scholarly journals Alpine limnology of the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the USA in the context of environmental change

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Ultra Violet ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Monitoring Methods ◽  
Freshwater Biodiversity ◽  
Nutrient Deposition ◽  
Alpine Regions ◽  
The Usa

The cumulative impacts of multiple environmental and anthropogenic stressors on freshwater biodiversity have been studied in systems across the globe. The magnitude of multiple interdependent stressors on alpine systems may lead to increased primary productivity and jeopardize these unique communities. In this review, the consequences of individual stressors on alpine lake and pond ecology are synthesized, as well as the cumulative and potentially synergistic or antagonistic effects of multiple stressors. Beside temperature variability, other stressors reviewed include ultra violet (UV) radiation, organic pollutants, nutrient deposition, and biological invasions. Each stressor was evaluated individually and in combination with increasing water temperatures. In alpine environments, climatic warming is anticipated to increase with elevation, therefore amplifying the effects of temperature-related responses. The purpose of this review is to highlight the ecological effects of climate change on alpine lakes and ponds in the Rocky Mountains of North America and fill knowledge gaps between disciplines of aquatic studies. This work underscores that to better understand and face the overall effects of climate change on alpine biota, investigations must continue to assess the compounded impacts of multiple stressors. Emphasis must be put on the standardization of monitoring methods across alpine regions to aid in consistent trend and prediction analysis within the context of both current and future climate change.

Detecting future changes of short-term rainfall characteristics in the mountainous regions of Slovakia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Földes ◽  
Marija Mihaela Labat ◽  
Silvia Kohnová ◽  
Miroslav Kandera
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Kendall Test ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Rainfall Characteristics ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Community Land Model ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa

<p>The study focuses on future changes in short-term rainfall characteristics. The analysis was performed for the mountainous regions in the northern part of Slovakia at 10 selected climatological stations. The rainfall data are simulated by Community Land Model Scenario which represents the future climate change.  The Community Land Model Scenario is a multidisciplinary project between scientists and several working groups mainly in the USA. The model includes impacts of changes in vegetation on the climate. The scenario has semi- pessimistic characteristics with a predicted global temperature increase by 2.9°C by the 2100. The analysis was performed for five rainfall durations (60, 120, 180, 240 and 1440 minutes) for the historical (1961-2020) and for the future (2071-2100) periods.  The detection of the future changes in short-term rainfall characteristics was made by several methods; for the seasonal changes the Burn´s vector was used, for the trend testing the data the Mann-Kendall test was applied. Results provide information how climate change impacts the short-term rainfall intensities in the mountainous regions of Slovakia.</p>

scholarly journals Drought-Damage Functions for the Estimation of Drought Costs under Future Projections of Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Jenkins ◽  
Rachel Warren
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Damage Functions ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Drought Damage

Drought events and their impacts pose a considerable problem for governments, businesses and individuals. Superimposed on this is the risk of anthropogenic climate change. Climate models are increasingly being used to understand how climate change may affect future drought regimes. However, methodologies to quantify economic costs which could occur under these future scenarios are virtually non-existent. In this study, historic drought events were identified in regional precipitation data using the Standardized Precipitation Index, and their magnitude quantified and linked to reported economic costs. Drought damage functions were created for Australia, Brazil, China, India, Spain/Portugal and the USA. Projections of drought magnitude for 2003–2050 were modeled using the Community Integrated Assessment System, for a range of climate and emission scenarios, and future economic costs estimated. Severe and extreme drought events were projected to cause estimated additional losses ranging between 0.04 and 9 percent of national GDP in Australia, the USA and Spain/Portugal under future scenarios of climate change. The combined effect on global GDP from projected long-term drought events in the countries analyzed resulted in additional annual losses of 0.01 to 0.25 percent. This is considered conservative as the analysis is representative of seven countries only; does not incorporate the possibility of successive drought events, or compounding effects on vulnerability from interactions with other extreme events. Furthermore, it excludes indirect economic effects; social and environmental losses; the possibility of increasing vulnerability due to changing socio-economic conditions; and the possibility of irreversible or systemic collapse of economies as the study highlighted that under future climate change drought magnitude may exceed current experience potentially passing thresholds of social and economic resilience. Stringent mitigation had little effect on the increasing impacts of drought in the first half of the 21st century, so in the short-term adaptation in drought "hot spots" will be crucial.

scholarly journals Climate change and Forest disturbances in Europe: an economic analysis of the losses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaume Sempere ◽  
Jose Maria Da-Rocha ◽  
Javier García-Cutrín ◽  
María-Luisa Chas-Amil ◽  
Eduardo Sánchez-Llamas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Extreme Event ◽  
Forest Disturbance ◽  
Economic Effect ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Climate warming is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme events in the mid to long term (Lindner et al., 2010; Bolte et al., 200); Morin et al., 2018; Dale et al. (2000), Seidl et al., 2011)). Here, we combine a (dynamic general equilibrium) model of forest management with inter-country input-output tables (Remond-Tiedrez et al., 2019)) to estimate the economic effect on the EU-28 and USA economies of changes in the output of the forestry and logging sectors due to extreme forest disturbance events. Given our model results, we estimate that the impact on the EU-28 economy will be equivalent to the value of wood damaged multiplied 3.32 fold [3.00-3.44]. We find that the economic cost of a global pan-European extreme event (a pulse of 450 M m3) could be 120.4 billion Euros in the EU-28 and and 1.7 billion in the USA (i.e. 0.926 and 0.015% of their respective GDPs). Finally, we explore how to design incentives to increase the economic resilience of the response of forestry and logging companies to expected future climate change. Using a heterogeneous companies model, we show that payments to landowners to conserve forest increase economic resilience.

HOW SENSITIVE ARE US HURRICANE DAMAGES TO CLIMATE? COMMENT ON A PAPER BY W. D. NORDHAUS

2011 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURENS M. BOUWER ◽  
W. J. WOUTER BOTZEN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Maximum Wind Speed ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Maximum Wind ◽  
Hurricane Damage ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Over Time

An article by William D. Nordhaus (2010) in this journal examined the economic impacts by hurricanes in the USA, and the potential impacts of climate change on future hurricane damages. His analyses show that hurricane damages normalized over time for changes in GDP have increased significantly since the year 1900, at a rate of about 3.1% per year. Moreover, the results of Nordhaus show that hurricane damages increase with the ninth power of maximum wind speed, which is considerably higher than findings of other studies. We perform similar statistical analyses with different data series of hurricane damage, which are more accurately corrected for changes in exposure of assets over time. Our results do not indicate an upward trend in hurricane losses since 1900, which is in line with earlier studies, and indicates that climate change has not increased hurricane damage in the past. Moreover, although the relation between damage and maximum wind speed appears to be considerably higher than assumed by other studies, this elasticity is more likely to be the eighth-power of maximum wind speed. This finding is relevant since it implies that future climate change impacts on hurricane damage may be considerably lower than Nordhaus indicates.

Impacts of oak pollen on allergic asthma in the USA and potential effect of future climate change: a modelling analysis

The Lancet ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 389 ◽  
pp. S2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Anenberg ◽  
Kate R Weinberger ◽  
Henry Roman ◽  
James E Neumann ◽  
Allison Crimmins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Allergic Asthma ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Modelling Analysis ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Oak Pollen

scholarly journals Climate change and Forest disturbances in Europe: an economic analysis of the losses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose-Maria Da-Rocha ◽  
Javier Garcia-Cutrin ◽  
Jaume Sempere ◽  
Maria-Jose Gutierrez ◽  
Maria-Luisa Chas-Amil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Extreme Event ◽  
Forest Disturbance ◽  
Economic Effect ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Climate warming is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme events in the mid to long term. Here, we combine a model of forest management with inter-country input-output tables to estimate the economic effect on the EU-28 and USA economies of changes in the output of the forestry and logging sectors due to extreme forest disturbance events. Given our model results, we estimate that the impact on the EU-28 economy will be equivalent to the value of wood damaged multiplied 3.32 fold [3.00-3.44]. We find that the economic cost of a global pan-European extreme event (a pulse of 450 M m3) could be 120.4 billion Euros in the EU-28 and and 1.7 billion in the USA (i.e. 0.926 and 0.015% of their respective GDPs). Finally, we explore how to design incentives to increase the economic resilience of the response of forestry and logging companies to expected future climate change. Using a heterogeneous companies model, we show that payments to landowners to conserve forest increase economic resilience.

scholarly journals Growth impacts in a changing ocean: insights from two coral reef fishes in an extreme environment

Coral Reefs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-446
Author(s):  
Daniele D’Agostino ◽  
John A. Burt ◽  
Veronica Santinelli ◽  
Grace O. Vaughan ◽  
Ashley M. Fowler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life History ◽  
Reef Fish ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Individual Growth ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Variable Environment ◽  
Oman Sea ◽  
Size At Age

AbstractDetermining the life-history consequences for fishes living in extreme and variable environments will be vital in predicting the likely impacts of ongoing climate change on reef fish demography. Here, we compare size-at-age and maximum body size of two common reef fish species (Lutjanus ehrenbergii and Pomacanthus maculosus) between the environmentally extreme Arabian/Persian Gulf (‘Arabian Gulf’) and adjacent comparably benign Oman Sea. Additionally, we use otolith increment width profiles to investigate the influence of temperature, salinity and productivity on the individual growth rates. Individuals of both species showed smaller size-at-age and lower maximum size in the Arabian Gulf compared to conspecifics in the less extreme and less variable environment of the Oman Sea, suggesting a life-history trade-off between size and metabolic demands. Salinity was the best environmental predictor of interannual growth across species and regions, with low growth corresponding to more saline conditions. However, salinity had a weaker negative effect on interannual growth of fishes in the Arabian Gulf than in the Oman Sea, indicating Arabian Gulf populations may be better able to acclimate to changing environmental conditions. Temperature had a weak positive effect on the interannual growth of fishes in the Arabian Gulf, suggesting that these populations may still be living within their thermal windows. Our results highlight the potential importance of osmoregulatory cost in impacting growth, and the need to consider the effect of multiple stressors when investigating the consequences of future climate change on fish demography.

scholarly journals Ubiquitous increases in flood magnitude in the Columbia River basin under climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-272
Author(s):  
Laura E. Queen ◽  
Philip W. Mote ◽  
David E. Rupp ◽  
Oriana Chegwidden ◽  
Bart Nijssen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Columbia River Basin ◽  
Willamette River ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Daily Streamflow ◽  
The Usa

Abstract. The USA and Canada have entered negotiations to modernize the Columbia River Treaty, signed in 1961. Key priorities are balancing flood risk and hydropower production, and improving aquatic ecosystem function while incorporating projected effects of climate change. In support of the US effort, Chegwidden et al. (2017) developed a large-ensemble dataset of past and future daily streamflows at 396 sites throughout the Columbia River basin (CRB) and selected other watersheds in western Washington and Oregon, using state-of-the art climate and hydrologic models. In this study, we use that dataset to present new analyses of the effects of future climate change on flooding using water year maximum daily streamflows. For each simulation, flood statistics are estimated from generalized extreme value distributions fit to simulated water year maximum daily streamflows for 50-year windows of the past (1950–1999) and future (2050–2099) periods. Our results contrast with previous findings: we find that the vast majority of locations in the CRB are estimated to experience an increase in future streamflow magnitudes. The near ubiquity of increases is all the more remarkable in that our approach explores a larger set of methodological variation than previous studies; however, like previous studies, our modeling system was not calibrated to minimize error in maximum daily streamflow and may be affected by unquantifiable errors. We show that on the Columbia and Willamette rivers increases in streamflow magnitudes are smallest downstream and grow larger moving upstream. For the Snake River, however, the pattern is reversed, with increases in streamflow magnitudes growing larger moving downstream to the confluence with the Salmon River tributary and then abruptly dropping. We decompose the variation in results attributable to variability in climate and hydrologic factors across the ensemble, finding that climate contributes more variation in larger basins, while hydrology contributes more in smaller basins. Equally important for practical applications like flood control rule curves, the seasonal timing of flooding shifts dramatically on some rivers (e.g., on the Snake, 20th-century floods occur exclusively in late spring, but by the end of the 21st century some floods occur as early as December) and not at all on others (e.g., the Willamette River).

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