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The Earth's climate has varied in the past over immense periods of time. At the
moment we are in a mild interglacial period between ice ages. However it is
clear that humans are changing the climate system by activities such as the
burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil), which have increased the level of
greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. This has started to put the climate system
out of balance. Changes in temperature and rainfall and extremes of weather
will have major impacts on the environment of the earth. Considering the
seriousness of these issues and the lack of any other research center in
country in this area, GCISC established environment section in November 2005.
The Environment Section is multidisciplinary and aims
to harness center’s expertise in the following two disciplines to tackle the
key environmental issues of climate change.
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Transboundary air pollution is a particular problem of
pollutants that are not easily destroyed or react in the atmosphere to form
secondary pollutant. These are cross boundary pollutants that can be generated
in one country and felt in others; these require international actions and
collaboration to control their formation and effects. Transboundary air
pollutants can survive for periods of days or even years and can be transported
100s or thousands of miles before they affect the air we breathe, soils,
rivers, lakes and/or our food. Transboundary air pollutants cause a number of
different problems: e.g. formation of particles, ground level ozone which are
hazardous to health, the formation of acid rain which can damage buildings and
sensitive ecosystems and some that are toxic to human health and the
environment.
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Activities of Environment Section
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Research
activities are focused on the assessment of Transboundary Air Pollution in
South Asia and its effect on the air quality of Pakistan. Three models are
currently under use for this purpose.
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The
Regional Air Pollution Information and Simulation (RAINS-ASIA) model to analyze
the cost effective strategies to reduce environmental impacts of SO2, Acid
deposition, SO2 concentration present and future scenarios.
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All
life on earth is a part of one great, interdependent system. Humanity depends
totally on this community of life-this biosphere of which we are an integral
part. Biological diversity or biodiversity is the variety of the world’s
organism, including their genetic diversity and the assemblages they form. The
breadth of the concept reflects the inter-relatedness of genes, species and
ecosystems. Although past changes in the global climate resulted in major
shifts in species ranges and marked reorganization of biological communities,
landscapes, and biomes during the last 1.8 million years, these changes
occurred in a landscape that was not as fragmented as it is today and with
little or no pressures from human activities. On the one hand, current climate
change coupled with other human pressures is stressing biodiversity far beyond
the levels imposed by the global climatic change that occurred in the recent
evolutionary past.
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Activities of Biodiversity Group
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GCISC’s
Biodiversity Programme aims to understand various changes in biological
diversity of Pakistan with particular focus on Climate Change. A baseline study
of biological diversity of Pakistan is being carried out with particular focus
on threatened biomes. The section is currently in the process of compilation of
vegetation simulation model BIOME4. BIOME4 is a coupled biogeography and
biogeochemistry model which simulates the equilibrium distribution of 28 major
potential natural vegetation types (biomes) from latitude (for the calculation
of incoming short-wave and photosynthetically active solar radiation),
atmospheric CO2 concentration, mean monthly climate (i.e. mean monthly
precipitation, temperature, and percent sunshine) and soil physical properties
(water holding capacity and percolation rate).
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