Professor selected for UN wetland program

01/28/09 - University of Rhode Island College of Environmental and Life Sciences professor Arthur Gold has been selected to advise a United Nations program promoting multipurpose use of wetlands in developing countries.Virtually all scientists in the program are considered experts, in part because UN officials don't know everything about every country, Gold said.

Gold said UN officials will train scientists from about nine to 12 countries to track a modified form of nitrogen called N-15. The modified form can appear naturally, but only at about three per every 1,000 atoms, Gold said.

The UN will give 99 percent potent modified nitrogen to developing countries such as Iran, China, Nigeria and Romania. The nitrogen will be put in water and tracked, and because N-15 is so rare in nature, it will be easy to follow. Gold described N-15 as "a signature."

"You can begin to answer questions," Gold said. "It's like you have a little tag on this stuff."

The N-15, which costs about $50 a gram, will answer questions about where water goes in wetlands, such as movement through plants, soil and air, Gold said. If employed properly, the answered questions could enable locals of countries involved in the program to use them for water supplies and can reduce pollution in them, Gold said.

"All the countries, I think, are under a lot of pressure to use their wetlands efficiently," he said, adding that a lot of countries would destroy them for rice fields or real estate developments. Farmers can also grow crops that don't require wetland destruction, he said.

The high biodiversity in wetlands is part of what makes their study so difficult, Gold said. The high concentration of life in them enables lots of interaction, which is why the modified nitrogen is so handy.

"It's not that easy to understand what's happening to water," Gold said.

One of the program's greatest challenges is the macro level for which the program is training scientists. Wetlands can vary immensely in size and can affect small towns or large cities.

But Gold said the goal of the program is to apply wetland management principles to an area roughly the size of southern Rhode Island.

Analysis of the nitrogen samples from the soil and plants will be done at the program's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and can be expensive, Gold said. But he said it's difficult to name a precise figure, because a country's wealth combined with UN subsidies makes cost evaluation a case-by-case basis.

"The heart of this program is really about increasing the capacity of the researchers in these countries," Gold said. "Normally these people would have no access to these techniques."

Each country signs on with the program for five years and could receive $1,000 to $5,000 of N-15 from the UN, and a grant of about $20,000 a year, including travel expenses, Gold said.

Gold said he received the appointment because he knew two people who were working with the program and they recommended him. He got a phone call from a "foreign-sounding voice," which confirmed Gold's name, and then requested him to hold on the phone.

After holding for a few moments, he was talking to the head of the program in Vienna, and he said he was cleared for the program.

"At first, I wasn't sure if I wasn't dealing with a prank phone call," Gold said. "You know, it was a strong accent and everything else, and after a while, they explained what was going on and asked me if I wanted to participate.