasizes the need for more extensive urban-based cancer screening and education programs, especially programs targeted to the most vulnerable urban populations and neighborhoods,” they write. 2009

Article: “Rural reversal? Rural-urban disparities in late-stage cancer risk in Illinois.” Sara McLafferty and Fahui Wang. CANCER; Published Online: May 6, 2009 (DOI: XXX/cncr.XXX); Print Issue Date: June 15, 2009.

http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=54256870

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=15492

New 3D Digital Imaging Lab Funded by a Louisiana Board of Regents

Heather McKillop and colleagues (Chicoine, Hesp, Mann, Saunders, Tague) were awarded a Louisiana Board of Regents grant “Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology (DIVA) lab” to start a 3D digital imaging and visualization lab in the department. The specific objectives of this proposal are to acquire equipment and software to digitally record, study, and preserve archaeological sites and artifacts in three dimensions.

The grant includes funds for equipment and software to make 3D images of artifacts for study, display, and integration within digital archaeological sites, as well as other related equipment and software. The grant will facilitate a major step into the three-dimensional imaging world, by allowing faculty and students to create three-dimensional images of artifacts, three-dimensional maps, and integrate these into the three-dimensional cultural and natural landscape. The three-dimensional digital imaging meshes well with our current GIS expertise and need to better record and study our artifacts.

The main target group for this yearlong project is archaeology students and faculty. Introducing three-dimensional digital imaging and visualization to archaeology students and faculty will catapult archaeology at LSU—already well known within the discipline for expertise in two dimensional GIS and remote sensing—into the top tier of university programs in the US for digital imagery. Working with Geography Ph.D. students (Anthropology concentration), M.A. Anthropology students, and undergraduate Anthropology students, the PI and Co-PIs will use the equipment to study artifacts and skeletal remains from Louisiana (Saunders, Mann), Belize (McKillop), Peru (Chicoine), Canada (McKillop, Tague), and elsewhere (Hesp). The major impetus for this proposal comes from the PI’s recovery of thousands of artifacts from a peat bog below the sea floor in Belize where remains of dozens of ancient wooden buildings and associated artifacts of wood, stone, pottery, and shell have been recovered from mapping and collecting on the seafloor. We also will take three-dimensional digital scanners, laptops, and microscopes with cameras on field projects to acquire images as artifacts are recovered in the field.

The project will catapult faculty and student research capabilities and instruction to a new level of 3D imaging, positively impact our ability to attract the top graduate student applicants to our programs, and bring the past to life to the public in Louisiana who ultimately fund this public institution. 2009

Colten Receives Oak Ridge National Laboratory Grant

Dr. Craig Colten has received a grant from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and has been working the Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI). CARRI consists of a distinct group of scientists and researchers which became public in January 2009. CARRI was established to develop and share critical paths that any community or region may take to strengthen its ability to prepare for, respond to, and rapidly recover from significant man-made or natural disasters within minimal downtime to basic community, government, and business services. During the first year, CARRI is working to create a standard for community resilience that is accurate, defensible, welcomed, and applicable to communities across the region and the nation. CARRI has four characteristics on which to create a resilient community: Anticipate, Reduce Vulnerabilities, Responds, and Recovers.

CARRI is a Congressionally-funded Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI) which has preselected three communities as in the southeast to partner with for this program: Gulfport/Gulf Coast Area, Memphis/Shelby County Tri-State Urban Area, and Charleston Low Country. Dr. Colten along with Robert Kates and Shirley Laska (University of New Orleans) contributed a report based on the events which occurred in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina. The vulnerability and resilience this community possess as a testament of why programs such as this are essential after catastrophic events.2009

Edwards Receives Grant to Study New Orleans Shotgun Houses

Dr. Jay Edwards and Dr. Barrett Kennedy (LSU School of Architecture) received a grant of $52,700 from the Division of Historic Preservation to support a study of an historic New Orleans neighborhood, and particularly their shotgun houses.

In this project, using student labor, they will survey a New Orleans neighborhood using digital video recording equipment. The shotgun houses of the neighborhood will be analyzed, dated, and a history of the shotgun house in New Orleans will be developed, using sample houses from the target neighborhood as well as other areas of the city. Interviews with long-time residents of the neighborhood will be recorded. A digital database of houses in the neighborhood will be established in which various kinds of information on each residence will be assembled. The ultimate aim is the development a method for rapidly recording the state of each of the historic districts of New Orleans. 2009

MMS Sponsored Research on
PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY ON
THE CONTINENTAL SHELF

Dr. Patrick Hesp, Ms. Amanda Evans (Ph.D. student), Dr. Graziela Miot da Silva (Geologist and Oceanographer Nicholls State University) and Dr. Barry Keim have been awarded $344,000 from the Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS) for a project entitled Examining and Testing Potential Prehistoric Archaeological Features on the Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Continental Shelf.

Earliest known human habitation in the New World coincides with periods of lower sea-level, and it is likely that humans lived on exposed portions of the outer continental shelf that are now submerged beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A great deal of research has been conducted on historic shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico, but far less work has been conducted on now submerged prehistoric sites which have the potential to provide a great deal of information regarding the earliest exploration and subsequent settlement of the Western Hemisphere. It is critically important to find, explore, preserve and protect these sites.

Remote sensing surveys have identified high probability areas in the Gulf with the potential to be prehistoric sites. Three such areas have been selected for this study, with the added criteria of being shallow enough beneath the seafloor to enable future excavation. Although sites have been identified in the past as potential archaeological deposits, none of the possible prehistoric sites have been verified by the presence of material culture or artifacts.

This project will evaluate whether previously identified “sites” actually represent preserved prehistoric archaeological deposits by conducting a series of high resolution marine geophysical surveys, collecting sediment cores, and carrying out detailed geomorphological and sedimentological analyses. As part of the study the researchers also hope to determine the degree of past and future disturbance to the sites by storms and hurricanes and will carry out seafloor mapping, set up a monitoring system at the sites, and conduct an analyses of long term climatological and oceanographic records. The project will also ultimately contribute to a better methodology for identifying prehistoric sites on the Gulf of Mexico offshore continental shelf. 09/14/07

Visit the Archives page for past highlights.